Summer 2012 Loomis Chaffee Magazine

MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2012

Senior Profiles Celebrating Years of Service Global Opportunities

Summer 2012/ Volume LXXIV, No. 3

ON THE COVER Soon-to-be graduates Caroline Moran and Brian Nance radiate the joy of a perfect commencement morning.

Photo: John Groo ON THIS PAGE Fabindia School exchange student Shefali Jain shows her Mason Hall dorm mate Meadeshia Mitchell some of the architectural beauty of her Indian homeland over March break.

Photo: Betsy Tomlinson EDITOR | Louise D. Moran MANAGING EDITOR | Becky Purdy CLASS NEWS | James S. Rugen ’70 OBITUARIES | Katherine A.B. Langmaid CONTRIBUTORS | Mercedes Maskalik, Mary Forrester, Jeuley Ortengren, Timothy G. Struthers ’85, Lynn Petrillo, Karen Parsons, KeriAnne Travis, Lisa Salinetti Ross, Marc Cicciarella, and Nicole Jamieson DESIGNER | Patricia J. Cousins PRINTING | Lane Press 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 PRINTED AT LANE PRESS Burlington, Vermont Printed on 70# Sterling Matte, an SFI sheet SUSTAINABLE FORESTRY INITIATIVE POSTMASTER Send address changes to: The Loomis Chaffee School 4 Batchelder Road Windsor CT 06095

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INSIDE

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Fresh Crop of Alumni

LoomisChaffee

21 | The Final Motion In keeping with tradition, the school’s senior faculty member reflects on the year’s highlights and bids farewell to faculty members who are departing at the end of the year.

25 | Six 2012 Seniors

Stories of six extraordinary young graduates illustrate the breadth of talents, accomplishments, and contributions that members of the Class of 2012 bought to the Island.

38 | Where Are They Now? Snapshots of 17 graduates whom we profiled as seniors in past magazine issues show how they have carried forth the lessons and values they learned at Loomis Chaffee.

42 | Going Global As the global village continues to shrink, Loomis Chaffee community members travel to distant lands, making new friends and gaining wider perspectives.

Go to Loomis Chaffee online @loomischaffee.org for the latest school news, sports scores, and galleries of recent photos. You also will find direct links to all of our social networking communities. Scan the QR code at left with your smart phone and instantly link to the magazine or go to loomischaffee.org/magazine.

DEPARTMENTS 2 | HEADLINES | G raduating Educated Individuals 3 | AROUND THE QUADS

8 | THE BIG PICTURE

14 | ISLAND ARRAY

17 | OF NOTE | FACULTY & STAFF

1 9 | ATHLETICS 44 | OBJECT LESSONS | A Passion for Puppets 45 | ALUMNI NEWS 59 | IN MEMORIAM 63 | READER’S VOICE 64 | THE LAST WORD | Jane Mackay Howe ’49

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HEADLINES | BY SHEILA CULBERT

Graduating Educated Individuals

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N 1917, The Loomis Institute graduated its first class of students “with,” according to school historian Lou Fowles, “‘the fair skies and balmy weather’ that traditionally accompanied the exercises.”

“It was a day,” he continued, “complete with the satisfactions of academic accomplishments and the joys of school life.” That first class included 10 boys and three girls. On June 8, on a similarly fair and balmy day, The Loomis Chaffee School held its 96th graduation for a class that comprised 218 students with almost equal numbers of young men and women — the largest in the school’s history.

While sad to see this class leave, I am immensely proud of all they accomplished while at Loomis and eagerly anticipate the positive mark I know they will make on the world. Our most recent graduates include a world-class musician, Academic All-American athletes, a math Olympian, inventors, linguists, science nuts, great writers, history buffs, artists, and environmentalists. They come from all over the country and all over the world and from every walk of life. Indeed, they would make Nathaniel Batchelder proud in their distinct individuality.

It was Dr. John Edmund Barss, one of Loomis’ first faculty members, who recorded Mr. B’s strong belief that Loomis not set its seal upon its students.

Dr. Barss recalls Mr. B saying: “If the time comes when you can recognize a Loomis boy by his speech, by his clothes, or, still more fatally, by a standard attitude of mind, on that day

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we shall have failed. It is the plan of Loomis that each boy shall continue to be himself, but that that shall be his best self, developed in surroundings friendly to such growth.” The young men and women of the Class of 2012 continue to be very much themselves. This year’s Commencement class speaker, Jamol Lettman, repeated Mr. B’s words almost exactly: “We are not a product of the Loomis brand. We won’t go out into the world bearing a Loomis stamp.”

When Nathaniel Batchelder argued against pushing students into a set mold, he wanted instead for students to learn to think for themselves, to be creative problem solvers, and to handle change. He recognized that young people have different strengths and personalities, different passions and interests, different potentials. Mr. B knew the best education as fostered by the best teachers takes these differences into account and builds on them to encourage students to reach their own potential. He understood that it generally does not work to force square pegs into round holes.

We remain as committed to this philosophy today as Mr. Batchelder was in the early years of the school. As a faculty we are less interested in telling students what to think than we are in teaching them how to think.

We are less inclined to proscribe particular tracks for our students than we are to encourage them to explore a variety of different pathways and to search for their own passions, because GRADUATING | continued 41

English teacher Berrie Moos, Head of School Sheila Culbert, and Assistant Head of Enrollment Erby Mitchell pause for a photo on Commencement morning. Photo: John Groo

Our most recent graduates include a world-class musician, Academic AllAmerican athletes, a math Olympian, inventors, linguists, science nuts, great writers, history buffs, artists, and environmentalists. They come from all over the country and all over the world and from every walk of life.

AROUND THE QUADS

Wisdom, Gratitude, and Honors: Commencement 2012

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NTERDEPENDENCE defines the world’s emerging new paradigm, Commencement speaker William Bissell ’84 told the sun-dappled members of the Class of 2012 on June 8 as they sat poised to enter that world as Loomis Chaffee alumni.

“All that we observe in the natural and man-made world is deeply interdependent,” said William, a businessman and social entrepreneur. “Our thoughts, our physical bodies, our forests, our biospheres, our politics, and our cities are all complex systems which can be understood only if we reimagine these systems as deeply interdependent. … When we build personal, family, social, economic, political, and scientific structures based on the idea of interdependence, our world becomes deeper and richer.”

More than 1,200 attendees tuned in to William’s address as part of the 96th Commencement ceremony, which also included words of advice from Senior Class Speaker Jamol Lettman, Chairman of the Board of Trustees Christopher Norton ’76, and Head of School Sheila Culbert. Commencement was especially meaningful for Sheila, who was an “incoming freshman” in 2008 along with the Class of 2012.

William, managing director of one of India’s most successful retail companies and co-founder of The Fabindia School in rural Rajasthan, India, urged Loomis’ graduating seniors to lead the vanguard in reimagining a new approach to life, business, and social interactions. The old paradigm, he said, “is a world view based on valuing Graduates Abigail Adams, David Barnes, and John Abraham Photo: John Groo

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only that which can be measured. But what I want to tell you today is that this is a profoundly reductionist way of looking at the world. In fact, most of what means so much to us in our lives cannot be measured.”

Grateful for his time as a Loomis student, William said, “I cannot measure the benefits of my Loomis education, which led me to love an intellectual life. And I find my Loomis education present in everything I do, because everything in my life is interdependent.” The Fabindia School, which he and his father founded 20 years ago, strives, in his words, “to emulate Loomis’ commitment to encourage students to be true to their own best selves.”

Jamol, the senior class speaker, focused his address on the evolving state of an LC student. “In the memories of freshman year, we can truly see how much the Island has molded us,” he said. “We are the same bright young minds that we were four years ago, but Loomis has taken our raw potential and carved out a path towards success.”

Seven members of the Class of 2012 received Commencement prizes. Junjie “Monica” He received the Mary Chaffee and Charles Henry Willcox Prize as the first scholar among the girls in the graduating class. Michael Danielczuk and Kikyung “Terry” Lee shared the Loomis Family Prize for Scholarship as the first scholars among the boys in the class. Madeline Parish received the Florence E. Sellers Prize, which recognizes “a quest for excellence, self-discipline, and a concern for others.” John Abraham earned the Ammidon Prize, which goes to a boy who “has been outstanding in his concern for other people.” Lindsay Gabow received the Jennie Loomis Prize for “outstanding contributions to the school.” Jarrod Smith received the Nathaniel Horton Batchelder Memorial Prize for “industry, loyalty, and integrity.”

At Class Night on the previous evening, five graduating seniors received Sellers Faculty Prizes. They were Jamil Hashmi, Alexandra Kendall, Isaac Kornblatt-Stier, Caroline Moran, and Rachel Rosenblatt.

To read the full text of William’s Commencement address, to view a Commencement video, or to see a gallery of photographs from the day, go to loomischaffee.org / magazine.

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Businessman, social entrepreneur, and The Fabindia School co-founder William Bissell ’84 greets seniors as the Commencement procession begins.

Photo: John Groo

Commencement and Class Night prize winners gather with Trustees, head of school, and the Commencement speaker following the ceremony: (standing) Head of School Sheila Culbert, Trustee Reginald Paige Sr., Commencement speaker William Bissell ’84, Trustee Jason H. Karp ’94, John Abraham, Trustee Chairman Christopher K. Norton ’76, Kikyung “Terry” Lee, Trustee Andrew M. Carter ’58, Jarrod Smith, Trustee Elizabeth Richmond Schulman ’80, and Isaac “Izzy” KornblattStier; (kneeling and seated) Jamil Hashmi, Alexandra Kendall, Madeline Parish, Rachel Rosenblatt, Lindsay Gabow, Junjie “Monica” He, Caroline Moran, and Michael Danielczuk. Photo: Highpoint Pictures

Taylor Mali Speaks His Mind to a Rapt Audience

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ERFORMANCE poet Taylor Mali delivered one of the most universally celebrated Loomis Chaffee convocations of the last decade when he presented his spoken-word poetry to the school in April. Students and faculty alike responded with laughter, tears, and awe to Mr. Mali’s poetry and gripping performance style, and the LC Bookstore sold out of his books by noon.

Mr. Mali, a veteran of the HBO series Def Poetry Jam, has won the National Poetry Slam championship four times. He is the author of three books of poetry, The Last Time As We Are (Write Bloody Books, 2009), What Learning Leaves (Hanover, 2002), and his most recent book, What Teachers Make. A former teacher and an advocate for the teaching profession, his spoken-word performance “What Teachers Make” attracted more than six million YouTube views. Mr. Mali’s visit to Loomis Chaffee was made possible by the Hubbard Speakers Series and the Ralph M. Shulansky ’45 Lecture Fund.

His convocation performance opened with “How Falling in Love Is Like Owning a Dog,” a humorous poem that showcases his talent for play on words: “Is love good all the time? No! No! Love can be bad.

Bad, love, bad! Very bad love. Love makes messes. Love leaves you little surprises here and there. Love needs lots of cleaning up after.”

His poems elicited a full range of emotions from the audience, and he closed his performance with the moving and inspirational poem “Tony Steinberg: Brave Seventh Grade Viking Warrior,” based on a true experience Mr. Mali faced during his teaching years at the Brown-

Taylor Mali engages himself, mind and body, in his poetry presentation.

Photo: Patricia Cousins

Democracy: Here and Abroad

W ing School, an all-boys independent school in New York City. The poem involves a student’s battle against cancer and the fraternal love he receives from his classmates. Part of the poem describes the day that Tony came to class after undergoing chemotherapy: “Totally bald in a jacket and tie on Friday morning — and I don’t just mean Tony Steinberg — not one single boy in my class had hair that day; the other 12 had all shaved their heads in solidarity. Have you ever seen 13 bald-headed seventh grade boys, all pointing at each other, all staring, all laughing? I have. And it’s a beautiful sight.”

After teaching for nine years, Mr. Mali took a risk and chose to become a professional poet. “I didn’t want to be on my deathbed and think ‘I never gave it a shot,’” he says about his decision. There are, however, many teachable moments

in performing poetry, and Mr. Mali seizes them. “Part of what I do is disabuse people of their notion of what poetry needs to be,” he explains. “I’m not above sending someone to the dictionary if they don’t understand the use of a word in my poems.”

Mr. Mali continues to advocate for the teaching profession. In June of 2000, he created the New Teacher Project, in conjunction with the Teacher Support Network and Teach for America. The project was a challenge to recruit 1,000 people into the teaching profession through the power of Mr. Mali’s poetry and advocacy. “Teaching is the most important job there is.

It may not pay what it should, but there are other rewards,” he states.

Just days before his visit to Loomis Chaffee, the quest reached its goal.

ith the coming U.S. presidential election, the History Department has been planning a series of events for the 2012–13 academic year based on the theme of “Democracy in America and Abroad.” Danny Oppenheimer, a professor of psychology and public policy at Princeton and co-author of the all-school reading, Democracy Despite Itself: Why a System That Shouldn’t Work at All Works So Well, will be visiting campus in September as the first Hubbard Speaker of the year. In addition to the Hubbard Speakers Series, the department is planning to host a debate, a political organization fair, and a mock election, complete with students playing the roles of campaign workers, pollsters, pundits, and the candidates themselves. In the winter and spring, the focus will shift to the topics of democracy in the Middle East and in India, and the future of democracy throughout the world.

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Reunion 2012 Sparkles with Alumni Talent

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LUMNI Stars Standingroom-only events highlighted Reunion 2012 on June 15–17, with noted journalist David Edelstein ’77 interviewing director and actor Jamie Widdoes ’72 on the NEO stage, author and adventurer Scott Wallace ’72 presenting a talk and slideshow about the search for the Amazon Jungle’s uncontacted tribes, and a number of other intimate gatherings and celebratory events supplementing the centerpiece of every Reunion Weekend: reconnection among classmates young and not-so-young.

Seven hundred people, including 368 alumni and their family members and guests, spent the sunny weekend on campus. Beginning Friday with a Reunion golf outing in the morning and community service projects and “Back-to-School” seminars in the afternoon, the weekend brought together graduates from classes ending in 2 and 7 for an allclass welcome buffet, live music, and dancing on Friday evening, followed by late-night events for the hardiest.

Saturday’s daytime events included a Reunion Book Club with author Jeanne Robertson Bonaca ’62, a fun run and yoga with Rebecca Pacheco ’97, a wine reception for the Sartorialist exhibit of alumni fashion designers, a gathering of alumni grapplers that celebrated the 1952 undefeated wrestling team, a co-ed

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alumni soccer game, a Memorial Service led by classmates Linda Judd Brondsted ’62 and Barbara Brown Hertz ’62, and a reunion of members of the multicultural student organization PRISM, among many other activities. The Alumni Parade of Classes and barbecue lunch marked the day’s midpoint, and the weekend’s events culminated with class dinners and an all-class dessert and dancing under the tent in Grubbs Quadrangle on Saturday evening. Late-night events included poetry and music with former faculty member Dominic Failla and current faculty member Elizabeth Parada and a comedy hour with Khristee Rich ’92. Reunion-goers gathered for a farewell breakfast on Sunday morning before departing the Island.

It was hard to decide which person on stage charmed the audience more during the Edelstein-Widdoes interview. The result was a captivating conversation between two witty, genuine, and frank professionals of the entertainment industry. David’s self-deprecating introduction of Jamie as a NEO icon that David, a Loomis actor himself, could never outdo, set the tone for the interview to follow. The comfortable conversation moved through Jamie’s life from his Loomis days on the cusp of the counter-culture era to his acting career, including his most famous

role as fraternity president Robert Hoover in the film Animal House, and his continuing television directing and producing success, most recently with the hit comedy Two and a Half Men. David didn’t skip over the less glorious moments of Jamie’s impressive career. Teasing Jamie about his decision to leave New York University before graduating in order to work in the theater world, David deadpanned, “And then very shortly after that came what was really the landmark of your career, which was Disco Beaver.” Laughing, Jamie described the “comedic dracula” film with Lynn Redgrave “in search of Dragula, the queen of darkness.”

David pinched his nose as if fending

Entertainment pros David Edelstein ’77 and Jamie Widdoes ’72 charm and delight their audience with their insights and experiences. Photo: Patricia Cousins Jeanne Robertson Bonaca ’62 leads a discussion about her new novel, The Lady in Blue: A Maria Chavez Mystery, at the first Reunion Book Club.

Photo: Jeuley Ortengren Johnnie Coles ’82 catches up with Director of Athletics Bob Howe ’80 at the Saturday evening reception.

Photo: Mercedes Maskalik Reunion is a family affair for Max WaxKrell ’97, accompanied by son Grady and wife Carrie. Photo: Mercedes Maskalik

Curt Robison brings mathematical precision and philosophical insight to an examination of moral choice. Photo: John Groo Loyal alumni Robert MacLaughlin ’52 (and his wife, Maria Day), Philip Crombie ’52, Stanley Hayward ’52, Hull Maynard ’52, Frank Baker ’52, and Robert Davidson ’51 gather during the 50th Plus reception on Reunion Saturday. Stan and class co-chair Michael Altschuler ’52 orchestrated the 60th Reunion celebration and included members of the classes of 1951 and 1953. Photo: Patricia Cousins Members of the Class of 2007 Zoe Donaldson, Hunter Vanaria, Gus Hickey, and Austin Vanaria talk about old — and new — times with faculty member Rachel Engelke.

Photo: Patricia Cousins

off a headache. “It was not possible to watch it,” Jamie averred.

Jamie also shared a story about a raucous brawl that ensued when he and his Animal House co-stars went to a real-life University of Oregon fraternity party for pre-filming “research” and ended up offending the fraternity members, who felt the Hollywood boys were trying to “steal our girls.” Jamie said he lost a tooth in the fray and can detect a speech flaw in his dialogue during the early scenes filmed for the movie.

David and Jamie also discussed the cultural iconography and social satire in the film, set in 1963, “right at the end of the age of innocence,” as Jamie described it.

David asked Jamie about some of the troubled actors he has known during his career, including John Belushi, who co-starred in Animal House, and Charlie Sheen, who until recently starred in Two and a Half Men. Both of those actors,

whom Jamie described as gifted and likeable, had notorious battles with substance abuse, a sometimes ubiquitous problem in Hollywood.

Jamie acknowledged that he, like Robert Hoover, had steered clear of substance abuse problems even as they swirled around him. “I somehow escaped drugs,” he said. “It was never my thing.”

The interview continued for a full hour and could have continued for another hour if the rapt audience had had their druthers. But the Reunion show must go on, and the Head’s “State of the School” called.

As with any great interview, the conversation left listeners yearning for more.

To see a video of the Edelstein/ Widdoes Interview and more photos of Reunion Weekend, go to loomischaffee.org/magazine.

Do the Right Thing

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ATH and philosophy teacher Curtis Robison examined this year’s school theme, “Do the Right Thing,” through the lens of philosophy in a thought-provoking address to the school at the spring Cum Laude convocation.

“This talk will be a reflection on the question, ‘Why be moral?’” he explained in his opening. “This is almost a dream audience to have for such a reflection. There may not be any demographic more likely to begin pondering such a question than ninth- and 10th-graders. Yet fundamental probing questions of meaning and purpose like this one, pondered with such earnestness and sincerity in adolescence, is never abandoned by philosophers.”

Curt’s intricate and logical exploration of the question led to a surprising conclusion: Whether a person should defer to morality over all other considerations depends on who a person is.

“Each of us must choose what kind of person we want to be,” Curt said. “A central feature of our personhood involves what reasons we consider overriding when determining a course of action.” And, he added, we cannot avoid choosing our way of life. “The fact that we do not change our mode of living from one moment to the next [for reasons of morality or of self-interest] does not show that no choice is being made. For if we do not change, we are, in effect, choosing to continue to be what we have been, and so we are still creating ourselves, defining our own nature by living as we do.”

To read the full text of Curt’s speech, go to loomischaffee.org/magazine.

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AROUND THE QUADS | THE BIG PICTURE

TESTING! TESTING! A sea of desks transforms the Olcott Center into a final exam arena during testing period. Photo: Patricia Cousins

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Sirena Huang’s Final Concert at Loomis Chaffee

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NTERNATIONALLY acclaimed violinist Sirena Huang performed her final recital as a Loomis Chaffee student in May to an audience of more than 250 school community members in the Hubbard Performance Hall. Sirena, who graduated in June, captivated the audience not only with the quality of her performance, but also with the touching tone of the evening.

Sirena opened the program with the scherzo from Brahms’ “Sonatensatz in C minor” and followed with “Nigun” from Ernest Bloch’s Baal Shem and “Caprice in the Form of a Waltz” by Camille Saint-Saëns, arr. Eugène Ysaÿe. Pianist Pi-Hsun Shih, a faculty member of The Hartt School Community Division in West Hartford, accompanied Sirena on these first three pieces.

Sirena’s siblings joined her on stage for the next two pieces on the program. Her brother, Loomis Chaffee sophomore Anderson Huang, accompanied Sirena on the cello for Handel’s “Passacaglia,” arr. Johan Halvorsen. And Anderson (on cello), Sirena (on violin), and their sister, Christine Huang ’11, (on piano) performed the opening movement from “Café Music” by composer Paul Schoenfield. The lively trio exchanged smiles as they played and looked to their parents in the audience as they acknowledged the resounding applause.

After Sirena’s penultimate piece, Dvořák’s “Humoresque,” she spoke to the audience, a hall full of her friends, classmates, teachers, former teachers, and Loomis Chaffee alumni.

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Sirena Huang looks introspective as she prepares to graduate with her class on Commencement day. At right Sirena performs her last concert as a Loomis Chaffee student in the Hubbard Performance Hall. Photo: John Groo

“I can’t believe this is my last performance here before I graduate,” she said. “In my three years here, I feel like I’ve changed a lot and learned a lot.” Sirena, who will attend college at Julliard, thanked her teachers from Loomis and from Renbrook School, which she attended through ninth grade, for their support and encouragement. She also acknowledged her LC friends and said she wished she could have spent more time with them although her violin study, performances, and competitions sometimes required her to be away from school.

Sirena also addressed her parents directly, thanking them for enabling her to pursue her passion and for the sacrifices they have made. Her father has driven her to Julliard in New York City every Saturday for the last nine years for music

which brought the crowd once more to their feet.

instruction in the school’s PreCollege Division. “You must have been exhausted sometimes,” she said. “Driving back, sometimes I would ask you, ‘Are you tired?’ and you would always say, ‘I’m fine.

Don’t worry about me.’” To her mother and father, Sirena said she, Christine, and Anderson know how proud their parents are of them.

“We played together tonight to show you we love you.”

And to the full audience, Sirena expressed appreciation for their support and promised always to strive “to contribute to the common good.”

Sirena’s final piece, Ravel’s “Tzigane,” brought the audience to their feet as soon as the last note faded.

The sustained ovation coaxed Sirena back onto the stage for an encore, Fritz Kreisler’s “Liebesleid,”

A violin prodigy, Sirena has garnered national and international recognition since an early age.

Among her many competition successes, she was the first prize gold medalist at the prestigious International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians in 2009. During her junior year, she performed for the King of Jordan at the Petra Conference of Nobel Laureates, and the United Airlines magazine Hemispheres, with a readership of seven million travelers, featured her in its “Whereabouts” section. And several times during her Loomis years, she performed with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. This summer, the South Windsor, Connecticut, resident is the HSO’s first artist in residence.

’ ʹ* aretη Center for the Common Good Named

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HE school’s new Center for the Common Good will bear the name of the Norton family, a three-generation family of Loomis Chaffee alumni who believe citizenship is a cornerstone of America.

Nicholas Norton ’48 ran a paper manufacturer in North Westchester, Connecticut, before turning his attention to the public sector, including serving as Connecticut commissioner of welfare. His son, Christopher Norton ’76, who has served as chairman of the Board of Trustees Chairman of the since 2004, joined Board Christopher K. Norton ’76 the board near Photo: Wayne the end of his Dombkowski successful career at Goldman Sachs. Chris is also actively involved at his other alma mater, Haverford College, where he is co-vice chairman of the Board of Managers. At both institutions he pursues his strong interest in the importance that a value-oriented education can play in future graduates.

Chris’ brother Andrew ’80 pursued a career in public service. A former Connecticut state representative, he also served as chief of staff for the House Republican Caucus in the Connecticut State Legislature.

The third Norton generation, Chris and his wife Carter’s children Katherine ’04, Alexandra ’05, Edward “Kiley” ’07, and Oliver ’10 — carried on the family tradition by attending the school into the new millennium. Carter is equally committed to service. In 1999 she established the Magical Music for Life Foundation, an organization that uses music to inspire children about the importance of values in everyday

life. The Loomis Chaffee community is excited by, and grateful for, Chris and Carter’s desire to name the new center, which will open in the fall under the directorship of former Trustee Albert Freihofer ’69.

The Norton Family Center for the Common Good will incorporate some of the school’s current programs while simultaneously developing new ones, bringing intentionality and deliberateness to developing character and to teaching democratic values and good citizenship. The expanding Community Service program, headed

by Roseanne Lombardo, and the well-ensconced Work Program, led

by Peter Gwyn, will become integral parts of the whole. The Student Council’s recently approved Loomis Chaffee Pledge — “As a Loomis Chaffee student, I pledge to live with integrity and honor and to champion a community built upon respect for others and myself.”

— will become integrated into the center’s mission, as will aspects of a new freshman and sophomore course and the leadership already demonstrated by the resident assistants, prefects, e-proctors, class presidents, and Student Council officers and members. Seeking input from his faculty colleagues, Al will build programs around citizenship within the Island, Windsor, Hartford, national, and global communities.

In naming the Norton Family Center for the Common Good, Chris and Carter are enthusiastic about influencing future generations of American and world citizens, just as the Founders were enthused by their vision for the graduates of the school.

 Juniors John Macdonald and Ryan Shelby were selected to participate in the Student Climate & Conservation Congress (Sc3) sponsored by The Green Schools Alliance (GSA) and the U.S. Fish Wildlife Service’s National Conservation Training Center (NCTC).

The only two students chosen from Connecticut, they join 150 students from across the world. Upon completion of the course, they will be named U.S. Green School Fellows. Sc3 recognizes and empowers the next generation of conservationists and supports them to become global leaders in their own community.  After six rounds of competition, the Loomis Chaffee Math Team placed first in Hartford County and eighth in all of New England, where they competed against more than 150 schools.

Sophomore Xin Wen was one of the top scoring students in the entire league, earning 34 out of 36 points for the year. Junior Shuncong Gu and senior Joshua Ryu both had 32 points, and senior Chate Khemakongkanonth had 31 points.  For the second year in a row, sophomore Kevin Cha was the top scorer in Connecticut on the American Mathematics Competition 10 for students in the 10th grade and below.  Junior Wyatt French won the WALKS Foundation Constitutional Essay Contest that asked “How have our Constitutional rights evolved in response to technological innovation, and, as it has considered 19th and 20th century cases, has the Supreme Court adopted a model that could inform its deliberations on U.S. v. Jones and other 21st century cases?” Each of the WALKS schools —Westminster, Avon Old Farms, Loomis Chaffee, Kingswood-Oxford, and Suffield Academy — submitted two student essays. One of the runner-up essayists this year was LC junior Rekha Kennedy, who is herself a WALKS Scholar.  Junior Ji Hee Yoon was a Silver Key Regional Award winner for The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards of 2012, presented by the Alliance for Young Writers. Ji Hee was honored for her personal essay “Good Morning, Sir. (Just Stamp It Already.)” Her essay was selected from among more than 2,200 works submitted to the Northeast Region-at-Large this year.  Eight Loomis Chaffee student musicians participated in the Connecticut Music Educators Association All-State Music Festival at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford. For the second year in a row, senior Jay Kim and junior Kyung-Sik “Kenny” Kim, both violinists, performed in the All-State with the orchestra. Sophomore clarinetist Sijie Wei played in the concert band.

Loomis Chaffee vocalists chosen for the festival chorus included sophomore alto Liana Barron, junior soprano Daniela RakhlinaPowsner, and junior tenor Daniel Wade.  The Robotics Team (HAX) earned two finalist awards at both regional tournaments held over March break. It placed ninth out of 24 teams at the Connecticut Championship, a member of the third Seed Alliance. At the New Hampshire Championship, HAX finished seventh out of 20 teams, being a member of the second Seed Alliance. é: Greek for areté: Greek for “excellence of any kind”

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LC Scholars Explore Different Cultures Through Travel

A Five of the visiting Sanskriti School students — (standing) Lavanya Kumar, Arshia Mittal, Arunita Mitash, Radhika Ramachandran, and (seated) Aradhana Singh — join their teacher Sakshi Bablani (second from left) for a photo in Grubbs Quadrangle as a memento of their visit.

Photo: Mary Forrester

East Meets West

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new friendship bloomed between Loomis Chaffee and the Sanskriti School in New Delhi, India, in May as nine Sanskriti students and a teacher visited the Island for a 10-day immersion in the school and American culture. The students attended classes, family-style dinner, and athletics competitions as well as participating in community service activities and enjoying performances of the Loomis Chaffee Dance Revue and the Jazz Band Concert.

“We have made new friends and we have initiated, we hope, the beginning of a relationship between our two schools,” Head of School Sheila Culbert wrote in a blog about the visit.

Several local LC families opened their homes to the Sanskriti students and helped them enjoy an authentic American family experience. In other off-campus experiences, the visiting group attended a performance at the Bushnell Theater in Hartford, took in

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the sights and pageantry of the Shad Derby Parade in Windsor, and, farther afield, visited Harvard University and the city of Boston and Yale University and the city of New Haven. During a trip to New York, escorted by Director of International Students and OffCampus Programs Elizabeth Tomlinson, who orchestrated much of the visit, the Sanskriti students made stops in Manhattan, Ellis Island, the World Trade site, and the Brooklyn Bridge.

Sakshi Bablani, the Sanskriti teacher who accompanied the students, says she enjoyed visiting the United States and especially appreciated observing Loomis Chaffee classes. “Everyone at Loomis is so warm and welcoming, and I’ve learned of so many pedagogical techniques here, particularly in math classes,” she reflects.

Betsy says Loomis hopes the visit marks the first of a series of exchanges between the two schools.

T the mid-point of their Loomis Chaffee careers, the first group of LC Scholars looked forward to a summer of experience and adventure. Eight LC Scholars, who are rising juniors this summer, are traveling to different countries to participate in various enrichment programs. For some, this is their first experience traveling abroad, while for others, this is a chance to explore new lands and have unique “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunities. Those traveling include Madeline Adolf who is be going to Italy, Liana Barron to Thailand, Errol Francis to Fiji and New Zealand, Keara Jenkins to Morocco, Harkanwal Kanwal to France, Reinaldo Maristany to Ghana, Alexander Smith to Spain, and Taylor Williams to Costa Rica.

To prepare for the summer 2012 international programs, they met frequently during their sophomore year with Senior Associate Director of Admission Nancy Cleary and Director of International Students and Off-Campus Programs Elizabeth Tomlinson. Although the students were given a list of suggested student programs, they also could propose other programs. “It is our hope that students will pursue a global experience that goes far beyond sight-seeing or summer school classes,” explains Nancy. “We encouraged them to immerse themselves in a different culture and to have an experience that differs completely from what they encounter on campus.”

By design, the LC Scholars program provides not only financial support and ongoing mentoring, but also summer enrichment and international travel to LC applicants who “demonstrate exceptional leadership qualities, outstanding academic work, and an extraordinary commitment to the best self and the common good.” Two years ago these same LC Scholars attended Explo at Wellesley College as their first joint venture. While there, they also participated in a custom-crafted LC Seminar taught

by Loomis faculty member Andrew Watson. These programs focused on preparing the scholars to get the most from their LC experience. In addition, the scholars have been encouraged to pursue additional enrichment opportunities through the Norton Family Center for the Common Good and the Center for Global Studies.

William H. Flammer ’43 and Albert Freihofer ’69 Photo: John Groo

LC Board Welcomes Four New Trustees

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HE Trustees elected two current parents and two alumni to the Board: Kristen Storrs DeLaMater, Johnny Dabir Magwood, Amy Edwards Sparks ’01, and Bruce D. Alexander ’61.

Kristen, mother of William ’11 and rising senior Phillip, earned her bachelor’s degree from Simmons College and her M.B.A. from Fordham University. She has served on the board of the Kellett School in Hong Kong and as chair of the Parent Annual Fund at the Hackley School in New York, where she also serves as a member of the Campaign Committee. The daughter of Edward Storrs ’51, the niece of Ann Storrs Kellogg ’49, and the aunt of senior Samuel Broda, Kristen has strong and deep ties to Loomis Chaffee. A former Head’s Council member, Kristen also has served the Loomis Chaffee Parent Annual Fund in several capacities, including as the Leadership Gifts chair and as a committee member.

Two Longtime Trustees Retire

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WO longtime members stepped down from the Loomis Chaffee Board of Trustees this spring. William H. Flammer Jr. ’43, the eldest-serving trustee in the school’s history, retired after 11 years of service, and Board Vice Chairman Albert F. Freihofer ’69 concluded his own 19 years of service.

Current and former Trustees held a luncheon in Bill’s and Al’s honor in May. Trustee Harvey Struthers ’60, who spoke at the luncheon on Bill’s behalf, referenced Bill’s 60-plus years as a volunteer at Loomis. “Whenever Bill talks about Loomis, his eyes light up and his hands wave around as he expounds, at great length, about his love for the school. I can’t think of many others who have more of an emotional connection; his continuous devotion to the school is unmatched,” Harvey said.

A two-year student from Bronxville, N.Y., Bill went on to attend Princeton University before serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II. After a successful career in the life insurance field, he joined the Loomis Chaffee Board during his retirement years, serving on the Building and Grounds Committee and the Education Committee.

While few can match Bill’s years of dedicated service to the school, even fewer can match Al’s depth of commitment. A four-year student from Troy, N.Y., Al was a respected student leader and athlete. Over the years since his graduation, he has assisted the school in many ways, including serving as the overall chair of the Annual Fund for three years. As a Trustee, he held many leadership positions at various times, including chair of the Education Committee, chair of the Committee on Trustees, and co-chair of the Campaign Committee during Our Best Selves: The Campaign for Loomis Chaffee, which raised $114 million for the school. He also served on the Admission and Financial Aid Committee, the Salaries and Benefits Committee, the Head’s Search Committee, and the Diversity Task Force Committee.

Trustee James Widdoes ’72, who spoke at the luncheon on Al’s behalf, pointed out that “the Board’s loss [is] really the school’s gain” as Al joins the LC faculty in the fall as director of the new Norton Family Center for the Common Good.

Johnny, father of rising senior Haley, is vice president of Customer Experience and chief customer officer for Northeast Utilities Service Company. Prior to joining Northeast Utilities, he served as senior vice president of the Customer Relations and Account Services Division at Baltimore Gas & Electric Company. Johnny earned his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins, his M.B.A. at Loyola University of Maryland, and his Doctorate of Business Administration at the University of Phoenix. A former Loomis Chaffee Head’s Council member and parent volunteer, Johnny has been active in a number of professional and civic groups. He has served on the advisory board of Coppin State University’s School of Management Science in Baltimore as honorary chair of its Thurgood Marshall College Fund and on the board of Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. He is also a member of “First Sport” Society and an executive board member of the US Lacrosse Foundation.

Amy works as a registered nurse in the emergency room of NewtonWellesley Hospital. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Communications and Sociology and Anthropology from Lake Forest College in 2005 and her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Curry College in 2008. At Loomis Chaffee, Amy was a three-year student from Fort Collins, Colorado, a varsity athlete in cross country and swimming, and a prefect in Harman Hall. Amy serves on two foundation boards, one in New Mexico and the other in Colorado. For Loomis, Amy was a volunteer for her 5th Reunion and was an active member of the Head’s Council since its founding in 2009. A graduate of the Class of 2001, Amy will serve as the Board’s first alumna Trustee from the 2000s.

Bruce is vice president for New Haven and State Affairs and Campus Development at Yale University and an adjunct professor at the Yale School of Management. Prior to his arrival at Yale, Bruce retired from the Rouse Company in Maryland in 1996 where he had served as senior vice president for Development. A four-year student from West Hartford, Bruce earned his B.A. in Political Science at Yale and a J.D. at Duke.

Bruce served on a number of civic boards in Baltimore including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Goucher College, where he chaired their board of trustees. In New Haven Bruce is or has served on the boards of Yale-New Haven Hospital, the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, Tweed Airport Authority, and Connecticut Public Broadcasting. He received the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce Community Leadership Award in 2009, and he and his late wife, Christine, jointly received the De Tocqueville Award in 2008 from the United Way of Greater New Haven for their philanthropic contributions to the community.

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AROUND THE QUADS | ISLAND ARRAY Spring and summer happenings, night and day, inside and outside, at Loomis Chaffee INSIDE

2012 Cum Laude Induction

Pelican Service Organization sponsors Oxfam Hunger Banquet.

Juniors Allison Byrne and Mark Crawford and sophomore Alexandra Smith at the Lemon Ball

Spring Dance Revue: sophomore Nana Minder

Hannah Belsky ’06 presents on Israel and Palestine.

Junior Emelynn Abreu and senior Ryan Springer-Miller at the English Honor Tea

Class Night: seniors Madeline Parish, Jamil Hashmi, Sojin Kim, and Lindsay Gabow

A new projector and new software allow more academic departments to use the O’Brien Planetarium.

Senior Meditations: Alexander Shirley, .

Zachary Breen, and Erin Currey

Designer Alex Casertano and his girlfriend, Renee Bissell, at the Sartorialist exhibit

Sustainable Dave crusades against trash.

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Musical Revue: junior Darius Moore

Science Honors under the pergola

PRE-PROM PIX

Sophomore Class Rootles activity

Seniors Zachary Willams and Kimberly Wynter

Campus blooms Seniors Betrand Okonkwo and Monica He at Springfest Senior Thomas Budd and LC’s own Rhode Island Reds Freshmen Kalina Joffray and Alexander Steel through the Norris Memorial Sundial

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Sophomore Liana Barron and senior Jake Bosee A Sartorialist video, created

by Video Production students, is seen through the Mercy Gallery window.

Dancing under the tent at Reunion 2012 Photos: Patricia Cousins, Wayne Dombkowski, Mary Forrester, John Groo, Jeffrey Holcombe, Mercedes Maskalik, Jeuley Ortengren

OUTSIDE

Concussion Conference Places Mind Over Matter

The all-day conference began with an examination of the pathophysiology and biomechanics of concussions and went on to cover sideline assessment and removal from play, concussion management, and the return-to-play protocol. The morning session finished with an examination of subconcussive injury and the long-term consequences of brain trauma.

The afternoon session focused on the non-medical aspects of concussion, including strategies to make youth athletics safer, prevention through physical training, and the role of equipment in preventing concussions.

THE INSTITUTE RECOMMENDS THESE SEVEN STEPS FOR BRAIN SAFETY: 1. Require preseason education for coaches 2. Require preseason education for athletes 3. Require preseason education for parents 4. Adopt the Centers for Disease Control’s “Heads Up” Concussion Action Plan 5. Require the use of CDC “Heads Up” materials 6. Use a neck strengthening program 7. Monitor total brain trauma and strive to reduce the number and severity of hits to the head

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“Education about concussions is the key toward better policies and will play a big part in reducing the numbers of head injuries occurring in sports at all levels,” LC Director of Athletics Bob Howe ’80 says.

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The idea for the conference came from the spring Founders League meeting among heads of schools and athletics directors. Loomis Chaffee Head of School Sheila Culbert took the initiative and contacted the Sports Legacy Institute to arrange the conference. Schools attending the conference included Avon Old Farms, Choate, Westminster, Miss Porter’s, Trinity-Pawling, and Northfield Mount Hermon.

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EARLY 50 students entering grades 7 through 12 are spending five weeks this summer at Loomis Chaffee for the inaugural Loomis Chaffee Summer Program. The students — who are both boarding and day — began arriving on June 26 from across the country and around the world, traveling from both the local area and from as far away as Spain, China, Thailand, and the Virgin Islands. An energetic and dedicated group of college faculty interns are assisting the faculty members in running the program — from working in the dorms, overseeing leisure-time activities, and chaperoning trips to serving as teaching assistants in the classroom. The interns, some of whom are O C V E I S Loomis alumni, are current students D or recent graduates of University of Connecticut, Yale, Holy Cross, University of Chicago, New York University, Dickinson, Wesleyan, Amherst, Emory, and St. Lawrence.

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OOMIS CHAFFEE hosted a conference on concussion education on June 13, bringing together athletics directors and others from New England independent schools to learn from the experts of the Sports Legacy Institute. The institute is a nonprofit organization founded

by Robert Cantu, clinical professor of neurosurgery at the Boston University School of Medicine, and Chris Nowinski, former Harvard football player and co-chair of the National Football League Players Association Concussion Education & Awareness Subcommittee.

Inaugural Summer Program Heats Up

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Program director Jeffrey Scanlon ’79 designed the program to offer students a chance to explore an area of interest that they might not be able to investigate during the academic year. The course offerings — designed for “eager and curious students” — provide ample opportunity to delve deeply into a particular subject matter (e.g., robotics, biology, segregation in 20th-century America, Chinese, creative writing, or pottery) or to jumpstart a new passion (Hip-Hop dance, digital photography, or music).

Each class features numerous opportunities to present orally to the group. According to Jeff, “classes are small by design, so each student will feel comfortable and will have plenty of attention from the teacher.” There are separate programs for middle school and high school students.

In addition to the academic courses, students participate in athletics activities four times a week and have the opportunity to take private music lessons with faculty interns. Weekend excursions include travel to local destinations, including Boston and New York City.

To view photos of the summer fun, go to loomischaffee.org/magazine.

loomischaffee.org | 15

Be One of Many Voices

One of “many voices” and co-chair of the Centennial Committee, former Headmaster John Ratté (second from right) leads the charge in this archival photograph of the April 1991 ground-breaking ceremony for the Richmond Art Center. Others pictured include then-Chairman of the Board Wilson Wilde ’45, then-Director of the Richmond Art Center Marilyn Rabetz, Garland Lyn ’91, Hester Longley-Cook ’91, former Trustee Robert Weinerman ’40, then-Head of the Art Department Walter Rabetz, architect Rick Herzer, and contractor Angelo Salvatore.

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ANY Voices” is a phrase heard often at meetings of Loomis Chaffee’s Centennial Working Committee. The group, made up of faculty members, former Headmaster John Ratté, and junior Nina Sayles, is planning the school’s 2014–15 Centennial celebration, and they want to include many voices in the celebration.

John coined the “many voices” expression as a nod to the many perspectives and personal stories that resonate in the history of Loomis Chaffee, an institution committed to individualism. These words also capture the approach that the planners are using to bring that history alive with printed and online sources created by many authors. In addition to designing major events, including a fall 2014 kick-off celebration, the committee is considering ways the school might honor each of the five Founders’ birthdays.

This spring, 11 Centennial ambassadors, all members of the Class of 2015, were chosen to lead student involvement in the celebration. The competitive application process for the group included an essay response to the question, “What is the heart of Loomis Chaffee?” Michael Donegan, director of student activities and a member of the Working Committee, advises the group and challenged the ambassadors with

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The Working Committee Is Eager to Hear Your Voice!

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How would you celebrate the Loomis Chaffee Centennial?

How might the Centennial celebrate the “many voices” of Loomis, Chaffee, and Loomis Chaffee?

What events would you like to be involved in?

What people, events, topics, and themes in the school’s history would you like to learn about?

Please share your thoughts by sending them to centennial@loomis.org. their first round of tasks: Make 40 photographs each of the school, edit their 11 application essays into a single essay, and brainstorm a list of 100 “student must-do’s” for the 100-year celebration. The ambassadors are creating a Google documents site for online collaborative writing and their own Facebook page for online communication. Ultimately, the group may create a message for the planners of the school’s 125th year in 2039.

Mike is impressed with the group’s cohesiveness and energy. “I would be surprised if they do not eventually become the most efficient and influential student group we have ever had on

the Island,” he said. “The early indicators are that they will achieve all that is set before them and then some.”

The ambassadors held several lively brainstorming sessions this spring and plan more for next year. “In our first meeting, everything was coming out. People were shouting their ideas,” says freshman Doyle Lokitiyakul, one of the Centennial ambassadors.

“We really want the alumni to be involved because they’re a part of the history,” adds freshman Gabby Roncone, another ambassador.

AROUND THE QUADS | OF NOTE | FACULTY & STAFF

 Five faculty members were honored for 20 years of service to the school at the Community Honors Banquet in June. They were mathematics teacher Andrew Bartlett, English teacher Berrie Moos, history teacher and archivist Karen Parsons, librarian Gail Ryan, and philosophy, psychology, and religion teacher David Newell.  History teacher, varsity coach, and dorm head Elizabeth Leyden received the Austin Wicke Prize at this spring’s Community Honors Banquet. The prize, given in memory of Austin by his parents, is awarded each year to a Loomis faculty member with less than 10 years of service “who has demonstrated a dedication to the discipline of teaching and a commitment to fostering the growth and development of young persons.”

Dean of Faculty Ned Parsons described Liz as “an educator [who is] as dedicated to her discipline and her world as she is to her students.”

Always interested in innovation, Liz has been instrumental in the redesign of Loomis’ existing yearlong economics course into five discrete but interrelated economics courses. Liz is working on her master’s degree at Wesleyan, and she is interested in implementing a new course on immigration. As a coach, she “holds her players accountable and supports them when they struggle,” Ned said, “and she runs her dormitory the same way.”

Always looking for ways to be more involved, Liz works with and nurtures Loomis students even beyond the classroom, playing fields, and dormitory. She has traveled with them during her spring breaks to the Dominican Republic and Florida to build houses for people in need.  Science teacher Alice L. Baxter received the Dom Failla Award for Teaching Excellence at May’s Com-

munity Honors Banquet. The annual prize, named in honor of retired philosophy and religion teacher Dominic S. Failla, recognizes teachers of extensive service to the school, who epitomize Dom’s commitment to his students’ growth and intellectual development, commitment to teaching and learning, and more generally to the life of the mind.

Over the years since 1979, Alice has taught myriad science courses, served as the head of the Science Department and of Mason Hall, and led the faculty for 17 years as Dean of Faculty.

 David Newell, who has been teaching philosophy at Loomis Chaffee since 1992, received the Teacher of the Year Award from the Student Council at the Spring Awards Assembly. Each year students are invited to submit nominating essays about their favorite teachers to the council. “Mr. Newell maintains excellence in every class he teaches,” stated senior presenter Monica He.  Four faculty members — Andrew Matlack, Barry Moran, David Newell, and Mark Williams — received endowed instructorships in recognition of their excellence in and dedication to teaching at the Community Honors Banquet.

Created for a faculty member with fewer than 20 years of service, the Clark Foundation Instructorship in Mathematics was awarded to Andrew, who will keep it for seven years. The following senior faculty members will hold their instructorships for the remainder of their tenures. Barry was chosen for the Herbert Savin Instructorship in Mathematics; David, a philosophy teacher, was appointed to the Independence Foundation Instructorship; and Mark was named to the Carol Joseloff Taub and Joan Joseloff Kohn Instructorship in History.

This year a prize at the inception of the instructorship and an additional sum each year toward professional development were added to the instructorship program.

 Each year the school recognizes staff, faculty, and administrative faculty for their “significant contributions to the success of the academic year.” For their exceptional contributions during the 2011–12 school year, six Service Awards were presented at the May Community Honors Banquet. The recipients included nurse practitioner Bernadette Hirst for her expertise in the ImPact Program and her role in the implementation and daily execution of best practices in the treatment and management of concussions on campus; electrician Robert Hansen for his “professionalism, work ethic, and positive attitude,” especially during the freak October snow storm; mathematics teachers Andrew Bartlett, who writes a letter a day to the family of one of his students apprising them of their child’s current progress, and Allison Beason, who provides extra time to those students struggling with math to help them return to solid footing, “for going above and beyond daily class expectations”; Director of the Work Program Peter Gwyn for his woodsman expertise and willingness to trim damaged campus trees, “making the campus a safer place in the wake of the October snow-pocalypse”; and Director of Athletics Robertson “Bob” Howe for his “unqualified commitment to the Loomis Chaffee community and his willingness to take on any job that needs doing” as illustrated when he pitched in to feed five hungry teams who returned to campus after the dining hall had closed for the evening.

Biology teacher and dance photographer Jeffrey Holcombe captures the graceful exuberance of this dancer along the Appian Way in Italy.

 Spanish teacher Courtney Carey traveled to Cuba, Chile, Argentina, and Easter Island on a Loomis Chaffee sabbatical grant in 2011. Her tour of Cuba took her to La Havana and surrounding areas, then to Cienfuegos, the Bay of Pigs, Trinidad, and Santa Clara. “We learned much about the history, architecture, society, and economics; it was fascinating to watch the start of private enterprise on the island,” she notes. Her travel to her native country of Chile included visits with old friends and a commercial ferry trip from Chiloé through the thousands of islands and fjords that form southern Chile. The next leg of her trip went to Punta Arenas and the Strait of Magallanes, Torres del Paine, and El Calafate and Lago Argentino in Argentina. After returning to Santiago, Chile, she traveled to Easter Island “to learn about the moais, the ahus, and so much more.

Theories and legends about Rapa Nui’s origins and history abound prior to the 15th century as there is yet no hard evidence to substantiate anything,” she says, adding, “The local population consists of 3,000 lovely, friendly people.”  Biology teacher Jeffrey Holcombe presented the artistic retrospective “Dancing the Appian Way” in May in the Hubbard Performance Hall. His series of environmental dance photographs is an interpretation of the ancient Roman highway extending from Rome to Brindisi on the Adriatic Sea. Jeff says the photographs, made in collaboration loomischaffee.org | 17

with dancers, attempt to bring a new perspective to the familiar locations and ruins extending across southern Italy, including those in Rome, Terracina, Sorrento, the Amalfi Coast, Benevento, Taranto, and Brindisi. “In that sense it is a narrative involving an excursion that connects the various locations to each other and reinterprets them through the combined disciplines of dance and photography,” says Jeff, who has been photographing dance in landscape for more than 30 years. He completed the first project in the series, “Dancing the River Highway,” 15 years ago along the Mississippi River, and he hopes to continue the series in other intriguing landscapes of the world such as Provence and China’s Silk Road.

 Two new scholarships were established this spring to honor two longtime faculty members: Elizabeth Tomlinson and R. Frederick Seebeck. An anonymous donor created the Elizabeth A. Tomlinson Scholarship Fund in honor of Betsy, who has served the school for 15 years as associate director of admission, dorm head of Harman Hall, and most recently as director of international students and offcampus programs. Current parents Elizabeth and John Seebeck had a double purpose when they created the Seebeck Family Scholarship Fund. They wished to honor Fred, John’s brother, for his 29 years of service to the school as English teacher, associate director of admission, dean of students, dorm head, Student Council advisor, and varsity swimming, water polo, and track coach. Also, they were honoring their son Lyle Seebeck in his senior year at Loomis for his academic, athletic, and residential achievements at the school.

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Current and former members of the Loomis Chaffee Office of Admission gather in Maine for the June wedding of their former colleague, Elizabeth “Betsy” Tomlinson. With the bride are Katherine Nixon, Jeffrey Ross, Nancy Cleary, Thomas Southworth, Gwendolen Pierce, and Christopher Dietrich.

 Jeffrey Ross, associate director of admission and head baseball coach, participated in a panel for college-bound student-athletes at the Latino College Expo at New York University in March. The workshop, titled “Student Athletes: Are You Ready?” featured Jeff; Paul Rowe, of Boys’ Hope, Girls’ Hope, who was placed by the Boys’ Club at St. Mark’s School as a youth; and Julius Coles, a Division I college basketball player who has completed his master’s degree at Canisius College and works for one of the New York Nicks’ educational programs as well as volunteering with the Boys’ Club.  Mercedes Maskalik, web content editor and social media manager, is becoming known for her expertise in social media. The Ten Schools Admission Organization invited her to give a workshop on the topic at their annual spring meeting at Phillips Exeter Academy in May. She also presented at finalsite’s annual user conference in June. Along with Tim McDonough, client support specialist at finalsite, the school’s web service provider, Mercedes spoke on “Social Media and Your School’s Website.”

A week later, Mercedes presented a webinar, titled “The Loomis Chaffee School Playbook: From Facebook to Pinterest,” for EverTrue, specialists in connecting schools with their alumni through mobile and social solutions. On June 29 Mercedes concluded her time at Loomis Chaffee to become the director of Marketing and Communications at Renbrook School in West Hartford.

 Athletics trainer Jean Sapula spoke at the 2012 Conference of the Brain Injury Alliance of Connecticut in March. She was part of the panel discussion “Putting Our Heads Together on Concussion Management” along with other health care professionals from schools and health facilities in the state.  Art teacher Mark Zunino is a contributing author for the book Printmaking Revolutions, which was published in May. The lead author, Smith College Professor of Art Dwight Pogue, is a colleague of Mark’s. The book is a technical manual that outlines new techniques in printmaking, including lithography, intaglio, and silk screen, that combine digital and traditional techniques. The text also teaches printmakers about new sustainable materials that can make their studios less toxic. Mark wrote the section on intaglio and helped develop some of the materials and techniques for the lithography section.

Mark also was the featured artist at “Paintings, Prints and Drawings,” an artist talk and print demonstration at Cheshire Academy in April.  Meret Nahas recently joined the Loomis Chaffee Alumni/Development Office as director of Annual Fund Leadership Giving. Meret graduated from the College of Wooster in Ohio, where she helped to oversee her class’ senior class gift and spent a year as a development assistant.

 Dana Andrews was hired this spring as the new assistant director of the Physical Plant.  Elizabeth Tomlinson, former director of international students and off-campus programs, wed Peter H. Sillin in Yarmouth, Maine, on June 16. Betsy is leaving the Island to live in Maine where her husband is the chairman of the History Department at North Yarmouth Academy. They planned a working honeymoon in Vietnam.  English teacher Laura Richards Milligan and her husband, dorm faculty member and coach Christopher Milligan, and their son, Oliver, welcomed the arrival of Oakley Rhodes Milligan on April 24. Associate Head for External Relations Nathan Follansbee is the proud grandfather.  Former LC faculty member Barry Bedrick retired in June as headmaster of St. Michael’s Parish Day School in Arizona. Barry taught at Loomis Chaffee from 1968 to 1972, and he went on to head several schools, including the Pine Point School in Stonington, Connecticut.

AROUND THE QUADS | ATHLETICS | BY BOB HOWE ’80

The Voice of Loomis Chaffee Athletics Retires

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N the fall of 1984, Susan Billera visited the Loomis Chaffee campus for the first time. Sue had worked for a small two-way radio company for five years as the bookkeeper and office manager. She had taken a year off to volunteer at her son David’s school when she heard about a secretarial position in the Athletics Department at Loomis Chaffee. Sue delivered her résumé to the school’s Business Office and received a call the very next day letting her know she was hired as a part-time secretary working 11 hours per week.

She was to report to the athletics building after Labor Day and introduce herself to then-Athletics Director Robert Southall. It was a modest beginning, to be sure, but over the next 28 years, Sue became known throughout New England as the voice of Loomis athletics.

When I first learned that Sue began her career working only 11 hours per week, I realized how far her role in this department had evolved over the years. Sue has taught me more than anyone about the job of athletics director. In my first year working at the school, she was responsible for not only doing all the tasks assigned to her, but also making sure that I did everything I needed to do. Eight years later, many people calling the school for information on athletics still ask to speak with Sue Billera first as their most dependable source of information.

When a person works at a job for as long as Sue has, their range of responsibilities grows. Even so, Sue has been able to juggle the many varied responsibilities and

still find the time to serve as a reliable source of campus news and friend to all. There is a constant stream of activity through her office, and I’ve never once seen Sue turn her back to anyone. Her warmth and goodnatured approach to everything she does have set the standard in the department over the years.

Good school-keeping requires a dedicated approach to service for students, and this dedication will be Sue’s legacy.

Community always has been important to Sue’s life at Loomis.

To fully understand her longstanding commitment to the students, faculty, and staff, all one needed to do was visit her office, where pictures of faculty families, graduates with their children, co-workers on vacation, and many others covered three walls. At the edge of her desk stood a “bucket” of assorted candies that she supplied, attracting countless numbers of students and faculty children into her company for short visits. Her generosity of good will always made the athletics buildings, both new and old, safe landing spots for children. My four children, like all the rest, view Sue as a member of the ex- Glover ’48 Howe along with Bill tended family because of all her and Marilyn Eaton have been involvement in their lives. my closest friends over the years.

Everyone at Loomis whom I had Asked to identify individuals the pleasure of working with is from her years on campus who had a large impact on her experi- special, and I will cherish my ence at Loomis, Sue says: “There relationships with them all.”

Photo: John Groo

Sue Billera treasures the many personal mementos of her 28 years of service to the school and the memories of hundreds of students and colleagues she treated as family.

are two couples that influenced my life here at Loomis the most.

They showed me time and again how important service to others could be, along with maintaining a positive approach with everything you take on. Jane ’49 and

Many Island events stand out in Sue’s memory, but the one event that made perhaps the deepest impression occurred in her first spring as an employee. A few months before her arrival, in the spring of 1984, the Island expe-

rienced the worst flooding in the school’s history. In the spring of 1985, Sue’s first year, the floods returned with a vengeance. Sue remembers the waters cresting over the sides of Island Road and inching their way toward Hedges pool. Of course, she points to many other memorable events over the years, such as watching the many LC graduates leave the Island and return over the years to revisit their school. Sue delights in the fact that several of the Loomis faculty were loomischaffee.org | 19

of the Loomis Chaffee community who have worked under the three administrations of John Ratté, Russell Weigel, and Sheila Culbert. Sue says the experience has been everything she could have hoped for no matter who was in charge.

“Loomis is Loomis, and it will always remain a unique place to live and work,” she says.

David Billera (Sue’s son), Glover Howe ’49, Sue Billera, and husband Joe Billera

students when they first met.

These faculty include Timothy Struthers ’85, James Dargati ’85, Lynn Petrillo ’86, Adrian Stewart ’90, Kari Diamond ’97, Laura

SPORT Baseball Girls Golf Boys Golf Boys Lacrosse Girls Lacrosse

RECORD 13-5 5-9-2 21-5 3-13 13-3

Softball 3-12 Boys Tennis 7-7 Girls Tennis 3-10 Girls Water Polo 13-5 Boys Track 6-2

Girls Track 8-0

Milligan ’99, Jay Thornhill ’05, Neil Chaudhary ’05, John Robison ’05, and Helen Ramirez ’07.

There remain few members

As Sue begins her retirement years, the LC community wishes her the very best. She leaves the Athletics Department after 28 years — that’s 54 seasons — of dedicated service to both students and their parents along with the school’s athletics coaches. She leaves with us a legacy of making it a priority to serve others and bring good cheer regardless of circumstance. Those are high standards to maintain and a lesson none of us should forget. ©

ACCOLADES

Bader Tournament Champions

Sophomore Danielle Snajder Senior Kelsey Adamson

Western New England Co-Champions Founders League Champions New England Class A Quarterfinalists Senior Cameron Williams

New England Tournament Semifinalists Founders League Champions New England Division I second place Founders League Champions New England Division I Champions

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENTS Senior Devin Markison Girls Lacrosse First Team All-American Senior Katie Mandigo Girls Lacrosse All-American Honorable Mention Senior Kelsey Millward Water Polo All-American (355 career goals) NEW ENGLAND TRACK EVENT CHAMPIONS 4x100 Relay

Sophomore Reinaldo Maristany, senior Zachary Williams, senior Austin King, senior John Abraham 100 Meters Senior John Abraham 200 Meters

Senior John Abraham 1500 Meters

Senior Lindsay Gabow 300 Hurdles

Senior Caroline Moran Javelin

Junior Faith McCarthy John Abraham Most Outstanding Male Athlete of the New England Championship meet

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Sue will most dearly miss the interaction with students on a daily basis. For all these years she has been an integral part of the sport registration process.

Before email and electronic communication, Sue registered every student at the school for sport activities three times per year. “I used to see much more of the student body than I currently do. It’s always been the

favorite part of my job,” she says.

Sophomore Kevin Cha

Senior Jeffrey Burke

Senior Devin Markison

The

Final Motion TWO THOUSAN D TW ELVE

BY RONALD L. MARCHETTI

©

PHOTOS BY JOHN GROO

Editors’ Note: Over the years, the service of departing faculty members has often been acknowledged at the last faculty meeting of the year. This informal tradition eventually evolved into a formal tradition called “The Final Motion.” Written and presented by the senior member of the faculty, the expression of appreciation becomes a permanent part of the school’s history in the faculty meeting minutes. Ronald Marchetti presented this year’s Final Motion on May 24.

Retiring Mathematics Teacher Frank Merrill

“I Senior faculty member Ronald L. Marchetti, 42 years of service

I

T is an honor to follow in the tradition of Lou Fowles, Joe Stookins, Don Joffray, and Jim Wilson to make the final motion of the year.

As part of this tradition, it is customary to share some reflections on the nature of the Loomis Chaffee community as a preface to offering a formal farewell to those members of the faculty who are leaving the school at the end of the academic year.

Recently, an alumnus asked me whether Loomis Chaffee was seeking to become a clone of schools like Andover and Exeter. Citing increasingly stringent admission standards, the proliferation of AP enrollments, and the impressive college list, he projected a community of Stepford uniformity, anodyne students studying cookie-cutter curricula and scrabbling for placement at the most prestigious universiTHE FINAL MOTION | continued on next page

always liked math, and I had some great teachers that inspired me,” says Frank Merrill after 38 years as a math teacher at Loomis Chaffee.

Euclid and geometry sit atop his list of favorite mathematical subject matter. Frank taught advanced geometry from his first year at Loomis through his last, and he also enjoyed teaching calculus and its many uses. His early training at the University of Maine, where he earned his master’s degree, and at the University of Connecticut, where he worked toward a doctorate, focused on abstract math. When he arrived at Loomis in 1974 and worked with Donald Joffray, who was head of the Math Department, Frank also saw the merits of teaching the application of mathematical concepts, a Joffray emphasis.

During his tenure, Frank served as department head for nine years, worked as director of studies for five years, coached a variety of club sports as well as varsity riflery and JV baseball, and lived in five different campus houses before he and his wife, Alice, bought a house in town and moved off campus several years ago. The Student Council named Frank as Teacher of the Year in 2008. UConn honored him as an outstanding teacher in the 1980s, and ever-humble Frank initially believed the award was a prank. “I thought it was a joke when I first got the letter,” he recalls. “I said, ‘Did everyone get one of these?’” He bought his first computer with the award’s stipend.

Frank and Alice spend their summers in Maine, where Frank grew up and where the couple owns three summer cottages on the coast that they rent out and maintain. In their joint retirement — Alice retired in 2006 after teaching French at Loomis for 22 years. They plan to continue living in Windsor during the rest of the year. Their more flexible schedule, however, will enable them to make more frequent visits to see their son, Christopher ’95, and his young family in California. loomischaffee.org | 21

To those who are departing the Island to pursue new challenges and adventures, we thank you for all you have given to Loomis Chaffee and to each of us, and wish you the very best of luck.

THE FINAL MOTION | continued from page 21

ties, all to the detriment of individuality. Interpreted in a narrow context, these perceptions could make sense.

But the reality of our current and future contexts demands a different conclusion. The last several years have been spent in introspection, spurred internally by the curriculum review and the NEASC self-study, and outwardly by political and economic instability at home and abroad. Now, that introspection has transformed into positive action, proactive decisions intended to define more sharply the character and goals of the community. Ground will soon be broken for a new dormitory, paving the way to subtly recraft the makeup of the student body. For years, we have said with pride that no two Loomis students ever graduate with the same transcript. The addition of innumerable exciting, innovative course offerings continues to guarantee for the future that all transcripts will reflect the uniqueness of the students’ personalities and interests.

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The boldest and most confident decisions to support the unique character of the school itself, however, are reflected in the creation of the three initiative centers. At a time when the national debate about education wrestles with demonstrable, quantifiable, outcome-oriented programs, as championed by No Child Left Behind and by countless proponents of standardized test scores as the only true indicators of academic success, Loomis Chaffee has embraced education as a process, a combination of skill and art. The Kravis Center for Excellence in Teaching provides resources to stimulate the work of every teacher on campus. The Center for Global Studies acknowledges the reality of today’s interconnected world and reflects the robust diversity of our constituency. And arguably the most self-defining statement about the nature of Loomis Chaffee can be found in the creation of the Norton Family Center for the Common Good. Born of the insight of the Founders, this

Retiring Mathematics Teacher Kathy Pierson

“I

love helping people understand something that I love, and that was true all the way back in third grade,” says Kathryn Pierson, a math teacher at Loomis Chaffee for the last 32 years. “I love math, and I love helping other people with math.”

In elementary school, she made flash cards for her friends to help them master the multiplication tables and join her in the advanced math group. In the sixth grade, a scolding from her teacher for tutoring her classmates when she was supposed to be listening to the lesson — “There are plenty of openings at Trenton State Teachers College.” — planted the seed for Kathy’s career. After graduating from Smith College in 1971, she married the late Samuel Pierson, who taught English at Loomis, and moved to the Island. She taught at Suffield High School for a year, then was hired to teach math at Loomis.

When she has told people she was a high school math teacher, Kathy says she usually heard groans and one of two responses: “Oh, math!” or “Oh, teenagers!” Kathy, however, loves both. She also treasures all she has learned from other teachers. “It’s such a pleasure to work at a place where you respect so many of your colleagues,” she says.

Kathy helped the school transition back into co-education in the 1970s. Initially, she taught at Chaffee but lived at Loomis in Ammidon Hall, then a boys dorm. Even during the early years of the merger, math classes were taught separately for girls and boys. Always positive and practical, Kathy says without judgment that some male faculty members took a while to adjust to having female colleagues and female students, but adjust they did.

Among Kathy’s many other duties during her three decades-plus at the school, she served as a faculty representative to the Board of Trustees for three stints, served as Math Department head for six years, worked as an affiliate with Harman Hall, and spearheaded student involvement in numerous math competitions. She also served as a math master teacher for 18 years with the Connecticut Association of Independent Schools’ Beginning Teachers Institute and mentored many of her newer colleagues at Loomis.

Kathy’s two sons, Stephen ’95 and Benjamin ’99, both attended Loomis.

As she begins her retirement, Kathy and her husband, Joseph Hardman, whom she married in 2007, are moving to Saco, Maine. They will live on Joe’s family’s property in a home that they recently rebuilt after a devastating coastal storm. The reconstructed house, built to the latest storm-sturdy standards, will enable them to become year-round members of the Saco community, and Kathy plans to take courses at Maine Senior University and volunteer with a literacy program.

Retiring Student Dean Ruthanne Marchetti

C

OUNSELOR, dorm head, dean of students, and devoted colleague for 31 years, Ruthanne Marchetti inspired longtime science teacher Alice Baxter to write an ode to her on the occasion of Ruthanne’s retirement this spring. Alice based the poem on the Wizard of Oz, finding Ruthanne in possession of the courage, brains, and heart of the famous story’s main characters.

Alice and another longtime faculty member, Frederick Seebeck, sang the poem at a party in Ruthanne’s honor, and here are excerpts: It really is amazing How Ruthanne dealt with hazing.

Bullies got what they deserved.

There are no more seniors braggin’ About some freshman they’ve been draggin’ Cause Marchetti’s got the nerve.

center proclaims an awareness that cultivation of the self, so manifestly misinterpreted in the almost ubiquitous focus on selfishness in popular culture, does not reach its most mature and altruistic development until the individual becomes invested in outreach, in the cultivation of humanity, the cultivation of the common good.

Initiatives and goals like these make us proud to be members of such a special community. With this in mind, the realization that every teacher makes a differ-

… The sophs needed retreating, The prefects needed meetings And leaders must be trained.

She made it her vocation to expand their education Cause she has a super brain. … If you need someone to talk to Her office you can walk to, Where listening is an art.

If it’s midnight and there’s trouble, She will be there on the double.

Cause she has a giant heart.

Ruthanne joined Loomis Chaffee in the fall of 1981 as the head of Palmer Hall and quickly expanded her responsibilities to include counseling. Soon Ruthanne became associate director of counseling and helped in the development of the Counseling Department as it is today. Assuming the position of dean of students in 1989, Ruthanne played

ence, in countless daily interactions with students, and in ways we may never fully realize, may it be officially recorded that the Loomis Chaffee faculty recognizes the following members of the faculty who are leaving the Island this June, and thanks each of them for their loyalty, dedication, and commitment to their students; for their collegial friendship and support; and for the many intangible and unquantifiable ways in which they have helped, like so many before them, to make Loomis Chaffee a stimulating, challenging, nur-

crucial roles in the implementation of the Sophomore Retreat, the evolution of the Peer Counseling program, and the training of dormitory prefects and resident advisors.

A longtime member of the Independent School Health Association, she was a strong advocate on campus of educating the “whole person” and of making leadership opportunities available to senior students. Ruthanne and her husband, English and Latin teacher Ronald Marchetti, raised their two children, Adam Larrabee ’92 and Daniel Marchetti ’98, on campus, living in Palmer and then the Ely House until moving this summer to a historic home they purchased in Bloomfield, Connecticut. Ron will continue to teach at Loomis next year, and Ruthanne will apply her courage, brains, and heart to new ventures in her retirement.

turing, and unique environment for young people.

To those who are departing the Island to pursue new challenges and adventures, we thank you for all you have given to Loomis Chaffee and to each of us, and wish you the very best of luck: Alicia Specht, Paulette Studley, John Robison, Katherine Keen, Erinrose Mager, Patricia Chambers, Christopher Milligan, Laura Milligan, Mercedes Maskalik, Deirdre Dyreson, Sharon Flannery, and Kari Diamond, all of whom have served from one-

to-nine years.

Also departing after 15 years of outstanding contribution is Betsy Tomlinson, who became the defining spirit of Harman Hall and who invested nurture in her students from admission until long after their graduation; after 22 years of service, we bid farewell to Mara Lytle, an extraordinary force in the classroom, in the pool, in the dorm, and guiding mentor for countless students and families as dean of students; and, with 26 years on the Island, we say loomischaffee.org | 23

Retiring Librarian Gail Ryan

‘‘I

’M going to miss the kids. … They keep you young,” says Gail Ryan, a librarian at Loomis Chaffee for the last 20 years.

Gail arrived at the Katharine Brush Library in the fall of 1992 after moving back to Connecticut from California. She had worked as assistant director and children’s librarian at the Avon Public Library for many years before her three years in California, and when she came to Loomis, she began running into students she knew back when they were 2-year-olds listening to her read at story time at the Avon library.

As associate director of Brush Library, Gail oversaw collection development, coordinated the

reference department, supervised staff, and was in charge of the library when the director was away. For most of Gail’s two decades at Loomis, Elaine DeVoss served as the library director.

Although Elaine retired last year, she returned to the Island to honor Gail at the Community Honors Banquet this spring. In collection development, Gail scoured review sources and gathered input from other library staffers who read reviews, then decided which books to purchase. She also served as a liaison to academic departments and helped to maintain their subject-specific collections.

Beginning in her first year on the Island, Gail taught the library skills course, which helped

underclassmen develop research skills and information literacy.

The school decided this year to eliminate the course and incorporate its lessons into the curriculum of various departments.

Gail says this new approach makes sense, but she hopes departments will make sure to teach students these skills early in their high school years.

Libraries have changed dramatically during Gail’s career. When she arrived on the Island, the library had just converted from the card catalog to an electronic database. She estimates the building had eight computers connected to the collection search and circulation system and two computers each dedicated to a separate magazine

database. The library now subscribes to more than 50 databases, a bank of computers provide access to digital resources, and on-site and remote access is available to the library’s online catalog, PeliCAT. Gail, who lives in Simsbury, Connecticut, does not have a detailed retirement plan laid out, but she knows she will engage with other people. She also will have more time to spend with her family and her beloved English setters. A former breeder, she still shows and does field work with her two dogs, and she is looking forward to attending the nationals in the fall, an event she often had to miss because of work commitments.

THE FINAL MOTION | continued from page 23

goodbye to Alison Burr, whose insight and sensitivity shepherded a generation of students, and their parents, gently through the ever-changing landscape of college applications, both as counselor and director.

To those who are departing the Island to embark on cherished pursuits or in retirement, who collectively have devoted 121 years of extraordinary service to the school, let a special note of recognition be entered into the record. [Shortly after the last faculty meeting at which Ron presented this final motion, 24 |

faculty members Mary and William Sand announced their retirements after working in the Music Department for 10 and 13 years respectively, bringing that total to 144 years of service.]

To Gail Ryan, who has guided students and faculty alike with acuity and wit in the library for 20 years; to Ruthanne Marchetti, who has given her heart and soul to the adults and especially the young women of the school, whom she has nurtured and cherished in roles as a dorm head, a member of the counseling department, and most especially as a dean of stu-

dents for a span of 31 years; to Kathy Pierson, who for 32 years, both in the classroom and as department chair, has provided students with a steadfast model of excellence in imparting confidence to the most diffident student of math; and to Frank Merrill, who, over a period of 38 years as a resident in the dormitory, as a coach, and also as an administrator, provided the same confidence to students as Kathy, but with a Maine accent; and let it be noted that Kathy and Frank have always remained exemplars of legendary, old-fashioned dedication to

the support and nurture of their colleagues and community, as well as of their students.

We celebrate the profound personal influence you all have had on the students at Loomis Chaffee and on many of us as colleagues and friends. We thank you, we will miss you, and we wish you much happiness in your new endeavors.

We know you will be ever active and fully engaged in your so-called “retirement,” and we expect you to return to the Island often. ©

Six

2O12 SENIORS

Stories by Becky Purdy with Photos by John Groo Spencer

John

Jarrod

Monica

Meadeshia Lindsay

Many volumes would be required to catalogue the talents and accomplishments of the graduates of the Class of 2012. The following profiles of six must serve to illustrate the quest for personal excellence and the commitment to community that typifies Loomis Chaffee. These extraordinary young adults have earned the praise and the gratitude of their classmates and teachers, and like their classmates, they will embrace the future with the lessons and values of Loomis Chaffee in their hearts.

loomischaffee.org | 25

Jarrod — INVENTOR bottomless curiosity MASTER COLLABORATOR senior class president

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Jarrod’s predilection for invention

H

EAD of School Sheila Culbert’s two Shih Tzu dogs light up when she walks them after dark, thanks to the ingenuity of Jarrod Smith, who installed neon illuminating devices on their dog collars. Jarrod also found a way to light up the undersides of his pickup truck, a friend’s Cadillac, a campus golf cart, and even highheeled shoes, creating the supernatural impression that the occupants are floating.

“Tinkering” is what Jarrod calls these projects, and he has tinkered for almost as long as he can remember. He wants to know how things work, so he dismantles them and puts them back together or he tries creating them from scratch. As a third-grader, he took apart his family’s VCR to see how it worked. By middle school, he had joined a robotics team, designing and building robots for competitions — an activity he continued through his four years at Loomis Chaffee. Last summer, he retrofitted his truck to use hydrogen as a fuel additive, increasing the gas mileage from 18 miles per gallon to 25 miles per gallon. This year he helped two juniors build a scale model of a wind turbine, and the three of them are developing blueprints for a full-size turbine that would power the school’s chicken coop.

Jarrod’s predilection for invention and his entrepreneurial nature, backed by academic excellence in every discipline from physics to Chinese, have fed his bottomless curiosity and led him to Loomis and next to MIT, where he will attend college in the fall.

The Commencement recipient of the Nathaniel Horton Batchelder Memorial Prize for “industry, loyalty, and integrity,” Jarrod earned respect and honors wherever he went on the Island. In the classroom, where his senior course load included Advanced Placement Chinese V, Multivariable Calculus, Linear Algebra, and AP Physics, he earned the J. Newfield Senior Science Prize, induction into the Cum Laude Society, and designation as both a National Merit Com-

and his entrepreneur ial nature, backed by academic excellence in every discipline from physics to Chinese, have fed his bottomless curiosity and led him to Loomis and next to MIT, where he will attend college in the fall.

mended Scholar and an AP Scholar. Beyond the classroom, he played varsity football, competed on Loomis’ As Schools Match Wits quiz bowl team, played the violin in the Orchestra, and served as president of the Robotics Club. And this year his peers elected him as senior class president.

All of these achievements and activities notwithstanding, Jarrod is an inventor to his core, but he also is a people person. For him, there’s nothing more fun than souping up a golf cart with a bunch of friends, which is exactly what he and some pals did one evening in May. Director of Athletics Bob Howe ’80 often drives a golf cart around the playing fields and campus, sometimes after dark. One evening this spring when Bob was on dorm duty in Mason Hall, they arranged to “steal” the golf cart (with help from Bob’s wife, Amanda), took it to a parking lot, lifted it on blocks, and installed fluorescent red LED lights on the bottom of the cart before returning it. Now Bob scoots around campus more visibly, more safely, and definitely more stylishly in the predawn or post-dusk hours.

Jarrod and classmate Krishna Ragunathan developed a kit for putting the versatile neon lights on other, smaller objects, including dog collars and high-heeled shoes. “It was just a goofy thing we did,” Jarrod says.

But their ingenuity caught the attention of LC science teachers Julia Hinchman and Joseph Neary, who encouraged Jarrod and Krishna to investigate patenting their invention. With help from history teacher and lawyer Kevin Henderson, the two seniors met with a patent lawyer in Hart-

ford, who explained the patent process and showed them how to determine whether an idea might be eligible for patenting. Even if he and Krishna don’t end up with a patent for a glowing shoe kit, Jarrod says the knowledge will be useful in the future. He plans to study mechanical engineering at MIT with a possible minor in business or entrepreneurship, and his tinkering will no doubt grow even more sophisticated and marketable.

Unlike many a fictional inventor, Jarrod is a master collaborator. His projects rarely involve solo work. He wants to share ideas, to help, and his enthusiasm draws others in.

Robotics teams have provided the perfect outlet for Jarrod’s penchant for collaboration, and it is no coincidence that, through the years, his teams have reached the final round of qualifying for international championships six times. Jarrod hopes to stay involved in robotics competitions at MIT, no doubt to the great fortune of whatever team he joins. His collaborative nature, however, extends beyond the realm of so-called “geeks.” A friend to many and a ubiquitous presence on the Island, Jarrod says he will most miss the people of Loomis Chaffee. “It’s such a great community — the faculty, the staff, the students,” he says. The school community will miss him, too.

loomischaffee.org | 27

Monica — 7,000 miles from home TOP SCHOLAR eager to try new things PASSION FOR THE SUBJECT MATTER

28 |

J

UNJIE “Monica” He stood beaming on the Commencement stage on June 8. Gripping a shiny package that contained her prize as the top female scholar in the Class of 2012, she wriggled her feet as if trying to maintain contact with the ground. As Head of School Sheila Culbert commended Monica’s many academic accomplishments and important roles in the school community, Monica looked toward the front row of the audience, where her classmates and Student Council cohorts smiled back at her and gave her a “thumbs up.” A few rows back, her mother and father, having traveled more than 7,000 miles for the ceremony, proudly treasured this moment for their daughter, their only child.

The moment marked the pinnacle of Monica’s Loomis Chaffee success story, a story with many high points but also some challenges for this young scholar far from home.

The story begins three years ago in the Chinese city of Hangzhou, where Monica lived with her parents. An outgoing girl, she attended a boarding school about 20 minutes away, but she didn’t plan to stray any farther from home before college. When she was in the ninth grade, though, the idea of attending high school in the United States started to take root, fed by the experiences of a cousin who went to high school in Great Britain. One inquiry led to another, and in the spring of 2009, Monica held the phone and listened to a voice on the other side of the world.

The voice was that of Elizabeth Stewart, associate director of admission at Loomis Chaffee, the American boarding school whose campus Monica had seen only in pictures on the Internet and whose faculty were still no more than names and email addresses. Liz had called at the appointed hour for a phone interview of this promising prospective student. Monica was nervous.

She had tried to prepare answers to possible interview questions, but she worried that her English was too weak. And she wondered about going to high school so far from home.

Liz’s first question eased the tension: “What’s your favorite book?” That was easy.

“Pride and Prejudice,” Monica answered.

Then came Liz’s reply, an excited affirmation that she, too, loved Pride and Prejudice.

“I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I have to go there,’” Monica recalls.

star collection of students gathered around a Harkness table with their teacher, Scott Purdy, and examined, discussed, and deFour months later, Monica stepped onto bated about the literature and language in the Island for the first time as a new sophofront of them. Monica loved the atmosphere more. She unpacked her belongings in her of the class and the level of discussion assigned room in Harman Hall and met the among the students, all of whom brought dorm faculty and prefects, who greeted her a passion for the subject matter. Scott with warm smiles and welcoming Ameriencouraged them to push their ideas, and can expressions. Her English was adequate, they responded. “We had the most, I think, Monica realized, but the whole experience active and amazing class ever,” she says. “It felt overwhelmingly unfamiliar. was a very intellectually stimulating class. … People always were willing to challenge Monica hadn’t expected to miss home each other at the table.” When she wrote because she was accustomed to boarding school, but homesickness struck with a ven- or rewrote papers for the class, she would geance during her first few weeks at Loomis. meet with Scott after class or while he was The distance from home, the immersion in a on dorm duty in Warham Hall. She says she new culture, the limited phone contact with especially appreciated the fact that he took the time to disagree with her, helping her to her parents because of the time difference, think critically. and the exhaustion of hearing English spoken all around her all the time, even in class, Many other classes also developed Monica’s took a toll. “I really just wanted to go home, critical thinking skills and fed her passion to be honest,” she recalls. “I just cried in my for learning. She took the religion term room.” Support from her prefects, her advicourse Literary Themes in the Bible last sor, and other dorm faculty and talks with winter, and she admits she wasn’t looking her mother, when they were able to connect, forward to taking the class because the subhelped her to overcome the homesickness, ject didn’t interest her. Or so she thought. as did Monica’s gregarious nature. She It didn’t take long before she, the six other recalls a conversation with then-Harman students in the class, and teacher Dennis dorm head Betsy Tomlinson, who told her, Robbins had plunged into stimulating dis“It may seem hard to believe now, but it will cussions about the Bible, belief systems, and all work out.” Betsy was right. By December readings like East of Eden. Unlike the other of that first year, after Monica went home students in the class, Monica had not read for the winter break, she told her parents the Bible before taking the course, and Denthat she could stay in the United States durnis and her classmates welcomed her fresh ing the other school breaks and just come perspective. They listened to each other, home in the summer. and Dennis pressed them to develop their arguments, wherever they led. “I was just The rest of Monica’s Loomis Chaffee story so excited to go to class every day,” Monica follows a constantly upward-sloping line reflects. defined by inspired learning, tireless striving for full understanding of every aspect of Although she sees herself more as a humanevery subject, deepening friendships, and ities-leaning student, Monica is hardly a eagerness to try new things. The A and A+ lightweight in math and science. Her senior grades rolled in, and Monica thrived on the courses included not only Advanced Placeintellectual exchange with her classmates ment Senior English Seminar in Literature, and teachers. She also ran for Student CounFrench III Advanced, AP Economics, and cil, winning election as girls vice president term courses in religion and psychology, but of a very productive council in her senior also Multivariable Calculus and AP Physics. year; served as a prefect during her junior She maintained an A+ overall average. year in Harman, where the freshman and While she has reached the formal end to sophomore girls adored her spirit and support; worked as a tour guide for the Office of her Loomis Chaffee story and starts a new chapter at the University of Pennsylvania, Admission; and participated with enthusiasm in III field hockey, III lacrosse, club and Monica’s smile and bubbly enthusiasm linger in the air on the Island, her home away then JV squash, and cross country. from home.

Monica says her favorite class was Junior English Advanced Seminar, where an all-

loomischaffee.org | 29

John — record-setter LEADER outstanding concern for other people GENTLEMAN ATHLETE

30 |

loomischaffee.org | 30

J

OHN ABRAHAM does not run so much as he glides, with all his motion forward and fast, his head level, his legs a blur, his arms precise levers, his feet their own energy source, flinging the ground backward as they propel him forward, toward the finish line. No one in a Loomis Chaffee singlet has ever run faster than John has, and no one on the Island — or in all of New England prep school track, for that matter — is likely to top his speed anytime soon.

With best times — and school records — of 10.77 seconds in the 100-meter dash and 21.86 in the 200-meter dash, John finished the 2012 track season undefeated in both of these events, including Founders League and New England championship titles at both distances. He also played an important role on the Pelicans’ record-setting relays, anchoring the 4x100 meters and running a blazing leg in the 4x400 meters.

At the Division I New England Championship this spring, the coaches of the 13 competing schools selected John as the male athlete of the meet.

To put his swiftness in perspective, John technically could be stopped for speeding on the Loomis Chaffee campus roads, where the limit is 20 m.p.h. His 100-meter time clocks him at 20.77 m.p.h.

But there is more to John Abraham than his flat-out speed. A leader by example, he captained the varsity soccer, varsity hockey, and track teams as a senior. He served as a resident assistant in Taylor Hall. And at Commencement, the faculty awarded John with the Ammidon Prize, which goes to the young man in the graduating class who “has been outstanding in his concern for other people.” The prize citation praised John’s leadership and work ethic in all realms. “John’s legacy at Loomis is one of honor, talent, effort, and attitude,” Head of School Sheila Culbert said at Commencement. “All at Loomis are better for knowing this student leader and gentleman athlete.”

Win-loss records have little bearing on the strength of John’s leadership as a teammate and captain. While the soccer team had a winning record of 8-6-2 last fall and the track team won the Founders League Championship and captured second place

at the New Englands, John also led the hockey team valiantly through a tough 2-23 season this winter. Although he was a solid two-way hockey player, “John’s greatest contribution to the hockey team these past two seasons has been his remarkable good will and sportsmanship when things weren’t going well for the team,” says Director of Athletics Bob Howe ’80, a former Pelican hockey player himself.

Like his teammates, John’s dorm mates and classmates have appreciated his humility and his loyalty. He developed strong friendships during his two years at Loomis, somewhat to his surprise. He describes himself as being “very shy” when he arrived on the Island as a new junior from Montreal, where John lives with his mother and two younger sisters. His boyhood friend, Michael Hiscock ’12, enrolled at Loomis at the same time, but otherwise John knew no one. Fall soccer, Taylor Hall, and a challenging but engaging lineup of classes all immersed John in Loomis Chaffee life from the outset. Looking back, he says he realizes how much he has changed since his first days on the Island. “I think I’m probably more confident in myself, and I’ve opened myself up to new things,” he says. “Even trying track was something new to me.”

That’s right. Until two years ago, this Dartmouth-bound sprinter had never laced up a pair of spikes, opting instead for soccer cleats and hockey skates. When he arrived at Loomis Chaffee, he saw himself as a soccer player who, like many a Canadian boy, also played a solid game of ice hockey. He aspired to play Division I college soccer in the United States.

Immediately an impact player for the Loomis varsity soccer and hockey teams, John didn’t have a plan for a spring sport his junior year. Hockey teammate and track athlete Austin King ’12 convinced John to try track and field. “I didn’t expect anything of it because I’d never done it before,” John says. He simply hoped it would help his soccer speed.

Enter then-senior LaDarius Drew ’11, a football and track athlete, a proven talent.

In early-season track workouts, John could keep up with LaDarius, a fact that surprised John and raised the eyebrows of the

Loomis track coaches. Could it be that the team had two elite sprinters for the 2011 season, two guys who not only could break records, but also had the maturity to push each other without letting their egos get the best of them? They were an improbable pair: LaDarius, the seasoned track athlete from warm-weather Texas whose stride flowed like melted butter and whose body was so flexible that his opponents gawked when he stretched; John, the novice runner from chilly Canada whose efficient, tight gait seemed jet-propelled and who couldn’t touch his toes. Yet they ran nearly identical times — and fast ones. It quickly became clear that the question was not whether they would win races, but by how much and in what order. At the league and New England championship meets at the end of the season, the pair finished 1-2 in the sprints, swapping their finish places with each race and each meet. Their nearest opponents crossed the finish line several strides behind them.

At the end of his junior track season, John’s coaches urged him — and friends dared him — to contact some Division I college track coaches. The interested replies surprised John and eventually led to his early-decision acceptance to Dartmouth.

As a senior, John continued to improve his speed, even without LaDarius (now at Wesleyan University) churning at his side and even as John remained a three-sport varsity athlete. A student of every sport he’s ever played, John listened when Loomis boys sprint coach Adrian Stewart ’90 told him he should work on his flexibility and handed John a yoga video. On Sundays all winter, John did yoga. The dedication paid off. This spring, his longer, crisper stride carried him faster from starting blocks to finish line.

John’s continued improvement and the keen interest he received from college coaches has given him the confidence to dream big. He researched the top Canadian sprinters of his age and discovered that he ranks among the very fastest, and John’s relative inexperience suggests that he will get faster in the coming years. “Over the next four years, I keep telling myself and my mom that I want to work toward Brazil 2016,” he says, referring to the site of the future Olympic Games.

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Meadeshia — open-minded SURGEON DREAMS strong of character MIDDLE-DISTANCE TRACK STAR

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EADESHIA MITCHELL knew she would meet new people, experience different cultures, and encounter new ideas when she enrolled for a post-graduate year at Loomis Chaffee, but she never dreamed she would travel to India, read Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, and overcome a fear of death. She also hadn’t expected to develop the close bonds she forged with dorm mates, classmates, and teammates in just one year on the Island.

“It’s life-changing,” she says, looking back on her year. “It feels like I’ve been here all four years.” As she does with every new experience, Meadeshia made the most of her year at Loomis Chaffee, welcoming every opportunity to learn and grow and encounter new viewpoints. “That’s just the type of person I am,” reflects this young woman bound for Smith College.

Meadeshia and her family moved to the United States from Jamaica at the beginning of her high school years. They settled in Hartford, Connecticut, where they had relatives, and Meadeshia enrolled at Weaver High School. In her three years at Weaver, she took all the science courses that the school offered. Biology particularly fascinated her, especially dissections. Even a worm offers an interesting study in biological systems once you open it up, she says.

She began to dream of becoming a surgeon some day.

She also joined the track team at Weaver.

She had enjoyed running during elementary school in Jamaica, and her cousin had run track at Weaver. Under the tutelage of coach Lee Hunt, Meadeshia developed into a speedy middle-distance runner. Coach Hunt, who now coaches with the Capital City Track Club in Hartford, knows a lot of college coaches, and with his help, Meadeshia’s promise caught the attention of a number of New England Division III college coaches. They encouraged her to consider a post-graduate year at an independent school to develop further academically and athletically.

Meadeshia interviewed at several Connecticut independent schools, and she fell in love with Loomis Chaffee. During her tour, she looked out from the balcony of the Katharine Brush Library. She says she imagined herself reading in a chair on the balcony with a view of the Cow Pond and the Meadows. When Loomis Chaffee offered her a

spot in the Class of 2012 and a Kravis Scholarship, from a financial aid fund established

by Henry R. Kravis ’63 to identify talented students from under-represented communities in the United States and abroad, she accepted readily.

Her year on the Island challenged and inspired her. “I got to know different people.

I got to know different cultures,” she begins, eliciting a list of friends she made from around the world. Two of her dorm mates in Mason Hall were Shaily Jain and Shefali Jain, exchange students from The Fabindia School, a rural school in India founded by William Bissell ’84, the 2012 Commencement speaker. Meadeshia, Shaily, and Shefali quickly formed a bond, sharing their cultural traditions and a studious work ethic. Shaily and Shefali returned to India after the winter term, and Meadeshia, to her great excitement, was invited to join a group of other Loomis students and faculty traveling to India and The Fabindia School during March break.

term courses Ecology, Sustainable Agriculture, and Human Populations and Impact.

In English, she studied Short Story, Contemporary Literature, and Literature of the Sea. (The latter class is where she encountered Billy Budd. She was relieved when her teacher, Berrie Moos, confirmed that the novella is a difficult one.) In math, she took Algebra Topics and Statistics. She also took a leap into Drawing I, and she explored three courses in the Philosophy, Psychology, and Religion Department: Seminar on Freud and Jung, Social Psychology, and Death and Dying. She says she discovered that she loves psychology, and she especially appreciated the Death and Dying course with its emphasis on confronting and understanding the end of life and the importance of grieving.

“Now I realize that there’s nothing to fear.

[Death] is just a part of life,” she says, adding that she must deal with the reality of death if she wants to pursue a career as a surgeon.

One might expect Meadeshia, with so much time spent outside her comfort zone, to stick to the familiar athletically. And she did run Meadeshia describes the trip to India as eyetrack, posting fast times and great races opening. She knew of the poverty in India, in the 800- and 400-meter runs as well as but she says the sheer numbers of poor the school record-setting 4x400 relay. Her people in cities like Delhi overwhelmed her contributions helped the girls track and field and the other students. At the same time, team to win the Division I New England she was touched to see temples providChampionship in May. But before she ran ing food for the poor, people trying to help track in the spring, she joined the cross feed others even as they dealt with poverty country team in the fall. For someone whose themselves. The children at The Fabindia best race covers half a mile on a perfectly School — their eagerness to learn and their flat surface, the 3.1 miles of ups and downs respect for their teachers — also left a strong and uneven footing in a high school cross impression. The Loomis group brought pens country race — not to mention the distance and pencils to give to the Fabindia chiltraining — pose a daunting challenge. She dren. Meadeshia says she thought they had welcomed it, even as she grumbled goodbrought too many until she saw the chilnaturedly about the mud puddles. By the dren’s reaction when the Loomis students end of the season, she had earned a spot on gave them the big box. “They will use them,” the varsity squad, the top seven runners on a she thought to herself. “We should have strong team. brought more.”

Whether on a mud-splattered trail or a Back at Loomis, Meadeshia also volunteered bumpy Indian bus ride, whether dissectto help others, another opportunity to coning frogs or deciphering Melville’s imagery, nect with people. Through the community whether meeting elderly citizens or makservice program, she spent time at Caring ing lifelong friends with her teammates, Connections, a Windsor program for people Meadeshia sees every experience as an with memory loss problems. “It’s not like opportunity to create connections and to you feel pity for the situation that they’re grow. Centered and strong of character, in, but you want to help,” she explains. She Meadeshia sees in life what many people played cards or Bingo with them and lislook back on their youth and wish they tened to their stories about their childhoods, had realized at the time. She is wise beyond and she enjoyed getting to know them. her years.

Meadeshia’s academic load as a post-graduate reflected the same open-mindedness and eagerness for challenge that she showed in her other endeavors. In science, she took the

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Spencer — RENAISSANCE MAN balance PIANO, GUITAR, SAX, DRUMS writer of songs and narratives

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ELP WANTED: Loomis Chaffee Musical Revue seeks pianist who studies Multivariable Calculus. Must be able to triple jump 42 feet, write poignant narratives, and analyze the movement of objects using Newton’s Laws.

Proficiency on saxophone, drums, guitar, and a cappella vocals required. Knowledge of Latin a plus. Minimum requirements: 6-to-10 years of classical piano instruction, experience in song-writing, living room converted to recording studio. The ideal candidate will aspire to major in electrical engineering.

Spencer Congero is going to be tough to replace. The accompanist for the student-run Musical Revue for the last four years and one of the show’s directors this spring, this Renaissance Man plays Rodgers and Hammerstein tunes with as much ease as he conjugates Latin irregular verbs. His academic accolades span the disciplines, and though he works hard, he makes a point of finding time in each day to have fun. Luckily for those auditioning for the part, however, the Musical Revue’s next accompanist need not share all of Spencer’s talents.

A National Merit Commended Scholar and a member of the Cum Laude Society, Spencer carried a senior course load that included Linear Algebra, Multivariable Calculus, Advanced Placement Physics II, AP Senior English Seminar in Literature, and term courses in economics, Catullus, and logic. He was the keyboardist in the pit orchestra for this year’s winter musical, Hairspray. He sang with the A Cappelicans, and he wrote for the Loomis Chaffee Log. His essay about the powerful, wordless lessons imparted from his grandmother at his grandfather’s burial earned recognition at the English Honor Tea. A co-captain and four-year letter-winner in track, Spencer placed fourth in the triple jump at the Division I New England Championship in May

A National Merit Commended Scholar and a member of the Cum Laude Society, Spencer carried a senior course load that included Linear Algebra, Multivariable Calculus, Advanced Placement Physics II, AP Senior English Seminar in Literature, and term courses in economics, Catullus, and logic. with a 42-foot 9-inch jump that surpassed his previous best by a foot.

One of the hardest aspects of life as a Loomis Chaffee student, he says, is “balancing your work with having fun.” He didn’t want homework to consume all of his time away from school. And fun, for Spencer, usually involves music. At home, he has turned the living room into a music studio, where he loves to write and record songs, layering the instrumental and vocal parts he plays. He estimates that he plays the piano at least an hour a day, every day. He can’t remember a time when he wasn’t drawn toward music.

He started taking piano lessons in the third grade after asking his parents to sign him up. In the fourth grade, he picked up the saxophone. In the fifth grade, the drums.

And in the sixth grade, guitar.

Despite his many talents and interests, Spencer has a laid-back quality, perhaps an indication of the emphasis he places on striking a balance in his life. Unhurried but not aloof, he seems uncomfortable only when asked to talk about himself. Then his face gives up an embarrassed smile.

He’d rather talk about Billy Joel and the music of Ben Folds or the overlap between Multivariable Calculus and AP Physics or the differences in technique for triple jump versus long jump.

Honors Engineering program at the University of Southern California, a program that offered him a half-tuition scholarship and even will help pay for his travel to Los Angeles from Bloomfield, Connecticut, where he lives with his parents. He plans to major in electrical engineering with a focus on audio engineering. Spencer learned about the USC program from his college advisor, Amy Thompson. “I didn’t know anything about it, but then when I went out there, I just loved it,” he says. None of the other colleges and universities that he considered had the same focus on audio engineering, and the facilities and faculty blew him away.

One of the full-time professors of electrical engineering and cinematic arts, for instance, is Tomlinson Holman, a renowned innovator in cinema sound and an Academy Award winner for scientific and technical achievement.

USC represents a huge leap in school size from Loomis Chaffee, but Spencer is ready for the adventure and has heard that the university seems much smaller as students delve into their departments and specialties. Still, he says, he will miss going to dinner at the Loomis dining hall and seeing all of his teachers and friends sitting around the room. “The sense of community here is something special,” he says.

Next year Spencer will put his varied and considerable skills to work together in the

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Lindsay — NEW ENGLAND CHAMPION outstanding contributions to the school STUDENT COUNCIL PRESIDENT serious, sometimes m ischievous

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Lindsay has dreamed of the privilege

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INETY-NINE percent of the time, Lindsay Gabow is dead-serious, which is why her rare and unexpected moments of levity send those who know her into fits of laughter.

One such occasion took place last fall when Lindsay and the rest of the Loomis Chaffee girls cross country team ran a seven-mile training run in a nearby park, the site of many local high school races. As they were finishing the run, a couple of the girls noticed a sign at the head of a trail that announced the park was closed to runners that week to preserve the course for a large cross country invitational on the weekend. The girls had entered the trail from the other end, so they hadn’t seen the sign until the last few hundred meters of the run. The girls told the rest of the team and the coaches about the sign when the team gathered to regroup and stretch after the run. There was a pause as 30 teammates and two coaches exchanged guilty looks.

Lindsay broke the tension, leaping to her feet, punching the air, and shouting, “We beat the system!” The team dissolved into laughter.

Lindsay’s serious approach to everything, sprinkled with a pinch of mischief, won the hearts of her peers, teachers, and coaches, over her four years at Loomis Chaffee. She grew into a school leader known for getting things done, and as Student Council president this year, she united the community around several ambitious initiatives. The Board of Trustees recognized the Student Council’s extraordinary accomplishments under her leadership with a special plaque that Christopher Norton ’76, chairman of the Board of Trustees, presented at the May board meeting. And at Commencement, Lindsay received the Jennie Loomis Prize, which is awarded to the senior girl “who is recognized by the faculty for outstanding contributions to the school.”

Although she’s always been a go-getter, Lindsay grew into her leadership shoes at Loomis Chaffee. As a freshman, she says, she often didn’t perceive the line between appropriate times for opinionated discus-

of enduring basic training and

attending the U.S. Military Academy

since she was a sophomore at Loomis. sion and times for silliness and sarcasm.

She adds that she also didn’t know how to interact with adults. (“Now I sort of know when to be serious and when to be goofy,” she acknowledges.) But she knew where she wanted to end up. At the first convocation of her freshman year, then-Student Council president Tyler Eldridge ’09 opened the school year with an uplifting speech. “He was just so eloquent, and he just had this presence,” she recalls. “And I said, ‘I want to be like him some day.’”

At the opening of the 2011–12 school year, Lindsay spoke to the school as the new Student Council president. Without notes, she delivered a speech that captivated the student body and faculty with its sincerity and inspiring message about community and caring and reaching out. The moment marked her evolution into a poised and thoughtful senior and signaled the leadership she would provide in the year ahead.

Among the Student Council’s major accomplishments this year, Lindsay gained the greatest satisfaction from the creation of the Loomis Chaffee Pledge, a statement that students can sign and use as a touchstone for the school community’s ethos. “We wanted to set a tone, a tone that would echo when we left,” she says. “[The pledge] is a constant reminder that we’re a community, not just an individualistic environment.”

Other major achievements by the Student Council under Lindsay’s leadership include a revision of the dress code, exploration of a “house” system for all LC students, and an effort to adjust and clarify a school-wide homework policy. Several of these initiatives required considerable negotiation among various interests on campus, and Lindsay says she learned about the importance of hearing all ideas and of making compromises.

Lindsay’s academic growth also reached a new peak in her senior year. Keenly interested in political science and history, she took the year-long course combining

Advanced Placement U.S. Government and Politics and Advanced Placement Comparative Government and Politics. She also took the term course American Civil War, and inspired by a history paper she had written previously on U.S. relations with Israel after the Six-Day War, Lindsay conducted an independent study on Israeli history.

She tackled these subjects along with a full complement of other challenging courses across the curriculum.

In addition to her contributions as a student and a leader, Lindsay also served as a managing editor of the Loomis Chaffee Log, as a resident assistant in Ammidon Hall, as a varsity athlete, and as a team captain. Her indomitable spirit and athleticism made her a force on the field, ice, track, and cross country course, and she played both field hockey and ice hockey for three years, ran cross country as a senior, and ran track all four years. Distance running turned out to be her strongest sport, and she won a New England title this spring in the 1500 meters, setting a school record of 4:43.66 (the equivalent of a 5:05 mile). At the same championship meet, she also placed second in the 800 meters and second in the 3000 meters, adding those accomplishments to her All-New England, sixth-place showing at the Division I Cross Country Championship in the fall.

West Point offers the next challenge for this focused young woman from Pelham Manor, New York. As you read this, in fact, Lindsay is probably doing pushups. Or marching with a heavy rucksack on her shoulder. Or assembling an M16 rifle. It’s all part of the six-week cadet basic training known as “Beast Barracks,” and Lindsay has dreamed of the privilege of enduring basic training and attending the U.S. Military Academy since she was a sophomore at Loomis. “I think that everyone is put on this earth for a reason. It’s our duty to have the biggest, most positive impact,” she says. For her, serving in the military fits that duty: “I feel it’s my calling.”

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WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Updates from Seniors Profiled in the Past

’02 JAMES GARDNER  American University in Washington, D.C., 2006, double major in Political Science and Broadcast Journalism  Levin College of Law, University of Florida, 2009  New York State Bar, 2010  Lives in Buffalo, New York  Assistant district attorney for Erie County  Co-founded BuffaloReformED, a nonprofit organization dedicated to public education reform Serves on the organization’s Advisory Board  Highlights from the past few years: “Running the Bay State Half Marathon in Lowell, Massachusetts, with fellow Loomis Alum Will Morgan ’02 [and] buying and renovating my own home without having it collapse”

 Sits on advisory board of a nonprofit organization, the Child Center of New York  Significant moments: “I met my husband in New York City in 2009, and we got married on May 14, 2010.

Two days later, I graduated from Columbia University! … On June 8, 2012, I will be attending the Commencement ceremony at LC. Commencement speaker William Bissell ’84 is a close family friend, who introduced me to Loomis when I was living in India. … I am still in touch with some of my Loomis friends, and it is so wonderful to have that bond, especially with Rushell Pieters ’02.”  Future plans: “I cannot wait to meet my first baby due in December 2012. In 10 years, I hope to be a wonderful mother and wife, pursuing my career and running my own organization, helping people change their lives and feeling empowered every day. I also hope to travel across the world and live in a brand new country!”

’02

’02 MITALI KHERA  George Washington University, 2006, B.A., Psychology  Columbia University, 2010, Master of Social Work  Lives in New York City  Licensed Master Social Worker  Worked as a social work supervisor at Jewish Association Serving the Aged, JASA

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JACQUELINE O’CONNOR  Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2006, B.S., Aeronautics  Georgia Tech, 2011, M.S. and Ph.D., Aerospace Engineering, studying combustion  Met my partner, Alex Pace, also a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech, now working for SpaceX in Hawthorne, California  Lives in Pleasanton, California, as a post-doc at Sandia National Labs in Livermore, California, right

outside of San Francisco, doing experimental flame research in the Engine Combustion Department on an optical research diesel engine  Next step: “I will officially be Professor O’Connor starting August 2013 in the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering at Pennsylvania State University. … I’ll spend about half my time doing research and another part teaching classes in thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and combustion. I’m really excited, but also really nervous. It’s recently just hit me that I’ll have to stand in front of classes of up to 100 students and get them excited about introductory thermodynamics. … I hope to do research in nonlinear combustion phenomena, fluid mechanic instability, and supercritical fluids, all with applications to engine technology (jet engines, power generation gas turbines, and piston engines).”  Some important moments: “Exploring national parks with Alex. … We’ve been to over a dozen parks and seen some of the most beautiful places the world has to offer. … Participating in “Design/ Build/Fly” at MIT. My senior year at MIT our senior design project was part of a national competition hosted by the AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) where a mission is specified and students have to design and build a remote-controlled aircraft to complete the mission. … Mentoring undergraduates. …”  Future plans: “So, in 10 years, I hope to be a tenured professor making strides in clean engine technology and making a difference in the life of college students. I look forward to many more camping trips, travel to fun places for work (just this summer I’m going to Denmark and India for conferences), and hopefully a few trips back to the Island!”

’03 LAURA CROOK  Tufts University, 2007, double major in Child Development and Spanish  Boston University, 2008, M.A., Elementary Education  Lives in Newington, Connecticut  Works as first-grade teacher, South Windsor  Other interest: Running  Highlights from the past few years: “I became a teacher, got engaged in Cinderella’s castle in Disney World, and ran the Hartford Marathon.”  Future plans: “I will continue teaching and would love to start a family. I’ll probably also go back to school!”

’03 DAVID LINZ  Tufts University, 2007, Biological Sciences  Tufts University School of Medicine, 2011, M.D.  Resident, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Internal Medicine  Lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania  Significant moments: “Since graduating, I have shared many significant milestones with Loomis classmates. I attended Tufts

as an undergraduate with at least five of my graduating classmates; Michael Bogino ’03 was best man at my wedding in 2010; I graduated from medical school with Chris Judson and Nupur Jhawar ’02; and I currently train with Mina Owlia ’00 who is a year ahead of me in my Internal Medicine program and who will become chief resident next year.”  Future plans: “I plan to graduate from residency and pursue a career in General Internal Medicine as a primary care physician.”

’03 SARAH NAPIER  Johns Hopkins University, 2007, double major in Writing Seminars and Film & Media Studies  Lives in New York City  Works at Condé Nast Entertainment (new division of Condé Nast) as the coordinator, Entertainment  Highlights from the past few years: “Moving across the country from New York City to Los Angeles to work in Scripted Television (my dream) was a highlight for me. Then, of course, being offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work for my idol back in New York City was equally significant. I loved having had the chance to work and live in California, but [I] was glad to return to the East Coast and work for someone I had admired for years.”  Future plans: “I’m still figuring out my goals for the next 5–10 years. I may decide to do grad school, to become a professor, as

teaching is something I’ve always been interested in ... but if not, I hope in next five years I move up into a scripted/digital executive here in New York and successfully launch a handful of scripted shows.”

’04 ELIZABETH “BETTY” GILPIN  Fordham, 2008, Theater  Lives in Brooklyn, New York “As an actress I go from being insanely busy working to in-my-pajamas on Facebook, which I am currently.

But I most recently worked at Manhattan Theatre Club and on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and next week I am shooting a movie in Queens. But after that I’ll be eating cereal for lunch at home again, panicking about being unemployed.”  Other interests: Loves going to the theater. “New York has so many amazing plays and musicals going on right now, and you don’t have to be a theater geek (like me) to enjoy them. The show Once on Broadway right now is my absolute favorite.”  Highlights from the past few years: “I have driven across the country four times with my boyfriend and dog. I’ve now been to most of the national parks, my favorite being Glacier National Park in northern Montana. We camped there for a couple of days. It’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. Although, I didn’t realize how unbelievably beautiful Loomis truly is until I went back for my reunion. … We were all screaming in shock at how

beautiful the Meadows are.

It’s like ‘Lacrosse Lord of the Rings.’ ”  Future plans: “Good lord, that’s a big question. Life as an actress is very unpredictable — in the same day I audition to play a divorce lawyer who fights crime and then a crack-addicted 16-year-old with magical powers. So, it’s hard to set goals or make predictions.

I guess I want to be active all the time and working as much as I can — fewer screens and more books, less couch [and] more sunlight. ... Go Pelicans! And Go NEO!”

’04  TINA JEON  Yale University, 2008, concentration in History, Latin America/Brazil, Tropical Medicine  Active member of Yale Alumni Association in D.C. as an interviewer  Lives in Georgetown, Washington, D.C.  Works as PR director at Qorvis Communications, currently as a consultant to the government of the Republic of Fiji, which involves working and traveling with the prime minister and attorneygeneral, in the constitutional process. “[I] am traveling back and forth each month and have seen parts of Fiji’s 333 islands that native Fijians have not even visited. The nation’s first-ever truly democratic elections are expected in 2014.”  Other interests: philanthropic events, taekwondo, international travel (aside

from Fiji), real estate hunting, and modeling  Highlights from the past few years: “[Featured as one of] 2007 Glamour magazine’s Top Ten College Women; … nominated as Woman of the Year in 2010 by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society for my charity efforts as an advocate in raising awareness about children’s issues, including homelessness, illness, education, [and] abuse; [role in] Omega Olympics commercial, airing now across global media markets, as well an associated photo shoot; … [meeting] with Bill Clinton for 10–15 minutes in a surreal moment after he presented on the importance of supporting investment in the American export-import economy.”  Future plans: “Since my time at LC, I’ve taken great care to truly listen when given advice, and [I] believe good mentors have been my ‘secret weapon.’ I’m very lucky to be in my current career position, consulting on a nation’s historic democratic transition, and [I] look forward to this success translating into other areas of my life.”

’04 PETER PROSOL  Yale, 2008, B.A. in Economics and History  Lives in New York City  Works at Deloitte in Internal Corporate Strategy  Interests: technology and running  Highlights from the past few years: “I am the

secretary-treasurer of the board of a start-up charter school in Harlem for K_5, opening September 2012.

I also had the pleasure of working in Washington, D.C., Boston, and New York in different roles.”  Future plans: “I hope to grow and apply my knowledge of strategy, technology, and business to advance innovation in the private and public spaces.”

’05 STEPHANIE SANABRIA  Boston College School of Education, 2009, double major in Human Development and Hispanic Studies, and 2011, M.A. in Counseling Psychology with a concentration in School Counseling  Licensed in Massachusetts as a school guidance counselor for grades 5_12  Lives in hometown of Westfield, Mass., as of August 2011, after living in Boston for 6 years  Works in the Springfield Public Schools as an adjustment counselor  Other interests: singing in a gospel choir, Zumba, and running. “I am looking into becoming a certified [Zumba] instructor this summer … [and I] will be in my first 5K on June 2 in Hartford!

After, I hope to expand to a 10K, and eventually half marathon and who knows where else it will lead!”  Significant moments: “Since graduating from Loomis in 2005, I have become an aunt several more times. …

Now I have two nephews and two nieces. Coming from a large family of nine

children, I find family very important to me; so seeing it expand is an incredible gift, and I truly love being an aunt. … Another significant moment was graduating from Boston College, not once but twice! … To have my master’s in counseling is a gift that I intend to use in the public education system for as long as possible.”  Future plans: “I hope to be married to my long-term boyfriend of 6.5 years so far and begin a family. I hope to continue being a great aunt to my nieces and nephews as well. Professionally, I hope to hold my professional license in school counseling. I hope to be working just as hard, and to be as energetic and excited about my career path as I am now. … One of my ultimate goals is to create some form of positive reform/change within my community in working with the adolescent population, particularly the Latino population. … Finally I hope that within the next 10 years, I am even more reflective and appreciative than I am now.

I always want to remember where I have been in order to continue pursuing the goals I set for myself in the future.” continued next page

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WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Updates from Seniors Profiled in the Past

’06 KATHERINE “KATIE” MARTINO  Harvard, 2010, Government  Lives in Boston, Massachusetts  Works at Yellow Wood Partners, a private equity firm focused on the consumer sector; previously worked for Cambridge Associates doing investment consulting for nonprofit endowments and high net worth families  Coaches fifth- and sixthgrade girls lacrosse  Highlights from the past few years: “I learned (to be fair, still learning!) how to play the guitar, won an award for peer advising in college (was very involved with and helped the administration run the freshman program), and have made many great friends along the way over these past six years while staying close with my best friends from LC.” Future plans: “In the next 10 years, I hope to graduate from business school and, over time, work my way toward running a business (hopefully my own as an entrepreneur).”

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’06 SUSAN SCANLON  Yale, 2010, double major in Physics and Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry  Rising third-year medical student in the Yale M.D./ Ph.D. program  Lives, works, and studies in New Haven, Connecticut  Other interests: piano and intramural softball  Highlights: “Studying abroad in France during the summer of 2008. I participated in the Washington University France for the Pre-Med in Nice program where I took classes in French and shadowed surgeons at Lenval Children’s Hospital. During the second half of the summer, I completed a research internship at the Curie Institute. And my college graduation where I received the Russell Henry Chittenden Prize as the top scholar majoring in the natural sciences.”  Future plans: “In the next 10 years of my life, I hope to graduate from the M.D./ Ph.D. program and begin a residency. I am not sure yet which specialty I would like to enter, but I am considering some combination of pediatrics, surgery, and oncology. Eventually, I hope to pursue a career combining scientific research and clinical medicine.”

’07 SAMUEL DORISON  Princeton University, 2011, with a degree from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs  Awarded a 2012 Marshall Scholarship. In the coming year will pursue an M.S. in Security Studies focusing on human rights and international security at University College London  Recent highlights: “At Princeton, served as vice president of the Undergraduate Student Government and received 2011 Spirit of Princeton Award; spent the 2011–12 academic year as a research assistant at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School.

Focused on topics including terrorism and international politics: and recently completed Lake Placid Half Marathon with siblings Liza ’09 and Charlie ’11. Currently training for this summer’s Pan Mass Challenge, a twoday, 192-mile bike ride to raise money for the DanaFarber Cancer Institute.”  Future plans: “Don’t yet have any long-term plans.

Right now, looking forward to next two years in England studying human rights and international security.”

’07 CLAIRE GALIETTE  Amherst College, 2011, History major concentrating in Modern European History  Lives in New York City  Works at RLM Finsbury, a strategic communications firm that provides expert counsel and support to clients around the world on interactions with the media, financial markets, employees, governments, and other vital stakeholders.  Plays on a women’s soccer team in New York City, following four years on the women’s varsity team at Amherst  Volunteered for Big Brothers/Big Sisters of New York City  Member of Young Professionals Committee  Recent highlights: “While at Amherst, I wrote my thesis on King George VI of England during WWII, analyzing his impact on the British people, both civilians at home and troops abroad, during the war and how his actions helped transform the monarchy into the modern-day institution that it is today.

In addition, I received the Friends of Amherst Athletics Award for my soccer team, honoring me as an ‘unsung hero.’ … I also studied abroad for the spring of 2010 in London at University College London.

Another top moment came during my internship during the summer before my junior year of college. I taught two classes [English and Social Studies] of soon-

to-be sixth graders at The Steppingstone Foundation’s summer school at Milton Academy — an amazingly rewarding experience — I think mostly because I was helping students prepare for schools like Loomis, which I loved. … Lastly, I have enjoyed reconnecting with Loomis friends in New York.”  Future plans: “Graduating from college was one of my top moments since Loomis.

Now that I am in New York, it’s different because I don’t know exactly what my next step is, but that’s also what makes it exciting.”

’07 DANIEL E. HYATT  MIT, 2011, B.S., Mechanical Engineering and double minor in Management Science and Economics  Pursuing M.S. in Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech as part-time distancelearning student — 100 percent virtual, all online courses, core concentration is Mechanical Design  Lives in “sunny” Orlando, Florida  Works for Lockheed Martin Global Training and Logistics, “although I am about to start a one-year rotation at another LM site also in Orlando: Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. I am in LM’s Engineering Leadership Development Program.”  Other interests: “Playing lots of sports, especially golf, going to the beach, and exploring all the different great vacation spots right here in Orlando”

GRADUATING | continued from 2  Significant moments: “Graduating from MIT — not so much the day itself, but the experience that led to it. My growth over those four short and long years was paramount in every way: technically, personally, and beyond. Making it to the D3 College World Series New England Regional — In my senior year, our baseball team put together a great year, finding ourselves nationally ranked throughout the season, ultimately earning us a bid to the regional. It was the first time MIT had made it in over 30 years. And starting work at Lockheed Martin — For me, one of the more [important] characteristics of a job is the end product, knowing that the work I am doing truly matters. From this standpoint, I cannot think of a better place to engage myself and wholly contribute than in the successful creation of products that keep our soldiers safe.”  Future plans: “In the next 10 years, I aim to continue to grow myself as a leader of Lockheed Martin, merging my technical acumen and leadership capabilities in order to truly add value to the corporation.”

’07 JOHN “NICK” LOOMIS  The University of Montana in Missoula, 2012, B.S., Chemistry with concentration in Biochemistry and a minor in Chinese  Other interests: “My main interests outside of school are a big part of why I came back to Montana after my time at LC. I love to hunt,

fish, and camp whenever I get the chance, usually with as many friends as I can gather up. … I also love to travel, and I try to take an annual big trip with my older brother, Grant, who also will be heading to medical school. During the past few years, we have done Mexico, Spain, China, Korea, and a road trip through the southern states together.”  Recent highlights: “Those trips I mentioned above are pretty significant for me.

Hiking up to a mountain village in China, visiting a 1,500-year-old Buddhist temple in South Korea, beignets at Café du Monde in New Orleans, sunsets in Mexico — all pretty cool things to experience. I was a Prefect/RA my last two years at LC, and I continued that position for four of my five years in college. I started off as a normal RA, and by the end, I was a building supervisor, which put me in charge of the few hundred residents in my particular building as well as the building RA staff. I also ended up graduating with high honors in Chemistry, which may be surprising for anyone who advised me academically at LC (mostly Mr. Goff). …

I settled on Chemistry as a major and got selected by my department faculty for the Outstanding Senior Award. I also really enjoyed the teaching opportunities that my department faculty let me engage in. Over the past couple of years, I have had opportunities to lecture for freshman chemistry courses, TA for several different teaching labs, and was put in charge of the undergraduate TAs that we used for several of our courses.”  Future plans: “Starting this fall and for the next four-to-five years, I will be spending time all over the northwest while I work on my M.D./Master of Public Health through the University of Washington School

of Medicine, but most of the time will be spent in Seattle.

For this summer break, I will be traveling between Montana, California, Texas, and Florida visiting family (last summer off before the grind hits in med school).

As far as medicine goes, I am at that point where everything I try is new and exciting, so I am having a hard time pinning down any fields that really stand out as something I might want to do. I have my EMT-Basic and have spent a lot of time in ERs and on ambulances, so emergency medicine is something that appeals to me. But I also love longterm patient care, pediatrics, oncology, cardiology, and just about everything else.”

’07 JAMES MOON  Columbia, 2011  Worked at the Columbia Medical Center for a year  Next year will attend a medical school in New York (not sure which one yet)  Lives in New York City  Future plans: “For the next 10 years, I will be in medical training. Right now I am taking time to travel before med school starts.

I am currently in Oslo and will travel all over Scandinavia.” ©

ultimately it will be this approach that will allow students to be their best selves. This commitment to individual development does not mean, however, that students have complete free rein over the design of their own curriculum. As a high school, Loomis has an obligation to ensure that our students have a solid grounding across the curriculum and are prepared for college and for life.

In the 1920s students had a choice of four different tracks. Boys and girls had the option of (separate) academic tracks, or boys could opt for either an agricultural or a business track while girls could alternatively opt for domestic science. Today we have only an academic track wherein students must meet diploma requirements in math, English, history, language, science, art, and philosophy, psychology, and religion courses and undertake a rigorous homework and assignment schedule. They are held accountable for understanding a body of knowledge and for developing a set of skills including the attainment of English proficiency, mathematical literacy, and comprehension of a second language.

While mandating breadth, our curriculum also encourages students to develop depth in a particular area. Junior and senior students can concentrate their studies depending on their particular aptitudes or interests with a robust set of electives in almost all the disciplines including science, history, and the arts. In addition, next year, students who have a particular interest in international relations will be able to earn a certificate in Global Studies by reaching a certain level of language achievement, taking a set number of designated courses, and participating in an international study abroad program.

Whatever their interest or concentration, Loomis Chaffee students learn to work hard and to juggle multiple commitments.

Through the development of their own academic passions and interests, they develop a love of learning. And, most importantly, they learn to think for themselves, to reflect on what matters to them and why, and to express themselves effectively through written and oral means. While it happily continues to be the case that there is “no standard attitude of mind” to distinguish Loomis students, they are distinguished by the multiplicity of their talents, and we are proud to call them graduates.

loomischaffee.org | 41

LOOMIS CHAFFEE TRAVEL NOTEBOOK: CHINA AND VIETNAM

global GOING

Editors’ Note: As the global village continues to shrink, Loomis Chaffee community members travel to distant locales making new friends and gaining wider perspectives. John Patrick, a sophomore from Glastonbury, Connecticut, offers here his reflections on a March-break trip to visit his classmate in China; and Taegan Williams ’09 presents a distillation of a blog she maintained while on a recent four-month stay in Vietnam.

CHINA Sophomore John Patrick writes: “After being asked multiple times by my friend Michael Jiang to travel with him to China, I finally got the chance this spring break to partake in a 20-day adventure in which we traveled across China, visiting both the famous and not-sofamous cites of Beijing, Guilin, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong.

“Arriving in Beijing on March 8, we were immediately met by Mrs. Wei, mother of Loomis

sophomore Sijie Wei, whose family took us in for four days in Beijing. Not only did Sijie’s family allow us to stay at their house, but they also showed us around almost every part of Beijing, allowing us to see and experience the culture. While in Beijing, Michael, Sijie, his family, and I visited many picturesque and famous sites, including the Great Wall of China, Summer Palace, Forbidden City, and Tiananmen Square. My favorite parts of Beijing were the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, located in the heart of the city. Being able to stand on the balcony of the gates leading into the Forbidden Palace, next to the exact place where Mao addressed thousands of Chinese citizens, and look out over the entire Forbidden City was very special. Not only was the view amazing, but also the feeling of being in the place where so many historic and life-changing events happened was indescribable.

“After Beijing, Mike and I traveled to Guangzhou, located on the coast of southern China. Mike lives in Guangzhou,

Sophomore John Patrick and classmate Michael Jiang explore Michael’s home city, Guangzhou.

the third-largest city in China and one of the most important Chinese ports. Stepping out of the airport and into the warm, humid spring air, I felt as if I had entered a completely different country. Not only was Guangzhou 30 to 40 degrees warmer than Beijing, but the landscape also was incredibly different. Palm trees and bright green grass grew around us, vastly unlike the cold and arid Beijing landscape.

“Michael’s family was very hospitable, allowing me to stay in their house on Ersha Island, showing us around, and even calling upon their relatives to show us around Hong Kong. Because we were in Guangzhou for the longest stretch of our trip, Michael and I were able to travel all around the city, doing a wide variety of activities, including visiting the Guangzhou TV tower at night, one of the tallest towers in all of Asia. From the top, we were

able to see Guangzhou fully lit up and decorated due to the hosting of the Asian Games in 2010. Mike, his mom, and I visited the new and the older, more traditional parts of the city, allowing me to experience a wide variety of Chinese cultures all within one city.

“The final part of our journey included small two- to three-day trips to Hong Kong and Guilin. Located west of Guangzhou, Guilin is known for its cliff-like mountains that surround the main city and river system, creating a magnificent view. Visiting Guilin was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

It was the most magnificent and beautiful place I have ever seen. Taking a river boat ride along the Li River, Michael and I saw amazing mountains and took in the countryside.

“Hong Kong was the exact opposite of Guilin. Previously owned by the British, Hong Kong was one of the most

Tiananmen Square

42 |

Taegan Williams ’09 rows down the Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam.

number of orphans; but currently the United States does not allow its citizens to adopt from Vietnam due to child trafficking issues. It has been such a joy to be able to meet and hold some of these amazing babies and children.

westernized cities that we visited. Meeting up with one of Mike’s relatives, we were able to travel throughout Hong Kong, which is located on the cliffs near a large port. After exploring the city, we traveled to the peak of the cliffs, allowing us to see almost the whole city. Looking over all of Hong Kong, I began to realize that our trip was almost over; pretty soon I would have to go back to the United States. However, traveling to China was a great experience, and thanks to Michael’s family, Sijie’s family, and all of the people who allowed me to go, I had a great time.”

VIETNAM Taegan Williams ’09 writes: “I cannot believe that I have only two weeks left here in Ho Chi Minh City. It seems like just yesterday when I was too afraid to cross the street on my first night to get food and instead contemplated eating the jar of jelly my aunt packed me instead.

Now I can cross the street just like a local and actually enjoy meandering through the vibrant city. For the past four months I have lived here learning about the culture of Vietnam and immersing myself in this wonderful country. I have focused on Vietnamese language and studies — with a service-learning component. I was never one for languages and at first I was extremely apprehensive about studying Vietnamese, but now I am able to hold conversations and express myself. Just this past week the program took us on a tour of central Vietnam.

Sounds fun, right? But the catch was we could speak only Vietnamese for the whole week.

Let’s just say I have never in my life been at a loss for words until now.

“The service-learning component to the program is what I believe to be crucial to really immersing yourself in a country. Each student in the program holds a volunteer job here and, while I have found Vietnam to be an amazing place, you cannot ignore that it is still a very poor country.

Two times a week I take two public buses to teach English at an orphanage. I work with five young men, quick learners who enjoy chatting about soccer and computers. They already had an amazing grasp of the language when I came to work there, so a lot of my lessons are based on listening, speaking, and writing skills. I think in many ways they have taught me so much more than I have taught them.

I am not ready to say goodbye to them yet, and I will certainly try to stay in touch with them through email.

“Once a week I also go to an orphanage in Go Vap. This orphanage is much harder to work at because it is so apparent that the children here are struggling. In the intensive care ward children are fighting for their lives. Babies arrive weekly, some with deformed bodies that the Vietnamese claim to be the effects of Agent Orange. I have learned from other volunteers that, for these children, your cheerful presence makes all the difference to them. They live in the present, and even if you can help the disabled ones just walk down the hall that day, you have given them something to smile about. My experience working in the orphanages is indescribable and so personal for me. I have come to learn about a lot of social issues that Vietnam is facing, one of them being the

“One of the best parts about being here is living with a Vietnamese roommate. She has given me a more realistic and inside look into the day-to-day lives of the local Vietnamese.

Often we go out to eat at her favorite street food vendors where we sit on plastic stools, knees crammed to our chins.

She has introduced me to my new favorite dessert, a coconut milk concoction with fruit in it. I don’t think my experience here would have been nearly as amazing without her guidance and friendship.

“I have traveled much throughout the country, exploring from the Mekong Delta all the way up to Sapa. Countless local bus rides and numerous night train experiences have helped me gather fuller perspective of the country. It saddens me that Vietnam is still viewed as just a war-ridden country. There is so much more to this place than just the aftermath of the war. The history is rich and the culture is dynamic.

“I haven’t just studied abroad, I have developed a life here in Vietnam. I hope someday to return. One of the boys from the orphanage told me as I was leaving the other day, ‘Taegan, Vietnam is now your home, too.’

A week later he ran away.” ©

loomischaffee.org | 43

OBJECT LESSONS | BY KAREN PARSONS

A Passion for Puppets

J

OSEPH STOOKINS, a legendary Loomis faculty member, introduced puppets as teaching tools in the late 1930s. Intended to help students gain confidence in speaking foreign languages, the puppets brought innovation, surprisingly, not to his classroom, but to extracurricular opportunities open to all Loomis boys. While professional organizations recognized Joe for this idea, members of the Loomis Puppeteers, including Allen Hawthorne ’53, remember his “wonderful good humor and constant encouragement” that allowed talents to blossom and made learning fun.

Joe and club members fashioned the puppet heads from filler putty. Once air hardened, each head was painted and attached to a dowel with bendable wire pieces serving as arms.

Faculty wives and students sewed costumes. While the cast of puppets was reused, every now and then a new character was created for a particular script.

Each puppet required two students: one as the manipulator and the other to read lines from a script. Joe did not require boys to memorize their parts, and yet he recollected in a 1977 oral history interview that many students did just that, perhaps as a sign of their dedication.

Reginald Greene ’52 recently noted, “It was seventh heaven for me to be part of the productions” and “wholesale memorization of puppet plays, such as The City Mouse and the Country Mouse,” he recalled, have stayed with him to this day.

The Puppeteers gave shows in

44 |

Joe found inspiration for puppet theater in courses at Middlebury College’s Language School and the story of a 19th-century French puppet, Guignol.

Palmer Lounge, at meetings of local community organizations and, notably, at a number of regional modern language teaching conferences. The group performed about four shows a year, each requiring around six weeks of rehearsal.

Students performed plays in Spanish, English, and French, and translated from French into English, while live piano music accompanied the shows. Productions of scenes from plays by Molière, including Le Bourgeois gentilhomme … and Le Misanthrope make up some of Earl Canfield’s ’52 “favorite memories of Loomis.” Reg Greene remembers, “I … was recruited

by Mr. Stookins to be the Spanish voice. He knew I loved the

The puppets created under the expert guidance of revered teacher Joseph Stookins display the exaggerated characteristics, humor, and whimsy of a cherished European art form.

Photos: John Groo

sound of language, and he gave me the opportunity to experiment with it.” Al Hawthorne fondly recalls one 1890s comedic “melodrama with a mustachioed villain and a heroic Little Nell, for whom I personally provided a falsetto voice, which Mr. Stookins forever after thought to be hilarious.”

Joe found inspiration for puppet theater in courses at Middlebury College’s Language School and the story of a 19th-century French puppet, Guignol. But it was his decades of careful stewardship and “infectious enthusiasm” that transformed the Loomis Puppeteers into meaningful experience. Earl

Canfield, a four-year club member and president noted, “I can’t exaggerate how kindly and thoughtfully Joe Stookins led the effort.” Others echo this sentiment, including William Fischer ’52. He poignantly wrote in a recent email message, “ In the matter of the puppet performances, I have … no details to offer you ... What remains is my abiding respect for Mr. Stookins.” ©

ALUMNI NEWS | EDITED BY JAMES S. RUGEN ’70

1933

From Frederick L. Graham: “Am remaining vital this 79th anniversary of my graduation from Loomis doing work on education in the era of our history from our War of Independence until the end of the Washington/Jefferson era. With the Society of the Cincinnati, of which I am a former president general, we are organizing a symposium on The Intellectual Contribution of the Century of Enlightenment to our Constitution. I am the originator and an organizer of this symposium.

Eminent professors from France and America will be presenting papers. This will be held in Washington in October 2012.

The society is also launching a new educational organization called the American Revolution Institute. Its purpose will be to assure the study in our secondary schools of the American Revolutionary period and beyond. I have not overcome the loss of my wife, Anita, who was an inspiration on all matters of education. It was she who insisted on our contributions in this field, and we created the Anita and Frederick L. Graham ’33 Scholarship Fund for needy

students at Loomis to which I continue to contribute. Loomis has become a leader in secondary education. It has come a long way since my days there. Not only have its facilities greatly expanded but its programs have become broad and visionary in many fields. I consider it a privilege to support it in my modest way.”

1939

2011–12

Annual Fund

Record-breaking

Success!

Total Annual Fund Dollars – A New Record

$2,828,800

Carlos A. Richardson Jr., writes: “I am currently a ‘guest’ at a recovery facility after having had a pacemaker implanted.

Current Parents Shatter Records

From Patricia Beach Thompson: “I will be going back to Sweet Briar College for my 60th Reunion in May. I have returned every five years to this beautiful part of Virginia, and this year I’ve been asked to address the Alumnae College, an honor. My address is entitled Women of Distinction through the Ages.”

Thank you

1948

$861,175 and

87% participation to the 4,064 generous alumni, parents, and friends who contributed to the Annual Fund.

Your support helps Loomis Chaffee remain at the forefront of independent school education!

1950

James B. Didriksen sends this update: “I am still located in Dogwood Forest, Apt. 101, 7400 Peachtree Dunwoody Rd., NE, Atlanta, GA, 30328. Things are still fine here. Recently we had

loomischaffee.org/annualfund

’45

Jim Bulmer ’45 and his wife, Phyllis, visited Angkor Wat, Cambodia, in February. “Fascinating place,” he writes, “built in the 10th century and housed a million people.”

’45

Dick Murphy ’50 and his wife, Luda, flank their good friend, Borys Tarasyuk, Ukraine’s former foreign minister, at their graduate school, The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University.

loomischaffee.org | 45

ALUMNI NEWS

Ted Cowles ’51 recently led a building project sponsored by the Rotary Club of Avon-Canton, Conn. Twenty-eight Rotary volunteers constructed an 8 foot x 14 foot shed and a 10 foot x 18 foot accessible rear walkway for a handicap accessible bathroom at the Roaring Brook Nature Center. The project was finished this past spring, saving the center more than $20,000.

’51

veterans honored for Memorial Day. I still take lessons in voice and piano. I recently received 80th birthday greetings, two cakes with ‘Happy Birthday, Jim’ on them. It was a most splendid occasion.”

“Luda and I continue to lead active lives at our retirement community, Leisure World of Maryland, in Silver Spring, Md.,” reports Dick Murphy.

“Earlier this year, we took a 12day cruise to the Caribbean from Baltimore and spent two weeks, for the fourth consecutive year, at Seahorse Beach Resort, which is right on the Gulf of Mexico in Longboat Key, Fla. While there, we partook of some of the rich cultural offerings in nearby Sarasota.”

1951

Bill Clark writes: “Sorry I will miss Reunion this year; it conflicts with a two-week trip Sue and I are taking to Paris and Normandy. However, we shall certainly try to make it in future years, assuming our health permits it.”

John Voorhies has been teaching general chemistry as an adjunct at the University of Connecticut Stamford campus.

“Young people 18–35 are coming in droves, many with degrees to prepare for work in the medical/ health field,” he writes.

1952

Michael Altschuler writes: “Cora and I are delighted to announce the birth of our grandson, Joshua Louis Hausman, April 23. Joshua lives with our daughter, Debra Altschuler; her husband, Eric Hausman; and big sister Emma, 7, in Minnetonka, 46 |

’50 THE JOURNEY TO 80!

N

INE members of the Chaffee Class of 1950 — (standing) Carol Lee Blake Joslin, Margaret Hansen Sparrow, Sally Schaffer Martin, Penelope Beach Chittenden, Sarah Snelling Powers, and Marianne Morrell-Schumann; and (seated) Barbara Bair Kosty, Elizabeth Barber Dougherty, and F. Evelyn Smith — celebrate their 80th birthdays on Reunion Weekend.

On their cake is a miniature Little Engine That Could. Initiator of the celebration, Evie explains: “In one of our first weeks as freshmen at Chaffee, English teacher Dodie Britton said, ‘You can do it if you want to do it.’ Recalling the childhood book, that noon all 16 of us ‘played train’ as we hitched the wooden desk chairs in a Sill House classroom, forming a train, and traveled around the room, chanting, ‘I think I can, I think I can.’ Suddenly Latin teacher Barbara Erickson entered the room and chided, ‘Do you girls know what you are doing to these wonderful antique wooden floors?’

It had not crossed our minds. Four years later, the theme of our yearbook was a journey by train making stops along the way.

At our 75th birthday celebration, a train engine and the inscription ‘We knew we could do it’ decorated the cake. This year the inscription reads, ‘Yes, we can, we know we can!’ ”

Minn. In the small world category, Emma is finishing first grade at the Blake School. We recently attended a retirement celebration for Head of School John Gulla, who is leaving after 14 years. Mr. Gulla’s mentor at Amherst was our own John Ratté. He also reminded us that teachers from our era later moved to Blake; Jim Henderson became headmaster, and he brought Ollie Campeau to that school. In other news, Cora and four of her Simmons College classmates recently spent four days in New Orleans with their husbands. We’ve been holding these mini-reunions annually for the past six or seven years.

On our first day, we took a city tour and were joined by Mike

Carey, who provided his own personal background on the city where he and his wife, Betty, have lived since 1970.”

1954

“I’m gradually crossing great train journeys off my to-do list,” reports Jim Loomis. “Summer 2011 it was Moscow to Beijing via Mongolia and Siberia. Quite amazing. Who would have imagined sitting in a magnificent concert hall in Siberia and listening to a Mongolian tenor performing an aria by Puccini?

The third edition of my book, All Aboard—The Complete North American Travel Guide, has been out for a year and was updated from previous editions to reflect the changes in rail travel that

have occurred over the past decade. During that time, I became active in the National Association of Railroad Passengers, a nonpartisan, nonprofit, Washington-based organization advocating more and better and faster trains, and I was recently elected to NARP’s board of directors. During a recent trip to the East Coast for a NARP meeting, I took Amtrak’s Downeaster from Boston up to Portland, Maine, and had lunch with our classmate, Peter Parnall.”

1955

Gary R. Gates writes: “Help, classmates and all other alumni off the Island for 50 years or longer. Our 50 Plus Newsletter is changing hands, and Paul Young ’39 has left some very big, esteemed shoes to fill. As you will note in the next edition of the newsletter, I have agreed to give it a try as editor. Please send in any and all submissions. I do need your help to fill the pages and keep you all informed about the goings on of your classmates.

You must be doing something you enjoy, so please share. Marilyn and I continue to be busy with Lions (Somehow I now find myself as first vice president; when I was in Kiwanis and was president, I said ‘Enough.’ Here I am again, but we have a great club.) and other worthy tasks around our growing little town out on the North Shore of Lake Travis (Leander, Texas). Come by sometime and see why we

Chaffee ’59

feel we have found a wonderful place to spend the golden (?) years.”

Editors’ Note: We encourage all 50th Plus alumni to continue to submit news to the magazine as well as to the newsletter. Your lives, activities, and accomplishments are of interest to the entire readership.

Marcia Coleman Cooper ’59 (left) writes: “While in Stanford, Calif., where John was giving lectures in January, I was able to see Janet Adams Rebling ’59. It was great to catch up with an old and treasured friend. She introduced me to John at the Madison Beach Hotel, where they were both working in 1961!”

prior to high school graduation in 2011 and is attending Mass Bay Community College. I have been so impressed with the Bob Keller sends this wonderful success of the program that I update: “I retired in 2004 and at joined the Mazie Board in 2009 about that time found the Mazie to help with fundraising and Foundation (www.mazie.org) other board duties. (If anyone is on the Internet. The foundation interested in the Mazie probegan a mentoring program gram, please contact me.) I am for students at-risk at Framingplanning to start with another ham H.S. in 1998. The program mentee at Waltham H.S. next requires a mentor to start fall. The program, so successful working with an at-risk student in Framingham, is being replifrom sophomore year through cated in Waltham Mass., a city graduation, a commitment of that has similar demographics two-and-a-half to three years. to Framingham. I have also been The Mazie program includes a involved with the All Newton series of requirements and reMusic School, a fine 100-yearwards for successful completion old community music school including a free (to the mentee) in Newton, Mass. I was on the laptop at the end of junior year school board in the ’80s and and a $500/year scholarship for ’90s, and president of the board, students in good standing at col- 2004–08. During my tenure, the lege or another post secondary school began a capital campaign school academic or vocational to pay for the much-needed renprogram. Mentors are not tutors ovation of the school building, a — mentors are required to spend beautiful Victorian mansion in about eight hours a month with West Newton. Renovation is gotheir mentees going to museing on and expected to be comums, sporting events, biking, or pleted in 2014. The school has just talking. I helped my mentee a teaching staff of about 70 and through the college application is particularly strong in piano process including financial aid and strings. My wife, Barbara, applications, visits to college, and I are completing our 36th and other activities centered year singing with the Newton around the college application Choral Society. (Frank House process. Often parents don’t got me started as a member of have the knowledge or time to the Loomis Glee Club). We sing do this. My first mentee is now three classical music concerts a senior at Framingham State a year and will be performing University. I started with anan all-Bach concert this May, other Framingham H.S. at-risk including two cantatas and a student in 2009. He successfully motet. Boston is a great music completed the Mazie program

BOOK

CLUB

SAVE THE DATE Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Discussion Leader: Head of School Sheila Culbert Book: TBD Location: Head’s House

Participants at the May Chaffee Book Club included (standing) Miriam “Mims” Brooks Butterworth ’36, Kate Butterworth De Valdez ’67, Head of the History Department Molly Pond, Evelyn Smith ’50, Sally Hoskins O’Brien ’55, Martha Ritter ’66, Florence Ransom Schroeter ’71, sophomore Hyunjoo “Harriet” Cho, Anne Schneider McNulty ’72, Gracie Caligiuri, LC history teacher Lori Caligiuri, Elaine Title Lowengard ’46, Priscilla Ransom Marks ’66; and (sitting) Arline Doxsee Herriott ’46, Alice Smith Custer ’45, Carol “Sue” Fisher Shepard ’62, Susan Seymour Reinhart ’60, Mary Ellsworth Ransom ’40, and Frances Woods ’44.

city, and I get to a lot of concerts at Jordan Hall, Symphony Hall, and Sanders Theater as well as many church venues including our own chorus performances.

I am still going to school — attending Brandeis Osher Living and Learning Institute. We have no academic professors — we (mostly retired folks) teach each other. I have taken a number of government and literature courses and have taught an introduction to choral music course for the last two years.

Us old folks take these courses seriously — organizing a course is a time-consuming effort. I do a lot of biking and walking, chasing my dog around nearby golf courses and conservation land.

We also try to take at least one two-week trip a year. We have one grandson — my daughter’s family is only two hours from our home in Weston. Our son lives in Denver. Best wishes.”

1957

Bob Beizer retired as general counsel for Gray Television in March. He was named to the board of the National Philharmonic Orchestra, and he looks forward to more travel and golf and tennis at his vacation home in Savannah.

Marilyn Sharp Davidson and Charles Fidlar enjoy their lovely town of Norfolk, Conn., but they miss having Dorothy Smith Pam and her husband, Bob, living “up the street.”

1958

Advanced Placement Economics and Applied Economics students on the Island enjoyed the May 24 visit from guest lecturer and former CEO Jack Schofield, who hadn’t visited campus since his 50th Reunion in 2008. During his time with the two classes, Jack shared some of the challenges he confronted during his career.

He was the president of United Technologies International from 1989 to 1992, and the CEO of Airbus North America for nearly a decade. Faculty member Alec McCandless was thrilled to have Jack speak to his class. “The students in both classes loved Jack’s witty and informative talk with them,” he remarked. “I think they most appreciated his stories, some of them funny, some of them slightly tragic, of his experiences in business — his tales of good leadership (and bad), of cultural differences and lessons learned, and his thoughts on the value of a Loomis Chaffee education and how to get started on a career in business.” Referloomischaffee.org | 47

Remember

Loomis Chaffee

“ Several years ago I decided to

make provisions in my estate plan for those charities and institutions that advanced the work I deem most important. Loomis Chaffee easily made the list. Loomis Chaffee efficiently delivers a critical service and delivers it with the highest quality. Because prior donors and benefactors had provided generously for Loomis, it had the capacity to benefit me.

By adding to its resources, I hope to ensure that Loomis Chaffee has the capacity to benefit future generations.

John Metcalf Taylor Society

”

— Richard J. Osborne ’69 The John Metcalf Taylor Society honors more than 550 alumni, parents, and friends who have remembered Loomis Chaffee in their estate plans through charitable bequests, trusts, or other provisions.

To join Rich in the John Metcalf Taylor Society or to learn more about establishing your own Loomis Chaffee legacy by creating an endowed fund or scholarship through your estate plans, please contact Director of Development Timothy G. Struthers ’85 at 860.687.6221 or tim_struthers@loomis.org.

Scan the QR code to connect instantly to the Loomis Chaffee Gift Planning page, or go to www.loomischaffee.org/giftplanning.

48 |

Rich Osborne ’69 lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, and is a retired executive at Duke Energy.

’62

’61

Two Harbors Press has recently released a novel by Gahan “Dave” Hanmer ’61.

The Kingdom on the Edge of Reality is an exciting and romantic adventure that takes place in a medieval kingdom that has been created by an eccentric multimillionaire in an isolated river valley in the Canadian wilderness.

For more information, see: www. thekingdomontheedgeofreality.com.

encing his Loomis years, Jack recounted how the many hours of homework and vast amount of reading had been excellent preparation for university and beyond. He suggested to the seniors that it was more critical today than in his time to think ahead about a major and/or master’s degree in preparation for a career. He talked about leadership as the key ingredient to a successful corporate career and underscored the importance of treating everyone with dignity.

1960

Marshall Hoke writes from Alberta: “April 23 — the ice is going out of the McLeod River in front of our house. It was a great winter of cross-country skiing locally and back-country skiing in the mountains. Our first grandson, Cedar Hoke, was born on the coast in November. We just came back from a week’s visit there, in Pemberton, B.C. Now, we’re off to Mexico for three weeks wandering in the Oaxaca area.

We welcome visits and contacts from all with Loomis Chaffee connections.”

“Best summer ever! Represented NBA players union in negotiations and litigation with

REUNION 2012: CHAFFEE CLASS OF 1962 – 50TH REUNION

Back row: Suzanne “Suzy” Sharp, Joan Hartnett Ottaway, Alison Schuchard Forbes, Margaret “Peggy” Stitt Boehm, Rosemary Adams, Jeanne Robertson Bonaca, Linda Judd Brondsted, Ann-Louise Sticklor Shapiro, Susan Bourne Lukens, and Carol “Sue” Fisher Shepard; front row: Carolyn Cook Stremlau, Rachel Pomeroy Feher, Ingrid Backman, Barbara “Gevene” Brown Hertz, Cynthia “Cindy” Knox, Katherine “Kathy” Bitter Phillips, and Barbara “B.J.” Brown

’62

REUNION 2012: LOOMIS CLASS OF 1962 – 50TH REUNION

Back row: Timothy Day, Robert Kopf, Paul Volpe, Paul Farren, Joseph Rosenbloom, John Bogdasarian, Vincent Dole, Lee Nolan, Denis Tippo, George Meyfarth, Perley Grimes, Stephen Burrall, Timothy Butterworth, Paul Konney, Edward Maxcy, Brian Clemow, and Peter Eddy; front row: John O’Brien, William Kronholm, Terence Bradunas, Daniel Gleason, Lawrence “Dick” Landerman, Joshua Farley, Gerald Barnard, Michael Kinney, David Willbern, Jonathan “J.J.” Smith, William Bausch, Thomas “Bopper” Hayes, and Michael Fox

NBA,” writes Lawrence Katz.

“Got to pal around with NBA stars!”

Barry O’Neal writes: “My granddaughter is now 4 1/2, and a treasure. She goes to the Phineas Bates School in Roslindale, Mass., and is in the first year of a two-year kindergarten program. Her mom, my daughter Megan, graduated from Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass., in May. We are very proud of her achievement. Son Colin still lives with

me — a blessing, if I may say so.

Despite some health issues, I soldier on. Seventy in June. Had a piece performed at church in December: Nativitie, a John Donne setting.”

1963

Tom Engel ran for Congress in the then 22nd District, spanning the considerable real estate from the Hudson River to the Finger Lakes, but the district was eliminated in the redistricting necessitated by New

York’s loss of two congressional seats following the 2010 census.

“We declared victory without firing a shot,” Tom explained, “because the [Democratic] incumbent — no doubt seeing us coming — retired at the end of January. That resulted in the district’s being eliminated. But the good news was that it was parceled out among our four freshman Republicans, all of whom I support wholeheartedly. It was a great experience and reinforced my faith in the loomischaffee.org | 49

ALUMNI NEWS

’68

American people, who have a lot of common sense and know that we can no longer, if we ever could, spend money we don’t have. With a little pro-growth leadership and an enlightened energy policy, especially as to the boon of domestic natural gas, the U.S. can redefine both its future and global politics. I’m optimistic.”

1965

Michael Bogdasarian is the author of a book, The American Civil War, a Lecture Series. A copy resides in the Katharine Brush Library.

“My favorite TV show is probably The Mentalist, reports Rob Crolius, but the two ladies on Rizzoli and Isles probably provide the best flights of fancy …”

1967

Vini Norris Exton teaches university courses via interactive video conferencing for the English and Education departments at Utah State University.

“It’s a wonderful way to live in a rural area but teach statewide,” she writes. In 2005, Vini received Instructor of the Year Award, in 2009 the Innovative Practices Award, and in 2012 the Researcher of the Year Award at Utah State University– Uintah Basin for her work with nontraditional students, paraeducators, and Native American teachers.

Jane Dewitt Torrey writes: “Retirement! I never thought that word would apply to me, but it does, and I’m excited and ready to graduate once again.

After seven years teaching special education, three years in small business, and 23 years as 50 |

a pension consultant, it’s time to try something new or just ‘live in the moment.’ So far life has been challenging, enriching, and filling with all kinds of opportunities for growth. I’m married for the second time to a wonderful guy, and we are surrounded by a busy, blended family: four children, three spouses/ partners, and two grandchildren. Here’s a real news blast: About half my class will be returning to Reunion. We have been chatting like crazy about the ‘old days’ in two or three email streams. While our band of 15 might not take the campus by storm, we will be there in force. Look for us.”

’65

1968

Gerry Cohen writes: “Brian Rooney ’70 wrote a great blog piece in The Huffington Post about a speech on campus by Saul Alinsky in 1968.” Brian’s piece brought back a lot of memories for a number of alums who remember Alinsky’s visit to the Island. Brian’s piece is available at www.huffingtonpost. com/brian-rooney/saul-alinskynewt-gingrich_b_1264039.html.

1969

News from Carol Coe Fowler: “I continue to work as a medical director for Hospice and Palliative Care of Western Colorado.

The work is profoundly rewarding. Spouse, Fred, works way too hard! Our family is growing — and growing up. Meg, 26, is marrying Derek Vigil in August; they will continue to reside in Berkeley, Calif., where she is a research assistant and he is a graduate student. Helen, 23, is almost finished with her undergraduate degree at Colorado

Inspired by a piece in The Huffington Post

by Brian Rooney ’70, Gerry Cohen ’68 sent in this photograph that he had taken of Saul Alinsky, the Chicago-born noted community organizer, speaking at Loomis in 1968.

’75

One-third of the 1965 Pelicans gather at the Bigelow home in Vermont: (front) Nancy Bigelow and George Katz ’65; (back) Rick Frese ’65, Bayard “Bud” Bigelow ’65, and Don Berns ’65.

Bob Bannon ’75 poses near the Loomis Chaffee softball field on Easter weekend with his youngest daughter, Shelby, who recently completed her freshman year on the Island, and his oldest daughter, Madison, who is studying veterinary medicine. Bob writes: “My wife, Lisa, and I were nervously excited to drop Shelby off at LC last fall. Shelby has two brothers: Quinn, Trinity College ’09, who works in the family business at County Line Motors, and Shane, Yale ’11, who is in the NFL, playing for the Kansas City Chiefs. I’ve enjoyed sneak peaks and conversations with many alums and teachers on Facebook.”

Mathematician and author Steven Strogatz ’76 joins the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Photo: John Groo

’76

’77

Mesa University. Andrew, 21 in June, completed his sophomore year at Regis University in Colorado and plans to study in London in September. We are so thankful for the blessings of family and good friends!”

Win Quayle recently had the pleasure of playing the horn part in Brahms’ Variations on a Theme by Haydn with his community orchestra. It made him recall studying the piece with the late Aaron P. Pratt Jr. ’35 in a music course at Loomis.

1970

Bob Kieckhefer is a geophysical specialist working for Chevron in Lagos, Nigeria. In his pursuit of balance between work and life, he won three swimming medals in the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Games last February.

1971

“It was a joy to see so many classmates at our 40th Reunion!” writes Julia Ferguson Hulslander.

1974

John Ritter was recently voted to the board of trustees of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Springfield, Mass.

John writes: “Since my basketball career at Loomis Chaffee and Macalester College was never going to get me inducted, this is the next best thing. I’m still playing twice a week.”

1975

David Brickman sends this news from upstate New York: “Having recently completed an M.B.A. at The College of Saint Rose (with an emphasis on accounting and nonprofit

management), I now work for the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance.

One of the best things about my job is that I can ride a bike there — I love to leave the car in the driveway. This is my third career, after long runs at art and journalism, and I hope it will be my last; I’m planning to get into audit, once I qualify. The M.B.A. training really comes in handy in my work on the board of a regional nonprofit art gallery, where hands-on management and fundraising are regular volunteer responsibilities. It’s hard work but very satisfying to help keep a wonderful cultural resource going in these tough times. I also plan to eventually resume making my own pictures soon, after a three-year layoff from that activity. My wife, Karen, continues to thrive in her full-time massage therapy practice, which is her second career after arts management; for fun, she cooks like a pro — and I wash a lot of dishes. Our three cats, all rescued strays, have it made living with us. I’ve taken up basketball late in life, and my team has won back-toback championships in a local over-50 league, where I lead the division in three-pointers made each of the last two years.

My eye for photography turned out to be pretty good when it comes to the long-range shot at the hoop. If only I could learn to dribble! Maybe it’s not too late to consult with ex-coach Walter Rabetz, whose hoops expertise passed me by at LC. We do see each other from time to time now that he and Marilyn live in New York State. They are still amazing. Karen and I also keep in touch with Christopher and Betsey Knettell Francklyn,

Deborah Baker ’77 is the author of The Convert, a finalist for the National Book Award. Photo credit: Julienne Schaer

whom we’ve visited in Burlington, Vt. Their daughter, Rachel, is extremely bright and interesting, and very happy at Northfield Mount Hermon, last I heard. Would welcome messages (david@brickmanphoto.com) or visits from fellow alumni. Just two more years to our 40th!”

1976

Steven Strogatz was among the 220 new members recently elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Each year, the academy recognizes some of the world’s most accomplished scholars, scientists, writers, artists, and civic, corporate, and philanthropic leaders. The 2012 class includes such luminaries as Hillary Rodham Clinton, Tyler Jacks, André Previn, and Melinda F. Gates. Steve, a mathematician whose work focuses on nonlinear dynamics and complex systems, is the Jacob Gould Schurman professor of Applied Mathematics at Cornell University. He holds a joint appointment in the College of Arts and Sciences (Department of Mathematics) and the College of Engineering (Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering). He is the author of the bestselling book, Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order, published in 2003.

His critically-acclaimed book, The Calculus of Friendship: What a Teacher and a Student Learned about Life While Corresponding about Math, chronicles his remarkable relationship with Loomis Chaffee math teacher Donald M. Joffray. The

book comprises more than 200 letters exchanged between the two over more than 30 years.

One of the nation’s most prestigious honorary societies, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences is also a leading center for independent policy research.

Members contribute to academy publications and studies of science and technology policy, energy and global security, social policy and American institutions, the humanities and culture, and education. The new class will be inducted at a ceremony in October at the Academy’s headquarters in Cambridge, Mass.

1977

Biographer Deborah Baker is the author of The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism, a 2011 National Book Award Finalist and a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year. Deborah examines the life of Margaret Marcus, an American who, as Maryam Jameelah, became one of the preeminent voices of Islamic revivalism in the early 1960s. Raised in Westchester County, N.Y., she abandoned her country and her Jewish faith, converted to Islam, and led a life of exile in Pakistan.

From Kirkus Reviews: “[Baker] opens the door to the vital questions of how radical Islam has impacted the world, and what part converts such as [Maryam] Jameelah have played … An important, searing, highly readable, and timely narrative.”

“Greetings! I am well and living in Manitou Springs, Colo., with my girlfriend, Jackie, and Busters, our wonderful Lhasa loomischaffee.org | 51

ALUMNI NEWS

’82 ’78

Apso terrier mix,” reports Andrew Gibian.

“I am general manager for Qdoba Mexican Grill and loving it! I am not able to make the reunion this summer, but will send positive vibes to all there. Take care and peace.”

Janet Schaefer is working for a pharmaceutical company, Sanofi, where she is a clinical diabetes educator and dietitian. She is responsible for all of Connecticut and Western Massachusetts, providing diabetes education to doctors’ offices, clinics, and their patients. She also teaches staff in longterm care facilities. Janet reports: “Having spent the first 15 years of my career working in finance and real estate, I am finding the career change to be rewarding.”

1978

Alice Blondin Carman opened her own art studio in Overland Park, Kan., last summer.

Her most up-to-date paintings can be found on her Facebook page, Alice Carman Studio.

Kimberly Roe Nowik visited Connecticut to attend the wedding of Pam Proulx and Craig Rutkowski. She has also been in touch with Lesly Michals ’80. Kim writes: “I can’t believe how time has flown, but we all still feel that our time at Loomis Chaffee was experienced yesterday. Anyone living in or visiting my area in Texas is welcome to come visit. I’d love to hear from alumni.”

1983

Matt Rowe and his wife, Evelyne, continue to reside in Guilford, Conn. Matt works in the medical device industry, and Evelyne has started a garden design business. Their children, Nina and Nelson, are full-time college students.

Johan Westenburg has completed his master’s degree in economics at Vanderbilt and is currently finishing his translation of Making Money: The Free Market and Utopia

by Hans Achterhuis, the Dutch philosopher. Johan and Machteld own an old townhouse in the heart of Oostende, Belgium.

52 |

Kimberly Roe Nowik ’78 has lived in Texas for six years and loves the warm weather. She owns Half Moon Ranch, a horse breeding and boarding facility in Bandera, and she recently opened the Half Moon Ranch Old West Emporium, a saddle, tack, and custom leather goods store in Kerrville. Kim also includes her custom-painted furnishings, jewelry, cowgirl clothing, and gifts. After four months, the store is thriving and becoming a destination for locals and travelers in the beautiful hill country.

1985

Sally Spencer-Thomas was recently honored by Denver University, where she received her doctorate in psychology. For her work in suicide prevention, she has been designated a “Master Scholar.” As a clinical psychologist, mental health advocate, faculty member, and survivor of her brother’s (Carson J. Spencer ’88) suicide, she sees the issues of mental health promotion and suicide prevention from a number of vantage points. Sally is the co-founder and chief executive officer of the Carson J. Spencer Foundation, a Colorado-based nonprofit organization with a mission to “sustain a passion for life” through suicide prevention, social entrepreneurship, and support for people bereaved by suicide. She has held leadership positions with the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, a program of the Suicide Prevention Resource Center, and the American Association of Suicidology. As a professional speaker for CAMPUSPEAK, she travels around the nation talking with college students and staff about leadership, suicide prevention, and how to give the simple gift of reaching out.

1986

Scott Barnard is an independent consultant in the medical device industry. He enjoys living in Sherborn, Mass., with his wife and two boys, 11 and 13.

Michael Rinaldi writes: “I have now lived in Charlotte, N.C., for the past 10 years after a number of years of training in New York City and Boston. My wife, Mariangela, and I have three children: Christopher, 11; Sofia,

’83 Pauline Chen ’82 and Bill Flanagan ’87 and their families recently enjoyed a reunion at the Flanagan home in Auriol, France. Bill’s son Liam took this photograph: (top) Woody Halsey (Pauline’s husband); (middle) Pauline, Bill, and Bill’s wife, Tavi; (front) Natalie and Isabelle (Pauline and Woody’s twins), and Aidan and Roan Flanagan.

Greg Foley ’83 joined an expedition that climbed Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro (19,340 feet), the highest point in Africa, last January. He attained the summit via a 9-day trek on the Western Breach route. Greg is editorin-chief of the Idaho Mountain Express newspaper, Sun Valley, Idaho, voted last fall by the National Newspaper Association as the second-best large non-daily in the U.S. Greg’s essay about the Africa climb can be read at: www. mtexpress.com/story_printer.php?ID=2005140789.

9; and Nicholas, 5. I work as an interventional cardiologist at Carolinas Medical Center, the flagship hospital for the second largest not-for-profit health care system in the U.S., and serve as director of clinical research for the Sanger Heart and Vascular Institute, the cardiovascular service line for our system. In addition to a busy clinical schedule caring for patients and performing procedures, I am involved in a lot of new technology research including trans-catheter aortic valve replacement and percutaneous mitral valve repair, left atrial appendage occlusion, renal nerve ablation for refractory hypertension, and a number of other cardiac and vascular technologies. I do a fair amount of lecturing at conferences and recently returned from a series of debates in Saudi Arabia.”

’87

1987

“My third child and second daughter, Freya, was born May 7,” writes Jamie Kiley.

Cathryn Prince Saldinger is working on her new book about the 1945 sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, the largest maritime disaster in history. Palgrave Macmillan is the publisher.

1988

Eric J. Turner has been appointed the director of enrollment management at the Pennsylvania independent school Wyoming Seminary. His sons, Cody and Jackson, will attend the lower school; and the Turner family is excited to be part of a great school.

1990

Ellery Smith turned 40 recently, and she offers these thoughts: “I used to read this magazine and occasionally cringe as I read about people who went to the same school as I did saving the world, taking their kids out of school and sailing around the world for a year, and being masters of the financial and creative universe.

It’s fun to hear about and so cool that people are doing that stuff, so why cringe? Comparison and personal expectations: On the outside I am living my biggest nightmare as a suburban stereotype. Living in Connecticut in the same town I grew up in, married, two kids, a dog and, wait for it … driving a minivan. For some, that might be what they always wanted, but when I was in high school and imagined my future, I always thought my life would be more off the beaten path.

REUNION 2012: LOOMIS CLASS OF 1987 – 25TH REUNION

Back row: Jonah Kaplan, Brian Mitchell, Gannon “Tank” Reilly, David Whitney, Brian Thompson, Hieu Nguyen, Frederick Roberts, and David Cohen; second row: David Rickerby, Arnold “Arnie” Weiss, Katherine Allen, Leslie Hulse Stafford, Andrew Kurian, David Brooks, Kim Caldwell Loughlin, Tracy Hansen Robinson, Elizabeth “Libby” Stack Albright, and Alisa Lieberman Chestler; front row: John Bussel, Jonathan Brady, Pamela Westgate, Betsy Kalin, Mary Kate Behlke Donais, Katherine Hallas Stahl, Mary Bucksbaum Scanlan, Barnaby Horton, Matthew Goldsmith, Constance Clayton, and Caroline Zuckerman Petersen Photo: Wayne Dombkowski

Nope. Not at this stage anyway.

I’ve traveled, lived outside of New England, had adventures (having dysentery and malaria at the same time in Zimbabwe), lots of amazing experiences (witnessing a birth and a death in two different hospitals on the same day); and all in all I love my life, but as I approached 40, I was finding myself wanting to cling to the adventure and discovery and wondering what my life’s contribution would be.

A friend suggested I search for a midlife crisis. Happily married and not wanting a drug habit, I was limited in my options. My husband is already taking guitar lessons, so joining a band is more his thing. Putting flames on the side of my minivan? Getting my tattoo, which is fading like my youth, re-inked? I was contemplating my options while snuggling my younger son, when he looked up at me with his big blue eyes filled with love and said, ‘Mommy, why do you have yellow teeth?’ Instead of falling apart, I smiled. Why was I checked out in a fantasy land of trying to prove something to myself that doesn’t need to be proven when here is an awe-

some kid growing up by the day, still willing to snuggle his Mom, yellow teeth and all? I have gray hair, apparently some yellow teeth, a muffin top, and a great life. I have not written a best seller or cured cancer, but in my own more subtle ways I’ve made important contributions. I’m good with that. By the time my birthday came around, I didn’t want to rent a venue, have a huge party with 100 of my closest ‘friends’ and try to convince myself I was having fun and still had some youth.

Do I feel old and washed up?

Nope. I’m just not in my 20s or 30s anymore. I’m okay with that now. Is it lowering expectations? Maybe, but it doesn’t feel that way. It feels more like shifting from insecurity and anxiety to acceptance and gratitude. I wish all of my fellow alums well and thanks to those of you for making shows and movies that I love to watch and writing articles and books I love to read and doing the big stuff, and an equal thanks to those of you who hold the door open for people like me as I struggle to get my kids and four bags of groceries from a crowded store

’87

Kelley Westerman Edwards ’87 relaxes with daughters Colleen, 8, and Kacey, 7, and dog Brownie, 12. “Twenty-five years after graduation seems impossible!” she writes. “Life is great. I am chasing my children from softball to lacrosse to dance and music lessons, working to reduce underage drinking in Clinton, Conn., and continuing with photography of my own on the side.”

through a busy parking lot and into my minivan.”

Martin Vulliez writes: “As usual, the school alumni community is vibrant as ever in N.Y.C. Last summer, we got a guest appearance from Andras Petery, who’s married and living in California. Brett Rodriguez can be found in Bryant Park during happy hour, and Joe Rudge ’92 always comes back to his roots on the Upper East Side from Brooklyn. Also, soccer powerhouse FC Ridley, loomischaffee.org | 53

ALUMNI NEWS

captained by Nick Phillips, won one championship last summer and got to the semifinals in the fall thanks to the scoring phenom and aspiring pro golfer Ned May ’99. FC Ridley is a team, named for Nick’s son, packed with Williams College current players and recent alumni, some of whom are Loomis graduates.”

1991

David Y. Choi, a veteran trusts and estates attorney, has become a partner at Kurzman Eisenberg Corbin & Lever LLP. Admitted to the bar in New York and Connecticut, he provides sophisticated legal advice to personal clients and familyowned businesses. He is versed in estate administration and estate planning, including asset management strategies, business succession planning, and inter-generational wealth transfer. “David is a brilliant lawyer who understands the intricacies of the Internal Revenue Code,” says Jessica Galligan Goldsmith, chair of the Trusts and Estates Department at Kurzman Eisenberg Corbin & Lever.

“He is particularly skilled in tax research and excels in sophisticated planning transactions as well as very large, complex estate administrations.” David relishes the challenges of his field and notes that an advantage of working at his firm is that he is able to draw on the specialized expertise of the firm’s other partners. Prior to joining the firm in 2006, David worked at the international law firm of Withers Worldwide LLP in its New Haven office and at Day Pitney LLP in its Stamford office. David earned his bachelor’s degree at Harvard and 54 |

his law degree at Cornell. He is a member of the Connecticut, New York, and Westchester County bar associations. David lives in Stamford with his wife and three children.

1995

Kimm Buettner Lucas, her husband, Tim, and their daughters Emma and Ellie will welcome a new daughter and sister in September. Kimm continues to find her heart in her passion for teaching English to fifth graders at Graland Country School, Denver, Colo. When not grading papers or planning the latest creative endeavors on iPads for her students, she fills her time reading the latest middle school fiction to recommend to her students, hiking or skiing in the mountains depending on the season, and being mom to two delightful girls and wife to a wonderful husband.

2000

From Claudine Stuchell Emeott: “After working for a year in Kathmandu, Nepal, I recently returned to the U.S., where I joined Kiva in San Francisco as the portfolio manager for strategic initiatives.

In this capacity, I am building Kiva’s partnerships with organizations working in developing countries in high-impact sectors: clean energy, water and sanitation, innovative agriculture, higher education, ICT, and health.”

2002

Kenneth Levin graduated from medical school at Tulane in May and will remain in New Orleans for one more year for his preliminary internship in internal medicine there. He

’91

’91

Ava Erlich, 2, is excited to be a big sister to Zoe Skylar Erlich, who arrived in March. They are the children of Ellen Seitelman Erlich ’91 and Adam Erlich.

David Choi ’91, a partner at Kurzman Eisenberg Corbin & Lever, LLP, offers expert trusts and estates legal services.

Cooper Morrow ’91 and Andrew Vernon ’91 convene after a lacrosse game, May 5, in Portland, Ore. Cooper writes: “My Portland team defeated his Seattle team pretty badly, but it was a great day for a small Loomis reunion.”

Anubha Sacheti ’94 is the author of Happy, Healthy Teeth! A Guide to Children’s Dental Health. The book contains colorful photographs and easy-to-read text to engage children and families about how to care for children’s teeth, the role of healthy nutrition, and the importance of the first dental visit by age 1. The book was developed through a grant to the Massachusetts Head Start Association from the DentaQuest Foundation to address the need for accurate, science-informed oral health information to promote children’s dental health especially among children who are at a moderate-to-high risk of early childhood caries. It is the first book to be endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry in recent years.

For more information or to place an advance order for the book ($8), contact Nancy Topping-Tailby at massheadstart@ comcast.net. All proceeds go to Head Start.

writes: “I’ll then be moving on to Baltimore for my residency in ophthalmology at the Krieger Eye Institute of Sinai Hospital. I am also happy to announce that my wife and I are expecting our first child in October!”

2003

Leonard Borriello shares this update: “After Loomis Chaffee, I went to Drexel University.

’91

’94

After my first term, I took time off and enlisted in the U.S. Navy where I was an engineering honor graduate and received early promotions up to third class petty officer. I was training to be a Navy SEAL but got injured, had surgery, and was sent back to Drexel. I am double majoring in marketing and legal studies, with a minor in paralegal studies, and I am graduating summa cum laude

LACROSSE REUNION

A

unique Loomis Chaffee lacrosse reunion took place this past spring at Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, N.H. On adjacent fields, John Adams ’05 coached the Dublin (N.H.) School’s boys lacrosse team against Kimball Union’s JV team, and Andrew Syfu ’01 and former LC lacrosse coach Christopher Deitrich coached the WillistonNorthampton varsity boys team against Kimball Union’s varsity, coached by Eric Russman ’87 and former LC lacrosse coach James “Grim” Wilson.

’95

Grim, who retired from Loomis in 2008 after 49 years as teacher, coach, and dorm head, had this to say about John’s young Dublin team: “They were remarkable. Rarely have I seen a bunch of young men work so hard and be so supportive of each other, and they are learning the game the right way. And the instructions and encouragement from John and from others rang a familiar bell. These young men, mostly beginners, are in great hands at Dublin.”

As a four-year mentor to John at Loomis, Grim influenced John’s interest in teaching and coaching at the prep-school level. John’s passion and expertise for the game of lacrosse draws a direct correlation to the tutelage he received under Grim’s trained eye.

On the adjacent field, Grim worked the sidelines as an assistant coach to Eric, his former

’95 ’00

Kimm Buettner Lucas ’95, husband Tim, and daughters Emma and Ellie enjoy the spectacular Colorado scenery.

Sala James ’95 and Edward J. Kirkland ’97 are pleased to announce their engagement. They reconnected after 15 years, in Washington, D.C. They plan a New Year’s Eve wedding.

Victoria Hougham ’00 and Hayden Cook were married at the Arts Club of Washington, in the District of Columbia, September 4, 2011.

’00

Former roommates Mike LaBombard ’00 and Will Murtha ’00 scaled Maine’s highest peak, Mt. Katahdin, last summer. Will writes: “We felt pretty macho scrambling up one of its toughest trails … that is, until a family with small children came bounding up on our heels.”

’01

Loomis Chaffee Trustee Amy Edwards Sparks ’01 and her husband, Sean, welcomed their daughter, Mackenzie L. Sparks, September 27, 2011.

Former LC admission associate Christopher Dietrich, Andrew Syfu ’01, former faculty member James “Grim” Wilson, and Eric Russman ’87 reunite at Kimball Union Academy.

player in both ice hockey and lacrosse. And on the other side of the field stood Andrew, a former midfield great for Loomis lacrosse, and his assistant coach, Chris, who previously coached with Grim at Loomis and worked in the LC Office of Admission.

“We had some great teams during those years,” Grim said. “It was a wonderful reunion and especially exciting to see Syf, John, and Eric doing such a terrific job as teachers, mentors, and coaches of these young studentathletes. I wonder if the players realize how lucky they are.”

The games themselves were wonderful as well, according to Grim. Kimball Union’s JV defeated Dublin 11–7, and Kimball Union’s varsity team inched out an 8–6 victory in the final period over Williston.

with distinction in honors from LeBow College of Business this June. Upon graduation, I will be entering into JPMorgan Chase’s two-year management rotation program that will send me through their finance, operations, and marketing departments. On another note, I was recently cast as a contestant for NBC’s second season of Love in the Wild, which will be airing this summer; currently, I am working with a creative director to be a new face for Hugo Boss.”

2004

Zoe Mindell enjoys her career in the rare book trade; she works at The Philadelphia Rare Books & Manuscripts Company. She was recently interviewed by Fine Books & Collections Magazine Online in a continuing series of profiles of the rising generation of antiquarian booksellers (www.finebooksmagazine. com/fine_books_blog/2012/04 bright-youngthings-zoe-mindell.phtml).

loomischaffee.org | 55

ALUMNI NEWS

’08

2005

Team captain Michael Jacobson led the Harvard Law School World Trade Organization moot court team to the North America regional championship at the European Law Students’ Association Moot Court Competition on WTO Law, March 3.

The competition was held at American University Washington College of Law, Washington, D.C. This was the first time that a team from Harvard Law School has competed. Other members of the team were Danielle Bart, Ashley Chung, and Chris Yap. They will now compete in the global finals in Montpellier, France. The Harvard team was formed by Michael last summer. Preparation included writing briefs for both the complainant and respondent sides of the case, requiring significant research on WTO case law and scholarly writings on the issues. The team met several times a week to prepare for oral arguments. The regional final was judged by a panel of five trade experts. In addition to placing first overall, the team won awards for the best overall written submission and best complainant brief.

Michael and his teammate Danielle Bart tied for best orator in the preliminary rounds, and their teammate Chris Yap won best orator in the semifinal and final rounds.

2008

Nicholas Angelides recently graduated cum laude from Rutgers and was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Society. He writes: “I double-majored in linguistics and English, with a minor in sociology. I was a four56 |

year letterman on the men’s varsity crew team, and captain in my senior year. I also founded and was president (2010–11) of the university triathlon team. For more than a year, I’ve worked as an intermediary between the Athletic Department and Athlete Ally, an NPO working to create within athletics, particularly collegiate, a recognized safe space for LGBT athletes and their allies. (I am particularly fond of the Loomis Chaffee Athletics Department and teams, considering I was an openly gay athlete there, as well, and was met with nothing but respect and support from athletes and coaches alike.

Loomis’ attitude towards all people — gay or straight, athlete or not — endowed me with the confidence that I was able to bring to Rutgers and into my life as an athlete and an advocate.)

I’ve also been a funded research assistant at the Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science, where I’ve worked in a linguistics laboratory. Next year, I will be attending Oxford University to study for an M.St. in linguistics, concentrating in neurolinguistics. Crucially, my Loomis education provided me with a strong faith in my ability as a learner; I treasure the relationships I formed with the faculty and staff, and I’m still in contact with some of my teachers on the Island. I might make a quick visit to the LC Bookstore to buy a new Loomis crewneck; I want to represent LC properly while abroad!”

R. Miroslav Grajewski graduated May 5 with a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from the University of Connecticut–Storrs.

Rutgers graduate Nicholas Angelides ’08 (middle) is congratulated upon his induction into the Phi Beta Kappa Society, April 29. With him are his father, Michael Angelides, who graduated from Rutgers and whose Phi Beta Kappa key hangs from his pocket; his mother, Susan Horn Angelides ’85; his sister, Rikki Arkin; and Brett Donovan.

Lauren Ionta ’08 and Holly Hanbury-Brown ’08 graduated together from Santa Clara University, June 16.

Leila Belmahi ’09 addresses 30,000 people at the Boston University Commencement, May 20. A philosophy major, she graduated one year early and served as student class speaker.

’08

’09

In his final season, Matt Livingston was named the Liberty League Defensive Performer of the Week in Union College men’s lacrosse. The 6-foot, 5-inch senior from Concord, Mass., served as a team captain, also maintaining a 3.5 cumulative GPA. His 2012 stats included two picked-up ground balls and five caused turnovers in a game versus Cortland.

He has 19 ground balls and leads the team with 19 caused turnovers. In 2011 Matt started all 18 games for the Dutchmen and recorded 41 ground balls. In his sophomore year, he played

in 10 games while starting one and registering one assist while collecting 14 ground balls. As a freshman, Matt started one out of six games that he played, recording a shot on goal percentage of .500.

2009

Garret Wilkes is a senior at Colgate University, majoring in fine arts and minoring in film and media studies. He is musical director of The Colgate Resolutions, a coed a cappella group.

2010

Danielle Coombe is a sophomore choral/general music education major with a minor in music history at Syracuse University’s Setnor School of Music and School of Education. During her four years at Loomis, she impressed her audiences with her powerful voice at many school events and was a member of Concert Choir, Chamber Singers, Step Team, Musical Revue, the varsity swimming and water polo teams, and was co-president of PRISM. She is currently a member of the Syracuse University Singers, the 40-member premier choral ensemble, as well as the 30-member Hendricks Chapel Choir, both of which required an audition for selection.

Danielle is also a proud member of the Pride of the Orange: the Syracuse University Marching Band, playing alto saxophone.

She recently studied abroad at the Conservatory of Music in Strasbourg, France, and was selected to join La Choeur d’Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, performing William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast with the orchestra in May before her return to the States. She’s a Dean’s List student and has been inducted into two national honor organizations: Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Fraternity and The National Society for Collegiate Scholars. Danielle is a sister and vice president of ritual of the women’s music fraternity, Sigma Alpha Iota. Although she acknowledges that she has become quite the superfan of Syracuse’s Otto the Orange, there is no doubt that the Loomis Chaffee Pelican will always hold a very special place in her heart.

LLING CA A S AV E L L

T H P E L I CA N S E DA TE!

Homecoming 2012 Saturday, September 22 Show your school spirit and head back to the Island.

Join fellow alumni, faculty, and current students for a pre-game BBQ lunch on the Quad.

Root for fall athletics teams as Loomis Chaffee takes on Andover in: • Boys and Girls Soccer • Field Hockey • Girls Volleyball • Football Stay tuned to the school’s website for Homecoming activities and events: loomischaffee.org/alumni Chris Lee has been selected to participate this summer in Unite for Sight, an organization dedicated to preventing blindness around the world. He will work with ophthalmologists and residents in rural villages in Ghana. Chris, a student at Williams, has a particular connection to Ghana, where he

has worked previously with his uncle and his uncle’s nonprofit organization, Project Healthy Children. Chris has raised money to help defray the costs of projected eye surgeries on the mission. He will register patients, help with eye exams, and observe many surgical procedures.

’10 Danielle Coombe ’10 proudly supports the Orange as a member of the Syracuse University Marching Band.

Yale shortstop Cale Hanson ’10 started all 45 games and shared the G.H. Walker, Jr., Award with senior catcher Ryan Brenner as the team’s Most Valuable Players during the 2012 season. Cale led the Bulldogs in hitting, posting a .340 batting average, while also posting team-highs in on-base percentage (.412), total hits (55), walks (19), and stolen bases (11). He also recorded a streak of 34 straight games in which he reached base, the longest such streak in the Ivy League this past season.

’10

Viet Phuong “VP” Dao ’11 was recently named a recipient of the prestigious Carroll Fellows Initiative at Georgetown University, where he has completed his freshman year in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. The CFI was established in 1997 as the university’s flagship opportunity for its most academically talented and ambitious undergraduates.

’11

2011

Anisa Knox was recently selected to participate in the prestigious Princeton in Beijing program. Known for its academic rigor and enforced language pledge, the program offers Anisa many opportunities to improve her speaking of Chinese. She will be studying for two months at Beijing Normal loomischaffee.org | 57

ALUMNI NEWS

Members of the Class of 2012 gather with their alumni parents and grandparents at Commencement: (back) Satchel MacClintic, William Fierston, Samuel Broda, John Jake Bosee, Joseph Niemiroski, Thomas Budd, Hannibal Hopson, and William Bogle; (middle) David Walsh ’85, David Adams ’76, Scott MacClintic ’82, Abigail Adams, Brian Fierston ’84, Mary Ellen Flannery ’89, Sharon Flannery Fierston ’82, Seth Fierston ’82, Edward L. Storrs ’51, John Bosee ’70, Joseph Niemiroski ’74, Nancy Budd ’82, Rodney Hopson ’83, William Bogle ’75, Brooke Parish ’80, Michael Anderson ’76, and Paul Socolosky ’81; front: Haley Walsh, Leslie Silverman ’86, Lindsay Silverman, Mae Stover, Susan A. Stover ’83, Elisa Barreto Pierce ’82, Samantha Pierce, Steven Pierce ’82, Zoe Cushman, Rufus Cushman ’52, Madeline Parish, Chloe Anderson, and Victoria Socolosky.

Photo: Highpoint Pictures

University and invites friends in the area to get in touch.

Kathy Yannopoulos, a freshman at Bates, was named Women’s Lacrosse NESCAC Player of the Week on March 19, by the New England Small

College Athletic Conference.

According to the Bates website, “Yannopoulos provided one of several starring performances for the Bobcats in their dominating 15–5 win over Wesleyan … The rookie attacker not only led Bates with five points, on

two goals and three assists, but also in ground balls (6). She also controlled four draws and caused one turnover to help the Bobcats pick up their first conference win … In the talentrich NESCAC, which currently boasts nine of the top 20 ranked

teams in Division III, this award can be difficult to come by. It’s only the third time Bates has ever boasted the NESCAC Player of the Week in women’s lacrosse in the award’s 12-year existence.”

JOIN THE CONVERSATION! Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+ and join nearly 1,800 alumni on our private LinkedIn group. loomischaffee.org/mashup

58 |

IN MEMORIAM

Edited by Katherine A.B. Langmaid

Howard S. Richmond ’35 1918–2012 Loomis Chaffee was saddened to learn of the death of Howard S. Richmond ’35 on May 20, 2012, at his home in Rancho Mirage, California, following a period of failing health at the age of 94.

1934 Andrew Tobias Wolfson, on April 3. Andy was a four-year student from White Plains, N.Y. He was involved in the Darwin and Political clubs, serving as secretary of the latter. He was active with the first soccer team, wrestling, and tennis. Following Loomis, Andy earned his bachelor’s degree in government from Yale University. In 1942, Andy enlisted in the wartime U.S. Air Force as a first lieutenant, working in intelligence, the Air Corps (as cartographer), the Signal Corps, and as commander of the photography lab. He met his wife, Janet Spencer, at a USO dance and they married in 1945. In his editorial career at Superior Publishers in Seattle and then in Manhattan at Henry Holt and McGraw Hill, Andy specialized in book design and information technologies. Andy was an award-winning citizen of Westport for 34 years, a community he and his wife, Janet, joined after 20 years in South Norwalk. A memorably engaged citizen, Andy was a volunteer for the Red Cross, on the board of the local Common Cause, a vital member of the Y’s Men and the congregation of the First Unitarian Church. A trouper in the Drama Club, Andy was a versatile actor, partial to the plays of G.B. Shaw and Oscar Wilde. He was devoted to senior services and a leading advocate for the founding of Westport’s Center for Senior Activities.

With his skills of articulation and the energy of ethical commitment, he served as vice chair of the Commission for Senior Services, and on the Site Committee. From hours of meet-

By Nathan Follansbee Asociate Head of School for External Relations

a particularly strong bond that weathered the McCarthy era and lasted their lifetimes. In 1969 Howie co-founded the National Academy of Popular Music and the Songwriters Hall of Fame with Johnny Mercer and Abe Olman, and in 1983 the Songwriters Hall of Fame awarded him the first Music Publisher of the Year Award.

“G

ood Vibes” they read. The letters are bright red with yellow shadows, and under them are green volume symbols of those vibrations, becoming more intensely green as they move from left to right. Howie Richmond sent two such cards to me upon learning that I had returned two summers ago to Loomis Chaffee, his and his family’s school, and they have rested visibly on my desk ever since out of my fondness and deep respect for him. A 1935 graduate from Hollis, New York, a former Trustee, and an Honorary Trustee until his passing, Howie had wonderful memories of his four years on the Island, lifelong affection for Loomis and the school that it became, and great pride in his family’s legacy at the school.

A resident of Founders in his freshman year and Warham in his sophomore, junior, and senior years, Howie was a member of the French Club, the Endowment Working Committee, the Publications Board, the Press Club, the Dramatic Club, Debating, and the Darwin Club. He held positions with The Loomiscellany and The Log, rising to president of the latter for the first half of his senior year. And he competed for Ludlow in football, basketball, and tennis before playing first soccer and tennis in his final year.

When I visited with him annually in Rancho Mirage, we would sit by the pool with misters spraying gently around us to keep us cool, and he

would tell me both serious and humorous stories about his classmates and his teachers and would listen carefully as I updated him in detail about the school’s direction, always asking thoughtful, probing questions.

After studying at the University of Pennsylvania, interning with Broadway press agent George Lottman, and serving in World War II in the Army Air Forces, Howie established his own press office, representing stars-to-be the Andrews Sisters, Larry Clinton, Woody Herman, Gene Krupa, Glenn Miller, Dinah Shore, and Frank Sinatra, and then in 1949 founded his first music publishing company with Al Brackman and Abe Olman.

Eventually named The Richmond Organization (TRO), over time the firm worked with American and international writers and musicians Lead Belly, Teresa Brewer, Woody Guthrie, Phil Harris, Bart Howard, Guy Lombardo, Bill Evans, Kurt Weill, The Weavers, The Who, Procol Harum, The Moody Blues, David Bowie, Joe Cocker, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Shel Silverstein, and Tony Newley and Leslie Bricusse.

Howie and Pete Seeger forged

As an alumnus, parent and grandparent of alumni, Trustee, and Honorary Trustee, Howie gave generously to Loomis Chaffee. The Richmond Art Center is his three-generational family’s most obvious gift to the school; however, he had substantial parts in establishing several scholarship funds and instructorships honoring John and Lou Ratté, Glover ’48 and Jane ’49 Howe, Walter and Marilyn Rabetz, Daniel ’34 and Constance Wells, Francis Grubbs, David Newton, Thomas and Mildred Finley, and Barbara and Ralph Erickson. He enjoyed recognizing and honoring faculty members who influenced him and his children positively.

Howie is survived by his sister, Shirley Gartlir; by his sons, Frank ’71, Lawrence ’72, Phill, Robert; and daughter, Trustee Elizabeth Richmond Schulman ’80; and by his grandchildren, Jason ’99, Alex, Jeremy, Caitlin, Sara, Spencer ’11, Hunter, rising junior Harrison, incoming sophomore Maddy, freshman Anita, Palmer, Olivia, and Benjamin.

In the 1935 Loomiscellany, Howie Richmond’s classmates overwhelmingly voted him “The Luckiest.” Given his life story and his family, undoubtedly Howie would concur. loomischaffee.org | 59

IN MEMORIAM ings and phone calls, yards and yards of typewriter ribbon, and letter upon letter to The Westport News, Andy could not have been prouder at the opening ceremonies in 2003 — the jewel in the crown of his devotion to Westport. Andy was a beloved and engaged resident of The Watermark in Bridgeport, Conn., for almost seven years, a regular at Gallery lunches and nightly dinners, chair of the fourth-fifth floor advisory group, member of the Food Committee, the Bridge Club, the Men’s Club, and the Tenth-Floor Drummers. With an intent and curious mind throughout his long life, Andy enjoyed reading, photography, sailing, painting, music, bridge, and the most intricate crossword puzzles. He was predeceased by his wife, Janet; and his brother George. Andy is survived by his brother Joe; a sister, Marian; his daughters, Susan and Pamela; a granddaughter; and several nieces and nephews. A memorial service was held April 21, 2012, at The Watermark in Bridgeport, Conn.

Church in the 1960s, and the Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship in 1990. Marian was an accomplished pianist, and was a member of Boulder Professional Women, 1970–1985. She faithfully enjoyed and supported the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra and the Colorado Music Festival.

She loved traveling with her friends and playing word games.

She was always curious about and open to art, music, and books; she strongly respected her own opinion and would respect another’s opinion only if they were as strongly committed. Marian was predeceased by her former husband, Robert, and her brother James. She is survived by her children, C. Gaylord Cooper and Barbara J. Cooper; her grandchildren, Andrew and Rebecca; and two great-grandchildren. A memorial service was to be held at a future date.

1937

William Edward Winslow, on October 31, 2011. Bill was a fouryear student from Windsor. He was involved with agricultural work, a sports correspondent for the Log, and a member of the Press Club and the Log board.

Marian Stears Cooper, on Bill was active with Wolcott May 14. Marian was a student at junior football and basketball.

Chaffee from Hartford, Conn.

Bill had retired as supervisor of She was unable to graduate due receiving and stores at Crucible to deterioration of her eyesight Steel, Colt Industries in Midthat threatened blindness. Howland, Pa., after 31 years. He was a ever, her vision was saved after member of the Trinity Anglican intensive therapy at a German Church in Beaver, Pa. Bill was a clinic. Following her marriage veteran of the U.S. Army having to Robert Cooper, she moved to Denver, Colo., in 1944 and then to served during World War II and Boulder in 1949. After her divorce, was formerly active in the Lions she worked at Joslin’s Department Club of Beaver Valley, Pa. He was predeceased by a daughter, Store in the Colorado Building Kimberly Ann Suchanec. He is where she helped a generation of Boulder Brownies and Girl Scouts survived by his wife of 71 years, Patricia Jellison Winslow; two acquire their first uniforms. She sons, Ralph Jellison Winslow worked at The Boulder Public and Jeffrey Alan Winslow; a Library from 1966 to 1990, where daughter, Joyce Whittingham; she provided library books to many grandchildren and greathomebound patrons for over 15 grandchildren; as well as a large years. She was a founding memextended family. A service in ber of the Boulder Unitarian Fellowship in 1950, a charter member celebration of his life was to be of the Unitarian-Universalist held at a future date.

1935

60 |

1938 Seldon Lester Brown Sr., on May 9, at Samaritan Hospital in Watertown, N.Y. A three-year student from Scarsdale, N.Y., Seldon was involved with the Glee Club and the Cercle Français. He was active with Ludlow football, track, tennis, basketball, boxing, and the second football team. Seldon attended Wesleyan University until November 1941, at which time he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. He was a Japanese interpreter and sniper in campaigns in Guadalcanal, Tarawa, and Saipan-Tinian. Seldon received a Purple Heart and battlefield commission to 2nd lieutenant. He was discharged in November 1945. In 1947, Seldon earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado. He was a language major in French, Japanese, Spanish, Russian, and German. He retired from Corn Products Company, Division of Unilever-Best Foods, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., in 1977, after various international and domestic assignments. He then joined Drake, Beam, Morin in Stamford as vice president, retiring again in 1985. Seldon settled at Cape Vincent, N.Y., and was active in SPEBSQSA, civic affairs, and as a warden of Saint John’s Episcopal Church. Seldon was predeceased by his wife, Barbara; and his sister, Lenora. He is survived by his brother, Walter Creighton Brown; two sons, Seldon Jr. and Michael; a daughter, Christina; five grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. A memorial service was held July 4 at Saint John’s Episcopal Church, Cape Vincent, N.Y.

1942 Willian Heywang Bayliss, on May 11, from complications after a fall. Bill was a postgraduate from Titusville, Pa. He was involved with the Chess Club, Debating Team, Dance Orchestra, and Scholarship Committee.

He was a member of the orchestra for H.M.S. Pinafore. Bill was active with the wrestling team and the second football team.

Following Loomis, he attended Harvard University. After nine months, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps and served as a B-52 pilot, flying combat missions from the Philippines over northern Luzon and Borneo and then participating in the U.S. occupation of Japan after hostilities ended. He returned to Harvard in 1946, graduating in two years with a degree in biochemical science. He worked in the pharmaceutical industry in New York and New Jersey, earning an M.B.A from Columbia University in 1955. In 1957 he married Ann Van Dyke Palmer, and they moved to Kalamazoo, Mich., after he joined the The Upjohn Company as director of public affairs. He served on the Kalamazoo City Commission, as chair of the Kalamazoo Symphony Society, and as an elder in the Presbyterian Church. He left Upjohn in 1970 and moved to Chapel Hill, N.C., with his family to enter Duke Law School, graduating in 1973.

He practiced law in Chapel Hill for 20 years with his partners at Bayliss, Hudson and Merritt.

He was active in the early Home Health Agency, as an elder in the University Presbyterian Church, and as a member and president of Rotary and the Chapel Hill Country Club. He remained active following his move to the Carol Woods retirement community, serving as secretary of the residents’ council as well as taking pictures of other new residents and playing the piano.

Bill is survived by his wife, Ann; three sons, George, Theodore, and Mark; and three grandchildren. A funeral service was held June 2 at the University Presbyterian Church, Chapel Hill. Burial in the family plot in Titusville, Pa., was to take place at a later date.

Frank Lambert Jr., on May 11.

A two-year student from Cambridge, Md., Frank left Loomis to graduate from the Merchant Marine Academy. He served his country through the end of World War II. Frank earned his bachelor’s degree from Trinity College. In 1949, Frank and his wife, Deborah, moved to Ithaca, N.Y., where they bought a small primitive farmhouse on a hill, calling it Back Acres.

He enrolled in Cornell University’s Agricultural School and bought a dairy farm at auction in McGraw, N.Y. During this time, Frank and Deborah had six daughters. In 1958, he shifted careers, selling their cows at auction and learning to train and drive harness horses. He and his family lived in a house trailer that he hauled behind his horse van while they raced from Ohio to Kentucky and Maine to Delaware, earning a human interest headline in a Wheeling, W.Va., newspaper that read, “Six Horses and Six Daughters.”

In the early 1960s, shifting careers once again, Frank and Deborah returned to their farm in McGraw and enrolled at SUNY–Cortland, where Frank earned a master’s degree. During that time, he shod horses and researched hoof biology, publishing scientific studies in veterinarian magazines. He taught high school English until the farm was sold, then relocated to Delaware, where he went to work on tugboats in the Chesapeake Bay area. In 1971 he bought Tug Babe, originally a steam tugboat built in 1906, along with a barge he named Ceres. Later he sold Tug Babe and bought a more modern tug, naming it Nanticoke after its home river on the Eastern Shore. By then, Lambert Tug Co. Inc. was formed with two jumbo barges for hauling grain and fertilizer.

The company was sold in 1979.

During the following four years, Frank raced well-bred trotters at tracks in New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. In 1983, he

bought the S/V Deborah, upon which he and his wife sailed the Caribbean and Mediterranean seas and the East Coast to Maine. Frank retired from the seas to New London in 2006. He is survived by his wife, Deborah; their six daughters: Deborah, Suzannah, Elizabeth, Maria, Alison, and Emily; 10 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. Frank was predeceased by his sister, Arden; and twin brothers, Jonathan and David. A memorial service was held July 7, in Friendship, Maine.

a member of the chorus for York Nativity Play. Pete was active with Wolcott senior soccer and Wolcott junior soccer. He was a member of the rifle, track, ski, and first soccer teams, earning letters on all teams and serving as captain of the ski team.

Pete earned his degrees from Dartmouth College and the Amos Tuck School. He spent a lifetime in the brokerage and banking businesses throughout the Northeast: in Utica, N.Y.; Newark, N.J.; Cleveland, Ohio; and New Haven, Conn. He was a broker, security analyst, and an investment strategist. He also served as the bank economist David Ward Brewer, on May 15. at Fidelity Union Trust and the A four-year student from West head of Trust and Union Trust Hartford, Dave was involved Co., in New Haven. He retired in with the Chess, Classical Music, 1993 for health reasons. Pete also Ping Pong, Rifle, Jazz, Photogserved in the U.S. Army. He was raphy, Spanish and Freshman a member of St. David’s EpiscoGlee clubs. He was a member of pal Church in Barneveld, N.Y., the Work Squad, the Grounds and spent many happy years and Library committees, The at his family summer home in Log Board, and the Halloween Trenton Falls, N.Y., in the footNight Patrol. Dave was active hills of the Adirondacks. Pete with Ludlow basketball, Ludlow enjoyed photography, opera, soccer, Ludlow junior basketball, gardening, and astronomy. He Ludlow intermediate basketrelocated to New London, N.H., ball, Ludlow tennis, and track. in 2002. Pete was predeceased He earned a bachelor’s degree by his daughter, Elizabeth. He is from New York University and survived by his wife of 38 years, a master’s degree in economics Mary; a son, Thomas; a daughfrom Trinity College. He was an ter, Marcie; five grandchildren; accountant and a member of the a sister, Suzanne; nieces and a Kiwanis Club. Dave is survived nephew. A graveside service was by his wife, Sybille. A graveside held at the Evergreen Cemetery service was held on May 20 in in Barneveld, N.Y., in the spring.

Beth Israel Cemetery, Hartford.

1948

Yates Peter Eckert, on January 20, at the New London Hospital, New London, N.H. A four-year student from Remsen, N.Y., Pete was involved with the Ping Pong, Darwin, Rifle, Glee, Music, Photography, Spanish, and Ski clubs. He served as president of the Ski Club, and secretary-treasurer of the Rifle Club. Pete was a member of the Senior Entertainment Committee and the Palmer Entertainment Committee, for which he also served as chairman. He was a cast member of Seventeen, and

1952

Floann Cafky Roberts, on March 6, at Samaritan Hospice, Mt. Holly Memorial Hospital, Mt. Holly, N.J. Floann was a four-year student from Hartford. She was active with the French Club, as president of the Glee Club, art editor of Epilogue, and on the Chiel staff.

She attended Barnard College, the University of Connecticut, George Washington University, and Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute before earning her degree in mechanical engineer-

ing from Rutgers. She worked as a data analyst, a technical editor, and finally as an administrative assistant to a nuclear physicist at EBASCO in New York City before returning to college.

After earning her degree, Floann returned to EBASCO as an engineer. She ended her career as a plant engineer at the Salem Nuclear Plant while working for Public Service Electric & Gas. In her youth, Floann wanted to be an architect, but was discouraged from this path because of her gender. A series of physics classes in the 1960s excited her imagination, the civil rights movement inspired her, and the women’s rights movement finally propelled her to pursue her career. Floann is survived by her husband of 42 years, Thomas C. Roberts; her children, Deborah, William, and Tanya; and a cousin. A celebration of her life was held April 15, at the Medford Leas, Medford, N.J.

1954 John Archibald McNeil Peck, on May 16, after a long battle with cancer. Archie was a threeyear student from Palm Beach, Fla. He was involved with the Student Endowment Fund, the Student Council, the Glee Club, and the Pelicans. Archie was active with Wolcott hockey, first team football and first team tennis, earning varsity letters for the latter two. Following Loomis, Archie enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and served with the Fourth Marine Brigade until being honorably discharged as a sergeant in 1957. In the late 1950s he attended television school in New York City, before returning to Palm Beach where he worked as a cameraman for Channel Five. Eventually, he established a career in the real estate business, joining his father’s firm, John W. Peck Real Estate, Palm Beach. Archie was known for helping to put the sport of croquet on the map in the 1970s. He won U.S. Croquet loomischaffee.org | 61

IN MEMORIAM Association national singles championships in 1977, 1979, 1980, and 1982, and national doubles championships in 1977 and 1979. He was the Southern Regional singles champion in 1982, 1983, and 1984. He won the Hurlingham Cup Silver Jubilee singles championship in London in 1997 and won the USCA International Rules doubles championship with Stewart Jackson in 2007. Archie was inducted into the U.S. Croquet Association Hall of Fame in 1984 and into the World Croquet Federation Hall of Fame in 2008. He is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records. He served as the director of croquet, National Center Croquet, West Palm Beach, Fla., since 2001. Archie was a former member of the Everglades Club and the Seminole Golf Club. He is survived by four children: John Peck, Nina Noel, Alexandra Weary, and Amy Nelson; eight grandsons; his sister, Lucie; a nephew; two nieces; six great nieces; one great nephew; and a longtime special and loving companion, Amy Weiss. A memorial service was held on May 25 at the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-By-The-Sea, Palm Beach, Fla.

Health for nearly 22 years, retiring in 2001. He had served, at NIH, most recently as a public affairs specialist and executive secretary for the CSR advisory committee. Sam is survived by his wife, Ann; two children, Elizabeth and Larry; three grandchildren; a brother, Gerald Joseloff; a sister, Lynn Kaufman; and a nephew, Michael C. Joseloff ’91.

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Fedor Olszanskyj, on February 17, of natural causes. Born in Germany, Fred came to Loomis from Hartford. He was involved with the Senior Room and the Dining Hall committees; the Mechanics, Photo, and Radio clubs; and as a photographer for The Log. Fred was active with club track and varsity football, for which he earned two varsity letters. He also served as coach of club wrestling. Fred built a racing car, “O-Mobile,” during his senior year. He received his bachelor’s degree from Rutgers and an M.B.A. from the University of Vermont. He lived most of his life throughout New England, working at numerous defense and aerospace companies in various leadership positions. Most recently, he was program manager for BAE Samuel Hart Joseloff, on April Systems in Nashua, N.H. A mechanical engineer at heart, Fred 7, at Rockville Nursing Home, Rockville, Md., from Parkinson’s was legendary for handcrafting an automobile of his own design.

Disease. Sam was a four-year student from West Hartford. He He also co-authored a patent was involved with the Chess and on airbag inflation. He was an Stamp clubs, the Key Society, the avid modeler of radio-controlled Chapel Choir, and the Glee Club; airplanes and model trains. He enjoyed fishing, reading, and a and he participated in Wolcott good martini. Fred is survived soccer, hockey, tennis, and by his fiancée, Marie Pepi; his junior basketball. Sam earned his bachelor’s degree from Yale, son, Serge Olszanskyj; and a grandson, Greg. A celebration a master’s degree from the in honor of Fred’s life was held University of Wisconsin, and a April 28 at Giorgio’s Restaurant, doctorate from Princeton. He Milford, N.H. taught at Mitchell College and Georgetown University and edited an anthology of poetry, Time to Seek. Sam worked for the Center for Scientific Review at the National Institute of

1958

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1968

manager for Hong Kong-based Nam Wah Precision Group.

Craig Alan Fletcher, at home in Andy was a true “road warrior,” regularly visiting cusHingham, Mass., on March 23, tomers and suppliers in North from a brief illness. Craig was a America, Asia, and Europe. He three-year student from Southington, Conn., and was involved loved skiing, gourmet cooking, and dining. He was passionate with The Log, the Darwin Club, about travel, reading, consumer the Library and Religious Life committees, and the Stagehands electronics, music, and playing guitar. Andy was predeceased Union. He was active with by his father, Jerome C. Kohn Ludlow soccer and hockey, and ’43. He is survived by his wife the Ski Club. Craig earned his of 20 years, Martha; his mother, bachelor’s degree from Tufts, Judith Munch Pinney ’47; two where he was a member of the ski team, and his M.B.A in hospi- daughters, Sarah and Julia; his brother, Peter; three nephews; a tal administration from Boston great niece, and a great nephew.

University. He worked in the healthcare information technol- A memorial service was held ogy field, most recently as CIO of June 3, at Temple B’rith Kodesh, Rochester, N.Y. Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital, from which he retired in May 2011. Craig was an avid tennis player and a very skilled sailor on his boat Alpenglow. He Eric Lundberg, on May 1, following a courageous severalloved skiing as much as he did year battle with cancer. Eric sailing and regularly took trips attended Loomis Chaffee from to Utah’s Alta and Snowbird Poquonock, Conn. He went on and to British Columbia, where to earn his bachelor’s degree he enjoyed helicopter powder from Eastern Connecticut State skiing. He and his wife, Anne, University and then served as greatly enjoyed working tosecond lieutenant in the Corps gether on their property, taking of Engineers for the Army Rewalks, and bird watching. His serves in Connecticut. He moved “can-do” attitude inspired others and allowed him to excel. He to North Carolina in 2006 and had a wonderful sense of humor returned to school to become a home inspector for the town of and outlook upon life. Craig is survived by his wife of 39 years, Holly Springs, N.C., a job he loved.

Eric’s favorite activity in life was Anne; his mother, Mary Jane to help and serve others. He gave Fletcher Mason; his sister, Bonselflessly of himself at a moment’s nie McCausland; his brother, notice and built lasting and loving Bruce Fletcher; two nephews; relationships in his place of wortwo nieces; many cousins; inship, Hope Community Church; laws; and dear friends. his neighborhood; and most often with his family. Eric is survived by his wife of 18 years, Judy; his parents, Ronald and Mary Lundberg; Andrew Lyon Kohn, on May 28. Andy attended Loomis from his sisters, Ronda Lundberg Lanzi ’74; Sharon Lundberg ’76; West Hartford. He went on to Heather Lundberg Kibbe ’88 Lake Forest College and earned and Greta Lundberg Pacilio; his his bachelor’s degree from the brother, Carl Lundberg ’78; five University of Hartford. He nephews; five nieces; a sister-inbecame vice president of sales law; and his mother-in-law. A for his family’s manufacturing memorial service was held May 5 company, Amcam, in Farmingat the Hope Community Church, ton. He spent over 40 years in Raleigh, N.C. the automation components industry, the last six as a sales

1983

1972

Former Faculty Douglas Carmichael, on March 26. Born in Greenwich, Conn., Douglas earned his bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College in 1946, (his attendance being interrupted by military service during World War II), a master’s degree from Harvard, and a doctorate in philosophy from Indiana University in 1954.

Douglas began his teaching career at Loomis, followed by St. Mark’s School in Dallas, Texas.

He then began teaching exclusively philosophy at Indiana University–Bloomington, the University of Massachusetts, and Indiana University–Jeffersonville (Indiana University Southeast). In 1958, Douglas joined the faculty at St. Lawrence University, where he taught until 1984, serving as a tenured professor and chairman of the philosophy department for many years. After retiring, he moved to The Highlands in Topsham, Maine. He enjoyed performances by the Portland Symphony Orchestra, The Port-

land Stage Company, and the Maine State Music Theater. He traveled extensively throughout Western Europe and also made trips to Egypt, East Africa, India, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and Tahiti. He had a particular love for Scotland, which he visited at least four times. Douglas is survived by his children, Douglas A. Carmichael ’69, Megan C. Perry, and Elspeth C. Williams; three grandchildren; and three stepchildren. He was predeceased by his first wife, Helen Sanborn Edgerly, and his second wife, Emma Robertson Grant.

William Elliott, on February 3, after a hard-fought, threeyear battle with melanoma. Bill grew up in Braintree, Mass. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Amherst in 1964, and a J.D. from Fordham University Law School in 1973. Bill devoted his life to teaching at the secondary school level.

At Loomis from 1965 to 1968, he taught biochemistry, chemistry, biology, and physics, and he coached lacrosse, basketball, and

club football. He went on to join the faculty at the Friends Seminary in New York City, where he taught through 1974 while also serving as the first director of Friends Seminary After-School program. He then returned to Braintree and taught at Thayer Academy until 1986. He served as coach of the varsity basketball team, an activity that culminated in 1978 in Thayer’s winning its first New England Championship Class C Division. In 1986, Bill and his family moved to Encinitas, Calif., where he founded the Success in Learning Center, taught learning enhancement and learning disability correction, tutored, and did college and career counseling. He incorporated these skills at Muir College and the University of California at San Diego and became the head of the upper school and college counselor of the Francis W. Parker School. In 1991, Bill returned to Braintree to become the sixth headmaster of Thayer Academy, where he remained until his retirement in1995.

Upon retirement, Bill moved to Monticello, Ky., to pursue his many interests, including hiking, gardening, horse racing, woodworking, and bluegrass music.

He returned to Concord, Mass.,

in 2002. Bill is survived by his companion, Stephanie Reid; his daughter, Julia Elliott; his sister, Kathleen Elliott Yinug; and a brother, David Elliott. A service in celebration of Bill’s life and accomplishments was held on April 28 at The Holy Family Parish in Concord, Mass.

More News The Alumni Office has learned of the passing of former faculty member Robert diCurcio, on April 14, 2012; and alumni James Wendell Weston ’44, on August 23, 2007; James T. Robinson ’58, on December 23, 2010; and Elaine Bernaski Petronchak ’83, on April 18.

More information, as available, will be printed in future issues.

READER’S VOICE

Y

OU missed the mark. Anyone who wore a dress like the one you pictured on page 43 of the spring 2012 magazine in 1954 would have worn it with a crinoline petticoat and a bullet bra.

the Social Media a second chance. You are to be congratulated for managing a first class publication that would surely be contemporary with anything anybody else is trying to do. Thank you.

Joan Vick Palmer Widow of James Palmer ’69

John E. Romig ’57

W

AM a Loomis alum, 1987. I enjoyed reading the recent cover story on the exchange program with The Fabindia School. However, as a classmate of Katherine Allen ’87, I was very surprised that there was no mention of her in your extensive cover article, since I know that she works closely with The Fabindia School and has worked for William Bissell ’84

AS leafing through the spring 2012 magazine when I suddenly realized this magazine was different from all the others: in layout, content, and the selection of articles.

Between “A Brief History of Social Media” and “Curricular Innovation,” I felt safer with the Innovation but am willing to give

I

and Fabindia for 20 years, acting as their sole U.S. representative. I have been in touch with Katherine, and she has shared with me how much she has enjoyed being involved with the LC-Fabindia School exchange. So, it seems to me to be a big oversight that you would not highlight the connections with all of your alum in this great partnership, especially given all of Katherine’s extensive efforts to make this exchange program such a success. Thank you for all you do.

Anastasia Bartus ’87 Editors’ Note: You are correct. Katherine

Allen has been very helpful with the Loomis Chaffee-Fabindia connection in many ways. loomischaffee.org | 63

THE LAST WORD | BY JANE MACKAY HOWE ’49

You Say Alumnae, I Say Alumni Editors’ Note: The following quote is an excerpt from Jane Mackay Howe’s retirement interview, conducted by Marillyn Loomis for the Loomis Chaffee Archives on June 1, 1989.

“ Mrs. Sellers was our Latin I Jane Mackay Howe ’49

teacher… [I]n the first lesson she told us all that we couldn’t leave the room unless we learned the difference between alumna and alumnus and alumnae and alumni …

That started out my Latin career.

”

— Jane MacKay Howe, “alumna” of Chaffee Class of 1949

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Florence E. Sellers

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