25SEP16_Cover_Draft_04:04SEP08_Cover_Draft_08.qxd
10/18/2016
2:59 PM
Page 1
Draft 4 (27SEP16) NONPROFIT US POSTAGE
PAID
LEWISTON, ME PERMIT NO. 82
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY THE MAGAZINE OF HOLDERNESS SCHOOL SUMMER 2016
CHAPEL LANE PO BOX 1879 PLYMOUTH, NH 03264-1879
INSIDE: r One Day Together and Always r Out of the Blue r Catching Up with David Lockwood THE SCHOOL YEAR HAS OFFICIALLY BEGUN! STUDENTS ARE BACK IN CLASSES AND AFTERNOON ATHLETICS HAVE RESUMED. BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN THERE ISN’T TIME FOR FUN AND GAMES. DURING THE STUDENTS’ FIRST WEEK ON CAMPUS, EVERYONE GATHERED ON THE TURF FOR SUPER WEDNESDAY, A FIELD DAY FEATURING AN EGG TOSS, A CRISCO-COVERED SLIDE, BUCKETS OF WATER, AND MANY HOOLA HOOPS!
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. Flat size is 11.0 inches tall by 18.19 inches wide (includes 0.19 inches for perfect-bound spine); folded size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide. Artwork prints in four-color process and bleeds all four sides. Cover artwork; Cover IV and Cover I.
25SEP16_Cover_Draft_04:04SEP08_Cover_Draft_08.qxd
10/18/2016
3:00 PM
Page 2
Draft 4 (27SEP16)
“ Thank you, Holderness, for all you have given me over the years, and continue to give to our community and world.” – Jake Norton ’92
“
“MEMORIES TO CHERISH FOR A LIFETIME…” – THADDEUS – FOOTE ’92
“ I AM ALWAYS PROUD TO THINK OF OR SAY ‘HOLDERNESS.’” – JOHN ALDEN ’78 “ When I think about all the informative moments in my four years at Holderness, they are too many, too hard to separate, and too hard to rate. It was four years of hard but molded me into a well-educated young man, ready to face the world.” – David Nichols ’65
“ There were 23 of us that graduated in the Spring of 1950, part of a total enrollment on campus of about 76. I still think of those years as some of my best.” – Chico Laird ’50
“
rewarding work. The complete life experience
“ We love Holderness!” – Kathy Cunha P ’16 ’19
“ Holderness is the complete package.” – Peter Rapelye P ’93 ’97 EVERY FALL SENIOR LEADERS ARRIVE EARLY AND HELP PREPARE THE CAMPUS FOR THE RETURN OF THEIR CLASSMATES. IN ADDITION TO MEETING WITH FACULTY AND SETTING GOALS FOR THE YEAR, THE LEADERS ALSO HELP MOVE EVERYTHING OUT OF SUMMER STORAGE AND INTO STUDENTS’ ROOMS! HERE SENIORS ELLIOTT MCGUIRE, LIAM VAN HERWARDE, AND BEN TESSIER FINISH UNLOADING BOXES INTO RATHBUN DORMITORY.
DONATE SECURELY ONLINE AT WWW.GIVETOHOLDERNESS.ORG
true blue
Holderness Fund
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. Flat size is 11.0 inches tall by 18.19 inches wide (includes 0.19 inches for perfect-bound spine); folded size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide. Artwork prints in four-color process and bleeds all four sides. Cover artwork; Cover II and Cover III.
02OCT16_Departments_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
2:27 PM
Page 1
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
F E AT U R E S
6
One Day Together—and Always—in This Oasis of Civility Communicating and corresponding with people all over the world has become incredibly simple and instantaneous. What does that mean for an advancement team at a small boarding school in northern New England? BY RICK CAREY
ABOVE: Members of the girls’ junior varsity hockey team show their enthusiasm for the Day of Giving in .
Out of the Blue A shared interest in genealogy and a passion for Holderness has led to a substantial gift for our school. Here’s the story, one that spans five generations and over a century of education. BY RICK CAREY
10 Catching Up with David Lockwood David Lockwood retired from Holderness School this spring after thirty-five years as a teacher, musician, and prankster. What’s next? BY EMILY MAGNUS ’88
14
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
02OCT16_Departments_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
2:28 PM
Page 2
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
D E PA R T M E N T S Board of Trustees Sandeep Alva Neale Attenborough Grace Macomber Bird Christopher Carney ’75, Treasurer Carolyn Cullen ’87 The Rev. Randolph Dales, Secretary Victoria Frei Tracy McCoy Gillette ’89 Robert Hall, Chairperson Jan Hauser Susie Hayes The Right Rev. Robert Hirschfeld, President Peter Kimball ’72 Robert Kinsley ’88 Alex MacCormick ’88, Alumni Association President R. Phillip Peck Thomas Phillips ’75 Andrew Sawyer ’79 Jenny Seeman ’88 Harry Sheehy Gary Spiess Poppy Staub ’85 Jerome Thomas ’95 Sander van Otterloo ’94
3 From the Schoolhouse 4 From the Editor 5 03264: Letters to HST 18 Commencement 2016 26 Around the Quad 36 Sports 44 Update: Faculty and Staff 47 Update: Former Faculty and Staff 49 Update: Trustees 52 Alumni in the News 61 Class Notes 80 At This Point in Time
HEADMASTER EMERITUS The Rev. Brinton W. Woodward, Jr. HONORARY TRUSTEES Warren C. Cook Piper Orton ’74 W. Dexter Paine III ’79 Will Prickett ’81
Holderness School Today is published three times a year by Penmor Lithographers. Please send notice of address changes to the Advancement Office, PO Box 1879, Plymouth, NH 03264, or advancement@holderness.org. © 2013 Holderness School EDITOR: Emily Magnus ’88 EDITOR EMERITUS: Jim Brewer ASSISTANT EDITORS: Rick Carey, Hillary Beach, Robert Caldwell, Andrew Herring, Liz Kendall, Stacy Lopes, Kim Merrow, Clay Dingman DESIGN AND PRODUCTION: Clay Dingman, Barking Cat Productions Communications Design
PHOTOGRAPHY: Emily Magnus, Neal Frei ’03, Ken Hamilton, Clay Dingman Holderness School Today is printed on sustainably produced, chain-of-custody stock certified to Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) standards. HST is printed using only wind-generated renewable power, and inks derived from vegetable sources. ON THE FRONT COVER: Fall foliage on campus. Photo by Ken Hamilton
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
02OCT16_Departments_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
2:30 PM
Page 3
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
FROM THE SCHOOLHOUSE
Embracing the Fullness of Life at Holderness In his Commencement address this spring, David Lockwood reflected on the richness of his years at Holderness and reminded the seniors and all of us how blessed we are to be members of this community. David concluded his speech by singing his moving song “Lucky You” to the senior class. In many ways David’s remarks mirror the Holderness experience, an experience that involves embracing all the opportunities that our school provides, being thankful for those chances, and being other-centered. This issue of Holderness School Today tells many stories that are a direct result of that attitude of gratitude. John Winant lived a life of service, honoring both his country and Holderness School. Lucy Holcombe, who knew her father’s appreciation for Holderness, also gave freely. And many of our seniors took the time this year to give back through their senior theses, including Hannah Benson, who worked with Ms. Weymouth to make this year’s Relay for Life a success. The Holderness community continues to live up to the high calling of our motto, “For God and Humankind.” In addition, this issue is filled with examples of students who have embraced the fullness of all that Holderness has to offer. Over students were guided by Monique Devine and David Lockwood in this spring’s musical, American Idiot. In May we also had two students accepted into the New England Young Writer’s Conference on the Breadloaf campus of Middlebury College, and multiple sports teams made very competitive runs at the Lakes Region Championships. You’ll also read how for the second year in a row our Chinese parents made a cultural immersion experience in China possible for ten students and faculty. We are blessed both with amazing programs and students who are willing to engage in them percent. What is even more impressive are the accomplishments of our alumni; their engagement with and commitment to the Holderness School motto do not cease after graduation. Our alumni continue to make us proud. They are
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
Head of School Phil Peck during David Lockwood’s last student concert in Hagerman
responsible stewards of our environment, passionate explorers of the outdoors, and devoted volunteers in the fight for equality and justice. Finally, we are grateful for the service of many who have dedicated their lives to make Holderness the rich learning community we have today. Reggie Pettitt, Georg Capaul, and David Lockwood all retired after plus years of collective service. Chris and Cynthia Day added to those years of service, playing important roles in the life of the school, in Schoolhouse, in Livermore, and on multiple playing fields. Our remarkable board members give tirelessly as well. It’s hard to fathom all the hours our dedicated staff, faculty, coaches, and trustees have given to Holderness School. Their service is inestimable. Like David, I feel lucky to be part of this rich community that continues to honor its motto.
As the summer closes, the school year begins. We look forward to seeing our students and their families return to campus, and a short time later, we hope to see many of you at community events throughout the fall and winter. A list of events can be found on page . Phil Peck Head of School
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
3
02OCT16_Departments_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
2:30 PM
Page 4
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
FROM THE EDITOR
Tradition vs. Change
Long-time editor of Holderness School Today Rick Carey, who left this spring to pursue his writing career full-time
It’s impossible to improve, move forward, remain effective without change. Tradition, on the other hand, grounds us, binds us to places, ties us to those who came before us. To remain loyal to tradition often means resisting change; to change often means overlooking tradition. It’s a tension that most boarding schools experience regularly. Should we preserve historical buildings that reflect the school’s heritage, or renovate them so they support the latest trends in education and technology? Should we keep a leadership system that has been in place for over years, or rewrite it to reflect the changing values of society? Commencement illustrates this contradiction as well. It’s a ceremony that’s as old as the school—the white dresses and navy blazers, the presentation of the diplomas by the head of school, the red-rose boutonnieres and bouquets. All this stands in contrast to the outcome of the ceremony during which we
4
send off an entire class—encouraging them to leave, to seek adventures, and yes, to change. I’ll admit that as I listened to Music Director David Lockwood play “Lucky You” at graduation this spring, tears ran down my cheeks. I was supposed to be taking pictures, but instead I stood there, under the trees on Livermore Common, struggling to see through the lens of my camera. I was sad to see the Class of graduate, but I was also sad that Dave was leaving too. After years at Holderness, David Lockwood was retiring. The – Commencement ceremony marked the end of a tradition for me; the only Holderness School I have ever known has always had David Lockwood in it. I know good things will come from David’s retirement—he is a master of his craft, incapable of ignoring his creative muse. He will continue to challenge himself to create, to explore new notes, new stories, new instruments, and new escapades. But what will Holderness be like without David? When the masters in our communities leave, for any variety of reasons, they take their traditions with them. What do we do in their absence? Do we try to recreate those traditions, or do we change? A second master craftsman quietly left our community this spring as well. After years of writing for Holderness School Today, Rick Carey packed up his office in June and is now working on his own writing full-time—with a little teaching on the side. There will be a couple more alumni profiles in the upcoming issue, but this will be Rick’s last feature. To this day, I am impressed by Rick’s ability to play with words and to create winding paths, paths readers want to follow because around each corner is an intriguing story. There are times when I have tried to cut his articles— because a page only fits words—but often after several attempts, I find myself begging our designer to find room for words, because not one word Rick has used is superfluous.
Rick has been a faithful colleague for many years. He has interviewed countless members of the Holderness community—sometimes multiple times—and has spent endless hours crafting their words and ideas into insightful articles. He has told the story of Holderness School with care and compassion, and because of Rick Carey, hst has been an outstanding publication for the last years. Our community has been blessed to call him one of ours. So I return to my original questions: What will this year be like? What will these changes bring? There are many traditions I will miss this year. I will miss sitting down with Rick Carey’s features and admiring the craftsmanship with which they are put together. I will miss listening to the fall concerts during which David Lockwood never failed to bring out the best in his students. I will miss Cynthia Day’s laughter echoing up the stairwell in Livermore, all the way to the third floor. And I will miss seeing Chris Day walking to class on cold winter mornings with his blue and white striped stocking cap. But, at the same time, I am looking forward. I’m excited to meet all the new faculty and staff as they arrive at the end of August. While they may not be masters of their crafts yet, their contributions to this community and the ways in which they will enrich the lives of our students, will perhaps allow us to create new traditions. As Rick and David explore new ideas and new ways to express themselves, so should we. Change is good. Emily Adriance Magnus ’ Editor, Holderness School Today emagnus@holderness.org
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
02OCT16_Departments_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
2:30 PM
Page 5
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
03264: LETTERS TO HST
Teachers of Holderness Two Jims Only an old timer such as myself may notice, but I believe the hst photo on page is that of Jim Hammond, not Jim Brewer? It’s okay, as both were great teachers and coaches. Steve Hirshberg ’ editor’s note: Steve is correct; the photo on page of the Spring issue of hst is indeed Jim Hammond, not Jim Brewer. Our apologies go out to both Jims. They are both infamous teachers of Holderness, both noteworthy coaches, and both excellent storytellers. One taught English, the other Spanish. Loys Wiles in the 1920s. He is remembered for his stern manner, his service to the school, and the
Chemistry Class Identification Today I had a chance to start looking at the spring issue of Holderness School Today. The photo on page four immediately caught my attention, since it contained my classmates. All three students are members of the class of , and they are from left to right: Charles Kellogg, Erling Solstad, and William Wuester. The lab bench holding the microscope was installed in the summer of , so the photo would be from the – school year. I can’t add anything about the “Take Outs” stories, which are news to me, and very enjoyable. I can confirm that Loys Wiles was a very silent walker and was able to appear behind you before you knew it. John Bergeron ’
Memories of Loys Wiles Why I went to Holderness in the fall of was clear to my parents. They were unhappy with the quality of the Danvers, MA high school. My father was an Episcopal minister and must have had connections that led to Holderness, probably through Bishop Dallas, a dear family friend.
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
numerous jobs he fulfilled, including tractor driver.
Holderness was very much an Episcopal School then with The Rt. Rev. Charles Hall, President and The Rt. Rev. John T. Dallas, aka “Bish,” very involved in the life of the school. There were twenty-seven in my graduating class in , seven of them minister sons, aka PKs. The school survived us, and the previous fire, but I digress. Mr. Wiles had a stern nature to his persona. Trying to remember him smiling and jovial produces no memories. But boy, did he care about the school and us boys! Back in those days, seniors were allowed to drive the Holderness beach wagons on trips. Honest. It was my turn to drive one of the two cars on a trip to the Dartmouth College library on a Sunday to spend research time there and take out some books. By the time we started our return drive from Hanover to school on Sunday afternoon, it was snowing quite heavily with wet, latewinter snow, maybe six inches or so. While I tried to make a curve at the top of a hill near Mt. Cube, the wet snow grabbed the front tires, the car went straight, hit a large boulder head on, and flipped on its side. The car was
not seriously damaged, nor were the books or my passengers. The other Holderness car returned, picked us up and we all made it back to campus safely. What does Mr. Wiles have to do with this? The next morning, Monday, while walking to Schoolhouse, I met Mr. Wiles coming down the path. “Which car is next, Clark?” was his only comment as he continued on his way to his office. Mr. Wiles, along with the help of others, did his very best to impart values at Holderness, which are still in place today. People made the world go around in those days; still do today. It’s just one of the reasons that Holderness was special then and is even more so today. Rik Clark ’
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
5
02OCT16_Features_Draft_05:Holdnerness_School_Today_Winter_2013_Revised
10/18/2016
2:37 PM
Page 6
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
6
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
02OCT16_Features_Draft_05:Holdnerness_School_Today_Winter_2013_Revised
10/18/2016
2:37 PM
Page 7
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
ONE DAY TOGETHER
“H
OLDERNESS SCHOOL HAS ONE OF THE most active and engaged alumni communities to be found anywhere among independent schools,” says Robert Caldwell, the school’s assistant head for institutional advancement. “Our problem was that we just weren’t part of it.” Part of the effect of that statement lies in its hyperbole—the rest in its nugget of truth. Along with the usual rites of passage that define independent school life, Holderness offers such singular challenges as the Job Program that employs each student in the upkeep of the school, and a wilderness program—Out Back—that sends each member of the junior class into the New Hampshire woods for ten days in March. These shared challenges yield a lot of good stories, life-long friendships, and an engaged community. Similarly Roger Fisk, as he prepared for his role as chief fundraising strategist for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, realized that there were a lot of young people in America who were organized into communities, and who cared about politics, but who weren’t involved in politics. “We conceived the idea,” Fisk said in the aftermath, “of engaging with voters through a medium that spoke to them.” Of course this wasn’t—and isn’t—your grandfather’s medium. “Once upon a time, if I wanted to get in touch with a college classmate of mine,” Caldwell says, “I’d call up the alumni office for an address or telephone number. I could also get news of classmates in my alumni magazine’s class notes. I still can, but that news is weeks or months old by the time it’s printed and delivered.” Roger Fisk saw that hardly anyone among today’s Millennials and Generation Xers was making those phone calls or waiting for what might arrive at the post office. Instead they were staying in touch around the clock via an ever-expanding spectrum
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
of social media, and it was through those media that a politician would have to work in order to find and engage young voters. Fisk was among the pioneers in adapting the process of political outreach to this new communications universe. At Holderness School, Robert Caldwell and his staff considered the continuing expansion of social media and saw opportunity writ large for independent schools and colleges. “There are 7.2 billion people in the world now, but there are even more mobile devices, and these devices are being consulted multiple times each day,” Caldwell says. “We live in a hyper-connected world, which means that if you’re a school or a college, you speak to an ever-addressable constituency. To reach a Holderness alumnus or a parent, we don’t need a physical address, or even an email address. And this makes for a phenomenal breach in the way our systems were formerly set up for parent and alumni relations.” But the ability to constantly address such constituents does not necessarily entail mobilization—or even conversations. “First, we need to make it in our constituents’ interests to engage with the institution,” Caldwell notes. In fact, an objective of Holderness School’s current strategic plan enjoins school leaders to “strengthen and extend our connections to our global Holderness family and seek opportunities to benefit from their diverse knowledge and experience.” In the Advancement Office, this has led to the creation of Holderness Connect, a LinkedIn-style network where alumni who opt in can benefit from their mutual bodies of knowledge and experience—and collect referrals—by communicating among themselves. “Why are networks like this important?” Caldwell asks. “Well, you never know when you’re going to need one. And when we do business, we tend to prefer to do business with people we like and trust. If we know we’re dealing with another
Holderness alumnus or parent, someone with whom a certain body of shared experience and values exists, then a certain degree of likability and trust is also there as a given. At our end, we stay current with where all these people are. They become and remain ever addressable.” With this sort of communication, the school is largely just the facilitator, but this in turn leads to a second ingredient in this recipe for mobilization. “Roger Fisk did not often use Facebook, for example, to tell people to do this or go here,” Caldwell says. “Instead he set the network up and turned it over to its users. He let individuals act as organizers. He let the people generate the slogans. He ceded control over the relationship and the brand to them; Bernie Sanders did much the same thing.” That degree of autonomy in messaging results in an authenticity that younger alumni find particularly compelling. “These are folks who have a slightly different way of looking at the world,” adds Caldwell. “They no longer blindly trust the pedigree of a message from headquarters.” BUT DOES IT WORK? AND IN THIS SORT OF peer-to-peer model, when headquarters calls, do people respond? Well, if the constituents of this age really are ever-addressable, and if they really are engaged it should be easy. In fact the weeks and months of an old-school capital campaign should be compressible into something smaller—like, say, a day. This sort of flash campaign had succeeded already at colleges such as Skidmore and Columbia. Could it work for a little independent school tucked away in the White Mountains? Perhaps with some finessing. “We acquired our own young Millennial to rally us,” Caldwell says of Liz Kendall, who became the school’s Assistant Director of the Holderness Fund in 2014. Coming directly out of college with a degree in journalism and writing, Kendall
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
7
02OCT16_Features_Draft_05:Holdnerness_School_Today_Winter_2013_Revised
10/18/2016
2:37 PM
Page 8
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
CHARITABLE GIVING BY GENERATION
SOURCE: MOBILECAUSE
MILLENNIALS (BORN 1980–97) 84% of Millennials give to charity, donating an annual average of $481 across 3.3 organizations. Millennials represent 11% of total US giving.
GENENERATION X-ERS (BORN 1965–79) 59% of Geneneration X-ers give to charity, donating an annual average of $732 across 3.9 organizations. Geneneration X-ers represent 20% of total US giving.
BABY BOOMERS (BORN 1946–64) 72% of Boomers give to charity, donating an annual average of $1,212 across 4.5 organizations. Baby Boomers represent 43% of total US giving.
GREATEST GENERATION (BORN BEFORE 1945) 88% of the Greatest Generation gives to charity, donating an annual average of $1,367 across 6.2 organizations. The Greatest Generation represents 26% of total US giving.
quickly laid the groundwork for a very different sort of advancement event at Holderness. She began locally, enlisting first the support of the school’s faculty, staff, students, and trustees, and then reaching out to 95 class agents—in person, over the telephone, via email and social media—in quest not only of support, but creativity as well. “We got a lot of ideas and suggestions, both from the class agents and the oncampus community,” Kendall says. “Every few weeks we went back to the drawing board to create a new idea or remodel an old one.” The event was slotted into midFebruary, 2015. “February is a dark month, and therefore a good time for a fun, spirited event like this,” Caldwell says. “It’s also a low-volume month for catalogs and direct-mail solicitations.” Holderness School was founded in 1879, and the numbers in that date became one of the event’s themes. “We encouraged
8
people to make gifts of $18.79 or $187.90, amounts like that,” Kendall says. “Then we decided on 18 hours on February 18 with a goal of 187 donors.” But all these decisions were more the result of conversations than they were directives from headquarters. “When class agents from the classes of ’63 and ’05 encouraged their classmates to give in amounts of 1963 and 2005,” Kendall says, “we recognized class spirit would be a key to the day.” A member of the class of ’76, for example, sparked an email chain of thirty messages, with many alumni connecting for the first time since graduation. Similarly, the process of branding took on a life of its own. “I see Holderness as an oasis of civility in today’s world,” wrote class agent John Putnam ’75 in an email to his classmates. “Those leading the school see it the same way—our job is to provide them the resources to let them succeed.” Online dialogue between alumni, parents, and friends of the school
accompanied real-time exchanges in the campus community, all centering on the question of why give to Holderness. “‘One Day Together’ and ‘Join Us’ were born as themes for a day that was shaping up as a global and virtual Holderness reunion,” Kendall adds. Meanwhile students, faculty, and staff collaborated on a two-minute video promoting the event over the Internet, and a handful of pledges—many of which were shared via social media or email—were secured in advance. THE MERCURY RESTED AT NINE BELOW ZERO at Holderness on the morning of February 18th. Head of School Phil Peck began the event with a gift at 6 AM, and shortly thereafter trustee Grace Bird—who had just endured a knee operation—shared on Facebook a photo of herself in the hospital holding a “One Day Together” sign. Other gifts, images, and messages rapidly ensued. On Facebook, alumni shared memories of Out Back, the Job Program,
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
02OCT16_Features_Draft_05:Holdnerness_School_Today_Winter_2013_Revised
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
10/18/2016
2:38 PM
Page 9
0 ONE DAY TOGETHER
classes, athletics, and dorm life. Class agents checked in regularly to monitor the progress of their classes, and some classes squared off in competition to produce the most gifts. The day’s goal of 187 donors was surpassed by 11 aM. In the afternoon and evening, the school’s West Coast constituents made a strong showing. Throughout the day gifts arrived from places like Guatemala, China, Austria, Korea, and Bermuda. The event officially ended at midnight that day, but more gifts came in as late as March 14. “All told, we raised $143,907.29, or 11 percent of the 2014–15 Holderness Fund goal and half of expected gifts,” Kendall reported to the community. “We were particularly intrigued by gifts made by more than 80 donors giving for the first time in more than five years. For some, it was the first time in twenty or thirty years. For an additional 67 donors, it was the first gift they had ever made to Holderness School.” And she was surprised by the number of older alumni involved, by the eight-decade breadth of class response stretching back to 1944. “Direct mail is not dead yet,” Kendall says. “It’s still relevant to what we do, but our older alumni are more tuned in to social media than we thought.” The school’s Day of Giving was repeated with comparably good results in February 2016, and has played a large part in doubling Holderness’s number of alumni donors over the past two years. “We’re also retaining more of our donors,” reports Robert Caldwell. “We had a retention rate of 62 percent in 2008. Now, in a time when rates of retention have dropped overall in education since 2002, ours is on the rise, up to 82 percent.” The rest of the educational community has noticed. Last April, Graduway—a leading provider of online networking platforms to schools—sponsored a Global Leaders Summit at the Ucla campus in Los Angeles.
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
HOLDERNESS CONNECT PARTICIPATION 1000
Q4 2015 Q3 2015
800 600
AMBASSADOR
CURRENT AMBASSADOR
AMBASSADOR
Q2 2015
WILLING
WILLING
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
WILLING
400
AMBASSADOR
200
WILLING
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
Holderness Connect is growing! While alumni make up the majority of members, parents, faculty, and other friends of Holderness are signing up as well. Active status indicates those who have joined Holderness Connect; Willing status indicates those who have joined and are interested in giving back; and Ambassadors are those who are active on the platform through job postings, events listings, comments, etc.
There Holderness won the award for Best Performing K12 Network. Meanwhile Kendall has given well-attended talks on the Day of Giving event and Holderness’s social media outreach at last December’s The Association of Boarding Schools (taBs) conference in Boston, and at Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (case) events in Boston (January) and New York City (February). Caldwell recalls that there was some skepticism within the Holderness community when a Day of Giving event was first proposed—an event that, if it failed, would fail very publicly. “Not everybody believed it could work,” he says. “But we were fortunate in being given a permission slip to explore by the head of school and trustees.” Kendall, meanwhile, appreciates that at no time in human history has technological change in communication been so rapid and extensive—and that this will continue to be the case as the Millennials and
Generation X are supplemented by Generations Y and Z. In becoming less like headquarters, however, and more like the enabling hub of a network, Holderness School may have found a way to stay ahead of the wave. “Since February 18, we’ve been asked often about the specifics of how and why the day succeeded,” Kendall wrote in her report to the community. “The most honest answer is that there is no single answer. Instead we believe the success may be attributed to both the caring and loyal Holderness community and the individual interactions that occurred. Before the day, we reached out to as many members of the community as possible, determined to educate and engage. While the day did occur online, it was the in-person outreach both here on campus and beyond that made the difference, allowing us to join hands for one day, together.” •
SUMMER 2016 | holderness school today
9
02OCT16_Features_Draft_05:Holdnerness_School_Today_Winter_2013_Revised
10/18/2016
2:37 PM
Page 10
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
10
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
02OCT16_Features_Draft_05:Holdnerness_School_Today_Winter_2013_Revised
10/18/2016
2:37 PM
Page 11
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
William Spalding Eaton ’06
Out of the Blue IN 1985 THE DAUGHTER OF A 1906 ALUMNUS HAD A QUESTION OR TWO ABOUT THE TRINITY CHURCH CEMETERY. WHAT ENSUED WAS A REMARKABLE CORRESPONDENCE, AND—ULTIMATELY—A MAGNIFICENT GIFT TO HOLDERNESS SCHOOL. BY RICK CAREY
I
n early May, 1985, Holderness School art teacher Jay Mead ’78 received a letter from one Lucy E. Holcombe in North Granby, CT. “This is a letter out of the blue from a friend of your Aunt Mary,” wrote Lucy. “She told me you are teaching at Holderness School, and I have been looking for someone who might give me some information.” It so happened that Lucy and her husband Seth shared a strong interest in genealogy, and Lucy had found that her great-great-grandparents, Oliver and Betsy Kidder, were both buried in the Trinity Church cemetery across the street from Holderness School. A friend of hers also happened to have a nephew—Jay Mead—who was teaching at Holderness. Lucy hoped to learn more about the history shared between her family and the school. “My father, William Spalding Eaton, attended Holderness, Class of 1906, and I have wondered if the Kidder family was in any way connected to the school,” she wrote. She also wondered what the relationship was between the school and the cemetery: “Perhaps there is a teacher or someone you know who is interested in this sort of history and would like to correspond with me.” At the very least Lucy knew that she and her husband shared an interest with Jay. “Mary tells me you have sheep,” she wrote in that same letter. “We have two Karakul ewes and a young, five-month-old Romney ram. We have them for wool, not
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
the freezer, and Saturday the ewes are to be shorn.” Jay did in fact know a good correspondent for Lucy. That was Pat Henderson, then playing a crucial role in smoothing a path for women into Holderness, and also serving as the school’s archivist. In a typed letter, rife with hand-written annotations, Pat related the Trinity Church’s colorful history back to its construction in 1797, and how it was only briefly the school’s chapel, since the school outgrew it within five years of its founding in 1879. Pat could find no link between Holderness and the Kidders, but she was glad to hear from the daughter of an early alumnus. “The fire of 1931 destroyed most of the school’s records,” Pat wrote, “and we know only that your father… was at Holderness for four years, 1902–06, and that his home address was 284 North Oxford Street, Hartford.” In August Lucy replied that certainly her father had played football at Holderness. She had two photos of him in uniform, and she sent Pat a photocopy of each image. “Jerome Pierce Webster and my father were good friends; they both went on to Trinity College in Hartford,” she added. “He evidently gave my father a round (6-inch diameter) bronze relief plaque of himself (head and shoulders) in his WWI uniform… My sister and I always have felt it should be given to the heirs of Dr. Webster. Do you have a current address of any of Dr. Webster’s family?”
Of course Pat knew all about the Websters. Jerome Webster was the son of Lorin Webster, the great headmaster who led Holderness from 1892 to 1922, and who first brought the school to prominence. “You will be pleased to know that the fourth generation of Websters is well represented at Holderness,” Pat answered. “Jerome’s twin sons, Jay and Hartley ’57, have sent a son, and daughter and son, respectively, and Hartley’s daughter Jenny ’85 was elected by the student body and faculty as last year’s president of the school.” Jay, in fact, would go on to send three more children to Holderness. Pat continued: “Dr. Jerome had the school library named after him, and during and after WWII became renowned in plastic surgery. He died just three or four years ago: a small, slender, meticulously groomed man, with very blue eyes and an ‘old school’ manner that, alas, is disappearing with his generation.” This well-groomed man was someone whom Lucy had once known very well. In September she wrote as follows to Hartley Webster at his home in Harvard, MA: “Before he was married, your father (whom my sister and I knew as ‘Uncle Danny’) and my father, William (Bill) Spalding Eaton, were good friends. Your father would stay with us in Hartford during several Trinity College reunion weekends. Over the years, the two families lost contact with one another. My father died in 1963, and through Mrs. Henderson at Holderness
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
11
02OCT16_Features_Draft_05:Holdnerness_School_Today_Winter_2013_Revised
10/18/2016
2:37 PM
Page 12
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
LEFT: The Chapel of the Holy Cross in the early 1900s, as William Eaton ’06 would have remembered it. In 1925, the chapel was redecorated; according to an account in the 1925 Dial, “The old scheme of decoration was, in general, followed but the whole coloring was brightened and freshened so that the Chapel no longer seems smoky and dingy, but sunny and attractive.” ABOVE: Lucy Holcombe, daughter of William Spalding Eaton ’06 and granddaughter of former trustee Elmer Winfield Eaton
School, who gave me your address, I understand your father died only three or four years ago.” Lucy also noted that Mrs. Henderson had said that Jenny was “‘a superb equestrienne, especially dressage.’ This is of particular interest to me because my husband and I always have had Morgan horses, and dressage has been an interest of ours for quite some time.” In early October Lucy wrote again to Pat. “I have found the baptismal and confirmation certificates of my father, which indicate they took place in the Chapel of the Holy Cross, Holderness School, May 31, 1903,” she wrote. “I also have his handwritten diploma. According to his obituary, my grandfather, Elmer Winfield Eaton, served as a trustee of Holderness as well as its treasurer.” Lucy also reported that Hartley Webster had replied that his brother Jay
12
had a plaque such as Lucy described, and that Hartley would be delighted to have one for his own family. “We plan to bring it to him on October 21st, when we begin our trip to New Hampshire,” Lucy wrote. She and Seth intended to visit the Trinity Church cemetery. They hoped as well to meet Pat and the descendants of “Uncle Danny,” and to tour the school campus. It is quite likely that the tour was conducted by one such descendant. In November Lucy wrote to Pat that she and Seth had found the Kidder graves, and also that Hartley Webster kept horses himself: “Through our interest in Morgan horses and dressage, we discovered we have several mutual friends and acquaintances!” In a thank-you note to alumni officer David Sharrits, Lucy related that she and her sister Harriet would donate their father’s diploma to the school archives, adding, “We were impressed with the facil-
ities of the school and its feeling of vitality. Quite a bit for such a short visit!…My Father would be very happy to know that Holderness continues to be such an active and vital school. In his name, I am enclosing a contribution to help the school in a small way to continue on its course.” Now skip ahead more than three decades. Lucy and Seth Holcombe were childless, and Lucy died a widow on January 6, 2016. It fell to Nancy Hinman, Lucy’s niece, to sort through the personal effects from the home where Lucy and Seth had settled to raise and train their Morgan horses (the sheep were more or less a passing fancy). There Nancy discovered a file folder labeled “Holderness School.” “My aunt was very good at keeping copies of her correspondences back before she got a computer,” says Nancy, who made scans of the letters Lucy exchanged with Pat Henderson and
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
02OCT16_Features_Draft_05:Holdnerness_School_Today_Winter_2013_Revised
10/18/2016
2:37 PM
Page 13
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
OUT OF THE BLUE
“MY FATHER WOULD BE VERY HAPPY TO KNOW THAT HOLDERNESS CONTINUES TO BE SUCH AN ACTIVE AND VITAL SCHOOL. IN HIS NAME I AM ENCLOSING A CONTRIBUTION TO HELP THE SCHOOL IN A SMALL WAY TO CONTINUE ON ITS COURSE.” — LUCY HOLCOMBE, 1985 Hartley Webster. “She was also very thrifty, and she actually retyped her letters on the back sides of some previously used paper— so the scans are slightly messy, and you can see type showing through from the other side of the paper.” The letters did much to explain a bequest to Holderness School from Lucy’s estate that will help the school in a very large way “to continue on its course”—a gift in excess of $1 million. The bequest is in honor and memory of Lucy’s father, who never lost his love of New Hampshire and the outdoors. “He spent most of his career working at Traveler’s Insurance, but he was an avid flyfisherman and returned often to New Hampshire to fish,” says Nancy of her grandfather. “He was the sort who tied his own flies, and in the Granby basement I found a cigar box full of the feathers and fur he used. I know my aunt was very glad to reconnect with the Websters. And I know that she and Seth were much impressed by their visit to Holderness.” News of the bequest came to Holderness by way of Don Wilmot, who served with Lucy on the Granby public library’s board of trustees and is also the family’s estate lawyer. “Yes, Lucy was thrifty, and she benefited from a rock-solid foundation in values passed on to her by her father,” Don says. “She was proud of her heritage as a member of an old Hartford family, but she also knew that you don’t brag about your accomplishments or your money. She believed instead that resources like that come with a sense of duty and social responsibility.”
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
The graves of Lucy Holcombe’s great-great-grandparents, Betsy (1794–1875) and Oliver Kidder 1796– 1854), are located in the Trinity Church cemetery across the street from Holderness School. Note the hand on Betsy Kidder’s headstone, at left; a hand with the index finger pointing up was common on headstones in Victorian America, and symbolized the soul of the departed ascending to heaven.
In fact Holderness is one of several institutions to benefit from Lucy’s largesse. “But what a difference this will make,” Don marvels. “It has been a pleasure to work with Lucy’s family, and then to be the messenger of such good news to a worthy school.” “What a beautiful testament to the Eaton family, Mrs. Holcombe, and to the way the Holderness relationships and Holderness experiences are lasting,” says Head of School Phil Peck. “This transformative gift helps ensure that those experiences will always exist. We are both blessed and deeply appreciative of Mrs. Holcombe’s thoughtfulness and generosity.”
Because of that 1931 fire, Bill Eaton was one of those generations of early alumni who exist only marginally today in the records of Holderness. But the school and a friendship struck there never faded from the memory of the Eaton family, and over the space of more than a century—and after a remarkable turn of events involving a warm-hearted friend of Jay Mead’s Aunt Mary and a responsive archivist—that memory will richly benefit future generations of Holderness students. And yes indeed, it all comes to “quite a bit for a short visit.”
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
13
02OCT16_Features_Draft_05:Holdnerness_School_Today_Winter_2013_Revised
10/18/2016
2:37 PM
Page 14
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
14
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
02OCT16_Features_Draft_05:Holdnerness_School_Today_Winter_2013_Revised
10/18/2016
2:37 PM
Page 15
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
David with his wife Sally and their oldest children, Emily ’99 and Eliza ’02, in 1984
Catching Up With David Lockwood LOOSE PLANS: THE STORY OF A TRAVELING ROAD SHOW When retirement stretches out before you like a wide-open interstate highway, what do you do? If you’re David Lockwood, you just keep playing. by emily magnus ’ IMAGINE DRIVING SOUTH ON INTERSTATE-93 in New
“I like the improvisational nature of this project,” he says. “In a GB
Hampshire. Traffic is light and most cars are moving swiftly at 75 mph. It’s
[general business] band, you play the same repertoire for four hours,
a humid summer afternoon, and a heavy haze hangs over the distant
mostly at weddings, sometimes in bars. Little Davey and the Rolling 88s is
rolling hills. Heat waves shimmer off the pavement; dry blades of grass in
less predictable. The music can be whatever I want it to be, and I never
the median bend horizontal with the passing of every vehicle. In the dis-
know who will be in the audience or how long they will want to listen.”
tance, you see a car in the breakdown lane; people wander about. As you
Take a look at the band’s Facebook page and you’ll catch a glimpse of
get closer, you notice a gentleman pulling a cover off something in a trail-
the variety of locations Dave has played so far—Main Street Plymouth, the
er. It’s a piano. In your rearview mirror, you watch as that same gentleman
Plymouth Transfer Station (aka the dump), The Little Church Theater, the
sits down and begins to play. A photographer snaps his picture.
Lower Fields at Holderness School, and the Riverside Cemetery on
What’s the story? Who is this man and why is he playing a piano in the breakdown lane? Why is he risking his life—and breaking all sorts of laws—for a photo? No judging. The man with the piano is David Lockwood, who until
Fairgrounds Road. “When I’m out driving, I make note of beautiful places, and then I make plans to practice or play there later,” says David. “But I try to keep my plans loose. The other day I was headed to Meredith to play at the
very recently was the music director at Holderness School. This spring he
town docks on Winnipesaukee. I was driving through Holderness, and all
began work on a project that involves playing his piano in outdoor public
the parking spots along the bridge over the Squam River were empty.
spaces. And what better way to promote his traveling road show than
There were flower boxes hanging from the bridge and the sun was beauti-
with a picture of him playing on I-93, a broad stretch of pavement flowing
ful on the water that morning, so I pulled over and played there instead. I
out behind him?
never got to Meredith.”
Little Davey and the Rolling 88s is Dave’s newest band. The stage is a
Favorite place to practice so far? “ALLwell North Parking Garage,”
utility trailer with special hitches and hooks to secure the piano between
Dave says without hesitation. “The acoustics are great and the place is
gigs. Portability is important, so instruments have been kept to a mini-
deserted.” ALLwell is the new academic and athletic complex built by
mum—one baby grand piano, an Aeolian Wheelock David bought in DC
Plymouth State University; only an occasional athletic director or coach
in 1974, and one battery-powered street amp for occasional vocals or
has interrupted David’s sessions this summer.
backup drum loops.
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
15
02OCT16_Features_Draft_05:Holdnerness_School_Today_Winter_2013_Revised
10/18/2016
2:37 PM
Page 16
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
CATCHING UP WITH DAVID LOCKWOOD
David Lockwood during his many years of teaching at Holderness School And while he usually plays alone, there have been occasions when other musicians have joined him. “My first day out was on the Fourth of July,” David says. “I stopped by Rodger Ellsworth’s (a PSU professor), and he brought out his violin and we played ‘America the Beautiful.’ “Another time, I was playing on Main Street and Art Harriman, a local troubadour, stopped to listen,” shares David. “I asked him if he had any instruments with him, and he pulled out a one-inch harmonica. We played ‘When the Saints Go Marching In.’”
was legendary as well; he shared his unbridled passion for the game with his athletes, balancing humor with hard work at every practice and game. But for many on the Holderness campus, his leadership extended far beyond most formal teaching situations; his famous “educational moments” made generations of alumni not only better students but better people as well. “What I’m particularly thankful for is that DL gave us open access to his own unending quest for learning and knowledge,” wrote Courtlandt Barnes ’89 when he learned about David’s retirement. “He bridged the
THIS SPRING MARKED DAVID’S RETIREMENT from Holderness
enormous gap between the wisdom of a great adult teacher and the con-
School after 35 years of teaching. It’s a retirement he’s been planning
fusion of a teenager, with whatever frustration and vulnerability that
since three years ago when he first began feeling burned out. Evening
learning entailed. It was one thing to show us what he learned; it was
duties and weekend commitments weren’t as easy as they had once been.
another to see his child-like glow over the latest Metheny release, what
“I didn’t want to leave Holderness feeling that way,” he says. So he
he liked about Paul Wertico’s brushwork, and see his subsequent efforts
worked with Head of School Phil Peck and the administration to develop a period of transition. Over the past couple of years he has progressively
to incorporate them into his own writing.” Phil Peck remembers this quality as well. “Throughout his time at
given up evening duties, advisory responsibilities, and coaching obliga-
Holderness, David was always learning and redefining himself as a musi-
tions but has continued to teach. “Because Holderness School was willing
cian, as a student, and as a teacher,” he says. “I think about the range of
to slowly release me from fulltime faculty responsibilities, the last three
courses he offered and how he adapted to each new group of students
years have been wonderful. I am incredibly grateful to Phil and the
joining the band and chorus every year. He never stopped learning and
administration for making it happen.”
was a role model for us all.”
But no other transition would have been appropriate given the years
David’s last year of teaching at Holderness was honored with an all
of service David has given to Holderness. His alter egos Dale Sanderson
school concert by singer-songwriter Randy Newman, the renaming of the
and Dr. J.P. Kravitz kept generations of Holderness students entertained,
Commencement music award to the David Lockwood Music Prize, and a
while the power of his songs built our community—it’s hard not to feel
guest speaking engagement at Commencement. He ended his years not
committed to a group of people when you have joined together and sung
burned out but with the same enthusiasm and commitment he first began
“Lean on Me” from deep in your gut. His leadership on the baseball field
35 years ago.
16
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
02OCT16_Features_Draft_05:Holdnerness_School_Today_Winter_2013_Revised
10/18/2016
2:37 PM
Page 17
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
CATCHING UP WITH DAVID LOCKWOOD
“someone once told me that if you think too much about the past you’ll get melancholy, but if you think too much about the future, you’ll get anxious. i didn’t want to deny any of those feelings; it’s good to do both. but this project has definitely helped make the transition easier.” – david lockwood But, while the administration could help plan the logistics of his transition to retirement, David still needed to figure out how to make the emotional transition. “Someone once told me that if you think too much about the past you’ll get melancholy, but if you think too much about the future, you’ll be anxious,” he says. “I didn’t want to deny any of those feelings; it’s good to do both. But this project has definitely helped make the transition easier.” So on some days this past summer he worked in his office sorting through memorabilia left behind by students—the mini figurine of Nigel Tufnel from Spinal Tap will return home with him, but the bust of Elvis will remain outside the recording studio in Carpenter. There’s the sheet music he wrote for specific students and the photographs of concerts and recording sessions that commemorate 35 years of singing, song writing, and making music. Sorting through them and deciding what to keep and discard made for some very melancholic days. But on other days he was on the road, working out the kinks of his new project. “There was a great deal of fear when I started this project,” says David. “There were a lot of unknowns. Am I going to be able to keep the piano secure? Will it stay in tune? How are people going to react? How will the police feel about my gigs?” David also had to figure out whether he wanted to make it a paying gig or not. For a while he had his phone number painted on his trailer, and one day he even attached his hat to the railing. “But I didn’t like the way that felt,” he says. “Art and commerce have a complicated relationship. I expect to get paid for some events and have picked up some paying gigs in my travels. But I don’t want this project to turn into busking.” Likes on Facebook, though, are pretty satisfying. David has recorded many of his sessions in different locations, and you can check out his posts on his Facebook page at Little Davey and the Rolling 88s. By the
David Lockwood and his rolling 88s
way, for those who are not musically inclined, 88 is the number of keys on a standard piano. Unfortunately, the warm weather in New Hampshire only lasts four or
by then to have some other gigs lined up, but he also plans to do some writing. The topic? Teaching music for 35 years at a private high school.
five months. Eventually, David will have to return his piano to his garage
It’s that intentional balance. Looking back and looking forward.
or find other locations that can accommodate a ten-foot trailer. He hopes
Remembering while at the same time making plans for the future.
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
17
25SEP16_Departments_Commencement_Draft_03:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
3:04 PM
Page 18
Draft 3 (25SEP16)
COMMENCEMENT 2016
Congratulations to the Class of 2016!
ALYSON SADYE AXMAN Owings Mills, Maryland MARGARET KENT BARTON Holderness, New Hampshire HANNAH KATHERINE BENSON Boxford, Massachusetts ALEXANDRA KATHLEEN BLACK Sun Valley, Idaho KYRA BORSOI Brossard, Quebec, Canada REGINALD MILES BOWSER Waxhaw, North Carolina PATRICK JOSEPH BRENNAN Somerville, Massachusetts CHRISTOPHER JEFFREY CAULDER North Woodstock, New Hampshire ALAN JAMES CHABOT JR. Rye, New York BENJAMIN COOLIDGE CHAPIN Manchester, New Hampshire ZACHARY ARISTOTLE CHERNIN New London, New Hampshire LOGAN THOMAS CLARKE St. Lazare, Quebec, Canada
18
WILLIAM STEPHEN COLEMAN Yarmouth, Maine GRACE EVELYN COLLINS Exeter, New Hampshire MARGARET KERUBO CUNHA Plymouth, Massachusetts PHILLIP JUSTICE DE CORSI Encino, California DOUGLAS ANTHONY DELUCA Windham, New Hampshire TAYLOR SHAW DOBYNS Duxbury, Massachusetts COLE RICHMOND DONOVAN Holderness, New Hampshire EMMANUEL DORVIL North Miami, Florida JOHN RUSH STREETT FISHER Unionville, Pennsylvania LYDIA TATUM FISHER Unionville, Pennsylvania JACK HAMILTON GEWIRZ Washington, District of Columbia JOSEPH HOWARD GILLIS Branford, Connecticut
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
25SEP16_Departments_Commencement_Draft_03:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
3:04 PM
Page 19
Draft 3 (25SEP16)
COMMENCEMENT 2016
WILLIAM HENRY HALL Haverford, Pennsylvania AARON MICHAEL HARMATZ Greensburg, Pennsylvania ANDREW THOMAS HODSON West Hartford, Connecticut THOMAS BENJAMIN JACKSON III Middletown, Connecticut YIHE JIANG Shenzhen, China BRENDAN JOSEPH JOHNSON Weare, New Hampshire HENRY HARTT JONES Westmount, Quebec, Canada SEUNGMIN JUNG Seoul, South Korea ZAREEN ANIL KESSLER Bath, Maine NICHOLAS JOSEPH LACASSE Waterville Valley, New Hampshire ALEXANDER JAMES LASH Waterville Valley, New Hampshire GRACE STEWART LAWRENCE Haverford, Pennsylvania DAVID BRIAN LECLERC Hollis, New Hampshire MALCOLM MUNRO MACDONALD Dedham, Massachusetts NATALIE ADELLE MCBEATH Campton, New Hampshire ALFRED TIMOTHY MEAU Bridgewater, New Hampshire JAMES ETHAN MITCHELL Portland, Maine JESSIE MCCLELLAN MONTAGUE Sparks, Maryland AVERY ANNE MICHAEL MORGAN Goldens Bridge, New York LEWIS WARD JONATHAN MUNDY SHAW Nantucket, Massachusetts BRYCE MCMILLAN MURDICK Sandwich, New Hampshire BRENDAN MICHAEL O’HARA Skillman, New Jersey
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
PRECIOUS SOPURUCHUKWU OZOH Lagos, Nigeria MICHAEL JASON PAGE Dover, Massachusetts EMILY LAWTON PERKINS Concord, Massachusetts SUPAVIT POKAWANVIT Bankok, Thailand WILLIAM JOSEPH PRATT III New Canaan, Connecticut JESSE KASSLER RANSFORD Carbondale, Colorado HUNTER MCKINLEY REHN Alexandria, Virginia ZHEN REN Shanghai, China SEAN MICHAEL ROBINSON Reno, Nevada SKYLAR STEPHANIE ROBINSON Leesburg, Virginia NATHAN JAMES SAMPO Franconia, New Hampshire CHRISTOPHER TOULMIN SARGENT West Hartford, Connecticut HENRY THOMAS ATKINS SHEFFIELD Lake Bluff, Illinois
TYLER MARIO SLUSARCZYK Mendon, Vermont ELLERY LINCOLN SMITH Millbrook, New York SAMANTHA LEE SMITH Chatham, Massachusetts ANNE KELLY SMYTH-HAMMOND Marstons Mills, Massachusetts ANNA ELISABETH SODERBERG Caribou, Maine HADLEY LADD STARER Franconia, New Hampshire RYAN DAVID STEELE Stratford, Prince Edward Island, Canada PHILLIP THOMAS STOWE Gilford, New Hampshire COREY JAYE STURGES Rockville, Maryland ELLIE THOMSON TEARE Yarmouth, Maine JULIA MARQUIS THULANDER Hampstead, New Hampshire MINH THIEN TRAN Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam ZHAOWEI YU Beijing, China
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
19
25SEP16_Departments_Commencement_Draft_03:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
3:05 PM
Page 20
Draft 3 (25SEP16)
COMMENCEMENT 2016
Class of 2016 College Destinations
Babson College () Bates College () Bentley University Brown University Bryn Mawr College Central State University Clarkson University College of Charleston College of the Holy Cross Dickinson College Drew University East Texas Baptist University Emory University Endicott College Florida Institute of Technology
20
Franklin and Marshall College Franklin University Switzerland Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering Furman University Gettysburg College Hamilton College–NY () Hobart and William Smith Colleges () Johns Hopkins University Kenyon College Lafayette College Lehigh University () Middlebury College Northeastern University
Saint Michael's College Skidmore College Springfield College St. Lawrence University () Stevenson University () Stonehill College () Syracuse University Temple University The George Washington University () The New School–All Divisions Tufts University United States Naval Academy University of California, San Diego
University of California, Santa Barbara University of Denver () University of New Hampshire () University of Rhode Island University of Vermont Utica College Virginia Wesleyan College Wake Forest University Westminster College () Whitman College Williams College
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
25SEP16_Departments_Commencement_Draft_03:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
3:05 PM
Page 21
Draft 3 (25SEP16)
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
COMMENCEMENT 2016
think of senioritis as a complete lack of motivation to “ Most do just about anything regarding books, essays, or math problems, but what I see in Minh, Maggie, and Emily is a yearning for something personal, for some independence. We can each learn something from these three, but the first and the hardest question for each of us to answer is whether we can take that initial backwards leap in time to five-year-old land, and dare to know all over again.” – PRESIDENT OF THE SCHOOL AJ CHABOT ’16
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
21
25SEP16_Departments_Commencement_Draft_03:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
3:06 PM
Page 22
Draft 3 (25SEP16)
COMMENCEMENT 2016
Scenes from Commencement 2016
22
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
25SEP16_Departments_Commencement_Draft_03:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
3:06 PM
Page 23
Draft 3 (25SEP16)
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
COMMENCEMENT 2016
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
23
25SEP16_Departments_Commencement_Draft_03:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
3:07 PM
Page 24
Draft 3 (25SEP16)
COMMENCEMENT 2016
2016 Commencement Awards Cum Laude Members The following students’ outstanding academic achievements have qualified them for induction into the Cum Laude Society, a society modeled after Phi Beta Kappa for high school students. An asterisk indicates a senior inducted as a junior in . seniors inducted in r Margaret Kent Barton* r Alexandra Kathleen Black r Alan James Chabot Jr.* r Margaret Kerubo Chunha* r Zachary Aristotle Chernin* r Douglas Anthony DeLuca r Joseph Howard Gillis* r Yihe Jiang* r Grace Stewart Lawrence r Supavit Pokawanvit r Nathan James Sampo* r Henry Thomas Atkins Sheffield r Zhaowei Yu juniors inducted in r Hannah Margaret Fernandes r Chae Won Hahn r Noa Chang Lin r Yiyang Mao r Catherine Hayden McLaughlin r Austin Leo St. Onge r William Van Herwarde r Geoffrey Mallory West
Book Awards THE HARRY G. ANDERSON, JR. MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP FOR EXCELLENCE IN MATH AND SCIENCE Keying Yang ’ THE RENSSELAER MEDAL Geoffrey Mallory West ’ THE ADVANCED MATH PRIZE Supavit Pokawanvit ’
24
THE ELEMENTARY MATH PRIZE Andrey Yao ’
THE ELEMENTARY SPANISH PRIZE Lily Paige Gillette ’
THE SCIENCE PRIZE Zhaowei Yu ’
THE CHINESE PRIZE Jean Ben McNulty Booker ’
THE SPARGO AWARD FOR SCIENCE Nathan James Sampo ’
THE WILLIAM BRADFORD WHITING PRIZE FOR ART Keying Yang ’
THE ENGLISH PRIZE Alan James Chabot Jr. ’ THE WRITING PRIZE Alexandra Kathleen Black ’ THE SEAN GLEW HISTORY PRIZE Andrey Yao ’ THE CONNOR HISTORY MEDAL Emily Lawton Perkins ’
THE DAVID LOCKWOOD MUSIC AWARD Anna Elisabeth Soderberg ’ THE FIORE CUP FOR THEATRE Aaron Michael Harmatz ’ THE CERAMICS PRIZE Song Tang ’ THE PHOTOGRAPHY PRIZE Zhen Ren ’
THE ASHWORTH AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN UNITED STATES HISTORY Catherine Hayden McLaughlin ’
THE THEOLOGY PRIZE Christopher Jeffrey Caulder ’
THE ASHWORTH AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN EUROPEAN HISTORY Lorea Monica Zabaleta ’
THE KENYON COLLEGE PRESIDENTIAL BOOK AWARD Keying Yang ’
THE ADVANCED FRENCH PRIZE Jesse McClellan Montague ’
THE HARVARD BOOK PRIZE Geoffrey Mallory West ’
THE ELEMENTARY FRENCH PRIZE Claudia Violette Cantin ’
THE ACADEMIC AWARD Supavit Pokawanvit ’
THE ADVANCED LATIN PRIZE Reese Daniel Thompson ’
Senior Thesis Honors
THE ELEMENTARY LATIN PRIZE Colin Jackson Hoeffner ’ THE ADVANCED SPANISH PRIZE Alan James Chabot Jr. ’
Margaret Kent Barton Hannah Katherine Benson Alexandra Kathleen Black Christopher Jeffrey Caulder Margaret Kerubo Cunha Supavit Pokawanvit Ellery Lincoln Smith
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
25SEP16_Departments_Commencement_Draft_03:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
3:07 PM
Page 25
Draft 3 (25SEP16)
COMMENCEMENT 2016
2016 Commencement Awards Commencement Awards THE REV. B.W. “PETE” WOODWARD, JR. PRIZE For exceptional leadership, academic achievement, and service in the junior year of college Jeffrey M. Hauser ’ THE M.J. LAFOLEY AWARD For outstanding character and integrity in the third or fourth form Benjamin Zak Jerome ’ THE BOB BROOKS AWARD For making Holderness feel like home to ninth-graders Anna Elisabeth Soderberg ’ THE COACHES’ AWARD For contributions to the spirit of Holderness on and off the field Kyra Borsoi ’ Brendan Joseph Johnson ’ Precious Ozoh ’16 receiving the Clarkson Award from science teacher Randy Houseman
THE WEBSTER CUP AWARD For excellence in athletics Anne Kelly Smyth-Hammond ’ Tyler Mario Slusarczyk ’ THE NED GILLETTE SPIRIT AWARD For leadership, competitive attitude, and a spirit of adventure Christopher Toulmin Sargent ’ THE DON AND PAT HENDERSON AWARD For contributions to the welfare of the community Margaret Kent Barton ’ THE RICHARD C. GALLOP AWARD For creative and community leadership Zhaowei Yu ’ Yihe Jiang ’ PRESIDENTIAL SCHOLAR AWARD In recognition of the nation’s most distinguished high school seniors Nathan James Sampo ’
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
THE DANA H. ROWE MEMORIAL AWARD Given to a senior girl for academic achievement, participation in sports and extracurricular activities, and love of life Julia Marquis Thulander ’ THE CLARKSON AWARD For using his abilities to the fullest and persevering no matter the circumstances Precious Sopuruchukwu Ozoh ’ THE HASLAM AWARD For excellence in athletics, sportsmanship, and scholarship Grace Stewart Lawrence ’ THE DALLAS AWARD For loyalty and dedication to the Judeo-Christian ideals of the school Hannah Katherine Benson ’
THE RIGHT REV. DOUGLAS E. THEUNER AWARD For increasing and furthering the mission of Holderness School Paul Gould TR ’–’ THE MARSHALL AWARD For outstanding contributions to the life of the school Cole Richmond Donovan ’ THE WALTER ALVIN FROST AWARD For reaching the highest standards of the school Alan James Chabot Jr. ’ THE FACULTY AWARD For hard work, a consistently positive attitude, and immeasurable compassion for others Avery Anne Michael Morgan ’ THE DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD For exemplifying the highest standards of the school Christopher M. Keating ’
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
25
02OCT16_Departments_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
2:30 PM
Page 26
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
AROUND THE QUAD
Strategic Planning Scorecard: Leadership The Scorecard is a series of articles in which Head of School Phil Peck discusses what Holderness School is doing to move forward on the initiatives outlined in the Strategic Plan. The first goal of Holderness School’s strategic plan asks us to “build a campus-wide leadership and character development program focused on the growth and success of every community member.” Within that objective are two specific action items: . Create a four-year student-centered program focused on leadership and character . Design a community feedback process based on the principles of initiative, fairness, dependability, and empathy Both these action items have received a great deal of attention throughout the last two years.
Benchmarks We began the – school year by asking, “What is leadership at Holderness?” With input from faculty, students, administrators, and the board, our answers were condensed into one sentence: “Leadership at Holderness is each individual’s journey to learn how to best serve and empower others.” It is a journey that starts the moment students arrive on campus and divvy up team gear on O-Hike and continues throughout the rest of their lives. The same is true for all employees; Holderness provides a base from which each person’s leadership journey begins and develops.
Outcomes However, as helpful as it was to define leadership, growth will not occur without structured opportunities for learning and feedback. Therefore, our first goal was to find time in our weekly schedule for leadership discussions and lessons. Starting in September of last year, minutes each week has been set aside for workshops, discussions, and presentations by speakers who are experts on leadership. Students have also had the opportunity to
26
As Holderness begins another academic year, leadership education continues to be a priority, not just for students and faculty, but for the whole community.
reflect on the principles of initiative, fairness, dependability, and empathy and how they unfold in their daily lives. Much of this work occurs within grade-level groups and frequently weaves in themes that correspond to their Special Program experiences. In addition, we began working hard to establish ways for all members of the community to receive feedback. Certainly the yearly student elections have always provided feedback for all rising juniors and seniors, and students get periodic feedback on their job reports. In addition, faculty members participate in periodic comprehensive evaluations, and non-teaching employees have scattered systems, including a yearly comprehensive done by yours truly. Nonetheless, we have a lot of work to do if we value on-going and scheduled formative feedback at all levels for all students and adults. For instance, house and floor leaders, captains of athletic teams, and job leaders have never received systematic feedback on their goals and their work. We see the need, and steps are being put in place.
Measuring Progress Last year we finalized a citizenship rubric based on the four leadership criteria. The goal for this coming year is to set aside time for students to meet with their advisors every quarter and participate in self-evaluations and receive advisor evaluations. House and floor leaders will also receive regular feedback from their dorm parents and the students in their dorms. In addition, teachers will solicit regular and scheduled feedback from their students and colleagues. Leadership alignment throughout our Holderness community is key.
Iteration Former Director of Admission and now Head of Bishop’s College School, Tyler Lewis, used to say that Holderness is a leadership laboratory. And he is right; we have programs in place and an ethos that supports leadership. As we become more deliberate and planful, we will truly reach our high calling of working to do our very best to serve God and Humankind.
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
02OCT16_Departments_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
2:30 PM
Page 27
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
AROUND THE QUAD
“When I write…” It’s a Friday night at the New England Young Writers’ Conference (neywc) on the Breadloaf campus of Middlebury College. After a day of conferencing and writing, the students have been given the night off, and a dance is planned. The music is blaring and there’s plenty of food and drinks to keep the students buzzing with sugar and dancing for hours. The only thing missing are the students. In most situations this might seem like a bad thing; if the students aren’t at the dance, then they must be up to no good. But look around the Breadloaf campus and you’ll find most of the students outside Gilmour House, sitting around a bonfire. There’s no alcohol or drugs. They’re not watching, or creating, x-rated videos. Instead they’re singing John Lennon tunes; a flashlight passes from student to student around the fire, and in between tunes, students read snippets of original poetry and prose. “Culturally this conference has a totally different vibe,” says Holderness Academic Dean Peter Durnan. “These kids are all lovers of reading and writing, and neywc provides them with a safe place where they don’t have to keep their passions a secret.” Started in , neywc is organized and run by the Addison County schools in Vermont. Students from these schools attend the conference but they also act as guides and hosts. The other slots in the program are open to sophomores and juniors, most of whom come from New England and New York. But according to an article written about the program in the Addison County Independent, “The conference has been expanding to bring in students from as far away as North Carolina, Texas, and California. One student this year came all the way from France; past years have seen young writers from Puerto Rico and Switzerland.” Holderness students became involved over ten years ago when Peter Durnan encouraged Reed Cooley ’ to apply for one of the nearly spots in the program. He got in, and Peter attended the conference with him as a chaper-
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
Above is a section of bulletin board that was blank when the New England Young Writer’s Conference began this spring. By the last day, it was covered with words. It’s a simple illustration of the passion this group of students had for language.
one. Ever since then, Holderness has been sending students and faculty to participate in the four-day writing conference each spring. Each day begins with workshops during which students choose to work on poetry, fiction, or creative non-fiction. Led by professional writers, the workshops give students time to write, rewrite, critique each other, and receive feedback on their own writing. “The time we spent workshopping pieces with the professional writers at the conference was to me the most valuable experience of the conference,” says one of this year’s participants Cat McLaughlin ’. “The revision process at the conference paralleled the academic structure at Holderness, but what was new to me was the fervent passion among the writers to create the most expressive pieces that each of us could produce.” In the afternoons, students attend craft classes in which they have an opportunity to focus on a particular aspect of writing. Last year’s craft classes included “Making Sentences Like an Artist,” “One-Sentence Poems,” and
“This is My Letter to the World.” Writers also gather in the iconic Little Barn (Robert Frost’s home stage) to read their poetry and prose. “The quality of writing is high,” says Peter. “These are not necessarily the valedictorians of their classes; they are kids who love to write and see it as an opportunity to further explore their passions.” Cat agrees: “I came away from the conference with a feeling of being supported and accepted. Everyone I encountered was not only creatively driven, but eager to hear from others as well.” On the last evening of the conference, proud of what they have accomplished, the students line up for a chance to share their stories during an open mic night. It’s not about grades and it’s not about winning any prizes; it’s just about loving words and the worlds they create.
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
27
02OCT16_Departments_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
2:30 PM
Page 28
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
AROUND THE QUAD
Fighting Cancer, One Citizen at a Time Like all students in Senior Thesis, Hannah began with a simple question: “How can we as citizens help cure and prevent cancer?” “Almost everyone can relate to that helpless feeling when someone we know is diagnosed with cancer and there’s nothing we can do to help,” says senior Hannah Benson. “I wanted to know if there are concrete things we can do to give us hope.” - Connection gave Hannah her first answer. According to the organization’s website, “Since , cancer survival rates for people between the ages of and have barely improved, in large part because of delayed diagnosis. - Connection, a cancer self-awareness non-profit organization, is driving a new cancer conversation to change this by empowering you with the lifesaving advantage of earlier cancer detection.” Hannah learned about - Connection through a summer fundraiser she attended. She was inspired by their positive message and their desire to help others, so later, when she began to think about her Senior Thesis project, she decided that she wanted to volunteer at the organization and learn more. “- Connection is focused on education,” wrote Hannah in her Senior Thesis journal. “They encourage people to follow three steps. The first step is knowing what normal feels like. This includes sleep patterns, weight, bathroom habits, and even skin patterns. Any change cannot be ignored. Second, if a change in any of the above persists for more than two weeks, then - Connection says contact with your doctor is imperative. Lastly, the communication you have with your doctor in which you share any health changes is lifesaving and one of the most important steps to catching cancer early.” In addition to interviewing many of the staff at - Connection, during her internship, Hannah also helped catalogue the organization’s follow-up communications with schools and simplify data collected by Archie Bleyer, a clinical research professor at Oregon Health
28
RELAY FOR LIFE BY THE NUMBERS r r r r r r r r r r
Number of luminaries: 100 Number of zorbs: 2 Number of people who walked all night: 4 Number of parent volunteers: 8 attended the event but 15+ donated food and other items Most dollars raised by an individual: $2,200 (Bee McLaughlin ’18) Most dollars raised by a dorm: $3,815 (Pfenninger) Number of participants: 265 Number of teams: 24 Total dollars raised: $27,436 ($7,436 above their goal) Faculty participating: 13 (not including Mr. Peck’s dogs who joined us for a walk around 1:30 AM)
r WALKED ALL NIGHT: Abby Wiseman ’17, Liam Van Herwarde ’17, Ben Booker ’19, Hal Gartner (faculty)
and Science University who has dedicated his career to improving the outcomes of young adults and adolescents with cancer. But Hannah wasn’t satisfied with just one internship, she wanted to look into other ways ordinary citizens can help. “I contacted Ms. Weymouth and volunteered to run the Holderness Relay for Life event with her,” says Hannah. “Once we set a goal of ,, we had to figure out a way to get our point across and make it personal so that the community would be willing to give.” Fortunately, there were plenty of other people on campus who were equally passionate about raising money for cancer research. teams and participants raised ,. This is the third time Holderness School has sponsored a Relay for Life. As fundraisers for the American Cancer Society, Relays for
Life are an opportunity to celebrate survivors and honor those who have lost their lives to cancer. The event traditionally takes place during a -hour period and participants walk continuously. At Holderness, students work in dorm groups, taking turns walking loops around the outside of the turf. This year the temperature dipped into the s, but the rain held off, and the chain of people walking remained strong. Four people—three students and one faculty member—walked all night. “It felt really good to help,” says Hannah. “I’m not a doctor, so I can’t cure people; but every part of me wants to help. I’ve learned over the past five months there are things I can do to help: I can teach others the signs of the early stages of cancer, and I can help raise money.”
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
02OCT16_Departments_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
2:30 PM
Page 29
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
AROUND THE QUAD
CLOCKWISE, FROM ABOVE: Students take a break from walking and hang out in one of the many tents that lined the turf field; Perry Lum ’17 and Hannah Benson ’16 prepare for the opening ceremony; school counselor Carol Dopp shows her pride for Holderness; members of the classes of 2016 and 2017 walk together around the turf field.
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
29
02OCT16_Departments_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
2:30 PM
Page 30
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
AROUND THE QUAD
Homeland Curiosity Shortly after Commencement, seven students and four faculty departed on a trip for China. They were met there by three Chinese students who are currently attending Holderness. This is the second year of this cultural exchange, and Holderness has plans to make it into an annual program. Below is a reflection on the trip by English teacher Marilee Lin. This article was first published in Holderness School’s education blog, The Lamp. by marilee chang lin Say the word “China” and it’s hard not to think of the country as that cultural myth we’ve constructed from news reports, politicians’ rhetoric, the vague awareness of all the “Made in China” labels that populate our households, and exoticized notions of “the Orient” from novels, films, and television. For me, China is heritage, too. Though born and raised in the US (as were my parents and grandparents), I am ChineseAmerican, and while my parents’ upbringing in Hawaii formed our family’s most powerful cultural context, the sense that we were Chinese at the core was inescapable. My maternal grandfather, Goong-goong, was a well-known poet and painter of Chinese calligraphy. He and my grandmother Popo belonged to Chinese social clubs in Honolulu. They spoke Cantonese. We ate mainly Chinese-style cuisine when we visited them. Even in the Boston suburbs where I grew up, I felt my family’s Chinese culture in both tradition and ethos. In midwinter, my mother encouraged us to tidy our rooms as part of the ritual house-cleaning that precedes Chinese New Year; she bought us new clothes to wear; and she doled out lai see or “lucky money” folded carefully into red paper that she fashioned into envelopes. My siblings and I had Chinese names, along with standard American middle names. We’d go into Boston’s Chinatown for dim sum brunch. We were expected to study hard and get into good colleges as part of an unspoken compact to bolster family honor and
30
pride. Though we lived among white neighbors and participated fully in American culture (ballet, soccer, cheerleading, church, student government, etc.), there was a persistent sense of being culturally different. All of this is to say that I had reason to know China at least as well as the average American. I might have been expected to know it better than most, having married a ChineseAmerican man and traveled to his family’s ancestral home in Fujian Province, as well as to Hong Kong to visit his grandmother. I even took two years of Mandarin as an adult, dutifully learning and practicing characters that my grandfather so beautifully mastered over his lifetime. Like Goong-goong and his own forbearers, I inhabit the world most visibly as a Chinese person—not as a native of the Boston suburbs, graduate of a certain college, English teacher, dancer or practitioner of yoga, nor even daughter, mother, or wife. To those who see me on the street, I am Chinese—or maybe more generally Asian—and at , it was time to know more deeply what that meant. So when I was given the chance to go to China at the gracious invitation of our Chinese families, it felt like the perfect opportunity to connect with family culture, to explore my ethnic identity, and to understand in a deeper way what I knew about myself only vaguely. People asked if I had ever been there, and though I had visited my father-in-law’s birthplace, it had been merely a day trip from Hong Kong, itself a place few would consider truly China. I had to admit, I did not know China well at all. Which is why, when my younger son, who had gone on Holderness School’s inaugural China trip last summer, hugged me goodbye in the early-morning hours of my June th departure, telling me to give his regards to “the Motherland,” we both laughed at the notion. It was amusing to consider China a place that had anything to do with nurturing this family of Asian Americans in central New Hampshire, halfway around the world.
Back on American soil after those twelve days in China, the joke, it seems, is on me. Ultimately, the trip was eye-opening, informative and fun, and while it would be tempting to turn this piece into a travelogue, recounting highlights and anecdotes, for now—weeks after arriving on campus at the end of a -hour travel day—I’m inclined simply to hazard a few impressions. That’s what it is to go to a place of such staggering diversity in geography, climate, and cuisine that it defies easy description; of artistic and technological creations that left us all shaking our heads in wonder; of ancient temples, pagodas, Terra Cotta Warriors, the Great Wall—monuments to high civilization that explode any preconceived notion of a “developing country,” structures that boggle the mind by their sheer existence, endurance, and beauty; of city populations, skyscrapers and, yes, traffic, that dazzle, dizzy, yet seem just part of normal daily life in modern China. To see China through the lens of a tourist is to be awed by its depth, richness, and size. China is huge, populous, unimaginably old, undeniably modern, developing every which way, smoggy, congested, brash, and beautiful. Lucky for us, despite our grueling sightseeing schedule, which covered three major cities (Shanghai, Xi’an, and Beijing), we got to see China not simply from a bus or trailing a tour guide, but also in fellowship with our wonderful parent and student hosts, allowing us to observe China on a more personal, intimate level. The graciousness and generosity of our Chinese families define China at its best and exemplify Holderness community spirit in many memorable snapshots from the trip: enjoying lunch in Suzhou with Andrey Yao’s ’ parents; touring a Shanghai school during a visit planned by Yiyang Mao’s ’ mother; wandering Yoomi Ren’s ’ beautiful art-filled house in Shanghai; relishing the delicious baozi made by Tia Tang’s ’ mother in Beijing; learning Chinese brushwork during a lesson arranged by Zi Yan Huang’s ’ mother; listening to warm
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
02OCT16_Departments_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
2:30 PM
Page 31
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
AROUND THE QUAD
CLOCKWISE, FROM ABOVE: A gondolier on the Grand Canal in Suzhou (by Liesl Magnus ’17); a street artist who paints poems on the paths of a park in Shanghai (Liesl Magnus ’17); a street artist, one of many the students encountered during their trip (Jack Burkitt ’18); the Holderness crew on the Great Wall of China
speeches offered by Zhaowei Yu’s ’ mother and Henry Liu’s ’ father at the farewell dinner; and, throughout the trip, marveling at how our Chinese students so deftly straddle two cultures—home and Holderness—acting as hosts, hagglers, interpreters, and ambassadors, even as they shared new experiences alongside us. In the end, I returned home grateful, inspired, and exhausted (how do our Chinese students fly from Asia to New England, then go to class the next day?). In a weird way, I
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
stepped off that plane more Chinese than when I had left, not just because I had stamps in my passport or souvenirs in my carry-on to show for my time there, but because, like any traveler, I had internalized somehow where I had been. However humbling it had been for me to explain (sheepishly) time and again to a waiter, shopkeeper, or hotel clerk addressing me in Mandarin, that I did not speak Chinese (Wo bu neng shuo zhongwen), I was proud to be even Chinese-American in China, to lay
even tenuous claim to that vastly and variously creative, innovative, energetic culture. When our Chinese students return to campus in August, perhaps with their parents (now friends), I look forward to greeting them with deepened understanding, appreciation and affinity. Motherland, indeed.
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
31
02OCT16_Departments_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
2:31 PM
Page 32
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
AROUND THE QUAD
Visitors to Holderness ondary schools, there is more intimacy, and that matters more and more in advancement.”
Amanda Houston ’84 graphic designer and painter Amanda Houston’s oils and pastels were on display in the Edwards Art Gallery this spring along with several illustrations from her design career at L.L. Bean and Nike. She visited campus in April and spoke with Holderness art students, sharing her experiences in corporate America as well as in the art community of Portland, OR. Reflecting on her creative process, she said, “The first don’t count; it takes time to find your niche. Each painting builds on the last, with its own set of joys and frustrations, which pushes me to grow and learn while giving me the pleasure of simply creating something beautiful.”
Christopher Nielson ’02 Amanda Houston ’84, sharing her work with students in the art studio in Carpenter
In addition to the alumni who return to Holderness to tell their amazing stories, Holderness is often fortunate to have visitors who are experts in their fields and who are willing to share their knowledge and wisdom with both faculty and students. Below are just a few of the people who visited Holderness School this spring.
Randy Newman singer and songwriter In music director David Lockwood had the opportunity to visit and work with singersongwriter Randy Newman for a week and a half. Their friendship continued through the years and when Randy learned of David’s retirement, he agreed to perform at Holderness. In April, Randy Newman sang and shared stories of his career on the Hagerman stage in front of a packed audience. In addition to his classic song “Short People” and wryly humorous songs such as “Political Science” and “My Life Is
32
Good,” he played “You’ve Got A Friend In Me” and dedicated it to David.
Sue Cunningham president, council for advancement and support of education (case) Sue Cunningham was selected as the president of case in March of . Her visit to Holderness was part of a listening tour during which she hoped to learn more about the concerns and needs of the , schools, colleges, and universities worldwide that are case members. At Holderness she spoke with Advancement staff as well as colleagues from other Lakes Region boarding schools and universities. “Advancement is changing rapidly,” she shared. “There is a nimbleness and creativity to the work we do. And who are the thought leaders? More frequently these days higher education is turning to secondary schools for inspiration. Because of the scale of most sec-
architect and professor Chris Nielson spoke to students on Earth Day about sustainable architecture and the Living Building Challenge—a set of standards that requires building projects to “operate as cleanly, beautifully, and efficiently as nature’s architecture. To be certified under the Challenge, projects must meet a series of ambitious performance requirements over a minimum of months of continuous occupancy.” Chris talked about his education and about how the missions of the various institutions he attended all challenged him to think about both the social and environmental impact of his life and career. “Ironically I didn’t take a single environmental studies course while I was [at Holderness],” he said. “But I do think the sense of community and caring for the earth came out of experiences I had here.” Chris now works for Bruner/Cott in Cambridge, MA and was part of a design team that created the R.W. Kern Center at Hampshire College, a building that is working to achieve “living status” under the Living Building Challenge.
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
02OCT16_Departments_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
2:31 PM
Page 33
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
AROUND THE QUAD
CLOCKWISE, FROM ABOVE: Randy Newman performing on the Hagerman stage; Kristen Cameron ’04 speaking to seniors this spring during an alumni dinner; Christopher Nielson ’02 speaking to students during an assembly on Earth Day; Sue Cunningham speaking to Head of School Phil Peck during a luncheon in May
Kristen Cameron ’04 paraplegic rugby player Shortly after college Kristen Cameron was hit by a drunk driver and became paralyzed from the neck down. As she began the long road to recovery, she was introduced to wheelchair rugby and fell in love with it immediately. Kristen visited campus this spring and spoke to students at both an alumni association dinner
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
and during a Friday morning Assembly. “As much as it has been a struggle,” she said, “I definitely have a perspective that I never had before, and I’m really lucky that I have this perspective because I don’t think it is one that you really gain without a lot of hard work. There will be things that you’ll have to go through that are going to be hard and you don’t know if you can do it, and you question yourself, but
you just gotta push, persevere, and you’ll get there. Just use your surroundings, use your family and your friends. I’m sure you’ll do great.” Kristen is currently trying to make the national team and to qualify for the Olympics.
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
33
02OCT16_Departments_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
2:31 PM
Page 34
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
AROUND THE QUAD
The Spring Concert
CLOCKWISE, FROM ABOVE: David Lockwood finishing the spring concert with a rockin’ rendition of “Quinn the Eskimo”; the chorus backing up Natalie McBeath ’16 on “Many the Mile”; Caroline Ferri ’18 singing “Water Under the Bridge”; the brass section of the Holderness band; the backup chorus for Paul Sampson ’17 singing “Breezeblocks”
34
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
02OCT16_Departments_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
2:31 PM
Page 35
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
AROUND THE QUAD
Scenes from the Spring Play: American Idiot
MEMBERS OF THE CAST, CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: Natalie McBeath ’16; Ben Jerome ’17 and Grace Lawrence ’16; the cast with Director Monique Robichaud; Joe Gillis ’16 and his girl chorus; Keegan Penny ’18, Henry Day ’17, and Aaron Harmatz ’16
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
35
02OCT16_Departments_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
2:31 PM
Page 36
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
SPORTS
THE SPRING SEASON IS SHORT AND INTENSE, WITH only six weeks of regular competitions. But, with a number of talented athletes, many of the teams made the spring season last a little longer by winning spots in the Lakes Region Championship tournaments. Softball made it to the semifinals, while the boys’ and girls’ lacrosse teams, as well as the golf and baseball teams, made it to the finals!
36
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
02OCT16_Departments_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
2:32 PM
Page 37
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
SPORTS
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
37
02OCT16_Departments_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
2:32 PM
Page 38
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
SPORTS
Spring Sports
CLOCKWISE, FROM ABOVE: Hayden Dahl ’19 getting ready to bat during a JV baseball game against Proctor Academy; the girls’ varsity lacrosse team during the final game of the Lakes Region Championship in which they lost by one point to New Hampton School; Bridgit Potter ’19 during a girls’ JV lacrosse game against Brewster; Lydia Fisher ’16 leading the pack during the girls’ A team road race to Waterville
38
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
02OCT16_Departments_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
2:32 PM
Page 39
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
SPORTS
CLOCKWISE, FROM ABOVE: Tyler Slusarczyk ’16 during a match against Proctor Academy this spring; Ryan Houx ’18 waiting for the ball during a boys’ JV lacrosse game against Proctor Academy; Mina Nguyen ’19 during a girls’ JV Lakes Region tennis tournament; Alex Lash ’16 coaxing the ball over the net during a boys’ varsity tennis match against Proctor Academy in May
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
39
02OCT16_Departments_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
2:32 PM
Page 40
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
SPORTS
Spring Sports
CLOCKWISE, FROM ABOVE: Members of the Outing Club on Stinson Mountain in Rumney; Aidan Kinsley ’19 savoring an afternoon of climbing this spring in the White Mountains; Chris Sargent ’16 dodging a player from Essex Junction during a boys’ varsity lacrosse game on the turf this spring; senior Grace Lawrence during a tennis match against Exeter
40
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
02OCT16_Departments_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
2:32 PM
Page 41
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
SPORTS
CLOCKWISE, FROM ABOVE: JV golfer Will Bayha ’18 practicing his swing at Owl’s Nest Golf Club; Sam Meau ’16 running the bases during the Lakes Region varsity baseball playoffs in May; senior baseball players Brendan Johnson, Sam Meau, Cole Donovan, and Henry Sheffield with their moms after their final game of the season; Kyra Borsoi ’16 waiting for the pitch during a varsity softball game against New Hampton
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
41
02OCT16_Departments_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
2:33 PM
Page 42
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
SPORTS
AFTER A HARD DAY’S WORK, IT IS GOOD TO BE ABLE to call your teammates your friends. Ellie Teare ’16 and Phie Miles ’18 were both part of the girls’ varsity lacrosse team that won the Lakes Region Championship semi-finals against Brewster Academy. The girls went onto the finals and lost in a very close game to New Hampton School.
42
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
02OCT16_Departments_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
2:33 PM
Page 43
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
SPORTS
HOLDERNESS IS COMMITTED TO TRAINING AND instructing not just varsity athletes, but junior varsity and beginners as well. This spring Ly Cao ’19 joined the rock climbing team and got a chance to experience the White Mountains of New Hampshire at their best; she learned a couple technical climbing moves as well!
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
43
02OCT16_Departments_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
2:33 PM
Page 44
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
UPDATE: CURRENT FACULTY AND STAFF
Bleeding Blue
David Flynn ’96 with his wife Amy and their three children Molly, Braden, and Anna
David Flynn ’, twenty years after graduating, admits he still “bleeds blue.” As a student at Holderness, he was a tri-varsity athlete, a house leader in Niles Dorm, and a leader of Blue Key—the group of students who give campus tours to admission candidates and their families. “It goes without saying,” he wrote in his cover letter to Head of School Phil Peck, “that my career path is a direct result of my experience at Holderness.” Which is interesting, given that his career path has led him right back to Holderness School’s metaphorical front door. In July, David Flynn took over as director of admission from Interim Director Cynthia Day. David comes to Holderness from The Winchendon School in Winchendon, MA, where he served as the director of admission and financial aid. Under his leadership the admission office met or exceeded their enrollment goals all four years while also meeting strategic goals to increase the number of
44
domestic boarding girls and ninth-grade enrollees. David also served on the board of directors for the Small Boarding School Association (sbsa). Before working at The Winchendon School, David was the director of admission at The Storm King School, and an associate director of admission at St. Thomas More School. David and his wife Amy have three children—Molly, Braden, and Anna. “When David visited campus in December,” says Head of School Phil Peck, “our entire community was impressed with his personable nature, his knowledge of admissions, his positive energy and love of Holderness, and his thoughtful questioning of our strategic goals.” Director of Admission Operations Erin Colon agrees. “David has already been a strong addition to our team. He brings a fresh perspective, is respected in the boarding school admission world, and has already implemented several important strategies.” While many of the strategies have to do with adjusting the interview process in order to allow students and parents more opportunities to ask questions and connect with their tour guides, David also feels it is important to invest in the continuing education of the Admission staff. “David has encouraged all of us to attend conferences and to network with our cohort schools so that we can become known as experts in our field,” says Erin. “He also recognizes the importance of doing research in order to uncover trends and patterns that will keep us current in our market.” “The admission staff is a young and energetic group,” adds David. “I want them to know their area of specialization really well so that they can speak with confidence and deliver a consistent message.” For Erin, who is in charge of processing international applications, that means learning about the international student reporting requirements and processes. “A lot of the rules have changed recently, and it’s important that I
stay up-to-date with trainings so that I can best support our international students,” she says. David also hopes to expand Holderness School’s outreach. Industry trends indicate a decrease in the domestic applicant pool for independent boarding schools, so it is important for Holderness to focus on standing out in its current market and to reach new markets. “There are still pockets in the United States where I think we can do better,” says David. “Colorado, California, Chicago—we already have some applicants from these areas, but I think we can do better. I’d also like to explore opportunities in Europe—some of the Scandinavian countries, and Turkey and Russia.” “I’ve been working in admission for years,” continues David, “and I have developed a strong network of consultants and other admission representatives; they know I will do what I say I am going to do. That won’t change now that I am at Holderness. The essence of Holderness is the same as it was years ago and that allows me to share my knowledge with others and know that Holderness will deliver.” It’s a pride in Holderness that will serve David well both as he joins the community and as he reaches out and shares the school’s message with others around the world.
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
02OCT16_Departments_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
2:33 PM
Page 45
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
UPDATE: CURRENT FACULTY AND STAFF
Highly Effective Energetic Tobi Pfenninger returns from her Chair Year as dean of faculty by jana f. brown Sometimes it seems as if there is nothing Tobi Pfenninger can’t do. For many years, she has taught Spanish at Holderness, while advising and coaching—the true boarding school triple-threat. When longtime admission director Pete Barnum transitioned to the Advancement Office, Tobi took his place for a year, her impressive work prompting Barnum to tell Head of School Phil Peck, “I wish she hadn’t made it look so easy.” Tobi also spent – as interim associate head of school. In her months in that position, she led an overhaul of the Holderness fall and spring daily schedule, an unenviable task for anyone, but one she managed with enthusiasm and grace. Meanwhile, for the last eight years, until June , Tobi served as the diversity director at Holderness, coordinating the educational elements of cultural competency for students, faculty, and staff, while also meeting the needs of underrepresented students on campus. When Tobi returned to the school in July from her Chair Year, she took on a new role, that of dean of faculty. It’s a position in which she needs to balance her nurturing nature with holding her peers accountable for their professional development goals. “What amazes me about Tobi is her ability to be the consummate professional,” says Phil, “but also remain one of the more caring individuals you will ever meet. She is the perfect balance between the two—nothing is ever dropped with Tobi; if you ask her to do something, it is done. She can do anything.” During the – academic year, Tobi accomplished a great deal in her Chair Year, traveling extensively and immersing herself in different communities and cultures. Her adventures included visits to many national parks,
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
Tobi with her husband Rik at La Alhambra in Granada, Spain
and a month each in Berkeley and Long Beach, CA, and Santa Fe, NM. She also went sightseeing at the Grand Canyon and the Hoover
Tobi found time for all of these pursuits, while simultaneously completing her master’s degree in educational leadership, organization,
I see my job as dean of faculty as being the voice of the faculty among the administration, as an advocate and supporter of their work. — TOBI PFENNINGER Dam, among other places. From February through May, Tobi and her husband, Rik, lived in Seville, Spain, a location chosen because, despite her years of teaching a cultural unit to her Spanish students, she had never experienced life in the southern region captured by the Moors in . In Seville, Tobi studied privately at a language center, focusing on Spanish language and culture. Her days in Europe ended with a stay in London, during which Tobi witnessed the election of the city’s first Muslim mayor.
and policy, with a concentration in global studies. Her online coursework through the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign included classes in globalizing educational policy, global citizenship and youth, and global issues in learning, among other related topics. “I don’t know any other school that has a program quite like ours,” Tobi says, “where you can take an entire year to focus on something really important to you.” And while all this helped her to fulfill many of her own personal goals, Tobi’s Chair Year CONTINUED ON PAGE 46
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
45
02OCT16_Departments_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
2:33 PM
Page 46
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
UPDATE: CURRENT FACULTY AND STAFF
Tobi with Christina ’08 and Kim Tierney at La Mezquita in Cordoba, Spain
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 45 experiences will also help her oversee and guide the development of programs outlined in the school’s strategic plan, including the global citizenship certification, the brainchild of former faculty member Jory Macomber. As the strategic plan indicates, the goal of the program will be to “integrate concepts of social justice—specifically notions of empathy and fairness—throughout our curricula, seeking to promote an understanding of how to learn and lead in a complex, inter-connected world, and to educate our students towards a richer humanity.” “We have to prepare kids for the environment they are going into,” says Tobi. “Holderness is a wonderful place, but we are tucked away in the center of New Hampshire, and it is our job to help prepare the kids for entering a much more diverse world.” In preparation for her responsibilities as the dean of faculty, she also took classes in educational leadership, with a keen interest in effective teacher evaluation models. Tobi plans
46
to enhance the preexisting semester-long peer evaluation process that currently limits faculty participants to no more than six at a time. Her plan is to create a more consistent version of the program, one that acknowledges the need for more frequent feedback among the least and even the most experienced teachers. Tobi envisions a system that allows for regular, unannounced visits to classrooms for administrators and teaching faculty, so each instructor can be evaluated at different points within structured class time. “I see my job as dean of faculty as being the voice of the faculty among the administration, as an advocate and supporter of their work,” she says. “We need to create a community of trust and respect among the adults so that people understand that peer visits are intended to help each other and be learning experiences. In order to build a truly effective and accepted model, we have to focus on the overall health of the adult community.”
In addition to learning on the job as dean of faculty, enhancing the peer evaluation process, and further developing the global citizenship curriculum at Holderness, Tobi also will be a primary participant in helping the school revamp its winter academic schedule. Peck praises Tobi when discussing the work she already has done to update a schedule that has existed for more than two decades. “Her goal with the fall and spring schedule was to first make sure it supported our mission,” says Peck. “One of [Steven Covey’s] Habits of Highly Effective People is that if you prioritize your schedule, nothing will get done, but if you schedule your priorities, you can accomplish much; Tobi scheduled our priorities.” “I learned some good lessons last year about different ways to approach change,” she says. “I am glad to be back at Holderness and sharing what I have learned. I am excited to be here to support my colleagues.”
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
02OCT16_Departments_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
2:33 PM
Page 47
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
UPDATE: FORMER FACULTY AND STAFF
Farewell to Reggie Pettitt and Georg Capaul This spring two legends retired from Holderness. Reggie Pettitt dedicated over years to Holderness, while Georg Capaul dedicated . Both were passionate teachers, who, in the words of Norm Walker, “loved kids and worked hard.” Their years of service changed lives and made Holderness a better and richer place. It is with sadness that we think about Holderness School without their daily presence. Thank you, Georg and Reggie! Best of luck on your new adventures!
Reggie Pettitt
W
hat got me about Mr. Pettitt was his unfiltered and unabashed love for the subject… I’m pretty sure that Mr. Pettitt’s Advanced Enviro class was the only time I got an A in a math or science course, ever. And it wasn’t because it was easy. It wasn’t. He just made me care, which helped me not just retain the information, but actually learn it. – whitney connelly ’
I
will miss his grin when he greets me every morning and his devious smile when he’s messing with me. He taught me all my knots for OB, how to change a flat on my bike, and how to live and teach with integrity. The only thing that makes him leaving even remotely okay is knowing that I’ll still see him and his pup on walks in the woods. – elizabeth wolf, math faculty
R
eg-Love, Old Man—Some people think that I am being disrespectful, but I call him these names because I would like to be an old man like Reggie. He is an inspiration. If I can be like him at his age, I will be lucky. – randy houseman, science faculty
M
r. Pettitt, you may not remember the time that I spent in your math class struggling, but I do. As I struggled along, the rest of my class easily breezed through the class material. After a few less than stellar exams, you took it upon yourself to
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
Reggie Pettitt, whose passion for science captured the hearts, minds, and attention of many students
make sure that my next exam would be an A. You pushed me not to give up and to help me realize that it would just take more effort. I spent many study halls and then some with you working math problems until I got it. I’ll never forget the night that you came to my dorm room and made me call my parents at : pm to let them know that I had received an A. – nate hicks ’
I
t is possible that Reggie Pettitt was the singular greatest influence on the trajectory of my career… My specialties are arcgis and lidar data analysis, as well as the integration of spatial statistical tools using Python. None of these things would have occurred if it were not for Mr. Pettitt’s monumental effort in bringing a university-level gis course to Holderness, or his pushing me to my
“aha” moment. I am deeply indebted to him, and every couple of weeks I silently thank him for giving me the chance to find my first academic love. Thank you, Mr. Pettitt. – ian nesbitt ’ CONTINUED ON PAGE 48
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
47
02OCT16_Departments_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
2:33 PM
Page 48
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
UPDATE: FORMER FACULTY AND STAFF
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 47
Georg Capual
T
he best inspiration I received from Georg: “In the end no one cares about your skiing results. What matters is your character.” – lilla schibli ’
G
eorg clearly cares about the students, is an excellent supervisor, and I will miss working with him. – greg odell, school varsity – alpine coach
I
am forever grateful for Georg’s goal sheets. They had space for result goals, technical and tactical goals, and personal goals. He was incredible at helping me develop plans for the season that were meaningful, realistic, ambitious, and worthwhile. If in February I thought that my season was going poorly, he would pull out the goal sheet and go back to square one—where did we want to go and how did we say we were going to get there. If in April I thought my season was not successful, he would pull out the goal sheet again and guide me through all the things that I had achieved. Georg’s goal sheets made me want it more, whatever “it” was. He taught me that you cannot achieve your goals unless you are able to articulate them ahead of time. He did this while always pushing the goals, making things challenging—because if they were easy it wouldn’t be rewarding. – sam macomber ’
G
eorg was the best ski coach I had during my time ski racing. He not only inspired and encouraged me to be the best athlete I could be, but he also helped fuel my passion for skiing…No one can match his love for the sport and his ability to spread his passion to his athletes. – katie oram ’
48
G
eorg brought physical testing to Holderness. When it started, some faculty members were worried that the tests would embarrass the weaker athletes. “We can’t make Tanner take these in ninth grade,” they said. Georg figured out how to have everyone take the tests. And it turns out that Tanner paid attention to the tests and used them to work on his fitness. Lo and behold, Tanner became a member of a varsity crew team in college. We have seen many kids use the test results to improve their fitness. – jory macomber, former assistant head of school
Georg Capaul, whose care for his skiers is legendary
E
ven though I was not the best skier on the team, I felt that Georg really cared about me and wanted me to improve. – gabbie raffio ’
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
02OCT16_Departments_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
2:33 PM
Page 49
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
UPDATE: TRUSTEES
A Seamless Transition “Serving on the board at Holderness has been incredibly rewarding,” says Bob Hall P ’ ’, who has been a trustee since . “The board is a great mixture of alumni, parents, and industry experts; they have diverse interests and perspectives and are personally invested in this community.” That level of investment and commitment characterizes Bob’s years of service as well. In fact, as the new board chair, Bob will be an excellent role model for his colleagues. His predecessor, Jim Hamblin ’, is an outstanding role model as well. “Jim was, and continues to be, passionate about Holderness School,” says Bob. “He has a deep understanding of the mission of Holderness and is dedicated to perpetuating its excellent educational programs.” Tom Phillips ’, a fellow board member agrees. “Jim’s tireless work ethic made everyone on the board a little leery of opening email on Monday mornings,” says Tom with a smile. “He was willing to listen, change long held opinions when the landscape changed, and anticipate any number of different outcomes.” Jim began his service on the board nearly ten years ago and was the chair of the board for the last three. Under Jim’s leadership, the board oversaw the building of the Fiore Rink at Alfond Arena and the biomass heating plant. It was also under his direction that the board developed and approved a new strategic plan and campus master plan. “The strategic plan Jim helped to develop is succinct, aspirational, and actionable,” says Head of School Phil Peck. “We are grateful for his devotion to Holderness and the support he and his family have given freely over the last ten years.” Jim’s support continues to be important as Bob takes on his new leadership role. The two met regularly throughout the spring to ensure a smooth transition. In addition, Bob has also been on a listening tour—speaking with alumni, parents, and other trustees—in order to
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
Bob Hall and Jim Hamblin ’77 at Commencement in May
better understand their thoughts and aspirations for Holderness. “It’s amazing how consistent the messaging of the school is,” says Bob. “The Job Program, the multi-sport approach to athletics, Out Back—there are so many things that Holderness does that are unique and are done well. Our strategic plan has set many challenging goals for the future, but at the same time, Holderness School is very comfortable in its own skin.” It’s a comfort that first intrigued Bob and his family in when his oldest son Stepper ’ entered ninth grade; his youngest son Henry ’ just graduated this spring. Both boys were competitive snow sports athletes and learned about Holderness on the national race circuit. “I went to high school in Chicago with of my closest friends,” says Bob. “Holderness is an entirely different experience. It’s a community that takes a wholistic approach to education and helps young people grow and develop. I’m so grateful both my sons had the opportunity to attend Holderness.” In addition to his years of experience with Wall Street firms, Bob has recently been
assisting consumer companies through his fund, Andesite Holdings. Bob is also a long– time education advocate, serving as a trustee emeritus of the Mid-Atlantic region of Teach for America and as a member of the Philadelphia School Partnership. This fundraising background makes Bob perfectly suited for leading Holderness as it begins to put into action the goals set by the strategic plan during Jim’s tenure. The goals are ambitious and include constructing a new academic building, endowing several new faculty positions, and fully funding the school’s outdoor program; with Bob at the helm, Phil Peck is confident in the school’s ability to accomplish all these goals. “Bob is the perfect leader to guide us during the initial phases of this fundraising effort,” says Phil Peck. It also helps that Bob is passionate about Holderness. “I have a great respect for the community Phil has built,” he says. “It’s a pleasure interacting with him and an honor to work for the school.”
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
49
02OCT16_Departments_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
2:33 PM
Page 50
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
UPDATE: TRUSTEES
Advocates for Holderness: Changes to the Board of Trustees
Dick Nesbitt with Head of School Phil Peck during a dinner in Weld honoring all retiring trustees
by andrew herring The spring is a time for reflection and goodbyes. Our final stretch to Commencement was full of various community gatherings meant to honor the work and dedication of our students and our colleagues. We saw seniors process through Livermore Commons as the newest class of Holderness alumni, and we came together to celebrate the careers of several amazing departing faculty and staff. While this time is appropriately focused on the immediate community—our students and employees—it’s also important to acknowledge and remember the trustees on our board, who generously volunteer their time and talent for the betterment of our school. The Holderness School Board of Trustees, class of , is a group of incredible individuals, bound together by their love of the Holderness experience. We are so grateful for the leadership of Ian Sanderson ’, Dick Nesbitt P ’, Russell Cushman ’ P ’ ’, Susan Paine ’ P ’, Peter Nordblom P ’ ’ ’, and Jon Baum P ’ ’.
50
Having led us through the creation of a strategic plan and a campus master plan, the construction of several buildings, and the complex financial climate of the Great Recession, this group’s many talents and contributions to Holderness School could easily fill an entire issue of Holderness School Today. When asked to speak on behalf of these six board members, Head of School Phil Peck cheerfully asked, “How much time do you have?” Phil went on to discuss how our departing trustees always made Holderness a priority, and their passion for Holderness was deep, sincere, and authentic. Whether it was Russell Cushman passionately cheerleading for Holderness and championing student life initiatives, or Dick Nesbitt offering informed and wise counsel in support of our College Counseling and Admission Offices, we are a better school because of their service. And, it was through Susan Paine’s probing and tough questions and Jon Baum’s direct and supportive ability to see through the extraneous that kept us focused on the issues at hand. We also cannot forget Ian Sanderson’s quiet and expert leadership as the Investment Committee chair or Peter Nordblom’s selfless service as the chair of both the Board of Governance and Nominating Committee and the Buildings and Grounds Committee; in fact, his leadership of the Buildings and Ground Committee required his near-constant presence on campus to keep an eye on our various projects and initiatives. This group’s departure will no doubt be palpable—especially as we continue to grapple with the bold and visionary goals of our strategic and campus master plans—but we are thankful for their service and take solace in knowing that their expertise and counsel is just a phone call away.
faculty and staff, we also welcome Alex MacCormick ’ and Peter Kimball ’ to the Board of Trustees. As our unofficial Mr. Holderness, Alex MacCormick, is signing on as our new Alumni Association president, replacing Tracy McCoy Gillette following her appointment as a full board member. In many ways, Alex has already been a champion of our alumni, working as a class agent to rally his classmates to give in record numbers to the Holderness Fund— participation—and encouraging them to attend reunions. Excited to be formally leading our alumni in creative and inspirational ways, Alex responded to his newfound responsibility by saying, “I look forward to building on the success I have had with the class of , and I am eager to begin working closely with all the class representatives and the rest of our alumni to meet the goals of the board.” The board is also fortunate and eager to have Peter Kimball’s measured perspective returning to the board. Previously serving on our board for nine years, Peter’s leadership was pivotal in helping guide us through a million fundraising effort. His informed appreciation for advancement will be essential as we strive to achieve new fundraising heights. When asked about his recent appointment to the Holderness Board of Trustees, Peter humbly stated, “Being asked to return to the board is an honor. Several decades ago as a student, I was the beneficiary of the school’s foundational emphasis on the mind, body, and spirit. Today, Holderness is a dynamic school on the move with an exciting agenda for the future. Helping to shape that future, while preserving the best of its heritage, is a privilege.” And, it is our privilege to be in the company of supportive and thoughtful advocates for Holderness.
While spring is a time for reflection and goodbyes, the fall is a time of aspirational thinking and hellos. In addition to opening our community to newly admitted students and new
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
02OCT16_Departments_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
2:33 PM
Page 51
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
over 150 years ago, this man led his family to make an investment that is still paying dividends and is still directly impacting the learning experiences of Holderness students. 2 2 2
Please consider making a similar investment by becoming a member of the Balch Society at Holderness School. 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
the rev. lewis p. w. balch, jr., circa 1867
the balch society honors a group of forward-thinking individuals who support Holderness School by combining charitable giving goals with estate and ďŹ nancial planning goals. When you make a planned gift, you creatively support the school, yourself, and your loved ones, while inspiring generosity in others. Joining the Balch Society involves no dues or solicitations, but members will be included in Balch Society communications and invited to participate in special events. The most important beneďŹ ts? Giving Holderness School strength and providing educational opportunities for generations of students. Design a plan today that works for you and your family. For more information, contact Pete Barnum, Director of Leadership Giving, at 603.779.5221 or pbarnum@holderness.org.
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
25SEP16_Departments_Alumni_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
3:01 PM
Page 52
Draft 5 (25SEP16)
ALUMNI IN THE NEWS
A One-Armed Pillow-Blasting Dragon Slayer Nick Martini ’08 Last March Nick Martini ’ skied across the breadth of Siberia for a Powder Magazine film project. Things got off to a rough start, though. by rick carey “Skiing’s risks are inherent. Throw foreign travel in and injuries take on a new level of seriousness,” writes Mike Rogge in his online review of The Great Siberian Traverse, a film released last fall by Sherpas Cinema. “[Nick] Martini suffers an early shoulder injury, which is no small snag in the road when you’re on the other side of the earth and have nearly a month to go in a journey, and yet he still shows up for work, blasting pillows and making sweet, sweet pow turns.” The other side of the earth, to be precise, was Gora Mamay, a mountain near Russia’s Lake Baikal. The idea for The Great Siberian Traverse was just what its title implies—a journey by rail across some of the world’s least-frequented ski terrain. Accompanying the Sherpas film crew were three highly skilled freeskiers—Ingrid Backstrom, Callum Pettit, and Nick—whose job it was to endure the -day train ride and, during stops near mountain ranges, demonstrate to film audiences what it’s like to be this good on skis in such wild, virgin terrain. Gora Mamay, largely uninhabited, happened to be the first stop along the four thousand-mile journey from Vladivostok to Moscow in March, . The group ascended at first light with climbing skins attached to their skis. “The snow seemed stable, and we wasted no time tackling a high zone littered with pillows and cliffs,” Nick says. This produced a variety of breathtaking clips for the film, with Nick and his mates climbing back up on skins after each descent. Toward the end of the day, dog tired, Nick signaled the film crew from a point above a five-foot drop, a series of pillows leading to a twenty-foot drop and a slope to the right of a skier’s takeoff point. “I stomped that last land-
52
ing with a hard impact,” Nick says, “and as I began to ride away, my back-seat position compromised my control and I spun around.” He found himself skiing backwards and blind down the hill: “My sense of self-preservation kicked in, and I dove forward into the powder. Then, as I stood up to flag the film crew, I noticed a familiar feeling—my right shoulder was dislocated from its socket.” “Familiar” because Nick’s career as a professional free skier has been harrowed by injuries—beginning with the torn acl he suffered during preliminary rounds of the Dew Tour, a national slopestyle competition. By the time of the accident on Gora Mamay, Nick had undergone five major surgeries, three acl replacements, a spleen removal, and a shoulder reconstruction. But it was that first injury, that initial taste of catastrophe, that was really life-changing. It got him thinking more about other ways to pay the bills—such as film-making at the other end of a camera, as a director and producer—and had renewed his commitment to Stept Productions, the film company he founded with his brother Alex ’. Meanwhile this latest injury was something Nick had been through before—but never without help from a medical professional, no example of which was present on that mountain in Siberia. The film crew got to where Nick lay, stripped off his jacket and shirts, and began some excruciating laymen’s trial-anderror in readjusting of Nick’s shoulder. Finally the crew’s photographer suggested building a snow shelf for Nick to lie on, and there attaching a twenty-pound camera bag to the wrist of his dangling arm. At last, once the photographer began tugging on the bag, the shoulder slid back into its socket. By nightfall the group made it back to the hut they all occupied, and Nick resolved that he’d have to fly home, leaving from the train’s next stop in Irkutsk. The next morning he was left alone in that hut, in pain and despair, as
the group went up the mountain again for more filming. Another night and day passed like that, the pain in his shoulder somewhat lessening. By the third morning, before dawn, he dressed and set out for the mountain on climbing skins with everyone else. He slipped and fell on a steep pitch climbing up, but his shoulder stayed in place. They reached the top with the first light of sunrise. Cell reception at the summit was spotty, but Nick was able to get this message through: “Cancel my flight—I’m staying in Russia.” Eventually he made it to the end of the longest stretch of rail on earth, negotiating the daily trials and pleasures of travel in Russia, stopping every few days to ski and ride without further mishap. In his review of The Great Siberian Traverse, Rogge appreciates those portions of the film devoted to the train and its Russian travelers: “This film is filled with tiny treasures that remind us how strange and different microcosms of cultures can be.” But mostly, he loves the ski footage: “The powder skiing in this film is unique and filmed in a classic Sherpas way, making young skiers look like absolute dragon slayers.” The -minute film is available on Vimeo On Demand, but it also toured theaters throughout the country, with Nick—after shoulder surgery—and the other dragon slayers often present. Since then Nick and Alex have been showing up for work at Stept Productions and at jobs that include skiing content on behalf of brand promotion for Red Bull energy drinks. They’ve also been working on independent projects ranging from the Los Angeles music scene to surfing in Hawaii. Film and video production has its own risks, of course, but Stept has been doing its own sort of dragon slaying, with plenty of clients and studios now in three different cities: Los Angeles, Boulder, and Jackson, WY. And in the aftermath, editing is so much less painful than surgery—at least physically.
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine.
25SEP16_Departments_Alumni_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
3:01 PM
Page 53
Draft 5 (25SEP16)
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by9.0 inches wide.
ALUMNI IN THE NEWS
Scenes captured during Nick Martini’s 32-day train ride through Russia aboard the Trans-Siberian Railroad
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
53
25SEP16_Departments_Alumni_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
3:01 PM
Page 54
Draft 5 (25SEP16)
ALUMNI IN THE NEWS
Spanning Hollywood to Bollywood lacrosse at Holderness, and I played those sports at Williams as well,” he says. “I am a team sport guy.” That was in addition to the three years he ski raced for Williams at the Division I level (he spent one year in Paris)—and to the two
said in a interview with Skiing Magazine. “I missed the intensity.” The Iraq War was grinding on, except the Marines were now trying to suppress an insurgency. Bunge served as a captain in Iraq’s Anbar Province, commanding a company of mecha-
Nine of the world’s ten largest ports are in the Indo-Asia Pacific. The sea lanes are the busiest in the world, and seventy percent of the world’s energy flows through here. — BUNGE COOK
LTC Bunge Cook and his wife, Eliza
Bunge Cook ’94 Bunge Cook ’ served as aide de camp to the command of two Marine invasion forces. After a short detour into civilian life, he’s now part of the U.S. Pacific Command’s Strategy and Policy Directorate. by rick carey When Bunge Cook quit the U.S. Marine Corps in , he thought it would be for work in the nascent ski industry of the Far East. Now that he’s back in the Marines, and climbing up the chain of command, he’s involved in that part of the world all over again—because that’s just the way the wind is blowing these days, both in ski industry entrepreneurship and global military strategy. Bunge grew up both in rural Maine and at the Noble and Greenough School, in Dedham, MA, where his dad was a coach. He came to Holderness for ski racing, but he had no problem with the requirement to play seasonal team sports as well. “I played football and
54
summers he devoted to the U.S. Marine Corps’s Platoon Leaders Class, an officer training program tailored to candidates attending non-nrotc colleges. Why the Marines and that program? Part of it was wanderlust, another part the physical challenge, another part the social service aspect of military duty. “It was an opportunity to get paid to travel, work out, and work with young people,” Bunge says. “But yeah, the plan was to do my four years, get out, use my French, and sell snow cats in Europe.” But the four years turned into eight, and momentous ones at that—four deployments, including the invasions of Afghanistan in and Iraq in . Bunge returned to civilian life unscathed, and at a time when the family business was moving in a new direction. By then Bunge’s dad Warren (who served on the Holderness Board of Trustees from –, for most of those years as chairman) had become president and coowner of the Sugarloaf Ski Area in Maine. He was also leading a new enterprise, Sugarloaf Global Partners, and opening ski resorts in Asia. Bunge joined the family business and went to China instead of France. He was still getting paid to travel, but something was missing— until he went back to the Marines. “I reenlisted because I missed serving with the Marines— cocky, obnoxious sobs who want to fight,” he
nized infantry and doing it well enough to earn a promotion to major. Then he became part of a team of Marine officers training the rebuilt Iraqi military how to fight, and then a team training Iraqi border guards how to seal the country’s volatile borders with Saudi Arabia and Syria. In Bunge was sent to Los Angeles to assume command of the Marines’ recruiting efforts in four southern California counties. In it was back East to earn a master’s in national security at the Naval War College and
INTERESTED IN NETWORKING WITH OTHER HOLDERNESS ALUMNI? Whether you want to network with classmates, get to know alumni in your area, or become a mentor, Holderness Connect is a great way to connect. You can update your own profile or search the database for other alumni. Go to:
holdernessconnect.org
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine.
25SEP16_Departments_Alumni_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
3:02 PM
Page 55
Draft 5 (25SEP16)
ALUMNI IN THE NEWS
That Car in Your Very Core to work at the Pentagon as an aide to Marine Corps Commandant, General Jim Amos. Now a lieutenant colonel, Bunge was assigned last May to the U.S. Pacific Command. There, for at least the next two years, he’ll be helping to develop strategy and policy initiatives related to ’s Force Posture Agreement between Australia and the U.S. This essentially is a security pact between the two nations, one that allows a Marine air-andground task force to remain in Australia and use Australian facilities, and also allows U.S. aircraft increased use of Australian air bases. “This agreement is part of a major rebalance to the Indo-Asia Pacific,” Bunge says, speaking to hst from outside the Yankee Room at the Boston Public Library, where in October he, Secretary of State John Kerry, and others were meeting with a delegation from Australia. “This is an area that stretches from Hollywood to Bollywood, encompassing over half the earth’s surface and about sixty percent of the world’s population. Nine of the world’s ten largest ports are in the Indo-Asia Pacific. The sea lanes are the busiest in the world, and seventy percent of the world’s energy flows through here.” It’s a busy neighborhood, and also a dangerous one. “By any meaningful measure, this is the most militarized area in the world as well,” Bunge adds. “Seven of the world’s ten largest armies are here, the world’s largest and most sophisticated navies, and five of the world’s declared nuclear powers.” In recognition of its perils, Warren’s son is now one of our own border guards on this new political and strategic divide, one that we hope will be stitched together by trade, tourism, and recreation—but if not, Bunge is ready to play his part in a game where the stakes will be vastly higher than even the lives of the men entrusted to him in Anbar Province. “I get paid to pull liberty across the globe,” he said in to Skiing. He’s still doing that, but the field of play and the parameters of his team have grown to, well, global proportions.
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by9.0 inches wide.
Amy Henderson interviews NASCAR racer Casey Mears for Frontstretch
Amy Henderson ’91 Thirteen years ago Amy Henderson ’ made a career change, and now she’s among those at the top of her field as a sportswriter covering nascar. by rick carey In , Amy Henderson had no idea that a visit with friends to the New Hampshire Motor Speedway for a Winston Cup nascar race would be a life-changing event. Actually the life-change itself wouldn’t happen for another six years. But Amy was surprised by how much fun she had at Loudon that day, and she returned several more times. Later, when a certain door opened in —one that would lead to a series of prestigious sports writing awards—she was ready.
Amy grew up in Plymouth and had always known she would attend Holderness since her mother, Carolyn Kimball—who now is at the Governor’s Academy—worked in Pete Barnum’s Admissions Office. Amy grew up a sports fan, especially of Major League Baseball, and she would have played softball at Holderness had the program existed during her time there. But she had plenty of fun as it was playing soccer, basketball, and tennis. At Colby-Sawyer College, she began as a biology major in their pre-med program. “But then I took a couple of journalism courses and loved them,” she says. “So I switched my major to communications in hopes that someday I could be a sports writer specializing in baseball.” After college she did an internship in public and fan relations with the Richmond Braves, the Triple A-level minor league affiliate of the CONTINUED ON PAGE 56
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
55
25SEP16_Departments_Alumni_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
3:02 PM
Page 56
Draft 5 (25SEP16)
ALUMNI IN THE NEWS
Fit for Finishing CONTINUED FROM PAGE 55 Atlanta Braves—but that didn’t lead to any sports writing opportunities. Instead she found herself doing customer service for a New England insurance company. Then she earned a teaching certificate and spent nine years teaching English at middle and high school levels—and taking in the occasional nascar race at Loudon. She says she was also “doing a little writing here and there for small publications.” In , a friend told her about a new website covering motorsports that was looking to hire a writer. Frontstretch.com had been started just in time to benefit from a growth spurt in a sport whose roots stretched back to the Prohibition era, to the moonshiners who found ways to make their ordinary vehicles as fast, or faster, than what law enforcement was driving, and who began to gather on backwoods race tracks to find out whose souped-up street car was the fastest. For decades stock car racing was a regional sport, largely confined to the American Southeast, but after the turn of the century, a cadre of charismatic drivers and some savvy packaging of national television deals on the part of nascar made the sport a North American phenomenon. And North America was ready. “Ever since Detroit’s golden years in the s, this part of the world has boasted a firmly entrenched car culture,” Amy says. “Everybody has their favorite brands, and in Detroit the manufacturers used to say, ‘Win on Sunday, sell on Monday.’ So nascar’s growth was also a function of this vibrant culture.” Amy applied for that writing job, got it, and is now the senior editor at Frontstretch with no less than four best-writing awards from the National Motorsports Press Association (nmpa) in the last five years: a first and a fourth in race coverage, and a second and fourth in column writing. And while Frontsport has become the largest independent racing site on the web, she competes for her writing awards against
56
household names in the industry who write for major publications and media outlets: Sporting News, nbc, nascar Radio, etc. To win one such award while writing for an independent website is remarkable—to win four is, well, that’s record-setting. Amy now lives near Charlotte, NC, where a lot of the top nascar teams are based, and three times a week she continues to publish smart, probing columns that guide readers through the intricacies of a sport that’s a lot more complex than it appears. “There’s all the strategy, for example, that goes into decisions involving fuel, tires, mileage,” she says. “Then there are races within each race. The top teams square off against each other, but then there are the small, middle-tier teams—just as much talent, usually, but a lot less money and equipment—who worked so hard just to be there, who compete among themselves to stay on the circuit and keep their teams going.” The stakes, arguably, are even higher at that level. And while television indeed has been a boon to nascar, the medium’s relentless focus on the front-runners results in a sort of tunnel vision. The real race, she maintains, can only be witnessed in person, both for its competitive breadth and its impact on the senses. “Sure, racing is about watching, but if you’re at the track, it’s so much more than a visual sport,” she wrote in a May column. “It’s about sound: a stock car sounds angry, like a beast waiting to be released from a cage; the engines sing a song of their own, drawing you in like Sirens. It’s about the scent and even the taste, sharp and slightly metallic, that hangs in the air. You can feel the cars in your very core as they drive by. It’s an incredibly sensual experience, one that you simply don’t get watching on TV.” Of course she’s describing an exhilaration she feels herself every weekend, a Siren song that first beguiled her in at nascar’s outpost in New Hampshire.
Kimberly Gannett ’89 Charter school counselor Kimberly Gannett ’ plays an important role in a radical new solution to an old problem—how to help first-generation students afford college…and finish. by rick carey “Anywhere but Crested Butte,” said Kimberly Gannett in to the guy who had been her college sweetheart. By then Kimberly had graduated from Lewis and Clark College (sociology/anthropology, with minors in Spanish and Latin American studies) and then had spent two and a half years—funded by grants she had been awarded—traveling throughout South America, learning about the health care systems of various countries and sometimes working inside them. But nothing had really clicked with her in terms of how she wanted to spend her life. Like her sister Alison ’, Kimberly had come to Holderness as a ski racer. Alison kept on racing, earning several free skiing world championships, an entry in Powder Magazine’s list of “The Greatest Skiers of All Time,” and also a platform that she has used to notable effect as an environmental activist and an advocate for women’s fitness. Alison cast a long shadow wherever she was—at that time she lived in Crested Butte, CO—and Kimberly wanted no part of a place where her own identity might be obscured by that shadow. So of course, Crested Butte was exactly where she and that sweetheart, Kyle Mathews, ended up. “It turned out to be the best thing for me,” Kimberly says. “I just wanted to do different things from what Alison was doing, and at Crested Butte Academy—where I taught high school Spanish and coached skiing, soccer, and mountain biking, and where Kyle taught French and coached as well—I found my passion. I also got to know Alison better. I hadn’t
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine.
25SEP16_Departments_Alumni_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
3:02 PM
Page 57
Draft 5 (25SEP16)
ALUMNI IN THE NEWS
really known her that well before, and we became close friends.” In she and Kyle moved to Boulder, where Kimberly earned a master’s in education at the University of Colorado and then landed a job at the Alexander Dawson School, a K– independent school in Lafayette, CO. Again she taught Spanish and coached skiing and soccer. But through her five years at Dawson, she found herself called upon more and more by her students to answer questions not about Spanish grammar or slalom technique, but rather psychological, family, or life management issues. “And I didn’t feel I was qualified to answer questions like that,” Kimberly says. So she learned to be, going back to school for a second time and earning a master’s in counseling and psychology at the University of Colorado’s Denver campus. But the next school, also in Lafayette, was something very different from Alexander Dawson. Peak to Peak is a K– public school, but also a charter school created by a group of parents who wanted a public school that offered a strong college preparatory curriculum and the expectation that all its graduates would go on to college. “Kyle and I arrived just as the school started in ,” Kimberly says, who was hired as a counselor. “At first it was just a middle school with no cafeteria, no gym, no buildings—just a trailer and a mud parking lot. We did yard sales to raise money.” As a public school, Peak to Peak charges no tuition, and admission is decided on a lottery basis. Over the past years, the school has grown fully into its mandate, with an enrollment of some ,, a handsome facility, notable athletic programs, a one hundred percent graduation rate, and just as perfect a college acceptance rate. In Peak to Peak was named the best high school in the Denver area by , a Denver lifestyle magazine, and made No. on the U.S. News & World Report’s listing of the best high schools in the country. In it was ranked first in Colorado
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by9.0 inches wide.
and th among charter schools nationally on that same list. All this is particularly impressive given that Peak to Peak doesn’t pick and choose among its applicants—the wheel of fortune does that, which ensures a lot of demographic diversity. “There’s a huge variety of socio-economic backgrounds,” says Kimberly. “It also means that typically fifteen to sixteen percent of our graduates are the first in their families to attend college.” So the college acceptance rate was a hundred percent, but not the college attendance rate—because some families couldn’t afford the tuition. Some students tried but then had to return home because the money ran out, or there were dire circumstances at home, or the social adjustments couldn’t be managed. In , the school’s staff and a number of its parents resolved to try something that had never been done before: build an endowment fund at a public school that would help pay college tuition for certain students and also provide ongoing guidance and counseling services. But given this new school’s very small alumni base, and given the radical nature of the whole idea, where was endowment money to come from? “Well, we’ve done a whole lot of different fundraising activities,” Kimberly says, “but we got off to a great start with a milliondollar gift from an anonymous donor.” Today the Friends of Peak to Peak Fund stands at around . million, enough to provide , in tuition assistance in . Divided between eleven students with four-year scholarships, the tuition assistance provides about , to each student per year. In January U.S. News & World Report ran a feature on a small but growing national trend, one that involves outside foundations partnering with both cities and school districts to provide scholarship aid for college tuition. “But the Peak to Peak endowment,” said the magazine, “could be the first of its kind at the individual school level.”
Kimberly Gannett with a Peak to Peak graduate
“Our big motto at this school is ‘Fit plus Financing equals Finishing,’” Kimberly told reporter Allie Bidwell. “We can work with kids from really young ages about finding their passions—but ultimately if they can’t afford [an education], they can’t go. In our vision, we’re only meeting half our mission if they’re doing all of that and still not able to go because families have heartbreaking situations.” Today Kimberly finds herself counseling not only Peak to Peak students, but a few freshman college students as well, and doing well enough to be named a finalist for the title of Colorado’s School Counselor of the Year. She also serves on the board of Collegiate Crossings, a nonprofit working on a state-wide basis to help low-income kids attend college. Among the very young Peak students are her own children—a kindergartener (Zoe Gannett-Mathews) and twin fourth-graders (Asher and Anika)—and they attend a school where their father Kyle is the high school principal. The road to Lafayette may have unexpectedly looped through Crested Butte, but it led Kimberly directly to a place where she could exercise her passion on a daily basis—and fittingly, it involves helping others do just the same.
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
57
25SEP16_Departments_Alumni_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
3:02 PM
Page 58
Draft 5 (25SEP16)
ALUMNI IN THE NEWS
Get My Soul Free
Matt Powers with his wife Adriana and son James (photo by Brian Dunne)
Matt Powers ’00 Matt Powers ’ has lived the biography described in a certain Joni Mitchell song, and he very much likes the intentionally sustainable sort of life to which that trajectory has brought him. by rick carey It all happened sort of at once in the early s: Matt Powers was born; Joni Mitchell, in the aftermath of Woodstock, sang about “a child of God” on his way to Yasgur’s farm to join in a rock ’n’ roll band and get back to the land; and two visionary Australian scientists— Bill Mollison and David Holmgren—raised concerns about the explosive growth of indus-
58
trial-scale agricultural models driven by pesticide use and extensive irrigation. They developed instead an alternative model they called permaculture. You might not predict any pattern uniting these events, but one of the tenets of permaculture involves the interrelationship of seemingly disparate elements. Such relationships, in a natural setting, are sustained by synergy. Why not in a biography as well? Matt grew up in Connecticut, in a family that spent a good part of each winter on ski slopes in Vermont. Then Matt was among the many students drawn as an alpine ski racer to the snow sports program at Holderness— except that a knee injury put an early end to that dream. “So the one real skill I had brought
to Holderness, I had washed out on,” Matt says. “I wondered what else I was going to do.” That turned out to be music. “The first person I really connected with at Holderness was Dave Traver ’, who was the best young bass player in New England,” Matt says. “I saw what he did and set out to follow in his footsteps.” Matt followed so well, developing his own jazz-influenced style, that he won the Music Prize at Commencement, and then—while attending New York University and majoring in British and American literature—he joined not just a rock ’n’ roll band, but a number of them. He went full-time as a musician after nyu, variously playing gigs, doing session work, recording, and touring with Nobody Beats Bruno, Whether Music, also also, Feast of Friends, and others. Most notably, Matt was a charter member of the alternative rock band The Cringe and played on their first two albums. He was also on the cutting edge of home recording techniques, did a lot of recording work for his own and other New York bands, and put out two solo albums, Brevity Matters and Never Ending After. “That sort of work paid my way for a number of years,” he says. “I still get money for songs of mine that have been licensed for use on TV.” And the back-to-the-land part? That came with marriage, two children, a move to California—first to Los Angeles, and eventually to Madera County, in the foothills surrounding the Central Valley—and a focus on better health. “Your body is an indicator,” Matt says. “I was having stomach problems and needed access to better, healthier foods. My wife Adriana is a cancer survivor, and we both became passionate about health.” While he continued to play in bands, Matt taught music for five years. But he was also reading about getting back to the land, beginning with books such as Bill Mollison’s classic, Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual, which advocates—in place of industrial monoculture—a sort of agricultural ecosystem, a
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine.
25SEP16_Departments_Alumni_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
3:02 PM
Page 59
Draft 5 (25SEP16)
ALUMNI IN THE NEWS
Ace’s El Dorado harmonious integration of landscapes and people in such a way that food, energy, and shelter are all provided in a permanently sustainable way. “There was also Carol Deppe’s The Resilient Gardener,” Matt says. “Suddenly all the science that people had tried to teach me in school made sense to me.” Permaculture—as Mollison and Holmgren conceived it—integrates rather than segregates, works with the diversity of nature rather than against it. In this system, for example, plants that are food-providers are grown side by side with plants whose deeper taproots draw water and nutrients from the soil, with plants who return essential nitrogen, with plants whose properties attract beneficial insects or repel harmful ones. “It basically recreates the conditions in which our early ancestors farmed,” Matt says. And these are conditions that Matt has put into practice on his own homestead, where he and Adriana now home-school their two boys, James and Oliver. Since earning his certification in permaculture design in , Matt has also been teaching and writing about the discipline. A successful Kickstarter campaign has funded the publication of an instructional book Matt has authored, The Permaculture Student. This is written for junior-high level students, but its lucid handling of complex ideas has made it surprisingly popular with adults. Matt hopes to expand the book into a three-volume series. He also consults in permaculture, teaches its principles and practices in an online course of his own design, and has posted instructional videos on YouTube—how to breed new varieties of tomato, for example. In the Joni Mitchell song—losing the smog, joining a band, getting back to the earth— they’re all part of an intent to “get my soul free,” says that child of God. For all the decades since Woodstock, that’s something that has proven easier to say, or sing about, than actually do. But Matt Powers, whose stomach is working just fine these days on food that he grows himself, might be on to something.
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by9.0 inches wide.
Josh Hancock with a Jaguar XKR-S
Josh Hancock ’74 There’s a reason that Ace Rothstein, as played by Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese’s film Casino, is always seen in a Cadillac El Dorado. Josh Hancock ’ had something to do with that reason. by rick carey Sometimes your first destination for college doesn’t work out as well as you thought it might. That was the case for Josh Hancock during his time at the University of Maine in his home state. He left Maine for Nichols College, with its more business-oriented curriculum. But that wasn’t a good match either. Josh didn’t find a home after Holderness until he enrolled at Northwood University, not far from Detroit. There he found a curriculum entirely given over to business and entrepreneurship, and where he could major in something unavailable at Maine or Nichols: automotive marketing. But it wasn’t the actual
marketing that fascinated him; it was the autos, pure and simple. “As a kid, I knew the make and model of everything on the road, and what everybody in town was driving,” he says. “I learned to drive in my grandmother’s driveway, a quarter mile to the river and back, and I had an uncle in the state police. He took me around the state with him, and at thirteen I was going on car chases and listening to troopers debate Fords versus Chevys as cruisers. In Maine you can get your driver’s license at fourteen, and I was immediately sent to pick people up at the airport. My uncle taught me how to drive fast, but he also said, ‘You aren’t any good unless you come back safely.’” What was unusual, though, was that it wasn’t just speed that interested him—or shiny chrome, for that matter, or impressing girls. It had more to do with the way a car engages the human imagination and what you can learn about people as individuals—and about the nature of society—through what cars people choose and the things they do with them. CONTINUED ON PAGE 60
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
59
25SEP16_Departments_Alumni_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
3:02 PM
Page 60
Draft 5 (25SEP16)
ALUMNI IN THE NEWS
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 59 “At Northwood, most of my classmates were studying to go into sales,” he says. “Me? I loved giving advice based on what I knew, but I had no real interest in the business end of it.” After Northwood, for a brief spell, he gave the corporate world the old college try, but soon, in , he talked his way onto a Hollywood movie set as a stunt driver. The film was White Palace, a romantic drama starring James Spader and Susan Sarandon. Josh was surprised by all that needed to get done behind the scenes. “Okay, you need someone to drive the car while the camera’s on the passenger? ‘I can do that,’ I said. You need a good deal on the purchase of three Volvos? ‘I can get you that,’ I said. I worked my way in and ended up an assistant to the producer, who invited me to join him on his next movie.” And he was very much surprised by how little thought was lent to the choice and use of cars in White Palace and in films in general. “Especially the relationship between cars and characters,” Josh says. “The production designer and the director may know a lot about the characters and cultural milieu of a film, but usually they’re not so well informed about how that translates into the appropriate cars.” Josh knew all about that when he was thirteen, and he went on to build a Hollywood film and television career as the industry’s go-to guy to find the right cars. “In a period-piece film, for example, that can involve a ton of work,” he says. “In Martin Scorsese’s Casino we had four different time periods to cover, and anywhere from sixty to a hundred cars in the background, in traffic.” Some of that job was almost like cold-case police work. For Casino, Josh found Lefty Rosenthal, the man upon whom the Robert De Niro character is based, in a fortified mansion in Florida, where he now hides from the enemies he’s made. That was to confirm that Rosenthal always drove a Cadillac El Dorado. Then, in a Las Vegas nursing home, Josh found
60
Petersen Automotive Museum, where Josh Hancock has dedicated endless hours, helping the museum with renovations and acquiring new exhibits
the dealer who had sold Rosenthal one or two of those Caddies in order to get details about how a car could be used in a crime and then returned to a dealer. Since Casino, Josh has also worked on films directed by Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Soderbergh, Wolfgang Petersen, and Andrew M. Niccol, among others. “The most fun, though, was doing the cars for all of Mike Myers’s Austin Powers movies,” he says. After ’s Goldmember, however, Josh started turning down film work in order to write, talk, and consult on the roles of the automobile in society. He produced Shifting Gears, a show with car reviews and auto news segments, for the History Channel season. He did a radio show for Car & Driver for eight years, with a different new car to test drive every week. He now consults for car manufacturers and also film companies, and is pitching a new TV show, The Auto Therapist, that would concern ordinary people and what they like to drive—sort of like Car Talk, but with an emphasis more on the driver than the vehicle.
The consulting work Josh likes best has involved helping Los Angeles’s Petersen Automotive Museum through its renovation and late reopening. “I’ve helped them with movie cars, done interviews, and helped the curator with values,” he says. “I was responsible for the donation of a car from the Mission: Impossible film series to the museum. I also secured the Pontiac Aztek from Breaking Bad.” That Aston Martin DB on display for the reopening? That was the car Daniel Craig drove in Spectre, the most recent James Bond film; it was on loan courtesy of Josh’s efforts. A lot of kids like to play with cars growing up, which says something in itself about how these machines hold onto our spirits; however, it’s a rare child who can find a way to play with cars all his life, and use them so profitably as teaching tools, dramatic props, and cultural barometers. In the end it didn’t matter that Josh Hancock had no experience as a stunt driver when he walked on to the set of White Palace in . He had passion, a lot of it, and that has seen him through.
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by9.0 inches wide.
02OCT16_Class_Notes_Draft_07:HST_Class_Notes_2013
10/18/2016
2:44 PM
Page 61
Draft 7 (02OCT16)
CLASS NOTES
Milestones IN MEMORIAM William Hirshson ’46, February 27, 2015 W. Graham Hill ’67, September 29, 2015 Everett Nordstrom (past employee), November 21, 2015 William Gallupe ’40, December 17, 2015 Paul Glover ’41, January 26, 2016 Chris Guokas ’81, March 9, 2016 Donald “Corky” Moynihan ’49, March 26, 2016 C. Paul Reed ’66, April 10, 2016 Gordie Borek ’13, May 28, 2016 Kent Hillegass ’87, June 3, 2016
BIRTHS Han Min Lee ’05 and Sunny: Leon, August 2015 Joy Erdman Larkin ’04 and Robby Larkin: Trey Larkin, September 16, 2015 Nate Swift ’03 and Lindsay Swift: Gwendolyn “Wyn” Ray Swift, January 18, 2016 Karyn Hoepp Jennings ’01 and Joe Jennings: Avery Ann Jennings, March 9, 2016 Caitlin Cooper ’05 and Dan Cooper: Elouise Wright Cooper, March 9, 2016 Erin Conley ’94 and Emily Conley: Madeline Marguerite Conley, March 20, 2016 Adam Lavallee ’01 and Cara Lavallee: Andre James “AJ” Lavallee, March 23, 2016 Woody Kampmann (employee) and Erin Kampmann: Ty Woodrow Kampmann, April 2, 2016 John Van Slyke ’96 and Beth Sayers Van Slyke: John Rosser Van Slyke IV, April 9, 2016 Justin Stout ’98 and Emily Bieber: Isabel Bieber-Stout, April 16, 2016
LEFT: Dana and Amanda French ’01 welcomed their daughter, Michaela “Mikey” Caroline, on Christmas Eve; RIGHT: Easton McKenzie Graham who was born on June 21, 2016. Easton’s parents are history teacher Jordan Graham and his wife Allison.
Derek Eaton (employee) and Arianne Eaton: Nelle Frances Eaton, April 22, 2016 Dan Schmidt ’03 and Laura Schmidt: Harper Anne Schmidt, May 12, 2016 Andrew Stifler ’02 and Caroline Stifler: Madeline Cora Stifler, May 13, 2016 Mike Schnurr ’00 and Tracy Schnurr: Myles Michael Schnurr, June 3, 2016 Sarah (Thompson) Means ’02 and Colin Means: Miriam “Miri” Katherine Means, June 5, 2016 Hedda Burnett ’00 and Ben Shippers: Wyatt Burnett Schippers, June 6, 2016 Mattie (Ford) DiNapoli ’04 and Vinnie DiNapoli: Emerson Ford DiNapoli, June 16, 2016 Amy (Laverack) Nordblom ’03 and Todd Nordblom ’04: Lucy Sabine Nordblom, June 21, 2016
Jordan Graham (employee) and Allison Graham: Easton McKenzie Graham, June 21, 2016 Laila (Schmutzler) Forster ’95 and Will Forster: William Hull Forster III, July 12, 2016
MARRIAGES Jarod Warsofsky ’02 and Katie (Magee) Warsofsky, September 12, 2015 on Martha’s Vineyard Ben Mitchell-Lewis ’06 and Frances Mitchell-Lewis, September 12, 2015 Matt Tomaszewski ’07 and Stephanie Pachon, April 16, 2016 Marina Chiasson ’04 and Oliver Sharpe, April 23, 2016 at the Mill Reef Club, Antigua, West Indies Annie Muse ’06 and Denny Kearney, May 14, 2016 in Norwich, VT
Hazen Woolson ’04 and Erinna McCarthy, May 14, 2016 at Gold Bar Campground, Moab, UT Susan Taylor ’05 and Garrett Wasp, June 4, 2016 at the Enfield Shaker Museum in Enfield, NH Maggie Doutre ’01 and John Snyder, June 11, 2016 at HillStead Museum, Farmington, CT Tim Davidson ’96 and Erica (Fulton) Davidson, June 18, 2016 Stan Smith ’05 and Tatiana (Kidd) Smith, June 18, 2016 at Liberty State Park, Jersey City, NJ Krissy Weatherbie ’04 and Kyle Chaisson, July 8, 2016 on Prince Edward Island
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
61
02OCT16_Class_Notes_Draft_07:HST_Class_Notes_2013
10/18/2016
2:44 PM
Page 62
Draft 7 (02OCT16)
CLASS NOTES
thousands of pages of documents, memento files, letters, drafts of things I and others have written, bound volumes of periodicals and thousands of photographs. Everything was moved into the big bedroom and, believe me, that was full! Except for the boxes of photos, I have opened everything and reduced it by 90%. As you know, I am sure, the key here is not to stop and read everything but to make instant judgments: ‘Is this something that anyone, including me, might ever want to see—no matter how important it was at the moment of creation?’ There is a middle category of things I do want to read before dumping but not until I can get everything else sufficiently under control.” … Bill Baskin knows that Bob is quite right—as always—but he is frightened by the prospect of following Bob’s example.
Rik Clark ’48 at Desert Willow Golf Course in Palm Desert, CA
’45
’47
Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST Class Notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you!
CLASS CORRESPONDENT Bill Briggs ’47 magdalenabriggs@ymail.com
’46 (reunion) Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST Class Notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you!
62
’48 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Rik Clark ’48 capeclarks@aol.com
’49 Most of us 84-year-olds have taken Estate Planning 101 and created the documents that will simplify the tasks our wives and children will face when we check out of this world, but Bob Bradner has shown us how to really achieve this goal: “I’m finally dealing with all those literally
CLASS CORRESPONDENT Bill Baskin ’49 william_c_baskin@sbcglobal.net
’50 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Frank Hammond ’50 fhammond64@comcast.net
’51 (reunion) Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST Class Notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you!
’52 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Al Teele ’52 859.734.3625
’53 Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST Class Notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you! Seppo Ilmari Niemela sends his best to all his classmates and to the school.
’54 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Berton Chillson ’54 bbmchill56@aol.com
’55 Bill Byers reports, “Susi and I are well. It’s now 10 years since cancer and no further evidence of metastatic disease. We travel westward every other year to family in Mescalero, NM. In May, our granddaughter, Megan Byers, graduated with an associate’s degree from New Mexico Military Institute. She will go on to New Mexico State University to study law enforcement and criminal justice. She recently competed in the 2016 Miss Indian World competitions held in Albuquerque. Quite an honor. Susi is busy with pottery, working in her studio preparing ware for selling at several fall markets. I do freelance commercial photography in the summer and fall, working for landscape architects and contractors. The Design Advisory Board of Tolland provides a place for me to take part in town life. This Board reviews and advises on commercial building design for planned projects in town. Round about the house and yard, there are gardens to tend, rocks to move here or there, walls a-working, and fire wood to be gathered
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
02OCT16_Class_Notes_Draft_07:HST_Class_Notes_2013
10/18/2016
2:44 PM
Page 63
Draft 7 (02OCT16)
CLASS NOTES
in the woods. When I can get ‘home’ to Maine there is work waiting in the forest at Sand Hill Tree Farm. Best regards to all.” … Reed Thompson writes, “Hi to all! We’re still alive, well, and living in the San Diego area for the past almost 50 years. We have two children—Philip (55) and Celine (46)—and three grandchildren (14, 13, and 12). I wanted more but the kids were happy with the bounty they had received. It kind of reminds me of what my wife (Solange) said to me when I suggested we have more children: ‘You’ll have to go next door; I’m done!’ At the end of the day, it’s all good. We have traveled the world and done just about everything on our bucket lists. Solange just returned from Namibia. She loved it. My health isn’t terrific, but I’m still above ground. I’ve enjoyed 50 years as a financial advisor and am now working with the grandkids of some of my original clients. When folks ask me if I’m still working, I tell them there is a difference between ‘working’ and ‘going to the office.’ I pretty much do the latter. I call it selfpreservation; Solange would kill me if I hung around the house. My best to all my classmates; Holderness remains a major part of my life. Thanks again for all you did for me.” CLASS CORRESPONDENT Bill Byers ’55 bill.byers36@gmail.com
’56 (reunion) In order to collect class notes, I send out emails to classmates who have supplied the school with their addresses. Unfortunately, only about half of our graduating class can be contacted this way. I know there are some personal reasons why some don’t want to be contacted. On the other hand, there are some who have moved around and never notified the school and consequently are lost. When you read this, please consider re-establishing contact with Holderness at holderness.org. If you click on ALUMNI, look for the SUBMIT A CLASS NOTE button and take the time to contribute. It doesn’t have to be the story of your life—just a change of address or a quick update. Don’t be afraid of being contacted for money. I contribute only modest sums to many organizations and never pledge over the phone. Just as important as the money is the level of participation. I don’t know the percentage of Holderness alumni who participate, but I do know from my own experience most organizations have less than 30% participation. However, participation is critical to receiving grant monies. Now I will get off my soapbox; the following notes have been submitted for inclusion in the summer edition of HST: Brud Folger wrote, “Hi Dick, thanks for your note and thanks for doing the work on the alumni notes. I am living in Owls Head, ME, and still work as a pilot for
SHARE YOUR NEWS! Have you recently encountered a milestone in your life? Share your news with your classmates! Please contact us at alumni@holderness.org.
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
Penobscot Island Air Service. The company bought an airplane from Island Air Service in Friday Harbor, San Juan Islands, WA; I flew the plane across the country back to Maine. George Pransky ’58, who lives in Seattle, and I planned to meet but weather forced me to leave early. I have tried to find Josh Edgerley in Downeast Maine; I’ve had no luck yet but will keep you posted. Folks say he is still doing his artwork.” … Tom Anthony was second to respond: “We’re just back from a two-week trip to Portugal in March–April. We should have done it years ago— what a splendid discovery! The food is wondrous, the Douro Valley produces some of the densest and richest wine I’ve ever had, and the people are quick to laugh, with a wry sense of humor. The country has so much to offer but has been pounded by money problems and job scarcity. We’re talking about a return trip already. My brother and I are currently building four craftsman style rockers out of white oak and cherry, and we are discovering how much we don’t know. Where is spring? If it doesn’t arrive soon, it will miss the boat completely.” … Lewis Snow added, “We live in Carrboro, NC, within walking distance of our younger son, who lives in Chapel Hill. Carrboro shares a border with Chapel Hill, and we are close enough to walk to the University of North Carolina. My wife Helen volunteers at the Chapel Hill Library, and we belong to Peer Learning, which is a group of retirees who teach classes to each other. In 2013, I taught a mini course on computer safety. We have found great places to walk close to us and usually walk a couple miles a day. One of my hobbies is cooking, and I have, so far, been able to meet my goal: ‘No one has
died.’ We keep in touch with our older son who lives in Georgia, and we also have a close relationship with a foreign exchange student who stayed with us in 2000. She is now an American citizen and lives in Maryland. If in the area, we would love to see you.”… Dick Meyer sent out the request for class notes along with the news that, “Daphne and I have moved as of April 22, from our Trickey Pond house to an apartment in South Portland, ME. We spend much of our time in Portland, and this makes the commuting much easier. Daphne volunteers for the Maine Historical Society and gives walking tours of the city; she also volunteers for Greater Portland Landmarks at the Observatory, an historic tower that was used to spot returning merchant ships entering the harbor; runners at the tower used to notify the owner of a ship as it was approaching and get a crew ready to unload it. I still head up the restoration committee at the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad. This is also where Al Lamson volunteers as one of my restoration team members. Brud Folger and Al were roommates at Middlebury College. We are currently working on a 1913 caboose. All the cars from that era were wood from top to bottom; water gets past the siding, rots the sills, and damages their interiors, so we take them apart and rebuild them. Plus we add electrical cabling for nighttime lighting, horns, and a PA system, so the ride can be narrated.” CLASS CORRESPONDENT Dick Meyer ’56 richard419@roadrunner.com
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
63
02OCT16_Class_Notes_Draft_07:HST_Class_Notes_2013
10/18/2016
2:44 PM
Page 64
Draft 7 (02OCT16)
CLASS NOTES
’57 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Frederick Ellison ’57 greatspeak03@yahoo.com
’58 Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST Class Notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you! John Greenman writes, “Charlie Kellogg’s death last year was a significant loss to the Holderness class of 1958. Charlie was a quiet but effective leader during our Holderness years and afterwards, and he always encouraged us to contribute to this space. He is, quite simply, irreplaceable. Changes of this sort bring sorrow, confusion, perhaps even fear. How does one follow such an event with glad tidings? I will follow with an account of another personal loss and, like Charlie, an example of perseverance. As some know, my younger son Gil has multiple sclerosis. The disease has recently taken from him the ability to walk; in order to retain some mobility, he uses a wheelchair. As a partner in a Washington, DC law firm, Gil worked many high stakes cases. Now, he lives in Seattle and mostly works there, contributing to the firm virtually and training its young lawyers. He has remarried and relates well to his wife’s three teenage children, two boys and a girl. His son from his first marriage, Quinn, has recently been running a ski lift in Vail, CO, while he looks at attending college in the West. Gil’s response to the progression of MS has been to dig in and start raising funds for a cure. In a few days, I will fly to
64
Seattle to hear him make an address to the NW Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Gil is the chapter’s recipient of this year’s Spirit Award. At Holderness, we learned to persevere through difficulty and loss. We found that our own efforts, inspired by caring faculty and fellow classmates, brought a measure of fulfillment. I will always be grateful for the opportunities offered to me by the school community.” … Don Latham notes, “I also echo John’s very eloquent observations of the impact and qualities of Charlie Kellogg, and would add that he was a true gentleman who will be sorely missed. Jen and I continue to enjoy spending what time we can with our five grandchildren, the oldest of whom is off to college next year and the youngest entering kindergarten. Since both families reside in the greater Philly area, we take advantage of an extended stop there during the holiday season to celebrate December birthdays and the Christmas season all together before continuing to parts south for the winter. Last year we enjoyed an extended stay in Naples, FL, and have converted to the RV lifestyle for the three of us—Jen, me and our golden retriever, Rani. But as they say, being down South was very pleasant, but it was nice to get back home to New Hampshire—our first love. I was talking to our oldest granddaughter, Elizabeth, just the other day about my time at Holderness and the positive work ethic and sense of community that I experienced while being there as a student and again as an instructor in music and art. I can honestly say that because of the influence of my mentor, Herb Waters, I enjoyed a 43-yearcareer as a teacher trying to instill an awareness and appreciation of
creativity and individuality in young people. My very best to all the members of 1958!” … John Greenman also chimed in: “I agree with Don that Herb Waters was one of our most memorable teachers at Holderness. His talks at morning assemblies in the Schoolhouse enlivened interest in the outside world and strengthened my appreciation for artistic expression. One fall Saturday, my friend Andy and I rode our bikes out and saw Herb perched by a covered bridge painting the scene. I later learned that he deliberately positioned himself where he might be seen by the students, hoping to inspire them by example. Who can forget the sets he and his classes painted for Gilbert and Sullivan Operettas? His specialty, in my opinion, was linoleum blocks, which he cut and printed year after year. Herb loved what he did and was happy to share it with us. In the process, he shed light on our world. Congratulations to you, Don, for your many years as an art instructor! No doubt, you passed the fire of creativity on to many in succeeding generations. Best wishes to you and all the class of ’58!” … Jon Wales adds, “Charlie Kellogg and I were roommates during our senior year. I was always impressed by Charlie’s work ethic and commitment to whatever task he took on. On our football team, he was a 150-pound center, but what he didn’t have in body mass, he more than offset with quickness. He would snap the ball and be on his opponent before he could react. We had some success with that team all those years ago. Two years ago, we had a lunch meeting in Manchester, MA, with Charlie and two of his classmates from Williams, Frank Morse and Lin Morrison. Unhappily, that was the last one, but when we went around the table, all of us had
some form of significant ailment, except for Charlie. He was as fit as anyone I have known, still with an appetite for adventure and ready to go immediately, given the chance. You would never have dreamed he would not be with us a year later. Sail on, Charlie. We miss you!” … Doug Rand reports, “After 14 years in New Rochelle, NY, we have moved back to our house south of Gallatin Gateway, MT. We brought the sailboat the long and slow way via the Erie Canal, the Trent-Severn Canal, the North Channel, the Soo and the south shore of Lake Superior to Duluth then went back for a UHaul adventure. Here, we have a friendly owl, who sometimes looks into the bedroom window, and a bobcat. While in New York, I tried to find some of Herb Waters’s haunts in Bayonne and Staten Island. His lectures and prints made a deep impact on me as did Ellie and Archie Stark’s philosophies. Our best wishes to all our classmates and their families.”
’59 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Jerry Ashworth ’59 ashworth@maine.rr.com
’60 Bill Niles has been recovering from a colon resection in Siesta Key (Sarasota, FL) for a month or so. “Unfortunately, no golf or lifting for a couple of months,” he reports. “Apparently they got everything, so all looks pretty good. There’s nothing to do but eat seafood and walk the beaches.” CLASS CORRESPONDENT Len Richards ’60 lenrichards@mac.com
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
02OCT16_Class_Notes_Draft_07:HST_Class_Notes_2013
10/18/2016
2:44 PM
Page 65
Draft 7 (02OCT16)
CLASS NOTES
’61 (reunion) Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST Class Notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you! John Holley is keeping busy! “I’m enjoying kids, grandkids, grandkids’ sports, traveling (Hawaii, twice—once with all the kids and grandkids—Jackson Hole and Yellowstone, San Jose del Cabo, college reunions, and Sedona), biking, hiking, reading, photography, and gardening. Life is busy, fun, and challenging as we age. We will stop by Holderness next summer when we return East for my 50th reunion at Amos Tuck School of Business. I enjoy keeping up with my classmates on Facebook and via email.”
’62 Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST Class Notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you! Dennis Donahue reports, “I continue to coach cross-country skiing in the Ford Sayre Nordic programs in Hanover, NH. With the Junior Nordic Program (high school racing) our indirect goal is help the skiers become committed to outdoor activities. Cross-country skiing is our medium. We have led four trips with our team to Norway for some culture (Oslo primarily), spectating of World Cup events (Drammen and Holmenkollen), and racing (local Norwegian club sponsored). Our first trip included some
Holderness skiers and Peter Hendel! We are headed back in 2017. It is great fun to revisit familiar spots and introduce the kids to cross-country skiing at its finest.”
’63 Brooke and David Hagerman had a wonderful dinner with Ki and Bill Clough ’57 at their home in New London, NH. Also in attendance was Bill’s brother John Clough ’59. David has recently had conversations with Dennis Donahue ’62. They are planning to visit Don and Pat Henderson at their home in Ely, VT. David is also refereeing high school/prep school lacrosse games and recently did a game at Proctor against Holderness. He is glad to report the score favored Holderness. … George LeBoutillier reports, “I was in the Bahamas again this winter but did not catch up with Steve Wales with whom we met in the spring of 2015 at his house on Treasure Cay, Abaco, courtesy of his friends from Marblehead who are sister and brother-in-law of good friends of ours in Hope Town. It was a surprise meeting; Steve and I had not seen each other in 50 years. Great fun! Stepper and I are completing our move to Lopez Island, WA. Lopez is located in the San Juan Islands, northwest of Seattle. Stepper has ‘encouraged’ me to move West for the last 30 or so years of our 50 years of marriage (in August), but as some would agree, I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer, and I only caught on recently. It’s been a seven-year process, and we have finally said goodbye to Ohio. Stepper was born in Vancouver, WA, and is thrilled to return to her home state.” … David Pope comments, “Looks like Pope is in the poop business. I just finished a composting head for my sail-
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
Dennis Donahue ’62 atop a plateau east of Lillehammer, Norway, during a Nordic ski trip with his athletes, including some Holderness skiers
boat and a privy for a yurt on the education farm where I volunteer. I also published a real thriller last year: Geology of the Pemaquid Region, Mid-Coast Maine. I’m also still playing with the Narrow Gauge String Band (see Facebook).” … Gary Richardson writes, “Trina and I are enjoying our second winter as snow birds in Florida. I realize that Florida isn’t for everyone, but the weather and the bird watching here are spectacular. After a twenty-year hiatus in a futile attempt to improve my golf game, I have returned to the tennis courts. My serve isn’t what it was at Holderness, but I am doing pretty well for an old guy. Next year I have been invited to play on our travel team, so more adventures to follow. I am still playing golf a couple of days a week, just to keep myself humble. We are headed back to New Hampshire, Maine, and grandchildren at the end of April. June starts the summer sailing season in Biddeford Pool. We try to get in a couple of cruises each year and day sail as much as we can. Life is good as long as our health holds out. We have a lot to be thankful for. Many fond memories of friends at Holderness. Hope all are well.” … Tom McIlvain notes, “Claudia and I are thankful that two (next year, three) grandchildren are experiencing great things at Holderness. I spent Master’s weekend with Steve Wales and Peter Chapman
Graham Hill ’67 (pictured) died in September of 2015 in Richmond, VA. Graham always wanted to be remembered as “a pretty good halfback on the football team.”
in Georgia playing golf. Stay healthy.” … George Textor stopped by Holderness last August on his way to Squam Lake, where his wife had a reunion. “Holderness looked the picture of a beautiful New England prep school with everything ship-shape in preparation for arriving students,” he writes. “The new hockey rink is a wonder with solar panels on the roof providing its power needs. A new high tech power plant uses renewable wood fiber to generate heat for the school, and new and newly renovated dorms have lots of common space and light. In short, the school looks successful. Seattle also has changed and improved in fifty years. Some people now complain that the shortest distance between any two downtown points…is under construction! Quite a change since Wendy and I moved here during the ‘Boeing Bust,’ when the billboard said, ‘Would the last person leaving Seattle please turn out the lights.’ We are empty nesters now, so the house has gotten a lot roomier. We finally moved the computer from the basement to my daughter’s old room—after almost twenty years! Wendy and I both
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
65
02OCT16_Class_Notes_Draft_07:HST_Class_Notes_2013
10/18/2016
2:44 PM
Page 66
Draft 7 (02OCT16)
CLASS NOTES
Henry Robinson-Duff ’73 backcountry skiing in Vail, CO on May 1
’71 (reunion) Ged Smith ’71 with Head of School Phil Peck at the Out Back Flashback event February 20–21
feel blessed with good health, and enjoy lots of tennis and an occasional major hiking trip. The basement now has my wood carving bench and painting desk. I carve and paint birds, mostly shorebirds and owls. We had great fun visiting Stepper and George ‘Boots’ LeBoutillier last year on Lopez Island, just north of here. We have both somehow ended up on islands for much of the year, as we head east to the 1000 Islands for the summer and Boots drives west from Ohio.” CLASS CORRESPONDENT Dave Hagerman ’63 david.s.hagerman@gmail.com
’64 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Sandy Alexander ’64 salex88@comcast.net
66
’65 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Terry Jacobs ’65 haj3@jacobswyper.com
up in Littleton, NH, and occasionally some of us would go ‘home’ to his house, ‘The Boulders,’ for a weekend.”
’66 (reunion)
CLASS CORRESPONDENT John Pfeifle ’67 603.938.5981
CLASS CORRESPONDENT Peter Janney ’66 pj@apllon.com
’68
’67
CLASS CORRESPONDENT John Coles ’68 j.coles@rcn.com
Jamie Hollis writes, “I am sorry to tell you that Graham Hill, my roommate at Holderness for two years, and—as he always wanted to be remembered—‘a pretty good halfback on the football team,’ died in September 2015 in Richmond, VA. Those who knew him will miss him, although he could be a really stubborn, opinionated son of a gun sometimes. We had some great times in the White Mountains as Graham grew
’69 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Jon Porter ’69 jwoodporter@cox.net
’70 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Peter Weiner ’70 prepco@ncia.net
Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST Class Notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you! Will Parish reports, “Julie just became co-chair of the California Advisory Board of the Trust for Public Land. Her goal is to ensure that everyone in the US will live no more than a 10-minute walk from a park. Mac (29) will be starting at Stanford Business School this fall, after living abroad for five years (three in Nairobi with Kiva and two in Barcelona with CrowdCube). Nate (25) just got his master’s in education and will be teaching sixth-grade math and science at Gateway Middle School starting this fall. I continue to work on bringing environmental literacy to all public school students in California (there are 6,200,000 students) and was appointed co-chair of the Environmental Literacy Steering Committee to get it done. We are still living in San Francisco—in the
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
02OCT16_Class_Notes_Draft_07:HST_Class_Notes_2013
10/18/2016
2:44 PM
Page 67
Draft 7 (02OCT16)
CLASS NOTES
Mac Jackson ’75 pictured making hay, circa 1974
same house for 30 years. Julie and I hike a lot in West Sonoma County, where we bought land and have restored a coho spawning creek.”
’72 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Dwight Shepard ’72 shepdb@comcast.net
’73 Class correspondent Dick Conant writes in with the class news, “Trust all is well with all of you. We are enjoying a rather hesitant spring here in Mystic after a generally mild winter. My wife Catherine and I are adjusting to being empty nesters with my youngest son now off at university; it’s quite a lifestyle change after raising the three boys! As I mentioned in my call for notes, I did the Providence Marathon a couple weeks ago, and now I have my sights set on the New York City Marathon in November. With over 50 thousand runners, it is probably one of the premier examples of mass insanity on the planet!” … Jim Sargent writes from the 50th state that, “Both the Sargent boys, Eaton and Wolf, are taking gap years and helping Mom and Dad at the distillery. They helped found a new online business, theplantationstore.com. Holderness alumni get discounts; just ask for the code at
Craig Antonides ’77 and several members of his Eastern alpine ski team at Commencement in May
info@mauirum.biz.” … Henry Robinson-Duff reports that all is good out in Colorado. He went backcountry skiing on Sunday, May 1, and it was awesome. He was kind enough to send a photo to rub it in a bit! Henry has been working for Vail Resorts for two seasons now; he has gotten in over two million vertical feet of skiing and plays tons of golf in the summer (I’m sure that we are all sympathetic). His boys are doing great; the oldest, Sean, is a junior at Boulder playing hockey, and the youngest, Quinn, is at the University of North Dakota in their flight program. Henry writes how great it was to see everyone this past January at the Holderness gathering in Vail. … And finally, from Mr. Reliable: Tim Scott writes that after the lamest of winters in recent memory, most of which was spent trying not to reinjure his recent total hip replacement and subsequent revision surgery, he had the opportunity to spend some time with Phil Peck on campus and
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
tour the new hockey rink as well as the chip burning heating plant that now serves the school. He notes that a bonus was spending time with his enthusiastic tour guide that day, the inestimable Maggie Crane Mumford (daughter of the school’s Doc Crane), with whom Tim skied back in our senior year. While older sister Cindy ’71 was at Holderness with us, sisters Maggie and Joanie went to Plymouth High School. Both went on to become doctors, though Maggie now teaches science at Holderness and shepherds all things Green. Tim leaves all ’73ers with a message: “Please plan on returning to Holderness at least in 2023, if not 2018 for our 45th. It is important, I think, to celebrate our collective friendships.” … “And I too will leave off here and wish you all a continued good 2016. I might be crisscrossing the country come this fall working on my state highpoints hiking project; maybe I can do some visiting with our scat-
tered class members as I meander along. Best to all, Dick.” CLASS CORRESPONDENT Dick Conant Jr. ’73 rconantjr@msn.com
’74 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Walter Malmquist ’74 wmalmquist@kingcon.com
’75 Mac Jackson says to check out facebook.com/macsmowingllc, “to see what’s hopefully happening with me for the summer. Coaching U13 girls’ lacrosse, playing golf, building a fence, mowing, and spending time with my family is my life right now. I also skied a little with Andy Holman this spring! I have a cousin graduating from Holderness in May and may be there to see it happen.” … Perry Babcock is, “still recovering from his Holderness adventure with John Putnam. It was great
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
67
02OCT16_Class_Notes_Draft_07:HST_Class_Notes_2013
10/18/2016
2:44 PM
Page 68
Draft 7 (02OCT16)
CLASS NOTES
Kim Morton Case ’87
’80 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Greg White ’80 ggnh@aol.com
’81 (reunion) CLASS CORRESPONDENT Bill Baskin ’81 william.baskin.law.90@aya.yale.edu Matt Flaherty ’84 caught up with Craig Westling ’84 at a Vail lacrosse tournament last summer (2015). Craig is still playing on the Middlebury alumni team and is better than ever. Also pictured is Matt’s son Connor.
fun to see so many classmates and attempt to catch up on 40 years of life. Kind of like speed dating I imagine?” … Jim McDonald reports, “I am in Wuhan, China, and headed for Seoul, South Korea, where I am recruiting and program building for Southern Utah University. I managed to have my luggage lost for three days. I went to China and it went to Narita, Japan; it’s better traveled than I am. In July, I am working in the Western Highlands of Guatemala for two weeks with a service organization that does engaged sustainable development with high school and college students. Ought to be fun.”
’76 (reunion)
’79
CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Charlie Bolling ’76 chasgolf7@aol.com
Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST Class Notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you!
Biff Gentsch ’76 eventproducts@aol.com
’77 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Peter Grant ’77 pete@grantcom.us
’78 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Luther Turmelle ’78 lturmelle@spc.global.net
CLASS CORRESPONDENT Mac Jackson ’75 skifarmer@live.com
68
Bill Clifford returned to Washington, DC, a few years ago to lead the World Affairs Councils of America. “I hope that many Holderness alumni discover the benefits of getting involved with Councils in their cities and communities, and I would be glad to get together during your visits to DC,” he writes.
’82 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Chris Pesek ’82 chris.pesek@am.joneslanglasalle.com
’83 Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST Class Notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you! Jim Verheul reports, “I am now an engineering manager at UltraTech Enterprises. We build electronics for the rail industry, literally melding together 100year-old technology with current technology. I am currently living in sunny southwest Florida. I go sailing with friends but am miss-
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
02OCT16_Class_Notes_Draft_07:HST_Class_Notes_2013
10/18/2016
2:44 PM
Page 69
Draft 7 (02OCT16)
CLASS NOTES
Steve Jones ’87, Ward Blanch ’89, and Matt Reynolds ’86 hanging out together in Jackson Hole, WY, in March 2016
Katrise, Savanna, Dylan, and Todd Burgess ’87 in Niseko, Japan, pictured with their helper, Anna
ing snow. I am trying to get back in shape so that I can retake the 24-hour record at Bike Sebring, the fastest 24-hour cycling course in the country.”
Brogna notes, “Michael and I connected with Job Roach ’93 and his wife Amie this fall and winter for some duck and goose hunting and at the Ducks Unlimited banquet. They are great—three fantastic kids living in Padanaram. It’s nice to have a Holderness friend local to our house in Westport. This week we are off to Bermuda for my final Professional Association of Diving Instructors check out dives; hoping the water will be at least 70 degrees. … Nikki Kimball writes, “I’m flying to Beijing for a week of craziness. It begins by giving a presentation at the US Embassy’s Beijing American Center. The next day I give another presentation for the participants of the Conquer the Wall Marathon. Sunday I race said marathon. I then spend much of the next day with Runner’s World China before flying to Tibet for a 100 km race, where I will finally be in open fresh air, enjoying the type of terrain which forced me to love running in the first place.” … Mimi Maloney notes, “My husband and I moved from Barcelona to Tucson because of the financial crisis (Anyone see The Big Short?!), and we have been here
CLASS CORRESPONDENT Jean-Louis Trombetta ’85 jeanlouistrombetta@gmail.com
After graduating from Tufts in 1991 and living on the West Coast and then in Boston for a brief few years, Kim Morton Case now lives in Maine with her five-year-old, Finn, and her husband Tim Case, who is from Princeton, NJ. Aside from recently embracing the role of mom, Kim is also an award-winning oil painter, is publisher of the local paper, and owns a photography business shooting homes for architects, builders, and various publications. She can be reached through her websites: kimcasepaintings.com and kimcasephoto.com.
’86 (reunion)
’88
CLASS CORRESPONDENT Chris Zak ’86 chriszak@gmail.com
CLASS CORRESPONDENT Alex MacCormick ’88 amaccormick@centerlanellc.com
’87
’89
Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST Class Notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you!
Kim Gannett is rounding out 15 years at the same innovative, amazing K-12 school where her husband is principal and now where all three of their kids attend. Kim won finalist for Colorado School Counselor of the Year—pretty cool. … Nina Barker
’84 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Fred Ludtke ’84 ludtke4@gmail.com
’85
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
for three years now. Our retail businesses were affected gravely, but we were able to convert to purely online sales. It’s been a slow recovery, but we are at least happy and healthy! Experts say it takes an average of six years to recover from a major life change, so we still have three more years to get our acts together! We have two wonderful boys who are 15 and 16 years old. The oldest goes to Phillips Exeter Academy with Doug Weissman’s daughter. We see Doug at parents’ weekend and laugh about when I put him in a tutu for a class photography project. This summer I’m driving to Boston because our son will be training at Community Rowing. I’ll see Brandon Perkins in Tulsa! Let’s plan a Boston get-together! Please email me if you are interested and I’ll set it up. I talk with Dannyelle Taylor often; she’s happy in Colorado with her husband and adorable daughter. I love to follow Chris Davenport on social media. Anyone else leading a dreamy life I can follow on Instagram? I don’t miss high school, but I miss all you guys! If you are ever in Tucson, my house is yours.” … Class correspondent
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
69
02OCT16_Class_Notes_Draft_07:HST_Class_Notes_2013
10/18/2016
2:44 PM
Page 70
Draft 7 (02OCT16)
CLASS NOTES
Sons of Pepper deTuro ’90 at the New Jersey State Championship game. Burke is competing on the ice; his biggest fan (and little brother) Locke is behind the glass cheering.
Te Tiffany ’89 with daughters Reed and Marin in Disney World in February 2016
Jen Murphy Robison reports, “As for me, we spent another great season up at Mt. Sunapee where our evil plan to make our kids love skiing even more than us is working. I see my around-the-corner neighbors Becca and Scott Beckman often in Marblehead and up in Sunapee where our kids are in the same program. The Beckmans teamed up with the Robisons (Jen ’89 and David) to welcome seasonal Marblehead resident, Te Tiffany, for the winter. He is back to Alaska for the spring/summer guiding season, but we’re looking forward to his return in the fall. The highlight of my winter was a January trip to see Tracy McCoy Gillette and Jen Comstock Reed out in Vail, CO. The group included Sarah Trainor Pflaum, Alix Rosen Hong, Dolly Schaub, Jennie Legg Gabel, Christy Wood Donovan, Amanda Black, and Sara deLima Tansill. As always, Tracy was an amazing host. We enjoyed epic
70
snow and lots of socializing. Rob Frost joined the ladies for dinner one night, and the next night we all had a long dinner with Phil Peck. On a sadder note, thank you to all the Holderness folks who shared their condolences and attended my mother’s funeral in February. She was so proud to have made Holderness happen for me and would have been really touched by all your support and kindness.” CLASS CORRESPONDENT Jen Murphy Robison ’89 jennifermrobison@yahoo.com
’90 Pepper deTuro reports, “All is well in the deTuro household. The girls, Corley (16) and Bailey (14), both played hockey and lacrosse at the Millbrook School this year and loved it. Burke (13) and Locke (three) are at home keeping us plenty busy. Burke’s hockey team
competed in and won the New Jersey State Championship by a score of 5-4. His biggest fan, Locke, cheered him on from the stands. Hope all is well.” CLASS CORRESPONDENT Courtney Fleisher ’90 courtneyfleisher@alumni.bates.edu
’91 (reunion) CLASS CORRESPONDENT Terra Reilly ’91 sansivera@gmail.com
’92 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Kelly Mullen Wieser ’92 kelly@wiesermail.com
’93 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Lindsay Dewar Fontana ’93 linds_dewar@yahoo.com
’94 Peter Scoville writes, “I hope all is well for you! We are doing great in Colorado, having just finished up an excellent ski season with
the kids in weekend programs in Summit County. Last fall I got to see Josh Povec, Rick Richardson, John Spiess, Rogan Lechthaler, and Sam Bass in Carbondale. As always, it was a blast, except that Bass was distracted by his obsession with the worldwide domination of his blossoming grow operation and could make little time for us due to his exceptional work load. Despite that, we had a great visit!” … Kate Stahler reports, “Life with two little boys is crazy. My oldest, Thacher, is five and my youngest, Holden, is two. We moved back from Vienna, Austria, in August 2015, and we have been living in Coronado, CA, near San Diego. We aren’t completely in love with beach life, so we are relocating to Boulder, CO, in June 2016. Nikolai, my husband, is still flying for Netjets, and I am still dabbling in the ski industry when I have time. We will be on Nantucket for a month this summer, so if anyone wants to hang out, look us up.” … Ramey Harris-Tatar notes, “And as for me, we’re plugging along in Needham, MA, and keeping a bit busier with the addition of Lucy,
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
02OCT16_Class_Notes_Draft_07:HST_Class_Notes_2013
10/18/2016
2:44 PM
Page 71
Draft 7 (02OCT16)
CLASS NOTES
Eijk van Otterloo TR P ’94 showing his pride in Holderness at the Prouty in Hanover, NH
Thatcher (five) and Holden (two), sons of Kate Stahler ’94, hanging out on Coronado Beach, CA
our second Sweet Paws Rescue pup from Cynthia Sweet.” CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Sam Bass ’94 samuel.g.bass@gmail.com Ramey Harris-Tatar ’94 rameyht@yahoo.com
’95 CLASS CORRESPONDENT John Farnsworth ’95 jpfarns@yahoo.com
’96 (reunion) CLASS CORRESPONDENT Heather Pierce Roy ’96 heatherbpierce@hotmail.com
’97 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Putney Haley Pyles ’97 putneypyles@gmail.com
’98 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Tara Walker Hamer ’98 taraphotography@gmail.com
’99 Congratulations to Quentin McDowell, who has been named Mercersburg Academy’s next Assistant Head of School for Enrollment effective July 1, 2016. Quentin began at Mercersburg in 2007 as a member of the history faculty. In 2008 he became the Director of Summer and Extended Programs, a post that he held until July 2012, when he joined Mercersburg’s admission office as Senior Associate Director of Admission and Financial Aid. … Emilie Lee writes, “After seven years in New York City, I moved home to Vermont in November! I have a great painting studio in downtown Burlington, where I teach classes and sell my work.
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
Abby ’99 and Peter Considine’s children—Owen (three), Lucy (five), and Bella (one)
I’m so happy to be out of the big city and am looking forward to a summer full of outdoor adventures and landscape painting. I hope to reconnect with other Holderness folks in the area, so please say ‘hi’ if you are in BTV!” … Abby Considine reports, “I am living in Manchester, MA, with my husband Peter and three kids— Lucy (five), Owen (three), and Bella (one). I work part time at an assisted living community (which I
love!), and the rest of the time I spend chasing my kiddos around.” CLASS CORRESPONDENT Brooke Aronson McCreedy ’99 brooke.mccreedy@gmail.com
’00 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Andrew “Sully” Sullivan ’00 myireland20@gmail.com
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
71
02OCT16_Class_Notes_Draft_07:HST_Class_Notes_2013
10/18/2016
2:44 PM
Page 72
Draft 7 (02OCT16)
CLASS NOTES
Liz Norton ’01 at her wedding with her husband Chris Greene. Betsy Pantazelos ’02 officiated the August 2015 wedding; Jennifer Crane ’01 and Christopher Nielson ’02 also attended.
A Prouty Reunion! From left to right: English teacher John Lin, Elena Bird ’13, English teacher Peter Durnan, and Neal Frei ’03
Alan Thompson ’04 playing for the home team at alumni games during Commencement Weekend
’01 (reunion)
VA. Now into our fifth year in the South, Jess ’03 and I have hosted such notable Holderness alumni as Anne Mormina, Christine Hann, Dave Madeira ’03, and no less than three Weymouths ’70, ’02, and ’05. We’re always interested in adding to the list, so look us up if you happen to be in the area. Also of note, Jess randomly ran into Chris Mounsey at a grocery store in Laconia, NH, a long while back; we all ended up getting together and having a large day with his wife, Sarah, and her awesome family at their place on
Dre Tennille writes, “Here’s something Holderness-esque: I built a treehouse (rather, had one built) with a climbing wall and slackline—in Atlanta. And we’re considering an aggressive, possibly obscene, depiction of the Republican primary on one side. Live free or die?” … Liz Norton reports, “I am finishing my first year as a professor at Northwestern University. I’m in the department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, teaching
72
undergraduate and graduate students and running my lab, where we study the brain basis of developmental disorders like autism and dyslexia. It’s been an adjustment to get used to the Midwest flat land for me and my now-husband Chris Greene, who you may remember from junior and senior formals. Betsy Pantazelos ’02 officiated our wedding in August 2015, with Jennifer Crane and Christopher Nielson ’02 among the guests.” … Jarrett Hann says that, “All is well in the well-known hipster enclave of Williamsburg,
Rattlesnake Island.” … Amanda French and her husband Dana Greenwood welcomed a little girl into the world on December 24, 2015—Michaela Caroline, known as ‘Mikey.’ “Michaela after my dad Michael, and Caroline after my cousin,” Amanda comments. … Joe and Karyn Hoepp Jennings also welcomed a little girl, Avery Ann Jennings, on March 9, 2016. “She’s amazing and we’re both completely in love!” Karyn says.
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
02OCT16_Class_Notes_Draft_07:HST_Class_Notes_2013
10/18/2016
2:44 PM
Page 73
Draft 7 (02OCT16)
CLASS NOTES
Ryan McManus ’04, Jo Weatherbie ’04, and Brenna Fox ’03 posing with Krissy Weatherbie ’04 at her wedding reception on July 8 Wilson, son of Sara Tansill ’89, sporting his Holderness shorts at a lacrosse practice with Coach Taylor Nissi ’04
’04
Karyn Hoepp Jennings ’01 and husband, Joe, welcomed their daughter, Avery Ann, into the world on March 9, 2016.
CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Karyn Hoepp Jennings ’01 karynpjennings@gmail.com
Seth Aronson writes, “I got engaged over the holidays to Meghan Peck (no relation to Phil), a fellow Gettysburg College class of 2008 graduate!” … Taylor Nissi reports, “I was a lacrosse player at Holderness and now actively coach lacrosse in Connecticut. One of my players this year is Wilson Tansill whose mom, Sara Tansill ’89, is also a Holderness alumna. It’s a small world filled with Holderness connections.”
Adam Lavallee ’01 a.l.lavallee@gmail.com
CLASS CORRESPONDENT Ryan McManus ’04 rbmcmanus@gmail.com
Sophie Moeller ’01 508.685.1682
’05
’02 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Betsy Pantazelos ’02 b.pantazelos@gmail.com
’03 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Nick Payeur ’03 ndpayeur@gmail.com
Han Min Lee travelled all the way from his home in Seoul, Korea, to join a few of us at our ten-year reunion this past fall! While here, he also took time to catch up with other Holderness alumni in the New England area. In August 2015 he and his wife, Sunny, welcomed their first child: a son named Leon. Han calls him his “mini-me,” and Leon is awfully adorable! In addition, Han continues to post pictures of the beautiful and delicious-looking
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
Holderness alumni gathered in June to celebrate the marriage of Susan Taylor ’05 to Garrett Wasp. Pictured from left to right: Jenn Calver ’05, David Taylor ’71, Elena Taylor ’10, Jack Taylor ’68, Garrett Wasp, Susan (Taylor) Wasp ’05, Ben Taylor ’03, Hilary Nichols ’06, Blair Thompson ’06, Ashley Saba ’05
food he eats—and I’m left drooling on the other side of the world. … Susan Taylor writes, “I am living in Lebanon, NH, and work with inpatient pediatric patients as a Child Life Specialist at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. And, I am getting married this June! My fiancé, Garrett Wasp, works at DHMC as well and is starting a fellowship in hematology/oncology this summer.” … Emily Sampson shares, “I just graduated with my master’s in special education with graduate certificates in autism and applied behavior analysis. I sit for my certification boards in August to become a board certified behavior analyst. I’m still living in New Hampshire and am looking forward to taking full advantage of the Lakes Region this summer!” … Kristina Ward reports, “Currently, I am working full-time as a psych nurse. I work at a residential treatment facility for girls with eating and exercise disorders. It’s a really great place. We use evidence-based practice, as well as things like mindfulness and yoga. We have a brilliant, multi-disciplinary team and many resources at our fingertips. I could go on and on; I love it so much. In other news, my fiancé Dave and I just bought a house in Saugus,
MA. It’s quite old and full of character. Dave works as a luthier and guitar teacher; he also runs his business, Electric Trees, out of a workshop on our property. He’s wildly talented and creative and makes beautiful things and music. It’s wonderful to come home to that after all that I see at my job. Dave and I are getting married in April 2017.” … Jaime Pauley writes in, “I am currently living back in beautiful Plymouth, NH! I own a jewelry and accessories boutique on Main Street called Simply Sunflowers. The store keeps me really busy and has been a great challenge/learning opportunity! When I’m not working, I try to get outside as much as possible. I am working on hiking all the 48 4,000-foot mountains in New Hampshire. Hope all is well with the class of 2005!” … Mike Tucker and his wife recently moved to Connecticut and are enjoying their life in the ’burbs…despite the commute into NYC. … Caitlin Connelly Cooper shares, “Dan and I welcomed Elouise Wright Cooper on March 9, 2016, and after two years in Nashville, TN, we are off to live and work at the Berkshire School in Sheffield, MA.” … Willie Ford reports, “I now live in Park City,
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
73
02OCT16_Class_Notes_Draft_07:HST_Class_Notes_2013
10/18/2016
2:44 PM
Page 74
Draft 7 (02OCT16)
CLASS NOTES
The Pettitt family after the Prouty in Hanover, NH: Tyson ’05, Reggie, and Betsey ’11
Stephanie Symecko ’12 and Rachel Huntley ’12 bumped into each other at a Red Sox game on May 9.
family on Cape Cod and spend time in the beautiful mountains and rivers of Vermont.” CLASS CORRESPONDENT Brie Keefe ’05 brie.keefe@gmail.com
UT. I am the managing director of POC for North America. We design and innovate protective gear for skiers and cyclists. I travel like a maniac. I’m currently in Spain but spend most of my time traveling in Sweden and Austria, where we have offices. I love what I do; there’s nothing better than providing our user group with the best product we can make to ensure they are as safe as possible. I am fortunate to have such a fun and rewarding job.” … John Muse writes, “I matched into neurosurgery at the University of
74
Vermont and will start my residency training in July.” … “I’m still living in the Burlington area (Richmond, VT) and teaching middle school science in Montpelier,” writes Brie Keefe. “I recently got engaged to my fiancé Mike, who some of you met at our ten-year reunion. Speaking of reunion, I truly enjoyed catching up with those ’05ers who were able to make it! This summer, I’m looking forward to visiting my sister, Ally ’02, in Reno, NV, where she recently purchased her first home. I am also hoping to visit my
CLASS CORRESPONDENT Annie Hanson ’07 annie.e.hanson@gmail.com
’08
’06 (reunion)
Nate McBeath ’10 on the Quad celebrating his sister Natalie’s ’16 graduation from Holderness
’07
Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST Class Notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you! Blair Thompson writes, “I have lived in Paris and London for the last nine months and just returned to New York, where I am back at Sotheby’s Auction House working in the public relations department. In June [2016], I’m attending Susan Taylor’s ’05 wedding. Jenn Calver ’05, Hilary Nichols ’06, and more Holderness alumni will also be there. Hilary and I lived in NYC together for three years before she headed off to business school, and I went to Europe.”
CLASS CORRESPONDENT Jessi White ’08 white.jessica.madigan@gmail.com
’09 CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Meg McNulty ’09 mmcnulty@mail.smcvt.edu Allison Stride ’09 astride@elon.edu
’10 Tizzy Brown reports, “After six years in Washington, DC, and a year with the National Geographic Channel, I am moving back to New Hampshire to begin a new career at Dartmouth College.” CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Abby Alexander ’10 abigail.jane.alexander@gmail.com
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
02OCT16_Class_Notes_Draft_07:HST_Class_Notes_2013
10/18/2016
2:44 PM
Page 75
Draft 7 (02OCT16)
CLASS NOTES
Ashleigh Boulton ’10 amayboulton@gmail.com John McCoy ’10 jsmccoy92@gmail.com Em Pettengill ’10 ehpettengill@gmail.com
’11 (reunion) CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Cecily Cushman ’11 ccushma1@conncoll.edu Mandy Engelhardt ’11 603.726.1377 Sam Macomber ’11 samuel.macomber@gmail.com Jamie McNulty ’11 jamcnulty20@gmail.com
’12 This year Sara Mogollon completed an honors thesis in Latin American Studies on the history of Hispanic American advertising in the United States. She will graduate with honors and with a Latin American and Caribbean Studies major. Sara is a member of Sigma Tau Delta—the International English Honors Society. … Kristina Micalizzi writes, “I am graduating from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service this spring with a major in international politics. This summer I will be traveling to Serbia, Greece, and Spain before moving back to DC to start work in the fall.” … Nick Renzi comments, “I am finishing up my senior year of college at Boston University and then will be embarking on my super senior year! I figured that since I did five years of high school, I should do five years of college. Five is also my favorite number. On a serious note, I am glad I am one step clos-
Elena Bird ’13 with her father, Jerry, and classmate Jesse Ross ’13 at the Prouty in Hanover, NH
er to getting my engineering degree; there have been ups and downs and an obstacle or two, but with the help of old classmates, new classmates, family, and friends, I am confident I will get it done. I miss Holderness and all my friends; go Bulls!” … Ian Ford spent the semester studying the effects of wolf and elk reintegration on the East Coast. … Keith Bohlin notes, “I graduated from Boston College this May. I will be working in Boston this summer, then will be back at Boston College next year earning my master’s in accounting while studying for the CPA exam. Abby Guerra and I were in Hawaii earlier this spring for a week. It was some of the best scuba diving we have ever experienced, filled with turtles, sharks, and shipwrecks. We’re still not sure why we left.” … Eliza Cowie recently returned from a semester abroad in Kenya,
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
where she hiked Mt. Kenya and lived with the Hadzabe tribe in Tanzania. This summer she will be interning in Washington, DC. … Haley Mahar will be graduating from Williams this spring and moving to Boston to start work in July. … Abby Guerra reports, “I am graduating from Boston University and commissioning as a naval officer on May 16, 2016. I was selected to be a Navy pilot, and I am going to flight school in June in Pensacola.” … Jules Pichette plans to travel around Europe for a couple months and then move to the San Francisco/ San Jose area for work. … Brian Tierney shares, “It’s been an extremely busy year. Last semester I studied and interned abroad in Brussels. I had the amazing opportunity to intern with VicePresident Adina Valean of the European Parliament’s office. Between that, classes, and ran-
dom travels throughout Europe, the experience was truly amazing and opened my eyes beyond anything my studies in DC could have. This spring I returned to the Catholic University of America to finish my junior year and took on another internship for Representative Frank Guinta of New Hampshire. With the semester wrapping up, I will be staying and working in DC for the summer rather than returning to NH. On to senior year!” … Peter Ferrante will graduate from CU Boulder with a degree in journalism in May. He plans to stay in Colorado and start a career as a freelance writer and photographer while exploring the great state. … Sam Lee has been super busy with extensive involvement in events and fundraisers supporting cancer patients and cancer research. She is also pursuing research honors in psychology;
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
75
02OCT16_Class_Notes_Draft_07:HST_Class_Notes_2013
10/18/2016
2:44 PM
Page 76
Draft 7 (02OCT16)
CLASS NOTES
Adam Pettengill ’14 at the alumni baseball game this spring
Charlie Day ’15 pitching on his home field during alumni games this spring
working in the Pediatric Pain Research Lab at the IWK Health Centre in Halifax, NS, Canada; and participating in a fundraiser in support of her father and the Leukaemia/Lymphoma Foundation called ‘Ride the Rails.’ Sam sent along a link to the video in which she and her family were featured for the QE2 Health Centre Foundation: youtube.com/watch?v=mH0ccqr2 blo. … Molly Monahan writes, “I’m studying at the University of Oregon; I’m in my third year and am pursuing a marine biology degree with a geology/oceanography minor. Currently I’m in Eugene but will be moving to the Oregon coast for 9–12 months to complete all the higher level marine biology courses (I’m taking
at a few hot springs along the way. Hope everyone is well!” … Stephanie Symecko reports, “I am graduating from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and will start work for BAE Systems in their Operations Leadership Development Program in June. It’s a three-year program where I will have a different job/location each year. My first year is in Nashua, NH, so I look forward to spending time with Holderness Alumni in Boston and NH!”
76
Invertebrate Zoology and Marine Birds and Mammals this summer!). Everyone should read the Pulitzer Prize-winning piece about the cascading subduction zone earthquake/tsunami…because I’ll be living about 20 miles from the epicenter of that sucker. Cross your fingers for a quiet year, tectonically speaking. I’m also working for my third year at the UO Outdoor Program, repairing rafts and leading trips. Lastly, I’m going on a four-day raft trip on Memorial Day weekend; it will be my second run as a paddle captain down the Deschutes in Central Oregon. I had an incredible spring break bike packing through the Bishop area in California. I biked about 200 gravel miles in six days, stopping
CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Matthew Kinney ’12 mnkinn12@stlawu.edu Alex Leininger ’12 alexbleininger@yahoo.com
Kristina Micalizzi ’12 kristina@micalizzi.com Steph Symecko ’12 ssymecko@gmail.com
’13 KJ Sanger just completed her junior year at Gettysburg College after spending the fall semester abroad in Egypt at the American University in Cairo. “During my time abroad, I explored Cairo, traveled across the country, and studied Arabic and economics,” she writes. “I will be spending the summer interning for the Data Trust, a political data warehouse in Washington, DC.” … Olivia Leatherwood reports, “I interned for Jeb Bush’s presidential cam-
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
02OCT16_Class_Notes_Draft_07:HST_Class_Notes_2013
10/18/2016
2:44 PM
Page 77
Draft 7 (02OCT16)
CLASS NOTES
Members of the class of 2015, who returned to Holderness this spring for alumni games and graduation
paign from October to February, which allowed me to go back to my beloved New Hampshire a few times before the primary. Since then I’ve been enjoying a lot of free time in the sun. I’m about to move to DC to intern at the National Republican Senatorial Committee.” … Pete Saunders is in Costa Rica for the semester studying and doing research through a program called Tropical Biology on a Changing Planet. He shares, “I was awarded a partial scholarship to attend this Dukesponsored program. It’s an amazing experience and I am so appreciative to be here. It is absolutely incredible to think about how much I am seeing and learning. To be out of the classroom and in a variety of ecosystems throughout Costa Rica and Panama is so valuable. I am seeing species of flowers,
insects, animals and plants that are found nowhere else in the world. I am contributing to the following blog if you are interested: tropical-biology.blogspot.com. Otherwise I have had an amazing time at Providence College. I really love it and am grateful that Mr. Barton found such a good college fit for me. Being a biology major has not been easy but the support of my professors has been transformative. I laugh when I remember when Mr. Houseman allowed me to take the Honors Chemistry course but only if I ‘wouldn’t embarrass him.’ I think he’d love to see the stuff I’m doing—thanks to his willingness to believe in me at Holderness.” CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Kelly DiNapoli ’13 kac288@wildcats.unh.edu
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
Olivia Leatherwood ’13 olivia.leatherwood@gmail.com
’14 Mikaela Wall writes, “I just finished school today! I am officially done with my sophomore year of college. I am headed to China on a May Term sponsored by Roanoke, where my classmates and I will learn about business in China. I am also working in New Hampshire for a senator’s campaign in the summer. Can’t wait to start my junior year and study abroad!” … Willem Brandwijk is still playing basketball at Siena College. He redshirted this season and can’t wait to be back on the court next year. … Sarah Michel notes, “I am just finishing my second year of nursing school at Plymouth State University. I also declared a minor in Health
Education and became a member of the Student Nursing Association.” … Megan Shenton reports, “For the past two years I have been attending Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY. I was lucky enough to attend the colleges with six of my Holderness classmates and even be on a sports team with one. After Holderness I wasn’t ready to give up ski racing, so I joined the HWS Ski Team alongside Coco Clemons! Together we have competed against other colleges in our area. We were also lucky enough to qualify for the USCSA National Championships, which were in Bend, OR, our first year and Lake Placid, NY, our sophomore year. I have made so many new friends and often tell them about my time on Out Back; I have also written papers on how my experience at Holderness
SUMMER 2016 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY
77
02OCT16_Class_Notes_Draft_07:HST_Class_Notes_2013
10/18/2016
2:44 PM
Page 78
Draft 7 (02OCT16)
CLASS NOTES
helped shape me into the person I am today!” … Suzanna Liddle is about to finish up her sophomore year at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN. She plans to major in psychology and neuroscience with a pre-medical focus. She says, “This summer I am living in New York City so I can study chemistry at Hunter College, and will work to become a licensed EMT. My plan is to become a behavioral neurologist.” … Chance Wright writes, “Besides school, my fraternity has taken up a good amount of time. We won our school’s president’s cup and got some good recognition from our national office. I have gotten my skydiving certification, and I am working to start a team here at RIT to compete in the National Collegiate Parachuting Championships down in Florida. I will be in LA this summer working for a magazine and then also in London next spring. If anyone is out there, I will be doing lots of skydiving and working.” … Stephen Wilk comments, “I’m studying molecular biology at Assumption College, occupying the Dean’s list, and playing DII football. Spring Break in Cabo San Lucas was a time. I’ve stayed in touch with Alex Spina and Parker Weekes and am looking forward to the summer when I will be working as an EMT. I cannot wait for my fifth year in the Travis Roy Wiffle Ball Tournament with Brendan Collins ’07, Jamie Leake ’08, Jeff Rudberg ’08, Allie Skelley, Tad Skelley ’07, and many others.” … Caroline Plante is working towards a food studies major and Spanish minor at Syracuse University. She spent last spring studying and traveling in Ecuador, Peru, and the Galapagos, and is looking forward to spending next spring in Florence, Italy, analyzing urban food systems.
78
Maggie Peake ’15 and Matt Hartke opened for Steve Grand at The Gramercy Theatre in New York City on February 24, 2016.
CLASS CORRESPONDENTS CoCo Clemens ’14 conner.clemens@hws.edu Tess O’Brien ’14 tmobrien@uvm.edu Samuel Paine ’14 650.464.0002 Garrett Phillips ’14 gwphil14@stlawu.edu Kai Lin ’15 at Commencement 2016
Elizabeth Powell ’14 epowell@conncoll.edu Stephen Wilk ’14 802.786.2255
’15 Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST Class Notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you! Thomas Chau writes, “Hello everybody. It has been almost a year since I graduated from Holderness, and I am having a great time here in New York City.
As many of you know, the Big Apple is home to many of the world’s leading financial institutions, so I have been very fortunate to be able to build relationships with some executives from these companies. Stern School of Business has been generous to all students in my school by allotting appropriate times for networking events. Graduating seniors, please remember this: college isn’t all about good grades and high GPAs; it is also about building relationships that can propel you further in life. Be ready to stay up very late almost every night, be aware of midterms and finals, and be responsible for your decisions.”
’16 Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST Class Notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you! Kim Merrow, Director of Alumni & Parent Engagement, congratulates the 72 recent graduates of the Holderness School class of 2016. Welcome to the Holderness alumni community! “We are all looking forward to reading your latest news and updates in the class notes section of future issues of HST.”
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. F
02OCT16_Class_Notes_Draft_07:HST_Class_Notes_2013
10/18/2016
2:44 PM
Page 79
Draft 7 (02OCT16)
Holderness Events and Gatherings
2016–17
Connect. Events and Gatherings. FOR EVERY SEASON, THERE’S A REASON TO GET TOGETHER WITH HOLDERNESS. We hope you’ll mark your calendars and join us at these upcoming events. For all event details, please go to www.holderness.org or contact Director of Events Stacy Lopes: slopes@holderness.org, (603) 779-5228. r October 14–15: Fall Parents’ Weekend r November 4: Alumni Revisit Day
r January 14: Holderness Gathering, Vail, CO r January 29: Freeski and Snowboard
r November 15: Evening at Pucker Gallery, r
r
r r
Boston, MA November 26: World Cup Après Ski Party, Woodstock, VT December 4: Holiday Party, New York City, NY December 17: Holiday Open House January 14: Winter Admission Open House
All events will occur on campus unless otherwise indicated. Dates are subject to change; please check www.holderness.org for the most up-to-date list of gatherings and registration information.
ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
r r r r r r r
Admission Open House, Loon Mountain, NH February 3–4: Winter Parents’ Weekend February 15: Day of Giving March 17: MJ’s Race, Cannon Mountain, NH April 13: Alumni Association Dinner May 12: Alumni Revisit Day May 13: Grandparents’ and Family Day May 28: 138th Commencement
www.holderness.org VISIT OUR REDESIGNED WEBSITE
www.holdernessconnect.org PUTTING THE POWER OF THE HOLDERNESS CONNECTION IN YOUR HANDS
02OCT16_Departments_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
10/18/2016
2:33 PM
Page 80
Draft 5 (02OCT16)
AT THIS POINT IN TIME
Trustee John Winant: A Legacy worth Remembering
John Wynant
by liz kendall Described as “New Hampshire’s Forgotten Man,” John Gilbert Winant’s was the unrecognizable name I noticed beside President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s last spring when I learned the former resident had served as a Holderness trustee for four years, ending his term only when he’d been elected to the presidency in . Winant, meanwhile, was the immensely popular ambassador to Britain during World War II, the youngest New Hampshire governor—the first to serve three terms—and a member of the Holderness School board of trustees from until . Now, plans have emerged for a John Winant memorial statue to be unveiled in front of the state library in downtown Concord, NH. In , leaving his position as a history teacher at St. Paul’s to serve in the New Hampshire Senate, Winant joined the tiny progressive wing of the Republican Party in then-highly conservative New Hampshire. Determined to improve the working conditions in the state’s textile mills, Winant supported legislation that limited the workweek for women and children to hours; he also worked towards the creation of a minimum wage. Elected governor of New Hampshire in , Winant’s compassion and empathy won him admirers on both sides of the political aisle. “He was an excellent leader; he was very
80
thoughtful, and he could sit down and talk to a number of people who didn’t agree, and somehow bring them together,” historian Richard Hesse said. Serving three non-consecutive terms, it was during Winant’s later terms, in – and –, that the state faced the economic challenges brought on by the Great Depression. Despite serving in the opposing party as Roosevelt, Winant strongly supported the President’s New Deal, using it to bring jobs to the poorest parts of the state. The generosity of Winant wasn’t limited to state government. On campus for a June board of trustees meeting, Winant suggested the infrastructure of Schoolhouse, Carpenter, and Knowlton Hall (where today’s Livermore Hall stands) be examined for safety practices. The meeting’s typewritten minutes read, “Mr. Winant very kindly offered to stand any expense in this connection. His idea received the wholehearted approval and appreciation of the trustees present.” Whether it was Winant’s thoughtful strength as New Hampshire governor, or the shared Holderness connection, he earned the notice of President Roosevelt, who in , asked the governor to chair the newly-formed social security administration in Washington. In early , Roosevelt called again, asking Winant to replace Joseph Kennedy as ambassador to Great Britain. Arriving in Britain amidst the near daily bombing raids, Winant pledged the military support of the United States. Working closely with Prime Minister Winston Churchill and occasionally with King George VI, Winant displayed in London the same compassion he had at Holderness and in New Hampshire. Historian Lynne Olson writes, “He walked the streets of London during the heaviest raids of the Blitz, Germany’s nine-month terror bombing of British cities. He asked everyone he met—firemen, dazed victims, air wardens pulling bodies out of the rubble—what he could do to help…His warmth and desire to stand with them and
share their dangers was the first tangible sign for the British that America and its people really cared about what happened to them.” In early March , Winant sent President Roosevelt a gift he had purchased in London, a walking stick George Washington had given to Jerome Bonaparte, the younger brother of Napoleon, roughly years earlier. Winant wrote to Roosevelt, “It is a gift for you personally—not for any museum, because you symbolize to me personally the charming virtue—Courage.” Roosevelt’s death five weeks later affected Winant deeply. Olson writes of his devastation in the face of fdr’s death, “He had devoted his whole political life to Roosevelt; he loved him. He thought fdr had saved the world.” Winant continued on as ambassador to Britain until the following spring. James Freedman writes of Winant in the Harvard Magazine, “He was already utterly exhausted when Roosevelt’s death in April robbed him of his close friend and mentor. Then, three months later, a landslide victory by the Labor Party swept Churchill out of office. Everywhere Winant turned, he saw the drama in which he had participated so significantly drawing to a close. In March , President Truman appointed a new ambassador to Great Britain.” Returning home to Concord, Winant struggled to find peace professionally and personally with little money and few business prospects. Those closest to him remembered the unbreakable depression he began to experience. In late , Winant ended his life. A New York Tribune editorialist wrote, “He did more than people will ever know to maintain the solidarity of the two great democracies in their hour of desperate need.” As the Winant statue becomes a permanent fixture in downtown Concord this summer, it seems fitting to remember the leadership qualities he embodied. He was, through his own empathy and determination to change a world in crisis, for God and Humankind.
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2016
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
25SEP16_Cover_Draft_04:04SEP08_Cover_Draft_08.qxd
10/18/2016
3:00 PM
Page 2
Draft 4 (27SEP16)
“ Thank you, Holderness, for all you have given me over the years, and continue to give to our community and world.” – Jake Norton ’92
“
“MEMORIES TO CHERISH FOR A LIFETIME…” – THADDEUS – FOOTE ’92
“ I AM ALWAYS PROUD TO THINK OF OR SAY ‘HOLDERNESS.’” – JOHN ALDEN ’78 “ When I think about all the informative moments in my four years at Holderness, they are too many, too hard to separate, and too hard to rate. It was four years of hard but molded me into a well-educated young man, ready to face the world.” – David Nichols ’65
“ There were 23 of us that graduated in the Spring of 1950, part of a total enrollment on campus of about 76. I still think of those years as some of my best.” – Chico Laird ’50
“
rewarding work. The complete life experience
“ We love Holderness!” – Kathy Cunha P ’16 ’19
“ Holderness is the complete package.” – Peter Rapelye P ’93 ’97 EVERY FALL SENIOR LEADERS ARRIVE EARLY AND HELP PREPARE THE CAMPUS FOR THE RETURN OF THEIR CLASSMATES. IN ADDITION TO MEETING WITH FACULTY AND SETTING GOALS FOR THE YEAR, THE LEADERS ALSO HELP MOVE EVERYTHING OUT OF SUMMER STORAGE AND INTO STUDENTS’ ROOMS! HERE SENIORS ELLIOTT MCGUIRE, LIAM VAN HERWARDE, AND BEN TESSIER FINISH UNLOADING BOXES INTO RATHBUN DORMITORY.
DONATE SECURELY ONLINE AT WWW.GIVETOHOLDERNESS.ORG
true blue
Holderness Fund
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. Flat size is 11.0 inches tall by 18.19 inches wide (includes 0.19 inches for perfect-bound spine); folded size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide. Artwork prints in four-color process and bleeds all four sides. Cover artwork; Cover II and Cover III.
25SEP16_Cover_Draft_04:04SEP08_Cover_Draft_08.qxd
10/18/2016
2:59 PM
Page 1
Draft 4 (27SEP16) NONPROFIT US POSTAGE
PAID
LEWISTON, ME PERMIT NO. 82
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY THE MAGAZINE OF HOLDERNESS SCHOOL SUMMER 2016
CHAPEL LANE PO BOX 1879 PLYMOUTH, NH 03264-1879
INSIDE: r One Day Together and Always r Out of the Blue r Catching Up with David Lockwood THE SCHOOL YEAR HAS OFFICIALLY BEGUN! STUDENTS ARE BACK IN CLASSES AND AFTERNOON ATHLETICS HAVE RESUMED. BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN THERE ISN’T TIME FOR FUN AND GAMES. DURING THE STUDENTS’ FIRST WEEK ON CAMPUS, EVERYONE GATHERED ON THE TURF FOR SUPER WEDNESDAY, A FIELD DAY FEATURING AN EGG TOSS, A CRISCO-COVERED SLIDE, BUCKETS OF WATER, AND MANY HOOLA HOOPS!
Holderness School Summer 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. Flat size is 11.0 inches tall by 18.19 inches wide (includes 0.19 inches for perfect-bound spine); folded size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide. Artwork prints in four-color process and bleeds all four sides. Cover artwork; Cover IV and Cover I.