Winter 2012 Loomis Chaffee Magazine

MAGAZINE WINTER 2012

The Island in India | College Prep | Exploring the Unconquered 1 |

Winter 2012 / Volume LXXIV, No. 1 ON THE COVER Sharing their talents as henna artists, Fabindia School exchange students Shefali Jain (left) and Shaily Jain (middle) painted intricate designs on the hands and arms of their Mason Hall dorm mates, including their friend Meadeshia Mitchell. Photo: Mercedes Maskalik ON THIS PAGE Freshman class president Greer Davis talks about Student Council elections during a class meeting in the Norris Ely Orchard Theater.

Photo: John Groo EDITOR | Louise D. Moran MANAGING EDITOR | Becky Purdy CLASS NEWS | James S. Rugen ’70 OBITUARIES | Katherine A.B. Langmaid CONTRIBUTORS | Mary Coleman Forrester, KeriAnne Travis, Jeuley Ortengren, Mercedes Maskalik, sophomore Alexander Smith, Carey O’Brien, Webster Trenchard, Amy Thompson, and Marc Cicciarella DESIGNER | Patricia J. Cousins PRINTING | Finlay Printing SUBMISSIONS/STORIES AND NEWS Alumni may contribute items of interest to: Loomis Chaffee Editors The Loomis Chaffee School 4 Batchelder Road Windsor CT 06095 860 687 6278 or 6811 magazine@loomis.org Forest Stewardship Council ™ certified by the Rainforest Alliance SmartWood Program

Printed in the U.S.A.

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Postmaster Send address changes to The Loomis Chaffee School 4 Batchelder Road Windsor CT 06095

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INSIDE

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LoomisChaffee 18 | THE ISLAND IN INDIA

In 1992, William Bissell ’84 and his father founded a school in rural India that they hoped would provide local families with the kind of inspiring, holistic education William had experienced on the Island. Twenty years later, The Fabindia School is a thriving, lively, and successful pre-K-to-12 school with an enrollment of 1,000 and a growing partnership with today’s Loomis Chaffee.

26 | COLLEGE PREP In a Q&A, Loomis Chaffee Director of College Guidance Webster Trenchard discusses the rapidly changing world of college admissions and his office’s work in helping students and their families to navigate it.

DEPARTMENTS 2 | HEADLINES | LEARNING BY ROTE,

LIBERAL ARTS, AND RANKINGS 3 | AROUND THE QUADS

8 | THE BIG PICTURE

13| ISLAND ARRAY

14| OF NOTE | FACULTY & STAFF

15 | ATHLETICS 32 | OBJECT LESSONS | HIRING MR. B 33 | ALUMNI NEWS

28 | EXPLORING THE

UNCONQUERED

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43 | IN MEMORIAM 52 | READERS’ VOICE 54 | THE LAST WORD | HERBERT P. CARTER ’20

A photo essay by Scott Wallace ’72 offers a glimpse of his adventures on assignment for National Geographic in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, an experience fully chronicled in his new book, The Unconquered.

Go to Loomis Chaffee online at loomischaffee.org for all the latest school news, sports scores, and photo galleries.

You will also find direct links to all of our social networking communities. Scan the QR code at left with your smart phone and instantly link to the magazine or go to loomischaffee.org/magazine.

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HEADLINES | BY SHEILA CULBERT

Learning by Rote, Liberal Arts, and Rankings

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S people who care deeply about education, you may have come across PISA — the Program for International Student Assessment. If you have not heard of it specifically, you surely have seen the stories in the media about how American students stack up against their international peers. PISA is a program run through the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that assesses how 15-year-olds in public schools in 74 countries fare in mathematics, scientific literacy, and reading.

In 2009, the latest results for the test, the United States ranked 30th in mathematics, 20th in science, and 17th in reading. Shanghai students achieved the highest average score in each category, and Hong Kong students also did very well, although China as a country is not yet represented in the program. The top countries in each category included Finland, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, and Canada.

A couple of things should be kept in mind when thinking about the test. Certainly the OEDC and PISA are interested in improving the educational attainment of children across the globe, and the test provides one measure of how students perform. But it is only one measure, it is a standardized test, and it emphasizes a particular set of knowledge. It will be interesting to see how the problem-solving piece, added to the test in 2010, will change the assessment and results. The other thing to remember is that the test is administered to students in public schools. Those countries or school systems that tend to do well, tend also to be more homogeneous with smaller populations than the United States, and they have very different school systems than ours. Finland, for example, has few private schools, and students in this small, relatively homogenous country score extremely well on average. (This is not to say that there are not problems with public education in the United States, but it is to suggest that an international ranking of educational attainment is a complicated matter that is not easily reduced to a straightforward ranking.)

What does PISA mean for us at Loomis Chaffee? As indicated above, independent school students do not participate in the test, so the test does not reflect how our students would compare to their peers around the world, although we know that on average Loomis Chaffee students do significantly better on standardized tests than public school students. Standardized tests do not, however, measure the full value of a Loomis Chaffee education — and nor, do I think, would the PISA test.

While the annual PISA ranking usually sets off a round of handwringing and angst in both the United States and the United Kingdom with much discussion of how students in either country can be brought up to the averages in Shanghai or Singapore, what is rarely mentioned is that the elites in both Shanghai and Singapore either send their children to our countries for their education or look LEARNING | continued 42

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Head of School Sheila Culbert and Director of Development Timothy Struthers ’85 complete a tour with Principal Jin-Sung Kim and English teacher Sookyoung Kim of Hana Academy Seoul, a new American-style boarding school.

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Standardized tests do not, however, measure the full value of a Loomis Chaffee education — and nor, do I think, would the PISA test.

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AROUND THE QUADS

From Diverse Backgrounds Toward Common Ground

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RUSTEE Pauline Chen ’82 held the Olcott Center in rapt attention during a fall convocation as she told the stories of two boys whose journeys to Loomis Chaffee could not have been more different but who shared the same uncertainty about their place at the school.

One was a refugee from a war-torn country who spoke little English. The other was the son of a physical plant engineer who spent his boyhood on campus but felt separate from the school community. Pauline’s tale narrated the lives of both boys as they became LC students, encountered a deep sense of belonging, and thrived. Long after their graduations, she noted, both remain closely connected to the school.

Then she introduced the two “boys”: Trustee Dang Phan ’79 and science teacher Scott MacClintic ’82, director of LC’s Kravis Center for Excellence in Teaching. As the two men stood amid the audience, thunderous applause and more than a few tear-filled eyes acknowledged them.

Pauline’s talk culminated an emotional convocation celebrating the school’s commitment to diversity and launching the next stage of an initiative to further that commitment. The full

Board of Trustees joined the campus community for the event.

at Loomis Chaffee? And what should we do in support of our mission?

“We see having a diverse community as a strength. We also see self-reflection as a strength,” Christopher Norton ’76, chairman of the Board of Trustees, told the gathering of students, faculty, staff, and Trustees. For both of these reasons, he and Head of School Sheila Culbert established the Diversity Task Force last year to examine and enhance diversity at the school.

An Assessment of Inclusivity and Multiculturalism, a program developed by the National Association of Independent Schools, will seek answers to these questions. The project will include focus groups with many members of the school community as well as a confidential survey of community members via the Internet. The task force hopes a large portion of the LC family — including students, alumni, parents, faculty, staff, and administrators — will complete the survey because the broader the participation, the more accurate the resulting picture. The task force plans to presents its findings and recommendations to the Board of Trustees by the end of the school year.

The 11-member task force, chaired by Pauline, includes several other trustees and faculty and staff members, several of whom spoke at the convocation. The group spent last year examining three key questions: What is diversity? Why is it important? What should our mission be regarding diversity? The task force this year plans to gather input from as many members of the LC community as possible to answer two additional questions: What are we doing to support or inhibit diversity

Trustees Dang Phan ’79 and Pauline Chen ’82 The full Board of Trustees attended the convocation, including William Flammer Jr. ’43, who was honored for his decades of commitment to Loomis Chaffee. Seated in front of Bill are Trustee Andrew Carter ’58 and Linda Rossi, assistant to the head of school. Shown seated behind Bill are Trustees Steven Rosenthal and Harvey Struthers Jr. ’60 and science teacher Jeffrey Holcombe.

AROUND THE QUADS

Plotting Sustainability

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HAT does sustainability sound like? At Loomis Chaffee, it soon will sound distinctively like “cluck, cluck.”

The Sustainability Committee, a group of students, faculty, and staff appointed to advance the school’s sustainability goals, has been laying out plans for a sustainable agricultural plot that will feature community gardens, hoop houses, an ongoing composting system, and a small flock of chickens that would live in a coop outside the Clark Center for Science & Mathematics.

Junior John Macdonald, one of seven eproctors chosen last year from a large pool of applicants, has been leading the chicken charge.

“He’s become quite an expert,” says science teacher Jeffrey Dyreson, who is the school’s sustainability coordinator. John, with assistance from science teacher and Sustainability Committee member Julia Hinchman, has been working on plans for a self-sustaining chicken coop as the centerpiece of the sustainable agricultural plot, which would be a kind of living classroom.

“We foresee starting with a small number of chickens, possibly six to eight, and building a coop that could accommodate as many as 20 chickens,” John says. Julie and

This year’s eproctors show off tomatoes grown on the Clark Center plot. Pictured are senior Elizabeth Schimenti, sophomore Jimmy Dion, senior Jaclyn Davis, junior John Macdonald, senior Sara Martino, sophomore Keara Jenkins, and junior Ryan Shelby.

Photo: Mary Forrester

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John have been working with Julie’s brother, John Hinchman, to develop plans for a scale-model replica of Founders Hall as a possible coop design. In addition to issues such as humidity, temperature control, and ease of cleaning, there are aesthetic concerns as well. Early drawings for a finished coop are being developed.

The chickens would not only consume leftovers from the dining hall and provide eggs for faculty and staff private use, but also could provide rich fertilizer and pest control in the soil, where the chickens would eat grubs as they aerate the soil. John is researching breeds of chickens, and some of the flock might come from fertilized eggs used to study development in anatomy classes. “They have had eggs hatch into chicks in the past and had to find homes for them,” Jeff says. “Maybe some of them could live here.” Any roosters that might hatch would not be permitted to stay, however. Only female chickens will be permitted in the coop.

John envisions a fenced-in area as free-range land for the chickens, which would give them exercise and increase their lifespans and egg-laying abilities. The plan also includes a portable pen that would

allow the chickens to be moved for the day to gardens around campus.

The single biggest logistical question to arise is, who would take care of the chickens, especially during breaks and over the summer? The answer: a part-time chicken manager — perhaps a student or faculty or staff member — who could ensure that the birds are well cared for when school is not in session.

A productive composting system is already in full swing at the site of the agricultural plot. Faculty members contribute their own vegetable scraps and coffee grinds in addition to the kitchen scraps and grinds from dining services. The Grounds Department is taking advantage of the rich composted soil, and faculty and staff are using the compost for their home gardens.

The plot, which is south-facing for ideal growing conditions, will also feature 10-by-10-foot garden spaces for faculty and staff to establish their own plantings. The only restrictions would be that the plots are well maintained and that no non-native or invasive species be introduced. Hoop houses — affordable and easy-to-construct greenhouses made from PVC piping and plastic sheeting — in the plot

would extend the growing season for herbs, such as parsley and basil, and possibly tomatoes for use in the dining hall.

The committee has several additional initiatives in the works. The group is looking at bringing singlestream recycling, which doesn’t require sorting, to campus this year.

Members of the committee hope to place bins around campus for deposit cans and bottles, the funds from which could help support sustainability efforts. The committee also will continue its ongoing education efforts. One educational goal is to establish an energy monitoring program that would track the total energy consumption of the main campus on a weekly basis and extend out to all faculty housing once per month. “There is always room for more education,” Jeff says.

“People want to do the right thing but don’t always know how. Our job is to help them.”

The Sustainability Committee and the eproctors have published an “eBlog” where they will share developments and ideas for sustainable living with the greater community.

To follow the blog, go to www.loomis.org /eblog.

The Driving Force Behind Interdisciplinary Learning

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ISITORS to campus this fall may have noticed students receiving a driving lesson, but one very different from that of a typical driver’s education class.

Students in the new interdisciplinary course Model T and the American Industrial Revolution are studying all aspects of this groundbreaking vehicle, including how to drive it.

The course is one of four new and innovative interdisciplinary classes offered at Loomis Chaffee this year.

At the suggestion of the Curriculum Review Committee, faculty created courses designed to give seniors the opportunity to delve deeply into interdisciplinary topics.

Faculty members Alexander McCandless, Ewen Ross, and Kurt Winkler of the History, Science, and Math departments, respectively, teamed up to create a course that considers the Model T’s many layers of influence on the American landscape. Before its invention, cars were built as luxury vehicles. Henry Ford created a new market for an affordable car. The class discusses the Ford factory and his model for efficiency in manufacturing, which was critical to producing such a vehicle.

Students consider how these cars led to the creation of suburbs and eventually to the development of the Eisenhower Interstate Highway system.

The Model T’s popularity can be linked to its simple, efficient design, especially the engine, which was easily maintained by the owners themselves. Students have the opportunity to take apart and reassemble an internal combustion engine to

The Model T Ford gives Founders Circle a yesteryear air. Photo: Junior Jaehwan Kim

better understand the mechanics of the vehicle. Unlike vehicle owners at the turn of the 20th century, many Loomis Chaffee students have never seen the inside of an engine nor worked on its parts, and the faculty believe that students gain a deeper, more meaningful appreciation of history by learning the science in a hands-on environment.

Among the most popular aspects of this course is the driving lesson.

Students have a chance to get behind the wheel; however, the experience is nothing like what most of them have known because the gears of the Model T work more like a tractor than a modern car. There are three pedals, and none of them accelerate. The accelerator is a lever found on the steering column. Additionally, students must operate a hand-brake, throttle lever, and spark lever just to get the car started. The students have learned quickly and enjoy buzzing around campus. Of course, the car won’t be going on the highway anytime soon, as its top speed is only 40 miles per hour. The speed limitations do have benefits.

The 20 horsepower, four-cylinder engine gets about 40 miles per gallon of gas.

Two Alumni Join Board of Trustees

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HE Board of Trustees has welcomed two new members: current parent Elizabeth Richmond Schulman ’80 of Tarzana, California, and John “Temp” Keller ’94 of Chicago, Illinois, bringing the total number of Trustees to 26.

Elizabeth, mother of Spencer Richmond Schulman ’11 and junior Harrison Richmond Schulman, is a director of The Richmond Organization, where she has served on the board since 1992. Previously, she was an assistant controller for New Line Cinema and worked as a staff accountant for Touche Ross. She is an honorary trustee at the Children’s Discovery Museum of the Desert. After being among the first four-year female boarding students at Loomis Chaffee, Elizabeth graduated from Elmira College, where she studied English literature. She earned a master’s of business administration in accounting at Fordham University. For Loomis Chaffee, she served as a Reunion Committee volunteer for her 25th Reunion and was a member of the Head’s Council. She serves as co-chair of the Annual Fund.

Temp previously was the managing director at Innovations for Learning in Evanston, Illinois, where he still serves on the advisory board. He also is the founder and the former president and board chairman of Resources for Indispensable Schools and Educators, a national nonprofit organization that worked to retain effective teachers in public schools serving low-income communities. In 2005 Temp was selected as an Ashoka Fellow, one of 125 social entrepreneurs in the United States “recognized for innovative, entrepreneurial solutions to some of the world’s most pressing social problems.” He serves on the board of directors of the African Leadership Foundation, and he is currently researching his next venture to improve K_12 teaching and learning. After graduating from Princeton, where he studied politics, Temp worked as a fifth-grade teacher in East Palo Alto, California. He earned his master’s of business administration at the University of Chicago School of Business.

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AROUND THE QUADS

Weathered in Connecticut

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HE fall term on the Island was a postal carrier’s dream: “Neither snow [10 inches], nor rain [bringing flood levels not seen since 1984], nor heat [a muggy 90 degrees on September 23], nor gloom of night [a power outage that darkened Windsor for the better part of a week] stays these courageous couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” Or so said Herodotus and the U.S. Postal Service.

Let’s take these crazy weather events one at a time: Snow: A freak snowstorm hit Windsor, and the rest of Connecticut, during LC’s Parents Weekend, October 29. Approximately 10 inches of snow fell on campus, canceling most athletic contests, although the football game against Trinity-Pawling continued (see back cover) and the boys and girls cross country teams raced in a spirited — and slippery — intrasquad meet instead of traveling to a scheduled away meet. More on

the storm’s aftermath later.

Rain: Tropical Storm Irene barreled through town on August 28, just before preseason and the opening of school. The initial rainfall — four inches was the official total at Windsor Locks, and higher, devastating amounts fell upstream in Vermont — flooded the Connecticut River to a height of 24.78 feet at Hartford on August 30. More than eight feet above flood stage, the river peaked higher than it had since June 1984.

With the Meadows, part of the Loop Road, and the Batchelder Road causeway submerged, preseason athletes arrived by way of Island Road and shared the remaining dry ground for practices. A week later, the river spilled over its banks again, rising to 21.55 feet on September 9, shortly before the first day of classes. If new students had any doubts about the campus’ Island nickname, they discovered there was more than just hype to the moniker when they arrived for registration.

Caution tape restricts foot traffic on Grubbs Quadrangle after a freak snowstorm on October 29 brought down trees and branches across campus. Photo: Mary Forrester

Heat: Though not an unprecedented heat wave, temperatures did rise to an uncomfortable 90 degrees during the third week of September. Considering the other weather headliners, this heat wave was a yawner by comparison.

Gloom of night: The Parents Weekend snowstorm surprised the trees along with everyone else. Their still-changing foliage laden with the wet snow, tree branches snapped and whole trees toppled throughout Connecticut, blocking roads, damaging cars and homes, bringing down power lines, and leaving 800,000 Connecticut Light & Power customers without electricity, some for as long as 11 days. Most Windsor residents endured without power for nearly a week. Loomis Chaffee’s cogeneration plant kept the lights and

heat going inside the Loop Road on campus, but many campus houses and almost every day student’s home went dark for days and nights on end. Although the storm hit at the beginning of a long weekend at Loomis Chaffee, classes were canceled for two additional days while road and power line repairs continued across the state. Throughout the crisis, the school community rallied to host many day students; feed students, parents, siblings, and faculty without power at home; offer warm spaces for families to regroup; and provide meals to local shelters.

Perhaps the mail carriers retained a cheerful disposition through all this disruption, but let’s just say that the Loomis Chaffee community welcomed the return to relative normalcy by Thanksgiving Break.

All-School Reading Sparks Ethics Discussions

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OING the Right Thing” is this year’s theme at Loomis Chaffee, and the all-school reading, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, gave students and faculty common ground on which to begin discussion of the theme.

At the first convocation on the theme, two faculty members — one in history, one in science — offered perspectives on the book, a critically-acclaimed bestseller that chronicles the story of a poor

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African-American woman who died young from cancer, of her family, and of the cells taken from her body without her consent. Known as HeLa cells, they became the basis for a vaccine for polio, among other medical breakthroughs.

History teacher Mark Williams placed the book in a historical context.

“Henrietta Lacks died in 1951, still very much the Jim Crow era” in Baltimore, where Henrietta was treated for cancer at Johns Hopkins, Mark said, adding, “but it was also

the civil rights era. In 1951, the civil rights movement was already in full swing. The NAACP was already chipping away at that hard rock of segregation.”

Mark reflected on the irony that Henrietta’s descendants — the children and grandchildren of a woman whose cells led to some of the most important advances in medicine — had, and still have, difficulty getting access to health care. Mark encourcontinued on facing page

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NEO Transformed for Metamorphoses

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ROM the depths of Hades to the heights of Mt. Olympus, the cast and crew of the Theater Department’s fall play, Metamorphoses, took viewers on a sumptuous tour of ancient history and mythology. Based on Ovid’s narrative poem and modernized in 1998 by the American playwright Mary Zimmerman, the NEO production was at times scary, astonishing, humorous, and inspiring.

“It is the best-looking show we’ve ever done. It is very textural and very beautiful,” said director Brian Kosanovich, head of the Department of Theater & Dance.

Brian gave special credit to the students’ mastery of cues for the sound, lighting, and costuming. “The lighting design is extremely complicated, and the cues for the sound have to be perfect or the effect is lost. We have spent twice as much time focusing on the cues,” he noted.

The cast included seniors Samson Chow, Liana Fernez, AsiaSol Goring, and Melanie Silverman; juniors Lauren Chase, Darius Moore, and Amy Ward; sophomores Rohin Bhargava and Quinn Schoen; and theater and science teacher Neil Chaudhary ’05. Each actor took both major and minor parts that were woven throughout the tapestry of the play. They often were required to move from speaking in a more formal Latin cadence to modern hip-hop phraseology, and they did so without skipping a beat, or missing a cue.

aged students to ask questions about the current debate over health care to inform themselves about the issues. “Here’s where you should be very interested. You are the ones who are going to have to pay one way or another for a problem like this. Do the right thing. Get me some answers … at least.”

Scott MacClintic ’82, a science teacher and director of the Kravis Center for Excellence in Teaching, shared a few examples of doing the right thing that he had gleaned

Sophomore Quinn Schoen, junior Darius Moore, senior AsiaSol Goring, and senior Samson Chow.

Photo: Wayne Dombkowski

The stage crew hand-painted the original backdrop (cyclorama) of the sky, which took on luminous shades as the lighting changed.

The most astonishing effect was a pool of water, which was the focus of much of the action, as well as an unexpected rainstorm.

Senior Sirena Huang performed on the violin to accompany the play.

“None of this has ever been tried in the NEO before,” Brian said. “I am extremely proud of the work all of the students and staff have put in making this production one of the best we’ve done.” Senior Abigail Adams and junior Sakirat Akadri led the technical crew, along with seniors Thomas Budd,

from the book, including the story of three doctors who resigned from their positions rather than participating in a study involving the injection of HeLa cells into patients without their consent. Quoting from the doctors’ resignation letter, Scott said, “The doctors felt that their ‘inaction’ could be interpreted as ‘condoning’ research that was in their view ‘morally wrong.’” According to Scott, the doctors’ resignations caused a firestorm that eventually led to the modern concept of informed consent.

Robert “Nick” Citrone, Kayla Coley, Kenny Ganiswarna, Heidi Taggart, and Emily Tanji; juniors Mark Crawford, Esraa Sabah, and Nina Sayles; sophomores James Daring, Natalia Gutierrez, Minh Le, Laura Paddock, and Xin Wen; and freshman Mollie Richter.

Many of the students also worked with and learned stage techniques from a professional production team that assisted with the play.

Scott concluded with several ideas for calls to action — ways to “do the right thing.” “What can I do? I’m not a doctor at Sloan Kettering; I don’t have the clout of a Rebecca Skloot [the author of the all-school reading],” Scott said. “You don’t always have to do huge things. There are a lot of little things you can do every day. Join community service. Become an informed citizen. Adopt a pet. Join the bone marrow registry.”

year, and upcoming speakers on the theme include Art Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania; Drew Dudley, a leadership and motivation expert who will talk about everyday leadership moments; and Scott Wallace ’72, photographer and author of The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon’s Last Uncontacted Tribes.

(See related feature story on page 28.)

Conversations about doing the right thing are continuing throughout the loomischaffee.org | 7

AROUND THE QUADS | THE BIG PICTURE

SHORELINE After Tropical Storm Irene in August, flood waters rose to levels not seen in more than 25 years, giving the Athletics Center and Pratt Field a waterfront reflection.

Photo: Scott Purdy

loomischaffee.org | 9

AROUND THE QUADS

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Walter Rabetz: Discovering a New Sense of Place

How do I work as an artist in a new place with a new understanding of all the elements of transition?

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ETIRED faculty member Walter Rabetz returned to the Island this fall for an exhibit of his photographic work in the Sue and Eugene Mercy, Jr. Gallery. “Embracing Place: The Bear Mountain Bridge, The Jewel of the Hudson” presented a series of photographs Walter took on and around the Bear Mountain Bridge in upstate New York.

For Walter, “Embracing Place” represented much more than capturing the immediate environs of the Bear Mountain Bridge. During this project, Walter endeavored to locate a personal, spiritual, emotional space.

The challenge, he says, was transitioning “from a very safe, knowable, challenging, exciting, and dynamic place like Loomis Chaffee to a place where I don’t fit.”

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Walter’s question was answered in July 2007 during a late-afternoon trip to West Point, across the Bear Mountain Bridge. The beauty of his surroundings on the trip over the bridge was enhanced by the sunset views he encountered upon his return. He knew at that moment that he had to photograph the bridge.

Thus began his four-year relationship with the Bear Mountain Bridge.

Walter and his wife Marilyn worked at Loomis Chaffee for 37 years until their retirement in 2007. Marilyn directed the Visiting Artist Program and the Richmond Art Center while Walter directed the Art Department, sat on the Curriculum Committee, and coached JV boys basketball.

Their retirement marked the close of an era of teaching, directing, coaching, parenting, and living on the Island. “The timing was appropriate, but the transition was complicated,” Walter says. “Peekskill is not an Island,” he continues, describing the New York town to which he and Marilyn moved with the goal of being closer to their daughter, Samantha Rabetz Healy ’89, son-inlaw, and two granddaughters.

Nestled on the Hudson River, Peekskill presented Walter with a

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Former faculty member Walter Rabetz at his Mercy Gallery show (top) and one of his exhibited photographs of the Bear Mountain Bridge Photos: Mercedes Maskalik and Walter Rabetz

new challenge that he describes this way: “I don’t know how to live here … visually everything is different, my assumptions are different, everyone’s in a hurry. Suddenly I’m a stranger in a strange land.” Walter faced his new challenge head-on.

He sought to embrace his new surroundings and use them to help

acquaint him with his neighbors. “I had to become comfortable with this new place, geographically, emotionally, and conceptually. How do I work as an artist in a new place with a new understanding of all the elements of transition?” he asked himself.

During his second year capturing images from the bridge, Walter became ill. There was something therapeutic and soothing in his work, though. “While he was photographing on the bridge, he didn’t feel pain,” Marilyn says. “This particular series has probably more meaning than the 30 series he’s done. This was very significant.”

“Embracing Place” guides Walter in his post-Loomis transition. “Moving to a place through these photographs allowed me to start my really wonderful new journey. … What in essence started as a destination to go to turned out to be the doorway to coming home,” he notes.

’ aretηʹ *  Seventeen Loomis Chaffee students were selected to the Connecticut Northern Region Music Festival, which took place in January. Seven violinists, four vocalists, two clarinetists, one cellist, one French horn player, one mallet percussionist, and one jazz tenor saxophonist represented the school at the festival.  The Debate Team continued its tradition of excellent performances at the advanced and novice levels this fall. In October, sophomore Victoria Smith placed fifth out of 100 speakers from 15 schools in a parliamentary novice debate tournament at St. Sebastian’s School, and the duo of seniors Patrick Kennedy-Nolle and Kelvin Gonzalez placed in the top 20 percent of the advanced division in the Connecticut Debate Association. In November, six LC debaters each recorded two wins and one loss at the Phillips Andover Parliamentary Debate Tournament. Loomis Chaffee held its annual debate tournament, which attracts more than a dozen schools, on January 15.  The Math Team has started off the year with a nearly flawless record. The team turned in a perfect score in the first New England Math League competition in October and followed with 29 out of 30 possible points in the second competition in November. The contest continues throughout the school year.  Four Loomis Chaffee seniors were named National Achievement Program Outstanding Participants for 2012. To earn the honor, Francis Afriyie, Ashlee Burris, Katheryn Hewitt, and Jamol Lettman each scored in the top 3 percent of more than 160,000 black Americans who took the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test in 2010.  Seniors David Balise, Christian Bermel, Isaac KornblattStier, and Theja Yalamanchili are Finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program. In addition, 21 Loomis Chaffee students earned the designation of Commended Students in recognition of their exceptional academic promise. They join the 45 National Merit Finalists and 123 Commended Scholars from Loomis Chaffee in the past six years. About 1.5 million high school students in approximately 22,000 high schools entered the 2012 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2010 Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. Approximately 16,000 students advanced to the Finalist level, and National Merit Scholarship recipients are chosen from this group based on their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference.

Commended Students are honored for placing among the top 5 percent of the students who took the qualifying test in 2010 although they do not advance in the National Merit Scholarship selection process.

* areté: Greek for

“excellence of any kind”

Junior Emelynn Abreu, senior Karolina Kwiecinska, junior Diana Suciu, and senior Benjamin Hiskes listen as painter Paul Lewing describes the process of planning how individual ceramic tiles will become a single large-scale mural painting. Photo: Mary Forrester

The Art of Painting China

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AUL LEWING, a modern master of the ancient art of china painting, visited campus in October to share his craft with ceramics and painting students. The author of China Paint & Overglaze, recognized as the standard reference on the subject of china painting, Mr. Lewing is one of the most widely sought-after painters of custom tiles, which are often arranged into large-scale murals.

Mr. Lewing shared samples of his work with students and offered a demonstration of techniques he uses to create a variety of effects. The paints begin in powder form and can be mixed with any medium that can be fired. His “canvas” is a tile or other ceramic piece that already has been fired and has a glaze.

The paints go over the glaze and are kiln-fired at relatively low temperatures. He often fires pieces five or more times to create layers of color and design.

Mr. Lewing says he likes to “rescue” old white plates from antique stores and thrift stores and use them as painting surfaces.

“If they don’t work out, I just give them back to the thrift store,” he says. One of his works that especially caught the students’ attention was painted on a hi-tech material called porcelain canvas. This ultra-thin, translucent but highly durable material is made from recycled ceramic computer circuit board that has tiny manufacturing flaws, making it unusable for hi-tech purposes but a perfect canvas for china painting.

After his visit to the Island, Mr. Lewing headed to Massachusetts to teach a three-day workshop at Snow Farm, where some of the country’s most prominent master craftspeople teach.

For more information on Mr. Lewing and his work, visit his website at www.paullewingtile.com. loomischaffee.org | 11

School Redesigns Web Site

O

From The LOG:

N Monday, October 17, a large-scale redesign of the Loomis Chaffee web site was officially launched in an effort to further display the school’s culture online in a modern, streamlined manner. The new modifications were made in the hopes of improving the user interface of the site, while still retaining its basic structure.

Storyboarding of the new web site began in July, and Mary Forrester, director of public information, along with the help of graphic designer Patricia Cousins, has been working since then to create the best web site possible.

“In some ways, redesigns are harder than building a web site from scratch.

Changes can’t be made in the new layout because we still have to publish things in the old one. It’s like living in a house that’s being renovated,” Ms. Forrester said.

The new design incorporates new components such as a thumbnail feature that allows viewers to scan through the various pictures on the home page.

Ms. Forrester explained, “We got great feedback on the rotating pictures on the home page, but a lot of people didn’t know they could actually scroll through the pictures, so we wanted to fix that.”

Changes also were made to capture the attention of users with even the shortest of attention spans. “With web sites, there is a 30-second rule, you have 30 seconds to grab a viewer’s attention.

In 30 seconds they should know who you are, what you do, and allow them to be able to find what they want easily,” said Ms. Forrester.

A new tab has been added to the home page site to allow clubs, activities, and teams to be able to quickly advertise their programs and allow their messages to reach people. “It’s ‘open real estate’ for people to promote whatever they want,” Ms. Forrester said.

Beyond the new features, the latest version of the web site has also made changes to improve the efficacy of the old features. A ‘log-on’ button has been added to the top of the home page to make it easier for students and faculty to get into the site.

The new site, which launched on Monday, October 17, debuted to a generally positive reaction from both students and faculty.

“For some people the web site is a person’s first look at the school. It really is our front door,” said Ms. Forrester. “And the thing that’s so powerful about it is that you can flip through and really just see kids being kids.”

— By Sophomore Alexander Smith

www.lclog.org

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AROUND THE QUADS

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Curriculum Takes Shape for Summer Program With an emphasis on student writing across the curriculum, the Loomis Chaffee Summer Program has developed a broad spectrum of offerings for summer 2012, its inaugural session. From history to robotics and from biology to poetry, students will have the opportunity to pursue subjects they love as well as explore new academic realms during the five-week program.

LC faculty members Jeffrey Scanlon ’79, director of the Summer Program, and Carey O’Brien, the program’s operations manager, spent much of the last year building the curriculum, hiring teachers, and planning logistics for the Summer Program, which will enroll boarding and day students entering grades seven through 12 and will feature recreational and community service opportunities as well as the academic focus. While Jeff and Carey continue to work on the many details of this major undertaking as the June 27 launch date approaches, the program’s structure and philosophy have taken shape in the last few months.

The cornerstone of the Summer Program is its emphasis on writing. The Summer Program’s website, accessed through the Loomis Chaffee school website, explains this philosophy: “The process of writing, committing ideas (whether factual or fictional) to words, … is both integral and invaluable to the education of every child — even those who may go on to careers in mathematics or science.” Every student in the Summer Program will take three courses, including two “majors” and one “minor,” the latter of which will include little or no homework, Carey explains. One of the two major courses must be from the program’s writing curriculum. All courses also will call on students to make regular oral and multimedia presentations to help them develop confidence and skill in delivering information to an audience.

Two additional courses will be offered beyond the regular Summer Program curriculum. The school has partnered with Princeton Review to offer SAT and SSAT prep courses. And the Summer Program will offer a geometry course for credit, taught by longtime LC geometry teacher Allison Beason. Because the intensive geometry class meets for more than three hours a day, students who enroll in this course will not take other courses.

Classes will take place in Chaffee Hall, the Clark Center for Science & Mathematics, and the Richmond Art Center. Students also will have access to the campus’ athletics facilities. Boarding students will live in Kravis and Carter halls under the supervision of in-dorm faculty members.

For additional information on the Loomis Chaffee Summer Program, including admission and employment details, go to loomischaffee.org / summerprogram.

AROUND THE QUADS | ISLAND ARRAY Fall happenings, night and day, inside and outside, at Loomis Chaffee Seniors Monica He and Helen Grant pick up their yearbooks.

INSIDE

Sophomores Sarah Breckinridge and Victoria Smith wrap a holiday present for a needy local resident.

Junior Mark Crawford works on costumes in the NEO Theater.

New student orientation in the Lawrence Rotunda of the Olcott Center

“Royalty” (history teachers Patricia Chambers and Kevin Henderson) preside over the Alhambra Banquet for World History students.

Football team introductions at the Kent Day Pep Rally

Mom Marcellina Drake watches junior AJ Poplin’s work during a Parents Weekend art class.

Senior Dinner in Loomis Dining Hall Visiting musician Chris Norman

DAY

Dance class

The sun sets behind Hubbard Music Center.

Sophomores Bea Thomas, Channing Cook, and Madeline Adolf enjoy a relaxing moment outside the dorm in the early fall.

Juniors Minyong Jung and Leon An and senior Jarrod Smith, members of the Environmental Club, work on a wind turbine.

“Faces” by senior Francesca Salvatore at the AP Art Show opening

NIGHT

Freshman Isabel Guigui samples sweets during a Harman Hall holiday cookie fest.

A spooky Pelican greets trick-ortreaters at the Olcott Center.

Head of Batchelder Hall Nicholas Pukstas keeps the grill sizzling during a quad BBQ. Peek-a-boo! Students couldn’t resist playing in a fac brat castle in the quad.

A January night? Think again.

This was the view from Palmer Hall toward the Olcott Center on the evening of October 29.

Photos: Senior Mimi Do, Rachel Engelke, Mary Forrester, junior Jaehwan Kim, Mercedes Maskalik, sophomore Laura Paddock, sophomore John Patrick, Jeuley Ortengren, Elizabeth Tomlinson, and KeriAnne Travis

Students help break up the snow pack on the turf field.

OUTSIDE loomischaffee.org | 13

AROUND THE QUADS | OF NOTE | FACULTY & STAFF

 The Island welcomed a host of new faculty and staff members this fall. New faces in the classrooms include history teachers Megan Blunden, Lori Caligiuri, and Elliott Dial; Spanish teachers Charles Bour and Nilder Giraldo; English teachers Benjamin Haldeman, Marco Rodarte, and Paulette Studley; math teachers Amanda Holland, Lyssa Shimamoto, and Alicia Specht; and science teacher George “Koby” Osei-Mensah. Also joining the faculty and staff were Heather Bucknam, assistant to the deans of faculty and chief financial officer; Natasha Campion, assistant to the assistant head of school for enrollment; Kenneth Green, counselor; Melissa Karwoski, database administrative assistant; Katherine Popadin, librarian; Helene Ramirez ’07, assistant director of admission; Jami Silver, associate director of college guidance; and Eric Styles, director of the Katharine Brush Library.

John Leyden also moved into the full-time position of director of campus safety.  Dale Cordner, the Loomis Chaffee switchboard operator for the last eight years, became Dale Hubbard on June 11, 2011, when she married Scott Hubbard. The couple honeymooned on Martha’s Vineyard.  Gabriel Emilio Lewis Hutchinson was born on August 22, 2011, to faculty members Lilian and Andrew Hutchinson. He joins big brother Porter, who is 4 years old.  Several longtime staff members recently departed the Island. Diane Jameson of the Office of Admission retired with her husband to Florida last summer, and Physical Plant Department

members Stephen Bianchi, Harold Milliken, and James Yocius moved on to new ventures this fall.

 Sports information director, dorm head, and head field hockey coach Bobbi Moran presented at a clinic session at the National Field Hockey Coaches Association Annual Convention and Coaches Clinic in January.  Lisa Salinetti Ross and Thomas Southworth each took on new roles in the Alumni/Development Office this fall. Tom, who had been director of alumni & parent relations, moved to the position of associate director of development. Lisa moved into the role of director of alumni & parent relations as well as continuing to handle some of the responsibilities of her previous post as director of development operations. The job changes took place on November 1. The office also hired Mitchell Linker in November to serve as associate director of development. Mitch previously worked as associate director of institutional advancement at Kingswood-Oxford. A search is under way to fill a new position in the office, director of Annual Fund leadership giving.  Arabic teacher Lucy Thiboutot married David Cooperman on September 17, 2011, at Bucksteep Manor in Washington, Massachusetts. David works at LEGO.  Painter Patricia Cousins, graphic designer in the LC Communications Office, is the current artist in residence at the Farmington Valley Arts Center in Avon, Connecticut. Artists chosen for the three-month residency are given a studio space at the arts center in which to work, and they are exposed to many other opportunities

“Mother” by Jennifer McCandless

within the Farmington Valley artist community.

“The studio is like a tree house in the forest, and I love spending time there,” Patty says. She welcomes the public to view her work at Studio 8b at the arts center and at www.pjcousins.com.

 Sculptures by Head of the Art Department Jennifer McCandless were selected for exhibition in two national-level shows this fall. The juried Craft Triennial competition at the Silvermine Arts Center in New Canaan, Connecticut, selected two pieces by Jen for the “Crafts USA” show November 13 through December 23. The National Sculpture Society’s online exhibition “LOVE” also includes one of Jen’s pieces, “Mother,” among the 61 sculptures that can be viewed at www. nationalsculpture.org.  LC art teachers and working artists Chet Kempczynski and Mark Zunino presented a joint exhibit of their work at TheaterWorks in downtown Hartford. The show, which ran from October 14 through January 11, included watercolors

by Chet and oil paintings by Mark. TheaterWorks is a nonprofit arts organization with a cultural center at 233 Pearl Street, Hartford.

Sudio 8b at the Farmington Valley Arts Center, where Patricia Cousins is the artist in residence

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AROUND THE QUADS | ATHLETICS | BY BOB HOWE ’80

Unsung Heroes

varsity sports as an assistant to varsity football, head coach of girls varsity basketball, and an assistant with the boys varsity track program.

A

T Loomis Chaffee, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive community. We support and celebrate the various journeys and successes of our students, faculty, and staff. “Our Best Selves” has significance to everyone on the Island in many different ways. As athletics director, I don’t have to look far to see an extraordinary example of our best selves: Donald MacGillivray, Jean Sapula, and Adrian Stewart ’90.

I often refer to these three as “unsung heroes” at Loomis Chaffee, people who make substantive yet unrecognized contributions to the community. Seven days a week, often for 12 or more hours a day, these three touch the lives of many students and faculty and serve a vital role in the daily operations of the Athletics Department.

Don has worked at the school since 1989. He is the head trainer, a fitness and wellness instructor, dorm head of Kravis Hall, and a faculty advisor as well as having the longest tenure in the Athletics Department. Don has been instrumental in the implementation and success of the school’s Impact Concussion Program beginning in 2007. In addition, every spring Don teaches a course in water safety, CPR, and first aid to students, faculty, and staff, enabling them to earn lifeguarding certificates at the conclusion of the course.

Jean became the school’s first female athletic trainer in the fall of 2006. From the moment

Together, these three individuals form what I consider to be the best sports health and safety team of any school in New England. We are fortunate to work at a school that makes health and wellness a high priority. Many of the schools we compete against don’t have the athletic training facilities or staffing that Loomis has.

However, what makes this team so indispensable is not just their skill and knowledge of all things athletic, but also their professional attitude and their ability to put others first and meet the needs of a large program with varying levels of student participation.

Jean Sapula and Adrian Stewart ’90 in the training room. Photo: Bob Howe ’80

I met Jean, I knew she would be a great fit here. Jean teaches fitness and wellness classes, lives in Ammidon Hall, advises students, and fills an important role every day as an athletic trainer.

Adrian is the department’s physical therapist and the school’s strength coach. Like me, he is a graduate of Loomis Chaffee and knows student life from a firsthand perspective. Adrian teaches strength and conditioning classes as well as scheduling rehabilitation appointments throughout the day with injured athletes.

Like Don and Jean, Adrian does dorm duty and advises students. He also coaches three

“

We are fortunate to work at a school that makes health and wellness a high priority.

”

These three are dedicated well beyond their job descriptions. A series of events this fall demonstrates my point: On the morning after Tropical Storm Irene, I called Don in Vermont, where he has a home. You may recall that this storm devastated Vermont. I asked Don if he thought he’d make it back in time for the first preseason football practice the next day. I was already getting an uneasy feeling thinking about all the things I’d have to do without Don here during preseason. There was silence on the other end of the line and then, shortly after, an answer of “Well, I’ll try.” I would find out a few days later what an outrageous request I had made and the incredible amount of effort Don put into getting back to campus in time to start the school year. What is normally a two-hour trip from Don’s house loomischaffee.org | 15

Senior co-captain Alyssa Hopson Photo: Tom Honan

Junior Allison Byrne Photo: Senior Chloe Anderson Donald MacGillivray in the Olin Fitness Center. Photo: Bob Howe ’80

in Vermont to Loomis Chaffee took Don more than 12 hours of traveling through woods, over soon-to-be-condemned bridges, and on dangerous roads. I’ve always known Don wouldn’t miss the start of the season for anything, and on this day he proved it.

Jean and Adrian also go well beyond what is expected of them. When Jean isn’t busy in the training room or dormitory, she’s likely to be involved in some other activity that gives back to the community.

Jean volunteers her time at the Pet Connection in the town of Windsor, coaches snowboarding at a local ski area, and around the holiday season organizes a coat collection for the less fortunate. Adrian’s approach to athletics and participation in sports reminds us all of the good in organized athletics and reinforces the idea that taking care of one’s body is one of the most sensible things a person can do, particularly in the formative high school years. Adrian is also responsible for the rehab and 16 |

good council of the many aging weekend athletes on the faculty and staff who seek his professional services on a regular basis.

There are few students at Loomis Chaffee who will not have contact with at least one these three unsung heroes, who show a remarkable commitment to their profession, to their school, and to the kids who come to them. It’s never easy telling students they need to rest and take time off. Then again, it’s sometimes even more difficult relaying that same information to coaches and parents. The good work of athletic trainers often is quickly forgotten, and the only news anyone hears is that a player needs to stay out of the action for a period of time. But in the Loomis Chaffee training room, whether you have sore muscles or have worked your way through a serious injury, one thing always remains the same: You walk away knowing you’ve been well cared for.

We can’t thank Don, Jean, and Adrian enough. ©

The field hockey team rings the Victory Bell.

Photo: Senior Chloe Anderson

Sophomore Matthew Gomes Photo: Senior Chloe Anderson

Junior Faith McCarthy Photo: Tom Honan

VARSITY SCOREBOARD SPORT RECORD Boys Cross Country 9-1

Girls Cross Country 7-1

Girls Soccer 13-3-1

Boys Soccer 8-6-2 Field Hockey 5-7 Volleyball 4-11 Football 5-3 Boys Water Polo 8-8 Senior Benjamin Hiskes Photo: Tom Honan Senior Brianna Malanga Photo: Tom Honan

ACCOLADES Founders League Champions 1st place Canterbury Invitational 2nd Place Founders League 3rd Place Division I New Englands Founders League Champions Western New England Champions New England Class A Tournament Finalists

The scoreboard during the Pelicans’ snowstorm football game against TrinityPawling on October 29 Photo: Alison Burr

New England Tournament Quarterfinalists

* Senior Brianna Malanga wins New England Division I Cross Country Championship race. * Senior Benjamin Hiskes wins Founders League Cross Country Championship race. * Football wins four in a row to open the season, the program’s best start since 1975. * Senior Liana Hinds and junior Faith McCarthy earn All-New England honors for soccer. * Tropical Storm Irene and winter storm Alfred bookend the fall season.

Sophomore Patrick Afriyie Photo: Tom Honan

Junior Philip DeLaMater Photo: Tom Honan

loomischaffee.org | 17

india The Island in

A remarkable school in rural India takes inspiration from the Loomis Chaffee experience of its founder, William Bissell ’84.

by Becky Purdy

✫ New

• Bali, Rajasthan

Delhi

INDIA

It

TAKES A FULL DAY of driving to travel from New Delhi’s teeming streets to the village of Bali, Rajasthan, in the rural desert region of western India. From Bali, the main road stretches east toward the Aravalli mountain range visible on the horizon, and a single-lane, dirtpacked side road carries travelers the few remaining kilometers to the airy, one-story buildings and open acreage that form the campus of The Fabindia School.

Children from preschoolers to 12th-graders arrive each morning by bus from villages and rural homes within a 30-kilometer (18-mile) radius and gather in the school yard before the class day begins. The younger students kick a makeshift ball around the clearing, their happy game filling the air with dust and children’s voices. Groups of older girls convene, chatting, in the shade of a few trees. Other students wait quietly, hanging out.

The school day opens with an assembly at an outdoor stage, where the students, dressed in the school uniform of dark-green skirts or pants and pale green collared shirts, line up for announcements and occasional performances. Then the students and their teachers disperse to their classrooms indoors for the first lessons of the day.

Although the start to the day may seem routine, there is nothing ordinary about the opportunity that Fabindia offers its 1,000 students and their families. In a region

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Dressed in their house colors, students at The Fabindia School gather in the school yard before classes start for the day. The students’ standard uniforms are green, but on regularly scheduled days, they wear white tunics (girls) and trousers (boys) accented with bright colors signifying the “house” to which they belong within the school.

Photo: Elizabeth Tomlinson

loomischaffee.org | 19

where high-quality, affordable education reaches few children and especially few girls, this nonprofit, nonreligious, private school provides a holistic, local, English-based education to boys and girls and heavily subsidizes their tuition so that families can afford it.

The Fabindia School is the brain- child of William Bissell ’84, who, along with his father, John, founded the school 20 years ago in the hopes of empowering the local people.

Many of the artisans and craftspeople in the region supply goods to the large retail company, Fabindia Overseas Pvt., that John started half a century ago to export hand-crafted fabric products. William took over the helm of the company in 1999, but from the beginning, the company has pursued a “double bottom line” — dual goals of making a profit and helping the community — and The Fabindia School is an extension of that social and cultural mission. The company aims to include rural communities in the process of prosperity. Through the creation of economic cooperatives of artisans and craft workers, the company enables the rural poor to become financial stakeholders and to build access to markets that previously had been out of their reach. And by providing the opportunity for English education in an engaging learning environment, the school also helps open doors for young people in the rural community.

William chose the state of Rajasthan as the location for the school after living for several years in Jodhpur, the second-largest city in the state, 20 |

of the actual cost of each child’s education; for girls, tuition is one-quarter of the actual cost.

The school provides a strong academic foundation but also emphasizes a holistic education.

Along with academic courses, the school offers opportunities to participate in sports, theater, debate, music, community service, the arts, environmental projects, and cross-cultural experiences. Field trips take students to other parts of the state of Rajasthan and beyond, and visitors from near and far spend time at the school to teach, share their stories, and contribute to their educations.

William Bissell ’84, founder of The Fabindia School Photo: The Fabindia School

and working with artisans and cooperatives in the region. Rajasthan had the lowest literacy rate in all of India in 1991, the year before the school’s founding. According to government census figures, 38.55 percent of the state’s residents older than age 6, and just 20.44 percent of the female residents in that age range, could read and write.

(Since then, literacy rates have improved in the state to 67.1 percent of all residents older than 6 and 52.7 percent of female residents older than 6, but the rural state still has some of the lowest literacy rates in the country.)

William knows that an inspiring education can transform a person. He himself is a case in point, as he is quick to note.

After attending school in India for most of his childhood, he arrived at Loomis Chaffee as a junior in 1982 and blossomed from a self-described “duffer,” a mediocre student with little excitement for school, into a fascinated and motivated

learner who connected with his teachers and seized educational opportunities. He modeled The Fabindia School on what he saw as the essence of Loomis Chaffee: a place, in his words, where “teachers were passionate about teaching and the students were switched on.”

High Standards, Holistic Education

From its inception, The Fabindia School has sought and trained faculty members with a passion for educating young people and strived to keep the teacher-to-student ratio low. Today that ratio hovers around 20-to-1. The school also encourages equal educational opportunity for girls and boys “in a culture where most parents who can afford an English medium school would send only their sons,” as the school website explains. Tuition for boys at The Fabindia School is half

Last spring, 16 Loomis Chaffee students and two faculty members spent a week at The Fabindia School building a trench for a water-collection system and helping to teach the younger Fabindia students. Some of the LC students also spent time at Fabindia’s satellite preschools in nearby villages. Erby Mitchell, LC assistant head of school for enrollment, visited Fabindia in 2010.

The partnership between Fabindia and Loomis Chaffee continued this school year when two Fabindia students, Shaily Jain and Shefali Jain, came to the Island as exchange students.

The two 15-year-old girls, who share a last name but are not related to one another, have embraced the opportunity to learn and make friends at an American school and to share their culture with the Loomis community. They live in Mason Hall with other junior and senior girls, and their Loomis courses include junior English, algebra, U.S. History, psychology and religion electives, and Water-

Photos: Elizabeth Tomlinson

Deep roots in the culture and countryside of India ground the school, and connections with the wider world add to the vibrancy of the Fabindia education. The photographs above depict scenes from the daily life of the school and surrounding villages as well as glimpses of the engaging experiences of Loomis Chaffee students during a service trip to Fabindia last spring. loomischaffee.org | 21

color Painting. Shefali played on the III soccer team this fall, and both girls are taking Hip-Hop Dance for their winter sport.

In October during the Indian celebration of Diwali, the girls shared some of the traditions and background of this important and colorful holiday in their country. In an evening program in Founders Chapel, they lit traditional candles, spoke to the audience about the holiday, and shared images of brilliantly illuminated villages at home during Diwali. Loomis breaks for Thanksgiving and the winter holidays gave Shaily and Shefali the chance to experience some American holiday traditions as they stayed with local families.

Shaily and Shefali return to India at the end of the Loomis winter term, which is near the end of the school year at home.

They sit for their final exams a couple of weeks after they return. Although they have been trying to prepare for the tests while on the Island, they have found little time for the extra studying on top of their Loomis Chaffee courses and activities.

Neither of them, however, would trade their LC experiences for more exam preparation time.

Many Fabindia students applied to participate in the exchange with Loomis Chaffee, and Shaily and Shefali say spending seven months on the Island has been one of the most important opportunities of their young lives. As Shefali says, the experience “attracted me because, here, I can learn so many different things that I could [not] have possibly learned living there.

For example, psychology, learning hip-hop, to be on a soccer 22 |

Fabindia exchange students Shaily Jain and Shefali Jain demonstrate a Diwali tradition during a celebration of the Indian holiday in Founders Chapel. Photo: John Groo

team. I have loved it.”

Shaily still can hardly believe the path her life has taken.

“Studying at Fabindia changed my life completely. I feel lucky to be at Fabindia, a light by Mr. William Bissell in rural Rajasthan,” she says. “I feel proud to be a part of the Loomis community now. Fabindia made my dream come true — that was Loomis.”

Both girls have attended Fabindia since they were 2 years old.

Shaily is from the town of Bali, where the school is located, and Shefali lives in Falna, eight kilometers (about five miles) from the school. Neither has attended another school in India, but they do not take for granted the opportunities that Fabindia has placed within their grasp.

They describe their school as a welcoming, nurturing environment in which all students feel they can learn, grow, and succeed. “It is the only school in the area that provides the students, no matter which part or culture they come from, [with

the chance] to interact with the world,” Shaily says. Shefali also appreciates the whole-person approach of the school: “Fabindia School [does not] just focus on studies, but also focuses on how to make students perfect in every field.”

The LC Connection

William Bissell based his vision for The Fabindia School on his Loomis Chaffee experience, a two-year educational journey.

William grew up in Delhi, India. His father, a Connecticut native, first moved to India in 1958 on a Ford Foundation grant to work with a government handicrafts institution. John married an Indian woman, Bimla, and after his grant ran out, he stayed on in India to start the Fabindia textile exporting company. William was born a few years later.

Until his junior year in high school, William attended a private school near the family’s home in Delhi. “I didn’t

enjoy my classes,” he recalls, and his grades were poor. The schooling was rigorous, he says, but its approach was to “cram answers and knowledge” in years of preparation for national college entrance examinations. Unfortunately, he says, the educational system in India continues to take this approach. “It’s a system designed to produce very technically competent students,” he says, and scores on college entrance exams make student success easy to measure and college admission cutoffs straightforward. “In a way it has a kind of brutal fairness to it” he says.

But he identifies what he sees as deeper problems: The teachers and the students lack passion for what they are teaching and learning, and there is little room for creative thinking or development of individual talents.

John, who had attended Brooks School in Massachusetts, wanted his son to experience a prep school in the United States, so he brought William to look at American schools, including Loomis, for his junior and senior years. William’s family has close ties with Loomis Chaffee.

Many of his American cousins attended Loomis, his uncle James English Jr. ’44 served as chairman of the Board of Trustees, and his aunt Catherine Cox Reynolds ’45 graduated from Chaffee and also served on the Board of Trustees. William believes his father also encouraged him to apply to Loomis Chaffee because, though far from India, he would be near John’s parents, who lived in Avon.

William remembers interviewing at several schools that were

Photos: Elizabeth Tomlinson

The energy of The Fabindia School is captured in the faces of the students and their visitors from Loomis Chaffee. In addition to visiting and volunteering at the school, LC students and faculty chaperones last March toured temples and forts, went on a leopard safari (Jeep photograph), spent time in New Delhi, and experienced other sights, sounds, and tastes of India. loomischaffee.org | 23

During a trip to Asia this fall, Loomis Chaffee Head of School Sheila Culbert and Associate Head for External Relations Nathan Follansbee met the board of The Fabindia School for a lunch party. Pictured are Ravi Kaimal, Kamini Prakash, Nat, Sheila, A.K. Shiva Kumar, and Sudeshna Chatterjee. Photo: The Fabindia School

concerned about his C-minus average and apparent lack of academic success. His many other interests, however, caught the attention of then-admission associate Katherine Follansbee during his interview at Loomis, and the school, seeing his potential, accepted him.

After years of schooling in India, William encountered not only a major culture shift, but also an entirely different approach to education when he arrived at Loomis. “I realized the teachers were there because they loved to teach,” and the students were engaged in the learning, he recalls. In this atmosphere, William blossomed intellectually.

From James “Grim” Wilson, a longtime history teacher, William learned the art of nailing down an argument with strong evidence. “He said, ‘There are no right answers. If you have an opinion and are willing to do the research and back it up with facts, well, I’m willing to have my mind changed,’” William recalls. To this day, William remains unafraid of controversial ideas and is known in business circles as a tough negotiator as well as an innovative thinker.

From his gruff math teacher, David Haller, William learned to value knowledge in its many

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forms. William was not a particularly strong math student, but he connected with Mr. Haller because they shared an interest in war history. William was fascinated with war memorabilia, and Dave had driven an ambulance with the American Field Service for the British Army in Burma during World War II. William struck up a conversation about the war with his math teacher after class one day. “David Haller was not the most cuddly guy. He was abrupt,” William recalls. But their conversation that day led to an ongoing dialogue throughout William’s Loomis years.

His teacher’s keen interest in his ideas made a strong impression. “He valued my knowledge even though my knowledge didn’t exactly fit the subject he was teaching,” William says.

And David later told William, “‘I wish I’d gotten to know you sooner because you could’ve been a good math student instead of being allergic to math.’”

During a Loomis in Russia program during spring break of his junior year, William developed a lifelong friendship with thenfaculty member Nathan Longan, whose origins in Billings,

Montana, fascinated William.

And from his experiences in the arts and athletics at Loomis, William gained an appreciation for the broader elements of education. He remembers the infectious passion for photography of Walter Rabetz, head of the Visual Arts Department when William was a student. He acquired a lifelong love of running from his participation on the cross country team. Coach Sally (Zimmer) Knight taught him perseverance and pacing, he says, and he continues to run regularly, where ever his work takes him. When he tires, he hears Sally’s voice in his head, urging him: “Shuffle. Shuffle.

Don’t stop.”

Creating Stakeholders

As he witnessed firsthand the powerful difference that a school can make in a young person’s life, William decided that one day he would repay the faith that Loomis had in his potential by providing a transformative education for children in India. After graduating in 1984 — the year of the famous June floods that forced evacuation by boat and cancellation

of exams — William attended Wesleyan University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in 1988. He then returned to India to work with his father’s company.

Four years later, he and his father founded The Fabindia School with 11 students.

For the first six or seven years, the company’s profits funded the school through a charitable trust. Now, 20 years since its founding, the school has 1,000 students on its main campus, four satellite preschools, and enough of an endowment to run the school and subsidize students’ tuition without funding from the company. The John Bissell Scholars Fund, named for William’s father, who died in 1998, also provides scholarships for girls.

The school provides supplemental funding for families that cannot afford even the subsidized tuition, but everyone pays some amount because having a financial stake is empowering, William explains. “People can come up with some money. It changes the whole relationship with the school,” he says. “It’s a very different stakeholder who pays to go to school.” The parents take a more active role

in their children’s educations, and they demand service and hold the school accountable.

The school is better because of these checks and balances, he says.

As the school grew, it expanded to include more grade levels,

and the school now goes through 12th grade. Eight classes of students have graduated and moved on, many to college and beyond. One graduate is attending India’s top law school.

Another runs a hotel. Another is establishing a stud farm.

Others are pursuing advanced

degrees. “It’s amazing to see how these kids have flowered,” William reflects. “If I hadn’t gone to Loomis, that school wouldn’t have been created, and those children wouldn’t have been educated.” ©

LC students and faculty chaperones hike to the Hinglaj Mata Temple.

loomischaffee.org | 25

College PREP

ďż˝ Q

The Rapidly Changing World of College Admissions

The experienced team of College Office advisors includes Jami Silver, Amy Thompson, director Webster Trenchard, Alison Burr, and Andrea Rooks. For more information on the College Office staff and their backgrounds and experience, go to loomischaffee.org/ magazine.

Beginning in the junior year, the College Office works with students as they look ahead to higher education. Director of College Guidance Webster Trenchard answers questions about the college process at Loomis Chaffee.

How is college admissions different than it was 20 years ago?

10 years ago? 5 years ago?

A

There is a lot that has changed over these increments of time. Five years ago predates the economic downturn of 2008, and that was a watershed event. Ten years ago, colleges were still just discovering the power of the Internet to reach prospective students, both here in the United States and abroad. Twenty years ago, more or less when I first started working in this field, so much was different. Colleges were not nearly as sophisticated in marketing themselves, there was no Internet, the Common Application had roughly one quarter the number of colleges participating as it does now, there were simply far fewer 18-year-olds in the United States, and the frenzy that is associated with the college admissions process was much tamer.

For instance, rankings (such as U.S. News & World Report) had much less of a hold on the national conscience than that which it quickly acquired in subsequent years.

All of these changes over the years have come together to form a perfect storm of sorts. The “flattening” of the world has led to an increased focus on globalization, and as a result there are far more international students vying for spots at American colleges.

There has been a demographic spike in these last few years, so there are more American high school graduates coming through the system. And the Common Application has become a veritable juggernaut — most of the colleges to which Loomis Chaffee students apply are members of that organization — that greatly facilitates students applying to more and more colleges. Last, but not least, colleges have more aggressively marketed themselves, often directly to students and imploring them to apply. There are times when it seems that some colleges are seeking an uptick in applications, not to enroll a more talented class of new students, but rather to be able to report an increase in applications. In other words, receiving more applications is an end in and of itself, one that is then marketed as an indicator of a college’s quality in the marketplace. Certainly, those numbers help to drive a college’s standing in the rankings. It can be a vicious cycle.

Q

You paint a fairly dark picture of the college admissions landscape today. Does it seem bleak to you?

A

Well, there is no doubt that these things do make the process more complex in some ways, and many colleges, especially those most sought-after colleges, are increasingly difficult to get into. But, no, I do not see things as bleak. Our students are facing a more complex process, but amidst all of these increases and larger applicant pools, college admissions deans have a more difficult job as well. And that is why I think our students have fared so well in recent years; amidst such tumult and uncertainty, strong students from highly regarded schools like Loomis are sought-after individuals.

Q

You say that our students have fared well recently. Is that something that you can quantify?

A

It is. But before I dive into that, I’d like to talk about some things that are not quantifiable.

Overall, I think that what we do as college counselors is incredibly qualitative. We help students to engage in self-discovery and to develop self-awareness. We educate them on a complex process and the wonderful system of higher education in the United States. We help them to put their best foot forward in the application process and to learn to be self-advocates. But perhaps most

importantly, we listen. We listen to what our students identify as their strengths and weaknesses, we listen to their perceptions of how a particular college will or will not suit them, and we listen as they share their joys and disappointments. Along the way, we are a source of advice for specific matters like choice of curriculum and standardized testing. All of those things are very important and constitute a great majority of our work with students.

That being said, there is a lot of data analysis that we do. Both [Head of School] Sheila [Culbert] and [Senior Assistant to the Head of School] Lynn [Petrillo] have set a strong example of the positive way in which data analysis can help us to reflect and see patterns that we might otherwise miss. I have been very comfortable in such an environment, and my office tracks a lot of data, from the percentage of students getting into their “reach” and “likely” schools to numbers around Early Decision and Early Action to the percentage of students getting into the most selective colleges. The last two graduating classes have seen a significant portion of the class matriculate to those most selective colleges. If you look at those most selective colleges and compare the admit rates of Loomis Chaffee with their national admit rates, we are outpacing the average in almost every case, often at twice the clip of the national admit rates.

Q A

To what do you attribute that success?

Mostly, I think that it is attributable to good decision-making. We have begun the process earlier with students and have a lot of data available for them and their parents, and by working collaboratively students are able to make sound educational choices for their future. That, plus we have great students who are attractive applicants to college.

And Loomis Chaffee is a great school — our students are getting a terrific education, and the students in the past who have matriculated to these schools have fared well. That is the best possible marketing of Loomis, to be sure.

Q A

How is Loomis Chaffee approaching all of the changes in college admissions?

As I mentioned, we begin earlier with students than in the past, but it is hard to push that envelope much further due to the intensity of our work with seniors in the fall. But we definitely work more intensively with students and parents than in the past. Whereas 12 years ago when I began at Loomis, we

COLLEGE | continued 53

Making a Connection

O

N any given day in Gwendolen Hall, one might observe college counselors doing what they always have done best: listening, guiding, and encouraging students. What is different in those advising sessions today compared to five years ago, however, is the computer monitor turned toward the student, displaying his or her personal Family Connection account.

Family Connection is a web-based college counseling program linking the student, the parents at home, and the Loomis Chaffee College Office to all aspects of the college selection process. Students use this program frequently as a resource for everything from working on the college list to requesting transcripts. For many, one of the most helpful features on Family Connection is the scattergram for each college that tracks admissions results of former Loomis Chaffee students over the past three years. For parents in particular, the checklist feature provides a timeline of their child’s application process and an opportunity to track their child’s progress.

Family Connection also serves as a communications portal, enabling the College Office to share information regarding college visits, scholarship opportunities, and other important resources. Whether parents are logging in at home to connect to the college process taking place on campus with their children, or whether students are using the test preparation feature on Family Connection to do some extra practicing, Family Connection is an integral part of the college counseling program at Loomis Chaffee. It greatly increases efficiency and enhances the work of the College Office, thereby providing the college counselors with more time to sit down individually with students and serve as their counselors.

loomischaffee.org | 27

SCOTT WALLACE ’72

Exploring the Unconquered I

n 2002, writer and photojournalist Scott Wallace ’72 accepted a National Geographic assignment to photograph Brazilian explorer and Indian-rights activist Sydney Possuelo’s quest to track down, but to avoid, the flecheiros, the Arrow People, in the Amazon rainforest. Scott’s new book, The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon’s Last Unconquered Tribes (Crown Publishers, October 2011) documents that journey in text and photos, and we present some of those photos in this photo essay.

Expedition boats move up the Itaquai River.

Scott Wallace ’72 and guides ford a stream in the Javari Valley Indigenous Reserve.

28 |

A former correspondent for The Guardian and Newsweek, Scott has authored two cover stories about the Amazon for National Geographic. His writings on armed conflict, the environment, and indigenous issues also have appeared in Harper’s, Smithsonian, National Geographic Adventure, National Geographic Traveler, Village Voice, and Sports Afield. His photography has been featured in Smithsonian, Outside, Details, Interview, and Newsweek, and his television producing credits include CBS News, CNN, and the National Geographic Channel. Scott lives in Washington,

loomischaffee.org | 29

D.C., and is the father of three sons.

In an email, Scott reflects: “Looking back across the years, I can see clearly that my experiences at Loomis Chaffee had a tremendous impact on the decisions I made that led me to become the man and the professional journalist I am today.

“Of course, I could not see any of this at the time. What I did know was that I was encouraged and prodded to explore at Loomis Chaffee like never before, to think critically, to ask tough questions, to seek the truth behind the appearance of things. Such an approach is, in fact, the very essence of journalistic inquiry at its best: questioning, probing, exploring, ferreting out the truth, going to the ends of the Earth if necessary to find it.

“Today I can say without reservation that the path I have traveled began in the classrooms of Founders and the idyllic lawn of the beloved [Grubbs] Quad. In the ensuing years, that path led me deep into the 30 |

Surrounded by Matis scouts, Possuelo checks the GPS. A caiman awaits butchering in a Kanamari village.

Ivan Arapa discovers a tapir jaw left in a tree cleft by the Arrow People.

Amazon, to the battlefronts of El Salvador and Nicaragua, to the wind-swept heights of Afghanistan’s Pamir and Hindu Kush, and to the far reaches of the Arctic to document the drama of life on a planet in crisis. But it began on the Island, where the Farmington joins the Connecticut, amid faculty, staff, and fellow students who quested

Matis scout Kwini Marubo

for excellence. None of it would have happened without those formative experiences at Loomis Chaffee.”

Scott plans to return to his alma mater on February 15 and 16 to present an evening lecture open to the public and a convocation for the Loomis Chaffee community, respective-

ly. In keeping with this year’s school theme, “Do the Right Thing,” Scott writes that a motivating factor in writing The Unconquered is that he “came to realize I had a duty to myself, to the Indians in the rainforest, and to the world to write this book.” ©

To learn more about Sydney Possuelo, one of the last uncontacted tribes on the planet, and Scott’s motivation to write about his journey, read the publisher’s Q&A with Scott about his book at loomischaffee.org/ magazine.

loomischaffee.org | 31

OBJECT LESSONS | BY KAREN PARSONS

Hiring Mr. B

O

NE hundred years ago Nathaniel Horton Batchelder took the helm as Loomis’ first headmaster. With a tenure that lasted nearly four decades and his monumental influence on the school’s development, it’s hard to imagine the anticipation present in the search for this initial leader. Letters written between 1910 and 1912 provide a glimpse of that moment.

The passing of John Mason Loomis’ widow, Mary, in 1910 allowed Trustees to gather the last of the Founders’ estates and plan for selecting a headmaster. Emerson Taylor, son of Trustee John M. Taylor, acted as secretary of the search process, corresponding in 1911 with headmasters, professors, employment agencies, and even a U.S. senator. Many cautioned as did Myron T. Scudder, a progressive urban educator: “… you certainly have a very interesting, yet a very serious problem on your hands.” Horace Taft, headmaster of the Taft School, wrote, “It is evident that the position which you have to offer is a rare one and demands a rare man. … The difficulty … is that it requires so many-sided a man.”

The problem? The 1874 Charter and, more directly, writings by Founder Osbert Loomis called for a school that provided “useful knowledge” in both classical studies and “commercial” programs. Another writer worried that the “complex ‘co-ed’ & free gift clause in the Loomis provision” would get in the way of the school’s early success. The position required an optimistic, vibrant, and innovative thinker.

32 |

pupils “touch the actualization of life … [where] vocational and cultural training [are] side by side.” After the initial interview that month, Mr. B met with the entire board at the end of April.

John McLaren, a close friend of John Mason Loomis, attended this event, coming from Chicago at the board’s request — a sure sign of the board members’ enthusiasm for the candidate.

After discussions in Hartford, the group brought Mr. B “to the Island in Windsor to show him the town and the lay of the land.” Two weeks later, Mr. B accepted an informal offer, and by mid-June the board had appointed him headmaster.

By January of 1912, the Trustees had received names of 26 candidates. Three stood out from the pack, but only one intrigued the board enough to be invited to Hartford for a meeting. Emerson Taylor described Mr. B in his notes as, “Vice principal … at the Hotchkiss School. Is very anxious to broaden his school experience and work in the popular side of education.” In early March, Taylor and Mr. B began a flurry of correspondence in which Mr. B expressed his interest in working at a school where

One interested party was resigned to hear of these events from afar. Jennie Loomis, recording secretary to the Trustees, Homestead resident, and the Founders’ cousin, was on a six-month European journey. She longed for news, writing to John M. Taylor from Edinburgh, Scotland, “with regard to the appointment of a President. I have seen nothing in the home papers and take it for granted that no action has been taken.” Taylor happily replied on July 10 that “we finally chose Batchelder.” The rare man had been found, and now the work of creating the Founders’ school could begin. ©

Nathaniel Horton Batchelder in his early years as headmaster Photo: Loomis Chaffee Archives

1940

Jean McKay Eckhardt writes: “After a year of severe illness, I recovered enough to move a year ago to a pleasant assisted living facility in Peterborough, N.H. Summerhill is only four miles from my former home, so it is easy to see my friends and neighbors. I only regret that, by choice, I no longer drive, so can no longer attend those wonderful Homecomings.”

1947 | Reunion

Dean A. McCallum reports that he lives in an independent living retirement home; his wife, Joyce, is in a nearby Alzheimer’s facility. Dean’s son Mark, his wife, and their four children live in Kirkwood, Mo. “It is a joy to have them nearby,” Dean writes. “Except for dialysis, I am healthy.”

1948

From Patricia Beach Thompson: “The significant event of the recent past was the wedding of our son Alexis, November 7, 2010, to the lovely Lina, his first marriage at age 46. This was a weekend celebration at Duck Key, Fla. Daughter Melissa Thompson Fischer ’78 is now

’45

a noted dog trainer and animal portraitist. Daughter Jennifer Thompson ’80, also an artist, last year passed her law exams and is preparing for the bar.

Son Thaddeus’ eldest boy just turned 13. Ah, those teen years — angst and adventure!”

We regret to report that his wife informs the school that Robert Woodall is in a nursing home with Parkinson’s Disease.

1949

Leadership Greater Hartford named Anthony “Joe” Cymerys one of the recipients of the 2011 Polaris Award for his “courage and vision in serving the Greater Hartford community and for lighting the way for others to follow.” Joe was honored along with Patricia Kelly, founder, president, and CEO of Ebony Horsewomen; and Pamela Trotman Reid, president of Saint Joseph College, at a reception/silent auction/ award ceremony on September 27, 2011, at the Hilton Hartford Hotel. Joe is widely recognized in Hartford as “Joe the Barber,” who gives free haircuts, shaves, and scalp massages to the homeless in Bushnell Park as well as at Chelsea Place Care

’49

20 12 REUNION

ALUMNI NEWS | EDITED BY JAMES S. RUGEN ’70

Center. He volunteers for Foodshare, loading his old van with as much as 2,800 pounds of donations, serves as a Eucharistic minister in his Windsor parish, and is nearing his 800th blood donation to the Red Cross. He also cares for his 94-year-old sister and 96-year-old brotherin-law, who live with him.

SAVE-THE-DATE! JUNE 15–17

1950

Ira Black writes: “Having a ball looking after my 193 apartments and houses; one grandson just graduated from the University of Pennsylvania; another got picked up by the New Orleans Saints.”

1952 | Reunion 1954

Carter Elwood (also published as R.C. Elwood) published a new book last year: The NonGeometric Lenin: Essays on the Development of the Bolshevik Party, 1910–1914, published by Anthem Press. Carter is distinguished research professor of history at Carleton University, Ottawa, Ont., Canada. He is the author or editor of eight books dealing with pre-revolutionary Russian social democracy. His study Inessa Armand: RevoGeorge Hastings ’45 shared this photograph of himself with his two brothers and significant others: (back) Edward Hastings ’48, John Hastings ’51, and Eugene Barcone, Ed’s long-time partner; (front) George and his wife, Laura. The picture was taken in August 2002 in Santa Fe, N.M., where Ed and Eugene lived until Ed’s death in July 2011. John died in 2002. (An obituary for Ed appears in the “In Memoriam” section of this issue.)

CLASSES ENDING IN 2s AND 7s!

Loomis Chaffee wants YOU to celebrate this year! Join classmates, friends, and faculty for your 5th or 60th or any other reunion in between. Look for your invitation this spring.

Be sure to receive electronic updates by sharing your email address with the school.

Scan the QR code with the mobile device of your choice to update your information, or call 860.687.6273.

“Joe the Barber” Cymerys ’49 is honored for his service to others.

loomischaffee.org/cf_forms loomischaffee.org | 33

ALUMNI NEWS

lutionary and Feminist (Cambridge) won the Heldt Prize for the best book in the field of Slavic women’s studies. Carter is past president of the Canadian Association of Slavists and the Ottawa Historical Association.

1956

David Bamberger and his wife, Arlyn, recently had dinner with Bob Keller ’55 and his wife, Barbara. Dave notes: “Bob grills a mean swordfish kabob!”

From Quentin Regestein: “My work includes full-time research and a small private practice, but recently my wife and I systematically study the economy and investing. It’s become a third job that makes me increasingly worried about America’s economic future. As I write this in October 2011, I expect a great loss of collective purchasing power by 2013.”

1957 | Reunion 1958

From Chuck Kennedy: “In our sixth year running our B & B here in Newburyport — special rate for Loomis Chaffee alums. We spend winters in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.”

The website address for Chuck’s bed and breakfast in Newburyport, Mass., is www.167water. com.

1960

Frank McGuire writes: “Delightful year-long correspondence with George Service as a result of our 50th Reunion gathering. We hadn’t been in touch since graduation. Attended society wedding in D.C., in April 2011: Willard Hotel, dinner at 34 |

’56

Comus Club, Sunday brunch atop Hay-Adams. Mr. Magoo was minglin’ — only time for brief chat with Bob Kaiser.”

1961

Members of the school community extend condolences to Bruce Alexander, whose wife Christine passed away on June 26, 2011, after a 10-year battle with breast cancer. She was the founder of New Haven Reads, a free book distribution center for neighborhood children. The program grew into one of Connecticut’s largest literacy programs for K-12 students, with 350 volunteers tutoring more than 450 students after school and on Saturdays each week.

Chris was one of two recipients of the National United Way of America Volunteer of the Year Award in 2008. She also received a youth advocate award from Youth Continuum, and she and Bruce together received the Greater New Haven United Way DeToqueville Award in 2008 for their outstanding contributions to the community. Chris is survived by Bruce, her husband of 43 years, who serves as vice president of New Haven and state affairs at Yale; their son Matthew, principal of an inner-city school in San Francisco; their son Seth, president of the M.I.T. Investment Management Company; two daughters-in-law; and four grandchildren.

David Celio, author of the recent book Twelve Principles of Effective Parenting: Surviving the Tween Years (Paulist Press), wrote a short piece on parenting for the Colgate alumni magazine, which appears online (The Colgate Scene, summer

’58

’60 Several members of the Chaffee Class of 1956 gathered at the home of Marty Miller Spencer in Brattleboro, Vt., to reconnect and reaffirm their strong friendships fostered 55 years ago: Mary Jane Mather Snyder, Marty, Julie Maher, Norma Rae D’Esopo Wachs, Betty Ann Erickson Ludington, Judy Lowe Plourde, Martha Gray Livingston, and Pat Tisher Shea.

Last October, Kristina Gurney Truitt and Ginny Wardner Bradford opened their homes in Washington, D.C., and Potomac, Md., for a weekend gathering of 12 Chaffee classmates of the Class of 1958 and nine of their husbands: (standing) Deanie Sullivan Davison, Peggy Hale Towson, Cindy Clements Arrouet, Ginny, Marge Hamilton Greenan, Suki Standish Brown, and Maureen Sullivan Crandall; (kneeling) Betsy Park Katz, Kristina, Lee Bishop Howard, and Joan Thompson; and (seated) Penny Kline Bardel.

Last September, Harvey Struthers, Bob Kaiser, Mackie MacLean, Rick Beizer, Tom Jones, Dave Carroll, and John Wilbur Jr., all of the Class of 1960, met at Mackie’s home on Wolfe Island in the Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence River. Here they gather at The Old Speckled Hen.

CREATE YOUR OWN Loomis Chaffee Legacy

’67 Holly Harman ’67 and Marnie Ferguson Briggs ’67 enjoyed a visit when Marnie visited Los Angeles to attend a wedding.

Marnie writes: “We think it has been 40 years since we last saw each other!”

issue 2011, p. 44, under Class News.) The title is Surviving the Tween Years, and parents might find it of interest.

1962 | Reunion

“After a long career in advertising, I retired,” reports Dorothy Ellsworth Creighton. “My husband and I lived in Granby, and while I was working, we raised and showed Great Pyrenees and Pekingese dogs and Persian and Himalayan cats. I became disabled and have not, unfortunately, been able to travel to various school events over the years. I am most impressed by the development of Loomis Chaffee.”

1965

Clive Mason reports that he’s had no luck looking for a parttime job. “Given that I’m retired and running out of things to do — volunteer, here I come!”

1966

From Robert Spurrier: “I continue to enjoy teaching history at Brimmer and May School in Chestnut Hill, Mass., as well as Phillips Exeter Summer School in New Hampshire. Ran the Vermont City Marathon in Burlington, Vt., last year with my daughter Rachel — her first marathon and No. 20 for me … a fun run for the ages!”

1967 | Reunion 1972 | Reunion

L

OOMIS CHAFFEE’s very first bequest was that of the five founding siblings whose shared vision inspired the creation of this school. Your planned gift, such as a charitable bequest, trust, or gift annuity, entitles you to membership in the John Metcalf Taylor Society, a group of more than 550 benefactors who have remembered Loomis Chaffee in their estate plans.

To learn how you can create an endowed fund or scholarship through your estate, please contact Marc Cicciarella, director of gift planning, at 860.687.6087 or marc_cicciarella@ loomis.org, or www.loomischaffee. org/giftplanning.

John Metcalf Taylor Society

The language to name the school a beneficiary in your will: “I give (x dollars, x percent, or all of the residue of my estate) to The Loomis Institute, a nonprofit corporation, organizing and existing under the laws of the State of Connecticut, and with a principal business address of 4 Batchelder Road, Windsor, Connecticut.

TAX-ID # 06-0653119.”

Chaffee

BOOK CLUB SAVE THE DATES

FEBRUARY 8, 2012 Cry, the Beloved Country

by Alan Paton Leader: Scott Purdy, Head of the English Department

MAY 2, 2012 The Education of Little Tree

by Forrest Carter Leader: Molly Pond, Head of the History Department

Bryant Tolles ’57 and his wife, Carolyn, in Russia in the garden at Peterhof, Peter I’s favorite residence, September 2011

“ I have been pleased and honored to be associated

with Loomis for more than 50 years, and I have had the opportunity to assist in Annual Fund solicitation and Reunion planning, and to leave an estate planning gift to benefit future generations.

I feel especially close to Loomis with a granddaughter in the Class of 2014, who is having the same enriching experience that I did.

”

– Bryant Tolles ’57, a member of the John Metcalf Taylor Society Chaffee Book Club Fall 2011

loomischaffee.org | 35

ALUMNI NEWS

’76 ’70

1977 | Reunion

Rebecca Loomis writes: “Amie Brautigam moved to Chicago last year. She continues to work for nonprofits that save endangered species.”

Brendan Reilly is head of Boulder Wave, a sports agency headquartered in Boulder, Colo., where he’s lived for 18 years. In the article titled “Brendan Reilly Builds Careers for World-Class Marathoners in Boulder” in the Boulder Daily Camera, October 2011, Mike Sandrock writes that Brendan “stays a bit under the radar, eschewing self-promotion while working on building careers for runners from around the world. He is, it can be said without exaggeration, the person most responsible for the steady presence of world-class marathoners training in, and sometimes moving to, Boulder over the past two decades. …

In the 12 Olympic and World Championship women’s marathons since he founded Boulder Wave, Reilly’s runners have taken 11 medals out of the 36 awarded. … [He] has worked with the past three Olympic women’s marathon gold medalists.” Brendan is a graduate of Boston College and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Fluent in Japanese, he worked in banking in Tokyo in his previous career. In the 1980s, Brendan was a 30 minute, 21 second 10k runner for the Greater Boston Track Club.

1981

From David Wit: “Still married — Kathleen Wit. Two children — Natasha, 15, Duncan, 13. Two dogs, Rudy and Rose. Co-CEO Micron Systems – LMS, recruiting/applicant tracking performance management, work allocation and HR software for law firms and accounting firms. Recently bought another software company that sells student information systems and HR-finance and payroll software to school districts.”

1982 | Reunion 1983

Rodney Hopson, Hillman distinguished professor at the Duquesne University School of Education, received the 2011 36 |

Eugene P. Beard Faculty Award for Leadership in Ethics for sharing his expertise and enthusiasm with Duquesne students as well as jail inmates, residents of Pittsburgh’s Hazelwood community, and the southern African country of Namibia.

The Beard Award, presented annually to a faculty member, honors those who best exemplify Duquesne’s commitment to moral and spiritual values through outstanding leadership in ethics, family life, university, or community service. From 2004 to 2008, Rodney led undergraduate and graduate students from Duquesne and other schools on several trips to southern Africa as part of his course Comparative and International Education Studies in Namibia, Southern Africa. For three weeks, students promoted social good while working in human rights, media, advocacy, Catholic, or other institutions with non-governmental and governmental agencies in southern Africa. Outside the classroom, Rodney has been actively involved in his church, Ethnan Temple Seventh Day Adventist Church in Wilkinsburg, Pa., and has served as a local elder on committees related to the school and child learning center. Once a season, he is part of a team that visits the Allegheny County Jail to provide a prayer service and devotionals. In courses he codesigned and instructs — Ethics, Education and the Teaching Profession, and Social Justice in Educational Settings — Rodney challenges students to be more involved in ethics and in social justice. Some of his students, including doctoral students in the educational leadership program, attend classes and volunteer in Hazelwood, a depressed neighborhood. Rodney guides students into the community and has them provide services that speak to and assist the needs and interests of the neighborhood residents. President-elect of the American Evaluation Association, Rodney has chaired committees in the American Educational Research Association and the Comparative and International Education Society. He is co-author of the book Program Evaluation Standards (third edition): A Guide for Evaluators and Evaluation Users, specializing in issues of human rights,

’77

’81

’83

In his latest book, Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock, David Margolick ’70 tells the story of the unexpected intertwining of the lives of two women, one black, one white, caught in an unforgettable photograph at Little Rock High School in 1957. From the Yale University Press website: “He recounts Elizabeth’s struggle to overcome the trauma of her hate-filled school experience, and Hazel’s long efforts to atone for a fateful, horrible mistake. The book follows the painful journey of the two as they progress from apology to forgiveness to reconciliation and, amazingly, to friendship.

This friendship foundered, then collapsed — perhaps inevitably — over the same fissures and misunderstandings that continue to permeate American race relations more than half a century after the unforgettable photograph at Little Rock.”

Will Beebe ’76 and Valéria Rocha welcome the birth of their son, Miguel Allen Rocha Beebe, on October 8, 2011, in São Paulo, Brazil.

Brendan Reilly ’77 poses with Diane Nukuri Johnson, former University of Iowa All-American track and cross country runner from Burundi, one of the roughly 3,000 athletes he’s helped.

Andrea Korzenik McCarren ’81 recently won her eighth Emmy Award for news reporting — as well as an Edward R. Murrow Award for best news documentary. She is a correspondent/ news anchor for the Gannett-owned CBS station in Washington, D.C. Andrea and her husband, Bill, the executive director of the National Press Club, have three children.

Professor Rodney Hopson ’83 is honored for commitment and leadership.

’93 ’90 ’92 respect, and social justice in evaluations.

Rodney is a member of the Board of Directors of the Council of Anthropology and Education and is an alumnus of the University of Virginia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the Curry School of Education.

Gordon MacDonald Wachsman recently had a fellowship — “writing books and having fun,” according to Gordon — with Rodney Hopson (see above).

1985

Stephen Bayer was named Duke University’s associate vice president for university development, starting October 1, 2011. He manages a staff of more than 140 in the Office of University Development, which raises philanthropic support for the university’s highest priorities. Stephen worked in development and alumni relations at Swarthmore College for the previous 10 years, serving most recently as vice president for development and alumni relations. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Tufts and a law degree from Emory. Stephen and his wife, Dori, have two daughters.

1987 | Reunion

Kelley Westerman Edwards recently started in a new position coordinating an underage drinking prevention grant in the town of Clinton, Conn. She loves working with young people, parents, and the community to change unhealthful norms.

1988

John A. “Jamie” Langmaid writes: “Katherine and I had a very busy early summer last year. In May I graduated with high honors from UConn Law School and was the graduation speaker for my class; in June I started work as a law clerk at the Connecticut Supreme Court; and in July I passed the Connecticut and Massachusetts bar exams.

In addition, on June 21 we welcomed our second daughter, Gisella “Gigi” Charlotte.

Our older daughter, Sally, 3, couldn’t be more thrilled with her baby sister.” Note:

Katherine serves as director of stewardship at Loomis Chaffee.

1990

Lee T. Guzofski, former investment banker and strategic consultant and now an online game designer and virtual entrepreneur (CEO, G2G Enterprises), was invited by The New York Academy of Sciences to deliver a lecture at the academy, located at 7 World Trade Center in New York City, on November 9, 2011. Lee joined Thomas M. Malaby, an anthropologist at University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, in a lecture/discussion of how virtual connections not only mimic real-world interactions but sometimes supplant them. A reception followed. TimeOut: New York named the presentation, “Virtual Humanity: The Anthropology of Online Worlds,” as one of the critics’ picks for the five best events in the city for the week of November 3–9. The event was part of the academy series Being Human in the 21st Century. In other news, Lee was recently named a Kentucky colonel by the government and commonwealth of Kentucky, earning the state’s highest honor in recognition of his entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and, specifically, his efforts to help restore and renew the city of New Orleans, La. Incidentally, Lee reveals that he is soon to release a groundbreaking virtual reality computer game.

1992 | Reunion 1993

Henry Brondshpits Lebedinsky visited the Island on September 22, 2011, when his Baroque trio, Triumvir, performed for a large and enthusiastic audience in the Hubbard Music Center. Following the concert of 18th century music from Scandinavia, harpsichordist Henry and his partners, Michael Albert (Baroque violin) and Brian Howard (Baroque cello), gave a workshop for student musicians. They spoke about and demonstrated Baroque techniques, tuning, and interpretation.

Hailed by Boston’s WGBH Public Radio as “one of America’s rising keyboard stars,”

Harrison Guzofski was born August 17, 2011, to Charity and Lee Guzofski ’90, joining his older brother Leighton. Lee writes: “We are all delighted in an ever-shrinking New York City apartment.”

Tiffany Herrick ’92 and Brian Graff welcomed Corbin Hayes Graff to the family on August 10, 2011. Corbin joins his big sister, Keely.

With his Baroque trio, Triumvir, harpsichordist Henry Brondshpits Lebedinsky ’93 (middle) performed a program of 18th century Scandinavian music at Loomis Chaffee on September 22, 2011.

Joining him were cellist Brian Howard (left) and violinist Michael Albert.

Annual Fund

Help Support Excellence in the Classroom

Loomis Chaffee encourages its teachers to explore new approaches, develop innovative curriculum, and engage students with global society.

Your support of the Annual Fund helps Loomis Chaffee offer its students a superior educational experience.

Please make your gift today. loomischaffee.org/giving

loomischaffee.org | 37

ALUMNI NEWS

Kevin O’Dea ’99, Emmy Award winner

Henry is both a historical keyboardist and a Celtic traditional guitarist. He performs actively on harpsichord, clavichord, and organ and has given solo recitals in the United States and the United Kingdom. He plays with Quince, Tableau Baroque, and San Francisco’s Ensemble Vermillian; and he directs the period string ensemble The Seicento String Band. He has performed with many groups and in numerous festivals.

Henry also has taught master classes and workshops on historical keyboards and performance practice at numerous colleges and conservatories.

He lives in Minnesota, where he serves as interim director of music at St. Clement’s Episcopal Church, St. Paul, and is a contributing writer for Fanfare magazine.

1996

Lara Bonn works for Vermont Energy Investment Corporation in Burlington, Vt. She loves her job and enjoys all of the outdoor activities offered in the Green Mountain State.

John Cannon has maintained a busy organ recital schedule in recent months, including concerts in major churches and universities in Colorado, Virginia, California, Georgia, and Washington, D.C. In October 2011, he performed at the Cathedral of St. Mary in San Francisco; and in January, he performed at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Heather May Eckhardt and her husband, Michael, welcomed the birth of identical twins, Cormac James and Reece Hyland, on August 23, 2011. Heather and Michael run 38 |

a dormitory of 40 junior and senior girls at Blair Academy in Blairstown, N.J., where Heather serves as associate dean of admission and director of financial aid.

1997 | Reunion

Beth and Mike “Mugsy” Barnett enjoy their two little girls while living on another “Island” — in Port Jefferson, Long Island, N.Y.

1999

Quin Breland recently accepted a position in the New Orleans office of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, where he will maintain a corporate, mergers and acquisitions, and gaming practice. Quin and Martha Claire will reside in uptown New Orleans.

Eric McKay and Patrick Murtaugh have opened a new craft brewery in Richmond, Va. Hardywood Park Craft Brewery started brewing its first major batch of ale, a Belgian abbeystyle blond ale, last September.

Friends since they were boys, the brewers were inspired by a trip to Australia in 2001, during which they sampled an amber home-brewed ale and decided to own and run a brewery someday. Both worked in the industry for 10 years, Eric in sales and marketing for a craft beer distributor and Patrick earning his master brewer certification studying the craft in Chicago and Munich. They plan a series of reserve ales emphasizing local ingredients.

(Information gleaned from The Richmond Times-Dispatch: John Reid Blackwell, “New Craft Brewery Opens in Rich-

mond,” September 8, 2011) Kevin O’Dea won a national Emmy Award for Outstanding Picture Editing for a Special from the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences. The award was announced September 10, 2011, at the 2010–11 Creative Arts Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles. Kevin, along with three colleagues who work for Chainsaw Inc. in Hollywood, edited the nationally broadcast concert Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden.

The program aired last year on HBO and was nominated for five Emmy awards. A graduate of Emerson College in Boston, Kevin says, “The writing classes I took at Loomis Chaffee and the storytelling techniques I learned have shaped my editing career. I am influenced every day by lessons I learned there.”

He joined Chainsaw Inc. in 2003. His other credits as an editor include work on American Cinematheque: A Tribute to Matt Damon, the 81st and 82nd Annual Academy Awards, the 2009 BET Awards, 2009 CNN Heroes, Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, and Discovery Channel’s Surviving the Cut and Top Gear.

2000

While pursuing an urban planning and landscape architecture dual masters degree at the University of North Carolina–

Chapel Hill and North Carolina State’s College of Design, Matt Tomasulo was part of the winning interdisciplinary design, planning, and finance team for the 2010 Urban Land Institute/ Gerald D. Hines Graduate Student Urban Design Competition. The winning entry was a catalytic redevelopment strategy for downtown San Diego, earning the team the top prize of $50,000. While still in school, Matt used the winnings as seed money to help found CityFabric.net, a civic-minded clothing and design company based in Raleigh, N.C.

2001

Ian Lassiter is a cast member in the New York City production (Vivian Beaumont theater, Lincoln Center) of the Tony Award-winning play War Horse.

2002 | Reunion

Joy Kogut teaches mathematics at Boston Community Leadership Academy, a Boston public high school. She serves as the mathematics curriculum team leader, language assessment team leader, and special education liaison. Joy reports: “I am honored to share the beauty of mathematics, problem solving, and critical thinking just as my Loomis Chaffee teachers did.”

Jackie O’Connor graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology in December 2011, receiving a doctorate of philosophy in aerospace engineering.

Her studies and research were under the direction of her advisor, Timothy Lieuwen, in the Aerospace Combustion Lab in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering.

Jackie’s doctoral thesis is titled Response of a Swirl-Stabilized Flame to Transverse Acoustic Instabilities. While at Georgia Institute of Technology, Jackie won numerous awards and fellowships, including an Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Scholar Award from the ARCS Foundation in 2010; Young Engineer Travel Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the International Gas Turbine Institute in 2010; a Wilbur and Orville Wright Graduate Award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 2009; an Amelia Earhart Scholarship from Zonta International in 2009; Georgia Tech Graduate Woman of the Year in 2007; a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, 2006–2009; a Graduate Presidential Fellowship from Georgia Institute of Technology, 2006–2010; and the Amelio Fellowship from the Georgia Institute of Technology, 2006–07. She also presented research papers at a number of national and international conferences.

Following graduation, Jackie has accepted a two-year post as a post-doctoral researcher starting in January 2012 with the Heavy-Duty Diesel Engine Combustion Lab at the Combustion Research Facility at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, Calif. She will study how diesel sprays mix with the air in diesel engine cylinders and eventually burn for ultralow emissions diesel engines.

After her post-doc, Jackie hopes to teach and continue energy research at a university.

Jackie continued to perform as a violinist at Georgia Tech,

founding a local string quartet that performed concerts and at special events on campus and around the Atlanta area. She hopes to continue performing after her move to Sandia.

Save the date for these special June events

2003

Damon Daunno recently appeared in the Broadway production of Brief Encounter, the Noël Coward play, adapted

by Emma Rice, that achieved great success in the film version

by David Lean.

Last summer, Max Laverty was named executive director of Urban Squash Cleveland (Ohio), a nonprofit after-school enrichment program that provides academic tutoring and squash instruction for middle school youth. Max helps shape the direction and goals of the program, recruits students, and coordinates fundraisers for the organization. Previously, Max served first as squash director and then as program director for METROsquash, Chicago.

In four years there, he guided several youths on the way to national rankings and contributed to each player’s pursuit of higher education. At Denison University, Max was captain, president, and treasurer of the squash team for an unprecedented three years, and he was a three-time recipient of the Hoyt Award, the university’s highest squash honor. He is a U.S. squash level II teaching professional, the second highest teaching and coaching degree in the organization.

2005

Loomis Chaffee Golf Outing FRIDAY, JUNE 15 8 a.m.–2 p.m.

Tee off with alumni, parents, faculty, and friends for the annual Loomis Chaffee Golf Outing! This year, the venue is Tumble Brook Country Club in Bloomfield, where players will enjoy 18 holes, a barbecue lunch, and snacks and beverages on the course. A post-game reception will include awards to the winning team, closest to the pin, and longest drive.

All skill levels welcome!

Location: Tumble Brook Country Club 376 Simsbury Road Bloomfield CT 06002 Registration opens in March. Join the fun.

Do the Right Thing!

FRIDAY, JUNE 15 NOON–4 p.m.

Service Project in the Town of Windsor For an opportunity to “do the right thing” (this year’s school theme), save the date to participate in Loomis Chaffee’s annual community service project.

Hands-on activities in the town of Windsor offer a chance to give back to the town that Loomis Chaffee calls home.

Join alumni, parents, and members of the LC community on Friday, June 15, for what certainly will be an afternoon when we are our best selves.

More information and registration available in March.

Since receiving an Alma Exley Scholarship in 2010, Khalil Graham has been working loomischaffee.org | 39

You may recall that from time to time I ould bring in little piano compositions to ow you, have you play them, and ask r opinion. They we re all rather crude ut you willingly took the time to appreate them. I remember one in particular… hich used some rather bold harmonic ide fter you had played it on the piano, ood up and looked at the piece in you r and; and I will neve r forget the expressio ALUMNI NEWS

1914

2014

The Centennial Committee is pleased to introduce the Loomis Chaffee Centennial logo.

Write to a Teacher

A

MONG the many historical gems in the Loomis Chaffee Archives is Eric Tamm’s ’72 heartfelt letter to faculty member Aaron Pratt Jr. Penned in 1978, Eric opened with, “I am not sure whether or not you remember me. I took piano lessons from you ... . You may also remember me as the boy who ‘borrowed’ one of your tape recorders (without your permission), and set up a recording studio on the Chapel stage during Spring vacation … . [Y]ou are probably wondering why I, of all people, am writing to you 6 years after our last encounter.”

What would you write to a teacher who made an important difference in your high school years? As part of Loomis Chaffee’s Centennial preparations, cochairs John Ratté and Karen Parsons invite alumni to contemplate this question and join in our “Write to a Teacher” initiative.

Eric’s letter is one of the inspirations behind this project. In it he recounts an “aha” moment during Mr. Pratt’s Introduction to Music course. “[Y]ou played a recording of Bach’s 5th Brandenburg Concert. … I remember distinctly how I put my head down on my desk to listen; and during the harpsichord solo I was totally enraptured and had visions of great beauty and power. Then when you lectured on the piece, you made a reference to, and I quote, ‘the ecstatic harpsichord cadenza’; I was much pleased.”

But more profoundly, the letter, Eric stated, was “intended as an expression of gratitude from me to you … . You probably have no idea of how many times I have thought of you.” And in replaying his high school years, one moment with Mr. Pratt stood out for helping to guide Eric’s creative purposes. “You may recall that from time to time I would bring in little piano compositions to show you, have you play them, and ask your opinion. They were all rather crude, but you willingly took the time to appreciate them. I remember one in particular … which used some rather bold harmonic ideas. After you had played it on the piano, you stood up and looked at the piece in your hand; and I will never forget the expression on your face as you said, ‘Maybe someday you will be a composer.’”

Eric Tamm went on to study music theory and composition.

Perhaps you, too, have a teacher to thank or memories to share. Join our efforts in remembering those faculty members who’ve shaped lives and shared in the nearly 100 years of teaching and learning at our school. We hope to collect letters from many decades of this long history. We’ll forward letters to those faculty members still living, and all letters will be preserved in the school’s Archives collection. In offering a final reason for contacting Mr. Pratt, Eric wrote, “I have wanted to write to you for some time, and the recent Loomis/Chaffee Bulletin I received in the mail provided the incentive.” We hope you feel the same way.

Please send your submission via email to karen_parsons@loomis.org or to Karen Parsons, Archivist, The Loomis Chaffee School, 4 Batchelder Road, Windsor CT 06095.

40 |

Liza Butler Arulampalam ’04 and Arunan Arulampalam were married July 3, 2011, in New Haven, Conn., with classmates sharing the joyous occasion: Martha Paluch ’04, Sarah Huleatt ’04, Emily Flint ’04, the bride, the groom, Meagan French ’04, Kristen Ward ’04, and Daphne Beers ’04.

toward a doctorate in educational leadership, which he hopes to complete by the end of 2012. He is now immersed in his work at the University of Kentucky. Last summer Khalil worked in Sacramento at the national headquarters of StudentsFirst, an education reform organization founded last year

by Michelle Rhee, the former chancellor of the Washington, D.C., public schools. Khalil was one of 17 summer associates at StudentsFirst from law schools, business schools, schools of education, and the teaching ranks. He served on the planning team, helping to chart the future direction of the organization — trying to determine where to focus to have the greatest impact. StudentsFirst is committed to ensuring that students are represented when leg-

islatures write laws and when policies are negotiated. Khalil earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Richmond and a master’s degree from Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn.

News from Matthew Kearney: “After two years of teaching in dear old Connecticut, I accepted a new job and moved to St. Louis, Mo., to teach AP biology at the Thomas Jefferson School, a private, coeducational boarding and day school, where I am a member of the resident faculty.”

After graduation from Bowdoin and completion of Officer Candidate School, which he had started in the summer after his junior year, Andrew “Boomer” Repko was commissioned a

second lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps on September 28, 2011. His training continues, and Boomer will serve as an infantry officer in command of a weapons platoon.

2007 | Reunion

Courtney Dumais graduated cum laude from Fairfield University with a degree in environmental studies (selfdesigned).

News from Chris Gabriel: “I finished my studies at Parsons the New School for Design in May 2011 and chose to pursue full-time employment at a full-service creative agency specializing in social media marketing and word-of-mouth advertising instead of continu-

ing freelance work. I made the change (August 2011) because of the much wider range of client opportunities an agency position would provide. I’m currently working on projects to design and develop social media applications with brands such as Neutrogena, Harper Collins, Penguin Books, Entenmann’s, Restaurant.com, The Pampered Chef, and many others. I’m very excited to help expand Likeable Media’s development capabilities and look forward to helping more brands become Likeable.”

Drew Snider and Matt Kugler ’08 competed in the Division I Lacrosse National Championship Game on Memorial Day Weekend 2011 as University of Maryland, where Drew is a midfielder, and University of Virginia, where Matt plays

SAMUEL DORISON ’07

Marshall Scholarship Will Fund Study in the United Kingdom

S

AMUEL Dorison ’07, a recent graduate of Princeton University, has been awarded a 2012 Marshall Scholarship. The prestigious scholarship covers the cost of graduate study and living expenses at a British university for two or three years.

Sam, who focuses on the intersection of human rights and international security, is one of 36 American students selected this year for the scholarship. He graduated summa cum laude last spring from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. His senior thesis on U.S. detention policy in the War on Terror received the Wilson School’s prize for the top thesis on U.S. foreign policy.

Since Princeton, Sam has worked as a research assistant at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, concentrating on issues of international security.

According to a Princeton news release, Sam’s interest in issues of human rights and international security “was sparked by a lecture he heard his sophomore year given by David Remes, a Washington, D.C., attorney who handles legal cases for detainees in the Guantánamo Bay detention center in Cuba. … Dorison volunteered to assist Remes as a paralegal, obtaining a government security clearance and traveling to the Guantánamo detention center in 2010. He went again the following year, funded by a Wilson School thesis grant, to interview detainees and perform research.”

During his college years, Sam also worked in South Africa as a volunteer teacher with WorldTeach, studied economics at Oxford University, and traveled to Cambodia and Thailand to conduct research for McKinsey & Company.

A member of Phi Beta Kappa, Sam served as vice president of the Princeton Undergraduate Student Government, a member of the University Honor Committee, co-chair of the Princeton Class of 2011 Annual Giving Campaign, and sports columnist for the student newspaper The Daily Princetonian, among other roles. He received the Spirit of Princeton Award for significant contributions to the university community.

loomischaffee.org | 41

ALUMNI NEWS

midfield, faced off for the national title. The teams, titans in the lacrosse world, battled for four quarters, with Virginia coming out on top in the end, 9–7. This is the Cavaliers’ fourth national championship, and Maryland has two to its name. Drew, a redshirt junior at Maryland, was a key midfielder for the Terps during their incredible run to the national championship game. The Fairfax Station, Va., native was the team’s sixth-leading scorer (17 goals and 3 assists) and was a team leader on the first offensive midfield unit for the season. Matt, a junior at Virginia, was a mainstay in the midfield during Virginia’s resurgence in the second half of the season. Drew’s father, Kris, played for the University of Virginia from 1974 to 1978.

Rebecca Wentworth graduated from Union College on June 12, 2011, with a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering and minors in Chinese and mathematics. She was a four-year member of the women’s crew team and was awarded an honor for service leadership and outreach. She traveled to Ethiopia last summer as a Davis Projects for Peace fellow, implementing a water system in Boru.

2008

Jeff Hatten has been named captain of the Yale University men’s golf team for 2011–12. On the heels of an exemplary junior campaign, Jeff was the Bulldogs’ top player in the closing month of the team’s regular season.

LEARNING | continued from 2

for similar western-style international schools in their own backyards. The great irony is that while our political leaders are trying to make our schools more akin to those in Asia — with a heavy emphasis on rote learning, mathematics, and science — many Chinese, South Koreans, and others are looking to the United States for a quality liberal arts education.

42 |

2010 Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, has the pleasure of meeting Columbia University student Alison Hard ’08 at a Bastille Day celebration at the French Ambassador’s residence in Washington, D.C. Ali interned last summer in the embassy’s press office. Like Mme. Lagarde, Ali is fluent in French and English.

Bucknell senior lacrosse attack/midfielder Charlie Streep has been named one of four captains for the 2012 season. He captains a Bison squad that is coming off a 14–3 season that was highlighted by a Patriot League championship, a best-ever seventh national ranking, and a near upset of Virginia in the NCAA Tournament. Charlie has been one of the Patriot League’s top players over the last three years. He was the team’s second-leading scorer last season with 37 points on 28 goals and nine assists, and his outstanding junior season culminated with Honorable Mention AllAmerica honors. He was named Patriot League Tournament MVP after recording hat tricks in wins over Lehigh and Colgate, and then he scored three more goals against Virginia in the NCAA Tournament.

Charlie already has topped the 100-point plateau in his career with 104 points on 76 goals and 28 assists, and he is just 12 goals outside the Bucknell top 10. He will be looking to bounce back this spring after suffering a knee injury during fall workouts.

Over the last three years I have visited top schools in South Korea, Hong Kong, and India and have met with many parents and educators from these countries as well as from China. They all tell me that what they want for their children is a liberal arts curriculum that encourages students to think critically, to apply knowledge learned in one situation to problems they have not previously seen, to be creative, to see the connections across disciplines, and to be active participants in their learning.

Shacoya Atkins, a sophomore sociology major at Trinity University, San Antonio, was recently named one of 13 new McNair Scholars at the university. Named for the late physicist and Challenger astronaut Ronald E. McNair and funded by Trinity University and a U.S. Department of Education grant, the McNair Scholars Program offers academic counseling, financial aid assistance, mentoring, research opportunities, paid summer internships, and graduate admissions guidance.

2011

Alexandra Crerend scored three goals and handed out an assist to help propel her team to the championship in U.S. Lacrosse’s Champion All-American Showcase, July 17–­19, 2011, at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. The four-team event involved many of the nation’s top high school players. U.S. Lacrosse Regional All-American (at Thayer Academy before her postgraduate year on the Island) Mallory Collins had competed in the previous year’s showcase and suggested the event to Alexandra, now at Brown University.

And they want this within an environment that nurtures the whole child, that cares about the development of values, and that is supportive in pushing students to excel. This is what we do at Loomis Chaffee, and I am confident that we will continue to lead the world in providing an excellent education to young people.

To read Sheila Culbert’s blog, go to loomischaffee.org / magazine.

IN MEMORIAM | BY KATHERINE A.B. LANGMAID

1935

John W. Boyd, on August 15, 2011, in Amherst, Mass. John was a four-year student from Westport. He was head of the photographic division of the Darwin Club; on the Loomiscellany, Log, and Publications boards; and a member of the Dorm Committee and Chess Club. He participated in first soccer and tennis and was active with Allyn soccer. Following Loomis, John earned a bachelor’s degree from Hamilton College and a juris doctorate from Columbia University.

He taught military law during World War II and, in the 1960s, served two terms in the Connecticut Legislature. He had a law practice in Westport and, at one point, served as the town attorney. He was active in Westport with the Beach Commission, Town Court, Republican Town Committee, and Planning and Zoning Commission. John was predeceased by his wife of more than 60 years, Jean. He is survived by four daughters: Barbara, Frances, Nancy, and Jean; seven grandchildren; and four great-granddaughters. A memorial service was held October 8, 2011, at Christ & Holy Church in Westport.

Frank D. Reese, on July 19, 2011, in Lyons, N.Y. Frank was a two-year student from Cortland, N.Y. He was a member of the Publications Board, involved in the Agriculture course, and active with soccer and track.

Frank earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Cornell University before joining General Telephone of Pennsylvania. He served in the Army Signal Corps from 1942 to 1945 and rejoined General Tele-

Photo: Loomis Chaffee Archives

phone in 1945 as an engineering supervisor and in 1960 was appointed president of GTE’s Automatic Electric Laboratories, serving until 1974. He then joined North Pittsburgh Telephone Company in Gibsonia, Pa., retiring as president and general manager. Frank was a leader in the telephone industry, serving on the boards of the U.S. Telephone Association and National Electronics Consortium and chairing committees for the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. He also supported the U.S. Telecommunications Mission to the People’s Republic of China in 1980. Trains and trolleys were a lifelong hobby. Frank was actively involved in trolley restorations and operations at the Fox River Trolley Museum in Elgin, Ill., in the 1970s and more recently at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in Washington, Pa. While living in Erie,

Pa., Frank served as a docent on the Flagship Niagara at the Maritime Museum. He was predeceased by his wife of 63 years, Janice. Frank is survived by three sons: Frank Reese III, Charles Reese, and Robert Reese; and four grandchildren. A private burial was to be held at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Erie.

1937

Elliott M. Bates, on April 14, 2011, at the Southern Maine Medical Center in Biddeford, Maine. Eric, as he was known, was a student from Maine. Recipient of the Art Award, he was president of the Art Club and involved as an art librarian. He was also a member of the Radio, Fencing, and Ping Pong clubs.

Eric was active with Ludlow soccer and tennis. Following Loomis, he attended Williams College. In 1937, Eric joined the round-the-world voyage of the schooner Yankee, skippered by

Captain Irving Johnson, out of Gloucester, Mass. At the time, he was the schooner’s youngest crew member. Because of his aptitude for figure and lines, Eric became the ship’s measurer. The voyage kindled a lifelong love of sailing, and he frequently cruised with friends and family in the coastal waters of New England and the Atlantic provinces. In 1942, Eric enlisted in the U.S. Army and enrolled in advanced civil engineering training in the Army Specialized Training Program at Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

He later served as a medic with the Army Medical Department attached to the 26th Infantry (Yankee Division) in France and Germany, including the Battle of the Bulge. Following his Army service, Eric earned his bachelor’s degree in architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For many years he was a lead loomischaffee.org | 43

IN MEMORIAM

ing figure in the architectural profession in the state of Maine and enjoyed a long career at Alonzo J. Harriman Associates of Auburn, with progressive responsibilities to president of the firm before his retirement in the mid-1980s. During that time, too, he was active in the Maine chapter of the American Institute of Architects, serving as chapter president in 1965–66.

In recent years, Eric had been an active teacher and volunteer at the Adult Learning Center in Lewiston, where he taught courses in math and English as a Second Language. He was an active supporter and member of outdoors and conservation organizations, including the Androscoggin Land Trust and Monhegan Associates. He was a founding sponsor of the Monhegan Museum, and he endowed a stewardship award within the Androscoggin Land Trust. He was an enthusiastic hiker and mountaineer and a member of the Appalachian Mountain Club. Eric also served as editor of the seventh edition of the AMC Maine Mountain Guide, published in 1993, having climbed many of the mountains and hills described in the guide.

He was also active in numerous civic organizations and initiatives, including serving as director of the Auburn-Lewiston YMCA, a corporator of Central Maine General Hospital, a director of the Androscoggin County Development Corporation, and an advisor to the Capitol Planning Commission in Augusta. Eric was predeceased by his wife, Phyllis. He is survived by four children: Susan Eddy, John Elliott Bates, Deborah Maxcy Bates, and Daniel Waldemar Bates; and 44 |

11 grandchildren. A memorial service was planned for late summer on Monhegan Island.

Arlene Jepson Brooks, on December 24, 2010. Arlene was a student from Warehouse Point, Conn. While at Chaffee, she was voted “Most Modest.” Following Chaffee, Arlene earned her bachelor’s degree in biology from William Smith College.

She was employed by AarowHart & Hegeman in Harford and the Ohio State University Biology and Chemistry departments. A long-time resident of Oak Ridge, Tenn., Arlene worked for Tennessee Eastman during the war. She was active in her home and with her children, and she served on the Willowbrook Elementary School Parent Teacher Association.

Her hobbies included knitting, gardening, growing African violets, and taking care of the family farm and horses. Arlene is survived by her husband of 68 years, Alfred; her children, Barbara Ann Brooks and Alfred A. Brooks IV; two grandchildren; and two nieces.

Bruce M. Steere, peacefully at home, on June 16, 2011. He was a three-year student from Bronxville, N.Y. Bruce, who achieved honor roll during each of his three years at Loomis, was recipient of the Herbert P. Page Memorial Prize. He was an English Exchange Scholar, president of the Nautical Club, and captain of the 1936 Interscholastic Sailing Championship. He was also active with track and squash. Following Loomis, Bruce earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a master’s degree from Harvard Business School. During World War II, Bruce became

a supervisor building airplanes.

After the war, he followed his father and brother to Dallas for business, where his endeavors included Republic Insurance Company, Allied Finance Company, Steere Tank Lines, and many oil and gas projects.

Although his primary residence was Dallas, his summer home was Harwich Port, Mass., for 80 years. After retirement, he spent his winters in Palm Beach, Fla. At the time of his death, Bruce was an active member of Cruising Club of America; New York Yacht Club; Stone Horse Yacht Club, where he served as commodore 1969–1971; United States Power Squadron, where he served as chief commander 1984–1985; Bath & Tennis; and Eastward Ho! Country Club.

Bruce was predeceased by his brother, David; his wife of 35 years, Anne; and his stepdaughter, Virginia Harper Kliever. He is survived by two daughters, Lucy Duffield Steere and Grace McLaurin Steere; three stepchildren, Richard March Ho Harper, Patricia Harper Flint, and Stuart Lodge Harper; 13 grandchildren; and three greatgrandchildren. A memorial service was held on September 10, 2011, at the Pilgrim Congregational Church in Harwich Port, Mass.

1938

Paul C. Rodgers, on July 11, 2010. Paul was a three-year student from Glendale, Ohio.

While at Loomis, Paul was involved with Junto, The Log, and The Loomiscellany. He was active with the track teams and Allyn senior football. Paul was predeceased by his first wife, Marjorie. He is survived by his second wife, Mary; his children,

Merry Wood, Wendy Clark, Tim Rodgers, Becky Aldinger, and Ted Rodgers; stepchildren Kathy Roselius, Elizabeth Moldenhauer, and Jim Moldenhauer; 12 grandchildren; two step-grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren. A service was held on July 16, 2010.

1939

Robert Winslow Welles, on September 8, 2011. Bob was a four-year student from Hartford. He was active in athletics, participating on the first football team and the wrestling team, the latter of which he was captain for two years. He was also a member of the Athletic Council and chairman of the Athletic Committee. Following Loomis, Bob attended Trinity College before a career in the United States Air Force. He achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel before retiring in 1971. Bob maintained his love of athletics in adulthood and was an avid golfer. He is survived by his wife, Thelma; three daughters, Linda W. McNeary, Carol A. Welles, and Libby Jo Welles; a son, Guy B. Welles II; six grandchildren; and 10 greatgrandchildren.

1941

Richard Andrews Snyder, on June 10, 2011, in Vero Beach, Fla. Dick, who achieved honor roll while at Loomis, was a three-year student from Malden-on-Hudson, N.Y. He was a member of the band, the Darwin and Press clubs, and the Dining Hall Committee. He served as photographer for The Log and The Loomiscellany. Dick also was active on the wrestling squad, second track team, and Allyn junior football. Following

Loomis, Dick earned a bachelor’s degree from Amherst College. He was a veteran of World War II, having served the Navy in the Atlantic and Pacific.

He then worked for White Rose Paper Company, now known as Frank Parsons Paper Company, in Baltimore, Md. In retirement, Dick lived for 22 years in Vero Beach, Fla., where he was a member of First Presbyterian Church of Vero Beach, for whom he was formerly head usher. Dick was also a past president of the Vero Beach chapter of the Amherst Alumni Association. He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Patti; a son, Thomas Andrews Snyder; and a sister. A private memorial service was to be held.

1942

Robert Thomas Cain, on July 29, 2011, following a lengthy illness. Bob attended Loomis for two years as a student from Windsor. He proudly served his country in World War II as a first lieutenant in the 84th Infantry Division of the United States Army. He entered the war in the middle of the Battle of the Bulge and led his platoon in continuous combat until they reached the Elbe River shortly before V-E Day. For his service in action, he was awarded the Bronze Star. Following the war, Bob attended Emory College, where he received his bachelor’s degree. He earned his medical degree from the Emory University School of Medicine. Bob practiced medicine for 40 years, 32 of which were in Quitman, Ga., where he practiced until his retirement in 1993. He was predeceased by his wife of 59 years, Marie. He is survived by two children, Robert Thomas Cain

honors was held on September 10, 2011, at St. Stephen’s Church in Trumbull, Conn.

Photo: Loomis Chaffee Archives

Jr. and Marjorie Cain Holladay; a granddaughter; a sister; two sisters-in-law; a brother-in-law; and many nieces and nephews and their children and grandchildren. A funeral was held on August 2, 2011, at Parkhill Cemetery in Columbus, Ga. Dudley H. Fay Jr., peacefully with his family beside him, on September 4, 2010. Dudley was a three-year student from New York, N.Y. He was active with the Nautical Club and Senior Grounds Committee. He served as editor of The Loomiscellany and was a cast member for 4:26 for Washington and You Can’t Take It with You. Dudley was active with second football, wrestling, club tennis, and Wolcott club hockey. From 1943 to 1945, he was a captain in the 8th U.S. Air Force, 306th Bomb Group. As navigator, he flew numerous missions in the European Theater of Operations, including the Schweinfurt Raid, the largest air battle of its time, before his plane was shot down. He was a prisoner of war near Barth, Germany, until the

liberation in 1945. Following the war, Dudley earned a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University. He later received a degree from Harvard Advanced Management Program. Dudley began his career working for Kraft Foods for several years.

Following Kraft, he led a successful career in advertising, as executive vice president of J. Walter Thompson in New York and William Esty Advertising.

He spent the last 10 years of his career working for Merrill Lynch in Palm Springs, Calif.

Throughout his adult life, Dudley was an avid bridge player, playing in regional and national tournaments and attaining the rank of life master with the American Contract Bridge League. He was a passionate reader and writer and a devoted political supporter, and he loved to travel and enjoyed playing golf. Dudley is survived by his four children: Susan Fay, Julie Fay, Dudley H. Fay III, and Cynthia Fay; four grandchildren; a niece; and a nephew. He was predeceased by his sister. A memorial Mass with full military

Frank J. Potter II on April 24, 2011. Frank was a two-year boarding student from Ellenville, N.Y. He was involved with the concert orchestra, dance orchestra, band, orchestra “Cox and Box,” and Glee Club. He was a member of the Advisory Committee and Union Settlement Group. Frank was active with Allyn club soccer, club tennis, and the fencing team.

Following Loomis, Frank began studying at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, but World War II interrupted his studies and he joined the U.S. Army.

Following World War II, Frank returned to RPI, where he earned his bachelor’s degree.

After a brief time working as an insurance agent, Frank worked as an electrical engineer for a number of companies, including Motorola, Stromberg-Carlson, General Electric, and Xerox.

He was an avid golfer, enjoyed building homes with Habitat for Humanity, and was very involved with St. Luke United Methodist Church, where he also sang in the choir. Frank was predeceased by his first wife, Margaret, and his second wife, Barbara. He is survived by four children: F. John Potter, Susan Phillips, David Potter, and Mary Peeso; numerous grandchildren; one greatgrandson; a brother; a sister; nieces; nephews; cousins; and special friend Lucille Emerson.

A memorial service was held on May 28, 2011, at Saint Luke United Methodist Church in Sanford, N.Y.

loomischaffee.org | 45

IN MEMORIAM

1943

Lawrence Edward Root, on August 16, 2011. Larry, as he was known, was a one-year student from Syracuse, N.Y. He was involved with the concert orchestra and band, and he was a member of the Entertainment Committee. Larry was also active with Allyn senior soccer.

Larry began at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1943, but he was drafted into the infantry for World War II. He saw his first action at Koln, Germany, in 1944. In May 1945, his unit was ordered to the Pacific Theater, and he was in the Philippines when the atomic bomb was dropped. Larry was discharged in 1946, having achieved the rank of captain. He then earned a bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University and pursued a master’s degree from MIT. Larry worked for 42 years in ball and roller bearing technology, including at N.H. Split Ball Bearing in Peterborough, N.H., and Timken in Lebanon, N.H. He presented and reviewed technical papers for a number of engineering societies, and he received American and foreign patents in his field as a licensed professional engineer. He was a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Family, close friends, the church, and social service organizations were very important to Larry, and he developed and administered the Crisis Fund at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Hanover, N.H., for many years. He was named Lebanon’s Citizen of the Year in 2003. Larry is survived by two cousins, Eleanor and Barbara.

A funeral was held on August 22, 2011, at St. Paul’s Cathedral 46 |

in Syracuse, N.Y. A memorial service was held on September 7, 2011, at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Hanover, N.H.

1944

Andrew Joseph Beck, on July 20, 2011. Andy was a four-year student from Pittsburgh, Pa. He was a member of the Stamp, Ping Pong, and Bridge clubs; the Military Drill; and the Senior Ground and Dormitory committees. He was active with Allyn senior soccer and Allyn track, in both of which he earned school letters, and he was captain of Allyn intermediate basketball.

Andy was an honor roll student.

Andy was born in Warsaw, Poland, where his father was the Polish minister of foreign affairs. In 1939, during the German invasion of Poland, Andy and his mother escaped to Romania, traveling to Europe and finally to New York in 1940. Following Loomis, Andy proudly served in the Polish Army from 1944 to 1946. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University. He was vice president of the International Division of Textron in Providence, R.I., until 1983, when he established his own company, Eastport Trading, which he ran until 2004. He was active in many Polish organizations, including the Advisory Board of Polish Studies at Central Connecticut State College.

He was past president of the Pilsudski Institute in New York City. Andy is survived by his daughters, Margaret Beck and Barbara Beck; and five grandchildren. A funeral was held on July 25, 2011, at Saint Pius X Church in Fairfield, Conn.

1947

Charles Gurney Edwards Jr., peacefully, on August 20, 2011.

Chas, as he was known, was a two-year student from Providence, R.I. He was a member of Le Cercle Français and of the Student Federalists. Chas was also a cast member in Macbeth.

He was active with Allyn senior football, winter track, and first track team. Following Loomis, Chas earned a bachelor’s degree from Brown and a juris doctorate from Harvard Law School.

He served as lieutenant in the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Fletcher, DDE 445 before embarking on a legal career. Chas practiced at Edwards & Angell in Providence for 30 years, with a brief interval as assistant attorney general of Rhode Island in charge of the civil division.

After his time with Edwards & Angell, Chas maintained a private practice in Little Compton, R.I., until he retired. He worked primarily as a real estate attorney, but he was most proud of his pro bono work with the American Civil Liberties Union, defending such rights as prochoice, Indian land rights, fair housing, and free speech. Chas served on many boards, including Hospice Care of Rhode Island, Providence Players, the Charitable Fuel Society, Little Compton Historical Society, and the Sakonnet Preservation Association. He particularly enjoyed amateur sports car racing, acting in amateur theater, and travel. Chas was predeceased by his brother, James S. Edwards ’49, and his cousin, Knight Edwards ’41. He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Beverley; three children: Kate Mullen, Mark Edwards, and Amy Edwards;

six grandchildren; and his brother, George D. Edwards ’51.

A celebration of his life was held on August 27, 2011, at the United Congregational Church in Little Compton, R.I.

1948

Edward W. Hastings, quietly at home on July 5, 2011. Ed was a four-year student from West Hartford. While at Loomis, he was a member of the Student Council, Publications Board, Student Federalist, Glee Club, and The Pelicans. He was editor of The Loomiscellany and art editor and president of The Loom. He was a cast member of York Nativity Play, Seventeen, Macbeth, Trial by Jury, Wings over Europe, and Princess Ida. In addition, Ed was active with Allyn senior football, Allyn tennis, and physical education. Ed, who was an honor roll student during each of his four years, was recipient of the Stickney Memorial Essay Prize and the Lt. Martin Harold Johnson Memorial Prize. Following Loomis, Ed earned his bachelor’s degree from Yale University. He also received a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. Ed served in a tank battalion in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. Following his discharge, he began a lifelong career in theater in New York City, where he worked as an actor, stage manager, and producer. During this time, Ed joined forces with such theater greats as David Merrick, Uta Hagen, and William Ball. Mr. Ball brought Ed into the American Conservatory Theater as a founding member in Pittsburgh in 1965. Ed served as executive director from 1975 to 1980, and after ACT was brought to San

Francisco, Ed served as its artistic director from 1986 to 1992.

His tenure as artistic director at ACT marked a commitment to large-scale productions, new plays, emerging playwrights, and diversity. Ed’s skillful and firm leadership is credited with helping ACT survive the loss of its permanent home, The Geary Theater, due to the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake; as well as resolving a $1.5 million deficit while he spearheaded new projects; founding its first new plays development program; and creating The Black Actors and Asian American Theater Workshops. Ed was widely known for his staging of contemporary and classic plays in America and abroad and for nurturing the careers of countless theater artists. Ed worked at many companies while at ACT and after he retired. He staged works at Minneapolis’ Guthrie Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theater, Denver Theatre Center, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Santa Fe Opera, and in Australia, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Moscow, and the former Yugoslavia. For many actors, directors, and playwrights, however, he will be chiefly remembered as a mentor of young talent and a champion of diversity. Ed was predeceased by his brother, John A. Hastings ’51. He is survived by his longtime partner, Eugene Barcone; his brother, George C. Hastings ’45; and his nieces and nephews and their children.

No memorial service has been planned. According to Mr. Barcone, Ed asked to be cremated “…and his ashes scattered in the mountains above Santa Fe when the huge aspen groves turn brilliantly yellow in the fall.”

Photo: Loomis Chaffee Archives

Frank H. Twyeffort Jr., peacefully at home on August 19, 2011.

Frank was a student from New Rochelle, N.Y. He was active with the Glee and Stamp clubs, vice president of the Bridge Club, a member of the Executive and Founders committees, chairman of the Senior Chapel Committee, and a cast member in York Nativity Play. Frank also worked on the Loomis farm. In addition, Frank was active with Wolcott senior football, Wolcott senior basketball, and Wolcott tennis. Following Loomis, Frank earned his bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University and went on to have a long and successful career in banking.

He was active in Boy Scouting; with the University Men’s Glee Club of New Rochelle, N.Y.; and as an elder and deacon of North Avenue Presbyterian Church in New Rochelle, N.Y., and the South Congregational Church in Centerville, Mass. He also

owned and operated Acorn Antiques in Pound Ridge, N.Y., and Cotuit, Mass. Frank was predeceased by his first wife, Patricia, and a stepson, Christian Werner. He is survived by his second wife, Christiane; children Leslie Twyeffort Gato, Frank H. Twyeffort III, Dale Twyeffort, Heidi Twyeffort, and Garth W. Twyeffort; a stepdaughter, Lauris Werner; a cousin, Anne Haviland Taylor ’36; seven grandchildren; and great-grandchildren and step-great-grandchildren.

A memorial service was held on September 24, 2011, in the South Congregational Church in Centerville, Mass.

1949

Roger Hancock, on April 23, 2011. Roger was a one-year student who came to the Island for a post-graduate year as an English Union exchange student from Grange-over-Sands,

Lancashire, England. While at Loomis he was involved in the Photography Club and Le Cercle Français, and he was active with first team soccer, for which he earned a school letter, and Wolcott club tennis. Following Loomis, Roger returned to England, where he did national service in the Army’s Intelligence Corps. He then followed his older brother, actor Tony Hancock, who was star of the BBC show Hancock’s Half Hour, to the stage. Roger worked backstage in a number of theaters in London before transitioning to being an agent, where he guided the careers of many writers and performers.

He was highly respected and known for his warmth, congeniality, and sense of humor.

Ultimately, Roger established his own agency, Roger Hancock Limited, with a roster of clients that included writers Jimmy Perry, David Croft, Terry Na loomischaffee.org | 47

IN MEMORIAM

tion (who created Doctor Who’s Daleks), and David Renwich; actor Willie Rushton; the Monty Python team; and the comedy trio The Goodies. Roger retired in 2001, handing his agency over to his son Timothy.

In retirement, Roger enjoyed cricket and salmon fishing. He is survived by his wife, Pamela “Annie” Leake; and two sons, Toby and Timothy.

William Thomas Roche Jr., peacefully at home on November 13, 2011. Bill came to Loomis from West Hartford.

He was involved with the Glee Club and the Study Hall Committee. He served on the editorial board of The Log. Bill was active with first soccer, first basketball, and first baseball, in all of which he earned school letters. He was an honor roll student. Bill earned a bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University and an M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business.

Following Wharton, Bill was hired by IBM, where he worked for several years until settling in Kirkland, Wash., and accepting a teaching job at Bellevue College. Intrigued by real estate, Bill worked in real estate for some time before opening his own office, Roche and Associates. His hobbies included golf, tennis, camping, boating, croquet, and world travel. He played slow-pitch baseball well into his 50s. He was an active member of the Puget Sound Croquet Club and a founder of the croquet group at Mission Hills Country Club of Rancho Mirage, Calif. He was a life member of the University of Washington Presidents Club and an anonymous but generous contributor to many local 48 |

Photo: Loomis Chaffee Archives

charities. Bill is survived by his wife, Biff; four children, William T. III, Peter, Tracey, and John; six grandchildren; and one great-granddaughter.

1950

Robert N. Margolis, on September 21, 2011, following a long illness. Nick, as he was known, came to Loomis from West Hartford. He was involved with the Political, Press, and Jazz clubs and was a member of the Special Founders Committee, Student Council, and the Committee of Review.

Nick was active with first team football, for which he earned a school letter; Allyn senior basketball; and Allyn senior baseball. Nick was an honor roll student. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and a medical degree from Tufts School of Medicine.

After graduation he trained in orthopedic surgery at Yale University and entered practice

in New Haven in 1965. From 1960 to 1962, he served as battle group surgeon with the 82nd Airborne Division. He was a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgery. In his years of practice he served, at various times, as associate chief of orthopedics at the Hospital of St. Raphael; chief of orthopedics at the V.A. Hospital in West Haven, Conn.; and president of the Yale Orthopaedic Association. During his active life, his professional interest came to focus on adult hip and spine surgery and his hobbies on flying, tennis, bird hunting, and dog training. Nick was predeceased by his first wife, Irene; and his stepson, Mark. He is survived by his second wife, Joan; three sons, David, Joseph, and Tom; two stepdaughters, Allison and Valerie; and seven grandchildren.

A private funeral was held, and a memorial celebration was to

be scheduled for a later date.

Judith Parker Melick, on August 13, 2011, at Overlook Medical Center in Summit, N.J., after suffering a heart attack. Judy was a student from Hartford. She served as Chaffee senior class secretary/ treasurer and as a Chaffer. Following Chaffee, Judy earned a bachelor’s degree from Smith College. She began her career at Aetna Insurance Company before spending two years at the Army Chemical Center in Edgewood, Md., while her husband fulfilled his military service requirement. Judy’s second career was as a computer service analyst at Exxon Chemical’s Byway Refinery in New Jersey, where she served for 21 years before retiring. In retirement, she worked as a volunteer tax preparer for the AARP’s free Tax-Aide program for low- and middle-income taxpayers. Judy was a subscrib-

er to and member of many arts organizations, regularly attending orchestral and choral concerts and the opera as well as theater, art exhibits, and lectures, actively educating herself in advance on the topic of each event. She attended nearly every performance, sporting event, or ceremony in which one of her children or grandchildren participated. She was a bird watcher and nature lover and enjoyed taking her grandchildren for walks in the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in Morris County, N.J. Her wide range of interests included many genres of literature as well as travel, politics, and movies. An avid New York Times reader, she faithfully completed the crossword puzzle every day. Judy was predeceased by her mother, Helen Parker, who taught history at Chaffee; and her husband of 43 years, Edwin Melick. She is survived by her daughters, Alison Melick and Jennifer Melick; four grandchildren; an aunt; a sister-in-law; two brothers-in-law; three nieces; five nephews; and 20 grandnieces and grandnephews. A funeral service was held on September 17, 2011, at St. George’s Episcopal Church in Maplewood, N.J.

1951

The school was saddened to learn of the passing of former Trustee John C. Sienkiewicz on January 3, 2012. A complete obituary will appear in the spring issue of the magazine.

Philip Gunn Cannon, peacefully at home on June 2, 2011. A four-year student from Windsor Locks, Philip was active with the Political, Press, Jazz, Nautical, and Chess clubs. He was president of the Model Plane Club. Philip also was active with Allyn senior soccer and Allyn senior basketball, and he served as a spring sports official.

Following Loomis, Philip earned his bachelor’s degree from Brown University. After serving in the U.S. Army in Germany, he began his publishing career with The New York Times in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. After returning to the United States, he worked with various publishers in the

Boston and New York areas until founding his own company, Manufacturers’ Mart Publications, in Fairfield, Conn. His family and company later moved to Westerly, R.I., where Phil continued as publisher until his retirement. Philip loved boats, his family and friends, reading, sports, and his dogs, not necessarily in that order. He touched the lives of many with his indestructible sense of humor, kindness, sense of wonder, and genuine gift for enjoying life. He is survived by his wife, Ilse; children Kaleeny Cannon, Suzanne Cannon, and Philip Cannon Jr.; seven grandchildren; his brother, Richard W. Cannon ’53; and many nieces and nephews. A funeral Mass was held on June 25, 2011, at St. Clare Church in Westerly, R.I.

1952

Earnest Tisdale Andrews III, on October 1, 2011, at TideWell Hospice House in Bradenton, Fla., after a hard-fought wrestling match with colon cancer and other health challenges. Dale, as he was known, was a four-year student from Avon, Conn. He was involved with the Photography Club, Student Council, Warham Dormitory Committee, and Maher House Committee. He was active on the Athletic Council and with the first track team, for which he earned a school letter, and Ski Club. He served as captain of Wolcott senior football and co-captain of the wrestling team, for which he also earned a school letter. Dale earned a bachelor’s degree from Amherst College and then, following in the footsteps of his grandfather and father, he served as president of E.T. Andrews & Company, which for many years was the oldest continuously operated stock brokerage firm in Hartford.

Dale was known for his integrity, tenacity, generosity, and lively sense of humor. He enjoyed studying businesses, hunting for undervalued companies, and approaching challenges from every angle. A favorite motto he had printed on ETA & Company pens was: “Perspicacity and patience make excellent investment companions.” He was a fiercely loyal friend and much-admired advisor; he touched the lives of many. He enjoyed time at the Canoe Club in East

Hartford, the former University Club in Hartford, and on the water, fishing and canoeing. He was a master woodworker, and his creations included cedar strip “Wee Lassie” canoes, cherry furniture, and delicate honey spoons. He enjoyed leading his dogs Tor and Zizi around the show ring as well as driving a racecar around a track.

He was a “gentleman farmer” who liked a good cigar while riding his John Deere.

Dale is survived by his wife, Pris; daughters Lenna and Kathy; four grandsons; and nieces and nephews. At his request, there was no funeral.

1955

Donald H. Avery, on July 1, 2011, after a short bout with cholangiocarconoma, a rare and fast-moving cancer. Don was a four-year student from West Hartford. He was involved with the Dayboy and Scholarship committees, the Political Club, and the Hartford Junior Foreign Policy Association. He was active with cross country, winter track, the Ski and Sailing clubs, and Allyn tennis. Don was an honor roll student and a member of the Cum Laude Society.

Don earned his bachelor’s degree and doctorate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in metallurgy. As an engineering professor at Brown University, Don taught various subjects, including thermodynamics, foundry methods for artists at Rhode Island School of Design, and an original course in yacht design, reflecting his long involvement in ocean sailing.

Don sailed ambitious routes on the ocean, including multiple trips from Rhode Island to Bermuda, some under serious weather challenges. An attempt to sail solo to South Africa had to be abandoned due to damage from a storm. Over a number of years, he engaged as a consultant and expert witness in metallurgical forensics where technical testimony was sought in support of legal actions relating to structural collapse, auto accidents, and the like. During a sabbatical at the University of Cape Town in the 1970s, he developed an interest in the ancient iron-making culture in East Africa. He lived in Tanzania and Malawi for multiple extended periods in the 1970s loomischaffee.org | 49

IN MEMORIAM

and 1980s, working with older men who had not engaged in iron-making for many years but who remembered the methods.

Under Don’s guidance, they recreated the various steps, including making charcoal, building a smelting furnace and the means to fuel and operate it, and mining and processing the iron ore available in the area.

The chemistry of the process proved in part to be previously unknown to western science.

Based on this and other adventures, Don obtained membership in the Explorers’ Club in New York City, an honor that gave him particular satisfaction.

In retirement, Don and his wife, Marianna, built a farm (initially horse, then cow) from 67 acres of unimproved land. Through this process, Don became proficient in woodturning, which he studied and practiced as a hobby. He was predeceased by his wife, Marianna. Don is survived by his children: Jon Avery, Caleb Avery, and Jessica Avery; a sister; and three grandchildren.

Louis E. Hathaway III, at home on July 21, 2011. Buzz, as he was known, was a three-year student from Longmeadow, Mass.

He was involved with the Sailing Club, Stagehands Union, and Student Endowment Fund. He was secretary-treasurer of the Photography Club and assistant supervisor for Kitchen Patrol.

Buzz was active with first team soccer (for which he earned a school letter), Allyn hockey, first team track, and the Sports Committee. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Brown University.

Buzz settled in Darien, Conn., where he lived for 30 years.

During this time he commuted 50 |

on the Executive Committee for the HOPE Clubhouse of Southwest Florida in Fort Myers, Fla., and was instrumental in the creation of that organization. Judy is survived by her husband of 45 years, Ludwig; her daughters, Rachel Gartner Lennie and Anne Gartner; four grandchildren; two brothers; and a cousin, John E. Rubinow ’73. A memorial service was to be held in Naples, Fla., in January 2012.

1960 Photo: Loomis Chaffee Archives

into New York City and had a successful career in mortgage banking and commercial real estate throughout the country.

Buzz also served as president of the Mortgage Bankers Association of New York City. He was an active member of the Union League Club, serving on many committees, and was also a member of Wee Burn Country Club in Darien. Buzz retired to Hilton Head Island in 1998 and was actively involved in various volunteer organizations. Most recently he served as treasurer of the Board of Hospice Care of the Lowcountry. He is survived by his wife of 47 years, Judith; three children: Holly Ann Hathaway, Lisa Hathaway Stella, and Louis E. Hathaway IV; two grandchildren; and a sister. Buzz was predeceased by another sister. A celebration of life was held on July 26, 2011. A private burial was held.

1958

Judith Rubinow Gartner, at home in Chapel Hill, N.C., on September 10, 2011. At Chaffee, Judy was a member of the Cha-

pel Committee, chairman of the Library Committee, senior class representative, business manager of The Epilogue, treasurer of the Political Club, and a reporter for The Chiel. Following Chaffee she earned a bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College and a master’s in teaching from Harvard College. She earned a juris doctorate from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1980. Judy practiced corporate transactional law in the Twin Cities for more than 25 years.

Until 2008, she was partner at the firm Orbovich and Gartner, which she co-founded, in St. Paul, Minn. Judy was also active in the Clubhouse movement, which assists communities in creating centers at which people with mental illness are given the encouragement and training they need to become fully engaged as citizens of their communities. She was a founder and first board chair of the International Center for Clubhouse Development, an organization committed to supporting the international development of Clubhouses. She also served

Richard Palmer Harris, on November 8, 2010. Dick was a four-year student from West Hartford. He was involved in the Chess Club, The Loomiscellany, and the Library Committee, and he was a cast member of She Stoops to Conquer and Enemy of the People. He also served as president of the Modern Jazz Club. Dick was active with Ludlow senior football and served as coach of Wolcott intermediate basketball, Allyn junior basketball, and Wolcott senior baseball. Following Loomis, Dick earned his bachelor’s degree from Hobart University.

He joined the United States Army in 1965 and made it his career. He retired in 1986, having achieved the rank of major.

Dick is survived by his wife, Paula. A memorial service was held on November 12, 2010, in Warsaw, Mo.

1961

Curtis S. Adkisson, on October 17, 2011, from complications resulting from ALS. Curt, who was a three-year student from Morrilton, Ark., was involved with The Log and the Darwin, Astronomy, and Radio clubs. He

was a member of the Elections, Library, and Dining Hall committees. Dick was captain of the Wolcott soccer team and also was active with the Wolcott hockey and first lacrosse teams.

He was an honor roll student.

Curt earned a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College, where he continued to play ice hockey and lacrosse. He earned a master’s degree in botany from Miami University of Ohio and a doctorate in biology from the University of Michigan. He then became a tenured professor at Virginia Tech until retiring recently to Arkansas. He was an active professor, teacher, ornithologist, naturalist, author of numerous research papers, scientist, craftsman, world traveler, instrument-rated pilot, and Cessna Cardinal owner who lived life fully with his sharp mind and quick wit.

From his early boyhood on his grandmother’s farm, he loved birding, and binoculars became a fixture for life. He led a full life, even when challenged by health problems. Curt was predeceased by his wife, Karen.

He is survived by two brothers, William C. Adkisson ’67, and George W. Adkisson; his daughter, Jennifer Adkisson Duffy; and two grandchildren. A private memorial was to be held at a later date in the Colorado mountains, where Curt and Karen had a cabin overlooking Mill Creek.

1962

Lynn Suto Mocarsky, on October 24, 2011, in Portland, Maine. At Chaffee, Lynn was a member of the Library and Chapel committees and the Glee Club. She participated in synchronized swimming

and basketball. Lynn earned a bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University and a master’s degree from St. Joseph College. She taught school in East Greenbush, N.Y., before returning to Windsor to teach in the public school system.

She left teaching to raise her children and then worked for a medical practice in Granby.

Most recently, Lynn worked as a synchronized swimming instructor. She was an active member of the Pilgrim Covenant Church in Granby and was involved in mission projects with the church. She was an avid quilter and a member of several quilting guilds. Lynn loved to paint and play the guitar and harp. She is survived by her husband, Robert; two sons, Rob Mocarsky and Rory Mocarsky; five grandchildren; a brother; three nephews; and a niece. A memorial service was held on November 2, 2011, at the Pilgrim Covenant Church.

1963

Peter Holman Mott, in April 2009. Pete was a four-year student from Windsor. He was involved with Student Council, The Loomiscellany, the French and Astronomy clubs, and the Chapel Committee. He served as chairman of the Senior Scholastic Committee and was involved in Dramatics for the fall and spring plays. He was active with Ludlow senior soccer and varsity rifle, for which he earned two school letters.

Pete, who was a high honor roll student all four years, was Class Top Scholar, National Merit Scholar, recipient of the Jennie Loomis Memorial Prize and the Norris Ely Orchard Memorial Prize, and a member

of the Cum Laude Society. He graduated from Loomis with high distinction and went on to earn his bachelor’s and master’s degrees and his doctorate from Columbia University. He was an English professor at Nassau Community College. Pete was an avid and accomplished sculptor. His welded steel art can be seen at the Peter Mott Sculpture Garden in Mountaindale, N.Y. Pete and his wife, Elaine, who also passed away in April 2009, are survived by their two children and four grandchildren. A memorial service was held on June 13, 2009, at their home in Ellenville, N.Y.

1967

Lawrence Joseph Reeves, on September 29, 2011. Larry was a four-year student from Windsor. He was involved with the Darwin Club and the Foreign Policy Association. He also served as president of the Printing Club. Larry was active with Allyn senior football and Allyn hockey. Following Loomis, Larry attended Hartwick College. He was employed for many years as an executive commercial property manager.

He loved being on the water and was an avid fisherman.

Larry is survived by his beloved daughter, Carolyn A. Reeves; two sisters; and several nieces and nephews. A memorial service was held on October 4, 2011, at the chapel of the Carmon Windsor Funeral Home in Windsor.

Staff

Robert F. April Sr., on July 11, 2011, at Hartford Hospital. Bob, who worked in the engineering area of Loomis Chaffee’s Physical Plant for 40 years, was born in Salem, Mass., and raised in Beverly, Mass. He was a veteran of the Korean War, serving honorably in the U.S. Navy. Bob was an avid and gifted musician. He was a vocal member of the St. Martha’s Players, played with the Sandy Richards Quartet, and was a member of the Parsons Family Association. Bob was a lifelong blood donor for the American Red Cross. In his free time he enjoyed working on home projects, loved gardening, and was considered a “Mr. Fix-it” extraordinaire. He is survived by his former wife, Constance Lind; five children, Nancy Hall, Robert F. April Jr., Suzan April, Kathleen April-Robinson, and John F. April; three brothers; five grandchildren; and two nephews. Bob was predeceased by his parents and a sister. A funeral was held on July 17, 2011, at Somers Funeral Home in Somers, Conn.

More News

The Alumni Office has learned of the passing of Edward F. Boyd Jr. ’32 on February 26, 2011; Julian B. Beaty Jr. ’34 on August 26, 2011; and Ogden D. Hopkins ’43 on April 3, 2010.

More information, as available, will be printed in future issues. loomischaffee.org | 51

READERS’ VOICE

Human Nature in Economics

of three local friends: the gifted Bud Braine, the precociously sophisticated Perrin Cothran, and a man of true integrity, Barry Loucks. I knew Barry the longest, from the first grade onward, before he would become a trusted banker and respected deputy mayor of Windsor. Loomis prepared all of us well intellectually, but I have wished from time to time our all-male classes could have included the Subies, Marys, and Emilys we knew. That exposure would have prepared all of us even better for what was to come. I am happy Loomis Chaffee has improved over the years in now offering a stimulating coed experience.

A

ccording to Ms. Hard’s account of the [Economics] panel discussion (Spring 2011), Robert Kaiser “blamed the financial meltdown on the human belief that somehow, just once, rules could be suspended. ‘All we can do is to mitigate the impact of these human mistakes,’ Mr. Kaiser said.” His remarks, I gather from the account, were followed by a spirited discussion of exactly how, with regulation or otherwise, these mistakes could be mitigated.

It would be very interesting to know if there entered into the discussion any reference to the origins of the United States, which, unlike any polity I know of, was constructed to mitigate the fallibility of human nature. Basic to the Federalist Papers is Madison’s belief that were men angels, government would be unnecessary. New Deal banking and securities regulations and tax policies provided orderly markets and a moderate redistribution of income. Then, beginning with the savings and loan scandal three decades ago, disorders have plagued our financial markets.

Yes, they reflect human nature; but more than that, they reflect a willful desire to erode government regulation on the part of those who profit thereby. The ‘moneyed interests,’ as they were referred to a century ago, have successfully lobbied and propagandized to weaken regulation to the point where they can even get away with telling folks that government depends on the private sector. This kind of absurdity must make Madison, Jay, and Hamilton revolve in their graves.

If even 10 percent of American citizens were familiar with The Federalist, (and The Record of the Federal Convention of 1787), we would be in far better shape today. George Santayana famously said that those ignorant of history are condemned to repeat it. I fear that ignorance is returning us to another age of feudalism.

James Munves ’39

Green Efforts

D

elighted to read “From the Ground Up” (Spring 2011). Bravo for being ahead of the curve. It is a shame that your efforts are not more widely publicized. … I am a Master Gardener/Organic Gardener for 40 years. Our

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David Celio ’61

Reflecting on the Departed

I garbage disposer does not empty into the system. Rather, it is piped through the exterior wall and empties into a 5-gallon bucket, the contents of which go directly into my vegetable and flower gardens. But, missing is any approach to the issues of human waste, which we process in a very 19th-century manner. Waterless toilets are not new technology. I know of their use in the Tundra for 30 years, and Home Depot has four different models for sale.

Robert M. Spitzler ’54

50th Reunion Book

I

would like to thank Alexandra Muchura, et. al., editors of the book, Reunited 2011, Loomis Chaffee Class of 1961. Since I missed the recent reunion due to my daughter Maria’s wedding and her graduation from UW Medical School, I was glad to read about the happy and successful lives of those promising classmates of 50 years ago. As a native of Windsor, I was particularly happy to learn of the accomplishments of that deft installer, Subie Bigelow Lambert; that gifted art professor, Mary Braman Buchan; and that stalwart mental health pioneer, Emily Carpenter Bornstein — all my middle school classmates in Windsor back in the Eisenhower administration.

They were all women of intelligence, graciousness, and full of spunk. It was equally gratifying to hear of the adventures and successes of the Loomis men, but I was saddened by the passing

think that you’ll find that “one of Glover Howe’s schoolmates” in the picture on page 52 of the spring LC magazine is Stan Shimkus (back right), who made a valiant (but doomed) effort to teach me mechanical drawing in my early years at Loomis.

Donald S. Berns ’65

I

arrived on the Island as a junior in 1968 from Miami Beach. I was not a Blue Blood. I had read only one book — The Yearling — prior to attending Loomis. Seniors called me Bagel and threatened to shave off my eyebrows while I slept. I failed my Physical Fitness test. I got a D in Chemistry from Mr. Palmer. … I did have a small record player my Mom and Dad bought me in Hartford, and this gave me comfort. Life was not good. You know where I am going with this — Glover [Howe ’48] and John [Lander].

These men were experts at what they did. They were my parents, psychologist, teacher, and friend. In one year they changed my life. My senior year I played varsity football and lacrosse.

I could run 15 miles and military press 225. No one picked on me. I attended Emory University and have practiced pediatrics/emergency medicine for 33 years. I have a wonderful wife of 30 years, Martha, a neonatologist at the University of Florida, and three daughters. Have

traveled the world and, like John Yost ’77, have been able to serve at health camps in Nepal the past two years — the highlight of my career. I offer my sincere condolences and thanks to Glover and John’s families. They must know the thousands of other young men they helped jump start in life.

Robert D. “Bob” Lee ’70

moved several times. It will be passed along to our family here.

You should all be proud of the intelligent and thoughtful articles, the format and the evocative, impressive photographs. You do yourselves and your wonderful school much credit. Keep up the good work.

Karen Ettlin-Thruelsen, sister of Eric Thruelsen ’72, who died in October 2008

Encouraging Words

I

want to congratulate all of you on a superb Loomis Chaffee spring 2011 magazine. I live in Switzerland and contribute to my brother Eric’s scholarship fund at Loomis; I received my copy in the mail today. As an editor and writer, I must say that this is a lovely piece of work.

The magazine itself is beautifully presented, the photographs superb, and the content first-rate.

I actually sat on the stairs on this long early summer evening and read it through, deeply

We welcome and encourage your opinions and reactions. Although letters may be edited for clarity, length, and accuracy, they always reflect the opinion of the writer and not necessarily that of the school. Please submit comments to Loomis Chaffee Editors, The Loomis Chaffee School, 4 Batchelder Road, Windsor CT 06095; or magazine@loomis.org.

COLLEGE | continued from 27 might have met with a student as few as three or four times, on average we now meet three times that often, and our interactions with parents have increased commensurately as well.

Additionally, we rely on a web-based program called Family Connection by Naviance. This allows for complete transparency between the student, the family, and the college counselor and is a terrific means by which students can research colleges, stay on top of a series of checklists, and so on. [See sidebar on page 27.] Last, and perhaps most importantly, we are a preparatory school, meaning that our whole focus is to prepare our students for college. So it really does take a village, so to speak, and while we do the lion’s share of the work on the back end, the work on the front end is equally, if not more, important. From the students that we enroll to the way that we engage them in the classrooms, in the dormitory, in athletics, in the arts, in leadership — all of these things are important in helping to develop students who are attractive college applicants.

Q

It’s almost cliché now for people who are 10 or more years out of college to say, “I’d never get into the college I went to if I applied today.” What are your thoughts about that observation?

A

I think that it is true that most colleges today are far more selective than a generation ago, and so many people are right in that they would incur increased scrutiny if they were applying to their

alma mater with credentials similar to what they presented in high school. That being said, a rising tide lifts all boats, as they say. What I mean by this is that if someone attended College X a generation ago, that person might end up at a slightly less selective college today, College Y. The reality is that College Y is chock full of similarly aspirant and talented students, has a top-notch faculty and wonderful facilities. I realize that this is hypothetical, but that person’s college experience probably would not be all that different.

Q

How do you and others in the College Office counsel kids against the backdrop of an intensely competitive and rapidly changing college admissions scene?

A

We do spend much more time with them, as I mentioned. And we try to support them and get them to understand that the college admissions process is not based on merit. Colleges make decisions that are in their own best interest, and these decisions do not always seem to be “fair.” That being said, we have a wonderful system of higher education — the best in the world — and many wonderful opportunities therein. At the end of the day, we want each student to go to the best college that fits his or her interests and inclinations. And the great thing about working at Loomis is that we know that all of our students leave the Island poised to make the most out of that opportunity.

loomischaffee.org | 53

THE LAST WORD | BY HERBERT P. CARTER ’20

A Band That “Grew Like Topsy” Editors’ Note: As Loomis Chaffee plans for its Centennial in 2014–15, firsthand accounts from faculty, students, and alumni about their daily affairs at school figure prominently in the historical record of the school’s first 100 years. In each issue of Loomis Chaffee Magazine, “The Last Word” shares a firsthand account from an LC community member.

“

Herbert P. Carter ’20 Father of Trustee Andrew M. Carter ’58

That winter — 1920 — there was a serious outbreak of scarlet fever, with the infirmary filled up. Contact sports were forbidden. …Time hung heavy, and under the initiative of the great Jewett Flagg a jazz band that grew like topsy to nine pieces began to play, first on a Saturday night then every night after dinner for a half hour or more. The play was ragged but noisy. At times Flaggy at the traps would cry, ‘Let her rip.’

The result was a musical uproar.

”

— From a letter written to Frank Grubbs October 9, 1978, in response to a call for memories of the Batchelder years.

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1914

2014

The Jazz Band, as presented in the 1920 Loomiscellany, included Jewett T. Flagg ’20, Burton E. Moore ’22, Herbert P. Carter ’20, Samuel W. Clinton ’23, Arthur H. Hinckley ’23, Robert V. Howard ’20, R.P. Soby ’20, Malcolm F. Amsden ’21, and Donald B. Jelly ’20.

English instructor and adviser to the Loom Morris H. Brown Photo: Archives

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The Loomis Chaffee School 4 Batchelder Road Windsor, Connecticut 06095 CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

Nonprofit Organization U.S. Postage Paid Mailed From Hartford CT Permit No. 1720

With snow falling, Loomis Chaffee persevered to a 42-20 victory over Trinity-Pawling on October 29, on the way to a 5-3 season, the football team’s best record since 1996.

Photo: Current parent Rexford Joffray ’76

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