HONORED LEGACY FAMILY 2023 The Bartell Family

BY STEVE REED

Over the last fifty years, the Bartell family from Rome, New York, has been an exemplary and prolific presence at Northwood. “The salt of the earth” — the famous phrase from the Sermon on the Mount — has over the years come to encapsulate the character traits which have earned this clan of nine alumni the 2023 Northwood Honored Legacy Family: they are worthy, unpretentious, honest, reliable, solid.

Northwood Legacy Families

Northwood School’s rich history and traditions date back to its founding in 1905 and the early years of the Lake Placid Club. The family-centric Club founded the School for sons of club members. As the School grew and developed, siblings, children, and grandchildren were welcomed into the Northwood family. We celebrate this tradition as we recognize Northwood School’s Honored Legacy Families.

The first Bartell to attend Northwood, Jeff ’72 arrived in 1971. Like seven of those who followed, he excelled at hockey; like the brother and nephew who came to us next, he enrolled at Clarkson. In the seventies he, as did many of our postgraduates after the hockey season ended, returned home and earned money to help pay for his expenses; thus, he didn’t earn the certificate of attendance awarded to those who had come to us as high school graduates. Forty years later, in 2012, he was awarded a diploma by then Headmaster, Ed Good. By that time, he was president of Bartell Machinery Systems and a member of Northwood’s Board of Trustees. A remarkably talented woodworker, Jeff designed and built the beautiful Bartell Pavilion at the edge of our property above the current turf field. With its fireplace and picnic tables, it hosts numerous outdoor events each fall and spring, from cookouts to Saturday s’mores. He remembers fondly almost all of his Northwood experience with one nearly traumatic exception: my erratic driving of the hockey bus to and from games in Boston and Montreal. When the administration decided that it would be best if the assistant coach could skate, future Bartells were spared that horror.

In 1980, Ross Bartell ’81 arrived. His reputation as a talented and ferocious defenseman preceded him. Before the team got on the ice for the first day of practice, Coach Bruce Delventhal and I were committed to getting his 5’9’’ frame to the optimal playing weight. Hence, our frequent interception of “pastry packages postmarked in Rome’’ as we called them. Our commitment to modifying Ross’s diet was evident as we sampled more than our share of mouth watering cupcakes and cookies. Ross was, of course, rewarded with a scholarship to Clarkson, where he had a great career. I was rewarded with ten unneeded pounds. Ross played here with cousin and fellow defenseman, John Rice ’81, whose middle name is Bartell and who also played defense. John moved on to be a solid contributor at DIII powerhouse Oswego State. Ross’s professional career has been spent in the construction materials industry while he continued to play, coach, and follow hockey. He sent his stepson, Dan Carpenter ’00, and son Max ’12 to Northwood and helped us recruit at least a dozen other hockey players to our program. He recounts proudly that he never once found himself assigned to disciplinary dish room (at that time, the most common punishment for mid-range violations of school rules) while admitting that, as luck would have it, some other miscreants had done deeds just enough worse than his transgressions to displace him. Ross wrote of his time at Northwood, “My parents, Lester and Jean Bartell, loved me enough to send Jeff and then me off to Northwood. I am absolutely certain they were very proud of us and of our children (their grandchildren) as they were dropped at Northwood’s front door. The experiences we had were mindbogglingly blessed. I cannot imagine my life without them. Wow, what they started…”

Fast forward eleven years to the arrival of Josh Bartell ’92, Ross’s nephew and another solid defenseman who would move on to a fine career at Clarkson, where he is now the Assistant Director of Athletics. Over the years, he has coached some players in youth hockey that became stars here: Will Arquiett ’19, Kaden Pickering ’17, and Chris Roll ’10. Josh remembers one bus ride back from a game against Elmira College on a Super Bowl Sunday when Coach Fleming’s van frequently stopped at sports bars to check the scores. The team assumed, undoubtedly correctly, that Coach Fleming may have made some friendly wagers on the game. Years later, I was thrilled to perform the ceremony when Josh married his wife, Meg; it was a great chance to be with a host of Bartells and other alums.

In 1994, our first female Bartell, Josh’s sister Sara ’95, arrived. Talk about breaking the mold — she was a skier, for crying out loud. She didn’t end all the traditions though; she too studied at Clarkson. She remembers that unlike Uncle Ross, she found herself on punitive dish room duty, having been caught by Brody in the boys’ dorm (even today, she feels it necessary to remind her parents, Gary and Marion, that she was just on the hall, not in a room). In Mellor’s office, he preemptively squashed the notion that she and her two friends had arrived there to discuss pre-calculus homework. That made it easier to follow Brody’s advice, own up immediately and get a fairly lenient punishment. She notes that Northwood thankfully was a safe place to be imperfect. Like Josh, she has found her way into higher education, currently as the Data Manager in the Clinical Trials Office at the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus.

Back to the hockey mode a few years later, Mike Bartell ’00 and his cousin, Dan Carpenter ’00, Ross’s stepson, arrived. Dan went on to Saint Michael’s College in Vermont and Mike to Oswego State. Their comments about their time at Northwood well represent elements of the family’s experience here.

Mike: “Living there showed me the opportunities that were possible through meeting new people, making new friends, discovering new places, and having a broader sphere of influences — notably being surrounded by a faculty that genuinely cared about the students. It also sparked my interest in the outdoors and being close to the mountains. It set me on the track to where I live today, in Alaska. I learned taking risks can be beneficial. I don’t think I would have done the things I’ve done or lived the places I’ve lived without my experience at Northwood.”

Dan remembers his part in the venerable tradition of the senior prank: “We came up with the plan of sneaking out and tying a 15-pound test fishing line to the Victory Bell and hurrying back inside to a room on the second floor. A pull on the line and the bell swayed back and forth; soon enough it was pealing loudly. The night watchman stepped outside to see who was ringing it. He couldn’t figure it out. Once he was back inside, we started ringing it again, ghostly tollers laughing maniacally as lights went on and grumpy teachers and underclassmen left their halls to find the culprits.”

A decade rolled by and Ross’s son Max ’12 joined us; unsurprisingly, he was a hockey player; he moved on to play at Utica College. Max is probably the only Bartell to help Northwood faculty try to catch a flying squirrel on his hall. He is definitely the only Bartell to find the love of his life at a Northwood gathering: his future wife, Leslie Usherwood ’12, daughter of Lou ’84 and sister of Lauren ’11. Leslie was also a hockey player, coached by Andrea Kilbourne ’98. Leslie admits she never would have guessed in 2012 that Max would attend her wedding, let alone be the groom. Their relationship began when they re-met at their sixth Northwood anniversary. The bridal party will include three Northwood classmates: Casey Kilduff ’12, Kerri McDonough ’12 and Jimmy Connors ’13.

There is also an extended Bartell family at Northwood, the product of the great work the family (not only the alums but also Ross’s older brother, Gary, and his wife, Marion) do for us. Around two dozen students have enrolled here because of their efforts on our behalf. Joe Entelisano, the dad of one such student, JT ’16, had played with Ross in Rome; Gary had coached JT in youth hockey and taught him much about hockey and life. Joe says, “The Bartells have always been well-respected in the hockey community in Rome as well as the city in general, very supportive of many families in the area. Ross and Gary arranged a tour of Northwood and told us about the academic and athletic opportunities.” I asked JT what the Bartells had told him about Northwood that convinced him to come. His answer encapsulates both the essence of the Northwood experience and the values of the Bartell family: “The Bartells told me that at Northwood you are unable to cheat yourself; you are held accountable in every aspect of your life. This accountability became the most important thing for me there, extra effort to hold myself accountable. It will stay with me the rest of my life.”

The salt of the earth. The Bartells who went here and the parents who sent them here, embody our school’s core values — integrity, responsibility, courage, respect, and compassion — and toss in some extras in the bonus round — loyalty, good humor, generosity and humility. We are lucky they have been such an abundant and integral part of Northwood.