Nobles THE MAGAZINE OF NOBLE AND GREENOUGH SCHOOL
SPRING 2020
2020: Time to reflect, refocus, rebuild.
PHOTO OF THE DAY March 3, 2020 Science faculty member Chris Averill squares up against Macy Sweeny ’24 in the middle school 3 vs. 3 basketball tournament. PHOTO BY BEN HEIDER
contents SPRING 2020
IN EVERY ISSUE 2
Letter from the Head
3 Reflections What Nobles folks are saying on campus and online 4
The Bulletin News and notes
14 By the Numbers Assembly takes on new meaning; here we pay homage to its history 15 Sports Girls varsity squash wins ISL for eighth consecutive year 18 Off the Shelf All about the books we read and write 20 Graduate Affairs Welcome the new hall-of-famers! 50 Graduate News Who, what and where Nobles grads are
FEATURES 22 2020: Time to reflect, refocus, rebuild 2020 is a year that won’t easily be forgotten. At a time when everyone faces unprecedented hardships, we focus on finding the good.
Cover Photograph by Michael Piazza
64 Archive Appreciating the classics
Nobles
letter from the head
SPRING 2020
The Core of a Community I HOPE YOU AND YOUR FAMILY ARE SAFE and well. These last several
weeks have been a whirlwind for all of us, with a swirl of worry, grief and silver linings all jumbled together as we navigate this unprecedented time. This remarkable period has also given me an inspiring perspective on the Nobles community I want to share. In the winter issue of Nobles magazine, I wrote about the great assembly tent, our “Tent of Miracles,” that occupied the middle of campus this fall to hold our treasured assemblies each morning. I wrote: “It has also been a humbling reminder of what really matters about assembly and our Nobles community. It is not the comfort of the seat or the lighting effects in a performance that make assembly such a core experience at Nobles. To create the essence of what sits at the core of our Nobles community, we only need each other, a clear sense of mission and values, and time to spend together.” When we held our first Virtual Nobles assembly on April 6, those words rang loudly in my head. As I watched the number of people joining our virtual assembly climb to over 700, I was deeply moved. We were back. We do not need a building to have our community, and we do not need to be in the same room to know we are connected—we only need one another. While we would never seek out adversity, it is through facing steep adversity that a community is able to learn a great deal about itself, to discover, through great humility and honesty, what really sits at the center. This year has tested our Nobles community in many ways. It has also proven what our community is really all about, that core that provides strength and ensures it endures. Amidst a crisis, a community is not able to be manufactured. Strong communities, however, can certainly be called upon in a crisis, and they will emerge stronger and more tightly bound. I have been privileged over recent weeks to watch the Nobles faculty and staff, without hesitation, roll up their sleeves and do whatever has been needed to ensure the Nobles experience and community continue for our students. With relentless passion and commitment, along with thousands of dedicated hours, Nobles educators have created Virtual Nobles, a space not only for teaching and learning to continue, but a space for relationships and community to deepen. From virtual assembly to virtual advisor meetings, we are as dedicated to engagement and wellness as we are to ensuring our academic program continues. While it might seem I am painting a picture of a “perfect” solution we have created, that is not at all the case. In fact, I am certain what we have created is not perfect and will need ongoing work to keep improving. There will be some things that go pretty well and some things that are complete disasters! We are innovating on the fly, and building at the same time we are implementing, so there will, of course, be messiness and areas where we need to adjust. What is most exciting for me is to see the eagerness among our faculty to learn, grow, and iterate amid such an intense and challenging time. It is an awesome experience to see their sheer resilience and humble focus on doing the absolute best they can for our students right now. When the world around them is uncertain and more than a bit scary, they will know Nobles is here, and that their teachers are ready to teach and care for them. Never have I had a clearer picture of what “relationship before task” means and never have I been prouder of our faculty and staff.
—CATHERINE J. HALL, PH.D., HEAD OF SCHOOL
2 Nobles SPRING 2020
Editor Heather Sullivan DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS
Assistant Editors Kim Neal
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS
Ben Heider
DIGITAL VIDEO PRODUCER/WRITER
Anne Hurlbut
WRITER/CONTENT MANAGER
Design 2COMMUNIQUÉ WWW.2COMMUNIQUE.COM
Photography Tim Carey Michael Dwyer Ben Heider Anne Hurlbut Leah LaRiccia Jared Leeds Rey Lopez Kim Neal Michael Piazza Risley Sports Photography Michael Weymouth The Editorial Committee Brooke Asnis ’90 Casey Hassenstein John Gifford ’86 Tilesy Harrington Nobles is published three times a year for graduates, past and current parents, guardians and grandparents, students and supporters of Noble and Greenough School. Nobles is a co-educational, non-sectarian day and five-day boarding school for students in grades seven (Class VI) through 12 (Class I). Noble and Greenough School is a rigorous academic community that strives for excellence in its classroom teaching, intellectual growth in its students and commitment to the arts, athletics and service to others. For further information and up-to-the-minute graduate news, visit www.nobles.edu. Letters and comments may be emailed to Heather_Sullivan@ nobles.edu. We also welcome old-fashioned mail sent c/o Noble and Greenough School, 10 Campus Drive, Dedham, MA 02026. The office may be reached at communications@ nobles.edu. © Noble and Greenough School 2020
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Imagine the courage it takes to be a 12-year-old speaking in front of 700 people! —ENGLISH FACULTY MEMBER THOMAS FORTEITH, REFLECTING ON THE MIDDLE SCHOOL HOLIDAY ASSEMBLY
The illustrious boys 3rds basketball team has a game today. We do it for school and country every time we step on the court. —VISUAL ARTS FACULTY DAVID ROANE, ENCOURAGING THE COMMUNITY TO COME OUT AND SUPPORT THE BOYS 3RDS BASKETBALL TEAM
In order for me to be an effective Nobles community member as a woman of Asian descent, I need to know how students of my race may be thinking, and the possible perspective of students of differing backgrounds. I now have the idealized goal of creating a sense of unity among all minorities, but I understand that that’s easier said than done. —PERFORMING ARTS FACULTY NHUNG TRUONG, IN THE NOBLES U NEWSLETTER, ON ATTENDING THE NAIS PEOPLE OF COLOR CONFERENCE
We run relentlessly, pushing and pulling the eternal thread, covering the flame of life, protecting our dreams in a little cardboard box. Only the saltwater tears can stain the future. JANUARY 14: The tech theatre crew making big strides in Vinik for the production of Les Misérables
JANUARY 28: The Nobles Ethics Club sharing their experience at the 4th Annual Rhode Island Regional High School Ethics Bowl at Brown University
—MARIEKO AMOAH ’22, READING AN ORIGINAL POEM TITLED “ANGST” TO INTRODUCE THE SPOKEN WORD POETRY CLUB
We ask, share and learn together here. We try, fail and lend support together here. We sing and we laugh—a lot—together here. —HEAD OF SCHOOL CATHY HALL, WELCOMING STUDENTS BACK FROM THE WINTER BREAK AT THE FIRST ASSEMBLY IN LAWRENCE AUDITORIUM SPRING 2020 Nobles 3
the bulletin
Longtime staff member and talented artisan Thanae Cooper and faculty emerita Vicky Seelen, long known for her knitting projects, both made colorful, homemade protective gear, sending masks to hundreds of community members and their families. A sample of Seelen’s masks are pictured here.
The Difference a Few Months Can Make IN LATE JANUARY, the Nobles communica-
tions team began planning this issue of Nobles, never thinking that the world could change so radically, so quickly. On March 11, Head of School Catherine J. Hall—learning that someone close to the community had tested positive for Covid-19—sent students, faculty and staff home; at the time, the decision seemed necessary but conservative. A few days later, Gov. Charlie Baker closed all schools and non-essential businesses in Massachusetts: The whole world suddenly shut down. Nobles faculty and administra-
assembly highlights Music Over the Years As 2019 came to a close, Bill Bussey screened “Decade of
4 Nobles SPRING 2020
Pop,” by DJ Earworm, a compilation of clips from music videos over the past 10
tors rallied and, during spring break, planned Virtual Nobles, our distancelearning program—not knowing whether it might be a short- or longer-term arrangement. By late March, in-person graduation for the Class of 2020 and many other events were canceled. “I know this is a particularly hard time as you and your child are both struggling with what has been lost,” Hall told Class I parents. “We are working on plans to celebrate our seniors.” At press time, details of Class of 2020 celebrations were being finalized. For more detail on how the school has managed the pandemic,
please go to nobles.edu/covid-19. As for what you’ll find in this issue: hope, optimism and, possibly, a way forward. The story on spirituality (page 24) was inspired by conversations with Richard Whiteley ’58, a Harvard Business School grad who practiced shamanism (see also page 61). The feature on travel and tourism (page 48) could clarify bucket lists for days post-pandemic: There are so many places to go, and the grads featured here have some incredible insight. The other articles resonate for the many reasons that initially prompted their inclusion. Stay well, Nobles.
years. “Music,” said Bussey, “is one way we remember important times in our lives.”
performing “Africa,” by Toto, and getting everyone’s day off to an upbeat start.
Jazzy Morning The jazz band, led by Paul Lieberman, made their assembly debut for the 20192020 school year,
Hoops Milestones The community celebrated records achieved on the basketball court over the weekend. Girls varsity
NEWS FROM OUR CAMPUS & COMMUNITY
WHY WE CAN’T WAIT On January 21, students of color took the assembly stage to celebrate the spirit of activism inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and so many others since. After a moment of silence for those fighting for justice worldwide, they acknowledged that Nobles itself stands upon “the traditional territory of the Massa-adchu-es-et, the original peoples of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.” Olly Ogbue and Yara Da Silva, both ’20, encouraged, “May we all continue to uplift each other and create spaces where people can unlock their own power.” Students introduced the theme “Why We Can’t Wait: The Unheard Voices of Our Generation,” saying, “Dr. King stated that ‘Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.’ … From climate change to gender equality, the youth of today have exemplified what it means to make our voices heard.” Students spotlighted inspiring individuals, from 15-year-old Canadian indigenous water activist Autumn Peltier to Puerto Rican human rights activist Jose “Cha-Cha” Jimenez. Marieko
Amoah ’22 recited a powerful series of poems, and Angie Gabeau ’21, accompanied by Dylan Cleverly ’21 on piano, gave a moving rendition of Sam Cooke’s civil rights anthem “A Change Is Gonna Come.” Students and faculty members expressed their own urgency in working for justice, each sharing their reasons for action. They named poverty, graduation rates, sexual assault, mass incarceration, concern for the safety of loved ones, unequal professional opportunities, and the dangers inflicted on us all by white supremacy. Acknowledging global social justice movements, students said, “Facing injustice can be painful, especially when we understand that we all have a role in it, although none of us created the systems that hold injustice in place. But we all have a choice about whether we will work to interrupt these systems or support their existence by ignoring them. There is no neutral ground; to choose not to act against injustice is to choose to allow it. … Today, we have the opportunity to create a more just world.”
basketball coach Alex Gallagher claimed his 500th win, and Caroline Ducharme ’21 scored her 1,000th point, all in the game
Michael Turner on a second piano. “It’s a very demanding piece,” said Turner, “but also really exciting and fun for an audience to
against Tilton. Dueling Pianos One of the early assemblies in Lawrence featured an
outstanding virtuoso student performance of Gershwin’s “Piano Concerto in F: Allegro,” by Maxwell Huang ’24, accompanied by
listen to. Maxwell was simply amazing, and I was honored to play alongside him.” Huang and Turner received a standing ovation.
Dance, Dance, Dance Justin Qin ’21 danced with energy, passion and smiles, gliding effortlessly across the stage to “Treasure,”
SPRING 2020 Nobles 5
the bulletin
Taylor Branch Brings Voice From Atlanta WHAT’S IN A CITY’S MOTTO? In the 1960s,
Atlanta—in response to contemporary pressures and its history of and reputation for racism—adopted the slogan “Atlanta, the City Too Busy to Hate.” Even as a high school student at the time, Taylor Branch, now 73, poked at the ridiculousness of such a peculiar public relations assertion. At assembly on February 5, Branch— who grew up in Atlanta during the civil
rights movement—gripped the community with his wisdom, wit and perspective on civil rights, race relations and the dangers of cynicism for our nation. History faculty member Oris Bryant introduced Branch, noting Branch’s national accolades—a MacArthur Fellowship among them—and acclaimed books on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., including Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63, which won a
Pulitzer Prize in 1989. Branch began his 50-year career as a reporter. He has written four books on King; an influential article in The Atlantic called “The Shame of College Sports”; and a book on former President Bill Clinton, based on one-onone interviews. Branch asserted that the civil rights movement should be credited with much more than the gains toward equity for black Americans: He connected the boldness of the insistence on desegregation to gains for feminists, the LGBTQ community and even white Southern society, which he said was also psychologically and economically liberated when legalized segregation ended. Branch noted that the first Southern sports team, the Atlanta Braves, came only after all races could sit together in a stadium. Branch acknowledged the importance of the March on Washington but stressed that events in Birmingham, Alabama, which culminated with young children joining the protests, were a palpable, clear turning point in American history. “I call it the Children’s Miracle,” he said. When the world witnessed images of black girls as young as 6 making them-
“ We need to remind ourselves of our freedoms...We need to understand what violence and nonviolence can accomplish.” —TAYLOR BRANCH
by Bruno Mars. Every time Qin performs, he lights up the stage with his incredible talent and his genuine love of dancing.
6 Nobles SPRING 2020
Bringing Home the Hardware The girls varsity hockey team presented Athletic Director Alex Gallagher
with the trophy for the Harrington Holiday Tournament. The team went 4-0 in the tournament, winning the whole shebang.
Ha Ha Prefects frequently share jokes at assembly like this one: “What happened when the semicolon broke
grammar rules?” Answer: “It was given two consecutive sentences.” The grammar lovers in the audience appreciated that one.
Through the Eyes of an 8-Year-Old Cathy Hall shared a heartwarming story about the innocence of 8-year-olds in sports,
selves vulnerable and exhibiting what Branch calls “self-discipline,” it “melted the resistance.” Demonstrations spread all over the country. He noted that this turning pointing is largely disregarded in history books. Branch described how race relations today are often below the surface—like blood vessels—and considered either solved or unsolvable. Both of those determinations allow people to take no action, he said. “We need to deal with it, and good things will happen if we do,” he said. Branch spoke about the difference between violence and nonviolence and MLK’s adherence to nonviolence. “Most people who draw breath think the idea that you can solve things by votes is preposterous. … Nonviolence is the key to that. The lesson of history is that, since Napoleon industrialized warfare in the 19th century, you don’t really have power if everybody is fighting. In the United States, we take nonviolence for granted. “America is a great cathedral of votes— not just when we vote for president or Congress, but on the board of this school and on the boards of all of your churches,” Branch said. “The most salient thing in our culture is the divide between our belief in nonviolence and our commitment to voting and our culture. “We need to remind ourselves of our freedoms,” he said. “We need to understand what violence and nonviolence can accomplish,” he said, noting that media and popular culture often glamorize violence as a way to resolve conflict. Branch also answered students’ questions in Towles Auditorium and visited classes during his visit.
at first likening her daughter’s tryout for the Dedham basketball team to “watching a car accident in slow motion.” Hall went on
to explain, “Then you start to see things click. She scored her first basket and said, ‘I am so great!’ while the other team looked
BEAUTY IN THE SHADOWS On Wednesday, February 19, Teju Cole walked unassumingly onto the stage in Lawrence Auditorium, placed a stack of books on the podium, and introduced his talk, “Exploring the Mysteries of the Ordinary.” Cole said that the concept, which is woven throughout all of his work, “comes from the idea that the everyday world is something that is interesting artistically, that we can make work out of that.” When introducing Cole, Visual Arts Department Chair John Hirsch listed the many accomplishments of the acclaimed author and photographer, who also happens to be the Gore Vidal Professor of the Practice of Creative Writing at Harvard and the former photography critic for the New York Times Magazine. Cole’s first novel, Open City, won the PEN/ Hemingway Award, the New York City Book Award for Fiction, the International Literature Award and the Windham Campbell Prize for Fiction, and his subsequent publications have earned him similar praise and distinction. Cole opened by talking about his first book, Every Day Is for the Thief, a fictional account of some of his personal frustrations with his home country, Nigeria. What is unique about this work—and the majority of the work that Cole does— is that he weaves photography throughout the text of the story. In order to integrate the imagery in an authentic way, he takes this approach: “If I was writing this book in the style of this fictional character, I should also take pictures in the style of this fictional character. I wanted to find a photographic style that connected to this man I had invented. … I wanted photos that were black and white, that had a strange intensity and charge to them.” As Cole discussed each of the five books on the podium in front of him, the stories that he told revealed the many layers of the work that had gone into their creation. Cole is always observing the ordinary things around him, critiquing these objects, places, images and words, the things of our days, to investigate their role within the broader scope of his work, never looking at a thing in front of him, or at a page in one of his books, in isolation. Like a conductor of an orchestra, he brings all of the elements together into one final performance, each one working in its own mysterious way to create harmony within the piece.
on, wondering if she knew her team had just lost.” Reflecting on how endearing this perspective is, Hall suggested that we
all try to conjure the “8-year-old celebration of little wins.” Questions for Mauck Hailey Brown showed
her video “73 Questions with Alden Mauck,” a parody of the Vogue series, which was exactly that—a litany of
inquiries into the passions and pastimes of this beloved faculty member. Mauck maintained a poker face throughout the entire
SPRING 2020 Nobles 7
the bulletin
COLETTE FINLEY gets her Class VI prealgebra class moving right away, presenting them with a problem and asking them to use the order of observation, and this sharp group of Sixies is ready to roll. It is the first period of the day, and the students, who sit in rows facing the board, work in groups of two or three. Finley lightens the atmosphere after the students successfully share their
answers, reflecting on the two days they had off at the beginning of the week: “I feared that since I hadn’t seen you for a week, you had forgotten what numbers were,” she says, smiling. The students all laugh, and the easy connection between Finley and her class of Sixies is apparent. Taking a moment to recenter the group, Finley outlines for the students what’s coming up in the next week
or so, when they will cover chapter 10 and study exponent rules. A veteran middle school teacher, she tells the students to “take two minutes to work out the wiggles,” offering them a brief window of time to clean out the homework section of their binders, a task they embrace with enthusiasm. Once this task is complete, Finley smoothly shifts gears again, reengaging the students with math by writing four problems on the board and asking them to work with their tablemates to solve them. She explains that they are returning to a topic they have studied before and are “going back to variable-land,” as these problems address exponent rules, something they have not studied in some time. The rapport between Finley and the students is as one would hope it would be in a middle school classroom—fun and lighthearted, but structured and with an underlying tone of respect. Finley shifts easily from providing clear explanations to lighthearted banter with the students, and they respond with eagerly raised hands when she asks a question, laughing and smiling when she lightens the atmosphere with humor. “Make sure you are writing this down now,” and “with a hand” are phrases that Finley repeats throughout the class, reminding the students to take notes and raise their hands in an effort to give everyone an opportunity to participate, constantly refocusing them and drawing them back in if they grow the slightest bit distracted. “Remember,” says Finley, as she emphasizes efficiency, “mathematicians don’t like to write more than they have to.”
video, taking his role very seriously and providing some fabulous comic relief for the whole community.
Patterson ’21 played the guitar and sang his original song “Color Green,” which he wrote last summer.
Taylor, to start the day off with some beautiful music, sending everyone off to class on a positive note.
Pre-pandemic (and also virtually!), Colette Finley makes math fun.
Class Act: More Than Math The following is from a new series of stories featuring individual classes at Nobles. We are continuing coverage during virtual learning in an effort to share the incredible work that is taking place in our online classrooms.
8 Nobles SPRING 2020
Not So Green A frequent and experienced performer at assembly, and not in any way green in that sense, Henry
A Friendly Start to the Day Molly Hughes ’23 played the piano and sang “You’ve Got a Friend,” by James
Raffle for the Wildfires The EAC shared an educational video about the Australian wildfires and intro-
Dancing in High Definition In February, Tulasi Vithiananthan ’22 gave a NED Talk about her parents’ experience fleeing civil war and genocide in Sri Lanka and losing everything but their education and Tamil culture. Those values inspired Vithiananthan to study Bharatanatyam, a South Asian classical dance. Prior to sharing a stunning performance video, she said, “I dance because it defines who I am and is one of the only ways I can connect to my family through culture. It’s important to remember who you are and what your people fought for.”
POWER BALLAD
Jones is accompanied by faculty member Shannon Clark.
Sydney Jones ’21 gave a jaw-dropping performance of Adele’s “When We Were Young” in February, and we felt all the feelings. From tender to soaring, Jones hit all the right notes in this poignant piece. English department chair Shannon Clark, who accompanied her, frequently supports students with her music and has also lent her acting chops to the Nobles Theatre Collective.
duced the raffle they held for the Australian Red Cross and the World Wildlife Fund.
Chess Pride Chess club advisor and faculty member Christine Pasterczyk made an announcement highlighting a recent
win and the hard work of the Chess Club, saying, “Most people don’t know we exist, and you never see us play. We have a lot in common
with 3rds boys basketball. We beat RL, and we are really proud.” Give me an N! Assistant Dean of
Students Bob Moore entered the assembly stage with gusto, shouting, “Hey, what’s up? Good morning, Nobles!” with a surpris-
ing amount of energy for 8:00 in the morning. Moore pumped up the community with his spirited pep talk, saying, “Enjoy some
SPRING 2020 Nobles 9
the bulletin
A Point of View ON FEBRUARY 12, author Ibi Zoboi spoke
in assembly about immigrating at age 4 from Haiti, a country often characterized by the media as the poorest in the Western Hemisphere. Zoboi, who now lives in New York, has published a string of critically acclaimed novels for young people, among them, American Street, My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich, and Pride. Most recently, she edited a collection called Black Enough: Stories of Being Young and Black in America, which features pieces by other celebrated black American authors for young people.
Currently writing a novel about an African-American teen girl attending an elite, predominantly white institution (PWI), Zoboi draws inspiration from her own daughter’s experience, and from speaking to students like those at Nobles. To highlight people’s common experiences and the importance of immigrants, she asked assemblygoers to raise their hands if they were born in another country—then their parents, grandparents and so on. “I used to try to prove that we were a country of immigrants,” said Zoboi, “until I went to
Author Ibi Zoboi in assembly
camaraderie and make some noise for those competing for the fantastic blue and white of Nobles” and ended with the ever-popular
10 Nobles SPRING 2020
“Give me an ‘N,’ give me an ‘O,’” and so on. 75 Years Later On the 75th anniversary of the liberation
of Auschwitz, Cathy Hall shared the following quote by Elie Wiesel: “When a person doesn’t have gratitude, something
is missing in his or her humanity. A person can almost be defined by his or her attitude toward gratitude.”
Nevada and I had four Native American students who lived on a reservation call me out. Now I do this for everyone to look around the room. For each of us, there is a story of an ancestor who came here with different dreams and had to assimilate. I became a writer to share the story of young people. You’re not alone. Your experiences are unique to you.” Now, as the mother of three teens, Zoboi says, “The strongest thing I pass on to them is a sense of cultural identity through lots of reading for fun.” She urged all, “You all have a story to tell. Dig into your past. Ask stories of the people who came before you.” Zoboi visited the creative writing club and several upper school English classes. The day culminated in a lunch with various affinity groups for students of color, who shared with her their experiences in a PWI. In turn, they asked her about representation of immigrants and people of color in her writing, and her own experience as a first-generation Haitian—since many related as immigrants or children of immigrants. Zoboi, who enjoys experimenting with different genres, says writing for young people allows her to “be more creative and take more risks.” An educator herself, she is disappointed with adults who discourage youth from daydreaming. Instead, she sees it as a valuable way of observing the world, and an essential part of the learning process. Empathy, she said, is also essential to writing “a more human story. Whether or not you’re a writer, it’s important to have an opinion and a perspective. You cannot be a writer without a point of view.”
Model Students The Model UN members shared their experience at the fourday conference at Harvard. There were 16
delegates and 4,000 students from across the world, and Nobles students received many shout-outs.
Onee (Amelia Simons ’24) condemns the House of Atreus.
The Exile and the Onion Girl An extremely dysfunctional family tale of vengeance, The Exile and the Onion Girl is a modern adaptation of Aeschylus’ The Libation Bearers (458 BCE), by Lindsay Price. The cursed House of Atreus grapples with its legacy of murder and betrayal as The Domestics (the Greek Chorus) narrate and set the ominous mood. Queen Ness (Sally Nagle ’24) and King Is (Peter Thibeault ’24) won’t get parent-of-the-year awards from their exiled son, Ore (Maxwell Huang ’24), or daughter Onee (Amelia Simons ’24), whom they’ve relegated to the scullery. Humor abounds amid tragedy as Ore’s sardonic sidekick Lades (Justice Hickman-Maynard ’24)
and kitchen maid Em (Emma Amirfarzan ’25) wield witticisms both frivolous and profound. Sisters Hesper (Wudiana Février ’24) and Hester (Charlotte Waldert ’25) debate the path to justice, and royal subjects Kay (Gemma Soukas ’25) and Ty (Brian Qi ’24) are chillingly authoritarian. The production, held in the Goins Dance Studio, was arranged to mimic the Greek theatron, with three sides exposed to the audience. Adaire Robinson directed; Heidi Charles managed the company; Erik Diaz led technical direction; and Josie Guevara-Torres produced the costumes. Adelaide Gifford ’21 operated lighting; sound was by Olive Gifford ’23.
Antifragility Jen Hamilton spoke about the hopes we have historically had for our children, from a good education
“We need some difficulties and stressors to get better,” she said.
to happiness and resilience. Hamilton explained that while all of those things are fine and good, what we really want is to be
“antifragile.” Hamilton explained that while resilience resists shocks and then stays the same, the antifragile get better.
75 Years Later On the 75th anniver-
sary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Cathy Hall shared the following quote by Elie Wiesel: “When a person doesn’t have
gratitude, something is missing in his or her humanity. A person can almost be defined by his or her attitude toward gratitude.”
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the bulletin
Les Misérables Dan Halperin directed 90 cast, crew and musicians in this musical adaptation of Victor Hugo’s masterwork, inspired by firsthand experiences during the Paris June Rebellion of 1832. Prisoner Jean Valjean (Gavin Swartz ’23) serves 19 years for a petty crime of poverty but spends decades evading obsessed police captain Javert (Rhodes Martinez ’22). Valjean begins life anew, atoning in part by raising Cosette (Hailey Brown ’21, older; Ivy Glenn, younger), daughter of the ill-fated Fantine (Caroline Fai ’22).
12 Nobles SPRING 2020
Insidious innkeepers Madame Thénardier (Vivian Tao ’22) and Monsieur Thénardier (Kam Bina ’22) kept theatregoers in stitches. Their daughter, Eponine (Molly Hughes ’23, older; Sophia Lyons, younger), has her heart set on romantic dreamer Marius (David Hermanson ’23) but sublimates her feelings and gives her life to seal his happiness with Cosette. Revolutionaries Enjolras (Chris Tillen ’23), young Gavroche (Jonathan Tillen) and all their countrymen die for their ideals at the barricade—but Marius and Valjean
are spared. Valjean and Javert continue their existential struggle, as each strives for resolution, absolution and ultimately peace. The dazzling show was also made possible by stage manager Celia Dorsey ’21, instrumental director Antonio Berdugo and a 21-member orchestra composed of Sixies to seniors; choral director Nhung Truong honing harmonies with 47 vocalists; and choreographers Jillian Kinard and Anna Calamare directing debauchery
to defiance. The scenic design of Erik Diaz, with the help of master electrician Michael Polebaum ’08, resurrected 19th-century Paris, with a revolve that infused scenes and transitions with magic. Costume designer Josie Guevara-Torres created costumes. Dramaturg Talya Sokoll informed historical context. These and other members of the team estimate roughly 13,000 combined hours were poured into the production.
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by the numbers
ASSEMBLY
16
Number of weeks assembly was held under a tent
22 Books tossed by Mr. Bussey in the final assembly of 2019
136 Playlists put together by the booth crew for assemblies each year (based on 34 weeks of school)
Number of times the Sixies’ holiday plays have been performed since the inaugural performance in 1947
68 HOURS
7
Time a Nobles student spends in assembly during 6 (or 4) years at school: 4,080 min (7-12) / 2,720 min (9-12) based on 20-minute assemblies 4x per week
Heads of school who have presided over assembly at Nobles
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73
Average number of faculty who stand along the “wall” each day
1
20
Pulitzer Prize–winning sociobiologist who has spoken at long assembly: (E.O. Wilson)
828 Seats in the new Lawrence Auditorium
sports
Caroline Ducharme ’21 lays one up in the NEPSAC semifinal game vs. Bradford Christian Academy.
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sports
On the Playing Fields ALPINE SKIING Girls Overall Record: 36-0 (ISL Champions, 10th consecutive year) Boys Overall Record: 35-13 (4th in ISL) Girls NEPSAC Class A Championships:
4th place
Boys NEPSAC Class A Championships:
3rd place
All-League: Ellie Batchelder ’24, Hannah
Epstein ’21 and Caitlin FitzMaurice ’22
All-New England: Ellie Batchelder ’24,
Hannah Epstein ’21 and Zach Myers ’23 Awards: James H. Bride Ski Bowl (for enthusiasm, spirit and sportsmanship): Reese Dickinson and Wyatt Ellison, both ’20. Coaches’ Award (for selfless attitude and consistent effort): Katie Doyle ’21, Hannah Epstein ’21, Matt Kirkman ’20 and Toby Urell ’20 2020 Captains: Ben Clifford, Katie Doyle and Hannah Epstein, all ’21 BOYS VARSITY BASKETBALL Overall Record: 12-14 ISL Record: 7-8 (9th in ISL) NEPSAC Class A Tournament:
Quarterfinalists All-League: Reid Ducharme ’23
All-League Honorable Mention:
Brendan McNamara ’22 Awards: Clarke Bowl (for contribution to team spirit): Duke Ferrara ’21 1983-’84 Basketball Award (for the player who best exemplifies the spirit, dedication, determination, attitude and improvement of the 1983-’84 team): Jack Freeman ’20 GIRLS VARSITY BASKETBALL Overall Record: 27-3 ISL Record: 12-0 (1st place)
New England Class AA Champions All-League: Caroline Ducharme ’21, Sydney Jones ’21 and Lauren Keohan ’20 All-League Honorable Mention: Caroline Keating ’21 and Chayil Mauristhene ’23 ISL MVP: Caroline Ducharme ’21 All-New England: Caroline Ducharme ’21, Sydney Jones ’21 and Lauren Keohan ’20 NEPSAC MVP: Caroline Ducharme ’21 Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year: Caroline Ducharme ’21 Awards: Seadale Bowl (given by the Seadale family for overall contribution to the basketball program): Lauren Keohan ’20. Richard Nickerson Award (in honor of the longtime coach,
Hannah Epstein ’21
awarded to a non-senior for courage and determination): Chayil Mauristhene ’23 2020 Captains: Caroline Ducharme, Sydney Jones and Caroline Keating, all ’21 BOYS VARSITY HOCKEY Overall Record: 18-6-3 ISL Record: 11-2-1 (2nd in ISL) NEPSAC Stuart/Corkery Tournament:
Quarterfinalists All-League: Colby Bailey ’20, Jack Cronin ’20, David Jacobs ’21, Casey Severo ’20 and Marc Smith ’20 All-League Honorable Mention: Peirce Kenney ’20, Robert Lapsley ’20, Aidan Lyons ’22, Will Moore ’20 and Roman Tacelli ’22 All-New England Honorable Mention:
Casey Severo ’20 Awards: Terry Flaman Award (for the JV
Season Highlights ■
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Girls varsity squash won the ISL Championship for the eighth consecutive year and won the US High School Division II Squash National Championship. Girls varsity basketball won the ISL Championship and Class AA New England Tournament, and Caroline Ducharme ’21 was named Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year. Girls varsity hockey won the ISL Championship and the NEPSAC Chuck Vernon Elite Tournament. Girls varsity skiing had an undefeated season and won the
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■
■ ■
ISL Championship for the 10th consecutive year. Nannette Chatman ‘22 wrestled in the first ever New England Independent School Wrestling Association women’s tournament match. Boys varsity basketball and boys varsity hockey both qualified for the NEPSAC tournaments. All four winter girls varsity teams swept the ISL championships for the sixth time in the last eight years.
Nannette Chatman ’22
player who demonstrates spirit, enthusiasm and love of hockey as exemplified by Terry Flaman): Joe Bianchi ’21. 1974 Award (for improvement in hockey): Will Friedman ’22. Sziklas Hockey Trophy (for contribution to the team): Will Moore ’20 GIRLS VARSITY HOCKEY Overall Record: 32-0-1 ISL Record: 12-0-0 (ISL Champions)
NEPSAC Chuck Vernon Elite Tournament Champions All-League: Ellie Bayard ’21, Katie Pyne ’21, Kaley MacDonald ’22 and Emmy O’Leary ’22 Honorable Mention: Cassidy Piersiak ’20 and Taylor Hyland ’21 NEPSAC MVP: Taylor Hyland ’21 NEPSAC Division I First Team: Ellie Bayard, Taylor Hyland and Katie Pyne, all ’21 Awards: Anne Dudley Newell Hockey Cup (for dedication and excellence): Katie Armstrong, Maeve Connolly and Cassidy Piersiak, all ’20 BOYS VARSITY SQUASH Overall Record: 10-9 ISL Record: 5-4 (4th place) NEISA Class A Championships: 12th place All-League: Jake Koeppel ’21 All-NEPSAC 1st Team: Jake Koeppel ’21 All-NEPSAC 2nd Team: Andrew Lazor ’21 Award: Cutler Cup (awarded to the
Casey Severo ’20
member of the team who has shown the greatest devotion to the sport): Jake Koeppel ’21 2020 Captains: Jake Koeppel ’21 and Andrew Lazor ’21 GIRLS VARSITY SQUASH Overall Record: 15-2 ISL Record: 8-0 (ISL Champions, 8th
consecutive year)
NEISA Class A Championships: 5th place Division 2 US High School Squash National Champions All-League: Charlotte Bell ’22, Becca Gill ’20, Abby Holding ’21 All-League Honorable Mention:
Kait Schuster ’21
NEPSAC Division I First Team:
Charlotte Bell ’22
NEPSAC Division I Second Team:
Becca Gill ’20, Abby Holding ’21
NEPSAC Honorable Mention:
Kait Schuster ’21
Award: Cutler Cup (awarded to the
member of the team who has shown the greatest devotion to the sport): Becca Gill ’20 2020 Captains: Abby Holding and Kait Schuster, both ’21 VARSITY WRESTLING Overall Record: 14-3 ISL Record: 10-2, 3rd-place team at
Graves-Kelsey Tournament All-League: Peyton Rose ’22
(Graves-Kelsey 1st place at 195 lbs.)
Honorable Mention: Tancrede Roy ’23
(Graves-Kelsey 4th place at 106 lbs.), Rohan Meier ’22 (Graves-Kelsey 4th place at 113 lbs.), Aidin Bina ’24 (GravesKelsey 4th place at 120 lbs.), Max Hall ’22 (Graves-Kelsey 4th place at 152 lbs.) and Philip Spyrou ’21 (Graves-Kelsey 4th place at 170 lbs.)
Additional Graves-Kelsey Place Finishers:
Charles Wang ’23 (5th place at 126 lbs.), Ethan Anderson ’22 (5th place at 132 lbs.), Sam Jankey ’20 (5th place at 160 lbs.), Liam Nawara ’20 (5th place at 182 lbs.) and Darnel Cineas ’21 (6th place at 220 lbs.) All-New England: Peyton Rose ’22 (NEISWA 2nd place at 195 lbs.) Additional NEISWA Place Finishers: Women’s New Englands: Nannette Chatman ’22 (5th place at 105 lbs.); Men’s New Englands: Rohan Meier ’22 (6th place at 113 lbs.), Aidin Bina ’24 (7th place at 120 lbs.) and Max Hall ’22 (5th place at 152 lbs.) Awards: Warren E. Storer Award (for hard work and improvement): Darnel Cineas ’21 and Samuel Jankey ’20. Wilbur F. Storer Award (for the most outstanding wrestler): Peyton Rose ’22. Steve Toubman Award (for sportsmanship, leadership and dedication to wrestling, exemplified by Coach Toubman’s coaching career): Chris Millay ’20 2020 Captains: Darnel Cineas and Philip Spyrou, both ’21
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off the shelf
EVER CURSED BY COREY ANN HAYDU ’01
(Simon Pulse, July 2020) Are princesses good and witches bad? If only it were so simple. In this twisted fairy tale, the witch and bewitched alternate perspective to share a story as old as time. In Ever Cursed, Corey Ann Haydu embraces and inverts many aspects of the genre, including the innocence of wronged royalty, the infallibility of kings, the sweet allure of a peasant boy, the isolation of the tower. In her fifth novel for young adults, Haydu introduces five princesses, siblings each living with the curse of having lost one essential thing: the ability to eat, sleep, love, remember or hope. Their mother has been imprisoned in an unbreakable glass box. The spell-making culprit, young Reagan, was among the witches who was meant to be a protector of the kingdom. Instead, she seems to have doomed Jane—the princess who cannot eat—and her
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sisters to death, or utter dependence or despondence. When Princess Eden’s curse sets in on her 13th birthday, the princesses are given the opportunity to break the curse, preventing it from becoming a True Spell, which cannot be undone. Before and after the curse, Jane has trusted, loved and respected her father. But when his resolve to break the spell is shown to be weak, she begins to reexamine the beloved king and father and the way subjects of the kingdom “call him Good and Gentle, but maybe only because he likes to be called Good and Gentle.” The text takes on big themes—sacrificing for those we love, what it means to be seen or made invisible, being damaged or hollow, ideas around tradition (including gender and sexuality norms), and the significance of rules. If the list sounds didactic, Haydu makes revelations around these subjects anything but heavy-handed. Not all is grim in this tale. A lot to unpack? Yes. Worth the effort? Definitely. Much is playful and whimsical
and touches on the essence of adolescence as when the witch Reagan considers her grandmother’s admonitions that magic is for maintaining the peace. “She has to say this to me over and, because my magic was never quite in my control, and I always smiled too big at the way it ricocheted off me, turning pansies into palm trees, turning golden hair green, making rivers from puddles.” If this fairy tale has a message, it’s that young women (and peasants and witches and everyone!) can be brave in different ways—can call upon a bit of magic trapped within. And, while the outcome might not be a simple happily-everafter, the sparkles of truth and hope are what make change. Haydu is the author of OCD Love Story, Rules for Stealing Stars, Eventown, and several other critically acclaimed young adult and children’s novels. She currently teaches at the MFA Writing for Children program at Vermont College of Fine Arts and lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and daughter. Learn more at CoreyAnnHaydu.com.
EXCERPT Through the eyes of the young witch Reagan: “I needed the king to suffer,” I say weakly, “so I hurt the princesses. You all taught me about justice and that was—” “You didn’t just hurt princesses,” Aunt Idle says. “You think of spells as small. But they are huge. A spell is like an infection, Reagan. It gets to everyone nearby. It can spread through an entire kingdom. Making the whole place diseased.” I’d forgotten about the force of her sighs. They are hurricanes of disapproval. It’s awful to be caught in one. … “The princesses,” I say. “The princesses are afraid.” “But not the king,” Aunt Idle says. “He hasn’t been afraid a single day since you cast your spell. Not one moment.” “That can’t be true,” I say. “His wife is—and his children are—” “Yes. Well. It’s quite a disease, your Spell of Without. The men, they simply love it, most of them. Even the king.” … “Ever has always loved keeping people in their places,” my aunt says. “Witches on a hill. Princesses in a castle. And now a queen in a box.”
my books...
STRUGGLES WITH SPACE
THOMAS FORTEITH, ENGLISH FACULTY
It has long been a truism that writers increase intensity and suspense by reducing time and space. I have become increasingly fascinated by how the latter functions in literature. I believe that our freedom of physical movement—or the absence of that freedom—comes to define us. Our identities are inextricably tied up in how we, quite literally, move through space. My sense of self has evolved with the shifts in my occupied spaces: growing up in Texas, moving to a high-rise apartment in Chicago, and now living in the suburbs of Boston. In each of the following books, the protagonist must wrestle with a changing physical environment. This struggle with space comes to influence the sense of self as it relates to race, gender, sexuality and even violence. DISGRACE, BY J.M. COETZEE Winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize for Literature, the South African novelist J.M. Coetzee is probably the writer I most admire. His works are not for the faint of heart; every sentence feels like a snake ready to strike. Disgrace is no exception. Professor Davie Lurie is expelled from his university in Cape Town after an affair with a student. He leaves his urban ivory tower to live with his estranged daughter on her small and struggling farm. Shortly after his arrival, his daughter becomes the victim of a brutal crime while Lurie is locked in an adjacent bathroom. Disgrace serves as an almost claustrophobic study of sexuality, but it also explores the tensions simmering just below the surface in post-apartheid South Africa. CLOSE RANGE: WYOMING STORIES, BY ANNIE PROULX As with Disgrace, this collection explores the relationship between violence and sexuality, between physical boundaries and emotional distance. Close Range includes the novella Brokeback Mountain, which inspired Ang Lee’s amazing movie adaptation (I’m still frustrated that it did not win Best Picture!). The barren and beautiful landscape of Wyoming—perhaps the central character—batters the inhabitants of these stories, who are left hardened and vulnerable in equal measure. At times they seem set adrift against a seemingly endless rural expanse; in other moments they are trapped in the cab of a pick-up truck. The men and women in these pages are broken, but, as Ennis Del Mar observes in Brokeback Mountain, “If you can’t fix it, you gotta stand it.” DANIEL DERONDA, BY GEORGE ELIOT Published in 1876, Eliot’s final novel differs from her previous works in that it is the only one published in her contemporary Europe. Through the struggles of her two primary characters (the titular Deronda and his sometimes companion Gwendolyn Harleth), she describes a continent in flux; rural communities have been replaced by urban societies. Central conflicts occur not in farms, but in casinos; not on wagons, but on trains. With little success, Deronda seeks to end his sense of displacement and homelessness through
the embrace of Zionism, Harleth through a career on the stage. Crises of religion, gender and morality are central. Eliot subtly articulates the ambivalence and ambiguity of the era in her opening description of Harleth: “Was she beautiful or not beautiful?”
ANOTHER COUNTRY, BY JAMES BALDWIN While not as widely read as some of his other works, Baldwin’s 1962 novel is a master study in marginalization based on race, gender and sexual orientation. The lives of eight central characters—many aspiring artists—intersect on the busy streets, crowded apartments and smoky bars of New York City. The city itself seems to toy with its inhabitants, limiting their freedoms and manipulating their sense of identity. As is the case in Daniel Deronda, most are left without a sense of home. Baldwin’s words from the opening chapter eloquently describe this isolation: “He felt totally estranged from the city in which he had been born; this city for which he sometimes felt a kind of stony affection...Yet he had no home here... He began to wonder if anyone could ever put down roots on this rock; or, rather, he began to be aware of the shapes acquired by those who had.” PHILOCTETES, BY SOPHOCLES I wanted to include at least one book I teach, and this text certainly fits with the notion of being left rootless on a rock! Friend and former colleague Sarah Snyder first introduced me to the play, and I find a new wisdom in it with each reading. Philoctetes was a great warrior and a great hero—the master of Herakles’ bow. En route to Troy, he is bitten by a serpent, and his shipmates, no longer able to stand his tortured screams, leave him on the island of Lemnos, where he lives alone in a cave for 10 years. The play opens at the end of that period, when Odysseus and Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, return to the island to implore Philoctetes to rejoin the campaign against Troy. The play not only acts as an extended metaphor for the post-traumatic stress experienced by veterans, but it also poses timeless questions regarding the frequent conflict between personal morality and the greater good.
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graduate affairs
Nobles Athletics Hall of Fame 2020 Inductees On the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Nobles Athletics Hall of Fame, this year’s exceptional class of inductees included talented standouts on the individual, team and coaching fronts.
was a legendary coach who impacted the lives of many Nobles athletes. He spent nearly half a century on the Nobles campus, first as a student and later returning as a teacher and coach. Flood was a star athlete during his time as a student. He was the quarterback of the football team and a pitcher on the baseball team. On the ice, he centered the first line and was the league-leading scorer his senior year. After graduating from Nobles, Flood went on to play hockey and baseball at Williams College. In 1967, he came back to Nobles and coached the hockey team for 20 years and the baseball team for nearly a decade.
coached by Tim Carey, was undefeated. The team was composed of a number of sectionally and nationally ranked junior players including Jennifer Lane ’88 and co-captains Kristen Bland ’85 and Velina Rhodes ’85. Velina earned a three-year singles record of 31-1-2, and Kristen remained undefeated for four years with a 44-0-4 record. In doubles, they also dominated and stood undefeated their junior and senior years with a record of 42-0-1. Lane, inducted into the 2015 Nobles Athletics Hall of Fame and a four-year league all-star, never lost a single set. Carey noted that the success of this extraordinary group boiled down to the team’s skill and depth, the players’ good humor and devotion to one another, and their joy in working hard and creating team harmony that made them feel unbeatable.
1985 Tennis: While girls tennis won the
Chris Owen ’00 was a major contributor
Dick Flood Jr. ’53
ISL in 1983 and 1984, the 1985 team,
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to Nobles’ hockey and golf programs,
playing for five years on each team. Owen captained the hockey team his senior year and led the team to a successful season, winning 21 games and finishing second in the league. He ended his career with 185 points, 72 goals and 113 assists, the second-highest-leading scorer in Nobles history. He was a two-time all-league and All–New England player. On the golf team, Owen was a four-time allleague player and impressively held the number-one spot on the team for five years. As an eighth-grader, he won the ISL tournament, and his freshman year, he led the team to their first ISL win in the history of Nobles boys golf. After graduating from Nobles, Owen went on to play hockey at Princeton. Marissa Gedman ’10
played ice hockey, field hockey and softball, captaining all three sports. She was All-ISL for all three sports and led the 2009 softball team to an undefeated championship season. Her ice hockey team won New England championships in 2008 and 2009, and she was on the hockey team that won the 10th-consecutive ISL title. Gedman was selected as the 2010 Boston Bruins John Carlton Award recipient. Outside of Nobles, Gedman led her club team to five national championships and helped the U.S. U18 team to a silver medal at the 2010 IIHF World Championships. After graduating, Gedman went on to play ice hockey at Harvard and the new NWHL with the Boston Pride. She returned to Nobles to teach and coach.
Top and left: Lawrence Auditorium after its completion. Bottom right: Just weeks before the completion of the renovation, Patsy Lawrence (front) poses with other members of the Lawrence family: Weezie and Rob Lawrence; William and Fran Keene; and Jeff and Craig Lawrence.
LAWRENCE AUDITORIUM REOPENS Lawrence Auditorium has become synonymous with the essence of the Nobles community—that is, assembly. Ask graduates of the school from any era, and it’s likely they’ll recall an assembly moment that still resonates: how it built character, taught humility, or inspired them to laugh or cry. The renovation of Lawrence Auditorium, named for the late Robert A. “Bobby” Lawrence ’44, was completed in January
PHOTOGRAPHY BY: ROBERT BENSON AND JARED LEEDS
2020. Bobby Lawrence was named Distinguished Graduate at Nobles in 1987. He began dating his wife, Patsy, in 1941. The couple’s three sons, Rob ’68, Jeff ’69 and George ’72, graduated from Nobles. Patsy and Bobby also have a daughter, Frannie. A granddaughter, Perrin Lawrence Hicks ’97, also graduated from the school that her grandfather and the Rev. Ted Gleason shepherded to coeducation. SPRING 2020 Nobles 21
Time to reflect, refocus, rebuild. We’ve all noted that it’s 2020—a new decade— and with a presidential election approaching, a Covid-19 pandemic dominating the headlines, and the stock market reeling, no one is bored. No one is immune to anxiety. Where do we find hope? We look to the creativity, tenacity and optimism of our community. We acknowledge those who are unafraid to choose a less conventional path. We choose to see humor, find adventure, and seek meaning and progress. We are sensitive, maybe, but we are not too fragile. Meet these grads whose missions align with Nobles’ own, which holds up inspiration, levity and commitment to others.
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2020: Time to reflect, refocus, rebuild
Spiritual Service for the Public Good CATHY QUINN ’92, ASSISTANT PASTOR AT ST. ELIZABETH’S EPISCOPAL PARISH JOSHUA CUTLER ’66, CO-DIRECTOR, TIBETAN LEARNING CENTER EDWIN JOHNSON ’00, RECTOR OF ST. MARY’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH RICHARD WHITELEY ’58, TEACHER AND PRACTITIONER OF SHAMANISM KIMBERLY SCHLIESMANN ’82, CATHOLIC CHAPLAIN
24 Nobles SPRING 2020
IN 1998, MORE THAN 5,000 PEOPLE TRAVELED to the small town of Washington, New Jersey,
to the Tibetan Learning Center (TBLC) to see the Dalai Lama. This event was one of eight meetings Joshua Cutler ’66, a Buddhist and co-director of the TBLC, has had with perhaps the most well-known spiritual icon on the planet. “I first met the Dalai Lama in 1972, and he has been my role model ever since,” says Cutler. “Through his teachings and writings and how he puts them into practice, he exemplifies someone who has used the potential that each of us has for good.” Whether it is the Dalai Lama or a local rabbi, priest or mystic, people have turned to spiritual leaders for ages to find hope and seek meaning. Among these leaders and mentors are a number of Nobles graduates who are living lives focused on channeling spirituality in all its varied forms to bring people together and lift them up. Spirituality is the lens through which they see the best in the human condition.
MORE SIMILAR THAN DIFFERENT
Spirituality can serve as the great equalizer among individuals, promoting the realization that, regardless of specific faiths, they are more alike than not. This sense of commonality is a pervasive theme in spiritual philosophies. Cathy Quinn ’92, an assistant pastor at St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal parish in Ridgewood, New Jersey, reiterates this truth, saying, “We are spiritual creatures. We are all interconnected and have an impact on the world. Whatever your faith, you still need to understand how we all fit together.” As spiritual beings, people are all searching to find meaning in their lives and grasp the beauty and suffering that are inherent to living. This belief is not solely the foundation of the Judeo-Christian mindset but is a core principle of non-Western religions as well. Since graduating from Harvard, Cutler has studied and taught Buddhism. He has worked with hundreds of students and monks, as well as translated texts from Tibetan to English. “If everyone understood that
we are very alike and did not hold an us vs. them mentality, and embraced internal disarmament,” Cutler says, “the world would be a better place.” He believes that when these mental barriers and obstacles are removed, society will be more inclusive and accepting, core values of Buddhism. “Compassion is allinclusive—the most important message of Buddhism is inclusion,” he remarks. “In my work, I include everyone and offer them an ethical approach to life so that we can do something about the partisan world of today.”
STRONGER TOGETHER
Spiritual connections may be the most powerful of all because they can positively change lives and build relationships that embolden communities for good. They remind us that no one is truly alone. A native of Dorchester, Edwin Johnson ’00 knew from an early age that he wanted to have a career focused on spiritual work to help others live their best lives. He vividly remembers watching a baptism at his church when he was
Reverend Edwin Johnson ’00 in his parish, St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, in Dorchester.
5 years old and knew that his calling in life was to baptize others into a life of faith. Even as a young child he understood that “spirituality is ultimately what connects us to what is greater than ourselves. It helps us to transcend needs and desires and find deeper meaning— then connect this meaning to make lasting connections in the here and now.” PHOTO BY MICHAEL PIAZZA
Today, as rector of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Dorchester, Johnson works to raise this awareness in his community to make a tangible impact. “We have many challenges in our world,” Johnson states. “If we only deal with what is in front of us—call us to something greater—we would not act as solitary individuals but as a generation of people
who can promote positive change.” Such change can be seen each week in his parish through the work of its food pantry, which feeds more than 600 families, and through the support his parish provides to immigrant families. St. Mary’s is a sanctuary parish and offers a safe haven for immigrants who are likely to be detained or deported. SPRING 2020 Nobles 25
2020: Time to reflect, refocus, rebuild
Name: Cathy Quinn ’92, Assistant Rector Homebase: St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church in Ridgewood, New Jersey Quick thought: “As a perpetual student, I am growing and learning all the time. Being a part of an active community that welcomes all faiths is so important because we have a chance to be and work together and learn.” Name: Joshua Cutler ’66, Co-Director Homebase: Tibetan Learning Center in Washington, New Jersey Quick thought: “Spirituality is about the mind. If you can control your mind you can control your negative tendencies and focus on good. Every human being has this power—this potential.” Name: Edwin Johnson ’00, Rector Homebase: St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Boston, Massachusetts Quick thought: “At Nobles, I came into contact with other religions for the first time—Jewish, Muslim, atheist. I loved the diversity of the environment and understood that people are good regardless of what religion they are.“ Name: Richard Whiteley* ’58, Teacher and Shaman Practitioner Homebase: Boston, Massachusetts Quick thought: “Shamanism is a way of being, not a religion, that is grounded in humility, care, fun and learning. I would never call myself a Shaman because I have too much respect for the work. I am a Shaman practitioner and happy to be one.” Name: Kimberly Schliesmann ’82, Catholic Chaplain at Children’s Medical Center Homebase: Dallas, Texas Quick thought: “I help people notice where the meaning is in their lives—to help them find the meaning in their suffering. They tell me where their God is and not the other way around.”
*Whiteley died unexpectedly during the production of this issue. Please see his obituary on page 61. 26 Nobles SPRING 2020
These community connections are rooted in compassion, leading people to act with kindness and mercy. Quinn believes that this type of behavior is precisely what the world needs now. She acknowledges that church attendance may be dropping and more people are becoming disillusioned, yet she sees firsthand the critical role that spiritual communities play in our culture. “Being a part of a community of faith, whatever it is that you believe, gives people the understanding that they are not alone,” says Quinn. “I am doing my best to make the world a better place by helping people experience that they are never alone, that compassion goes a long way, and there really isn’t much more important to our future than how we treat one another right now.” Her own parish community demonstrates this by welcoming other faiths, including inviting rabbis to come and speak during their services and inviting the local Muslim community to offer an Iftar, the evening meal with which Muslims end their daily Ramadan fast at sunset.
OPEN TO UNDERSTANDING
Richard Whiteley ’58 is a Harvard Business School-educated entrepreneur and author who today defines himself as a teacher and practitioner of Shamanism. Shamanism involves interacting with the spiritual world to bring forces and energies back to this world. Whiteley first became exposed to Shamanism in the early 1990s, when he was running The Forum Foundation, a 700-person global training and consulting company that he had co-founded two decades earlier. During a business retreat, he took part in a meditation session that involved working with clay. “At some point during this experience, I realized that I was no longer the one molding and working with the clay. My psyche said go, and I went. The work was being done through me, and when it was over, I had created an image of a Shaman.” He took this as a sign and
began pouring himself into learning all he could about the practice of Shamanism in an effort to educate himself and others. Since then, he has used this knowledge to teach his students to find solutions and enlightenment through spiritual journeying, a common Shamanic exercise. “My purpose in life is to help individuals rediscover their spirit,” reflects Whiteley. “The goal of journeying is to identify one’s ‘power animal,’ an animal that serves to represent an individual or group and whose character traits provide direction and foresight. By discovering one’s ‘power animal,’ individuals become reenergized and refocused on their goals—both personal and professional.” Whiteley is not about selling Shamanism, but rather opening minds to other viewpoints and paths
with others, not in a forceful way, but rather to offer opportunities to others to find meaning in their lives that they may not have known existed.
DOING THE HARD WORK
Educated in the Ignatius tradition, Kimberly Schliesmann ’82 is a Catholic chaplain at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, who focuses on teaching others a spiritual path toward learning, loving and serving God in the way of St. Ignatius Loyola. She acknowledges that embracing this path is neither easy nor passive. “I focus on exercises for a spiritual life that leads to gratitude and a life of service. This requires a contemplative but active life,” says Schliesmann. “One must be compelled to work for justice and fight for human decency—all humans
“ I am doing my best to make the world a better place by helping people experience that they are never alone, that compassion goes a long way, and there really isn’t much more important to our future than how we treat one another right now.”
—CATHY QUINN ’92
through his own education and experiences, all in the service of helping others. While Shamanism and Buddhism are vastly different in their spiritual traditions, both Whiteley and Cutler embrace the same viewpoint when it comes to teaching. “For me, it is not about converting people to Buddhism,” remarks Cutler. “Rather, it is about opening up a huge body of knowledge—anyone can take what is helpful to them. One needs to analyze Buddha’s teachings for oneself and draw their own conclusions.” Being open to new ways of thinking is inherent to all forms of spirituality. One must be willing to expand their philosophical horizons and share their conclusions
regardless of their religion or background. Everyone is special and created by God, and we need them all to help heal the world.” Real change will only occur if people take action—acting upon their spiritual beliefs and good intentions to drive positive change. Embracing social justice can require making difficult spiritual choices. Johnson and his parishioners chose the path less taken by declaring their parish, St. Mary’s in Dorchester, a sanctuary church. The fact that immigrants can find solace and safety at St. Mary’s is a cornerstone of its social justice ministry. “At times, civil disobedience is necessary because we have a moral obligation to uphold the
dignity of all people,” states Johnson. “As a church, we believe we have a mission to bless others in the religious sense, but also in the neighborhood sense of improving the lives of those around us.” It is not enough to be a spiritually compassionate person. One must act on this in their daily life by making, at times, hard decisions and doing the hard work.
A PATH TO JOY
Spirituality can provide hope for a better, more joyful, tomorrow—a critical message today as ongoing crises propagate a sense of societal despair and alienation. Schliesmann sees this impact firsthand through her daily work comforting terminally ill patients, counseling grieving families, and helping to make sense of death for doctors grappling with loss. “I see people at their most sad, broken and vulnerable moments, and yet they are still hopeful,” she says. “It is beautiful work, and my patients give me a deeper belief in love and God and hope.” During these particularly dark and challenging moments, when the world seems broken and life feels too much to bear, spirituality may offer a vital sense of hope and serve as a remedy to heal both social divides and ourselves. In this hope lies a sense of joy that arguably each person seeks in their life. Quinn addresses the importance of joy, saying, “Studies show that the mind works better when yoga, meditation, gratitude are focused on—spirituality begets joy. And the world needs more joy.” A more joyful world will inherently be more inclusive, more full of meaning, more community-focused, more enlightened and more peaceful. This is why spirituality matters. Whiteley embodies this intention. “My life’s purpose is to help individuals and organizations rediscover their spirit,” he says. “I think that is quite noble. No pun intended.” —CASEY HASSENSTEIN SPRING 2020 Nobles 27
What attracted you to politics? MG: I kind of stumbled into it and caught the bug. What I really love about politics is the ability to talk to folks who don’t think that their voice matters. It’s a really powerful way to make folks aware of how important their voice is for their community.
Is that an easy message for people to hear and believe? MG: I think it takes time and practice. For new voters, it’s about talking to them about what their vote can change. Really listening to voters and making it clear that we hear them is crucial, and teaching them about how the system can work for them and how our candidate can help.
How difficult is it for you and for the voters you interact with to maintain optimism?
Maya Getter ’13
Primary Colors MAYA GETTER ’13, REGIONAL POLITICAL DIRECTOR
TWO DAYS AFTER THE NEW HAMPSHIRE PRIMARY, Michael Polebaum ’08, a former Democratic political consultant, spoke with Maya Getter ’13, who served as a regional political director for the Warren for President campaign in New Hampshire and later as a strategic engagement associate in Florida. Since graduating from the University of Southern California in 2017, Getter has been involved in multiple political campaigns on the local, state and now national level.
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MG: I cannot imagine myself doing anything else given the current state of affairs. I am relentlessly optimistic that I am able to change this country. That is why I do this work. For the folks I work with, what we try really hard to do is make it clear what a candidate can do, regardless of the race, to help them achieve their goals.
When did this drive to make change kick in? MG: During my first campaign, I knocked on a door with two hours left until the polls closed. The woman at the door told me that she had no intention of voting that day as she didn’t really know about the race. But we started to talk about movies and our shared interests. Suddenly, she said she was going to get her coat and go vote because she trusted me. That was the moment I realized that these conversations matter. PHOTO BY KIM NEAL
Why do you feel obligated to do this work? MG: I remember Mr. Henderson talking about leadership for the public good, day in and day out. Nobles is a school with such tremendous privilege, yet it still made it a point to remind its students of their responsibility to the world. Secondly, as a bisexual black woman, I straddled a lot of worlds where I held marginalized identities but still had the opportunities that protected me from some of the terrible things that happen to black queer women. I feel an innate need to give back to those communities. I’ve always wanted to be like [faculty members] John Hirsch or Peter Raymond, who always went out of their way to try to make my life a little bit better.
With the start of a new decade, how optimistic are you for our country in the next 10 years? MG: I am really proud of the work that has been done in the last few years to build out the bench for future candidates. There are so many organizations out there that are helping to convince people who wouldn’t consider themselves as the traditional candidate to run. You don’t get what you don’t fight for, and you definitely don’t get what you don’t ask for, and people are now fighting a lot harder. —MICHAEL POLEBAUM ’08
Getter with Senator Elizabeth Warren
Racing Toward the Goal DENNA LAING ’10, THE FIGHTER
THE BOSTON SKIES HOVER A BRILLIANT BLUE over the iconic Gillette Stadium on this perfect New Year’s Eve afternoon, the final day of 2015, and one that will change the face of women’s hockey, and the life of Boston Pride’s Denna Laing, in unprecedented and unimaginable ways. Laing and her team get dressed at a nearby Foxboro rink, and from there they will receive a police escort over to Gillette Stadium—when they step on the ice against Montréal, they will be the first women’s team to be showcased at the Winter Classic and the first NWHL team to play a CWHL team. Laing laughs as she reflects on the hectic morning leading up to the game, explaining how they were asked to get on and off the bus several times, lacing and unlacing their skates due to some indecision about whether or not they should wear them over to Gillette. Fully dressed, they eventually load the bus and enter the stadium through the tunnel, the anticipation palpable for this group of women about to make their mark on the history of women’s hockey. “When we got to the rink,” Laing recalls, “the locker room was outfitted with all sorts of Winter Classic gear. Everyone was trying it on, and we were having a great time. … It was just an exciting day with a lot of history and importance behind it. … It was an absolutely amazing rink to play on.” Laing is comfortable as she begins to talk about the three shifts before the injury that changed her life: “It was definitely a sunny day, a clear day,” she describes, “and I don’t remember it being that cold. My whole entire family was there, and I have a picture of these tickets lined up. My mom got over 100 tickets. I had a lot of friends there, a lot of family.” Her athletic doggedness is immediately evident as she describes the beginning of the first period: “I had a couple of shifts,” she says, pausing as the critic in her replays the moments in her head, “and I wasn’t playing my best hockey. The last shift I went out there and I told myself that I had to really pick it up and skate my hardest—and I think I had a better shift that last shift.” SPRING 2020 Nobles 29
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“ I definitely have a lot of teammates. ... Some of them have been my family as a team, some of my teammates have come from sports growing up, and some of my team has been my doctors and trainers and nurses. ... If you have that good support system, it’s a lot easier to fall and to fail, because you know that they’re going to be there to catch you.” —DENNA LAING ’10
Determined to have a better shift than her previous one, Laing was digging in with every stride when the injury happened. “I was racing for a puck against one of the Montréal players,” Laing recalls, “and I ended up falling, sliding head first into the end boards.” Laing was brought off the ice on a stretcher and straight to Mass General Hospital, where she would have a seven-hour surgery—she had suffered a spinal cord injury and a broken neck, had limited mobility in her arms and no sensation in her legs. The journey ahead of her would be an arduous one, to say the least, but if anyone was prepared for the challenge, it was Laing. After being in the ICU for two weeks, Laing was then moved to Spaulding Rehab inpatient, where she remained until May 2016, learning to do things adaptively. Not surprisingly, she was in physical therapy and occupational therapy daily, always giving 100 percent. Laing took only one day off during her months at Spaulding, and that day was Easter. Since her time at Spaulding Rehab, Laing has worked tirelessly with her support team at Journey Forward, a non-profit dedicated to bettering the lives of those with spinal cord injuries or disabilities. “It’s definitely frustrating, and it’s definitely slow,” Laing says of her rehabilitation journey. “But the mentality I’ve gained from sports growing up, and hockey particularly, is that never-give-up attitude, and it’s been really important 30 Nobles SPRING 2020
through the whole recovery process. … It’s slow, but the little improvements and the little moments add up to bigger, more important moments. It’s really about having a lot of patience, being able to believe in yourself, and being able to keep pushing yourself.” While it’s clear that much of her progress comes from her own determination and steadfast patience, Laing credits her incredible support system for many of the strides that she has made. “I definitely have a lot of teammates,” she says. “Some of them have been my family as a team, some of my teammates have come from sports growing up, and some of my team has been my doctors and trainers and nurses. … I have a lot of teammates that I don’t even know. If you have that good support system,” she says, “it’s a lot easier to fall and to fail, because you know that they’re going to be there to catch you.” The challenges that Laing has faced due to her injury have not changed her: “I think I am the same person,” she says, without hesitation. “It’s less about me changing, but maybe the way I do things—physically how I approach things—is different. How I navigate the world is different. But my mentality and my personality and who I am as a person, not much of that has changed. … The big difference is the time factor. My timeline has shifted. … So I think things are just going to take a little longer for me to get where I am going.” —ANNE HURLBUT ART CREDIT
Believing in Science BECCA LAWRENCE ’90 NATIVE PLANT RESTORATION PROGRAM SUPERVISOR AT GLACIER NATIONAL PARK ELLEN MECRAY ’86 REGIONAL CLIMATE SERVICES DIRECTOR AT NOAA ELIZABETH SODERSTROM ’80 STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS OFFICER, WATER FOUNDATION
ART CREDIT
AS GLACIERS FRACTURE AND PLUNGE, SEA LEVELS RISE, and natural disasters strike, even naysayers acknowledge a climate emergency and the need for a response. Here, the Nobles Environmental Action Club (EAC) pose their most pressing questions to graduate mentors in the field: Becca Lawrence ’90, Ellen Mecray ’86 and Elizabeth Soderstrom ’80.
Lawrence, who has worked in environmental restoration for 25 years, manages a native plant restoration program at Glacier National Park. Mecray, selected as Nobles’ 50th Earth Day Celebration speaker in April, is the regional climate services director for the eastern region at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service. Soderstrom manages strategic partnerships at the Water Foundation and has worked in water conservation and restoration for 20 years.
Nobles Environmental Action Club:
Where do you think Nobles should focus sustainability efforts, considering areas like food, curriculum and facilities?
Becca Lawrence: Since we all generally eat three meals a day, focusing on eating sustainably is incredibly important. Reducing the carbon footprint of facilities is also important; for instance, any new facilities should be net zero energy or at the minimum LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, an internationally recognized green building certification system). SPRING 2020 Nobles 31
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Ellen Mecray: Having worked with corporations and government on sustainability goals, [I know that] most focus on areas where they can see the most improvement from their baseline. Infrastructure tends to be the first area requiring attention: roadway improvements, building improvements, sustainable materials use. Elizabeth Soderstrom: Nobles might consider using the 17 UN goals on sustainability as a possible framework. Here are a few examples: ■ The first UN goal is No Poverty. Nobles could adopt procurement policies that ensure fair trade and ethical supply chains for all food and materials the school purchases. ■ For Gender Equality, a sustainability program could offer consent workshops and inclusive policies regarding gender fluidity. ■ Under Responsible Consumption and Production, Nobles might create infrastructure that supports sustainable consumption, including banning single-use plastics, encouraging reusable coffee mugs, and creating clearly marked recycling.
What should the next 50 years of environmental activism, technological innovation, mitigation of impact and cultural change look like?
BL: We need all of those components listed above, as well as looking at ways to create and promote financial incentives for businesses and industry to reduce impacts. EM: Examining the climate models and projections, we are confident in the trajectory through 2050, and likely beyond that using existing high scenarios. With that in mind, it is our responsibility to educate and to make the economic case [for] the benefits of other energy sources. There are huge opportunities in green energy and sustainable development that could reap rewards for the planet. ES: Over the next 50 years, I think we need to deeply assess our consumer culture with its focus on acquisition and consumption as the means of achieving happiness and move toward a regenerative society with a larger vision of what it means to be human that puts value on and protects global public goods, such as climate stability.
In your opinion, what is the greatest threat from climate change? BL: The intensity of severe storms, wildfires and other natural disasters seems to be increasing around the world and is threatening human populations, as well as wildlife and entire ecosystems.
“ Over the next 50 years, I think we need to deeply assess our consumer culture with its focus on acquisition and consumption as the means of achieving happiness and move toward a regenerative society with a larger vision of what it means to be human that puts value on and protects global public goods, such as climate stability.” —ELIZABETH SODERSTROM ’80 32 Nobles SPRING 2020
EM: The greatest threat with regard to our changing climate is overcoming human nature to take the easy road, to propagate disbelief, and to argue that existing technology will carry us. Each of these has an equal and opposite opportunity that we should be examining. ES: Those most vulnerable and those without a voice are at the greatest risk from climate change. These include poor communities in the developing world that depend on rainfed agriculture and [have] limited ability to adapt. Also at risk are wildlife populations and ecosystems that are already stressed from habitat loss and pollution.
What have you done personally to decrease your environmental impact? BL: For the past 10 years we have grown as much food as possible that we can fit in our 0.2-acre backyard, and the rest we buy locally if possible. Public transportation is very limited in northwest Montana, so I try to carpool and drive a fuel-efficient vehicle. With limited recycling available, we have changed what we purchase to avoid plastics going into the landfill. EM: Our family has invested in home improvements using sustainable materials. We avoid plastic and paper by using reusable tableware. And we work hard every day on the BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) of climate change. But I am currently examining the nature of my work with regard to airline flights, and the fact that I drive a car that has to be big enough for my dogs. ES: Not enough. Although our house is entirely solar-powered and I drive an electric hybrid vehicle and grow some of my own food or buy it locally, I still struggle with taming my “voracious consumerism” and responding to the “cult of the new”—both of which compel me to act on the belief that I do not have enough.
What improvements have you seen—what positive actions are being taken—to make the difference we need? BL: More people are choosing to install solar panels at their homes or drive electric vehicles, and great strides have been made in renewable energy as well as communities banning the use of plastic bags. EM: I’m really energized by the changes I’ve seen in the private sector markets, and at the state and community level. These folks are not waiting for the government to help; they are conducting their vulnerability assessments, writing their action plans, and working on funding to take the next steps. ES: One of the most positive signs of change is that conversations about the impact of and solutions related to climate change are happening everywhere, from cocktail parties to presidential debates and on the international stage. Even Pope Francis noted that voracious consumerism kills the soul and reflected on the first beatitude, which praises those who live in moderation, because they know how to live without being dominated by material goods.
Name: Becca Lawrence ’90 Homebase: Montana How Students Step Up: Since we all generally eat three meals a day, focusing on eating sustainably is incredibly important. Buy locally if possible. It would be fantastic if the Nobles community could work on an innovative solution for the nation’s recycling dilemma. ART CREDIT
I also find it hopeful that restoring natural lands or preventing them from being destroyed in the first place could deliver more than a third of the action needed by 2030 to keep global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius. Without a climate emergency, I doubt that we would be making these investments in [the] natural habitat—an investment that will have long-term biodiversity and ecosystem benefits.
BL: It would be fantastic if the Nobles community could work on coming up with an innovative solution for the nation’s recycling dilemma, including plastics and electronics. From an environmental standpoint, it makes no sense to ship our recycling anywhere, so we need some new ideas on what to do with all of our waste. EM: I’d like to see work to dispel the rumor that environmental activism is some sort of philosophy rather than
a science. I’d like to see students who can write compelling arguments on the evidence that demands we make change. I’d like to see students able to immerse themselves in the data and verbalize the facts to their communities. Students are going to be the change that we need to see. We have to demonstrate that to others. There is no other side. ES: With vivid awareness of the worst nightmare scenarios caused by climate change, I hope that new graduates of Nobles will overcome the inevitable despair, anxiety or apathy related to these scenarios and instead use this emergency as a motivation to focus on the massive project needed to change societies. I also hope that Nobles students embody the cultural changes the world needs and find the will to step off the assembly line of consumption and reject having and taking as the equivalent of being. I hope they find community, move toward a simpler and more organic life, grow food, learn a craft, and spend time understanding the old or indigenous ways of knowing, doing, connecting, and being. And in so doing, I hope they find joy and meaning. —KIM NEAL
Name: Ellen Mecray ’86 Homebase: Massachusetts How Students Step Up: Write compelling arguments on the evidence that demands we make change. I’d like to see students immerse themselves in the data and verbalize the facts to their communities. Students are going to be the change that we need to see.
Name: Elizabeth Soderstrom ’80 Homebase: California How Students Step Up: I hope Nobles students find community, move toward a simpler and more organic life, grow food, learn a craft, and spend time understanding the old or indigenous ways of knowing, doing, connecting, and being. And in so doing, I hope they find joy and meaning.
What do you hope Nobles students will do in the world to make a difference regarding the environment? What are the next steps in our role as environmental stewards?
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Bottles to Burgers SETH GOLDMAN ’83, ACTIVIST AND ENTREPRENEUR
WHEN SETH GOLDMAN ’83 GRADUATED FROM NOBLES, his mind was on politics, to work
for the public good. Instead, he found that entrepreneurship offered a more creative way to make an impact, so he carved out a “public role in the private sector” where he could focus on health and climate change. Now he thinks of himself more as an activist than a businessperson.
Given the polarization in government, Goldman believes that thoughtful business practices can have a greater effect on social issues. In a recent op-ed published in the Washington Post, he writes, “It’s ironic that politicians seem less concerned than corporate leaders with representing all of America. Politicians might be able to win reelection with 60 percent of voters, but most CEOs can’t afford to write off 40 percent of their markets. As a result, most Fortune 500 chief executives would not publicly deny climate change, or take a stand against same-sex marriage or gun control.” Goldman founded Honest Tea 23 years ago, as he likes to say, “because I was thirsty.” Longing for a less sugary drink to quench his thirst, he partnered with his Yale School of Management professor Barry Nalebuff, and they grew Honest Tea from a natural foods novelty to the mainstream market. After selling to Coca-Cola in 2011, Goldman stayed on as TeaEO emeritus to “democratize organics” until 2019. Since they had hardwired Honest Tea’s brand as a USDA Organic, Fair Trade Certified beverage with less sugar, those core principles couldn’t be compromised by a conglomerate’s desire for wider distribution and profit. On the food front, Goldman and his family have been vegetarians for 15 years, but he had been dissatisfied with the taste and texture of veggie burgers. When he learned about Beyond Meat, he instinctively knew this was a company aligned 34 Nobles SPRING 2020
with his passions, and he sent an email simply offering to give helpful advice. He soon became a board member and investor, and from 2015 through February 2020, he took on the additional role of executive chairman. In this role, Goldman says his focus shifted to “wherever the strategic needs were highest.” This ranged from overseeing supply contracts in Europe to working with CEO Ethan Brown to grow their leadership team. Now with their team in place, Goldman stepped back from his executive role, but maintains his position as board chairman. One of Goldman’s most notable tasks was helping present the company to financial markets for their initial public offering last May. Goldman’s job now is to ensure that Beyond Meat stays innovative and competitive as consumer habits and market trends evolve. Beyond’s approach to food takes the middlemen out of meat production. If you think about meat in terms of its molecular structure and nutritional makeup, livestock production is a highly inefficient way to generate it. Ultimately, all the calories humans consume are derived from the sun. Plants harness this solar energy directly, and animals get this energy by eating plants. The problem with animals is that they take up much more space and water, and emit greenhouse gases in the process. Factoring in the antibiotics and hormones required to produce livestock at current levels and the World Health Organization’s classification of red meat
Seth Goldman ’83
as “probably carcinogenic to humans” raises more concerns. In 2018, a University of Michigan Center for Sustainability study concluded that a “Beyond Burger generates 90% less greenhouse gas emissions, requires 46% less energy, has >99% less impact on water scarcity and 93% less impact on land use than a quarter pound of U.S. beef.” Since all animal flesh comes from plants, instead of creating a veggie burger by mushing chopped vegetables together and selling it in the freezer aisle, Beyond decided to use the plants as building blocks themselves. With pressure, heat and cooling, they generate a product with
a similar structure and taste as ground beef with the same amount of protein, more iron, less sodium and of course, no cholesterol. Their plant-based burgers were the first to be sold alongside beef in the fresh section of supermarkets. This placement, along with fastfood partnerships and new product lines emulating sausages and chicken, has expanded plant-based alternatives beyond the palates of strict vegetarians. Beyond conducted a national grocery store survey and discovered that 93% of people buying their products also had some type of traditional meat in their carts. Goldman says, “By
far the highest impact we have in the business is when we help people move from animal-based to plant-based. When we can get more people to make that choice on a regular basis—and it’s not to make the world vegan, but it is to create more plant-based occasions—that’s the single biggest impact we as a population can have in terms of our environmental footprint.” In addition to his work with Beyond Meat, Goldman recently launched a new “platform around changing our food system” called Eat the Change. He says, “As an entrepreneur at heart, I wanted to get back into the trenches building, scaling and taking on new challenges. We’ve got to be able to move people toward more sustainable diets.” Eat the Change’s for-profit component fosters businesses that help consumers make the connection between their diets and their effect on the planet, like PLNT Burger, a fastcasual vegan restaurant concept. PLNT Burger opened last year inside the Silver Spring Maryland, Whole Foods Market, and they’re already planning on expanding to four or five more locations this year. In addition, Eat the Change will be launching its own line of planet-friendly foods and meals emphasizing simple ingredients and whole foods. Eat the Change also includes a nonprofit initiative. “We’re going to be giving away a million dollars over the next three years to organizations that help consumers pursue and embrace diets that are more planet friendly,” said Goldman. These planet-friendly diets—plant based, organic, biodiverse, water efficient, fair trade—are the same kind that Goldman has been focusing his mission-driven businesses on for years, and now he and his family are working to help more people get in on the action, saying, “We have to make a pivot as a population around how we interact with this planet, and it feels like food is the most direct way to do that.” —BEN HEIDER SPRING 2020 Nobles 35
2020: Time to reflect, refocus, rebuild
The Few, The Mighty CAROLINE HARRISON ’06 ARTIST AND ILLUSTRATOR GABRIELA HERMAN ’99 PHOTOGRAPHER KIMBERLY NGUYEN ’13 MULTIMEDIA ARTIST E.B. BARTELS ’06 WRITER AND AUTHOR OF THIS PIECE
36 Nobles SPRING 2020
NEXT TIME YOU’RE AT A NOBLES GRADUATES GATHERING, PLAY A GAME. Try to keep
track of every time you hear one of the following words: investment portfolio, private equity, hedge fund, stocks, bonds, State Street, Fidelity, Bain or Harvard Business School. Lost track after 10 minutes? Not surprised. “Did you know,” my friend who once worked in the development office told me, “that the number-one career for Nobles grads is in finance?” Ah, yes, I thought. And the sky is blue, and the grass is green, and the sun is hot. The last time I checked, at least 12 people in my graduating class had gotten their MBAs. That is well over 10 percent of the Class of 2006, and our grade is not an anomaly. Every Nobles graduate event I attend, I listen to people talk business. They live in the same world. Me, on the other hand: “And what do you do?”
ART CREDIT
“Um…I’m a writer.” Only recently have I been able to say this sentence with a period at the end instead of a question mark. Impostor syndrome is real, man. “But I also teach creative writing classes and edit people’s grad school applications and work at a bookstore and babysit and dogsit and tutor kids at the Brookline Public Library?” Usually this speech is met with silence or confusion or a polite “Oh, that’s nice.” Except when I meet a fellow Nobles artist. Then my heart explodes. I seek out fellow Nobles artsy types with an enthusiasm that borders on stalkerish. I am always looking for fellow
ART CREDIT
writers and artists, to discuss our career paths. Regularly I find myself jealous of my friends who want to pursue things like medicine or law. Want to be a lawyer? Great, do your law school application, take the LSAT, make it through three years of law school, study for the bar, pass the bar, and then, boom, you’re a lawyer. The path to becoming a writer or an artist, however, has no such checklist. Do you get an MFA or not? Do you move to New York, Los Angeles or neither? How do you make money? How do you buy art supplies? Do you wait tables, teach, or sell your soul to the devil? How do you find time to make art?
The winter 2020 show in the Foster Gallery was all about celebrating those of us who got our start in the arts at Nobles. The three graduates featured in the show—Gabriela Herman ’99, Caroline Harrison ’06 and Kimberly Nguyen ’13—in typical artist fashion, have completely different career trajectories, but they all first fell hard for the arts at Nobles. Gabriela grew up in Newton with a doctor mom and a lawyer dad—a “very typical Nobles” situation. Caroline literally grew up at Nobles—her mom is biology teacher legend Deb Harrison, and Caroline lived on campus. Meanwhile, Kimberly, the daughter of Vietnamese
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refugees, grew up in Hyde Park and had never set foot in Dedham before starting at Nobles. Each came from different circumstances but felt the same pull—to the smells of turpentine and photo developer, to the rich reds and blues of oil paint, to the creamy grays of silver gelatin. “I experienced a bit of culture shock when I started at Nobles in seventh grade,” Kimberly told me. “I didn’t grow up playing sports or going to summer camp … so I retreated a lot into art classes.” Kimberly spent hours in the window nook by Foster Gallery. Caroline and I were in the same class, and we, too, spent hours holed up in the art wing. I always knew that if I needed to locate Caroline, I could find her in the painting studio. Gabriela, meanwhile, was always across the hall, spending her free periods in the dark room. All three referenced many of the same teachers at Nobles who encouraged them and their work—Joe and Joanna Swayze, Bob Freeman, Betsy VanOot and David Roane. The art department at Nobles is full of talented artists who are also empathetic and understanding people. One time, when Kimberly needed to finish her portfolio for AP painting, she went to school but skipped all her classes, hiding out in the studio to work. A certain teacher, who will remain nameless, knew what she was doing, and kindly turned a blind eye. I remember one teacher giving me access to the faculty evaluation room upstairs in the Castle (before it was renovated into
Left: Kimberly Nguyen’s glass sculpture “To Need/To Touch.” Center: Gabriela Herman’s portraits from her “The Kids” series. Right: Caroline Harrison’s illustration “Can You Stop My Teeth From Breaking?”
faculty apartments) so I could have a quiet place to write, even though I probably was not supposed to be there alone and unsupervised. But this is where the similarities end. After graduation, Gabriela, Caroline and Kimberly followed different paths. Gabriela prepared a photography portfolio, and Caroline made it a priority to investigate the art departments of each school she looked at during the application process, while Kimberly wanted to apply to art school but feared it was “unpractical.” Eventually, Gabriela ended up at Wesleyan University studying psychology, Caroline went to the University of Pennsylvania and got a BA in fine arts, and Kimberly attended New York University and studied critical theory and cultural studies, focusing on the diaspora of Vietnamese women. After college, Gabriela, Caroline and Kimberly’s paths diverged further. Gabriela’s mom is from Brazil, and Gabriela decided to move there after graduation. “I networked like crazy for six months,” Gabriela said, when she first was in São Paulo. “I finally got a job
“ So much of the actual making of art involves being alone, but as soon as you want to try to get that art out in the world, you need others to lean on.” —E.B. BARTELS ’06 38 Nobles SPRING 2020
as lonely studio intern No. 3 for a top photographer in Brazil.” In college, when Gabriela had taken photography classes, she had learned about “art for the art of it.” Working under a professional photographer in São Paulo, Gabriela began to learn about the technical aspects of assisting in a shoot, setting up lighting, managing a business, directing talent, handling employees, and getting paid to make images. She spent two years there, “shooting Gisele every other week,” and eventually she moved back to the States, settling in New York City. There Gabriela began photographing weddings to get by, but she always made a point to take time to make images of things she cared about, in particular images of food and farming. Finally, after getting hired to photograph a big feature story for Martha Stewart Living Magazine, Gabriela found that she could make her money through shoots that were more aligned with her interests. Caroline also moved to New York after finishing at UPenn, and, after a series of retail jobs, she found a gig in advertising. “Because I needed health insurance,” she said, as I nodded gravely. Even though Caroline was not on the creative side of advertising (her favorite joke is: “How’d you get into advertising analytics?” “Well, I majored in painting”), Caroline still felt the pull to make work. She had wanted to be an illustrator when she was in college, and when she wasn’t at the advertising firm, she began to draw and design posters, T-shirts and album art for her partner’s band: “They needed
art for releases, and conveniently I was located in the same apartment.” But Caroline enjoyed the work because the musicians gave her a long leash, and they responded positively to the dark and gorgeous images she created. Word spread from her partner’s band to other bands, and soon Caroline found herself a niche. Kimberly, meanwhile, managed to incorporate a studio art minor into her degree, and she took glass classes through NYU at a hot shop in Brooklyn called Urban Glass. After graduation, she was asked to be a teaching assistant for the glass class, and so she worked at the hot shop and also at a “crazy restaurant/club situation” to make money for rent, food and art supplies. Finally, one of Kimberly’s artist mentors suggested she apply to the glass program at the Rhode Island School of Design. On a whim she did, and that September, Kimberly moved to Providence. Now she’s in that magical place known as an MFA program, where all you’re supposed to worry about is making art. Kimberly’s scholarship at RISD provides a stipend for materials, so she could finally quit the restaurant jobs, and instead, she works two jobs on campus. Listening to these three very different stories, I noticed one thing that kept coming up: the people along the way. Gabriela never had a formal photography mentor, but she stayed close to the Swayzes, even inviting them to her wedding. Now Gabriela is constantly reaching out to fellow Brooklyn photographers and hosts dinner parties with
them to talk image-making. “Always be social,” Gabriela told me, “especially if you are a freelancer. Being social is going to be how you get all of your work.” Caroline recently made the decision to pay to have studio space in Greenpoint, and she has met other artists through the community there. Caroline also spoke of the artist friends she has made through Instagram—it’s easy through the app to find artists making work that you like. She also tries to go to shows: “I hate going to openings because you can’t see the art because it’s so crowded,” Caroline sighed. “But that’s how you meet people.” And at RISD, Kimberly said she feels that “grad school is a really lucky space.” She described herself as being in a “bubble of a lot of people making a lot of things.” As I spoke to Gabriela, Caroline and Kimberly about their people, I began to realize that I, too, needed my community. I remember when I started my MFA in creative writing at Columbia University in 2012, I was suddenly surrounded by people who also constantly thought about words and books and essays in the same way I did. It felt like a hole in my heart had been filled, a hole I hadn’t even realized was there. I thought of writer friends I’d met while living in Cambridge through author talks, book launches, readings, conferences, classes, even birthday parties. So much of the actual making of art involves being alone, but as soon as you want to try to get that art out in the world, you need others to lean on. Finding those people feels good, and when I find a fellow writer or artist
who also happens to have gone to my high school, I feel the magic that all the MBA people must feel every time they talk to, well, almost anyone who went to Nobles. Not only do we share a common language, but we have a shared history and understanding of what it’s like to pursue those artistic dreams coming from a school that so heavily emphasized finance and athletics. (At least back when we were students—I will say the arts culture at Nobles has hugely shifted since the building of the Henderson Arts Center.) This is why I loved talking to Gabriela, Caroline and Kimberly. This is why I love chatting with Sara Farizan ’03, Heather Peterson ’03, Sam Dean ’05, Kate Broad ’01 and Nina MacLaughlin ’97 about writing—we can share struggles with research and reporting, figuring out the plot of a story, querying agents and publishers, but we can also talk about taking Vicky Seelen’s creative writing elective back in the day. This is why I love to see the work that Molly Boskey Pascal ’05, Sara Faux ’04 and Sam Dawson ’06 are creating—I remember them spending hours in the arts wing, and now they are out in the real world doing it. This is why I love hearing about the architecture designs Kathryn Sonnabend ’07 is working on, or the latest harp performance by Krysten Keches ’06, or Harry Aspinwall ’06’s acting gigs. Knowing that they are all out there, trying to do things that are weird and unusual and exciting, makes me feel more powerful and less alone. —E.B. BARTELS ’06 SPRING 2020 Nobles 39
Going with the Grain SANDY WEYMOUTH ’94, FURNITURE DESIGNER
WE LIVE IN A WORLD that is dominated by consumption and the
gradual collecting of things that we think might define us or give us value. If we pay close attention, it becomes clear that people are doing with their lives what many are doing with the items in their closets, which is to examine the different layers of accumulation and ask if they bring them joy. At some point, we feel compelled to examine our core values—to seriously consider the direction in which we want the rest of our lives to go—and more often than not, the answer is to simplify.
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It was when Sandy Weymouth ’94, then an environmental consultant, took a basic woodworking class at the Eliot School in Jamaica Plain, simply because he “started to get this itch to do something different,” that he realized just how passionate he was about the craft. While there, he learned about the program at the North Bennet Street School in Boston, one of the oldest trade programs in the country. He filed the information away, hung up the tools, and continued in his job as an engineer at the consulting firm for two years. Eventually, Weymouth applied to the program. “If I wasn’t going to do this now,” he said, “I was never going to do it.” Weymouth didn’t need another degree—he had studied geology at Bates and earned a graduate degree in environmental engineering from UNH, and he had a good career. But this wasn’t just about collecting more items for a résumé—it was about following his interests and listening to his gut, about gaining the experience to do what he felt was the work of his future. “It was definitely scary to quit a job that I was doing well in,” said Weymouth. “But I just had this feeling. I had already done it going to grad school, but that was different. That was just advancing my career in the right direction that I was already going in—this was a complete 180 for me, and there is obviously a lot of uncertainty with that. But when you go back to school for something like this, I was excited about every single thing I was learning.” Since graduating from North Bennet Street in 2018, Weymouth has been working to grow his business. While he finds the small-business side of things challenging, his passion for furnituremaking and his goal “to make pieces that you will be handing down to your grandchildren … to make heirloom pieces of furniture that will last,” outweighs any of the business details that might
fill his time between creations. “Any piece you make,” says Weymouth, “you work on it—it’s extremely fulfilling to make something. Then you have the added bonus of giving it to somebody, delivering it to their house, watching their reaction to it, and realizing that it’s going to be in their house for a long time. It’s different than other jobs, where maybe you are selling something but you can’t actually put your hands on it. It’s nice to have something visual in front of you when you are done with the work.” Weymouth’s interest in furnituremaking extends beyond the process of creating the pieces in isolation and delivering them to customers. He has plans to open a woodworking co-op, where people can gather together in one space, share machinery while working individually, cut costs, and collaborate. And in August 2019, he found just the space—the co-op is set to open in summer 2020 in the fitting town of Weymouth, Massachusetts. It’s not surprising that the Scandinavian-style furniture that Weymouth is drawn to make is known for its minimalist design, mirroring his shift to a more simplified and fulfilling life of working with his hands and creating for others. If Vincent van Gogh was right when he said that “the great artist is the simplifier,” then Weymouth is well on his way to becoming a great artist. The elements of his journey, from environmental engineer to fine furniture-maker, might seem anything but simple—the complete upending of his career, the demands of running a small business, and the purchase and renovation of an old building. But the simplicity of the work lies in the way he feels when he does it, and in the freedom that he has created to look toward a horizon that promises more of this meaningful work for years to come. —ANNE HURLBUT
A Mission in Harmony CHRIS IRWIN ’93, FORMER NAVY SEAL AND DIRECTOR OF PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE NAVY SEAL FOUNDATION
A NASHVILLE RECORDING STUDIO might be the last place you would expect to find Chris Irwin ’93, a retired Navy SEAL. But that’s exactly where he found himself recently, sitting in the recording booth with rock band Madison Rising to produce the song “Men of Steel,” a track that Irwin co-wrote. The band is donating half of the proceeds to the Navy SEAL Foundation, where Irwin now works as the director of partnerships. It’s a long way from his work in the military, but Irwin is in his element nonetheless, collaborating with a group of like-minded people to create something that will give back to the Naval Special Warfare community. In his role at the foundation, Irwin seeks out companies that can collaborate creatively to raise funds and awareness for a cause that he is passionate about. “What I am looking for,” said Irwin, “are organizations that believe in what we do and want to join forces to increase our capacity to reach people and give back.” Irwin spent five years as president of such a company— Kill Cliff, where he helped form the Navy SEAL Foundation’s first official partnership. Now in his current position at the foundation, he has brought on new partners to include Luminox, GORUCK and Reebok, which designed a co-branded shoe, with a portion of the proceeds going to the foundation. “In all of these relationships I’m looking for concepts that can be a win-win,” said Irwin. With the release of “Men of Steel,” Irwin is excited to be able to use some of his personal creativity in a project. “It’s a way for me to use something that I am passionate about to give back,” said Irwin, who forfeited all rights to the song. His demeanor shifts from steady to exuberant as he recalls recording the song with the professional musicians. The camaraderie, the artistry and the promise of charity are an energizing combination for Irwin, and the opportunity to play acoustic guitar and sing some harmony with these talented musicians is both a huge bonus and a great honor. It was at Nobles that Irwin discovered his love of music. He speaks about his awe of his peers at the time, saying: SPRING 2020 Nobles 41
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“ When Irwin decided to look at the Naval Academy during his senior year, applying to the service academies wasn’t exactly commonplace at Nobles. Despite being told that others had tried only to have it not work out, a young Irwin responded with, ‘Okay, well, that’s nice. I’m going to do it anyway.’”
“That was part of what inspired me.... There were kids my age at Nobles who were incredible musicians. You could look at it and be intimidated, or you could look at it and be inspired and think, well if that guy can do it, I can do it. And I try to look at things that way. I think talent is a thing, but I don’t think it’s honestly that important. One of my favorite sayings is ‘hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.’” When Irwin decided to look at the Naval Academy during his senior year, applying to the service academies wasn’t exactly commonplace at Nobles. Despite being told that others had tried only to have it not work out, a young Irwin responded with, “Okay, well, that’s nice. I’m going to do it anyway.” And so, he did. Twenty years after graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy, Irwin retired from military service. Like many organizations, the Navy SEAL foundation grew out of nothing; it started by supporting one family in 2000. Now the Foundation has an annual operating budget over $15 million and has received nine consecutive 4-Star ratings from Charity Navigator. Not only that, for the past five years it has been one of less than 70 charities, from among more than 9,000, to have earned a perfect score of 100 for financial health, accountability and transparency, placing it in the top 1 percent of all rated 42 Nobles SPRING 2020
charities. 95 cents of every dollar donated goes directly to programs or is retained for future mission use. “We support thousands of people with over 30 programs across all of active duty, including veterans, their families and Gold Star families,” said Irwin. These programs vary greatly in their support for the Naval Special Warfare community, from summer camps for children to wellness weekends focused on resilience and support for families of the fallen, to special initiatives focused on physical and mental health for those transitioning back to civilian life. “We do our best,” said Irwin, “to constantly assess what the community needs, so we can grow and adapt as required.” When a young Irwin strummed his first chord on a guitar at Nobles at the age of 16, it would have been hard for him to have foreseen how his determination to learn an instrument could help in his desire to give back to his community. The mission that Irwin comes back to time and again is not anything he was involved in during his time in the military. Irwin is not focused on telling the stories of the past, but on addressing the present and future needs of the people in the Naval Special Warfare community. “It’s an honor just to continue to serve,” said Irwin. —ANNE HURLBUT ART CREDIT
The Element of Surprise LULU MILLER ’01, WRITER AND PODCAST PRODUCER
THAT MORNING OF APRIL 18, 1906, the laboratory floor at Stanford
University was a shattered, soggy graveyard of specimen jars, scattered with thousands of preserved fish parted from their scientific monikers. Three decades’ worth of collection and categorization erased in 47 seconds. The 7.9-magnitude earthquake eventually claimed nearly 3,000 lives—almost the toll of 9/11—and set off a series of fires that ravaged San Francisco for three days. Icon of ichthyology and Stanford president David Starr Jordan surveyed the devastation of his aquatic opus. The events building to that pivotal moment and the bizarre, twisted series that unfolded afterward captivated Lulu Miller ’01 for more than a decade, and they are the subject of her first book, Why Fish Don’t Exist. “To me, there is no clearer message. Chaos reigns. It is now that I would have given up,” Miller writes. She set out to find why Jordan persevered. Miller, a veteran science writer, is best known for her work with National Public Radio for the acclaimed podcasts Radiolab and Invisibilia, which explore curiosity and human behavior. The revelation of Jordan’s catastrophe took place during a tour of the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco 13 years ago. The guide pulled out a hammerhead shark specimen and tugged on its tag, explaining that after the earthquake, in which so many fish were separated from their jars, the head curator (Jordan) spontaneously came up with the idea of physically sewing the labels to their bodies. “I just had this vision of him going, ‘You think you got me, Chaos? I’ll get you!’ It was so human, so doomed, so … pathetic. I don’t know why it caught in my heart—literally, that needle tugging in my heart,” Miller says. Years passed, but the image haunted her: “At first in my brain it was a cautionary tale. Then, as I went through some harder stuff where I really messed up my own life and was at a particularly lost time in my late 20s, the image of Jordan pointing a needle at all of Chaos rose in me. I just wondered, ‘Do you have to be like this sometimes to overcome daunting odds or the brutality of the world? Is he not a fool to be behaving with that much confidence—and honestly, innovation? Sometimes is that actually the stance you have to take to go another day to achieve the thing you want to achieve?’”
ART CREDIT
ILLUSTRATION BY KATE SAMWORTH
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DUE TO PREPRESS
“Riveting. Surprising. Shocking, even! This book will capture your heart, seize your imagination, smash your preconceptions, and rock your world.” —sy montgomery, New York Times bestselling author of The Soul of an Octopus
“I want to live at this book’s address: the intersection of history and biology and wonder and failure and sheer human stubbornness. What a sumptuous, surprising, dark delight.” —carmen maria machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties “By the last few pages, I was shocked to find myself in tears. Like in her radio stories, Lulu Miller coasts along, seemingly without effort, until she coldcocks you.” —jonathan goldstein, creator of the podcast Heavyweight
Originally, Miller did not intend to intertwine her story with Jordan’s. “I thought the question of knowing when the thing you’re hammering at crosses [the line] from noble to mad was Lulu Miller fascinating enough. But my editor kept wanting to know why I cared so much.” It forced Miller to bare her vulnerabilities, Kate Samworth and even her shame. But in her bravery, she also found healing. Miller’s idea for a one-page essay on Man vs. Chaos bloomed into a book as her archival research revealed Jordan’s psychological complexity. “Treat of all treats for a gigantic nerd, he left all these primary sources behind him; there were journals, memoirs, weird rants, poems—all this source material to try to make sense of this guy, and he’s funny!” she raves. Miller’s writing possesses the signature qualities of her podcasts: scientific curiosity, psychological depth, poignance and several mind bombs. “One thing I think about a lot when I’m writing is this idea of whiplash—taking the reader on a journey where they think they’re in a quaint scientific history book, but then they get punched with some memoir. I like that as a listener and a reader—when I think I’ve cracked someone’s style, and then I’m surprised.” Miller examines the human need to categorize and the sinister effects inflicted by a small subset of individuals with a fragile but inflated sense of self. What is this drive to classify and compartmentalize, placing ourselves at the pinnacle? Where is the comfort in establishing supremacy? “It’s survival. Without it, it would be chaos. Humans need to AUTHOR PHOTO
© KRISTEN FINN
TK
“Why Fish Don’t Exist is a book about losing love and finding it, a book about how faith sustains us and also how it grows toxic. It’s a story told with an open heart, every page of it animated by verve, nuance, and full-throated curiosity.” —leslie jamison, New York Times bestselling author of The Empathy Exams
“Magical.” —susan
Why Fish Don’t Exist
orlean
“Shocking.” —sy
“Perfect, just perfect.” —mary
Why Fish Don’t Exist
“Lulu Miller moves gracefully between reporting and meditation, big questions and small moments. This book is a delight to read.”
is an award-winning illustrator and author of Aviary Wonders Inc. She created fifteen original engravings for this book.
New York Times bestselling author of The Library Book
“Lulu Miller has singular and gigantic gifts as a writer. This book is both lyrical and learned, personal and political, small and huge, quirky and profound.” —mary roach, New York Times bestselling author of Stiff
“I love this book’s profundity and wit, its moments of darkness and heart-bursting euphoria, and I love the oddball, literary charisma of the mind that wrote it. Plus, by the end—I’m not joking—Lulu Miller may have actually cracked the secret to life.” —jon mooallem, author of This Is Chance! B IO G R APH Y & AUTOBIOGRAPHY
SimonandSchuster.com
ISBN 978-1-5011-6027-1
Lulu Miller
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roach
—susan orlean,
is a Peabody Award–winning science reporter who has been working in public radio for over fifteen years. She is the cofounder of NPR’s Invisibilia, a show about the invisible forces that shape human behavior. She is also a frequent contributor to Radiolab. Her writing has been published in The New Yorker, VQR, Orion, Electric Literature, Catapult, and beyond. Her favorite spot on earth is Humpback Rocks.
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David Starr Jordan was a taxonomist, a man possessed with bringing order to the natural world. In time, he would be credited with discovering nearly a fifth of the fish known to humans in his day. But the more of the hidden blueprint of life he uncovered, the harder the universe seemed to try to thwart him. His specimen collections were demolished by lightning, by fire, and eventually by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake— which sent more than a thousand of his discoveries, housed in fragile glass jars, plummeting to the floor. In an instant, his life’s work was shattered. Many might have given up, given in to despair. But Jordan? He surveyed the wreckage at his feet, found the first fish he recognized, and confidently began to rebuild his collection. And this time, he introduced one clever innovation that he believed would at last protect his work against the chaos of the world. When NPR reporter Lulu Miller first heard this anecdote in passing, she took Jordan for a fool—a cautionary tale in hubris, or denial. But as her own life slowly unraveled, she began to wonder about him. Perhaps instead he was a model for how to go on when all seemed lost. What she would unearth about his life would transform her understanding of history, morality, and the world beneath her feet. Part biography, part memoir, part scientific adventure, Why Fish Don’t Exist reads like a fable about how to persevere in a world where chaos will always prevail.
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9781501160271 / 9781501160271cvr.indd / Why Fish Don't Exist / Lulu Miller / Simon & Schuster / U.S. $26.00 / Can. $35.00 / Pub Date: 04/14/2020 / 224 pages / Mech Out: 01/15/2020
know poison versus herb, even if those categories aren’t perfect—to have a quick way of parsing the world—safe/danger, friend/foe. At 3 months, babies are able to distinguish between a dog or a cat. I’m constantly trying to be wary of those impulses because they make us blind to so much value, but I also understand that we need them to get through the day. As far as putting ourselves at the top, studies of positive delusions show that they insulate us against how doomed our odds are. They may be the best gift evolution ever gave us, because how else can you get up in the morning? Part of writing this book was giving myself the permission—a little bit of confidence doesn’t mean you’ll become evil. It’s using it in a nuanced way.” Jordan was incapable of tempering his hubris this way, with an obsession for order that chillingly transcended species. Among the leaders of the 20th-century eugenics movement, he preached forced sterilization for those he deemed “unfit to reproduce.” He authored a series, The
“ The only thing you can guarantee for sure is change, and if you are in that rut, if you can’t see that way out, there are surprises coming.” —LULU MILLER 44 Nobles SPRING 2020
Blood of the Nation, and chaired the first Committee on Eugenics of the American Breeder’s Association, which spawned the California program of forced deportation and sterilization. Miller writes about the impact of those programs, and a woman she interviewed named Anna, who was sterilized. Miller, who has a sister with disabilities less severe than Anna’s, has long questioned a better place in society for people like her. “It was not just, how do we support them and make their lives dignified and help them to flourish. Someone like Anna is reflecting so much light and health back into society; it’s just like watching a speedboat go through the ocean, leaving a wake of light behind her. She’s taught me so much about resilience and finding the small joys that you can create in your tiny corner of the earth. It helped me see one element of this obvious thought: In a healthy gene pool, variety in a million ways is a sign of health. This is good for society; this is good for humanity. It’s not just a moral obligation; it goes both ways.” In 2019, an episode Miller did for Radiolab, “Unfit,” earned her the Walter Cronkite Award for Journalism in disability reporting. In Why Fish Don’t Exist, Jordan’s descent into darkness contrasts with Miller winding her way out. She says, “I think of chaos as the giant delta in the sky, this brutal force that will kill us and doesn’t care about us. Part of writing this book was searching for a mantra for myself. There’s a flip side of the delta, the dark side of the moon. The only thing you can guarantee for sure is change, and if you are in that rut, if you can’t see that way out, there are surprises coming. If you open your eyes to them—or even if you can just wait—something good, even if it’s small, is as likely to drop into your path as something bad. Our ruler is chance and change. So your job is twofold: stick around, and notice it.”
A wondrous debut from an extraordinary new voice in nonf iction, Why Fish Don’t Exist is a dark and astonishing tale of love, obsession, chaos, and—possibly—even murder.
love, obsession, chaos, and
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Seeing spots: Joelle Boucai and Jimmy Kimmel, before Kimmel’s show began broadcasting from his home. During the pandemic, Kimmel and many of his peers pioneered a new way to caption_whitney_left watch late-night comedy and commentary.
Late Night, Live Laughs JOELLE BOUCAI ’96, COMEDY WRITER
“WELL, IT’S ACTUALLY CRAZY,” JOELLE BOUCAI ’96 SAYS about her career path. “Basically,
my whole life growing up, I did what I thought I was supposed to do.” After leaving Nobles, she majored in economics and went on to try a half dozen jobs, from paralegal to advertising account executive. She interned for “The Howard Stern Show,” did improv and stand-up comedy, and wrote for Lucky magazine and the social media accounts for Swiffer and Dawn products. But it wasn’t until she applied to write for “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” that she found something that clicked. “This may sound corny, but when I got there, I finally felt like I found my people, you know? It just kind of felt right to me.”
Boucai has been at the show since 2011, and she’s seen the late-night comedy world change, but she thinks the evolution of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” has been a natural one. “I feel like Jimmy’s evolved as a person,” she says. “Everyone [who works on the show] has grown up together, [and] as a result, the show has.” But the changing world of American politics has influenced the show too. Before the 2016 election, Boucai remembers the show rarely touching on politics beyond “one or two mom-jean jokes about Obama.” But these days, the show is just as likely to do a segment on the impeachment process as a celebrity interview. “Jimmy has really stepped up to the plate and gotten involved in politics” in recent years, she says, which has been part of that evolution. Late-night comedy has also been evolving in response to the popularity of streaming services, social media and internet culture. “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” has a segment called “Celebrities Read Mean Tweets,” which asks celebrities to read mean tweets about themselves. It’s a direct response to the rise of trolling and anonymous internet hate, and it’s a funny way to “shine a light on these people who think they can hide behind a screen and just say whatever they want.” The internet has also meant a change in the way people consume comedy. “In the past, you either stayed up and watched [the show], or you missed it,” Boucai says. But now, people watch the show later, on demand, or they’ll see individual segments online. And while the writers of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” seldom write with the potential of a viral video in mind, sometimes a specific clip will hit a nerve and live on well past its air date. New voices in comedy have also changed the landscape. “Now there are just so many different shows and different voices out there, which is good,” Boucai says. And beyond late-night shows like “Full Frontal with Samantha SPRING 2020 Nobles 45
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Bee” and “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” many less-well-known comics are posting clips of their comedy online, where they compete with more mainstream shows like Kimmel’s. But Boucai points out that there’s something special about comedy shows, like Kimmel’s, that are written and performed the day they air. The writers are able to respond to the day’s events in a way that other shows, which have to prepare their material further in advance because of filming schedules, aren’t able to. Late-night comedy shows like “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” are fast-paced and agile; often sketches and even the opening monologue are rewritten mere hours before filming to respond to the day’s events. And in a comedy landscape where many shows and comedians cater to a narrow audience, Boucai appreciates that a show like Kimmel’s can find humor that connects with a wide swath of people— for example, a post-vacation “NBA-style press conference where [show] staffers field questions from ‘reporters’ about their break” so that they only have to talk about it once instead of making small talk with each person in the office. Introducing the sketch, in which a group of reporters grill staff writer Greg Martin about his vacation, Kimmel jokes that viewers should “feel free to try this at your office.” The future of comedy, it seems, is not this trend or that, but variety: a variety of voices and styles that connect with different audiences through different media. And the skills Boucai learned during her long and winding path to her job in comedy—performing, writing, thinking on her feet, working as part of a team and more—are essential to her success in this shifting world. The show is fast-paced and always evolving, and Kimmel is supportive of the show’s staff trying new things. As Boucai says, “It’s fun to do something different. It’s a little scary at first, but it’s fun.” —EMILY TRAGERT 46 Nobles SPRING 2020
ART CREDIT
Small World, Big World LEANNE GALLAGHER TURNER ’99, GLOBAL DIRECTOR, TRAVEL INDUSTRY & BUSINESS TRAVEL SALES, OMNI HOTELS WORLDWIDE CHAD GODFREY ’95, VP MARKETING, FLIGHT CENTRE TRAVEL GROUP STEVE SAXE ’77, PARTNER, PROUD AFRICAN SAFARIS TOM LAMB ’76, OWNER/PARTNER, POMPANO BEACH HOTEL
ART CREDIT
WHETHER CLIMBING MACHU PICCHU, planning a pristine Disney cruise, or volunteering at
a humane society post-hurricane on a Caribbean island, travel changes you. It’s a funny thing: the planning, the unexpected encounters, the Michelin-star or hole-in-the-wall wonder, or a chance conversation with a taxi driver. Missing a ferry might be serendipitous. Or a fellow traveler could invite you to a family dinner next time you’re in Ponta Delgada. Be open to the universe, and it sometimes knocks on your hostel door. And travel has its way of staying with the wanderer long after the adventure: a new ring, the color of its nearby ocean; the faint scar from a scratch of a boulder from another continent; a vintage postcard pinned to an office bulletin board; or a mystery novel passed from person to person, which finds its forever home on your bedside table. Here, four Nobles grads share thoughts on their travel-related careers, and what’s next in the industry.
WHAT’S TRENDING
Travel trends in 2020 are numerous. Among them: talk-to-text searches, combining business and leisure travel, social responsibility, localizing international travel brands, and more. Most travelers want to feel like the path they’ve chosen has meaning and relates directly to the immediate environment. “Mobile search will have a huge impact,” Leanne Gallagher Turner said. “People are getting more accustomed to talking to their devices.” Turner added that soon it will be completely customary to talk to your device and expect it to be able to book your travel or perform many other complex tasks on demand.
Chad Godfrey, whose corporation encompasses 40 travel companies and brands across corporate and leisure travel, sees a trend around elevated customer expectations. “Those great leisure experiences afforded to customers on a personal vacation—online booking tools, Airbnb, social media recommendations, an app for everything—these people expect these types of experiences now with corporate travel. On the leisure side, the trend I see is toward experiential travel, particularly with the under-30 group. They want to travel to Thailand and live with a chef for a week, or go to Africa and work with a renowned artist. I see a lot of startups competing recently in that space.” SPRING 2020 Nobles 47
2020: Time to reflect, refocus, rebuild
Name: Leanne Gallagher Turner ’99 Homebase: New York City Quick thought: My personal travel has been more off the beaten path [than my work with Omni]. For my honeymoon, my husband and I went to Kenya and the Seychelles. And we wanted to go on an on-foot safari—to be in the middle of nowhere. I want to do more world travel and see what I can see. Name: Chad Godfrey ’95 Homebase: Boston (with company headquarters in Australia) Quick thought: My family rented a sailboat when I was 17 years old for a week, bouncing around the Caribbean. The hometown buddy I brought on that trip was so blown away with the experience, he’s now chief engineer on mega-yachts and massive sailboats. That’s what travel can do to us, I guess. Name: Tom Lamb ’76 Homebase: Palm Beach, Florida, and Bermuda; a boutique hotel that was the site of the island’s first fishing club Quick thought: Why is my family property called Pompano? Pompano is a fish that you catch on a white, sandy bottom, like in Florida. And we’re the only ones on the island who have a huge sandbar right in front of us. You can walk four yards at low tide and be waist-deep. We have guests who have been all over the Caribbean, and they’ve never seen such a stretch of shallow water swimming as we have. So we’re really lucky. Name: Steve Saxe ’77 Homebase: Marblehead, Massachusetts (with all operations in Tanzania) Quick thought: I landed in Arushna on a dirt runway. As we circled around, we had to wait for them to clear the runways, because there were giraffes there. Then I met my guide, who later became my partner. I put our stuff in the safari truck. We took a route that I’ve [taken] many times since, but I remember distinctly that we took the first left out of the airport. There were three lions within a quarter-mile of the airport, and they were stalking an antelope.
48 Nobles SPRING 2020
Turner said that the recent trend toward highlighting “local color” has long been a hallmark of Omni properties. “When we renovated the Omni Providence, for example, the chandelier was delayed by months because we were working with a local artisan who made this beautiful black chandelier. It’s huge. Things like that happen because we are sourcing things from people in the community.” She also mentioned their Nashville property and its biscuit bar, noting that all food and beverage is in-house and customized, and that properties might have beehives, gardens or a hydroponic fish tank, depending on culture, location and opportunity. Tom Lamb and others said that everyone in the travel industry is also paying attention to environmental impact. “We’re going solar. As far as I know, we’ll be the first hotel on the island. Bermuda is a very clean island, and we all take pride in that for sure. But think about all the sunshine we get down there.”
HOW THE INTERNET (SORT OF) CHANGED EVERYTHING
Turner suggests that the internet is a blessing and a curse, noting that it costs a company more money when clients book through a third-party service such as Expedia. “We’re paying commission to those companies, but the platform they allow us to reach is so vast. They’ve been partners for a long time, and ultimately it may end up contributing to profitability.” She also said that she appreciates access to old-school research. “I had a president of a company coming in yesterday, and the person who booked her didn’t have any information about her preferences. I Googled her and figured out that she is obsessed with wellness and sustainability. So I’m not going to send her a bottle of wine and chocolate. Instead, we sent her a freezable glass water bottle and other healthy amenities. It’s a tiny little thing, but thoughtful and proactive.”
Godfrey agrees that the internet has transformed travel. “As with any industry … the internet usually means speed and choice. Same goes for the travel industry. Booking a trip, researching a destination, leaving a hotel review—all [are] enhanced by the internet.” So what’s the downside? “It’s funny, in an ironic way the internet connects us but can also lead to a lack of connection while traveling,” Godfrey said. “Put the phone away, you know? Give me a beer with a local over scrolling through the same old headlines back home while I’m abroad.” Lamb’s 75-room boutique hotel, about a two-hour flight from Boston, is situated on a hillside, and every room has an ocean view. “We genuinely care because we want people to come back. We want them to go home and tell their friends. That’s the value of the internet for hotels nowadays—small places especially. You can be seen without spending thousands of dollars on an ad. We’re very proud of the fact that we’ve been one of the leaders on TripAdvisor for 14, 15 years in a row. We’ve been right at the top. I don’t say that to gloat. I say it with pride, because our staff understands that nowadays, guests have so much more power, and we treat them as we would want to be treated.”
tal leave, for example. The company also has a long-term commitment to fighting hunger. “So every room night booked, no matter what channel, we donate a meal to a family in need through Feeding America. It’s up to 18 million meals we’ve served or distributed since the program’s inception in 2016,” she said, adding that guests can track their impact. “Social responsibility matters,” Godfrey said. “Something like booking with airlines focused on reducing carbon emissions matters to many of our clients. As an Aussie-based organization, we were very involved with the bushfires, contributing to the cause out of our paychecks.” Godfrey is also involved with Solar Buddy, which provides portable solar-powered lights to kids in places without electricity. “Now [they] have an extra five hours a day to read, to learn, be creative, or even just interact with your family and friends.”
LOCAL MATTERS
A PERSONAL APPROACH
Steve Saxe said that his interest in photography began in 1975, when he took a photography class in the Castle at Nobles. “I went on a safari, and I met my partner, Adam Meshallu, there. I wanted to do some giving back, so I offered to help him start a business, and I ended up with a business in the United States and Tanzania, working with all local naturalists.” Turner noted that in addition to paying attention to sustainability and ecotourism, many in the industry are treating employees better. She said that Omni, which is a Texas-based, family-owned business, gives all employees paid paren-
Steve Saxe ’77 learned photography at Nobles. He has been photographing in Tanzania since his first trip.
Saxe’s operation is smaller-scale but caters to individual groups’ needs. He said that some clients have saved for a long time for an experience like this, and his team ensures it’s a remarkable one. Perfect reviews on TripAdvisor attest to this attention to detail. “I mean, you live with and in the animal’s environment, and you can hear them at night. And you can see them walk by your tent. You can see them when you’re driving your trucks, when you’re game-driving. You see them when you’re eating breakfast or dinner. It’s a completely different experience with people who have never
experienced anything like that,” he said. Lamb also has a deep commitment to personal attention and shares Saxe’s remarkable online reviews. “You take care of the customer. We do a welcome tour with the guests to show them the amenities, including the Port Royal Golf Course and scuba diving.” Lamb said another tradition is to have the chef of nearly 20 years prepare the fish caught by guests that day—a complimentary benefit. Turner, working with Omni, said that the hotel loyalty program has unusual perks as well. “My favorite thing is the morning beverage delivery. Every night you check in, you’ll get a door hanger that lets you specify what you’d like delivered in the morning, and what time. … So at, like, 6:15 a.m., I get a knock, knock, knock, and then I’m like, okay, it’s really time to get up, and I have a full carafe of coffee, which is the best thing ever.” Turner said that guest preferences are recorded so that the next stay might be even better—with their preferred type of pillow, for instance. (Who knew that buckwheat pillows are a thing?) Lamb, whose father borrowed cash from family to buy into a fishing camp in 1956, has been in travel and tourism since he was a child. “You just take something and try to make it nicer,” he said. “My father had the vision to get us involved in this. He was a very sharp businessman, and he got into the right project. And thank God, we’ve held onto it ever since. I mean, think about 1956, and what’s today? 2020. We still have it.” N —HEATHER SULLIVAN SPRING 2020 Nobles 49
graduate news 1940
1948
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Percy Nelson
Bill Bliss
617-244-4126 percylnelson@comcast.net
781-326-1062 wlbliss@comcast.net
1946
1950
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
We heard from Peter Briggs, who shared that Harvard’s Memorial Church published a little piece on the subject of November 10, 1917, that “moved some of our family here to tears when I read it at Thanksgiving dinner. The piece was titled ‘Remembering a Fallen Harvard Soldier and a Historic Commencement’ (Stewie and Gen. Marshall in 1947).” Peter also shared that he is giving a TEDx Cincinnati talk next
Gregg Bemis
505-983-7094 gbemis@swcp.com No big changes for our classmates. Dick Lucas in Arizona, with a new granddaughter, and Stew Clifford in Florida are both enjoying their retreats from the colds of New England. I’ve added one more great grandchild. Now two boys and two girls.
Class notes for this issue were submitted before the Covid-19 crisis. Kindly excuse any untimely updates.
month on our desperate need for old-fashioned civics classes in schools. “Deprived kids, including early-childhood preschoolers, must learn to read, including during summers, and we need a draft for all kids in their late teens, including those who have come here who are not yet citizens, not limited to military basic training, perhaps for a year or two. Our privileged and immigrant teens and most impoverished might as well be citizens of different countries, they have so little in common. Studying our hostile divisions these days is the only thing that makes many of us accept being old.”
1951 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Galt Grant
781-383-0854 galtgra@gmail.com
Graduate Notes Policy: ■ ■ ■
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Send graduate updates and photographs to class correspondents if you have one. Digital photographs must be high-resolution JPEG images (1MB+) to appear in print. Editorial staff reserves the right to edit, format and select all materials for publication, to accommodate eight decades of classes in the Magazine. For more information, visit the graduate notes online submission page: www.nobles.edu/community/graduates/ submit-a-class-note/ Please contact us if you’d like to volunteer as class correspondent, to collect and compile news of your classmates to share. If your class does not have a correspondent listed, you can submit your notes online at www.nobles.edu/ community/graduates/submit-a-class-note/ … or volunteer to become the class correspondent by contacting Director of Graduate Affairs Kate Treitman Brown at kbrown99@nobles.edu.
50 Nobles SPRING 2020
1952 & 1953 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
John Childs
johnchilds37@gmail.com The night before the November 30 memorial service for Dick Flood, his son Sam Flood ’79 arranged to have a tribute to Floodo shown between periods of the Boston Bruins–New York Rangers game at TD Garden (the Bruins won 3–2). It was an embellished slideshow of Dick with his father, then teammates, then as a coach, then headmaster and celebrating with Sally. Very touching and a wonderful lead-in to a very well-attended service in Jamestown, Rhode Island. Hoffy and Susan joined Jean and
Peter and Carol Willauer ’52 in Miami, Florida
me at the church and Conanicut Yacht Club thereafter, along with several other Nobles and Williams friends, plus about 200 former students, various hockey players and family. The love and admiration shown by the amazing number of young people Dick and Sally touched was truly inspirational. We are thrilled that Dick Flood is also a 2020 inductee in the Athletic Hall of Fame. And, as this is being written, our concerns and best wishes go out to Katherine and Bo Wakefield, who have been keeping us up to date on the devastating wildfires consuming so much of Australia. He reports that they “are OK on our hills in Terranora, the air is pretty good, and no house paint even singed.” However, in addition to the widespread loss of wildlife, forests, farms, vineyards, livestock, infrastructure and economic activity, it will take literally years to restore the country’s vitality. A truly sad situation. On a more cheerful note, Carol and Pete Willauer report that they motored down the waterway
NOTES & ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM CLASSMATES
from Maine in their 36’ trawler to the Florida Keys, are currently in Naples, will move on to Stuart, fly to Nevis, and complete the 3,000mile round-trip on the “Eight Bells” back to Maine in June. They have two great-grandchildren, and five of their eight grandchildren are in college (George Washington, Harvard, U of Virginia, Babson and getting a master’s in cello at the Cleveland Institute of Music), and the older one’s an Outward Bound instructor, a filmmaker in Jackson Hole and a teacher at St. George’s. And finally, their Hurricane Island Center for Science and Leadership is thriving, and most important, his health is “pretty stable.” Their mantra is: “Be ready for new adventures and keep moving!” Locally, we can vouch that the Hoffmans, Dave Thibodeau, Emmie Newell, Syddie Sowles, Joan Bartlett and John Childs are all well, and with Sally Linden living just down the hall at North Hill with us, we have the pleasure of seeing her often. Hope to hear from more of you next time.
1954 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Peter Partridge
508-548-9418 bluechip7676@hotmail.com Bob Foster is “happily corresponding from Tucson, Arizona, after New England winters finally wore us down. People, weather and surroundings here are wonderful. For my service-connected woes, the VA here has done a fabulous job of patching me back together.
My two books have provided me with some modicum of pride and pin money, and I have Mr. Reese to thank for getting me started as an author. Nobles rules!”
1955 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Bob Chellis
781-237-9436 rdchellis@gmail.com
1956 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Gren “Rocky” Whitman
410-639-7551 grenwhitman1@gmail.com “I have pretty much retired from palliative care except for didactics for the fellows and running a bereavement group,” reports Bob Bach. “My involvement centers around a soup kitchen, a homeless shelter, and writing to inmates at the Maine state prison. I also continue to try my hand at poetry. “Prompted by Gail becoming incapacitated by an extensive fracture of her right humerus, I recently completed an apprenticeship in domestic care. This injury occurred when our beloved Lab bolted while she was holding her leash. Except for ruining an Instapot, I think I passed.” With his heart’s aortic valve replaced because of a loud murmur, Tom Oleson expects to resume playing golf “shortly.” “We’re recovering from the holidays,” writes John Fritts, with four grandchildren here and one in California. “No great-grandchildren
yet; my wife says we are not old enough. Getting set to move from Wellesley to Cape Cod. I think a huge dumpster is the answer to all the stuff in the attic, basement and garage. Anniversary No. 50 is coming up in February. I’m told it is gold. My wife thinks a gold BMW convertible would do it, but only if we hit Megamillions or Powerball. College tuition, among other things, is looming.” From Newell Flather: “One of the highlights of 2019 was the celebration of the Parker Foundation’s 75th anniversary. Well over 200 individuals from Lowell organizations we have supported happily gathered to party in a magnificent space on the top floor of a previously abandoned classic old cotton mill. I’ve been a trustee of Parker for 47 of those 75 years, and president for 42. All these years have begun to make me feel like a classic old Nobles grad. However, the foundation is growing younger as we have added new, younger and more diverse trustees and advisors who are more representative of Lowell’s numerous racial and ethnic communities. These include well-regarded and accomplished members from the city’s growing numbers of Africans, Asians and others.” “It’s been a tough year,” writes Dave Carroll. “Babs is doing better, very present and cheerful and cognizant that she’s in her nursing facility, even though she doesn’t know why she’s there or that she’s never coming home. She remembers some of you fondly, especially Newell and Whizzer. The bad news? A transfusion has
relieved her hemoglobin deficiency enormously, but sadly, the relief is only temporary, and she’ll need another in a few months. The procedure was physically and mentally traumatic for her, and although she joked with everyone, underneath she was terrified. So, my question is: How long do I put her through this before I let her go? It won’t be dementia that kills her, but the blood problem, likely within a year. I’m heartbroken, obviously, and though my days with her at the retirement center are full and upbeat, underneath there is the crushing knowledge that it’s up to me how long my sweetheart lives.” Tim Leland reports that he and Julie took a leisurely riverboat cruise up the beautiful Douro River in Portugal last summer, passing through the many lochs en route to Salamanca, Spain. In January, they headed south to San Miguel de Allende, the favored Mexican retreat of artists and writers from around the world, as well as a considerable annual influx of American tourists and expats. “We’re trying to see as many beautiful places on earth as we can before either our bodies or our planet gives out,” Tim says. “Given the environmental policies of the Trump administration, there’s no telling which will come first. It’s a close race.” From John Felton: “Some kids never grow up. On Thanksgiving Day, I ran in the Franklin Park 5K road race and simultaneously came in first and last in the 80-and-above class.” By the time this appears, Maryland’s General Assembly will have acted on several gun safety bills
SPRING 2020 Nobles 51
graduate news
and a statewide ban on intentional balloon releases, of interest and concern to Rocky Whitman.
1957 CLASS CORRESPONDENTS
John Valentine
413-256-6676 jean6157@icloud.com Eliot Putnam
etputnam@earthlink.net
1958 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Chris Morss
knossos@aol.com Mike Whitman has started a new chapter in Hanover, New Hampshire: “We have two members in this newly formed, fairly ‘loose club,’ since Larry Daloz has relocated here from way out west. We had a great time reminiscing, trying to recollect with any possible accuracy the history of the original Loose Club, and Mohawks and Oneidas. I was a former; he thinks the tribes disbanded after the Sixth class. Come on up and straighten us out!” Larry adds: “As a quick note, Sharon and I are happily ensconced in Kendal, a Quaker-inspired retirement community in Hanover, New Hampshire. We have been greeted here by Mike Whitman who lives in nearby Lyme and hope to see more of each other. Now that we’re back on the Old Sod, I hope to reconnect with classmates.” Early in January, Sara and George Foss hosted a lively ’58 reunion at their home in Fernandina Beach, Florida. Jan and Bill Russell drove down from South Carolina. Charlie Long and Betsy Nelson
52 Nobles SPRING 2020
(father Percy Nelson ’40) were stopping over on their way to the Keys from Massachusetts. They phoned Chris Morss and had an amusing chat. Peter Horton chimed in: “Not a lot to report on the home front. Our postage-stamp garden has outdone itself this year. We were still eating carrots and kale and arugula and parsley every night. Every time I put my fork to the parsley, I think of Jim Doty ’55. Back in my boarding school years, I remember him always asking for the leftover pieces of parsley on the meat tray. When he was asked why, I remember, he said something about how good parsley was for the body, and how that would help him achieve his ambition of swimming the English Channel and running in the Boston Marathon. Mind you, this was back about 1955. But I sure have him and that memory to thank for getting me
onto a running path two decades later, and ensuing marathons. I hope everyone is doing well. Who would have thought that ‘Shake, Rattle and Roll’ would become the anthem for us creaky old-timers? Also, my email address now is prhhgb@gmail.com.” In late December, Kathy and Peter Norstrand, along with Peter Wadsworth, helped celebrate Richard Whiteley’s 80th birthday. Sadly, Richard passed away in April 2020. (See remembrance on page 61.) Norstrand said, Kathy and I will head to Bermuda for a week in early March to escape this non-winter. You know something is afoot when it’s warmer here than in my daughter’s hometown, Phoenix.”
1959 CORRESPONDENTS
Whit Bond
whit.bond@verizon.net
Buzz Gagnebin
imbuzz@me.com John Gibson
jgib1963@aol.com John Gibson reports a busy fall of travel: London with Irina (see photo below) and Washington, D.C., where John, Ted Mann and Steve Grant dined together. The Nationals (we remember the lowly Senators) won the World Series that we thought the Red Sox would repeat with (see photo below). William Taylor reports from the cold shores of Gloucester: “All is well, and I seem to be weathering the creaks and groans all of us are experiencing. Had a great time thanks to Buzz Gagnebin and Whit Bond at our reunion and look forward to the next one. Still busy fiddling with a few nonprofits who universally take my money but hardly ever take advice. I am
1959
Clockwise from top: Irina and John Gibson ’59 between two London Bobbies! No, they are not going to jail for telling bad jokes. Margaret and Greg Wiggins ’59 (who still fits into his uniform!) Ted Mann and John Gibson (both ’59) with John’s sons, Robert and Forrest, before the Washington Nationals World Series victory parade.
blessed to have my faculties intact and my family nearby. I still often find myself issuing poetic lines from Sid Eaton’s ‘Magic Casements,’ much to my own amusement. I talk to Borden, Whit and Professor Gibson fairly often and am always delighted to hear any news of other classmates. Perhaps next summer someone will stop by for a boat ride at the local yacht club.” Greg Wiggins provides this note about his memories as a veteran, which he presented on Veterans Day in 2018 at Living Waters Church: “My 21 years in the military turned out to be the arena of life that God used to break me of myself, to bring me into a surrendered relationship with him, giving me eternal purpose and meaning. In surrendering to him, God used two of the most important relationships to break me of myself, my ego, ‘edging God out.’ Those two most important relationships included the surrendering of my three sons and, on more than one occasion, surrendering my career. More than 14 years after surrendering my sons, God restored my relationship with them; later he even gave me other promotions and then kept me in the military until retirement. Those earlier moments of brokenness and emptiness opened the door of my heart to receive his great wholeness. Being a veteran developed discipline, focus and teamwork. God still takes all that training and uses it to transform my life more and more into the person that he wants me to be. I am a very blessed and grateful veteran.”
1960 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Albert Vandam
arvandam42@gmail.com
1961 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Jim Newell
802-467-3555 newell43@gmail.com
1962 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Peter McCombs
215-947-8017 or 516-629-7983 prm9244@gmail.com
seen and corresponded with a number of you over the past year and would like to see that number grow in the new year. Take a look at our class website when you have a minute; there is much to be seen and read (and added to), thanks in large part to Alexander Caskey and Rick Farlow. “Be well and stay in touch with one another.”
1965
1963
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
jimsummers@post.harvard.edu
Jim Summers
Jim Lehan
508-520-1373 jblehan@aol.com
1964 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Ned Bigelow
781-704-4304 moe9817@aol.com Ned Bigelow writes: “Happy New Year to all members of the Class of 1964. I hope this note finds everyone doing well and in the best shape possible. Much has transpired in the last year, and all things being equal, I hope all would agree that overall it has been positive. We are blessed with the constant entertainment, joy, delight and challenge of our 10 grandchildren. The fact that they all live nearby is a gift that we do not take for granted, not for one minute. At this writing, they range in age from 20 months to 16 years old, and their involvements range from playing with trains to playing music, to sports, to theater, to gymnastics and thinking about college—the whole gamut. “I’ve
The last time your class correspondent was on the summit of Mount Washington in the winter was the last week of January 1967. I was with Matt Schmid, Alan Gauld ’64 and Alexander Caskey ’64. Day one was to hike into Isolation Shelter. Matt and Alexander made that hike during daylight hours. Because Alan and I had completed our last midyear exams at Harvard on that same day, the two of us hiked in after dark. Moving through the darkness without headlamps, Alan commented that it brought to mind the forest of Mirkwood through which Bilbo Baggins (J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit) had navigated. As Alan and I pulled into the Isolation lean-to shelter, there were Alexander and Matt, sitting on a big log across the opening end of the shelter in front of a roaring fire. What a sight. What warmth of friendship! Steve Fisher reports: “I’ve been on a bit of a tear since Labor Day, having climbed Moosilauke (again a joyous hike), Garfield, Carter Dome, Eisenhower (gorgeous in rime ice) and most recently Hale
Matt Schmid ’65 and Jim Summers ’65 dusting off equipment in preparation for summiting Mount Washington in early March
and Cannon (on an ice-laden and very treacherous Kinsman Ridge Trail). I’m shooting to complete the NH 4,000-footers in 2020, exactly 60 years after climbing my first—Passaconaway and Whiteface.” (There are 48 peaks in New Hampshire that equal or exceed 4,000 feet.) Some time ago, I had the honor of being with Rick Weinberg to observe him as he trained horses as part of an ongoing program to rescue orphaned horses. Rick’s work with horses is utterly amazing and deeply profound. He communicates with them through telepathic intention.
1966 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Ned Reece
ned4047@sbcglobal.net 773-213-0442
1967 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Drew Sullivan
781-461-1477 drewsull49@aol.com
SPRING 2020 Nobles 53
graduate news
Eric Pape writes, “For a week in late summer 2019, Nobles 1967 graduates Duncan Dwinell, Jean-Marie Burgaud and Eric Pape visited JeanMarie’s brother Yanick in Dordogne, France. We wined, dined and chatted in three languages (having no single common tongue among us and our spouses). Yanick and his wife, Brigitte, took us to Lascaux II, Sarlat and other remarkable locales near their hilltop farm.”
1968 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Andy Lord
617-899-3948 ajliii@yahoo.com
1969 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Peter Pach
860-267-9701 peterbpach@gmail.com Quiet winter months for the Class of ’69. I exchanged season’s greetings via email with Peter Gates, Wigs Frank, David Polk, Tod Whittemore, Don Watson, Brad Wilkinson, George Pendergast, Jeff Lawrence, John Clark (who sent a lovely photo of his New Hampshire yard under earlymorning moonlight), David Brown, Ted Canto, Baird Brightman (who had both sons home in California for the holidays), Steve Baker and Toby Burr (who says he bought a new, and very speedy, boat). Brad Wilkinson did report finding a cure for any winter doldrums, writing that the placid lives of him and his wife, Mary, “came to an abrupt halt in late October with the arrival of Portly, an 8-week-old
54 Nobles SPRING 2020
Brad Wilkinson ’69 with his labrador puppy, Portly
black Labrador puppy. Now most conversations revolve around peeing and pooping (not mine) and who takes the walks. She’s growing like a weed, entering her chewing phase, and has earned her spot just below wife-boat-grandchildren— but above the kids.” The big excitement in the Pach household was celebrating my mother’s 100th birthday in October with family and friends in attendance. She told me that now, when someone asks her age, she will say “a century.” She reads The New York Times every morning, loves discussing world events, and is always wondering what her six grandchildren and three greatgrandchildren are doing. Don’t be shy: Send me an email or give me a call. I always love to hear from classmates.
1970
Sargent was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He attended the Belmont Hill School and Amherst College and served in the Army Air Corps during World War II. He had four children: Peter (Governor’s ’65), Pamela, Manny Sargent Jr. ’70 and Amy Sargent Swank ’80. After college, Sargent settled in Wellesley, Massachusetts. He taught at Nobles as well as other independent schools and served as the head of the math department. Manny was a beloved teacher and coach wherever he taught. Sargent retired to Bath, drawn there by his lifelong love affair with the coast of Maine and with sailing. After he moved there, Sargent continued teaching, tutoring and coaching. Over the years he developed strong friendships with many of his neighbors in Bath, ranging in age from 5 to 95. Manny’s zest for life left its mark on many of his friends; he has been an inspiration to us all. Manny is survived by eight children and stepchildren, 11 grandchildren and step-grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren and stepgreat-grandchildren.
Connie and John Linehan downsized in San Francisco from an 1873 Victorian to an apartment on Nob Hill and are at a new address: 1200 California, Apartment 12C, San Francisco, Calif. 94109. John writes that he is “still working, traveling every week, and very happy with life. Hope to see classmates when you all are out here!”
1973 Thanks to Lewis Bryant, who wrote to let us know that he has recently retired from Buckingham Browne & Nichols after 37 years as director of multicultural services and teacher, coach, advisor, parent liaison, administrator and diversity consultant. He is “looking forward to spending time with my family and lovely wife of 25 years, the Honorable Helen Brown-Bryant, contributing to and volunteering in the Black community, consulting and being dad and granddad to five adult children and nine beautiful grandchildren!” Congrats, Lewis!
1974 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
1971 CLASS CORRESPONDENTS
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Harry Blackman
Levy Byrd
Harry.Blackman@skadden.com
781-449-7555 levbyrd@comcast.net
John Dewey
jrdewey@usa.net Condolences to our classmate, Manny Sargent, who lost his father, former faculty member Manny Sargent Jr. He died peacefully on February 22, 2019, in Bath, Maine, at the age of 96.
1972
Nick Mittell
phred.j.dog@gmail.com Win Perkins
wperkins@mmuftc.com
Kevin McCarthy
617-480-6344 kjmc.bc.msw15@gmail.com Kevin McCarthy writes: “Hello, Nobles community. I am grateful to announce that my career of service continues to provide me with the joy of watching so many who have so little be able to get the help that they need. I continue to support Heading Home Inc., and I am glad to see that Nobles students have found this great
organization to support as well, in their commitment to community service. I have recently taken on the role of board president at the Massachusetts Organization for Addiction Recovery. I am committed to helping them advocate to eliminate the stigma attached to substance use disorders, and to provide a platform to promote awareness about our current opioid epidemic. As an LICSW, I now am able to provide clinical services across the board in the mental health profession. I have had a great fall and look forward to seeing other grads this spring. A shoutout to all of those involved in another great Nwanagu Family dinner. Life is good.”
1975 CLASS CORRESPONDENTS
Jed Dawson
508-735-9663 jdawson711@gmail.com Doug Floyd
781-788-0020 dfloyd44312@yahoo.com
1976 CLASS CORRESPONDENTS
Tom Bartlett
+44 1908 647196 tom_bartlett58@hotmail.com Rob Piana
617-491-7499 robert.piana@vanderbilt.edu In Memoriam David
Debbie
Charlie
Gary
Jim
Ev
Doug
Rick
Ruth
Guy
From Bob Henderson: “We have said goodbye to too many of our peers too young, several of them while I was Nobles’ head of school. I have felt the loss of all of those wonderful people acutely, and yet the blessing is that they will all be forever 18 in our collective minds’ eyes. … All those we have lost over the years are sorely missed—by us, by their families and friends, and by the world. And yet for me, they have eternal youth, living forever in the special place, space and memories that we share.” Jim O’Donnell’s brother, David O’Donnell ’80, wrote: “My brother Jim was proud to go to Nobles. As a senior he helped put the yearbook together with Tom Bartlett, Steve Gorham, Bob Henderson, Andre Stark, and others. From ninth grade he was in the Nobleonians and spring musicals. In senior year he sang ‘More I Cannot Wish You’ in Guys and Dolls. As a senior he also made varsity basketball under Coach Parky Keyes. These experiences were dear to him: friendship, teamwork, music and sports. “Jim came to Nobles through family friend and Nobles grad Charlie Davis ’49 (Linda Davis’ father). His favorite teachers were Mr. Gleason and Mr. Shapiro. Jim loved writing. For the Wiggins Essay he wrote a whimsical account of a winter hitchhiking trip from Ottawa to Boston called ‘The Odyssey.’ After graduation he went on Outward Bound in the Cascade Mountains, returning to Boston on the Trans-Canadian Railway. Besides basketball, Jim loved Frisbee, tennis,skiing and hiking. “After Nobles, Jim attended Colgate for a year before taking a year to work as a reporter on the Norwich Bulletin in Connecticut. At
the end of that year, he began to hear voices. Whether the cause was schizophrenia or LSD-related psychosis, he was quite affected for the next 15 years. In November 1992, Jim took his own life. His funeral mass was held at St. Ignatius church at Boston College. My family felt surrounded by friends. More than 25 years later, we deeply appreciate, as Jim did, his friendships and experiences at Nobles.” From Tom Bartlett: “In spite of our collective grief, love is indestructible. A special thought for Doug and Jim; remembering our shared stages, where the memories and the music live on.”
End note: This is a memoriamin-progress, for it is missing the words of most who are reading this. Timing and space did not allow for additional reflections; however, we will include in later class notes any that are sent to us. Please keep in touch, and may you be blessed with health and happiness. —RP & TB
1977 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Linda Rheingold
lrheingold@comcast.net
1978 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
’76 trombones hit the counterpoint,
Christopher Reynolds
While 110 cornets blared away.
Cell: 800-444-0004 Home: 508-358-7757 chreynolds@comcast.net
To the rhythm of Harch! Harch! Harch! All the kids began to march, And they’re marching still right today!
(from The Music Man, a Nobles/ Dana Hall production of the mid-’70s. Doug played Prof. Harold Hill.) From Rob Piana (adopting a stream-of-consciousness recollection of personal characteristics and abilities): Dave: cool Charlie: always positive Jim: memorable first person met on a shared tour of Nobles as new “fourthies” Doug: music man, and pulling oars together Ruth: gracious Debbie: tremendous dancer Gary: quiet talks at Harvard as undergrads Ev: wrestling champion Rick: courageous, determined, resolved, inspirational Guy: gentle
1979 Dan Rodgers
917-494-7308 drodgers@wfw.com I am writing this on January 15, 2020. Amazing how time flies. Just a few days ago, it seemed like December 31, 2019. Boy, do I wish I had something to report about you, my very dear classmates. But, alas, there’s been nothing but crickets since our 40th reunion last May. So before climate change renders our world uninhabitable, please do send me a note, a card, a text, an email— heck, I’ll even take a fax! No matter how mundane it might seem to you, I guarantee that you will shine in these notes, and all ya gotta do is speak up! Email or text may be easiest, so reach out to me using the information above.
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1980 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Rob Capone
781-326-7142 robcapwest@comcast.net Condolences to Amy Sargent Swank on the loss of her father, former math faculty member Manny Sargent Jr. Please see Class of 1970 notes for more words in memoriam.
1981 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
John Fiske
johnfiske@comcast.net As the new correspondent for the Class of 1981, I need your help. Please send along news and tidbits that you do not post on Facebook or other social media. If I don’t hear from you, I will come calling. In May, your correspondent saw Rich O’Keeffe prior to the funeral service for his father. Rich and I chatted for about 20 minutes before other guests arrived. Rich reported that he had recently become a grandfather. I also wanted to see Rich’s brother Spike O’Keeffe ’85, who was the coxswain when I rowed in the Third and First Boats.
Spike sports the same smile and is a bit larger than he was in 1981. Rich Lincoln writes: “After 13 months owning Apricity, our 53’ motor yacht, and refitting her to be our home, we are on the eve of our adventure. We are much delayed, and it has been a trying and frustrating year. Within two weeks, weather permitting, we will cross the straits of Florida to the Bahamas, where we will spend the next three or four months. Before the arrival of hurricane season in June, we plan to travel back to the northeast with our goal being a visit to Prince Edward Island. Why now? I am not retired, but if we do not do this now, it is unlikely we would be able to. Life on the water is hard; now is the time.” For those curious to learn more: https://www.mv-Apricity.blog Be sure to follow Rich’s new life on his blog and find a way to follow through on your own dreams. In January I had lunch with Dan Cullaty and his wife, Anandi. Dan spoke about what he has learned as a new beekeeper, and about his recent cycling trip in Europe. He still hangs his hat at Fidelity and resides in Wellesley. Your correspondent lives in Beverly (22-plus years) and continues to teach first-year writing
at Endicott College, in Beverly, and Bunker Hill Community College.
1982 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Congratulations to the girls tennis team of 1985 for their induction into the Athletic Hall of Fame!
1986
Holly Malkasian Staudinger
CLASS CORRESPONDENTS
914-925-2340 hollyamalkasian@gmail.com
Heather Markey
1983 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Nancy Sarkis Corcoran
617-365-3836 hsmarkey@icloud.com Jessica Tyler
781-934-6321 tylerjessica@me.com
nlsc3@me.com Eliza Kelly Beaulac
1984
703-476-4442 embeaulac@verizon.net
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Christine Todd
christinetodd@me.com
1985 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Neil Bleicken
neil.bleicken@gmail.com Neil Bleicken has agreed to be the class correspondent. He writes: “I will try to reach everyone in our class, but if you have anything you would like to submit or have an email address for a classmate, please send it to me at neil. bleicken@gmail.com. Many thanks!”
Joy Marzolf writes: “I have recently been leading snorkeling trips for the Oceanic Society to Belize. It is great to be able to use my experience and knowledge to teach others about the underwater world and the amazing world above, including reptiles, in the tropics. While there I have also been helping a friend who runs the Crocodile Research Coalition. We have been doing croc surveys and biodiversity studies of coastal regions near Placencia. This past summer I also helped run the Biology of the Pitvipers international conference in Rodeo, New Mexico. This is the fourth professional
Left to right: December 2019 gathering of some folks from the Class of 1981, including Mike Young, Connie Moore, Lyle Fulkerson, Sam Smart, Linda Lynch, Davis Clayson, Elizabeth Ward and Andrew Wheeler; Joy Marzolf ’86 photographing a blacktail rattlesnake in New Mexico; Three Nobles guys playing Men’s League in Connecticut, 2020: Sean Duane ’83, Matt Nelson ’05, Michael Sayer ’98.
56 Nobles SPRING 2020
reptile conference I have helped to run, attracting amazing researchers from around the world. I have also continued to help run Boston Sea Rovers, held each March in Danvers, Massachusetts. As a part of the weekend show, I run the free Kids Day events and the art exhibit. It is always a great chance to meet world-famous photographers, filmmakers and scientists as we help educate the public about the underwater world.”
1987 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Emily Gallagher Byrne
781-721-4444 egbyrne@verizon.net Elise Gustafson
elise_gustafson@yahoo.com
1988 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Sasha Leland
sasha@thelelands.com
1989 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Rachel Spencer
917-921-5916 rachelwspencer@yahoo.com
1991 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Amy Russell Farber
amy.farber.143@gmail.com
1993 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Sam Jackson
978-409-9444 sambjackson@hotmail.com
1994 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Marni Fox Payne
mpayne@berkshirepartners.com
attendance were his brothers, Rob Hensel ’00 and Chase Hensel ’06. In addition, many friends and family were present, including 1996 classmates Andy Youngman and Ben Sprayregen. The new couple is also thrilled to share they are expecting twins this April.
1997 CLASS CORRESPONDENTS
Bobbi Oldfield Wegner Happy New Year to the Class of 1994! Matt Glassman dropped us an update: “In 2020, when not at home in rural western Massachusetts with our 2-year-old, Davi, I’ll be on tour with my theatre company, Double Edge, to L.A., Albuquerque, Detroit, Norway and England. If you are in or near any of these places, please ping me! Would be great to connect. And if you are ever interested in the trek to western Mass, come see our summer spectacle in 2020, ‘Baron Munchausen,’ directed by yours truly!”
1995 If anyone is interested in volunteering for the role of class correspondent, please be in touch. Thanks to Amy Sheridan and Molly Haverty for serving in this role.
617-980-1412 bobbiwegner@gmail.com Jessie Sandell Achterhof
781-990-3353 jessie.achterhof@gmail.com
1998 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
dave.liquid@gmail.com
Lisa Marx Corn
lisamarx@gmail.com John O’Connor wrote: “I live in Maynard with my wife, Callie, and two kids, Colin and Emma. I was recently elected president of the Acton Boxborough Youth Hockey Association, which is about the only news I’ve had in a while!”
1999 CLASS CORRESPONDENTS
Stephanie Trussell Driscoll
Gabriela Herman
gabriela.herman@gmail.com
Alex Slawsby
1992
alex.slawsby@gmail.com
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Congratulations to Jim Hensel, who celebrated his wedding to Aida Jovani in Tirana, Albania, on the weekend of June 15, 2019. In
Lynne Dumas Davis
703-623-4211 lynnemddavis@gmail.com
2000
Dave Klivans
stephdriscoll32@gmail.com
1996
2016). Mark is living in Salem, Massachusetts, and teaches writing and literature at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. He is also a founding editor of Draft: the journal of process and a contributor to the Fail Safe podcast. Congratulations, Mark! More congrats are in order to David Applebaum, who is living out in Los Angeles. NBC Studios just ordered a pilot of his drama, La Brea. Applebaum also co-produced The Enemy Within and worked on the first six seasons of The Mentalist, eventually rising to co-producer. His other credits include co-executive producer on CBS’s Wisdom of the Crowd and supervising producer on NCIS: New Orleans.
Mark Polanzak has a new book of short stories, The OK End of Funnytown, coming out in May, which won the BOA Short Fiction Prize and the hybrid fiction/memoir POP! (Stillhouse,
Special congratulations to Chris Owen, who will be inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame for hockey and golf this spring. Sasha Papernik writes: “Justin and I welcomed our second daughter, Lucille, in 2019! Lucie is an absolute joy, and big sister Harper has been a great role model and helper. Justin and I also traveled to Estonia this year with the State Department as musical ambassadors, performing a dual language Russian/English program for audiences across the country. Lucille came along on the tour.”
2001 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Lauren Kenney Murphy
Lauren.kenney1@gmail.com
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After a mere 10 years of working on it, Lulu Miller is thrilled to be welcoming her first book, Why Fish Don’t Exist (Simon & Schuster, 2020), into the world. (Story on page 43). It’s a nonfiction adventure story about madness, love and fish. Come April, she’ll be hitting the road for a book tour. When she’s not trying to turn obscure scientific topics into an interesting narrative for print, she’s doing it for radio. You can hear her on upcoming episodes of NPR’s Invisibilia and Radiolab. She recently moved to Chicago with her wife, Grace, and son, Jude.
2002 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
William N. Duffey III
617-893-1040 williamduffey@gmail.com Congratulations to Senam Kumahia, who welcomed a baby boy, Kofi, in August 2019. Also in baby news, Cam Marchant and his wife, Nora, welcomed twins Luna and Soleil in February 2019.
2003 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Laura Marholin Garcia
laura.marholin@gmail.com
2004 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Carolyn Sheehan Wintner
781-801-3742 carolyn.wintner@gmail.com
58 Nobles SPRING 2020
Left to right: Eric Fenton and Brian Turner on a trip to Hanahan, South Carolina, with Nat Kellogg, not pictured (all ’97) in October 2019; Mark Polanzak ’99; Sasha Papernik ’00 and her husband, Justin Poindexter, recently toured Estonia.
2005 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Saul Gorman
617-447-3444 saul.gorman@gmail.com Julia Spiro has a book coming out in June titled Someone Else’s Secret, which is set on Martha’s Vineyard where she lives.
2006 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
E.B. Bartels
ebandersenbartels@gmail.com It’s a brand new decade, people! So you know what that means. By the time this issue of the magazine comes out, we will be only a year out from our 15-year reunion. What? That is alarming. Anyway, while you let that one marinate, I asked all of you what your goals and hopes and dreams were for 2020 and beyond, and some of you humored me and answered my question, and I thank you for that. Some of you just wrote in with general updates, and that’s all good too. Most of you ignored my email, which hurts (hurts!) but those of you who were in touch had some great things to
share, so enjoy. First up, ’06 legend Greg Croak wrote from Seattle. He informed me that he has transferred from working in development at the University of Washington School of Dentistry to the University of Washington Business School. His new role will be “a pure fundraising job, higher net-worth prospects, bigger team, little more money, not dentistry, etc.” Greg did admit to me, though, that he will miss obtaining human skulls for dental students (see previous installments of the class notes for more on that). He said that “picking up skulls from donors will forever be the most metal thing I ever do in educational fundraising.” Also, Greg’s world-champion wife, Libby, is crushing it at Sonos, and their son, Cal (@calcroak on Instagram), is “developing a jolly little personality.” Second, ’06 queen Mariel Novas actually followed directions and wrote in with her goals (thank you, Mariel). She writes, “I defend my capstone in April and will (hopefully lol) graduate from my doctoral program at Harvard in May, so my goal for 2020 is to play more! It’s been an intense, beautiful and rewarding almost three years, so looking forward to more travel, frolics and healthy mischief
in 2020.” Hit me up once you’re done defending, Mariel. Also, lol at “hopefully lol.” You’re going to defend the hell out of that capstone! Third, ’06 superstar Jay Kelly writes, “I have moved all the way from Boston to Cambridge and started a new job at Indigo Agriculture, an ag-tech company based in Charlestown. It’s also a first step toward the dream that began in Ms. Maldonado’s U.S. History class of becoming a yeoman farmer. My 2020 resolution is to finally learn how to play the piano. I hope it can be done in about three weeks, which is the life expectancy of my New Year’s resolutions.” Look at you, Jay, making both Marcela Maldonado and Michael Turner proud. Godspeed. Fourth, ’06 celebrity Harry Aspinwall has been busy, in classic Harry Aspinwall fashion: “I wrote four screenplays last year and went on two writing residencies, to ArtFarm Nebraska and the Studios of Key West, where I lounged around in a massive apartment (which apparently otherwise gets rented for $10,000 a month) in the historical part of sunny Key West, writing feverishly while also trying to find plenty of time for drinking and splashing around in the tropical December ocean. I also probably
drank more coffee over a month than ever before in my life. I also got to hang out with Kimberly Peirce, director of Boys Don’t Cry, at the Key West Film Festival, which was cool. Now I’m researching for another screenplay (about famine and cults and inherited guilt and trauma in a Scottish forest in the 1690s) and editing my fiancée’s comedy webseries, which she got a grant from the city’s film fund to produce, about a young VietnameseAmerican woman discovering her sexuality through a gender workshop. I’m also bothering my acting agents, who are currently sick with the flu, to get me in touch with various casting directors for pilot season. The Sleepover, the Netflix film I was in last year, is coming out in the spring or summer, and I hope this year will bring lots more awesome opportunities to get cast in TV series and films. I’m keeping a journal this year, so I’m really into run-on sentences right now.” Harry, you know I love journals and run-on sentences. Keep up the good work. Fifth, ’06 VIP Kristianna Jones sent in the update that she is starting her first semester of medical school at St. George’s University in Grenada. Awesome, Kristianna!
Save those lives! Sixth, ’06 enigma Alexa Walls told me that she is moving to London in May and nothing else. So, that’s cool and also mysterious? Melissa Weihmayer is also living in London now (to pursue a Ph.D. in urban planning at the London School of Economics), so the two can hang out over the summer and pretend they’re sitting near each other in assembly again. Finally, ’06 goddess Hannah Mauck Sokol has been putting her social worker skills to use by bringing her registered therapy dog, Mary Sokol, with her to work. See photo on page 60. Can’t top that, so I will end the class notes here.
2007 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Kat Sargent
katharine.sargent@gmail.com
2008 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Michael Polebaum
mpolebaum08@nobles.edu Happy spring, Class of 2008! Can you believe that it was 75 degrees
Left to right: Lulu Miller ’01 with her wife, Grace, and son Jude; Joe Gannon, Cam Marchant, Tim Sheridan and Senam Kumahia (all Class of 2002) with Cam’s twins, Luna and Solei; Tim’s son, Rory; and Senam’s son, Kofi.
this past weekend and new grass was just planted on the Beach at Nobles? No one saw that coming, seeing as it’s currently January 15. So much has happened here at Nobles between the writing of these notes and their publication. The Les Mis stage spun out of control, sending the little revolutionaries flying. Coach David Roane’s remarkable boys thirds basketball team went undefeated in spirit only. And the new Lawrence Auditorium will be new once again, as the need for a retractable roof was just discovered. Only time will tell if any of these events actually occurred. What I can truthfully report is that most people in our class seem to be doing well. Taylor Cazeault got married in April of this year. She’s currently a lobbyist on the Hill. Taylor didn’t tell me whom she advocates on behalf of, so I’m going to assume it’s puppies and kittens. Todd Haylon’s daughter Charlotte (not in the line of succession to the throne) recently turned 1. This would have been more recent news if I had remembered to include the marvelous news of Charlotte’s birth in an earlier edition of this magazine. Most important, Todd and his wife, Margaret, also have a cat. We can only hope that Todd provides photographic proof that the cat and Charlotte are best friends. Rick “I run the school now” Goode has been a tremendous addition to the Nobles board of trustees this year. While not mentioned specifically in our NEASC reaccreditation report, I read between the lines in the governance section to interpret their praise as solely praise for Rick. When Rick isn’t running the school, he lives in Cleveland Circle with his
wife, Hannah. Most exciting, they are expecting a boy at the end of May. Rick is still working for New Balance but has transitioned into a sales position, so if you need a new pair of shoes, Rick is your guy. Shannyn Gaughan is famous now that she has starred on Family Feud (see photo on page 60). The episode aired in October, and though they didn’t win, the family was invited back to compete this year. Shannyn also reports that she is expecting her first baby in a few weeks, so by the time you’re reading this, she’ll have a 5-month-old! And there were two new engagements in 2019. Jillian Anderson got engaged to Kolin Loveless. Jillian is now the proud mother of a beautiful Corgi named Olwyn (you can follow along on Instagram @ wanderingcorgi). And, as I’m sure many of you are aware, we will have yet another ’08 wedding when Greg White and Kylie Gleason get married. I am unaware of their pet situation, but hopefully they will rectify that by the next issue. And finally, Kelsey Grousbeck Cosby is approaching one year living on Martha’s Vineyard with her husband, Matt, and two cat-children, Panda and Marley. I can say from first-hand experience that the cats are really enjoying the island life as well as the multiple sunbathing locations that the new house provides. Godspeed, my mighty pageant creatures. I hope to hear from all of you over the summer!
2009 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Liz Rappaport
617-413-6070 lizrap21@gmail.com
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the Pāhala Elementary School in Hawai’i. Katie is a teacher who specializes in gardening and was assigned to the campus through Food Corps.
2010 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Tori Goyette
tgoyette10@gmail.com Huge congratulations to Denna Laing, who is being honored with this year’s Young Graduate Award. We also have Marissa Gedman representing our year as an inductee to the 10th Athletics Hall of Fame.
2016 CLASS CORRESPONDENTS
Sabrina Rabins
srabins@gmail.com Mariana Vega
vegamariana612@gmail.com
2011
2017
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Katie Puccio
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
508-446-0726 krpooch@gmail.com
Harry Sherman
Congratulations to Sarah Roman Reimer, who got married to Josh Reimer on September 7, 2019, surrounded by family and friends in Bermuda.
2012 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Coco Woeltz
ccwoeltz2@gmail.com Karly Finison wrote from California with some job news: “Hi, Nobles! I hope everyone had a great holiday season and start to the year. In October 2019, I started a job with Seedlip, a non-alcoholic spirits brand within Diageo. It’s been a busy first few months, but the transition has been great so far. This March, we were in Austin for SXSW!” Cam Smith writes: “Hey, Nobles! I hope everyone had a great holiday season surrounded by family and friends. I’m writing from Camp Pendleton, California, where I’ve been stationed for al-
60 Nobles SPRING 2020
harry74sherman@gmail.com
2018 Clockwise from left: Hannah Mauck Sokol ’06 brings therapy dog Mary to work; Noa Fay ’19 published her first book; a debut performance by Shannyn Gaughan ’08 on Family Feud in October 2019.
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Jill Radley
jillradley22@gmail.com most three years with the Marines. We have strong class representation out here as both Jackson Timm and Ben Kent are also stationed on Pendleton. I’ve recently made the decision to transition out of the Marines in May and will be pursuing an MBA with hopes of matriculating this August. I look forward to moving back east and catching up with many of you.” We also heard that Sophie Atwood just moved back to Boston.
and meditation app called FitMind, which teaches mental wellness at Fortune 500 companies like Amazon and Uber, addiction centers, schools and government offices. He lives out in Colorado.
2013
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Natalie.a.hession@gmail.com
We heard from Liam McClintock, who just launched a mental health
CLASS CORRESPONDENTS
Cyan Jean
cjean040@gmail.com Ally Guerrero
2014
alessandra.guerrero@bc.edu
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
This past month, Noa Fay finally got her first novel—One Cruel House— published. It follows a young woman named Alexandria (who is the princess of her country) as she is forced to navigate and manage the difficulties of royal court while her parents, the king and queen, are away on business. However, after certain events, things become particularly hostile between Alexandria’s country and the surrounding ones, giving way to the possibility of war. Congrats, Noa!
Alexandra Charron
alexandra.l.charron@gmail.com
2015 Natalie Hession
Caroline Thayer
carolinejthayer@gmail.com
2019
We heard from former faculty member Tomoko Graham that her daughter, Katie Graham, just helped to open a farm stand at
in memoriam Richard Clayton Whiteley ‘58 passed away April 4, 2020, from a heart attack. A native of Wellesley, at Nobles he was an avid athlete and scholar. He played football and served as captain of both the wrestling and crew teams his senior year. He also was elected to the Student Council and was a member of the Dramatic Club, Glee Club and Choir. He won first prize in the Science Fair as a Class II Richard Whiteley ’58 student in Chemistry and Class III student in Biology. Whiteley received a B.A. from Wesleyan University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School following three years of service in the U.S. Navy. In 1971, he founded the Forum Foundation, a global training and consulting company that he ran for over two decades. The company had over 700 employees at its height and designed training programs for some of the world’s most recognized companies, including American Express, Microsoft, Marriott and Mercedes-Benz. In 2000, he started the Whiteley Group, Inc. Throughout his career, he worked with over 300 different companies in 26 countries and presented to over 350,000 business people. In 1978, he founded and later served as president of the Instructional Systems Association (ISA), a group of leading national training companies. Whiteley was presented with ISA’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award, in 1985. In the early 1990s, Whiteley first became exposed to Shamanism while running the Forum Foundation. He was at a business retreat in Arizona and took part in a meditation session that involved working with clay. “As I began working with the clay in my hands, I was taken back to childhood, when I enjoyed the simple art of creating,” he said. “I soon realized that I was no longer the one molding the clay, but the work was being done through me and when I was finished I had created an image of a Shaman.” From this point forward, Whiteley—this life-long teacher—became a student of Shamanism, educating himself on using Shamanism to help companies and individuals find solutions and enlightenment through spiritual guidance until his passing. Whiteley authored several best-selling business books including The Customer-Driven Company and Customer-Centered Growth. In 2002, he published The Corporate Shaman, a business-fable, which has since been translated into multiple languages. Despite battling cancer and Parkinson’s disease over the years, he never lost his energy or zest for life. He continued to create
through his artwork and writings. He was an artist at heart, sharing sketches and poetry with friends and family. In his earlier years, he shared his art and exchanged numerous letters with Nobles’ former headmaster Eliot Putnam, who had a huge influence on his life. Whiteley created the Sunrise Foundation, a non-profit enterprise supporting children with learning disabilities. In addition, he served on board of the Ken Blanchard Companies, Daffys, CEO Express, and was a trustee of the Carroll School. His classmate, Chris Morss ‘58, reflected on Whiteley’s life writing, “He was a very philosophical person, always trying to get at the essence of things. When we had class reunions at Nobles, we would gather as a class and he would lead probing discussions, getting people to think deeply about their lives.” A kind soul with a compassionate heart, Whiteley will be missed by classmates and family alike. Whiteley is survived by his three sons, Philip, Matthew and Jeffrey. Walter Tower In the new Putnam Library, there is an inconspicuous green door that leads to one of my favorite places on campus. The Tower Rare Books Room is cool, quiet, just a little bit humid and filled with more than 1,300 beautiful books. Like most antique and rare books, these tomes, donated by Walter and June Tower, hide worlds between their covers. They come from 1490s Germany, from 1120s Cairo, from 1970s Vermont, and reflect the interests and expertise of Walter, who collected rare books during his career at the Nimrod Press in Boston and for many years afterward. Walter was a warm and curious man, and discussing books with him was a joy. He had a fine eye for beautiful images, a keen ear for telling stories, and a vast knowledge of books and art, from delicate medieval manuscripts to modern Inuit art to scientific illustrations and beyond. He chose the books he donated to Nobles carefully, and they speak to not only his interests (the history of books and printing, interesting or striking images, and modern artists’ books, to name only a few), but also to what he thought might be useful in educating our students. Walter’s books have helped Nobles students learn about the Reformation and the rise of the printing press, understand books as objects, make their own sculptural books, explore the peculiarities of medieval Latin, learn about images of animals throughout history, and much more. Walter may no longer be with us, but I will always be glad for the time I was fortunate to spend with him, learning from him and connecting about something that mattered immensely to both of us: sharing our love of books with others. I’m proud that the library will allow Walter to continue to share his books with Nobles students for years and years to come. —EMILY TRAGERT, LIBRARIAN
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graduate news
Richard A. Farrenkopf ’76 passed away October 9, 2019, at age 61, after a hard-fought battle with cancer. At Nobles, “Rick” ran cross country and was a member of the Historical Society and Classics Club. Born in Boston, he earned a B.A. from Tufts University and a master’s degree from Southern
New Hampshire University. While working for Digital Equipment Corporation, he met the love of his life and wife of 36 years, Tracey. He spent 21 years with Digital Equipment Corporation before serving as the director of technology for the Nashua, New Hampshire, school district until his retirement in summer 2019. Farrenkopf was tremendously committed to his colleagues, whom he considered extended members of his family. Having to retire from this position for health reasons was very hard for him, as he felt he was letting his team down. Farrenkopf was a fixture in his local community and active on many levels. He was elected to the Derry School board and was a passionate believer throughout his life in the power of education. A devoted family man, he was also involved in his three children’s activities, ranging from Boy Scouts to athletics. He served as a treasurer, manager and umpire for the Derry Little League for many years. When not spending time with his beloved family, Farrenkopf enjoyed riding his motorcycle and playing with his golden retrievers, Lucky, Merlin and Scooby. Farrenkopf will be remembered as a strong, courageous
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and loving man. He is survived by his wife, Tracey; his children, Timothy, Daniel and Chelsea; his stepmother, Margaret; his stepsisters, Kathy Hunt and Eleonor Langdon; and numerous nieces and nephews. Guy J. Altree ’76 passed away December 1, 2019. At Nobles, he ran cross country and played basketball. Altree graduated from Hamilton College and earned a master’s degree from Yale University. He began his career in New York with Morgan Guaranty Trust company, and in 1984 he moved to Morgan’s office in Taipei, Taiwan, as an assistant vice-president. He then transferred to J.P. Morgan Securities in Hong Kong before joining Lehman Brothers in 1989. During his six-year tenure at Lehman, Altree served as a senior vice president and senior banker for the bank’s project finance and advisory business in Asia. In this role, he advised corporate and government clients on power and transportation infrastructure in Thailand, Taiwan and Indonesia. Altree then founded and served as managing director of Imprimis, where he managed the firm’s operations in Thailand. Most recently, he served as a director at Khronos Advisory Limited. He is survived by his wife, Rojjana; his children, Maipae and Toby; and his sister, Susan.
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1. Kofi Kumahia, son of Senam Kumahia ’02 and his wife, Lara Shkordoff, was born in August 2019; 2. Wes Treitman Brown, son of Kate Treitman Brown ’99 and Malcolm Brown, was born in July 2019 at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital; 3. Emily Kaufman ’01 married
announcements Engagements: Danny Vinik ’05 to Cate Martel; Julianna Wright ’12 to Raj Balaji; Taylor Cazeault ’08 to Ethan Littman; Jillian Anderson ’08 to Kolin Loveless; Greg White ’08 to Kylie Gleason ’08
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Chris Gabriel in June 2019 on Martha’s Vineyard. Nobles friends included (left to right): Meaghan Kelly Lindstrom ’01, Andrea Berberian Gardos ’01, Steve Gardos ’98, Amy Hudson Gaubinger ’01, Chris Gabriel, Emily Kaufman ’01, Stephanie Savage Flynn ’01, Joanna Aven Howarth ’00 and Sara Kaufman ’98; 4. Max Pasterczyk, Hannah Roman Pasterczyk ’09, David Roman ’77, Sarah Roman Reimer ’11, Josh Reimer, Fiona Roman ’79 and Edward Roman ’14; 5. The Hensel family at the wedding of Jim and Aida (left to right): Chase Hensel ’06, Cecilia Hensel, Jim Hensel ’96, Aida Jovani, Martin Hensel, Kelsey Hensel, Rob Hensel ’00.
Marriages:
New Arrivals:
Misha Kaufman ’08 to Alexandra Skinner in December 2019; Emily Kaufman ’01 to Chris Gabriel in June 2019; Sarah Roman Reimer ’11 to Josh Reimer in September 2019
Senam Kumahia ’02 and his wife, Lara Shkordoff, welcomed a son, Kofi, in August 2019; Cam Marchant ’02 and his wife, Nora, welcomed twins Luna and Soleil, in February
2019. Kate Treitman Brown ’99 and her husband, Mac, welcomed a son, Wes, in July 2019; Sara Kaufman ’98 and her husband, Danny, welcomed a daughter, Zoe, in August 2019; Todd Haylon ’08 and his wife, Margaret, welcomed a daughter, Charlotte, in spring 2019.
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archive
A CLASSIC FROM THE CLASSICS Here, longtime Latin teacher Mark Harrington demonstrates what a teachable moment looks like. In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, we yearn for and appreciate the “old normal.” This timeless gem is from our recent past: 2013.
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In the midst of challenge, our community remains focused on what matters most: students and their ability to thrive, no matter what the circumstances. The Annual Nobles Fund (ANF) supports the faculty and staff members who nurture Nobles students. The ANF also supports the school’s financial aid budget, which is likely to be stretched in the months to come. Your gift enables the leadership team to implement key decisions such as Virtual Nobles—the school’s distance-learning program, which was introduced in April 2020.
PHOTO OF THE DAY
Image by Meghan Hoffman ’22, comes from an assignment in John Hirsch’s Photo I class. Students were asked a collage of their DatetoX,create 20XX images, and in the process reimagine and connect with objects from their text_whitney_semibold_noindent everyday life in a new way. PHOTO BY
To make your Annual Nobles Fund gift today, visit www.nobles.edu/giveonline or contact Allie Trainor, director of the Annual Nobles Fund, at allie_trainor@nobles.edu.
Noble and Greenough School 10 Campus Drive Dedham, MA 02026-4099
Sà o no? Anderson Julio’s Spanish V Honors class discusses the 2012 Chilean historical drama, No.