Ma g azine
Summer 2020 VOLUME 83 |
NO. 3
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AWA I T I NG YOU R R E T U R N The Loomis Chaffee campus misses its people. Beautiful as it was on this sunny morning, Rockefeller Quadrangle and the rest of the Island just wasn’t the same this spring without students and teachers bustling and strolling along its pathways or stopping for between-class conversations.
Photo: Jessica Ravenelle
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50 ON COVER: History teacher Molly Pond leads an online class discussion with her students from around the world this spring using the Zoom video conferencing platform, one of many tools that helped connect faculty and students when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the closure of campus. Photo: Jessica Ravenelle
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Contents Su m m e r 2 0 20
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Volume 83
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No. 3 EDITORIAL & DESIGN TEAM
F E AT U R E S
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Lynn A. Petrillo ’86
Any Given Moment
Director of Strategic Communications & Marketing
Just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we documented the lively pace of learning, teaching, thinking, and playing on the Island at any given moment. Little did we know the irony of our project.
Becky Purdy Managing Editor
Cassandra Hamer Graphic Designer
Makhala Huggins Class Notes Editor
Five Seniors
Christine Coyle and Makhala Huggins Obituaries Editors
Meet five fascinating members of the Class of 2020. CONTRIBUTORS
On to the Next Chapter
Christine Coyle Tim Struthers ’85 John Cunningham Heidi E.V. McCann ’93 Deidre Swords Makhala Huggins
Experimental Spring
SUBMISSIONS/STORIES & NEWS
Longtime teachers Fred Seebeck and Ruth Duell look ahead to active retirements and look back at careers that were so much more than jobs.
Forced by the pandemic to teach remotely this spring, the school’s faculty rose to the challenge by adapting, collaborating, and innovating.
Alumni may contribute items of interest to: Loomis Chaffee Editors The Loomis Chaffee School 4 Batchelder Road Windsor, CT 06095 860.687.6811 magazine@loomis.org
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D E PA R T M E N T S
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From the Head Island News Faculty & Staff News Object Lesson
68 Class Notes 72 Obituaries 80 Reflections
WEB EXTRAS
Visit Loomis Chaffee online at www.loomischaffee.org for the latest school news, sports scores, and galleries of recent photos. You also will find direct links to all of our social networking communities. For an online version of the magazine, go to www.loomischaffee.org/magazine. Printed at Lane Press, Burlington, VT Printed on 70# Sterling Matte, an SFI Sheet, Sustainable Forestry Initiative
Look for this notation throughout the magazine for links to online extras, from podcasts and videos to photo galleries and expanded news coverage.
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Fr om t he Head
Confronting Racism By Sheila Culbert
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y last column concerned the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the school. We had moved all of our classes online for the spring term. Given that the pandemic is still with us and will be for some time, we are furiously preparing for the new school year with the health and safety of our students, faculty, and staff foremost in our minds. As I write this column in late June, we hope to be here on campus in the fall, but the situation is changing daily. By the time you receive this issue of the magazine, plans for the 2020–21 school year should be more settled though still not set in stone. At the same time as we reacted to the spread of the novel coronavirus, we confronted the even more long-running problem of racism at Loomis Chaffee, the topic on which I would like to focus here. I recently sent two letters to alumni on the school’s response to the current racial unrest across the country. Many thanks to those of you who wrote back. A few alumni suggested that the issues of race relations and in particular the reaction to the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery have nothing to do with the school and hence we should “stay out of it,” remaining neutral or above the fray. But we cannot and should not stay out of the wider national conversation about race.
The systemic racism that we see in our society is reflected, unfortunately, in the school. We are of our society—what it is, so too are we. In the past several weeks I have met with a group of Black and Brown alumni and with current students of color. I also am following an Instagram site called Black at Loomis that chronicles stories of racism from alumni and current students. I would like to thank the many community members who have shared their stories. The collective story that they tell is not a pretty one—of multiple, repeated cases of racist comments from both other students and faculty, of never having a faculty member of color teach them, of never reading Black authors or learning about Black history, of being repeatedly mistaken for other students of color, of being questioned about their abilities, of being assumed that they come from a particular background or location, of being disciplined more frequently than white or Asian students, of being told by white students that they could not date them because of the color of their skin, of being made to feel unwelcome in myriad ways. Some of the stories are so horrendous they should have merited a disciplinary response; others present a picture of hundreds of slights and hurts inflicted, the cumulative weight of which quickly becomes overbearing and harmful. Continued on page 14
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The fight for social justice and against racism is indeed our business. It is our problem to solve.
Photo: Jessica Ravenelle
IS LA N D NE WS
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School Takes Steps to Address Systemic Racism Stories from Black and Brown alumni and students about their experiences at the school led to new initiatives and accelerated timelines for change.
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ead of School Sheila Culbert this summer announced a number of new and accelerated anti-racism initiatives at Loomis Chaffee, aiming to bring the school closer to its mission of creating an inclusive community and providing an outstanding education to all of the school’s students.
Some of these measures began immediately, and Sheila provided a timeline for other steps toward which the school is working. Endorsed by the Loomis Chaffee Board of Trustees, the initiatives aim to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice at the school. Sheila’s announcement came in the wake of the latest in a long line of racially-motivated killings of Black Americans, some at the hands of police officers, and the protests that unfolded across the country this summer. Among the powerful voices of protest have been those of Loomis Chaffee’s Black and Brown alumni, students, faculty, and staff who have shared their personal and painful stories of racism experienced on the Island directly with school leadership and on social media. Reflecting on those stories in a June 26 email to Black and Brown alumni, Sheila wrote, “The cumulative impact of both the discussion and the [social media] postings makes it obvious that we need to do much, much more to improve the climate for our Black and Brown students. I am both saddened and angry about the experiences too many of our students have had.” (Read Sheila’s column, beginning on page 4, for more about the school’s commitment to confronting issues of race and dismantling systemic racism.) Some of the steps the school had taken before this summer include promotion of the dean of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) to the senior administrative team; examination of curricula, readings, assessments, awards, and access to advanced-level courses in all departments with diversity and equity in mind; inclusion of diversity training in ongoing professional development for faculty and staff; introduction of new courses on race; visiting speakers on topics related to systemic racism; increases in the financial aid budget and the number of students of color on campus; and stepped-up efforts to hire and retain faculty and staff of color. “These initiatives are good—but we need to do better, and we need to do more,” Sheila wrote in a letter to the school community in June.
Isl and Ne w s Among the new and accelerated actions Sheila announced this summer, the school: » Will audit the policies and the content and diversity of voices in the curricula of each academic department at the end of the 2020–21 to evaluate progress toward reflecting the school’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice. » Will review graduation requirements and propose the changes necessary to ensure that all students graduate with an appropriate level of cultural competency and critical understanding of social justice. » Will conduct an inclusivity climate assessment with assistance from a third-party facilitator. Elizabeth Parada, the dean of diversity, equity, and inclusion, will propose a process for the assessment this summer, and the assessment will take place in either 2020–21 or 2021–22, depending on the facilitator’s availability and the nature of the upcoming school year amidst the pandemic. » Will focus more directly on DEI issues in student orientation, prefect and resident assistant training, and the first-year and sophomore seminars. » Will review the way students are encouraged to pursue and are chosen for leadership positions at the school. » Will require all administrative and teaching faculty to participate in SEED training on a rotating basis over the course of four years, beginning with the 2020–21 school year. SEED, Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity, helps participants “explore their own education in relation to race, gender, socioeconomic status, religion, sexual identity, abilities, and age, and how these factors currently impact their school, classrooms, community, or workplace. They consider how they can use their classrooms, communities, or workplaces to create a more equitable environment for all.” » Will establish a committee of alumni, faculty, and students, including people of color, to analyze how bias may influence the student disciplinary process and outcomes. The committee will report to Sheila and the Board of Trustees.
» Will develop new strategies to improve the recruitment and retention of administrators, faculty, and staff of color. The Dean of Faculty Office and Human Resources will establish criteria for measuring progress toward these goals. » Will develop a clear and documented process for students and employees to report incidents of racism and/or bias. The protocol, to be put in place beginning this fall, will include ways for the school to evaluate and respond to all incidents reported, and collected data will help in monitoring the school and workplace climates. » Will review the school’s admission process and address barriers to application and access to a Loomis Chaffee education. This work by the Office of Admission will include consideration of a test-optional policy for the application process.
» Will continue to commit the resources needed to offer a robust financial aid program, one that allows us to enroll students from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds and to provide those students with a complete student experience. Financial aid will remain a top fundraising priority for the school. » Will develop a process for ensuring that the school seeks and receives bids from minority contractors for all construction projects. » Is requiring all administrative offices this summer to conduct audits of DEI efforts in their respective work. The offices then will set goals for DEI work in the 2020–21 school year. » Will publish an annual report on diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice at Loomis Chaffee. The report will include a dashboard of critical indicators, including race and ethnicity data for the school’s students, faculty, staff, administrators, and Trustees as well as some historical data to provide a better sense of how the diversity of the school community has changed over time. The report also will contain a summary of current DEI initiatives, progress toward previously established goals, and goals for the future. The report will be published at the beginning of each school year and shared with the entire Loomis Chaffee community. » Will form an alumni group to support Loomis Chaffee students of color. » Will increase DEI-related professional development for faculty, coordinated by the Kravis Center for Excellence in Teaching. New faculty orientation as well as ongoing faculty professional development will include DEI discussions, and the Kravis Center will expand its personnel to take on this additional responsibility. » Is requiring all faculty and advisors to read Ibram X. Kendi’s Stamped from the Beginning and either White Fragility or Waking Up White by the end of the summer. Members of the Head’s Administrative Team are reading Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an AntiRacist and John Palfrey’s Safe Spaces, Brave Spaces: Diversity and Free Expression in Education and will engage in several guided discussions on these issues this summer. » Reorganized the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, headed by Dean Elizabeth Parada, and increased resources for the office. The school’s commitment to anti-racist work is shared by the Board of Trustees. In June, the board established a new Trustee committee on diversity, equity, and inclusion, chaired by Trustee Erik Cliette ’84. The committee will monitor the school’s progress in meeting its DEI goals as well as review reports regarding the handling of racism-related issues.
Learn more about Loomis Chaffee’s DEI initiatives and on-going work at www.loomischaffee.org/dei.
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Planning for a Return to Campus Pandemic protocols, an altered academic calendar, and classroom reconfigurations are among the changes taking shape for 2020–21 as the school plans to reopen the campus to students. Loomis Chaffee announced in June that the school will reopen campus at the end of August, welcoming new and returning students to the Island, albeit with changes in place in response to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. As this issue of the magazine went to press, these plans remained in place. “We know that it is in our students’ best interest to be back on campus. Having said that, we also know that the opening of campus will require careful planning and cooperation from the whole community as we work to keep everyone safe,” Head of School Sheila Culbert wrote in an email to students and their families on June 19. She expressed confidence that the school would meet the state of Connecticut’s conditions for boarding schools and residential colleges and universities seeking to reopen their campuses. A new academic calendar with six mini-terms, an altered daily schedule to keep class sizes small enough for social distancing, and a distance-learning program for students who remain at home are among the changes for the new school year. Students, faculty, and staff will be required to wear masks, practice social distancing on campus, and follow a COVID-19 testing and daily health-check protocol. Health protocols will begin before students arrive on campus in August. Immediately prior to their arrival, all students and all faculty
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and staff who interact directly with students will be required to undergo COVID-19 testing, and a retest of this same group will occur 10–14 days into the fall term. Additional testing may be required during the school year, based on recommendations from health agencies; best practices for boarding schools; and Loomis’ particular needs. The community will observe a two-week quarantine period at the beginning of the fall term. All instruction will be online during that period, meals will be delivered to dormitories, and boarding students will be separated into “pods” — groups of 10-15 students — within their dorms. This initial quarantine will end after the campus-wide COVID-19 retest. All students will leave campus for Thanksgiving Break and return to campus in January after the Winter Break, with a two-week period of online classes for all in December. The extended stretch away from campus aims to avoid the risks of infection associated with several waves of comings and goings over a short period of time. Throughout the year, all students, faculty, and staff every day will answer a series of questions about symptoms related to COVID-19. They may not attend classes or other school activities or come to work if they are symptomatic or have been in recent contact with anyone testing positive for COVID-19. Campus visitors will be limited, must be symptom-free, and will be required to wear masks. The academic schedule for the year was designed to provide students with the best possible educational experience while enabling social distancing, a mix of in-person and remote learning, and flexibility if conditions change. Students will take two or three courses during each of the six intensive five-week terms instead of the usual five or five-and-a-half courses per 10-week trimester. The adjusted daily schedule will include in-person instruction time in small sections of students, structured “asynchronous” learning, virtual community gatherings, advisor meetings, wellness programming, faculty office hours, and other supports designed to maximize students’ learning, whether they are on campus or studying remotely in various time zones. The distance learning program will be offered throughout the year for students who are unable to come to campus because of travel restrictions or health concerns. The program also will give the school flexibility in the event that the pandemic forces the closure of campus during the year.
Isl and Ne w s Faculty are engaged in extensive planning and professional development this summer to prepare for the coming school year and the combination of on-campus and distance teaching, and the school has expanded its technology staffing to support this hybrid approach. Although classes were graded on a pass/fail basis last spring because of the unexpected disruption and uncertainty of the global health crisis, the traditional grading system will return for 2020–21. The new daily schedule still sets aside time after every class day for athletics and other extracurricular activities, but with the cancelation of Founders League interscholastic competitions for at least the fall season, the Loomis Athletics Department is making alternative plans for teams and for meeting the wellness and fitness needs of all students. In addition to changes to the daily schedule and calendar, the campus itself will operate differently. Dormitories will house students in singles and doubles. Within the pods established in dorms at the beginning of the year, students will be able to interact without wearing masks and without six feet of distance. Students also will be allowed to remove their masks when they are in their own dorm rooms. Only students who live in a particular dorm and the dorm’s associated faculty and staff will be allowed in that residence hall. In academic buildings, classrooms will be set up for fewer students at any one time and with at least six feet between desks, and clear plexiglass panels will separate students at lab benches in science classes. To enable social distancing in the dining halls and safe serving and cleaning procedures, FLIK, the school’s food service provider, will offer both take-out and served options, and the Physical Plant is installing acrylic dividers on the dining hall tables to allow students to eat together. The school is converting several spaces on campus for students, including day students, to congregate between classes since dormitories will be open only to students who live there. Those spaces will be configured for social distancing. Student activities will involve more outdoor offerings, and the school has purchased several large tents for various locations around campus. Over the summer, the school is making a number of additional changes to protect the health of community members. The Physical Plant staff has installed higher-rated air filters in air-handling units across campus where system operating requirements allowed. The Health Center has been reconfigured so that it can isolate any students who become ill or are suspected of exposure to COVID-19. The school also is expanding its housekeeping staff to enable thorough daily sanitizing of buildings and dormitories. In her email to students and parents, Sheila also announced that Loomis was reducing tuition for all students for 2020–21 because of the programming changes. “At the core of all our planning for the coming year is our commitment to providing our students with the very best educational experience,” she wrote. “We will not compromise the quality of a Loomis education whether delivered in-person or online."
For the most up-to-date plans for the 2020–21 school year, visit www.loomischaffee.org/2020-21-planning.
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Celebrating
2020 THE CLASS OF
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he Loomis Chaffee community convened — virtually — across distances and time zones to honor and celebrate the Class of 2020 in May, culminating with a video address from Head of School Sheila Culbert in Founders Chapel. “Today I acknowledge this moment for you — your graduation,” Sheila said in the video, with sunlight streaming through the chapel windows behind her. “I offer you my sincere and admiring congratulations.” Her address to the 184 seniors and the community took place on the day, Sunday, May 24, and at the time, 10 a.m. EDT, that Commencement would have taken place on campus if the COVID-19 pandemic had not intervened, requiring closure of the campus for the spring term. Seniors and their families, gathered around laptops and cell phones, tuned in from their homes around the world and celebrated their seniors with family fanfare while in quarantine. Sheila acknowledged the great disappointment that the class could not enjoy spring term on the Island or share their graduation day in person. She committed to bringing the Class of 2020 back to the school for Commencement sometime in the future. “We will be together again,” she assured the class. Sheila announced the names of the seniors who received Commencement Prizes as well as those who earned Charles Edgar Sellers Faculty Prizes, which traditionally are presented during Class Night on the evening before Commencement. The Commencement prize recipients were: Ethan Levinbook, the Loomis Family Prize, awarded to the first scholar of the class; Yeuk Yin Lam, the Charles Henry and Mary Chaffee Willcox Prize, awarded to the second scholar of the class; Maral Asik, the Batchelder Prize for industry, loyalty, and integrity; Makayla McPherson, the Jennie Loomis Prize for outstanding contributions to the community; Isabelle Halsey, the Florence E. Sellers Prize, recognizing a quest for excellence, self-discipline, and a concern for others; and Anya Sastry, the Ammidon Prize, recognizing outstanding commitment to the common good through concern for others, both on and off the Island. Receiving Sellers Faculty Prizes, which recognize personal achievement and service to the Loomis Chaffee community, were Benjamin Lawrence, Aaron Oñate, Aarman Pannu, Freya Rich, and Oumieratou Sowe. The two keynote speakers for Commencement 2020 also shared videos with the class while saving their full remarks until the ceremony
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can take place at a later date. Commencement Speaker Pauline W. Chen ’82, a Loomis Chaffee Trustee and parent of two members of the Class of 2020, shared a warm acknowledgement, and Class Speaker Ryan Jones, elected by his peers to address them at Commencement, recorded a message for his classmates. In the week leading up to the virtual graduation event, students from the younger classes, faculty, staff, alumni, and families rallied an all-school show of support for and celebration of the seniors’ achievements. Teammates, classmates, teachers, student club members, and friends shared photo and video send-offs, and the school produced several multimedia tributes to the class. The Class of 2020 webpage also includes messages from individual faculty members, alumni, and members of the Loomis Chaffee Board of Trustees; musical performances by individual students and the Chamber Singers; a slideshow of photos capturing seniors at points throughout their Loomis careers; and appearances by the Pelican mascot, among other tributes. Seniors also were among those honored at an all-school awards event on May 22. The video Celebration of Excellence, presented by Associate Director of Studies Robert DeConinck, acknowledged seniors named to the Cum Laude Society, departmental award recipients, and seniors earning Global & Environmental Studies Certificates as well as honoring students for extracurricular achievements and contributions to the school and greater community. To give each graduate a special surprise, the school mailed silver gift boxes to seniors, most arriving in advance of the Head of School Address. Each box, wrapped with a maroon bow, contained the student’s diploma in a presentation folder and other celebratory gifts, including a commemorative silver tray, a note from Sheila, and a personal note from the student’s advisor or other close faculty member. Varsity letters, PRISM Kente cloths, and Spectrum pins accompanied the commemorative items in accordance with each student’s involvement in other school organizations, teams, and efforts. To view videos of Sheila's, Pauline's, and Ryan's remarks; tributes to the Class of 2020; and a senior slideshow, visit www.loomischaffee.org/magazine.
Alumni Offer Guidance to Economics Students
Clockwise from top left: Clockwise from top left: Courtney Ackeifi ’06, Sam Fisher ’09, Leila Belmahi ’09, and Kent Goldman ’92. Not pictured: Mark Nussbaum ’70 and Ben DiFabio ’94.
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pplied Economics students video-conferenced with alumni in various professions this spring for a lesson focused on resume-writing and cover letters. Their teacher, Matthew DeNunzio, paired students with the alumni volunteers based on areas of professional interest. Participating alumni included Mark Nussbaum ’70, a financial analyst at Wells Fargo Advisors; Kent Goldman ’92, an entrepreneur and founder of the investment firm Upside Partnership; Ben DiFabio ’94, an investment banker at Citigroup; Sam Fisher ’09, a marketing professional at Facebook; Leila Belmahi ’09, chief executive officer of Mariner’s Bow, a business strategy company; and Loomis Chaffee Trustee Courtney A. Ackeifi ‘06, who works in the biotechnology and medicine sector. Each student engaged in an online conference call with one of the graduates to review the student’s drafted resumes and cover letters. In addition, the groups discussed education and professional career paths, the day-today work in the field, and other professional advice. “I’m really impressed with [the school] using this crazy time as an opportunity to show the students the types of careers available to them post-college graduation,” Sam wrote in an email follow-up to the exercise. “I was incredibly impressed with how the students
came prepared with deep and probing questions about how specifically I got to where I am today.” Sam added that it was nice to reconnect with Loomis in this way. Senior Jenna Donahue, whom Sam mentored, appreciated the encouragement he offered in their online discussion. “Talking with Sam gave me new insights on his creative, influential job at Facebook and gave me important advice to take in account for the future,” she said. Mark shared his educational and professional trajectory with the students he mentored and noted that educators like James “Grim” Wilson, who was his economics teacher at Loomis, had a large and formative influence on his pursuit of a career in finance. “Loomis taught me many things, but most importantly, it taught me to love ideas” and to see life as “a big science experiment,” Mark reflected in a letter to the school following his experience with the students. “It’s OK to be wrong, and it’s OK to fail, as long as you learn something in the process — and don’t blow up the lab. Grim’s economics class taught me how to develop a hypothesis and then to challenge the assumptions underlying that hypothesis. In his class, I was often wrong, and learned to think before I opened my mouth.” Senior Tiffany Lin connected with Leila, who helps her Mariner’s Bow clients to achieve their business goals. Tiffany said she learned that “it is essential to get into the head of the customer and figure out what they want.” Senior Eli Cohen plans to study economics in college and aspires to work in the financial services industry, so he felt fortunate to speak with Ben, who has more than 20 years of experience in the field. Ben offered Eli tips on representing himself favorably in an interview and described skills for success as an analyst and the rhythms of a typical day working at Citicorp. Ben also stressed the importance of good communication skills. The students and alumni mentors were brought together with the help of Timothy Struthers ’85 and Mitchell Linker of the Loomis Chaffee Alumni/Development Office.
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Students Research Environmental Sustainability on Campus
Focusing on topics ranging from carbon footprints to coffee beans, seven seniors completed year-long individual research projects in environmental sustainability this spring. Although the school’s move to distance learning during the spring term meant several of the students had to modify their plans, all seven completed their ambitious projects, which were part of a course known as Guided Research Projects in Environmental Sustainability. Guided by Jeffrey Dyreson, science teacher and associate director of the Alvord Center for Global & Environmental Studies, the course is a cross-disciplinary collaboration between the Science Department and the Alvord Center. The participating seniors, Kelly Eng, Portia Inzone, Sumin Kim, Griffen Malkin, Madison Redmond, Alexa Valadez, and Clare Wilbraske, each investigated an on-campus environmental concern and then created and carried out an action plan to address the concern. At the end of spring term, the students reported their findings to each other and
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members of the Alvord Center faculty. “These seniors have been focused, driven, and amazingly adaptive given they weren’t on campus. They have embodied the adage, ‘What will you do with what you know?’” Jeff notes. Kelly’s project addressed cardboard waste on the Island and beyond. During the fall and winter terms, she completed an audit of Loomis Chaffee’s cardboard waste and researched ways to educate the campus community about the issue. Her project culminated in her creation of a stop-motion video about the importance of reducing cardboard waste and some creative ways that Loomis community members can help to do so. Portia considered the economics of sustainable business practices through an on-campus pop-up coffee shop — the Green Bean — which she operated in the Scanlan Campus Center. Portia had intended to evaluate whether discounts on coffee dispensed in the purchasers’ own mugs, rather than in paper cups, would provide enough economic incentive for coffee patrons to reduce paper waste.
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Because of the campus closure, Portia’s project did not generate enough data for analysis, but Portia created a blogsite, “She Brews & Blogs,” that invites environmental sustainability discussions for coffee lovers. Griffen worked on a detailed carbon footprint analysis of the campus, a follow-up to one completed by a third party in 2015. He gathered data from several sources and, using an online tool developed by the University of New Hampshire, Griffen calculated and reported on the school’s carbon footprint. He created a graphic representation to accompany his final report, which Jeff hopes will serve as a dynamic dashboard on the school website. Alexa looked at the health, environmental, and economic impacts as well as people’s taste preferences for beef compared to a plant-based manufactured protein source. She created a website to share her research and findings, which included a taste test conducted in the dining hall during the winter. Madison set up an indoor hydroponic garden in the Clark Center for Science & Mathematics and grew several varieties of lettuce without soil. She created a series of videos showing how to set up a hydroponic garden at home, and she shared her videos on You Tube and on “In The Loop,” a student-produced weekly show at Loomis this spring. Clare investigated sustainable planting practices. She researched the selection of appropriate trees and shrubs for the area around the north and west sides of Loomis’ solar energy field. During the winter, Clare selected several trees and shrubs consistent with local native biodiversity to screen the solar array fencing. She had planned to help with the planting of the greenery, but since she was unable to come to campus during the COVID-19 crisis, residential faculty members planted the trees and shrubs. Sumin examined invasive plant species growing in the school’s solar energy field. With the information she gleaned in her research, Sumin created a protocol to identify and control the spread of multiflora rose, a non-native species that has spread throughout a protected wetlands area within the solar array boundaries. She also created a lesson plan for implementing the program, which will become part Loomis’ College-Level Environmental Science curriculum. To view videos about two of the projects, visit www.loomischaffee.org/magazine.
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Norton Fellows Focus on Community-Building
Trustee News
Summer projects of Norton Fellowship recipients aim to help people in the students’ hometowns in Michigan and Connecticut.
Four students are embarking on socially-distanced community engagement projects in their hometowns this summer as part of the Norton Fellowship program offered through the school’s Norton Family Center for the Common Good. Rising senior Kennedy Anderson planned to provide virtual college entrance exam training and life-skills coaching to high school students living near her Detroit-area hometown who might otherwise have limited access to test preparation. She is working with Math4Success, a Detroit-based community organization. Rising senior Eamon Moylan is organizing a sports activity camp for underserved schoolchildren as part of the Saturday Mentors program at Saint Patrick-Saint Anthony Church in Hartford, Connecticut. Jordan Korn, a rising junior, is taking a podcasting class and then recording one of his own design. He plans to focus on the journeys and challenges faced by pre-teens and teenagers living in Hartford who have come to the United States as refugees from Syria, Congo, and other areas dealing with humanitarian crises. Rising junior Cole Alleyne is exploring what is meant by “community” in the new reality of the coronavirus pandemic that requires people to stay at home, shelter in place, and practice social distancing to prevent spread of the virus. He plans to interview people living in the Hartford area and report on his findings. Norton Center faculty Eric LaForest and Molly Pond, who oversee the program, say they are excited that the momentum of the Norton Fellowships continues five years after the program was launched and even with the restrictions necessary during the pandemic. Before the close of the school year, the fellows shared their plans and goals for the four-to-six-week projects with Eric and Molly and, where appropriate, established contingency plans in the event that further social restrictions are put in place to combat COVID-19. Eric says all four projects were poised to accommodate virtual work of some kind if necessary.
To read about last year’s Norton Fellowship projects and their outcomes, visit www.loomischaffee.org/magazine.
Kristen Storrs DeLaMater. Photo: Jessica Ravenelle
Parent of alumni Kristen Storrs DeLaMater retired from the Loomis Chaffee Board of Trustees this spring after completing her second four-year term. As a Trustee, Kristen served as chair of the Salaries & Benefits Committee and was a member of various other committees, including Admissions, Financial Aid & College Guidance; Audit; Buildings & Grounds; Finance; Investment; Head’s Evaluation & Advisory; and the Committee on Trustees. Multiple members of her family attended the school: her father, Edward “Ted” Storrs ’51; her aunt Ann Storrs Kellogg ’49; and her children Will ’11, Phil ’13, and Margaret ’18, as well as her nephew Sam Broda ’12. In addition to hosting events for the school in New York City, Kristen and her husband, Del, have generously supported the school, including their establishment of the Julia Steele Teaching Fund in honor of Kristen’s great-grandmother.
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Isl and Ne w s Confronting Racism Continued from page 4 Students cannot learn effectively or grow appropriately if they are living in a hostile environment. For too many of our students of color, it is simply too difficult—cognitively, physically, emotionally—to thrive at Loomis. For sure, the vast majority of our students of color graduated to wonderful universities and colleges and to successful careers, but their time at Loomis was too often marred by racist actions and comments by their fellow students and even faculty. The experiences of these alumni and students require us to reflect deeply on how we let this happen and how we are going to improve the climate. The news story on page six outlines the anti-racist initiatives introduced in my June letters to the community. I do hope that you will read about them. Our response to racism cannot be partisan, as I am sure you will agree. Democrats, Republicans, and Independents alike care about solving this intractable problem. Recently, James Mattis, a Republican and former U.S. secretary of defense and Marine general, described those protesting the deaths of black people in police custody as “tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values—our values as people and our values as a nation.” And, I would add, our values as a school. The difficult task that we have before us is to create an environment where all students— black, white; conservative, liberal; gay, trans, or straight; Jewish, Muslim, Christian, or atheist; domestic or international—feel welcomed, supported, valued, and challenged to be their best selves. Racism has no place in that environment. The fight for social justice and against racism is indeed our business. It is our problem to solve. To quote Stacey Abrams, “we need to find the grace and the space for change to occur.”
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Generations of Loomis Chaffee Poets Connect
Four alumni writers joined an installment of Loomis Chaffee’s Poetry from Quarantine series in April. Alex Kuo ’57, Joyce Sidman ’74, Samuel Amadon ’98, and Kassidi Jones ’14 read from their work and shared their passion for writing and poetry with the audience of nearly 30 students and faculty who tuned in via the Zoom video conferencing platform. The series of poetry readings was hosted by Writing Initiatives, People Rising in Support of Multiculturalism (PRISM), the Pan-Asian Student Alliance, and The Loom student literary magazine. In the first two installments earlier in the month, students read original works and shared other poems and authors’ work they found inspiring. Organizers invited the alumni poets to the final session. “Fantastic” is how Kate Saxton, director of Writing Initiatives, described the alumni poets’ participation and the response from the audience. Alex is a poet, fiction writer, and essayist. He was the first Writer in Residence at Washington State University, where he was a professor of English until his retirement in 2012. He has taught in numerous academic institutions in China, including Beijing and Changchun universities. A celebrated writer, Alex won an American Book Award for his book Lipstick and Other Stories in 2002. Joyce is the author of many award-winning children’s poetry books, including the New-
bery Honor-winning Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night and two Caldecott Honor books. Her recent book The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian’s Art Changed Science won the 2019 Robert F. Sibert Medal. In her home state of Minnesota, she teaches poetry writing to school children. Sam is the author of several books of poetry, including The Hartford Book, published in 2012, which won The Believer Poetry Award. His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Nation, Poetry, and American Poetry Review, among others. Sam reviews poetry for several publications, co-edits the poetry journal Oversound, and teaches at the University of South Carolina. Kassidi describes herself as “a poet cautiously representing Connecticut.” She is pursuing a doctorate in English and African American studies at Yale University. Kassidi is an alumna of the Excelano Project, University of Pennsylvania’s premier spoken-word poetry group. Her work can be found in Backbone Press, Winter Tangerine, and Crab Fat Magazine, and she has participated in spoken word events at Loomis as part of the school’s celebrations honoring Martin Luther King Jr. For links to several of the alumni poets’ websites, visit www.loomischaffee.org/magazine.
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Students Persevere with Senior Projects Clockwise from top left: Ambrozine Daring, Ben Lawrence, Grace Kulas, Steele Citrone Photos: LifeTouch
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wo pairs of seniors pursued Senior Projects this spring despite the pandemic, with one duo producing a graphic novel about the college application process and the other creating a video game that allows the player to “walk through” a haunted house and solve a mystery. The Senior Projects program each year engages a selected group of seniors in self-designed, independent learning exercises during the final two weeks of classes, with a goal of inspiring their creativity, innovation, passion, and self-discovery. At the end of the two-week project period this May, the two groups shared their work with the school community via video conference, talked about what they had learned from the process, and answered audience questions. Ambrozine Daring and Ben Lawrence presented “Senior Fall: A Graphic Novel Exploring and Reflecting on the College Process.” Their graphic novel told the story of nine seniors at Loomis Chaffee and their college application process. Ambrozine did most of the illustrations while Ben worked on the writing. “We wanted to show that even though most students have to follow the same format when it comes to applying to college — SATs or ACTs, essays, interviews, and applications — the process for each student is unique,” the pair explained in their presentation. They said they hoped that their graphic novel would provide some closure for the senior class as well as some wisdom for the juniors and sophomores when they go through the process. Seniors Steele Citrone and Grace Kulas presented “Homesick: A Narrative-Based Computer Game Created in the Unreal Engine.”
Steele and Grace designed their own “walking simulator” video game, which allows the player to take part in an original story by traveling through a haunted house, picking up clues, solving puzzles, and eventually figuring out what happened at the house. “We had originally wanted to create an escape room type of game on campus here at Loomis, but when COVID-19 hit, we were forced to move in a different direction and decided that we should combine our love for video games with our original idea,” said Grace. The game was created on Unreal Engine, a platform for building video games. Grace and Steele designed every part of the game themselves, including what the furniture looks like as well as how light would look when shining through a window. Senior Projects have been an Island tradition for more than 20 years. Seniors in good academic standing may propose topics they wish to explore in-depth as Senior Projects with basic guidance from a faculty mentor. Students submit their proposals in the winter term, and a committee of faculty and students reviews and approves the projects. Upon approval, seniors are excused from classes while they immerse themselves in their projects.
To read and see “Senior Fall” and to watch both presentations, visit www.loomischaffee.org/magazine.
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Speaker Series Addresses COVID-19 As It Happens
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oomis Chaffee presented a weekly series of webinars about the COVID19 crisis this spring featuring alumni and other members of the school community. Between 100 and 200 people tuned in to each live webinar, which included informational presentations and moderated question-and-answer sessions with the speakers. The speakers shared their medical, social, economic, historical, and governmental perspectives on the pandemic, its impact on society, and the possible outlook, drawing on their professional expertise in these areas. Organized by Loomis’ Alvord Center for Global & Environmental Studies and Norton Family Center for the Common Good, the COVID-19 Speakers Series was open to all in the school and broader communities. Dr. Juan Salazar, physician-in-chief and infectious disease specialist at Connecticut Children's Medical Center, was the first speaker in the series. Dr. Salazar spoke on April 15, as the first wave of the disease hit its peak in Connecticut, about the causes and effects of COVID-19 and similar viral diseases, described the ways the disease spreads in humans, and compared this pandemic to those of the past. He also shared his view on how the world would overcome the coronavirus crisis and prepare for future outbreaks of disease. “This is an enormous challenge for us … medical, societal, and economic, … so we have to figure this out quickly,” he acknowledged. “We will get through this. … We have great ingenuity as a human race.” In addition to his role as physician-in-chief, Dr. Salazar is executive vice president of academic affairs at Connecticut Children's Specialty Group. His son, Esteban Salazar, graduated from Loomis Chaffee in 2016.
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Head of School and historian Sheila Culbert delved into the history of pandemics in the second webinar, offered on April 22. From her Founders Hall office, Sheila spoke about pandemics that have disrupted global populations and have brought overarching, dramatic change to life on Earth. Pandemics, she said, have occurred in cycles for centuries, beginning at least as early as the Justinian Plague in 500 A.D., and scientists and historians have long expected the current global outbreak. She presented facts and findings from three of the most devastating pandemics in history: the Black Death in the 1340s, the smallpox pandemic in the Americas during the 1520s, and the Spanish Flu of 1918, and she considered what we might expect from the current pandemic based on historical records. Sheila also recommended books and other resources for learning more about the history and science of pandemics. The challenges, as well as opportunities, for U.S. medical systems in treating COVID-19 patients and preventing further spread of the disease was the focus of the third webinar, presented by physician, bestselling author, and Loomis Chaffee Trustee Dr. Pauline W. Chen ’82 on April 29. Pauline walked listeners through a hospital’s critical care procedures in treating an acutely ill patient from the perspective of a doctor on the front line of patient care. Pauline also pointed to systemic and societal challenges facing the U.S. health care system that affect COVID-19 patients’ experiences and outcomes.
Clockwise from top left: Jonathan Kelly ’81, Dr. Pauline Chen ’82, Dr. Juan Salazar, Sheila Culbert, Paul Mounds Jr. ’03, and RuthAnne Visnauskas ’92
Noting that doctors still had much to learn about the disease, Pauline shared the risk factors known to increase an individual’s chances of contracting the disease and having a poor outcome. She also discussed the fact that people of color and the poor were disproportionately developing the disease and dying from it compared to other populations. She shared data that suggested that constraints within U.S. social and healthcare policies contribute to this problem by limiting access to health insurance and placing financial constraints on hospitals’ ability to deliver care to underserved populations. Pauline said she saw hope in effective containment of the disease in places like Taiwan and Germany that invested in widespread, state-supported testing and contract tracing. These measures enable their health systems
to effectively treat a smaller number of COVID-19 patients and allow an earlier return to regular, everyday lives. Throughout her career as a transplant surgeon, medical school faculty member, author, and New York Times columnist, Pauline has worked to promote better understanding between doctors, patients, and health systems and to improve healthcare delivery through education. She currently works on the front line of patient care as an emergency services physician at VA Boston Healthcare System. Pauline’s twin daughters are members of the Class of 2020. During the next webinar, Trustee Jonathan Kelly ’81, portfolio manager at Fidelity Management & Research, shared his professional observations about the global financial
“The impact [of the pandemic] is felt everywhere, but it is not equal,” RuthAnne told the audience on May 13. RuthAnne oversees an umbrella agency that includes several housing and mortgage agencies, and her leadership has aimed to steward Governor Andrew Cuomo's $20 billion affordable and homeless housing plan. RuthAnne drew upon her experience in urban policy and housing to explain how pre-existing social structures shaped the uneven effects of the COVID-19 outbreak and its disproportionate impact on communities of color and low-income households. Race, ethnicity, and poverty do not factor directly into contracting the COVID-19 disease, but the underlying social structures put these populations at greater risk, according
COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. At the time of the webinar, the state’s hospitalization number was down by 50 percent from its peak in the middle of April, a more rapid improvement than predicted, according to Paul. He attributed the better-than-expected rate of improvement to the governor’s “Stay Home, Stay Safe” initiative, ordered on March 22, which suspended non-essential business operations, closed schools, instituted social distancing measures, and encouraged people to stay at home. The governor began reopening the state on the day Paul appeared on the webinar. Phase 1, he explained, allowed certain businesses to open with some restrictions. Further restrictions would be lifted in stages as the state met data-driven benchmarks for COVID-
impact of the pandemic. With a caveat that “the data on the ground is rapidly changing,” Jonathan’s presentation on May 7 pointed to the magnitude of the impact of the health crisis on the economic security of both developed and emerging nations. He discussed ways that fiscal policymakers were trying to mitigate the financial damage to individuals as well as large and small businesses and highly affected sectors such as the service industry. Jonathan predicted that the downturn would be worse than the 2008–09 recession but said he was “cautiously optimistic” that the economic distress would not be as long-lasting or damaging to society as the Great Depression. Noting the importance of taking a multidisciplinary approach to examining the impact of a pandemic such as COVID-19, including consideration from historical and social science perspectives, Jonathan gave an overview of domestic and global economic indicators from past recessions and compared and contrasted what happened in the past to current economic and societal trends. He also shared his thoughts about the effectiveness of private business bailouts, the impact of the crisis on geopolitical and trade relationships, and the effect on globalization in the long term. Jonathan is a portfolio manager at Fidelity Management & Research in Boston, where he specializes in emerging markets. The following week, the speakers series turned its attention to the social impact of the pandemic, specifically in New York state, where RuthAnne Visnauskas ’92 has served as commissioner/CEO of New York State Homes and Community Renewal since 2017.
to RuthAnne. She shared data indicating that where one lives matters, within New York state and beyond. Areas that have little access to good healthcare services and health insurance, have high housing costs and household density, and rely on public transportation and public support for housing cannot easily withstand a financial or medical shock. People living in these areas have suffered greater economic and health losses in the COVID-19 pandemic than other areas. She discussed some of the ways state and federal governments might respond in order to lessen the uneven impact, and she expressed hope that the crisis would prompt societal and policy changes that would result in better planning for future shocks and improve the health, safety, and security of all populations in New York state and elsewhere. In the final webinar in the series, Paul Mounds Jr. ’03, chief of staff for Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, spoke on May 20 about ways the state’s citizens and government had risen to the challenge of the COVID19 pandemic, and he discussed Connecticut’s plans at the time for reopening businesses and safely returning the state to a semblance of ordinary life. “The coronavirus has taken a drastic toll on the state of Connecticut and our communities,” Paul said. He was encouraged, however, to see people in the community cooperating and engaging with each other. By doing so, he said, they help each other adjust to the new realities of the world in which we all live. Paul, who became the governor’s chief of staff on February 27, one week before the first COVID-19 case was detected in the state, shared data on Connecticut’s confirmed
19 reductions and as businesses committed to following safety measures. Concerns remained about a resurgence of the virus later this year, and Paul said the state would focus on testing and contact tracing in its effort to combat a future wave. The state government also would continue to communicate with public health professions and work with neighboring states to ensure that health systems could cope with future outbreaks and provide readily available testing, he said. Paul acknowledged the work of individual volunteers and philanthropic organizations in helping to provide services to people in need and support essential workers in the community. “It’s been amazing and great to see the benevolent nature of the people of Connecticut,” he said. “If we all do our part, we will get through this together.” Paul has worked in public service since graduating from Trinity College in 2007. He joined Governor Lamont’s administration in January 2017 as chief operating officer. Now as chief of staff, Paul oversees all workings of the Governor’s Office and the executive branch, including the governor’s cabinet and agencies. He plays a key role working alongside state health, business, and community leaders on the Reopen Connecticut Advisory Group.
To watch recordings of each of the webinars in the COVID-19 Speakers Series, visit www.loomischaffee. org/magazine.
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THAT’S ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT! NATIONAL PODCAST CONTEST An audio play created by juniors John Howley, Lana Breheney, and Rosalie Lyons won the New York Times Podcast Contest for high schoolers this summer. Their original play, “The One Act,” was one of eight short audio programs that were named winners out of the 900 high school submissions. Entries could be no longer than five minutes. The top submissions were highlighted in The New York Times in June. For a link to the contest results in The New York Times and to listen to “The One Act,” visit www.loomischaffee.org/magazine.
NEWS ON THE WEB Student editors and contributors to The Log continued to inform and represent the student voice in the school community by publishing the student newspaper entirely online this spring after the school moved to distance learning because of the COVID-19 crisis. “We have lost so much of what makes Loomis Chaffee special, and we want the publication … to represent normalcy and constancy in this turbulent time,” commented senior Ethan Levinbook, co-editor-in-chief. The senior editors’ pivot to an online publication especially impressed faculty advisor Jessica Hsieh ’09. “They’ve embraced the idea that The Log should help keep our community connected, now more than ever,” she said in April. “I’m also still impressed by how many writers — veterans and newbies — have chosen to spend this term attending weekly Log meetings and then writing excellent articles.” For a link to a digital version of The Log, visit www.loomischaffee.org/magazine.
ONLINE LOOM The Loom, the school’s student art and literary publication, released an edition online this spring instead of its traditional printed spring edition. The issue features a wealth of inspiring art and creative writing. The publication’s team of editors
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worked online and across time zones and long distances to produce the publication. “In this time of uncertainty, we hope that the pieces submitted by LC students can bring you some comfort, joy, and perspective,” wrote senior Neala Sweeney, editor-in-chief, in an opening greeting. To enjoy the Spring 2020 edition of The
that would not immediately be needed on the Island. Director of Health Services Kendra Weisel said the donation included several dozen N95 masks and standard-procedure masks, protective goggles, gloves, gowns, and other protective clothing, all of which was desperately needed for medical personnel responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Loom, visit www.loomischaffee.org/ magazine.
FOR THE COMMON GOOD Loomis Chaffee students, faculty, staff, and faculty families on and off the Island continued to engage — from a safe distance — with the greater community in efforts to serve the common good this spring. More than a dozen students and faculty made face masks for Physical Plant staff and the wider community in a project coordinated by faculty member Virginia DeConinck. “Write to Windsor,” a letter-writing effort, amassed heartfelt greetings from members of the school community to local senior citizens who were isolated in their homes. The letters and cards were delivered to the Windsor Senior Center for distribution. Young people in Windsor’s Youth Service Bureau also joined the Loomis Chaffee effort. And with funds raised at an on-campus event this winter, junior Nicole Ramenda, leader of the Race for the Race club, purchased and delivered nine boxes of nonperishable food to the charitable organization Gifts of Love in Avon, Connecticut, during the statewide shutdown. Nicole conceived the idea in the fall, before the COVID-19 crisis, according to Heather Henderson, director of Community Service Programs at Loomis. “We didn’t know how vitally important this donation would turn out to be,” Heather says. AID FOR HEALTH WORKERS The school’s health center and Science Department donated personal protective equipment (PPE) to aid health workers on the front lines of the coronavirus fight in April. With the Loomis Chaffee campus closed for the spring term, the school gathered its extra supplies
SCIENCE BOWL The Science Quiz Team finished second in the Northeast Regional Science Bowl competition on March 7 at UConn. Loomis was represented by senior captain Julia Hoffman, senior Nicky Wongchamcharoen, junior Aresh Pourkavoos, sophomore Brett Donshik, freshman Bowen Bernardin, junior Matthew Weng, junior Mitali Vedula, and sophomore John Riley. CHEMISTRY OLYMPIAD Sophomores Andrew Park and Sean Lee were among the top 10 scorers on the local Chemistry Olympiad. Both qualified for the National Chemistry Olympiad. SCIENCE & ENGINEERING FAIR Juniors Mitali Vedula and Aresh Pourkavoos each earned Third Honors at the 2020 Connecticut Science & Engineering Fair. Aresh also received the Mathematics Award, Applied Technology Award, Computer Science Award, and Mu Alpha Theta award. Mitali also received the Milton Fisher Science Fair Award for Innovation & Creativity. SILVER MEDAL FOR WRITING Senior Eleanor Peters has earned a Silver Medal in the National 2020 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards for “Out of the Mouth,” her portfolio of poetry and short fiction. Eleanor’s work was selected from student writing from across the nation submitted this year for the Scholastic Awards, which are administered by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. “Out of the Mouth” features eight of Eleanor’s original works focused on a common theme.
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DEBATE SUCCESS Four experienced debaters from the Loomis Chaffee Debate Society were among the top teams to compete in a first-ever online debate tournament that drew competitive teams from across the United States and Canada this spring. The tournament, organized by Westfield Academy, was unconstrained by geography and attracted a strong field of teams from respected high school programs. Sixty-five top-level collegiate parliamentary debaters served as judges. In the five preliminary rounds, the team of junior Aidan Gillies and senior Eleanor Peters was undefeated, and the team of juniors Clara Chen and Lilly Saunders had a record of 3-2. The combined 8-2 record was among the best in the tournament, according to faculty advisor Curtis Robison. CULTURAL OUTBURST The Loomis Chaffee community reimagined its annual Cultural Outburst multicultural celebration this year by collecting stories into a multimedia digest that was distributed electronically in May. More than 40 individuals, including students,
faculty, staff, and their families, contributed to the celebration by sharing the recipes, music, visual arts, language, and history and geography of their home or affiliated cultures, which were recorded and shared digitally across the school community and beyond. Coordinated by the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Cultural Outburst represents a slice of community members' vibrant and diverse backgrounds. Although this year’s multicultural celebration could not take place on campus, the variety and vibrancy of the digital Cultural Outburst hardly felt like a “remote” event. To see the digital celebration, visit www. loomischaffee.org/magazine.
GLOBAL & ENVIRONMENTAL ACHIEVEMENT Thirty-three seniors this year earned Global & Environmental Studies Certificates, a special designation that accompanies their diplomas. The certificates recognize the students’ multi-year commitment to growing their understanding of global and environmental concerns and engaging in programs to address these matters. To earn a certificate, a student must complete at least five
courses with a global and environmental designation in at least three academic departments, take a year-long World History class, and advance in foreign language study to the fourth-year level or beyond. Other requirements include involvement in a group or activity and an educational travel program with international, multicultural, or environmentally-oriented focuses; engagement in Global and Environmental Studies Seminars during the junior and senior years; and completion of an Online Portfolio and a capstone project. The program is administered by the Alvord Center for Global & Environmental Studies. With the school’s shift to distance learning this spring in response to the COVID-19 crisis, the Alvord Center amended the spring requirements for the seniors, who built Online Portfolios highlighting their coursework, travel, and community engagement and chose either to complete capstone projects or to pursue additional reflective assignments for their Online Portfolios. To view a sampling of the seniors’ online portfolios and capstone projects, visit www. loomischaffee.org/magazine.
FACULTY & STAF F NEWS The Loomis Chaffee Modern and Classical Languages Department has renamed its year-end departmental awards for Katherine Ballard, a former faculty member who taught French, served as head of the department, and was dean of faculty during her 27-year tenure at Loomis. A member of the Board of Trustees, Katherine also is a parent of three Loomis alumni. Boys basketball head coach Rock Battistoni was named the New England Prep School Athletic Council (NEPSAC) Class A Coach of the Year for boys basketball. Rock led the Pelican team to a 20-6 regular season, a Founders League title and a NEPSAC Class A championship this winter. Rock also is an associate director of admission. Liz Bucceri ’07, a veteran Loomis Chaffee coach, teacher, and dorm head, will take the helm of the boys swimming and
diving team on the Island next year with the retirement of longtime head coach Fred Seebeck. (Read a story about Fred beginning on page 56.) Liz has been assistant coach to the girls swim team for the past eight years under head coach Robert DeConinck, who coached Liz when she swam for Loomis. She was a standout swimmer, captain, and record-holder at Loomis and then at Hamilton College. Liz also teaches in the Science and Mathematics departments and serves as dorm head of Palmer Hall. Sofia Grace Yara Cardwell, daughter of faculty members Jaci and Marc Cardwell, was born on April 30. She joins older siblings Adam and Lena. Virginia Gail McKillop, the third child of faculty members Donald and Kate McKillop, was born on June 15 and joins big brother Trace and big sister Phoebe.
David Malloy has been appointed head coach of the boys varsity soccer team, a squad he has assistant coached for the last three years. An experienced coach at the collegiate and high school levels, David previously excelled as a player, making his professional debut at the age of 16 and playing in professional leagues in England and the United States. David replaces Timothy Helfrich ’96, who departed the school this summer. “Scenes from the Apocalypse,” a solo show of ceramic work by art teacher and Visual Arts Department head Jennifer McCandless, was on display in the Melanie Carr Gallery in Essex, Connecticut, in May. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Jen and Ms. Carr re-imagined the show into a street-view exhibit that could be viewed in a socially responsible manner.
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PELICANS
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Introducing a New Brand Identity for Loomis Chaffee Athletics
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e all know the glory, the nobleness, the commitment, the perfection, the unlimited talent, the Olympian promise, the — are we getting a bit carried away here? OK, the point is, we all love the Loomis Chaffee Pelicans. And now the Pelicans and the entire Loomis Chaffee athletics program have a new, unified, and dare-we-say glorious look.
worked with the Athletics Branding Committee, comprised of Loomis coaches and student-athletes, to pinpoint the character of the athletics program and create a design that they felt reflected it. After several rounds of research, discussions with community members, drafts, and revisions, Summit this spring presented the new athletics logo and style guide, which were endorsed by all constituencies involved in the process. The result is a new, cohesive look specific to the Athletics Department, reflecting the strength of the athletics program and its mascot, the Pelican.
You can see the new visual dentity for yourself. Here’s the story of how it came about: “The Loomis Chaffee athletics program has a history of excellence, but unfortunately the department has never had a symbol or an image that really represents them. The department as a whole lacked unity when it came to an image that represented that excellence. Our goal was to create something that is bold, is unique, and reflects our athletics history,” explains Director of Athletics Susan Cabot.
“We are thrilled with the new visual identity of the Athletics Department and how it aligns with the program’s mission to challenge student-athletes of all levels to be their best selves and to embrace the common good of sportsmanship, teamwork, and fair play, inspiring in them a pursuit of excellence,” Lynn says. With many questions still remaining about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sports in the coming school year, the new visual identity serves as a reminder that the school remains united and, rallying around the Pelicans, will come together again to support and cheer on their teams.
Late last fall the Athletics Department, along with the Office of Strategic Communications and Marketing, began the project of creating a cohesive visual identity for Loomis Chaffee athletics. Partnering with Summit Athletic Media, a creative agency specializing in sports marketing and design, Sue, Director of Strategic Communications and Marketing Lynn Petrillo ’86, Loomis’ sports information director, and the school’s graphic designer
Soar Pelicans!
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ANY GIVEN
Moment
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At any given moment — when the pandemic-stricken world is not on pause — the Loomis Chaffee campus buzzes with activity. Students discuss, debate, read, ponder, create, inquire, question, laugh, strive. Teachers ask and instruct, listen and encourage, observe and demonstrate, advise and grade, inspire and marvel. Discussions advance. Synapses fire. Understanding develops. Skills solidify. Ideas come to life. All of this activity continued this spring, just less visibly, when COVID-19 forced the temporary closure of the campus. But ironically, or perhaps fortuitously, we set out earlier in the year to capture the simultaneous liveliness of Loomis Chaffee life, fanning out across campus during two one-hour periods of an ordinary school day, Thursday, February 20, to capture moments. Here’s what we found.
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HUBBARD MUSIC CENTER
10–11 AM
A student retrieves his instrument from his music locker.
The Chamber Singers practice in the Hubbard Performance Hall.
The Jazz Band rehearses in the Hoffman Large Ensemble Room.
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KATHARINE BRUSH LIBRARY
10–11 AM
A history class works in Brush Library. Nicholas Allard from the Physical Plant heads to his next assignment via the back Loop behind Brush.
Human Resources staff Krystal Anderson and Joanna Harvey collaborate on a project in their offices on the lower level of Brush.
Cell phones wait patiently in a bowl for their owners, who are engaged in World History class.
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Study Session
The wooden stairs in Founders rumble as students descend from their language classes.
A student exits Founders Hall for Grubbs Quadrangle.
The Palladian window in Founders Chapel casts an appealing pattern on the floor.
Lillian Corman's Spanish III students converse en espaĂąol.
FOUNDERS HALL 10–11 AM
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SCANLAN CAMPUS CENTER
10–11 AM
Parents help faculty and staff select from the loaves of bread, gifts of appreciation from the Loomis Chaffee Parents Association.
Employees of dining services vendor Flik prepare sushi for the early lunch crowd.
Colleagues Bill Lee, Michael Begley, and Luis Natal take a coffee break in the Scanlan Center.
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Art teacher Christian Ryan discusses digital photography with students.
Head of the Visual Arts Department Jennifer McCandless works with her ceramics class.
Printmaking students work with art teacher Mark Zunino to create colorful prints from their blocks.
Ceramics students learn how to roll out slabs of clay.
RICHMOND ART CENTER 10–11 AM
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CHAFFEE & HUBBARD
English teacher Fred Seebeck grades papers in his classroom.
10–11 AM
Freshman English students analyze excerpts from film reviews of a Royal Shakespeare Company production of The Tempest, which the freshmen watched the previous week. Their teacher, Kate Saxton, encourages the students to consider the tone of the excerpts and to find examples of strong voice and creative stylistic choices in the writing.
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CLARK CENTER 10–11 AM
Abe Schulte teaches his College-Level Calculus AB students a lesson on trigonometry substitutions and integrals.
Physics students in Alex Lester's class learn about parallel circuits and how resistance works.
Comparative Anatomy students dissect fetal pigs. Today’s assignment: find the bladder and the ureter.
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A DEEPER DIVE: CHAFFEE & HUBBARD 10–11 AM
Juniors prepare for a vocabulary quiz, scheduled for next week, with a “bell-ringer,” a method that makes learning more durable, according to teacher Michaela Chipman. (“Much to my students’ dismay, learning is more durable when it is more effortful,” Michaela notes later.)
Fiona Mills and her freshman English students explore the website of the 1619 Project, a New York Times initiative that “aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.” The year 1619 is when the first enslaved Africans arrived in what would later become the United States. The class recently finished reading Shakespeare’s The Tempest, which was written in 1611, and they read and wrote about excerpts from Aime Cesaire’s A Tempest, “a revisionist version of Shakespeare’s original play from an Africanist perspective,” Fiona explains. The students have been talking in particular about the indigenous character Caliban and Shakespeare’s depiction of him. They are so engrossed in today’s discussion that they continue past the end of class and into their lunch period.
Courtney Jackson’s junior English students review their annotations on the text of Death and the King’s Horseman, a play by Wole Soyinka based on a true story from Nigeria during British colonial rule. In groups of two or three, the students come up with short lists of topics worthy of group discussion — an exercise in preparation for a class discussion. For their exam at the end of the winter term, the students would be graded on their participation in a student-led Harkness discussion.
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Loomis Chaffee Magazine Summer 2020
A DEEPER DIVE: CLARK 10–11 AM
Biology students draw cross sections of small intestines on the whiteboards in Sara Markman’s class as they learn about the digestive system and how it absorbs nutrients, connects to the circulatory system and other body systems, and helps maintain the body’s balance, or homeostasis. A student points out the squiggly lines that make up the outer surface of the intestines. “Why is that important?” Sara asks. The student thinks for a few seconds, then answers, “The surface area. It will absorb more nutrients.” Sara nods approvingly. “Yes,” she says.
Koby Osei-Mensah draws diagrams of molecules on the board and asks his chemistry students about bonding of molecules. “Would this bond be polar or nonpolar?” he asks, pointing to one part of a diagram. His students answer, correctly, that the bond is polar. “Now, is the whole molecule polar or is it only a region?” he continues. “A region,” several students answer, and discussion continues about where and why.
Advanced Precalulus students work at their desks on a problem related to coordinates and a graph projected on the whiteboard. “So if you were to plug in more points, you would see that you would get a circular curve like this,” says their teacher, Courtney Doyle, pointing to a section of the graph.
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Taking photographs of fashion designs for an Instagram photo shoot.
Digital Design students work on their projects under the guidance of their teacher, Stacy-Ann Rowe ’97.
Painting a portrait in the Painting Studio.
RICHMOND ART CENTER 4–5 PM
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Loomis Chaffee Magazine Summer 2020
SCANLAN CAMPUS CENTER
4–5 PM
The Girls Lead community service program creates “Chaffee Loomis” tags in the PHI.
In the Pearse Hub for Innovation (PHI), the robotics team makes final adjustments to their robot and practices for the state tournament, just days away.
While students relax in the Tisch Dining Hall, Flik employees prepare the evening meal.
Students play board games in the Lyons Den on the third floor of the Scanlan Center.
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ATHLETICS FACILITIES 4–5 PM
Hip hop dancers work on their moves in the Dance Studio, led by Anthony “Popkorn” Thomas.
The wrestling team plays a lively version of dodgeball in Shimkus Gym.
Intramural basketball players ready for a game.
Students pick up their clean laundry, delivered earlier in the day to the Athletic Center.
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The girls JV hockey team takes a break from their practice in the Savage Johnson Rink.
In the training room, athletes heat, ice, and roll before practice.
Planks and lunges in the weight room.
The girls swim team cranks out sets of individual medley and freestyle in Hedges Pool.
Taking a post-workout stroll on the track.
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five
Seniors INTERVIEWS BY
Becky Purdy |
ILLUSTRATIONS BY
Katelyn Martinez
To sum up the Loomis Chaffee Class of 2020 is to tell 184 stories at once. The resulting tale would carry the listener around the world before zeroing in on our Island campus in Windsor, Connecticut, for four years, where the stories would intersect, overlap, merge, and ultimately diverge, with each of its 184 central characters changed by the experience in ways big and small. The personal stories shared by seniors Halim Ali, Margarita Demkina, Makayla McPherson, Ryan Armstrong, and Grace Wolf represent five unique threads of the larger narrative — a tale that is really just beginning. Editor’s Note: We wanted you to see as well as hear from these fascinating members of the Class of 2020, but with the campus closed this spring because of the pandemic, we could not photograph these seniors in their familiar campus environs. Thus, we enlisted illustrator Katelyn Martinez to create their portraits here and on the pages that follow.
G
Grace Wolf Cl a ss No tes
race will be the first person in her family to attend college when she enters the University of North Carolina-Chapel
Hill as a Morehead-Cain Scholar in the fall. The Morehead
is among the most selective merit scholarship opportuni-
ties in the United States, with just 3 percent of applicants gaining admission to the program based on leadership, character, scholarship, and physical vigor. Inducted into the Loomis Chaffee Cum Laude Society for academic excellence, Grace also received the Social Science Prize and the Morris H. Brown Senior Theater & Dance Prize this spring and a Founders Prize and a Junior Theater & Dance Award last year. Among her many roles, she served as a prefect as a junior, resident assistant as a senior, Writing Studio staff member, Pelican Service Organization leader, tour guide, Water Warriors swim instructor, Empty Bowls Project contributor, and a key member of the theater tech crew for many shows
A. I’m from Appleton, Wisconsin. I’ve basically lived here my whole life.
Both of my parents are from here, and they went to high school together. My entire family lives here. My dad has three brothers, and my mom has a sister, but then all of their cousins, everyone lives within half an hour of me. My mom has 18 cousins. I work with two of my second cousins. I went to school with four of my cousins.
Q. Was it hard to leave Appleton to come to Loomis? A. Growing up through the public schools I was in, I was always — I don’t
want to use the word “nerdy,” but I don’t know how else to describe it — I loved school, everything about school. My parents were looking for other things I could do, extra, because they knew I was bored. This is in third or fourth grade. We found these camps through University of Wisconsin. I did chemistry, algebra, always science and math camps. And I met a girl there the summer after seventh grade who is a legacy at Exeter. She was a year older than me. She was talking about how she was going to go, and she was so excited, and there was so much that she could do. I brought it up in passing with my parents in October of eighth grade, and they kind of dismissed it. My mom works at a grocery store, my dad’s a firefighter. They were like, “Not going to happen. You’re not going to go to a fancy boarding school that costs more than most people’s college.” And then I kept getting letters from all these [independent schools] in the Midwest because of some extra testing I had done. I remember presenting this little Powerpoint presentation to my parents about why I should be able to apply to boarding school, and I just wouldn’t let it go. I think it was more of a joke then: “Well, at least if I don’t get in, it’s like practice for applying to college, writing essays, taking SSATs.” They ended up letting me apply to four schools. I decided to apply in December, and the applications were due in January. We had to drive three hours away to find an SSAT because there aren’t any around here. Then we drove out to the East Coast and toured a few schools, and Loomis was one of them. I kind of threw together my applications, did not study for the SSAT, just did everything I could super fast, not expecting much of it, and then March 10 rolled around. I got into Loomis and got Photo: Jessica Ravenelle
in the Norris Ely Orchard Theater during her four years on the Island.
Q. Where’s home for you?
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the LC Scholar offer, and I was like, “What in the world?” So I ended up going. To find out more about the LC Scholars Program, visit www.loomischaffee.org/ magazine.
Q. Did it take much convincing for your parents after that? A. Once I got my financial aid, they said, “Well, I
guess you can do this if you want. It would work.” My dad was all on board for it. My mom was not really feeling it, but she couldn’t really say no after we had done all the work and it worked out so well. And I think she’s really happy about it now. My little sister [ Jessica] is now a sophomore at Loomis, so it worked out. I have another little sister who’s in eighth grade, and she was going to apply to Loomis, but she decided not to. She’s not really interested in being that far from home. My mom’s excited. She gets to keep one. That’s what we always say. (laughing)
Q. What was the transition like from your previous school experience to Loomis? A. It was a huge change. I can definitely say it was
humbling because I was so used to never doing any work. I never had homework, except for my math class because I went to the high school for math. Coming to Loomis was such a shock. I failed my first chemistry quiz because I didn’t think I had to study. I got a little obsessive because I wanted to keep the same grades like I had in middle school, and I did somehow eventually figure it out. Fall term freshman year, I’ve never been able to get that good of grades again once I had that shock of failing something. But it was definitely a lot of work. I’d say the biggest jump was starting a new language. We didn’t start language until seventh or eighth grade at my old school, and we only learned vocabulary. And English was hard because I had never learned grammar before. I literally couldn’t have told you what a verb was compared to an adjective, so that was different. Math was the only thing that wasn’t really hard my freshman year.
Q. Would you say you’re a math-science kid or humanities or both? A. I’d say it’s mixed. I really like doing things like
working in the Writing Studio [at Loomis], and I do really like English. I think this year my favorite class has been economics, actually. But I also did the Guided Research Project in Molecular Biology and really liked that. Career-wise, I’m planning on going into the sciences. My plan for school is to major in public health but for nutrition, so it’s a pre-med public health track, so you get this double whammy about how nutrition can impact people before you go on to med school.
Q. What about economics made it your favorite class this year? A. I think it’s because [it is] applicable and kind of
mathy. I’m in Multi [Multivariable Calculus] this year for math, and it’s so theoretical that it makes it, for me, a lot less enjoyable. I’m looking at these 3D graphs, but they’re not meaning anything to me, whereas econ is maybe a little bit simpler math, but I
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actually understand what’s going on in the world, especially with all the coronavirus stuff and the markets crashing. It’s been fascinating. And they run financial literacy seminars. It’s really nice how relatable it is and overall applicable to life. Last year I set up two fundraisers at school [as a member of the Pelican Service Organization]. But taking econ this year and realizing how money moves and money works when we try to get people to donate, to set up fundraisers, I think I might have gone about them slightly differently. The class has made me think about what I’ve done at Loomis and how I would change if I ran something like that in the future.
Q. What were you studying for your Guided Research Project? A. There’s a lab at UConn that’s starting to grow
esophageal tissue using stem cells from a newborn baby’s thigh. These babies are born with a disease called esophageal atresia, which means their esophagus is too short — it doesn’t connect to their stomach, it’s in two sections — and they need to connect the esophagus. Sometimes they can stretch the tissue, but if it’s too large of a gap, they can’t. They need to use intestinal tissue, which causes acid reflux and all kinds of [problems]. So in pigs they’ve designed a polymer scaffolding that can be embedded with stem cells from the pig, and it’ll just grow the rest of the esophagus. It’s amazing. It hasn’t started clinical studies yet in babies, but my project was trying to find the ideal environment for these cells to grow faster in because right now they’re growing too slowly. You’d have to keep opening up the baby and putting in more embedded cells. It would take a couple weeks, and [babies with esophageal atresia] don’t have a couple weeks for it to grow. I was investigating the level of glucose because glucose causes inflammation, and inflammation causes the inflammatory response, and it fixes — heals — things. So I chose a couple growth factors to experiment with to see how much of those growth factors were present after growing the cells in high-glucose medium versus low-glucose medium.
Q. What happened with the project when the campus closed this spring? A. My project really should have taken me to the end of the year. In the fall we designed our experiments and learned a lot of complicated lab techniques, and then we starting working on our projects the first day we were back in the winter. So I had preliminary results, but I really won’t ever finish my experiments, which is too bad. Dr. [Erica] Gerace said they might have next year’s kids try to finish our projects in the fall.
Q. What have you learned about yourself at Loomis? A. My time management skills and stress levels have
evened out so much. Took a while for that to happen, but it eventually did. I’ve definitely relaxed a lot about every assignment and every paper being a big deal. I went into Loomis just assuming everything [had to be] perfect, like I said with my first chem quiz. By my senior year it was like, “OK, if I can get a solid B on this, I can keep my grade and get through.” Not that I wanted to slack, but when you juggle so much at once — I was juggling a lot senior year, especially senior fall, with being an RA [resident assistant],
tour guide, Writing Studio, theater tech, dance, just kind of everything together — it really helped me realize that not everything is going to go well. Also in physics and Multivariable Calc, there were a lot of things designed sort of for us not to do well, for the teacher to find out what we didn’t know. That stressed me out so much at first: “I just got a 70 on this, a 60 on this, a 50 on this. How is this OK?” And they said, “No, really, we just gave you this bell-ringer to see what you didn’t know. We’re going to curve it or it’s not going to count or if it does, it’s going to be worth something like two points.” Going into college I’m so much more relaxed, and I know so much better how to manage my time. If I keep trying to study when I’m too stressed out, I’m not going to learn anything, and I need to either go to the gym or go for a walk or go to the dining hall and sit with my friends for a bit. I’ve realized I can study less and still be as successful when I take those steps, and actually sleep.
Q. Where were you a prefect last year? A. Cutler. I loved being a prefect. I lived in Cutler for
three years. There were so many things that I really liked about my prefects, these people that I looked up to. They were always so relaxed, but the biggest things I remember about my prefects were they didn’t talk to me like I was a freshman. That was something that my friend and I who were prefects together in Cutler had as our main goal. When we would have our little breakout group sessions, you don’t talk down to people. You kind of let them lead everything. And if someone is out past the time they’re supposed to be in their room, give them the benefit of the doubt and ask why because if someone’s filling their water bottle, I’m not going to 7 them. (A “7” is a punishment for a dorm infraction and means the recipient must check in to the dorm early the next evening and do an extra dorm work job.) It was nice to be in that position where I hoped to be what [my prefects were] for me.
Q. Were there things that came out of this spring that you were surprised to discover? A. I actually felt more in contact with some of the
seniors because of our 2020 group chat than I was when I was at school. We had an Instagram account where people would post old freshman pictures, that kind of stuff. Also, I always had wondered what it would be like to live at home again. That definitely wasn’t me asking for a quarantine, but it’s been really nice to live at home. I just kind of forgot what it’s like to live so close to all of my family and to be around my dog all of the time.
Q. What have you done during your summers? A. I’ve worked basically since I was 14. I have two
jobs. I work at a grocery store at the deli, and I’m a lifeguard. I kind of oscillate between the two in the summers. The summer before my sophomore year I went on my LC Scholar trip, which was to Vietnam and Cambodia with [the International Education Programs organized by Loomis’ Alvord Center for Global & Environmental Studies], and I really loved that. But for the most part my summers have been working.
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Halim Ali H
Cl a ss No tes
alim attended the Abaarso School of Science and Tech-
nology, a boarding school in Somaliland, before spending his senior year at Loomis Chaffee through the ASSIST Scholars program. ASSIST, a nonprofit organization
based in the United States, matches academically talented, multi-lingual international students with American independent schools for oneyear stays. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Halim spent the spring term living with his aunt in Alexandria, Virginia, and, like all Loomis students, attending classes remotely. The Somaliland borders were closed to stem the spread of the coronavirus, so Halim could not return home until the borders reopened in June.
Q. How has this spring of remote learning gone for you? A. As an exchange student, I was going to be here for only one year, and for that year to be cut short, it was a little bit strange. I’m no longer seeing the people who were making my experience in America incredible. All of that was a bit of a struggle to adjust to, of course. And then Ramadan came in and fasting while going to school was a little weird because I’d never done that before back home. There were difficulties, but actually this distance [learning] brought a lot of students together, and we were more in contact than before. We’re constantly in group video calls and stuff like that. Before, we were close and we would have fun together, but this actually added more meaning to our conversations.
Q. How did you decide to go to Abaarso? A. I wanted to go to that school because my friend’s older brother went
there, and he would come back to our neighborhood, and I would see him speaking English. Mind you, in Somaliland not a lot of people speak English. At first I was just hearing stories that you learn to speak English there, there are libraries there, they have science labs. Somaliland has very limited resources. At my school before Abaarso, we didn’t have a library, we didn’t have a lab, we barely even had enough resources for the classroom. It was very tough. It was very challenging. So hearing all these stories, I was like, “Ah, I need to go there.” I went there from my eighth-grade year through my junior year.
Q. How did you find out about Loomis? Photo: Jessica Ravenelle
A. I got into the ASSIST program, and that program matched me with
Loomis. Then I did my research on Loomis, and I saw it’s a great place and [decided] I’d love to be part of that school, part of that community.
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Q. What are you plans for next year? A. I decided to go back to Somaliland to take a gap
year to give back to my community and work for a year. Also I have other projects that I want to pursue, business ventures, because the opportunity presented [itself ], so I’ll stay there for a year and then come back here for college.
Q. What are your gap year projects? A. One is working with Abaarso. I’ll be part of the
faculty there and work either on their finance team or their academic development team. Also I am starting a company. Essentially it’s an agriculture-based company. We’re creating a bridge between farmers and wholesalers and investing in those farmers and creating like a union of the farmers and essentially bringing up the agriculture quality and the production. We’re investing in farmers and giving them equipment and seeds, and then in return we’re going to be signing deals with wholesalers.
Q. How did the company begin? A. I met with two [people] who are now my
company co-founders and presented them with the idea, and we are in the investment round where we are talking to banks and other venture capitalists. It’s going pretty well, and hopefully we’re set to launch in late July if coronavirus doesn’t disturb the whole situation.
Q. Are your co-founders around your age? A. No, one of them is 43, and the other one is 32.
They work in Somaliland in different companies, and my uncle got me in a meeting with them. I presented the idea. I presented the potential of the business. They liked it, and they had a lot of questions. I was a little naïve and ignorant in certain areas, and I had to go back and do more research, more planning, and had to give them another presentation. But they liked it the first time, so they were interested to hear about it later. When I did my other presentation, they said they were on board.
Q. Did they have any concerns about someone your age starting the company? A. They did, but I think these persons knowing my
uncle helped me. And it’s not the first time I have started a company [although] it’s going to be the first time I’ve started a company of this magnitude. Before, it was a small one, a merchandise company where we made shirts for our school and sold them to students and teachers. So that was a success, and they saw the numbers on that. That kind of boosted their trust.
Q. Some people who take gap years apply to college and then take a year off. Did you do that? A. I decided not to do that. I’m going to apply next
round. I talked to my college counselor and decided to not disturb my plans and take this year at Loomis as a year of learning. Loomis is by far one of the greatest places I’ve ever been to. It’s just a whole dif-
ferent dynamic, different experience, something that’s sort of magical in a way. I wanted to retain that. I worried the college process might take away some of that experience. So I’m just going to apply next year.
Q. You lived in Batchelder Hall. How was that? A. Oh, my goodness. I LOVED it there. Incredible.
Absolutely amazing. I could talk about Batch for days and never get tired. Mr. Fleming [dorm head Jackson Fleming] was just an incredible human being who genuinely cared about us. You’d normally have long conversations with him about life, about the future, about the history of the school. And everyone there was just extra, extra nice. It’s pretty hard to actually describe it. It was this joy that you never experienced before. I never thought you could be that happy. I thought I knew what happiness was, but then coming to Loomis and especially Batch, it was like, “Wow, there’s this whole other dimension of the happiness that’s unbelievable, incredible.”
Q. What classes this year have especially stood out for you? A. Two classes at Loomis that I will never forget
would be Dr. [Will] Eggers’s class of Voices of Dissent. That was a class that opened my eyes in many ways and showed me what I am capable of as an English student and as a writer. The discussions we had were just so elevated. And Dr. Eggers would really let us take the lead and discuss. But whenever he said something, it was like, “Oh, my goodness.” And the other students would feed off of that energy, and you would want to take a moment and say, “Wow, is this really the type of discussion we are having?” I had other English classes at Loomis, and even though they were all great, that Voices of Dissent class was just a different level. And then you have Mr. [Andrew] Matlack’s [College-Level] AB Calculus class. I am not the best math student, but I loved the challenge of that class. And Mr. Matlack’s way of teaching was really amazing. I enjoyed every bit of it.
Q. Did your previous school prepare you well for the math class here? A. It’s less technology involved because in Somalil-
and there are not a lot of resources, but the core of it was similar to the classes here. At Loomis, especially in AB Calc, you’re expected to be on your game at all times. You cannot slack on the class and be lazy. Abaarso math helped me a lot because, one, we kind of had the same curriculum, and two, at Abaarso you were expected to work really, really, really hard. And I think that mentality helped me when I came here.
Q. How do you feel your English skills have changed since you got to Loomis? A. It’s pretty hard to tell how far you’ve come if
Thailand. I learned a lot. Nicky and I would always have long conversations about different cultures, his culture, I’d tell him about my culture. It’s a really interesting aspect of Loomis because it’s so rich with diversity that, even without trying at all, you ultimately become a better human being just by being surrounded by all these different cultures and embracing them and observing them.
Q. What sports did you play at Loomis? A. I love soccer, volleyball, and basketball. In basket-
ball, I’m not as good as [the Loomis] varsity team. I was actually in varsity back home, and I thought I was really good. Then I came here and I saw R.J. [Blakney] playing. (He laughs.) And I was like, “This is not my caliber. I am not going to play basketball here.” I could have played JV, but I wanted to do cardio [fitness class]. I wanted to do workouts, only because we don’t have the same equipment back home, so it was a really good opportunity. Trust me, when I came here, I was a lot skinnier than I am right now. [In the fall] I did intramural soccer. Every day was just a blast. They were the most intense intramural games I’ve ever played. There were a lot of seniors, and we used to challenge each other. We had a pretty good chemistry, and we all wanted to play because we enjoyed it.
Q. How are you feeling now that you are about to graduate? A. Pretty sad actually. I don’t know how to feel at
this point. This cannot be goodbye. Knowing I only have two more days, it’s pretty sad. Definitely not the ending I wanted, or any of us wanted. I don’t know if I ever wanted this to end, but it is what it is. Life happens.
Q. You must be looking forward to seeing your family. A. I am. This is when I realize that hope is one of the strongest things that humans can have because even when [I was] feeling kind of bad, [I] would think I’ll see my family in x amount of days or x amount of months. That hope kind of lifts your spirit up. I talk to mom and my brothers and sisters every day, and I started paying attention to appreciating every little part of our family.
Q. Your youngest siblings probably have grown up a lot. A. They have. My youngest sister, who is 3, is actually speaking like a grownup right now. When I left, she could speak, but her language was very basic. It’s amazing and hard at the same time to watch them grow because these little cute things can now have an actual conversation with you. I’m just blown away by her.
you’ve been living it the entire time, but I have been doing a little bit of observation and definitely see a lot of change in not only my English capabilities, but also my awareness of different cultures in general, just from living with different people and being a part of different cultures, something other than Somali. My roommate, Nicky [Wongchamcharoen], was from
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Makayla McPherson Cl a ss No tes
akayla needed little prompting to “get involved” at Loomis Chaffee, the wise advice often imparted to incoming students. From theater, singing, dance,
and sports to chemistry, literature, and everything in
between, Makayla pursued her interests with enthusiasm and determination. And from participating in the Longman Leadership Institute to introducing prospective students to the campus as a tour guide, she applied her outgoing personality to building community on the Island and learning from those around her. During her four years at Loomis, she had roles in the musicals Thoroughly Modern Millie and The Old Man and The Old Moon in the Norris Ely Orchard Theater, participated in hip hop dance, sang with the Concert Choir, and performed in the Musical Revue, for which she was a student leader as a junior and senior. Recipient of the Jennie Loomis Prize for outstanding contributions to the school community, Makayla also was awarded a Founders Prize last year and the Aaron P. Pratt Jr. Senior Music Prize this spring and was inducted into the Cum Laude Society for academic excellence. Makayla’s older brother, Maalik, graduated from Loomis Chaffee in 2019, and her younger brother, Malcolm, is a rising sophomore.
Q. What were your first impressions of Loomis as a student instead of a younger sister? A. To me, Loomis was a mystical place that made Maalik very happy. When I got here, it was 10 times better. Everyone was so welcoming. One of the things that drew me to Loomis initially, even when I was still searching for schools, was that idea of community. It just felt so warm, and I really felt like I could be part of the community. And when I got there for freshman orientation and I met my advisee group — one of my closest friends is from my advisee group and some of my other friends are from my very first day of my freshman year — it was so sweet because everyone was so kind, and I really felt like people genuinely enjoyed being here.
Q. How was the transition academically from your middle school to here? A. It was smoother than I expected. That was one thing that I was worried about, going to more challenging classes and seeing how that was going to work out. But one thing that Loomis does really well is support their new students coming in especially, having study halls and advisory groups. My hardest class was probably my freshman year French class because, coming in from middle school, I had a lot of gaps in my French learning. [My transition to French 2 Advanced] was very hard, but it really showed me how much Loomis supports you in terms of the teachers. Ms. [Delphine] Robison was an angel, and she really helped me with that.
Q. What about your social transition? Photo: Jessica Ravenelle
A. I made a really good, close group of friends coming in. … I initially had
a lot of day student friends, and they’re still some of my closest friends, but I also started having more boarder friends as well. Sophomore year I met one of my best friends. She’s a boarder from New York, and I made a bunch of other boarder friends as well. Coming in it was kind of intimidating. I guess you feel a little bit different because you don’t have to leave your family and you’re not as grown up in that sense, so you worry that you won’t be able to
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relate to the boarders, but that’s definitely not at all the case. I made a lot of friends in theater, Musical Revue, soccer, softball. The more activities I did, the more people I met, people that I wouldn’t necessarily have crossed paths with [because] they were older than me, or just people that wouldn’t have been in my classes.
Q. You played soccer and softball. Did you play on those teams every year? A. Freshman year I was on III soccer with Coach
[Koby] Osei-Mensah, and that was so much fun because I met some of the girls that I overlapped with in softball, but also I made one of my closest friends there. It was just a great experience. And then sophomore, junior, and senior years I did “JV kicks,” as we call it, or JV girls soccer. And I was a captain for JV kicks for the fall this year. JV kicks was super special to me in the sense that we had such a close community, and on top of that we were a very successful team. I’m very proud of them. We had one or two losses over the three years that I was on the team. And then softball. I didn’t necessarily have a spring sport, so I tried III lacrosse freshman year. That was such an experience. Lacrosse isn’t necessarily my thing, I learned, but it was a lot of fun to learn how to handle a stick and cradle. Then I tried softball my sophomore year and absolutely fell in love with it. I had known Coach [Betsy] Conger from freshman year because I had biology with her, and it was so special to have the sports experience with her as well.
Q. Had you played softball before? A. No, I hadn’t, but I had friends on the team. I
learned throughout the season, and it was so much fun.
Q. Are there academic areas or departments that you are particularly passionate about? A. I enjoy a lot of different subjects. I have really
loved English and language a lot, but STEM as well has really attracted me, in the past two years especially. I really love math, and physics and chemistry have been really interesting to me. I took CL Chem [College-Level Chemistry II] this year, and last year I did Physics A[dvanced]. I took Chem Advanced sophomore year, and I really liked it.
Q. What was your hardest class at Loomis? A. French 2A was really hard for me at the time.
It didn’t come [easily] initially because I hadn’t had [some aspects] before. I had to be able to adjust and say, “OK, you don’t get this right now. That doesn’t mean you’re never going to get it. It just means that you need to work a little harder to figure out how to get it and reach out to your teacher and your advisor.” I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything because I think without that experience, it would have taken me longer to learn when to reach out and how to find help if you need it. Another really challenging course I took was CL Satire this winter with [ Jeffrey Scanlon ’79]. Satire itself is so complicated because it’s intrinsically part of our society. We’re a sarcastic
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society, a sarcastic generation, but you don’t necessarily think about the mechanics of satire and sarcasm until you’re looking at Candide. … And the language was sort of like Shakespeare on steroids because of the convoluted sarcasm and history references that you don’t understand.
Q. In what ways have you changed while you’ve been a Loomis student? A. Just taking risks. Coming in freshman year, I was
nervous and shy in the sense that you don’t want to say the wrong thing, you don’t want to do the wrong thing, because we live in a very social society and there’s a lot of judgment and a lot fear surrounding how you are perceived and how you portray yourself as a person, especially as a teenager. But learning how to find that nook, in a sense, where you feel you are comfortable and being able to share your opinions freely and be yourself without holding a portion of yourself back [are important]. Another thing I learned was reaching out. I’ve always been a very independent person. But [I learned to] recognize when it’s time to step back, when it’s time to reach out, and when it’s time to ask for help. I didn’t want to ask for help because [I thought] it meant I was doing something wrong, or if I didn’t get something immediately, it meant I couldn’t get it at all. Loomis taught me that learning takes time for some people, for other people it’s quicker, and whether some topics will come to you quicker than other things doesn’t mean that you can’t get it. It just means that you need more time, more help, and more experience. Learning that has been incredibly valuable because it’s something that you need to know for life in general. It offers you a lot more peace of mind, I can say. It makes you a lot less stressed out.
the eyes and know when to switch the screen. Just learning how to do presentations like that digitally and still have a flow and still maintain a professional setting and atmosphere, is one of the things that I know is immediately applicable. Regardless of how long social distancing goes, I’m going to need that skill. And also the idea of adapting. We live in a quickly changing society, so things don’t always work, things go wrong. It’s interesting to see which businesses rose to the challenge [of the pandemic] and which businesses have been succeeding despite the challenges of this strange time and which companies are struggling. [It’s been important] just learning how quickly things can change and not taking things for granted. But also when things do change, how do you react? Do you sit, do you give up, do you moan and cry, or do you say, “OK, this is really sad. I don’t enjoy this, but what are we going to do?”
Q. What else have you been involved in at Loomis that’s been important to your experience? A. Tour guiding. Ever since I started tour guiding
sophomore year, I’ve absolutely loved it. You don’t realize how much you love the school and how much you enjoy little things about the school until you’re speaking about it with someone else, you’re talking about how easy it was to transition here or you’re talking about how much fun it was playing soccer, how much you loved playing softball, with a student who has no idea.
Q. Let’s talk about this spring. There are a lot of valid reasons to be sad or to complain about the spring’s disruptions from COVID-19, but are there also things that you’ve learned, or any rays of sunshine that you’ve found, through this experience? A. There is the temptation to complain. Loomis kids
are big complainers. We do tend to like to huff and puff, but I think one of the greatest things was seeing my class adapt, and reject the temptation to complain all the time. There are legitimate reasons to be sad. For me, there are days where it hits me again and again that I’m not at Loomis with my friends, and then there are the days when [I realize we’re] also learning so many valuable skills in terms of how to communicate online. I was supposed to do the I-Tri [Innovation Trimester] for my spring term. Unfortunately that couldn’t work [in a distance-learning environment], so we switched to a design thinking class. We worked with a senior at UConn on a business that she’s working on called Women and Kids Empowerment. She was a basketball player and was under a lot of NCAA restrictions, so she couldn’t promote the business as much as she necessarily wanted to during her time at UConn, but now that she’s graduating, she has a chance to push it to the next level. So we came up with a plan to take her business to the next level and really launch it. [We had to learn] how to do a professional presentation [remotely]. You can’t be there in person. You don’t have those social cues. You can’t look someone in
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Ryan Armstrong R
Q. How did you find out about Loomis?
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yan didn’t know much about boarding schools before vis-
iting Loomis Chaffee when he was in the eighth grade, but
he discovered that the combination of excellent academics, athletics, and community life suited him well and provided
him ample opportunities to expand his horizons. A strong student who is interested in engineering, he was inducted this spring into the Cum Laude Society, which recognizes overall academic achievement, and he will attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the fall. Ryan also loves sports. He started playing ice hockey when he was 4 years old and was an integral member of the Loomis varsity hockey team that won the New England Large-School Championship this winter. It wasn’t until partway through his time on the Island that he discovered his talent for lacrosse, but he plans to play lacrosse for the Engineers at MIT. An admission tour guide, Ryan also served as a prefect in Harman Hall during his junior year, and his under-the-radar demeanor reflects a humbleness that earned the admiration of students and adults at Loomis.
A. The assistant hockey coach at Loomis, Steve Novador, had been my
regular hockey coach in the past. When I first found out about prep schools and was doing tours, it was a very foreign thing to me. I had a cousin that went to Choate, but besides that I didn’t really know what to expect. I toured at Loomis and was blown away by everything, first by the appearance of the school. It was more beautiful than anything I’d seen prior. And we had two tour guides that were phenomenal and just seemed like really good people that I’d wanted to go to school with.
Q. What made you decide on MIT for next year? A. It definitely was a big leap for the academics, and it was the top academic school that I had a chance of going to that had sports as a big supporting [factor in the application process]. Obviously sports at Loomis was a very large time commitment, so I didn’t have as many clubs as a lot of other applicants had. … I feel like I’ve always done better academically when I have sports, just kind of keeping every part moving and working, not just the mind or just the body.
Q. Do you know what your academic focus will be at MIT? A. I know it’s going to be engineering, and I’m leaning more towards bio-
logical engineering, but nothing terribly official. I’ll have to see when I really get there. I want to see my options freshman year and then fully commit to one of the programs.
Photo: Jessica Ravenelle
Q. Would you describe yourself as a math/science person? A. I’m a math/science guy, but I have an appreciation for literature and
the arts. I find it interesting, and at Loomis a lot of the teachers do a really good job of incorporating history and different background information to keep a book interesting and make it more than just the words on the page. I’m grateful that MIT is not just a math school and that the humanities are something that I still get to take a part in.
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Q. MIT has a somewhat different recruiting process for athletics than many other colleges, doesn’t it?
done it previously, and the guys liked the energy, so I did it again. It was nice to have that final contribution even though I was injured.
A. Yeah, it makes it pretty brutal. It’s kind of
Q. What was it like when the team won the championship game?
heart-wrenching at times. Basically, no one gets a “commitment” from them before getting admitted. As far as lacrosse, there are prospect days where you go and play in front of the coaches with 60 or 70 other kids trying for the same spot, and then the coaches tell you that you have to get in with academics. You already have to be an applicant that would be ready and fit for MIT. Sports count [on your application] basically like being president of a couple of clubs, a big extracurricular push. But you already have to be competitive and able to survive and do well at MIT.
Q. How long have you been playing lacrosse? A. I only started playing varsity last year, my junior
year, and there wasn’t really any consideration going into the season that I was going to play lacrosse in college. That was just kind of something I did to stay in shape for hockey. And then Coach [Bill] Lee helped me a lot with the recruiting process and contacting coaches and really made it so I was able to do that.
Q. Were you a varsity player from the beginning on the hockey team? A. Every year I played in varsity games, and I was al-
ways considered varsity, but I just had a minimal role. I had a stall in the varsity locker room. I was kind of like a reserve player. I was still very much included in the team. I knew coming in as a freshman to a very good hockey program that my playing consistently was kind of out. I was too young and not developed enough, but the practices and guidance from the coaches was very helpful.
Q. Do you have a preference between hockey and lacrosse? A. It’s kind of hard because with lacrosse I can be
more of an impact player and more dominant, and that gains the coaches’ praise more, so it feels better. But I’ve been playing hockey since I was 4 years old, so it just runs a little bit deeper.
Q. After the hockey team won the New England Large-School Championship this winter, the coaches said you were an important motivator for the team even though you had an injury that prevented you from playing in the tournament. How did you shift your approach? A. Yeah, I got injured during the last regular-season
game, [but] I knew I wasn’t going to just stay at home and rest the injury. It was my senior season. I wanted to see them go [to the tournament] and just be in the locker room. We always have a tradition where we give the starting line up before a game. The person that read the line up at the [previous] game chooses the new person, and I was fortunate enough to be the guy that hyped everyone up at the last game. I had
A. It was nice and not nice that one of our team-
mates scored an empty-net goal with three seconds left. We kind of got two celebrations and not one big one, but it was still nice getting that final goal and that feeling in your stomach of, “We just won this.”
Q. What did the lacrosse team do this spring since sports were canceled? A. We had Zoom meetings. And [the coaches] also
gave us workout plans, different routines to keep us in shape. Coach Lee has done a very good job. We’ve had a very good turnout at all of our Zoom meetings, and we kind of just talk about life. And it is a little bit sad, probably more so for the guys that are four-year players and have put a lot more into this.
Q. How do you think you’ve changed since you came to Loomis? A. It kind of opened my eyes more. Not that I was
closed-minded, but because I came from one public school system all the way up, I didn’t really understand how different everyone can be, in terms of their ideologies and being able to put myself in other people’s shoes. Everyone’s always justified in their mind, and if I disagree with someone, I have to figure why they agree with it. It makes for a more civil and understanding life.
Q. Was that understanding and trying to see things from others’ perspectives useful when you were a prefect? A. Part of the reason I came to understand [other
perspectives] is I had good leadership from the prefects my freshman and sophomore years. They laid out expectations, led by example, were really good role models. I just tried to take the aggregate of their best traits and use that while being a prefect and helping. Sometimes it’s giving tough love when you need to, like when someone won’t do their work job. Other times it’s being the [person] that they can talk to, get help from.
Q. Did you like being a prefect? A. It was nice. Being relied upon was something I
found as a positive. I thought it was going to be a negative because people would always need me, but it felt nice to help the kids that were struggling to adapt, especially the freshmen and new sophomores in their first couple of months at a brand new school with a fairly high work load and higher expectations.
year. Science is logical in the same way that math is, and there’s kind of more to it. It’s more hands-on when it comes to the labs. And especially biology, it’s kind of like a mix between math and history where it’s facts and different things you can kind of touch and hold and see along with the numbers and the logic and data
Q. What was the hardest class you took at Loomis? A. Dr. [Ben] Fisher, who left last year, his multi-
variable class. He was treating it like it was a college class. After a test, we’d look up the problems and we’d find them on problem sets from Dartmouth and MIT. I was like, “Oh, my god, no wonder it’s impossible.” He graded us fairly; obviously we weren’t all getting C’s. He curved, but it was hard being exposed to that high a level of [material]. It was still a great experience, but I definitely had to put in a lot of time and effort.
Q. What was one of your proudest accomplishments academically at Loomis? A. It’s kind of hard because it wasn’t just one math
test, it was all of my performance. But I’d probably say in CL [College-Level] Spanish IV. I got a B+ [for the fall term of junior year], which ended up being my lowest grade at Loomis, but it was kind of like a kick in the butt. It was mostly based off of not participating. Turning that around the next two terms and getting A’s, I just kind of looked at that B+ and said, “Haha.”
Q. Who are some faculty members that you’ve particularly close to? A. Mr. [Edward] Pond and Dr. [Will] Eggers. Pond
was my dorm head my freshman year, and then he taught me physics both my sophomore and junior year. And Eggers last year was my English teacher and my advisor, and I had known him from some of the hockey games I’d played on JV. He was one of the coaches my freshman year. They are both incredible people, just so very kind and generous with the academic support that they gave me. They both really pushed me in both of their classes that I was in to do not the just the amount to get the grade I wanted, but to keep going and really see how far I could push it. Overall, the faculty are really supportive in a way that is unmatched by what I’ve seen before. They’re so easy to talk to and very responsive on email and will give honest feedback and criticism and also praise. That’s been a big part in keeping me motivated, always being aware of where I stood with each teacher.
Q. What areas of academics have fascinated you most at Loomis? A. No. 1, I’d have to say sciences. I started out taking
Chem A[dvanced] my freshman year, and then Physics A[dvanced] and CL Physics [College-Level Physics II], and then I took biology term courses this
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Margarita
M
Demkina Cl a ss No tes
argarita came to Loomis Chaffee as a sophomore af-
ter beginning her adjustment to American secondary education at another independent school for a year
and finding she needed a more challenging academic
environment. A recipient of the Donald M. Joffray Senior Mathematics Prize, the Senior Community Service Prize, and junior prizes in art and math, Margarita also was a vice president of the Student Council, a resident assistant in Ammidon Hall, a visual artist, a dancer, a Cum Laude Society inductee, and a leader of the math team, the Pelican Service Organization, and the school’s Model United Nations delegation. She spoke with us from Moscow, Russia, where she and her parents and her 11-year-old brother were riding out the coronavirus shutdown this spring in their home.
Q. What did your family think about your going to school so far from home? A. They are really supportive. Mostly it was my choice. They knew that I
would have more opportunity studying here in terms of school, in terms of college, extracurricular, choice of classes. I know I wouldn’t have learned as much, I wouldn’t have grown as much, if I weren’t in the States.
Q. How was the transition to Loomis? A. I actually arrived at Loomis at the end of September because I could not
get my visa on time because they closed all the U.S. embassies in Russia that year in August. … I still remember being surprised that everybody was really welcoming. It was completely not what I expected, in a good way. I had a really wonderful advisor, Ms. [Naomi] Appel, who helped me. My roommate was amazing. She showed me everywhere to make sure that I knew where to go. If she couldn’t make it to the meals with me, she would find a friend of hers to make sure I was not alone because I missed orientation and getting to know everyone. The teachers were really understanding, and academically [the transition] was manageable.
Q. Would you recognize your sophomore-year self today? A. I remember how I felt, in a way, but I do think I’ve changed a lot since
Photo: Jessica Ravenelle
then. Sophomore year, despite advanced courses, I still had a lot of free time. I was doing a lot of extracurriculars. … I feel like I still try to do everything. It’s just how I am. I’m stressed if I’m not doing work. I need that good amount of stress to keep me going. But there are a lot of activities that I’ve done that are stress-relieving, if it’s a sport, if it’s art, if it’s a club that I’ve been involved in, so I think I’ve had a lot of outlets to express myself in different ways and switch things up.
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Q. What are some of the activities you’ve done that have provided some balance? A. [One of ] the most important activities for me
was Student Council. I served as a vice president this year, which I think is a great way to give back to the community, and that is the way to get involved. I did math team, which is more on the academic side, but it’s really exciting. I did PSO [Pelican Service Organization]. I’m a president of PSO and president of the math team too [this year]. I did dance. I’ve been running a Russian Club. We renamed it the Russian Non-Speaking Club because there are only four of us from Russia, so we tried to involve more people. We had people who speak Russian like a kid from Lithuania and a Kazak kid, but we also wanted to involve other Slavic people, like we have two boys from Serbia. We always participated in the Cultural Outbursts [an annual multicultural event on campus]. I think it’s a great way to connect, and I really appreciated all my years at Loomis that people were interested in where I come from and in learning more about the language, traditions, food, politics. Another big one for activities for me was art. I’ve taken art every single year. I took AP Art [College-Level Art Seminar] my junior year, and I did an art independent study this year. That was a creative outlet that I loved.
Q. What was your art independent study this year? A. It was a fall term course [in painting with art
teacher Mark Zunino]. I really loved the time in studio that I had during CL Art because the course is structured mostly around students doing their own kind of work. We usually had themes that we tried to explore. And the style that I have — the thick brush strokes — is something that I discovered last spring, and I kept painting and fooling around with it more and exploring it. I wanted to continue that during the fall too. The main goal [of the independent study] was to continue exploring style and to continue going more abstract. I think my paintings did shift in the fall to, instead of being centered on a subject, taking more creative risks of just depicting action or some energy on the canvas. … The upside of the quarantine is I have time to paint. I have a corner of my room [back home] that I have dedicated to my oil paintings. I finished a painting since I got here, and I started a new one, which I think is a great exercise in that I’m not always exposed to screens. It definitely helps me to reset my mind. … Things that inspire me in my artwork are the skies, or the sunsets, and there are a lot of fascinating ones that I see now. Those are the primary inspiration source.
Q. Do you have views of sunset from your home? A. Yes, I live in an apartment building, on the 10th
floor, so it oversees the park and a clear skyline. I tried to take pictures so I could look back at them, but it’s not the same. I tried to make mental images, tried to remember the details, but of course it’s hard to remember the precise colors.
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Q. You also are pursuing a math independent study project (ISP) this year. What is its focus? A. I took statistics over the summer after my sopho-
more year, a full college-credit course. And I’m taking Linear Algebra this year, which is the highest level math course [at Loomis Chaffee], so I wanted to do a continuation of stats, mostly. Data science is something that is really interesting to me and something that I hope to pursue in college. The whole ISP is mostly focused on edX courses, a collection of courses that are comprised within the data science certificate. And I’m doing a final project that I’m presenting to math teacher Mr. [Stuart] Remensnyder, my advisor, and the head of the Math Department, Mr. [ Joseph] Cleary. It actually combines my passions for art and working with a lot of numbers. Basically I wanted to examine who are the top contemporary artists. It’s the 100 top contemporary artists based on how much money they made through auction sales last year. It took me a very long time to find the data access in an open source — people make a lot of money by analyzing those data sets, but I was lucky enough to find some version of it. It’s a huge data set. I had to add a few variables myself, like their age, where they’re from, their gender. I’m trying to examine this data set based on data analysis tools that I’ve learned throughout the year. It was interesting for me to see that there were only 13 women on the list.
supervising the dorm. [There are] uncomfortable conversations that you just need to learn how to approach, which I think is a great skill, to know how to say something unpleasant or something that might be awkward in a way, being able to overcome that and becoming a braver person. I ask myself a lot how can I be more present and more visible to the people around me. What can I do for them to make their experience [better], to help them feel welcome? That took a lot of self-reflection: How do you make a person feel better through your interactions? How can you be there for them?
Q. What have you learned about yourself at Loomis? A. That’s a hard one. A lot of things. I’ve been
through a lot of ups and downs and even situations where I thought, “That’s it. There’s no way I will be able to do it.” I think I was always able to keep going. The fighting spirit is important to keep in mind. … I also got my own voice, I learned to speak up. I was a head delegate for Model [United Nations] this year. Model U.N. was really challenging for me. It is for everyone, but I remember how I was terrified before the first conference my sophomore year because I’d never done public speaking, let alone public speaking in English. It is really stressful, but that’s the fun of it, and it taught me how to be visible, how to voice myself properly so that others would listen.
Q. Is this type of analysis something you’d consider as a career?
Q. How has the year gone as a vice president of the Student Council?
A. I definitely want to do something with numbers.
A. It’s a different experience from being a representa-
Right now I’m set on studying financial engineering because I’m in the engineering school at Columbia University.
Q. What was the hardest course you took at Loomis? A. I think the hardest one was CL Physics [Col-
lege-Level Physics II] with Mr. [Edward] Pond [junior year]. … Not the math component because I’d taken calculus by then. For me the hardest part was the piece that I self-studied that maybe wasn’t solidified as much. (The usual pre-requisite for CL Physics II is Advanced Physics I, and because Margarita had taken the equivalent of regular-level Physics I at a previous school, she studied the more advanced aspects of the course on her own to prepare for CL Physics.) You can’t really teach yourself as much as an in-classroom experience. … I still did well in the class. I would meet with Mr. Pond every week after family-style on Tuesdays. … I mostly liked it. At the time [the course] was hard, but there’s also fun in that because it wasn’t something that I got from the first try. It was something that tests you, tests your resilience, tests your dedication, your willingness to learn more.
Q. You were a resident assistant in Ammidon this year. What parts of the RA experience challenged you or forced you to grow? A. One of the biggest ones, as all RAs can agree, is the line between friends and a person who is
tive because your responsibilities shift into more delegating and mentoring. As a vice president, I do a lot of talking to representatives to make sure they know what they’re doing in task groups, that they’re staying on track and if they’re underperforming or they feel discouraged, maybe having those uncomfortable conversations. … We worked a lot on the revision of the constitution this year as the four officers. It’s been a great constitution however it hadn’t been reviewed in 10 years, so there was a lot of language or procedures that we don’t use. For example, a voting procedure [said] people had to go to Founders, according to the constitution, to vote, instead of just clicking on the link to vote. … For people to take the constitution seriously, we wanted to make sure that it was perfect. And the gendered language was a big step for us. (Student Council will no longer have a girls vice president and boys vice president.) There will be the president, two vice presidents, and the secretary.
Q. How have you spent your summers during high school? A. I did research last summer. I still hope that it gets
published. It’s still pending review. It was a mathheavy topic, which I think helped me discover what I want to do. It was on quantum key distribution. I did it through a research program. I was paired with a professor of mathematics at Oberlin College, and it was a 10-week program. There was a background course on cryptography and coding theory, and then it was my time to do that research and incorporate what I learned in the background course in any topic of my choosing.
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ON TO
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Chapter By Christine Coyle | Photos by Cassandra Hamer
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Loomis Chaffee Magazine Summer 2020
Ruth Duell
“Each one of you has the curiosity, the confidence, and the creativity to make your future chapters — whatever shape they may take — amazing,” Ruth Duell said in her farewell video message to students in May. Not coincidently, Ruth brought these very qualities, along with a notable addition — caring — to her many roles in the school community, including parent, teacher, administrator, dorm affiliate, faculty mentor, and cherished friend throughout her nearly 30 years at Loomis Chaffee. “Be gentle with yourself, and make your default reaction kindness” was Ruth’s counsel for the senior class, many of whom were still coming to terms with the loss of their senior spring and Commencement traditions due to the COVID-19 pandemic and were worried about uncertain futures for themselves and their loved ones. Because of Loomis Chaffee’s campus closure during the pandemic crisis, Ruth shared her inspirational message as she had delivered her final spring term lessons, via computer from her home, an 1850s farmhouse on one-and-a-half acres in eastern Connecticut. Though she values the peaceful existence and protection from the crisis that her rural home provides, Ruth expressed her deep appreciation and affection for the Island community of which she’s been a part for many years and says she will miss it a great deal. In January of 1991, Ruth and her then-husband, John G. Clark, and the couple’s three children, Olivia Clark Dolce ’99, John H. Clark ’03, and Leila Clark Kitts ’08, who were aged 8 years, 5 years, and four months, respectively, joined the campus community when John was hired in Loomis’ Alumni/Development Office. After spending a year settling her young family into their new home and daily activities, Ruth, who longed for the social engagement she enjoyed working in human services for many years, approached Dean of Faculty Alice Baxter to inquire about ways she could contribute to the school. With Alice’s encouragement, Ruth drew upon her creativity and caring nature to expand a community service activity that was, according to Ruth, begun by former faculty member Kathy Sullivan for Palmer girls into an important community engagement program available to all students. The program offered a variety of extracurricular opportunities focused on helping underserved youth and the elderly, serving local human service organizations, and providing environmental stewardship.
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“We hopped into vans … and went on all kinds of adventures with the kids,” Ruth reminisces. The experience was valuable for all involved, according to Ruth: for the students in making connections in Greater Hartford as well as for local community members in spending time with young people from the school. Still popular with today’s Pelicans, the enduring community service program has broadened its scope under the Norton Family Center for the Common Good. Ruth and Kathy, longtime friends, remain in touch. Ruth continued with the community service program for a couple of years and picked up teaching a section of the course Moral Development (now called Ethical Issues) as part of the Philosophy, Psychology, and Religion Department, and then she was selected by newly-appointed Director of Studies Ronald Marchetti to be assistant director of studies. As a member of the Academic Office for 15 years in a progressive role from assistant to associate to director of studies, Ruth was challenged to draw upon her curiosity and confidence. “There were no computers — none!” she recalls. “We scheduled the
whole school by hand, on paper — all the teachers, all the classes, all the students. … It was a huge Rubik’s cube.” Despite long hours and detailed work, Ruth enjoyed it, especially working closely with her office colleagues, including Ron, Beth Fitzsimmons, Carol Gordon, Lorna Giannuzzi, and others. In the mid 1990s, the biggest challenge for Ruth, Ron, and Kevin McAllister, former information technology director, was “bringing the school to computers,” Ruth says, and leading the faculty in the use of computers for recording grades and comments. “It was a fun, crazy time. There was a lot of laughter of the sort of ‘laugh or go mad’ variety,” she quips. Throughout her stint in the Academic Office, Ruth continued to teach in the Philosophy, Psychology, and Religion Department. When she eventually moved from her administrative role to full-time teaching, she picked up the Psychology of Loss class, formerly known as Death & Dying, a longtime standout course remembered by generations of Loomis Chaffee alumni for its impact. Many young alumni closely associate the class with Ruth and her nuanced, humanistic, and compassionate approach to considering loss, death, and dying from a number of perspectives. She is quick to point out that the course was begun by Duane Estes in the early 1970s, and taught in some form by several faculty, including Kathy Sullivan, David Newell, and Dom Failla, before she was passed the baton. Mentoring young faculty was another role that Ruth embraced and enjoyed. She welcomed the opportunity to grow her own teaching skills working alongside the newly-minted faculty with whom she was partnered. Among them, Manya Steinfeld taught closely with Ruth for the first two years of Manya’s teaching career before accepting a new assignment last summer at an international school in Germany. “Ruth … has had the single biggest impact on my development as a teacher,” Manya wrote in a letter to the school about Ruth’s mentorship. “I will be forever grateful for the thoughtfulness Ruth put into our relationship and the hours she dedicated to giving me confidence not only in planning lessons but also in front of a class. … As a teacher, Ruth always puts her students first and would spend many hours finding ways to make sure her students could engage with the material and apply it to their own lives. She touched so many students (and colleagues) with her authenticity and genuine love. It takes a special person to be able to teach Psychology of Loss, and Ruth did it in such a beautiful and open manner. She shared so much about herself and created space for her students to feel safe to explore such an intense and personal topic.” Ron also lauds Ruth’s dedication to her students and her colleagues. “Ruth, throughout her long and loyal service to Loomis Chaffee, has been a brilliant and sensitive member of the faculty. Her commitment to
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Of all her roles, Ruth says she most enjoyed her interactions with students. Even as director of studies, Ruth relished reading through student files and marveling at their fascinating personal stories.
students, their development and success, has been her consistent goal in every role she has had in the community. I wish her every joy in retirement,” comments Ron, who retired in 2013. While many things at Loomis Chaffee have changed over the years, an important constant, according to Ruth, has been the school’s dedication to enrolling young people from a range of backgrounds and experiences and its mission to instill in students a commitment to the common good. “The spirit of the school — a spirit of compassion and caring — remains the same,” she says.
Ruth says she is grateful for all that Loomis has meant to her and her family. She acknowledges the many and varied professional and personal growth opportunities she enjoyed and the wonderful upbringing and education her three children were afforded as members of the school community. She thanks Alice Baxter, former Head of School John Ratté, and former Associate Head of School Aaron “Woody” Hess for their patience and for helping her establish her career. For fear of missing someone, Ruth says she won’t even try to name all of her friends and colleagues who played important roles in life on the Island, and she says she will remain connected to the school through them all.
Of all her roles, Ruth says she most enjoyed her interactions with students. Even as director of studies, Ruth relished reading through student files and marveling at their fascinating personal stories. She says she loved being a dorm affiliate in Harman Hall and serving as an academic advisor to countless boys and girls over the years, and, by staying in touch with many, she now admires the accomplished adults so many of them have become.
In retirement, Ruth says she will try to follow her own advice to the Class of 2020 and draw on confidence, curiosity, and creativity as her next chapters take shape. In addition to spending more time with her children, their spouses, and her soon-to-be seven grandchildren, Ruth says she plans to build on her friendships old and new and “put myself where my mouth is” — in the care of others and service to the community.
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Fred Seebeck
Fred Seebeck retired in June after having engaged, inspired, mentored, and befriended countless individuals throughout his 37 years as a treasured member of the Loomis Chaffee community and an integral part of life on the Island. Fred’s tenure at Loomis was bookended by two phenomenal disruptions of nature. In 1984, during his first year of teaching, spring flood waters rose so high that the campus truly became an island. Fred recalls that he and fellow faculty member James “Grim” Wilson were holed up in Flagg Hall with several boys who were unable to evacuate. The waters were so high that to get dinner in town one night, he, Grim, and the students paddled in canoes over the causeway to the school vans parked beyond floodwaters at the public library. They returned at nightfall and paddled back to the dorm with a full moon in the sky and nearby streetlights aglow. “It was gorgeous. Like paddling around Venice at night,” Fred remembered, having made a mental note of that special moment. Fortunately, that year, a long-term crisis was averted — although final exams had to be canceled — as the floodwaters receded within 48 hours. This year, Fred spent his final term at Loomis Chaffee holed up in the confines of River Cottage and Chaffee Hall as the state of Connecticut issued stay-at-home orders and the campus was closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Each class day this spring, Fred donned one of his signature ties and walked from River Cottage, his campus home, to Chaffee Hall, where he taught English students from his empty classroom via Zoom video conference. He admits it was a bizarre and melancholy time, especially having to keep socially distant from other residential faculty families who remained on campus. While he shared the seniors’ disappointment of missing their spring term on campus and its associated rites of passage, Fred’s sanguine message to the students — delivered via a video interview with junior Aidan Gillies, the incoming Student Council president — was that the pandemic and resulting separation of the community should serve as a reminder to “make the most of our moments together” at Loomis and beyond, and to make an effort to “consciously appreciate” the special times.
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Being isolated at home and following social distancing measures was “like a dress rehearsal for retirement,” Fred says, explaining that he has lived in a residential academic community for his whole adult life so far, beginning when he attended Brown University as an undergraduate. Loomis Chaffee’s community spirit is what Fred says he will miss most — especially the shared meals, stimulating environment, lively exchange of ideas, and daily social interactions that are part of life on the Island. He also will miss the collegiality of the faculty and staff. “You get to know people best when you’re rolling up your sleeves together,” Fred acknowledges. After graduating from Brown, Fred had a short stint of teaching at St. George’s School in Rhode Island before taking an admissions associate role at Loomis in order to coach water polo, a sport not offered at St. George’s. He began teaching English full-time at Loomis during his third year on the Island. A respected presence on the English Department faculty, Fred inspired and engaged students in courses across grade levels, including in the senior electives Satire and Literature of the Sea. He says the old adage, “I teach students, not English” is timeworn, but remains true. He equates the experience of a teacher or coach with that of a music conductor trying to draw out the sound of one musical instrument so it may be heard clearly playing along with the rest of the orchestra. Fred’s characteristic teaching preparation included making notes on an index card or Post-it note before every class. “You want to know where you’re headed [in the class discussion] but be ready to extemporize,” he explains. In addition to teaching English, Fred’s roles at Loomis have included, at various times, serving as English Department head, a dean of students, an admission associate, a dorm head in Batchelder and Taylor halls, an affiliate in Flagg and Warham halls, a trusted and valued advisor to students, and a faculty advisor to the Student Council. He also served on the Head of School Search Committee to find a successor to John Ratté, who departed in 1996 and was succeeded by Russell Weigel. “Everyone hated to see John Ratté retire, and finding his successor was no easy task,” Fred says, noting that he appreciated the sense of responsibility and commitment to the task that the search team members shared. But perhaps Fred’s most rewarding role has been the one for which he came to Loomis in the first place — coaching swimmers, divers, and water polo players. “Seebs” as he was affectionally known by his team, was a fixture in Hedges Pool during the fall and winter seasons every year since his first at Loomis. Later in his career, Fred also coached the distance runners on the girls track and field
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Fred equates the experience of a teacher or coach with that of a music conductor trying to draw out the sound of one musical instrument so it may be heard clearly playing along with the rest of the orchestra.
team, which he enjoyed and says further challenged him to adapt and grow his coaching skills.
others, and I do hope that he is a little more selfish now that he doesn’t have his ‘boys’ to worry about and care for. I look forward to continuing to help Fred with some projects at his beloved Rhode Island home as well as some more beer and wings at some of our favorite taverns. But most of all, even though I will miss seeing him around campus, I look forward to continuing our long friendship, and Fred will always have a place setting at our Thanksgiving table.”
“I love the process of teaching and coaching,” Fred says. With Fred as head coach, the boys swimming and diving team consistently ranked among the top teams of the New England Prep School Swimming Association and won 18 Founders League titles. Fred recalls a highlight from the team’s winter 2019-20 season: “At our final home meet of the season, and my coaching career, a number of our boys were geared up in the hopes of setting new records in several events. The 200-meter medley relay team [of senior Min Jun Jung; juniors Matt Ryckman and Kai Sheng Tham; and sophomore Trent Hieber] broke that record by nearly two seconds, a stunning improvement. Then, our team of Kai Sheng, [freshman] Kaeden Freston, [senior] Mac Pahl, and Min Jun bettered our school record in the 200-meter freestyle relay. To conclude the day, the kids threw me in the pool, a tried and tested swimming tradition!”
Indeed, Fred has many plans for retirement, including continuing his passionate following of Major League Baseball’s Boston Red Sox. He has fond memories of crowding into the Batchelder social room with all the boys in the dorm to watch the Red Sox play the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2004 World Series — and their loud and hearty celebration when the Red Sox won the championship for the first time since 1918. Before the pandemic, Fred had plans to travel this summer to see his beloved Red Sox take on his family’s hometown baseball heroes — the Chicago Cubs — at Wrigley Field with his brother and nephews.
The team’s record-setting performance was a fitting capstone for Fred’s long and successful coaching career, and he is grateful for the dedicated and passionate team of swimmers he coached this year and in many years past.
“I’m an outlier in the family,” he sheepishly admits. Born in New Jersey, Fred and his family moved to Chicago when he entered high school. He didn’t become a Boston fan until the early 1990s. His family members remain die-hard Chicago fans.
Edward Pond and Fred have coached together in Hedges Pool for decades. Ed, who also teaches science, was an assistant coach to Fred’s swim teams for many years, and Fred served as assistant coach for Ed’s boys water polo teams.
Fred also plans to devote some of his time in retirement to working with organizations that support veterans and environmental preservation, continuing a longstanding commitment to community service. Fred led an effort to save leftover uneaten meals that had been prepared for Loomis student athletes and deliver them to a Hartford shelter after Saturday meets during the fall and winter terms. When Fred and former faculty member Isso Shimamoto, who coached girls water polo and boys swimming, started making the deliveries, they enlisted the help of student athletes and used Fred’s car to make the trip to Hartford and back. Fred said he switched to using school vans when something with a pungent odor spilled in his car, but the tradition continued through his last winter season. He hopes the meals delivery will carry on in his absence.
Ed reflects, “I am immensely grateful for the time we shared; for the collaborative efforts that inspired so many boys to engage, thrive, and grow as athletes, students, and people; for the friendship that anchored our work together; and for the wonderful memories and many laughs.” The teams never wanted their seasons to end, Ed says. “After working so diligently in preparation for that culminating game or race, the boys, having finished the journey, wanted only to stay a while longer at the summit with their teammates. Fred’s gift for guiding these expeditions was evident in the smiles, tears, and words the boys shared.”
A lifelong learner, Fred intends to continue his personal growth by pursing continuing education courses that interest him, including perhaps a class on the writing of William Faulkner or a World War II history course. He has close access to several colleges from his home in Rhode Island, which is where Fred will settle, trading his views of the Farmington and Connecticut rivers for the coastal inlets and salt marshlands of the Ocean State.
Fred’s many longtime friends at Loomis include Associate Director of Studies Robert DeConinck, the head coach of the girls swim team for the last 22 years. The DeConincks — Bob, his wife Virginia, and their sons, Christopher ’07 and Jacob ’07 — have lived and worked alongside Fred in the classroom, the pool, and all aspects of residential life since Bob joined the faculty in 1998. They count Fred among their family members.
He also looks forward to returning to the Island to visit everyone when, as he puts it, “real school” returns post-pandemic.
“I have had the good fortune to have had Fred coach both my sons and teach one of them,” Bob wrote in a tribute to Fred. “The lessons they learned from Fred about sportsmanship, hard work, and team have carried them far in life. He is a scholar, a gentleman, and a lifelong friend. I know he is looking forward to the next phase of his life, to live his best self and continue in his service to others. Fred never puts himself before
To read a story about the long coaching collaboration between Ed Pond and Fred, visit www.loomischaffee. org/magazine.
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Spring
EXPERIMENTAL
BY Christine Coyle | PHOTOS BY Jessica Ravenelle
Forced by the pandemic to teach remotely this spring, Loomis Chaffee’s faculty rose to the challenge by adapting, collaborating, and innovating. Their discoveries helped them to prepare for the year ahead, when learning will blend in-person instruction and structured independent student work.
Loomis Chaffee plunged into an education experiment when the COVID-19 health crisis abruptly ended in-person classes this spring on the Island and at schools around the world. With little lead time, the Loomis teaching faculty and administration modified classes to a remote-learning model using online conference platforms and other tools for teaching from a distance, and the faculty adapted their teaching methods and course content in order to continue engaging Loomis students in different times zones, countries, and home situations. Although the school experience was dramatically different than under normal circumstances, teachers continued to work with their students to advance their learning, provide structure to the day, and maintain a sense of community. Along the way and at the term’s conclusion, the faculty looked History teacher Molly Pond
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at what they and other educators had discovered through remote teaching that could help them in the year ahead, whether instruction is in person or from a distance. Forced by circumstances to adapt and innovate, the school made some surprising discoveries about what works, and what doesn’t. Immediately clear in the distance learning experiment were the advantages of an on-campus learning environment, and teachers and students yearned for a return to in-person classes and regular daily life on the Island. The absence of these givens underlined the educational importance of discussions around a table, serendipitous daily interactions, and face-to-face collaborations between students and teachers and among students themselves. And yet the unexpected shift away from the norm also confirmed the importance of adaptability in an oft-changing world as both teachers and
students had to call on their abilities to adjust, and even rise, to changing circumstances. The necessity of developing nimbleness was one of the overarching discoveries of the spring’s experiment. Many teachers, and the school itself, modeled this adaptability. “I was especially impressed with the spirit of innovation that permeated the spring term,” says Associate Head of School Webster Trenchard. “Our faculty quickly embraced this spring as a watershed moment that was likely to usher in some changes in education.” In order to move the school’s entire academic program — some 370 classes — from face-to-face to remote learning, a lot of decisions had to be made in just a few weeks. With the understanding that the transition to online learning would be stressful for all students and that individual students might face challenges related to their home situations or locations, the academic subcommittee of the school’s COVID-19 Task Force hammered out a workable daily schedule and decided that classes would be pass/fail rather than graded to ease student anxiety. Student needs were central to the school’s approach. “Learning is not just taking an empty vessel and filling it with information,” Webb says. Rather, it is a dynamic and collaborative process between an inspired teacher and a student who wants to learn, and the task force hoped to maintain that collaboration as much as possible. To equip teachers for their charge, the school’s Information Technology staff and Pearse Hub for Innovation (PHI) faculty recorded tutorials for the use of Zoom online video conferencing software
History teacher J.R. Zavisza
and provided other technical assistance, the Kravis Center for Excellence in Teaching shared expert advice for online instruction, and all teaching faculty took part in two days of training before the start of spring term classes. When the term began, some faculty conducted online classes from computers in their campus classrooms, and others connected from their homes. Some of their classes took place in scheduled, real-time sessions, known as “synchronous” classes, and teachers recorded or assigned “asynchronous” lessons outside the class schedule for students to view and complete independently. Depending on the teachers, the type of course, and the location of students, some teachers didn’t have to make major modifications to their courses, and others had to find ways to approach their subject in wholly different ways. This was true for Jennifer McCandless, ceramics teacher and Visual Arts Department head. “Well, we’re creative people, so we’re going to figure this
The necessity of developing nimbleness was one of the overarching discoveries of the spring’s experiment.
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out,” said Jen at the beginning of the term. She instructed her students to obtain five pounds of clay — available for purchase online — and taught them to use tools found at home to sculpt. She filmed step-by-step instructions from her home so that students could complete projects at their own pace in their own homes. For a few students who were unable to obtain clay, Jen created art history lessons that focused on sculpture and suggested online museum tours to follow. In adapting her instruction for remote learning, Jen found that the experience of creating, learning, teaching, and sharing art remained enriching and sustaining for her and her students even though the process was different. Similarly, art teacher Mark Zunino shipped paint supplies to his students and filmed lessons in painting and drawing in his studio in the Richmond Art Center. Without in-studio guidance and collaboration, art courses that already focused on digital media also required adjustments. Using the Adobe Design Cloud suite of software purchased by the school, students in Digital Media Art & Design, taught by Stacy-Ann “Ro” Rowe ’97, and Christian Ryan’s Digital Photography, Digital Animation, and Video Production classes continued to grow their skills at home with their teachers’ online instruction and feedback. And the department showcased student art as it does every term, but this time with an online gallery, including an end-of-year show for students in the College-Level Art Seminar. Distance learning presented an unexpected silver lining when Spanish teacher Andrea Rodas was forced to teach from Guayaquil, Ec-
uador, where she had been attending a family celebration during March Break. Unable to return to the United States when Ecuador placed swift and strict limitations on movement due to the pandemic, Andrea used her home base to add dimension to her language classes. She enlisted her bilingual family members to engage in level-appropriate conversations with her students, and she took her Spanish II students on a virtual tour of her home for an “about the house” vocabulary lesson. Andrea says she tried to keep the classroom experience as “normal” as possible, but she hoped that conducting class from a Spanish-speaking locale could keep the experience fresh and engaging for her students. In all disciplines, teachers learned as they went what approaches worked best for their students, lending credence to a common refrain among Loomis teachers this spring: “Every teacher is a first-year teacher.” Teachers discovered the benefits of “breakout rooms” within the Zoom platform, allowing smaller subsets of a class to talk about a reading or other subject matter. The smaller groups gave more space for reticent students to contribute and for all to engage in the discussions. Many teachers and their classes noticed that students, especially freshmen, could make more astute contributions to class discussions when the conversation took place on an online discussion board, where members of the class had more time to think about and express their ideas than in a real-time discussion on Zoom. As with the discussion boards, teachers and students learned the value of some technological tools that
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already were available to them but they hadn’t previously explored, such as the file-sharing, calendering, and assignment-scheduling aspects of the class website portals. Now familiar with these tools, many teachers plan to continue to use them even when classes are back on campus. To keep lessons fresh, several teachers invited guests into online discussions and lessons. Parent Tina Saunders joined Rachel Nisselson’s French IV class for a video conference discussion of the book Persepolis, a graphic novel written in French by Iranian author Marjane Satrapi, who shares stories about growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Tina, an Iranian émigré, shared her own memories of living in Iran and moving to the United States as a fourth-grader, and she and the students discussed similarities between her experiences and those portrayed in the graphic novel. Mat DeNunzio’s Applied Economics students paired with alumni in various fields for a lesson on resume-writing and cover letters, which led to further discussions among the pairings about professions and career paths. In addition to individual discoveries and anecdotal evidence, a survey of students, parents, and faculty midway through the term helped to identify broader patterns of what was working well in classes and where improvements were needed, and teachers engaged in a two-day workshop to share ideas and collaborate. For example, many students and parents described the amount of screen time as overwhelming when most classes were synchronous. In response, teachers offered more asynchronous
The weekly video series "In the Loop" helped keep Loomis community members connected during the spring apart. Its hosts were (clockwise from top left) faculty member Eric LaForest, junior Anna Rebello, junior Aidan Gillies, and senior Maral Asik. In lieu of a gallery show, an online exhibit was created to showcase the work of student in the College-Level Art Seminar this spring.
lessons in the second half of the term alongside fewer but more focused “in-class” sessions. Teachers also adjusted their expectations for homework loads in consideration of students’ time spent doing asynchronous classwork. For the Music Department, especially ensemble classes, working simultaneously is at the core of the endeavor, presenting particular challenges when the group is scattered around the globe and when even the latest technology isn’t perfectly in synch. Thus, innovation defined Loomis music teachers’ approach to the spring term. “This is about keeping kids engaged,” said Susan Chrzanowski, the Thomas Benedict Carter Instructor of Music and head of the Music Department, as she considered the department’s work halfway through the term. With their ensembles unable to practice or perform together in one place, Sue, who teaches vocal music, and instrumental teachers Ken Fischer, Jim Rickevicius, David Winer, and Netta Hadari agreed upon some basic goals for their students at the start of the term, and they looked for creative ways to help students achieve the learning objectives. Sue says they focused on keeping each student musically active — vocalizing or practicing an instrument if it was accessible at home — with
an eye to advancing each student’s musicianship. Students who did not have instruments available pursued guided study of an aspect of music history or music theory. Ken, who directs the school’s jazz ensembles, shared some history of jazz music with his classes, something he often does not have time for in his performance-based classes, and he invited guest musicians for online interactions with his students. Vocal students individually and in ensemble groups recorded videos of their performances, which were shared as “Living Room Concerts” with the Loomis community. The Loomis Chaffee Orchestra and Chamber Music students, led by Netta, continued their year-long efforts to write musical melodies and reflections based on the year’s school theme, “Belonging.” They showcased their combined work in a compilation audio/video recording near the end of the term. The Chamber Singers, under Sue’s direction, performed the traditional hymn “How Can I Keep From Singing?” as an ensemble through Zoom and clever editing. Each singer recorded his or her individual part, and the assembled performance was dedicated to the Class of 2020 and played during a webinar in the seniors’ honor on what would have been Commencement Day.
“I feel really good that we’ve done more than we thought we could under the circumstances, and the kids have been truly amazing,” Sue says. She and her colleagues empathized with the students as they coped with the stress and disruptions of the pandemic, and they did their best to make interactions engaging, comforting, and fun. In the PHI, teachers Jen Solomon and Tim Helfrich ’96 re-imagined the Innovation Trimester (I-Tri), the signature spring term course of the PHI. They enlisted the seven seniors in the course to create a collaborative design-thinking project that worked in a distance-learning environment. The students worked with UConn senior Batouly Camara, a player on the Huskies basketball team, to help her expand the reach of her nonprofit organization, Women and Kids Empowerment (WAKE). Ms. Camara started WAKE to help girls and young women in her home country of Guinea in West Africa gain access to education and connect to broader opportunities through basketball clinics and workshops. The I-Tri students explored and proposed ways that WAKE could continue to expand its visibility and build an online audience as it prepared to launch a youth basketball program and other
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initiatives while stay-at-home restrictions were in place. Working in two teams and with direction from Jen and Tim, the seniors collaborated on their projects online. Both teams identified social media as a useful tool for WAKE’s efforts during the pandemic. They presented their recommendations to Ms. Camara in May, and she said she planned to incorporate their suggestions into her work. The experience was vastly different than last year’s inaugural I-Tri course, Jen acknowledges. Working in separate places is not optimal for learning how to solve problems using design-thinking concepts, which typically involve site visits and physical group activities in the PHI’s flexible learning space. But, she says, the students worked well together and gained many practical skills they can use in their future educational, professional, and life experiences. Tim characterizes the COVID-19 crisis as a “design thinking challenge for the whole world.” The skills that the students learned this spring will help them become effective problem-solvers in the wake of the pandemic and during other future disruptions, he says. Seniors taking part in programs through the Alvord Center for Global & Environmental Studies, including Guided Research Projects in Environmental Sustainability and the Global & Environmental Studies Certificate program, adjusted their independent inquiries and certificate requirements to fit the
distance-learning environment. Some were able to adapt without much disruption while others had to reconsider their final projects, with some surprising pivots. Senior Portia Inzone had been examining the economics of sustainable business practices through a pop-up gourmet coffee shop, The Green Bean, which she had set up in the Scanlan Campus Center in January. Because of the campus closure this spring, Portia’s project did not generate enough data for analysis, so she moved the coffee shop experience online. Her blogsite, “She Brews & Blogs,” welcomes environmental sustainability discussions for coffee lovers. Senior Madison Redmond set up an indoor hydroponic garden in the Clark Center for Science & Mathematics and grew several varieties of lettuce without soil as part of her guided research project. For her end-of-year share-out, she created a series of “how-to” videos for setting up a hydroponic garden at home. Although the Alvord Center had to cancel several planned initiatives, including all educational travel, the center adapted as much programming as it could to virtual experiences, explains Marley Matlack, the Christopher H. Lutz director of the Alvord Center. The center converted Earth Week programming into a virtual offering of environmental activities and partnered with the Norton Family Center for the Common Good to engage the community through the COVID-19 Speakers Series, a six-
part webinar series featuring expert speakers from among the Loomis community addressing topics related to the pandemic. The center also contributed to a reimagined Cultural Outburst, an annual multicultural celebration at Loomis that the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion set up as an online forum of shared stories and experiences this spring. Teachers across disciplines were challenged to maintain the connections they had built with their students on campus in the fall and winter and to keep their classes engaged. Building and maintaining rapport and a classroom culture is much easier and more natural in person, they observe. “We learned early on the importance of staying connected to our students,” says Sara Deveaux, director of the Kravis Center, who works with faculty in developing teaching strategies and identifying professional resources. Interaction between a student and a teacher is what nudges students to go beyond simply absorbing data to thinking about, analyzing, and making connections with the material, which is where the deepest learning happens, she says. Sara commends the Loomis faculty for the effort they invested in thinking creatively and continuing to advance student learning under the extraordinary circumstances this spring. But online learning has its limitations, she acknowledges. On campus, everyone in the school community plays an integral part in students’ learning experience, she says. Fostering community beyond the academic realm is a crucial aspect of learning at Loomis, and this area demanded some of the most creative approaches throughout the spring. “Creating community during lockdown and social distancing is really hard,” says Eric LaForest, the Kelly Family Director of the Norton Family Center for the Common Good, which counts community-building on and off the Loomis campus as one of its key objectives. Among its adaptations, the center reached out to students and faculty involved in community service to suggest ways individuals could reach out to neighbors and lend support to local service organizations during the pandemic —
The spring’s online “Living Room Concerts Series” provided a venue for student musicians to share performances with the entire school community.
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from a safe distance — and partnered six intensive five-week terms instead with the Alvord Center to present of the usual three 10-week terms, the COVID-19 Speakers Series. And and students will take two or three in a wildly popular move, Student courses per term rather than five or Council leaders created “In the Loop,” five-and-a-half. In anticipation of an entertaining weekly video presenthis model, the faculty is engaged tation anchored by students and Eric in extensive additional professional that helped to keep students, faculty, development and planning this and families connected. summer, and Webb says this work From their spring of teaching, and the experience of the spring term supporting, and connecting with will prepare the school well for the students remotely, Loomis teachers year ahead. learned “that the best practices of The grand and unexpected teaching and learning that permeate experiment that began in March also the hallways of Loomis Chaffee can is likely to usher in longer-lasting be replicated in an online format,” changes in education, Webb says. Webb says. “It takes a lot of effort Will Zoom become the standard and determination as well as some approach to evening extra-help technological proficiency, and it is sessions, he wonders. Will the ability not quite the same as face-to-face to connect virtually mean an end instruction, but it still equated to a to snow days? Will students who robust educational experience for our miss classes because of an extended students.” illness be able to keep up with their Professional development was, academics more easily? Will students and continues to be, key for faculty to and teachers discover that they prefer make optimal use of educational and fewer, more intensive courses each technological resources, according to term? “As the saying goes, necessity Sara. The Academic, Dean of Stuis the mother of invention,” he says, dents, Dean of Faculty, Information “and so I am excited to see what we Technology, Communications, and take away from this experience.” other administrative offices, as well as the faculty of the PHI and the Kravis Center, supported teachers in their transition to a distance model. The midterm survey of students, parents, Top: English teacher Jeffrey and faculty and another survey at the Scanlon ’79 “zooms” with his close of the term helped to identify students from his Hubbard Hall best practices and areas for further classroom. improvement. With the pandemic continuing, Bottom: From her desk in the Loomis is preparing to teach both Norton Family Center for the in-person and online classes in the Common Good, history teacher 2020–21 school year, and all classes, and Norton Center faculty whether on campus or online, will member Molly Pond conducts a blend synchronous instruction and synchronous class. structured independent work. The school-year calendar will be split into
To watch a video on online learning with Webb and Sara; to see episodes of “In the Loop,” a faculty Zoom music video, and recordings of the COVID-19 Speakers Series webinars; and to access two online student art exhibits, visit www.loomischaffee. org/magazine.
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Loomis-Chaffee Log headlines from 1970 note student activism.
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50 Years Ago, O bject Le sson
a Wave of Student
Activism By Karen Parsons
Loomis Chaffee History Teacher & School Archivist
H
eadmaster Fred Torrey titled his July 1970 Loomis Bulletin column, “Ventilating the Ivory Tower.” National and world events during that school year had made evident deep social, economic, and racial divides in the United States alongside growing distrust in the American government. Torrey wrote, “[t]here was much with us in our ivory tower. My Lai, the Chicago trial, October 15th, Earth Day, Cambodia, Kent State, and Jackson were part of the Loomis year because they happened. Their messages of hate, war, distrust, violence, racism, pollution, and waste were real and demanded attention.” Articles in The Loomis-Chaffee Log debated underlying questions of this tumultuous year: How might Loomis and Chaffee disrupt what one Log writer called “the image of the irresponsible student radical”? How would student activism, undertaken in the school environment, be made meaningful? The Log reported on student engagement throughout the year: two faculty-led student trips to Washington, D.C., and a meeting with Secretary of Labor George Shultz ’38; the National Day of Moratorium on October 15, 1969, during which over a 13-hour period, faculty and students read aloud in Grubbs Quadrangle approximately 40,000 names of Americans killed in the Vietnam War and distributed anti-war information throughout Windsor; a symposium held on the first-ever Earth Day in April 1970, attended by students from 21 schools, featuring speakers, discussions, and hands-on work about pressing environmental issues; and Chaffee’s Black Awareness Week of student-led Chapel Talks and guest speakers fighting racial biases in Hartford’s public schools. Though few students attended off-campus protests, a handful of first-person accounts were published in The Log. Feature articles by Ken Washington ’70 and Gordon Turner ’70 gave frank perspectives on the experiences of Blacks in America and at Loomis. Opinion pieces addressed police brutality, conscientious objector status, and the U.S. invasion of Cambodia, among many topics. The “dissent movement” at Loomis gathered its strongest momentum during May in response to the announcement of the U.S. invasion of Cambodia and the deaths of student protesters at Kent State, Jackson State, and Augusta, Georgia. Just two days after the Kent State shootings, faculty and students gave presentations related to the war and the peace movement. The next
afternoon, the faculty voted for an optional class day “for…students who… signed a petition expressing their interest in participating in the Loomis Action and Self-Education Program.” Two hundred fifty-six students signed the petition and attended workshops on the following day with “speakers on the [Black] Panthers, the state guard, local politics, civil rights, the courts, and several views on the war in Indochina.” That afternoon, “[a]bout 50 students” collected “several hundred signatures … for the immediate end of the U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia” from Windsor residents. The Nee Room became a letter-writing space; “315 letters [in support of the peace movement] were written to ‘swing’ U.S. senators, national magazines and newspapers, and influential Loomis alumni.” Later that month, students held a strike in honor of the eight lives lost at Jackson State and Augusta; these had received far less attention in the national press. A letter to The Log editor written after the strike called for a school-wide “memorial day” sponsored by the Afro-American Society to honor the eight students who died at Jackson State and Augusta. The Loomis administration had limited participation in the strike to Black students, and the letter writer convincingly argued that all students should have been included because there were many “who were ignorant of the events, but … interested in finding out.” In her letter published in the final Log of the year, faculty member Margot Torrey endorsed students’ reactions “to the events of May … [and their] new commitment to learning and action within the democratic system.” She continued, “[t]here has been much concern on the part of adults here and elsewhere about student apathy … Now … many students are showing the desire to inform themselves and a willingness to work hard through legitimate channels to change the world that will be theirs. … If the country is to find a route between anarchy and reaction, we’ll all need to work together.” That spring and into the next fall, debate continued on the role of political action and self-education at Loomis and Chaffee. One proposal, offering students working on November election political campaigns time off from athletics or classes, generated the most discussion. The Log editors echoed Mr. and Mrs. Torrey and the lived experiences of the previous year in their October 17, 1970, issue: “Politics is part of the world around us, and perhaps the subject most vitally in need of study. We can not afford to shut ourselves off.”
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Photo: Jessica Photo: JessicaRavenelle Ravenelle
CL ES ClASaSssNO NoT tes
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1987
John Edward Mooney’s first novel, The Siren of Good Intentions, was published in January by Althea Publishing. According to the Independent Review of Books, it is “a sweeping and immersive descent into the wild heart of West Africa exploring the dramatic conflicts of capitalism, imperialism, loyalty, and love.”
Andrew Kurian writes: “Enjoying being a parent of an LC ’23 despite making me feel old!”
1976 Kevin Scott Edwards writes: “With an inspiring education at Loomis Chaffee, especially in the sciences, math, and French, I consider myself extremely fortunate to be working for Société Générale de Surveillance, one of the world's leading inspection, testing, verification and certification companies. I work in the agriculture, food, and life division and I spend the majority of my time developing business solutions for our customers’ supply chains. Over the years, I have specialized in matters related to safety, quality, and sustainability. I serve on several industry associations’ technical committees and travel internationally for conferences ... until COVID-19. I am looking forward to bringing my family back to campus for the next reunion, and hope everyone is keeping safe and healthy.”
1983 Andrew Case and his family remain in London, “locked down for the time being.” He reports exciting times as he has launched his own business, Milkwood GC Services, which provides out-sourced general counsel services to family offices and small-to-mid-sized financial firms.
’00
1992 Jonathan Kiefer announces that Around the Sun, a movie he wrote and helped produce, was to be released digitally on August 4. Starring Cara Theobold and Gethin Anthony, the film is described as “a love story about not being the center of the universe.”
Noriel Flores Jr. ’00 and his wife, Kirsten, celebrated their marriage in West Point, N.Y., just before the beginning of 2020. In this photo of Pelican celebrants, Noriel and Kirsten are joined by David Kaplan ’00, Joe Reardon ’00, Ben Sach-Michaels ’00, Whitney Bull ’00, Ned Beller ’00, Merritt Quirk ’00, Dave Brown ’00, Dani Gonzalez Catania ’07, Chris Boyce ’00, and (kneeling) Jonathan Oppenheimer ’99.
2015 Mollie Richter announces that she has joined the marketing team for the nonprofit film 19 Covid Lane. Created in quarantine, the film is being circulated to raise money for United Way, a charity that provides COVID-19 relief. Mollie writes, “not only is the project for a good cause, but it is also extremely entertaining and a genuine watch.”
’12 & ’13
2016 Habiba Hopson recently received a National Fulbright Fellowship to teach and research art history in Spanish in Columbia for 2021.
Sarah Williams ’13 and Joe Niemiroski ’12 were married on February 29 in Old Lyme, Conn. Parent of alumni Robert Levin P ’02, ’06 officiated at the ceremony, and a number of alumni shared the happy day with the couple: Alex Shirley ’12, Olivia Vehslage ’12, Laura Champagne ’01, Nina Sayles ’13, Sarah, Joe, Alexander LaFrance ’12, Krishna Ragunathan ’12, and father of the groom Joe Niemiroski ’74.
Amanda Gallop graduated from Scripps College on May 16 in Claremont, Calif. She majored in English literature with a minor in French.
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LC Community comes together to raise over $4.2 MILLION The 2019–20 school year has been unlike any other in the school’s history. With so many worthy causes and important considerations at this time, our community came together to raise over $4.2 million in support of today’s Loomis Chaffee community. Gifts to the Annual Fund are incredibly meaningful every year. Your gifts support our operating budget and provide the flexible, unrestricted dollars that enable us to fulfill a wide range of needs, including ones that are unanticipated. Right now, the Annual Fund will help the school greatly as we meet increased requests for financial aid, support faculty through professional development, and make necessary changes to campus to ensure the health and safety of our community. On behalf of students, faculty, and staff,
Thank You! Loomis Chaffee’s alumni
JOIN LC Connect engagement platform
LC Connect is an online community and resource for alumni that makes it easier than ever for Pelicans to stay connected to each other and with the school.
Willis Foster Abbey ’43
LC Connect is an opt-in networking platform, powered by Graduway, that enables alumni to: Find and re-engage with fellow alumni through the online directory and groups
Willis “Will” Foster Abbey ’43 was a four-year day student from Windsor. While a student at Loomis, he participated in football, hockey, baseball and tennis. Will served in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific theater during World War II, was a teacher at New Canaan Country School, and was an accomplished pianist. In retirement, he was an enthusiastic member of the Charlottesville Senior Center and an avid traveler.
Expand professional connections through mentorship opportunities and a job board Stay up to date with Loomis Chaffee news and activities through an alumni events board and the school’s social media channels
Will thoughtfully named Loomis Chaffee a benefactor of both his home in Charlottesville, Virginia, and land that he owned in Massachusetts in his estate plans. After Will’s passing at the age of 91, the school’s endowment benefited from his generous forethought. Will’s late son Willis Frederick Abbey was a member of the Loomis Chaffee Class of 1975.
Have on-the-go access through the LC Connect mobile app
Register at www.loomischaffeealumni.org LC Connect replaces Loomis Chaffee’s Evertrue app and Career Network, upgrading the alumni experience by providing several resources in one platform.
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For more information, please contact Associate Director of Development Heidi E.V. McCann ’93 at 860.687.6273 or heidi_mccann@loomis.org. www.loomischaffee.giftplans.org
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Photo: Jessica Ravenelle
“Dance Rhythm,” a bronze statue by Chaim Gross, graces the lawn between Carter and Harman halls overlooking the Meadows. The statue was a gift to the school from Howard Richmond ’35 in honor of retired Headmaster John Ratté.
Photo: Jessica Ravenelle
ua r ies OObit B IT UA RIE S
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1941 Warren W. Ball, on May 13. A five-year student from Windsor, Conn., Warren was involved in the Athletic Council, Junior French Club, Radio Club, Chemistry Club, and Scholastic Committee. He was active in soccer, basketball, baseball, wrestling, and track. Warren earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He served in the U.S. Navy in the Philippines during World War II, where he received the Pacific Combat Medal. After his war service, Warren was employed by the Sigourney Tool Company in Hartford and the Smyth Manufacturing Company before starting his own company, Graphic Arts Machinery, in Windsor. During his retirement, he enjoyed inventing products to further his business and making maple syrup and growing blueberries at his home in Sandisfield, Mass. Warren endowed the Dorothy and Warren Ball ’41 Scholarship at Loomis Chaffee. Preceded in death by his wife, Dorothy, Warren was survived by his children Claudia Weiman, Priscilla Barber, Roger Ball, and Sarah B. Konikowski and their spouses; nine grandchildren, including Matthew Barber ’95, Tyler Ball ’00, Drew Weiman ’02, and Allison Ball ’02; and many extended family members. A private funeral service was held on May 27 at Elm Grove Cemetery in Windsor with military honors.
Ray E. Kidder, on December 3, 2019. A four-year student from Riverside, Conn., Ray was involved in the Chess Team, Dance Orchestra, and Grounds Committee, and he was president of the Chemistry Club. He received a Rensselaer Medal at Commencement. He was active in football, hockey, and baseball. Ray was a weapons physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for 35 years and retired in 1990.
He was best known for his outspoken views on nuclear weapons policy issues, including nuclear testing, stockpile management, and arms control.
William Jules Gehron, on May 24 in Lewes, Del. A two-year student from Pelham, N.Y., Bill was involved in the Political Club, Lieutenant Military Drill, Glee Club, and Student Council, and he served as co-chairman of the Allyn Club. He was active in football and hockey and earned a letter in baseball and basketball. Bill served his country as a commissioned officer and platoon leader in the U.S. Army during World War II, for which he was honored with the Presidential Unit Citation and the Combat Infantryman’s Badge. After his service, he graduated from Williams College in 1950 and married Patricia Coleman in December of that same year. Shortly after their marriage, Bill was recalled to serve in the Korean War. He returned to New York in 1953 to join the staff of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace as director of public affairs. Four years later, Bill went on to work as a member of the White House Disarmament Staff in Washington, D.C. When responsibilities for disarmament negotiations were absorbed by the State Department, he became an officer in the Office of the Special Assistant to the Secretary for Disarmament and Atomic Energy Affairs. After the establishment of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Bill took on the role of one its first officers, serving on delegations to the United Nations and the Ten Nation Disarmament Talks in Geneva, Switzerland. On his return from overseas, he joined the Department of State once again as a foreign service officer in the Bureau of European Affairs. Following his retirement in 1985, Bill remained as a foreign affairs analyst and senior advisor working on Freedom of Information projects until 2007. His favorite pastimes included playing tennis, biking, and downhill skiing, and Bill also enjoyed writing, including his memoir, Ramble: A Memoir. He remained connected to the Loomis Chaffee community as a member of the Common Good Society. Bill was survived by his wife, Patricia Coleman Gehron; his three children, William Coleman Geh-
1942 Judith Buell Pezzente, on April 10 in Murrells Inlet, S.C. A four-year Chaffee student, Judith served on the Chiel Board and as yearbook art editor. Sarah Clark Gerrett, daughter of Judith’s good friend Lucy Whitney Clark ’42, wrote in a note to the school that Judith “was certainly proud of her Chaffee heritage and a fine daughter of the school. She continued her passion of painting well into her retirement.”
1943 Richard Seymour Blake, on March 29 in Falmouth, Mass. A four-year student from Hartford, Conn., Dick was involved in the Dining Hall Committee and served as vice president and secretary treasurer of the Rifle Club. He was active in football, basketball, and tennis, and he lettered on the rifle team. Dick served in the U.S. Army during World War II. Following his military service, he completed his engineering degree at Yale University. Dick then went on to earn a master’s degree in education from the University of Hartford. He enjoyed a career as a sixth-grade teacher at Morse Pond School until his retirement in 1988. A master wood carver, Dick was one of the artists represented at Woods Hole Handworks for many years. He enjoyed working with Danish oils and stains, dyes, varnishes, and lacquers “to enhance the natural beauty of wood.” Dick’s lifelong passion was boating. He spent many summers fishing and cruising in the waters of Vineyard Sound. He was buried at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne, Mass.
ron, Michael McDermott Gehron, and Anne Pyne Holloway; and his four grandchildren.
Winthrop Nelson Jr., on May 15. A four-year Honor Roll student from West Hartford, Conn., Win was involved in Concert Orchestra, Band, Military Drill, and Student Council, and he served as president of the Debating Club, co-president of the French Club, and chairman of the Library Committee. He was active in basketball, tennis, and baseball, and he earned a letter in soccer. Shortly after beginning his education at Harvard College, Win was drafted into the U.S. Navy. A week before his ship sailed from San Francisco, Calif., in 1944, he received a letter of support from Herb Caitlin, a former Loomis Chaffee teacher. According to the family obituary, Win “appreciated the letter greatly, often spoke about it years later, and credited the letter in helping him face some of the trials of war.” He served as 2nd class sonarman aboard the minesweeper YMS 47 in the invasion of Balikpapan, Borneo. After his service, Win returned to Harvard College with a major in social relations and graduated in 1947. He went on to attend Yale Divinity School and served in Congregational churches in Maine, Connecticut, Minnesota, and New Hampshire. Win earned a master’s degree in sociology at the University of Minnesota in 1969. Loomis classmate Harry Maidment ’43 was instrumental in helping Win relocate from Minnesota to a position at Manchester Center Church in Manchester, Conn. In 1976, Win moved to New Hampshire to serve in the Hooksett and Alstead church congregations. He enjoyed gardening, music, community theater, and travel. Preceded in death by his siblings, Theodore Nelson ’48 and Ruth Theron, Win is survived by his children, Peter Nelson ’69, Tara Jamison, and Laura Nelson; his five grandchildren; and a great-grandson.
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O bi tuar i e s
1944 Frederick Austin Clinton Jr., on April 9. A four-year student from Hartford, Conn., Fred was involved in the Glee Club, the French Club, Military Drill, and several theater productions. He was active in football, hockey, baseball, track, and wrestling. Fred graduated from Yale University and served his country as a lieutenant junior grade in the U.S. Navy. He went on to become a general contractor and started his own engineering and interior design companies. Fred was an avid skier and sailor, and he enjoyed traveling. According to the family obituary, he was “a gentle and good-humored father, who enjoyed including his family in all of his interests and encouraged them to be fine students and good people.” Preceded in death by his sister, Marcia Clinton Battey ’41, Fred was survived by his wife, Marjorie Clinton; his three children, Scott, Sally, and David Clinton ’71; his five grandchildren; and his four great-grandchildren.
Jean Bishop Helliesen, on February 16, peacefully, in La Crosse, Wis. A four-year student from West Hartford, Conn., Jean was involved in Student Council and was freshman class president and senior year editor of the yearbook. She attended Bryn Mawr College and spent her junior year in Zurich, Switzerland, where she met her husband, Pelle Helliesen. They married soon after Jean graduated magna cum laude from Bryn Mawr College in 1948. For the next three years, Jean studied linguistics and began graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, earning a doctorate in classics in 1968. She became a professor at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in 1974, where she taught Roman, Greek, and Medieval history. During her teaching career, Jean received two National Endowment for the Humanities Resident Fellowships, one at the University of North
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Carolina and one at Stanford. Jean was also a pioneering citizen activist. She was chosen as a delegate for Senator Eugene McCarthy and participated in the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1968. After President Richard Nixon was elected, Jean helped form the New Democratic Coalition in Wisconsin and was elected to the organization’s state administrative committee. Wisconsin Governor Patrick Lucey named Jean chair of the Wisconsin American Revolution Bicentennial Commission, which created Old World Wisconsin. She was also appointed by the governor to serve on Wisconsin’s Health Planning and Policy Task Force and was selected by U.S. Senators Gaylord Nelson and William Proxmire to serve on the U.S. District Court Nominating Commission. According to the family obituary, after her retirement in 1989, Jean “traveled around the world and never stopped enthusiastically sharing her vast knowledge with those around her.” Preceded in death by her ex-husband, Pelle Helliesen; her siblings, Joel Bishop and Lois Bishop Green; and her cousin Michael Sudarsky ’42, Jean was survived by several extended family members and friends, including her cousin Alex Rosenberg ’64.
1947 Peter Torrey Cameron, on April 27 in Northampton, Mass. A twoyear student from Clinton, N.Y., Peter was involved in the Work Squad, Glee Club, and Choir and served as secretary-treasurer of the Stamp Club. He was active in soccer and tennis and served as a manager for baseball and basketball, for which he earned a letter. He received a Book Prize at Commencement. Peter began learning to play the organ at Loomis and continued his organ studies at Hamilton College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in history. He found his lifelong career in building, maintaining, and tuning Tracker pipe organs, working for organ companies in
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Connecticut; West Springfield, Mass.; and Brooklyn, N.Y., and for many years at the Andover Organ Company in Lawrence, Mass. Peter did extensive historical research on pipe organs and was awarded the Organ Historical Society’s Distinguished Service Award in 2001. While living in Methuen, Mass., Peter became a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Haverhill, where he sang in the choir, led the music committee, helped care for the organ, and organized the church’s archives. Peter later moved to Northampton, Mass., where he and his sister enjoyed attending area concerts and theater productions, visiting historical and natural sites, and driving through the countryside. Preceded in death by his sister Julia, Peter is survived by his sister Janet Couch and many extended family members.
S. Blaisdell Wight, on July 3, 2019, at his home in Prescott Valley, Ariz. A four-year student from Longmeadow, Mass., Blais was involved in the Concert and Dance Orchestra, Radio Club, Bridge Club, Chapel Committee, and Fire Fighting Squad. He was active in football, wrestling, and basketball and earned two letters in soccer and one letter in track. He received the Andrew DeWolf Barss Prize at Commencement. Blais served three years in the Massachusetts National Guard while attending and graduating from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He was a conductor, composer, and arranger. In addition to being a vocalist, he played guitar, standup bass, piano, saxophone, and trumpet. Blais joined the crew of Brigantine Yankee in 1950, charting unexplored islands and providing cultural information for National Geographic. Following his return from sea, he traveled west to fulfill his dream of becoming a cowboy, learning the lifestyle from the ground up. Blais settled in the Prescott Valley area in 1966, where
he entertained at the Pine Cone Inn five nights a week for 40 years. He was inducted into the Greater Arizona Country Music Hall of Fame in 2017. Blais was survived by his wife, Sonja Risley; his son, Lee Tipton Wight; his step-children, Peggy Jo Alexander and James Potts; and several extended family members. A celebration of Blais’s life was held at the Moose Lodge in Prescott Valley on August 3, 2019.
1948 Theodore Cooke Nelson, on May 9 in Iowa City, Iowa. A four-year Honor Roll student from West Hartford, Conn., Ted was involved in the Debating Club, Political Club, and Fire Fighting Squad. He was active in football, tennis, and basketball. Following in the footsteps of his older brother, Winthrop Nelson Jr. ’43, Ted attended Harvard College and graduated in 1952. After graduating from the Army Language School in Monterey, Calif., Ted went on to serve in the U.S. Army in Germany until 1955. He continued his education at the University of Minnesota, where he earned a master’s degree in Russian studies in 1956. In the summer of that same year, Ted moved to Washington, D.C., to begin his career as a foreign service officer at the U.S. Department of State. He married Margaret Moeller in 1959, and the couple moved to Ted’s first overseas posting at the U.S. Consulate in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, where his first son was born. In 1961, Ted moved to his next posting at the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria, Republic of South Africa, where his second and third sons were born. Three years later, Ted returned to Washington, D.C., to study Hungarian at the Department of State’s Foreign Service Institute. He was later posted to the U.S. Legation in Budapest, Hungary, until 1967. After earning a master of science in public health in population affairs at the University of North Carolina, Ted was seconded to the United Nations and served as
O bi tuar i e s the coordinator of the United Nations Fund for Population Activities in Tehran, Iran, and in Kabul, Afghanistan. He returned to the State Department in 1976 and retired in 1983. Following retirement, Ted moved to Iowa City, Iowa, in 1988. There, he became involved with the Teaching Assistant/Simulated Patient program at the University of Iowa College of Medicine until retiring once again in 2000. Ted was survived by his brother, Winthrop Nelson Jr. ’43 (who passed away shortly afterwards — see 1943); his wife, Margaret; his sons, Andrew, Jeffrey, and Brian, and their spouses; and his nephew Peter R. Nelson ’69.
1949 Mary Faith Parker Donaldson, on January 23 in Port Charlotte, Fla. A four-year Chaffee student from Hartford, Conn., Faith served as Glee Club president. She graduated from The College of New Rochelle. After college, Faith married Harry A. Schmidt Jr. in 1956 and had three children. The family moved to North Massapequa in Long Island, N.Y., where Faith taught math in the Bethpage school district for more than 20 years. After Harry’s death in 1982, Faith married Bob Donaldson and moved to Babylon, N.Y., in 1984. The two went on to enjoy retirement in Punta Gorda, Fla., for 26 years. Preceded in death by her brother John Parker ’43, Faith was survived by her husband, Bob Donaldson; her brother Tom Parker; her children, Neal, Linda, and Stephen; her stepchildren, Gwen, Lorraine, Bob, Chris, and Kathleen; and several extended family members. A celebration of Faith’s life took place on January 30 at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Punta Gorda.
1950 Charles Housen, on April 4, peacefully, at his home in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. A two-year student from Orange, Mass., Charley was involved in the Stagehands Union, Barbell Club, Political Club, Jazz Club, Foreign Policy Association, and Athletic Council. He was active in football and served as wrestling captain and baseball manager, for which he earned a letter. Charley graduated from Tufts University. In 1970, he took over his father’s business, Erving Paper Mills, which he grew to employ more than 1,300 people. The company’s growth resulted in its expansion across the East Coast and some of the Midwest. Charley is also responsible for creating the Wendy’s restaurant chain’s printed yellow napkin. In addition to serving as chief executive officer and chairman of his company, Charley was chairman of the Associated Industries of Massachusetts and was active in the Young Presidents’ Organization, an international business organization for which he championed many local, national, and international events. He was founder and chairman of the Executives in Residence Program at Brandeis University’s International Business School. As a philanthropist, Charley was active with Brandeis University, the Boston Jewish Federation, Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, and American Friends of the Technion. As a father, he enjoyed skiing with his family and spent summers at a lake house on Laurel Lake in western Massachusetts. According to the family obituary, “He loved life so much and had such fun living it, and he passed this passion on to his children and grandchildren.” Charley retired from Erving Paper Mills and moved to Florida in 2001. He spent his time playing golf, making friends, playing poker, and eating oysters. Charley was survived by
his sister, Joanne Housen Rose; his wife of 63 years, Marjorie; his children, Deborah Housen-Couriel, Phyllis Housen, and Morris Housen; six grandchildren; and his nephew Mark Rose ’88.
1951 Frederic “Ted” Morgan Cowles III, on May 7 due to complications from COVID-19. A four-year student from West Hartford, Conn., Ted was involved in the Business Board of The Log, Jazz Club, Ping Pong Club, and Grounds Committee, and he served as a medical aide, president of the Ski Club, and supervisor of the Rifle Club. He was active in baseball, track, and tennis and earned two letters in soccer. After graduating from Middlebury College in 1958, Ted served for three years in the U.S. Marine Corps. He enjoyed woodworking, outdoor construction projects, watching the UConn women play basketball, and spending time at Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. Ted was survived by his wife, Janet Cowles; his children, Laura Hobbs, Adine Watkins, and Frederic Morgan Cowles IV; his five grandchildren; and his brother Robert Cowles ’57.
1953 Gloria Barnes Harper, on March 23. A four-year Chaffee student from Windsor, Conn., Gloria was involved in the French Club, acted in Life with Father, and served as business manager of Epilogue. Francine Berth Myles ’53 wrote in a note to the school, “After one year at Wellesley, following her 1953 Chaffee graduation, Gloria embarked on what was to be a long and successful modeling career. As her classmates, we witnessed excitedly the beginning of that
career our sophomore year, when she was crowned Miss Tobacco Valley. Gloria was not just a pretty face (cover girl: Life, Vogue, Good Housekeeping, etc.) She was a member of SAG, appearing in the background of many films over the years, a board game inventor, a member of several genealogical societies and an inveterate bargain hunter, whose trips around the world she financed as a courier.” Gloria remained connected to the Loomis Chaffee community as a member of the Common Good Society. She enjoyed travel, swimming, bridge, and a good joke. Preceded in death by her husband, Nelson Vance Harper Jr., Gloria was survived by her two children, Christine Rowe Harper and James Vance Harper, and their spouses; and her four grandchildren. A funeral service was held on March 27 at Carmon Windsor Funeral Home in Windsor.
1957 Paul G. Flynn, on August 10, 2019, surrounded by family at his home in Santa Barbara, Calif. A four-year student from West Hartford, Conn., Paul was involved in Band, Orchestra, the Debating Club, Student Council, and the Foreign Policy Association, and he served as a medical aide. He was active in basketball and baseball and earned two letters in hockey and a letter in football. Paul earned a bachelor’s degree in U.S. history from Georgetown University in 1961. That same year, he joined the U.S. Navy, where he served from ensign to lieutenant in the Western Pacific until 1965. After his service, Paul earned a juris doctorate from the University of San Francisco School of Law in 1968. For the next three years, he worked as an associate at O’Melveny & Myers. Paul then went to work for the District of California in Los
O bi tuar i e s Angeles as assistant U.S. attorney until 1978 then as chief assistant U.S. attorney until 1980. Later, he became a professor of law at Pepperdine University School of Law before being appointed by Governor George Deukmejian as a superior court judge in Los Angeles County in 1989. Paul served on the bench for 20 years adjudicating criminal cases until he moved to the Santa Monica court system. According to the family obituary, he was known to “run an efficient, well-organized courtroom balanced with humor, kindness, and authority.” Paul was an avid golfer and member of the Valley Club of Montecito and the Los Angeles Country Club. He remained connected to the Loomis Chaffee community as a member of the Common Good Society. Paul was survived by his wife, Kee Ralphs Flynn; his brother, David Flynn; his children, Bridget Flynn Walker, Sean Flynn, and Deirdre Flynn; and seven grandchildren.
1958 John Everton Davison III, on February 9. A four-year student from West Hartford, Conn., John was involved in the Student Endowment Fund, the Book Exchange, Student Council, The Log, and Loomiscellany, and he served as editor of Handbook. He earned three letters as soccer co-captain and was active in wrestling and baseball. John received the Charles Edgar Sellers Memorial Prize at Commencement and graduated cum laude. He continued his education at Wesleyan University, where he graduated summa cum laude, and he later earned a master’s degree from Stanford University. He briefly worked for AeroAir, Stanford University as a case writer and taught at Santa Clara University before returning to West Hartford in 1965 to join the Travelers Insurance Company, where he eventually became a senior vice president. In 1992, John took an early retirement and established a small investment advisory firm that
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he ran until 2010. A believer in giving back to his community, John taught Sunday School at the First Methodist Church, coached West Hartford Pee Wee football, and was a member and chairman of the West Hartford Board of Education, president and treasurer of the Woodridge Lake Association, Noah Webster House board member, member of the West Hartford Risk Management Advisory Council, board member of the Ironwood Condo Association, member of the West Hartford Land Trust, and 40-plus-year member of the Rockledge Men’s Club, which he also served as president and treasurer. He remained connected to the Loomis Chaffee community as a member of the Common Good Society. John was survived by his wife, Dean Sullivan Davison ’58; his children, John, Peter, and Katie; and six grandchildren. A celebration of his life was held on March 28 at Taylor & Modeen Funeral Home in West Hartford. Robert Fowles, on March 7. A four-year student from Windsor, Conn., Jib, as he was known, grew up on the Loomis Chaffee campus, where his father, Lloyd “Lou” Fowles, served as head of the History Department. He was involved in the German Club, Modern Jazz Club, and Loomiscellany and served as co-chairman of the Key Society. Jib was active in football, baseball, and basketball and earned a letter in track. After graduating cum laude from Loomis, Jib attended Wesleyan University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1963. Following a Fullbright Fellowship year in India, Jib moved to New York City, where he earned a master’s degree from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a doctorate at New York University. He went on to teach at NYU from 1967 to 1974 then relocated to Texas, where he was hired to be a charter faculty member at the new Clear Lake City campus of the University of Houston. In 1975, he married Joy Castronovo, and they established their longtime home on Dickinson Bayou. In time, Jib
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became the faculty convener of the UHCL communications program. He taught courses on the modern mass media and on the history of communications, oversaw the internship portion of this program, and took great satisfaction in the professional achievements of his many media students. According to the family obituary, former student and novelist Kevin Kwan said Jib “was an amazing philosophical genius on the topic of mass media in society.” Jib published seven books and many articles, some of which were featured in The New York Times, Atlantic, TV Guide, Advertising Age, and many academic journals. His books include Television Viewers vs. Media Snobs, Starstruck: Celebrity Performers and the American Public, and The Case for Television Violence. In his retirement, Jib was an active commissioner on Wiscasset, Maine’s Historic Preservation Commission. For several years, he taught courses on the social history of photography at the Midcoast Senior College in Brunswick, Maine, and at the Coastal Senior College in Damariscotta, Maine. At the time of his death, Jib was completing a book on the social history of photographic imagery. Jib was survived by his siblings, Jinnet Fowles ’65 and Nathan Fowles ’61; his wife, Joy; his children, Nathaniel Fowles ’06 and Celeste Fowles Nguyen; and his two grandchildren.
After graduating from Loomis, Doug went on to Middlebury College and the Boston University School of Law. He volunteered to join the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, where he served as a tank commander. After his service, Doug was a longtime senior partner with the Griggs, Baldwin & Baldwin law firm and served on the Baldwin Foundation, a private charitable organization. He was also appointed to the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court Disciplinary Committee. According to the family obituary, Doug “was gifted at making people comfortable and putting them at ease.” He used his knack for hospitality during his tenure of leadership at the Metropolitan Club in Manhattan, where he was the youngest and longest-serving president. Doug enjoyed duck hunting, fishing, boating, and water and snow skiing. Preceded in death by his grandson, Joshua, Doug was survived by his sister, Judith Kerwin; his wife, Patricia; his children, Kendra Brandrup Paolitto ’83, Monika Brandrup, and Peter Brandrup; his step-children, Barclay Tuck and Phillip Corryn; and two grandchildren. A celebration of Doug’s life was held on February 6 at The Metropolitan Club in Manhattan.
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David G. Ahern, on February 5, peacefully, in Fairfax, Va. A one-year Honor Roll student from Hartford, Conn., Dave was involved in the Political Club, News Editor Press Club, and Foreign Policy Association, and he served as co-president/secretary of the Political Debating Club, assistant editor of Handbook, and staff member of Loomiscellany. He was active in football, hockey, baseball, and basketball and earned a letter in soccer. Dave graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1964. He went on to serve in the U.S. Navy, where he was awarded numerous citations, including the Distinguished Flying Cross,
Douglas W. Brandrup, on January 31. A two-year student from Pearl River, N.Y., Doug was involved in Loomistakes and the Ski Club, and he served as president of the Glee Club, a Log reporter, and secretary of the Darwin Club. He was active in football and basketball, earned a letter in track, and was baseball co-captain. As a child, Doug was selected to attend the American Boychoir School in Princeton, N.J., where he toured the country, soloing at Carnegie Hall, symphonies, philharmonics, and for President Eisenhower.
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O bi tuar i e s for his participation in combat operations in North Vietnam. He retired as director of the Program Executive Office for Space, Communications, and Sensors in 1994. After his retirement, Dave spent several years at General Dynamics Information Systems and Northrop Grumman. Later, he became a professor of program management and director of the Center for Program Management at the Defense Acquisition University. Dave then served as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Portfolio Systems Acquisition. He remained connected to the Loomis Chaffee community through reunion fundraising, as a communications volunteer, and as a member of the Common Good Society. Preceded in death by his brothers Edward F. Ahern III and Terrance B. Ahern, Dave was survived by his wife, Linda Terwilliger; his sister, Sarah Opdycke; his cousin, Margot Tamoney Marenakos ’78; his children, Christine Bush, Stephen Ahern, and Robert Ahern, and their spouses; three grandchildren; and many extended family members. A celebration of Dave’s life was held on February 13 at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Annandale, Va.
1961 Cynthia Mather Winter, on February 10, 2018. A four-year student, Bindy, as she was known, served as Glee Club librarian. She enjoyed animals, playing tennis, and gardening. Bindy was survived by her sister, three children, and two grandchildren.
1962 Toni Randall Rosenberg, on March 22. A four-year Chaffee student from West Hartford, Conn., Toni served as president of the Chaffers Drama Group. After graduating from Radcliffe College in 1966, Toni studied painting at the Rhode Island School of
Design. She went on to work as an editor, helping produce more than 200 books and hundreds of articles. Toni also started a pet-sitting business and cared for her clients’ pets as though they were her own. According to the family obituary, she was “an extraordinary mother and friend to those, both furry and human, who were fortunate enough to know her.” Toni remained connected to the Loomis Chaffee community as a member of the Common Good Society. Preceded in death by her brother, Stephen Rosenberg, she was survived by her daughter, Xue Elana Rachel Rosenberg; her sister, Marya Randall Levenson ’60; and several extended family members.
1963 Dennis A. Knurek, on January 23 in Melbourne Fla. A fouryear student from Wethersfield, Conn., Dennis was involved in the Radio Club, served as president of the Astronomy Club, and was a National Merit Scholarship finalist. He was active in tennis and served as wrestling team manager, for which he earned four letters. Dennis earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and English literature at the University of Connecticut in 1966 and earned a master’s degree in psychology from Cornell University in 1967. He went on to attend Saint Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, Calif., where he earned a master of divinity in 1976 and a Certificate of Specialized Pastoral Competency in 1977. Dennis was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Bridgeport by the Most Rev. Walter W. Curtis in Saint Augustine Cathedral in May 1977. He was later assigned as chaplain at Sacred Heart University while residing at Saint Joseph Parish in Shelton, Conn., in 1982. After being appointed parochial vicar of Saint Cecilia Parish in 1986, Dennis was granted permission to provide priestly ministry in the Diocese of Orlando, where he served until his
retirement in 2004. After retirement, Dennis conducted mission work in the Eleuthera Islands. According to the family obituary, Dennis “had a special fondness for Ocean Beach Park and was an avid Boston Red Sox fan.” He was survived by his cousin Timothy O’Neill and many extended family members and friends. A celebration of Dennis’s life was held on January 31 at Saint Joseph Church in New London, Conn.
1965 Edward Napier Cahill, on March 16. A four-year student from Centerport, N.Y., Ted, as he was known, was involved in the Darwin Club, Log circulation, and the Student Endowment Fund, and he served as president of the Sailing Club. A talented athlete, he earned two letters in soccer, two letters in hockey, and two letters in lacrosse. He continued his education at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a degree in anthropology. During his time in college, he played the guitar for The Magic Mushrooms, a psychedelic rock group that landed on the Billboard charts. Ted spent most of his career as a consultant for Phoenix Home Life Insurance Company. He enjoyed sailboat racing, ice hockey, playing Celtic guitar, and hiking. Ted was survived by his wife, Alison; his children, Jessica Holloway, Edward Cahill II, and Molly Perrone; and his five grandchildren.
1979 Paul Joseph Weber, on June 1, 2019, due to an unexpected heart attack. A one-year student from Clinton, Conn., Paul, who was also known as “Webs,” went on to Boston College. He was a software developer for Harvard Apparatus in Holliston, Mass.; a guitarist; and avid kayaker. Paul was survived by his wife, Catherine, and his son, Benjamin.
2005 Jaimie Lee Martin, on January 26. A four-year student from Willington, Conn., Jaimie served as president of Students Against Drunk Driving, was active in varsity soccer, and was captain of varsity basketball. She graduated from Elms College in Chicopee, Mass. Jaimie had a lifelong passion for horses and cooking. According to the family obituary, she “will be best remembered for her heart of gold.” Jaimie was survived by her grandparents, Robert Coulombe, Claire Coulombe, and Carolyn Martin; her parents, Steven D. Martin and Marlaine C. Martin; her sister, Kyle S. Martin; and several extended family members. A memorial service was held at the Carmon Funeral Home in Windsor, Conn., on February 1.
2009 John Michael Greiner, on December 25, 2019. The family shares with great sadness that John lost his life to substance use disorder and states in the obituary, “He will be deeply missed and remembered as an intelligent, energetic, outgoing, and loving man. Another much loved young person with great potential has been lost to the devastating disease of addiction.” A two-year student from Longmeadow, Mass., John later graduated from Longmeadow High School. He was the owner of TJ Design and Landscape in Reading, Mass. John enjoyed playing lacrosse and ski-racing and was an avid fan of New England sports teams, especially the New England Patriots. He was survived by his parents, Michael and Kathleen Greiner; his siblings, Nathan Greiner, Amelia Gorman, Eli Greiner, and Zachary Greiner, and their spouses; his two children, Lucas Alexandrov and Maeve Greiner; and many extended family members.
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Former Faculty
David Robert Lusby Simpson, on January 24 in Bloomfield, Conn. David joined the Loomis Chaffee faculty in the fall of 1959. He taught French and Humanities, coached golf, was head varsity coach of the rifle team for many years, and advised student Christian fellowship organizations. David retired in 1994 after 35 years of service. Stephen Dahl ’63, remembers David as a “scholar and a gentleman. He was an extraordinary teacher and then invaluable presence at the dining hall or whenever we ran into him, as he loved to transfer knowledge about ‘culture,’ mainly meaning opera, into young heads. We often thought it was a trifle funny when he drove by in his Tiger sports car, his … forehead surtopped by a flat top [haircut.] I kept up with him for years chatting on the phone, hearing his operatic adventures, and relating my own,” Stephen wrote in a note to the school. David was conversant in five languages: French, Italian, German, Spanish, and English. He had a deep appreciation for poetry, classical music, and especially opera. He was a member of the Metropolitan Opera Guild. A trained vocalist, he was gratified to sing professionally at various churches in the Hartford area, notably at Asylum Hill Congregational Church. David was a longtime, faithful supporter of the Fellowship of Christians in Universities and Schools campus ministry, and he was a long-standing member and elder at Covenant Presbyterian Church in West Simsbury, Conn. A memorial service was held at the Covenant Presbyterian Church, known as “The Barn,” on February 29 in Simsbury.
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John Peter Bermon, on March 31 at his home in Boston, Mass., after an extended illness. Born in 1943 in Erie, Pa., John graduated from Erie’s Strong Vincent High School in 1960 and earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale University in 1964. Following in the footsteps of his grandfather and father, both Lutheran ministers, John enrolled in Union Theological Seminary in New York City. There, he met Catherine Anne “Kit” Clarke, and the two were married in 1966. During the great social tumult of the 1960s, John was drawn to issues of social justice and racial equality, including the anti-Vietnam War and civil rights movements. He worked with a Harlem street academy in New York City and upon graduation from seminary in 1967, became pastor of a Lutheran parish in Jamaica, Queens, N.Y. In 1971, John joined the Loomis Chaffee faculty and moved his young family to Connecticut. He taught philosophy and religion until 1979, introducing students to Western philosophy, Eastern religions, and precepts of psychoanalysis. While teaching at Loomis, John studied Buddhism and, after experiencing a neardeath medical crisis, began an existential exploration that included psychoanalysis. Inspired by the experience, he attended the University of Connecticut School of Social Work to become a clinical psychotherapist, a profession he felt was his true calling and that he practiced for nearly 30 years until his retirement in 2012. Scott Wallace ’72 shared this reflection in a letter to the school: “John was the first teacher I knew who encouraged deep inward questioning and self-examination. His philosophy and religion classes were a revelation. Intellectual pursuits did not always have
O bi tuar i e s focus on strictly abstract concepts; they could also involve personal issues. He was quick to laugh, often at himself. Students sought him out because of his kindness, good humor, and compassion. He treated us like adults and intellectual equals. We might have been young and naïve, but he took us seriously. It was a joy to visit with him, Kit, and Matthew, who was then a toddler, in their Batch Second apartment. I never hesitated to knock on their door and always felt welcome when it opened. I’d love to sit there and talk with John and Kit while Matt ran about
amid peals of delight. I have been fortunate to have stayed in touch with them over the years. Right up till the end, John remained curious, concerned, and courageous, the very embodiment of warmth and decency.” According to the family obituary, John “will be remembered by those who knew him as an unflinching seeker of truth, a compassionate friend, and a loving family man who brought a keen sense of humor to nearly any occasion. He was a passionate student of life and never tired of pondering its mysteries and its beauty.” He was survived by his
wife, Kit Bermon; his two sons, Matthew Jonah Bermon ’88 and Timothy James Bermon, and their spouses; and several extended family members.
More News The school has learned of the passing of Arthur Schoenfuss ’35 on April 10, 2020; Inez Marie Williams ’36 on July 7, 2009; Dana Dowse Holbrook Jr. ’41 on December 31, 1991; André du Bouchet ’41 in 2001; former Board of Trustees chairman
James Fairfield English Jr. ’44 on June 2, 2020; Andrew B. Cook ’45 on January 19, 2020; Alice Ford Ferraina ’53 on January 28, 2020; John Ziskowski ’55 on March 4, 2020; Karl Conger ’60 on February 12, 2020; Clive McMurchy Mason ’65 on June 8, 2020; John F. Boldt ’67 on August 29, 2019; Bill Stevenson ’70 on June 14, 2020; Michael Lahey ’76 on June 5, 2015; Peter Hsing ’86 on July 17, 2020; and John Anthony Hechavarria ’92 on May 31, 2020. More information, as available, will be printed in future editions.
Former Trustee Matthew Bender IV Served 1983–1990 Matthew Bender IV died on February 23 in Albany, N.Y., where he was born in 1931 and chose to live for most of his life. Matt attended high school at Albany Academy and earned a bachelor’s degree with honors from Princeton University in 1953. He enjoyed a long and successful business career in publishing and marketing of law books and legal treatises, first with his family’s business, Matthew Bender & Company; then as owner and operator of Sage Hill Publishing, which he founded; and subsequently with Clark Boardman Company in New York City. Dedicated to community service, Matt contributed his time and talent in numerous leadership roles at local public health, education, conservation, cultural, and community support organizations, including Loomis Chaffee, Albany Medical Center Hospital, the Albany Academies, Albany Medical College, the Greenway Conservancy for the Hudson River Valley, Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Albany Symphony Orchestra, and the Community Foundation for the Greater Capital Region, among others. In 1997, Matt created the Bender Family Foundation, which he oversaw as the president of its Board of Trustees for more than 20 years. Over the years, Matt was recognized with numerous honors and awards for his leadership — especially for his financial and operational expertise — from the many
organizations he served. Matthew served on the Loomis Chaffee Board of Trustees from 1983 until 1990. According to the family obituary, Matthew was an avid traveler who took great pride in having visited all 50 state capitals on his journeys and was “one of the kindest, most charming, and genuine persons one could know.” Renowned for his philanthropy, Matt will be long remembered for his interest in people and places as well as his generosity of spirit, affable personality, and empathetic curiosity. He was survived by his wife of 61 years, Phoebe (Powell) Bender; his three children, Matthew Christian Bender, Jeffrey P. Bender ’80, and Jean Bender ’82; and his eight grandchildren. An early spring memorial service was planned. Associate Head of External Relations Nathan Follansbee shared this remembrance: “I have such incredibly fond memories of Matthew Bender. In my early years as the school’s director of development, having moved directly into that position from teaching English, coaching, and dormheading, Matt became a mentor and a partner as a Loomis Chaffee Trustee. He had already served on several boards in the Albany area, and his experienced advice helped me in my overseeing a small office responsible for fundraising, external outreach, and communications. Once he became the chair of the Committee on Trustees, responsible for identifying,
cultivating, and nominating future Trustees, he and I worked closely, along with Headmaster John Ratté, to develop and institute a thorough process for the selection of Trustees to build on the strength of the existing Loomis Chaffee Board of Trustees. I continued to see Matt in his Albany office over the years with the most recent visit just several weeks before his passing. I will forever miss him and will be grateful to him.”
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R ef l ect ions
Grubbs Quad Construction Grubbs Quadrangle has become a bit of a construction zone over the last few months as the signature colonnade in front of Batchelder, Palmer, and Howe halls is rebuilt and the renovation and expansion of Batchelder and Howe halls near completion. The additions to the two dorms are matching wings on the western, “back” sides of the buildings. When the work is complete and the fencing comes down, the grassy, tree-lined quad will return to its familiar appearance, first imagined more than 100 years ago.
THEN (above): Construction of the first buildings on what would later be named Grubbs Quadrangle neared completion in 1913–14. The Loomis Dining Hall in the middle is flanked by Taylor Hall on the left and Howe Hall (originally named Mason Hall) on the right. Photo: Loomis Chaffee Archives NOW (opposite page): The 100-year-old colonnade, which forms the Covered Way and supports dorm balconies, undergoes reconstruction. Photo: Jessica Ravenelle
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The Loomis Chaffee School 4 Batchelder Road Windsor, Connecticut 06095
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"Our Class" Ambrozine Daring ’20
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To see more student artwork in online exhibits from the spring, visit www.loomischaffee.org/magazine.
