Nobles Magazine, Spring 2021

Nobles THE MAGAZINE OF NOBLE AND GREENOUGH SCHOOL

Desert Horse-Grant ’96 Innovating Patient Care

SPRING 2021

contents SPRING 2021

IN EVERY ISSUE 2

Letter from the Head

3 Reflections What Nobles folks are saying on campus and online 4

The Bulletin ews and notes N

12 Development A toast to Nobles!

13 By the Numbers How to do service in a pandemic 14 Sports Fields of joy 16 Off the Shelf All about the books we read and write 18 Perspective Generation of memory 37 Graduate Profile Empowering prisonleavers in Her Majesty’s Prison Service

PHOTO OF THE DAY April 13, 2021 Choral Director Nhung Truong conducts a physically distanced concert choir rehearsal in the Castle dining room.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY BEN HEIDER

FEATURES 20 Grit and Gratitude How sports and camaraderie help us thrive

Cover Photograph by Max Gerber

26 Rediscovering Roots How one grad returned to Lebanon in turbulent times

32 Bringing Biodesign to Silicon Beach Desert HorseGrant ’96 has a superpower

39 Graduate News About our grads— and see baby photos!

60 Archive Sports scenes from a previous pandemic

Nobles

letter from the head

WINTER 2021

Rituals and Rites of Passage Among the many rituals of our school year, graduate reunions are always a highlight. This year, of course, reunions were virtual, as all big events have been over the last year. While I hope this is our last fully virtual reunion, it was a thrill to “welcome back” to Nobles so many graduates who otherwise would not have been able to travel to campus. I count this among the many silver linings of this last year!

One of my favorite reunion events is meeting with the Noblest—those who graduated at least 50 years ago. I always look forward to reconnecting with this deeply loyal group of graduates, hearing their wonderful stories, and talking about the Nobles of today and tomorrow.

During this year’s gathering, one of our Noblest graduates asked me what we currently do to ensure our entire school has shared experiences. He shared how impactful certain traditions were for him as a student, and told the story of the schoolwide geography test. For many decades, the entire Nobles student body would take a geography test. It was up to each student to prepare on their own, and I have heard stories of maps all over the place on campus with students cramming to study and strive to be the winner!

A graduate from the Class of 1961 then shared a memorable moment from a geography test during the late 1950s. All Nobles students were quietly seated in Gleason Hall at their assigned metal desks, when, amidst the tense silence, there was a loud clank. Everyone looked up to see a metal ball—a globe—that had fallen from a student’s jacket and was rolling down the aisle. The graduate said they never figured out who was responsible, but they all figured it was a Class II student given where it dropped! (By the way, it is not too late to speak up as the statute of limitations on cheating has passed!)

The original question I was asked is a really important one. What do we do today to ensure our entire student community is connected and has shared experiences?

Assembly, of course, is my go-to answer. These last two years have posed enormous obstacles to the assembly experience. Fall 2019 found us in our outdoor “tent of miracles” while Lawrence Auditorium was under construction. After just a few weeks of finally being back in our renovated space, we were thrust into quarantine and have had virtual assembly ever since. When we come back (finally!) into Lawrence Auditorium, we will have not been in that space for the better part of two years. I will be the first to say that virtual assembly is not even in the same category as our traditional gathering in Lawrence Auditorium. There is something powerful and unique about being in the same shared space when experiencing assembly, and we are eager to resume live assemblies in the fall.

There are, of course, many other ways we connect as a full community. From our recent schoolwide spike ball tournament, to Friday Night Lights to Nobles-Milton Day—we have many traditions that bring our school community together. I believe we need to double down on these experiences, and look for new ways to foster connections across our school. While we are certainly a lot bigger than we were in 1961, we are still focused on the same mission as we strive to promote shared experiences, places where our older students can mentor our younger students, and ways we can join together in laughter.

If we come up short on ideas, we can always reinstitute the schoolwide geography test!

—CATHERINE J. HALL, PH.D., HEAD OF SCHOOL

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Editor Heather Sullivan

DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS

Assistant Editors Kim Neal

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS

Embrace who you are and live that truth.

Embrace the weirdness.

—LUCAS O’BRIEN ’14 IN AN INTERVIEW WITH LIBRARIAN TALYA SOKOLL, WHEN ASKED WHAT ADVICE HE WOULD GIVE TO HIS YOUNGER SELF. O’BRIEN HAS WORKED AS A DESIGN INTERN FOR THE NATIONAL TOUR OF HAMILTON, AT VOGUE MAGAZINE, AND ON THE PRODUCTION OF THE HBO SHOW THE UNDOING

Ben Heider

DIGITAL VIDEO PRODUCER/WRITER

Anne Hurlbut

WRITER/CONTENT MANAGER

Design 2COMMUNIQUÉ

www.2communique.com Photography Samer Abouhamad Tim Carey Colleen Chrzanowski Kelley L. Cox Ben Heider Anne Hurlbut Jared Leeds Max Gerber Rania Matar Kim Neal John Soares David P. Stewart Tiffany M. Stubbs 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 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 781-320-7268. © Noble and Greenough School 2021

FPO / FSC logo

While in ‘normal’ times we are often tempted to focus on results or outcomes, this year has seen a focus on the process—building a sense of team, improving every day, working hard, having fun and, perhaps most importantly, valuing the relationships that are built in the afternoon program.

—BEN SNYDER, DIRECTOR OF THE EXCEL PROGRAM, ON THE IMPORTANCE OF THE AFTERNOON PROGRAM DURING THE PANDEMIC

FEBRUARY 26, 2021: School Life Council (SLC) organized this wall of appreciation for all that Nobles faculty and staff do to support them.

MARCH 9, 2021: Middle school students enjoy an afternoon of games before the Class I students return full time and reclaim the Beach.

How nice that we can be happy in this place, seeing each leaf, seeing each jagged edge.

—AN EXCERPT FROM ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE, READ DURING AN ASSEMBLY TALK BY DIRECTOR OF COLLEGE COUNSELING KATE BOYLE RAMSDELL ABOUT HER OWN CHILDHOOD AND THE IMPORTANCE OF GETTING OUTSIDE

While Nobles stresses dedication to academics, athletics and performing arts, I have found that the commitment to building relationships with teachers, coaches, advisors and classmates is equally as important. These people become your safety net and allow you to challenge yourself, all while being grounded to a solid foundation. Reach out, find your people, and be open to everyone.

—GRACE TAYLOR ’21 IN HER NED TALK, WHICH TOOK THE FORM OF A LETTER TO HER SISTER, RORY TAYLOR ’25. TAYLOR SHARED THE FIVE MOST IMPORTANT LESSONS THAT HAVE HELPED HER TO ENDURE THE HARDER DAYS AND MAKE THE MOST OF HER TIME AT NOBLES

You never know where your own life lessons will come from, from friends or strangers, or when your kindness, hug or conversation may have a lasting impact for someone else. We have these turning points in our lives, even when we don’t realize that at the time.

—HISTORY FACULTY MEMBER AND CO -DIRECTOR OF DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION NAHYON LEE, HOSTING ASSEMBLY SPRING 2021 Nobles 3

the bulletin NEWS FROM OUR COMMUNITY

Together Apart Since the annual all-school photo and accompanying Class I photo couldn’t take place on the MAC bleachers due to physical distancing limitations, we gathered all Class I students on Almy Field for an aerial shot. This outtake from the session offers a glimpse into how everybody has adapted and realigned themselves this year.

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY BEN HEIDER

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Sixies Call for Action PRE-PANDEMIC, Sixies traditionally spent

a few days before March break in Boston for “Identity Week,” looking inward while also exploring important attributes of local communities. This year, given health and safety precautions, middle school faculty designed an immersive, interdisciplinary five-day alternative: “Race, Inequity, Power and Systems,” or RIPS. Middle school civics and geography teacher Melissa Lyons explained, “In the spring and summer of 2020, the seventhgrade team began rearranging our curriculums so that our units on race, inequities, power and systems would all align in the third quarter. We were already doing this work in our individual classes, but we thought if we streamlined it at the same time, students would begin to make cross-curricular connections and we could more explicitly address the issue of white supremacy.

assembly highlights Sweet Sounds on Campus Head of School Cathy Hall opened up

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the new year by talking about how nice it is to quite literally have

“For the weeklong RIPS unit, our goal was to explore the tools of systemic racism that led to a generational cycle of injustice, its origins and impacts on society and within ourselves, and what we can do to create a more just society here in the U.S. and in Massachusetts, specifically,” she said.

Science teacher Regina CampbellMalone, Ph.D., said science students examined the many ways that pseudoscience has been used to establish the social and political classification of “races” to justify racism and the oppression of non-white people.

English teacher Clara Brodie described how, in English Via Latin, “We examined Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird through a critical lens, problematizing the white savior narrative and exploring the story’s limits.”

Lyons added, “In geography, we explored the divisions created by socio-

economic differences in Mexico City, separating people by the caste system in India with the amplified effect of imperialism, and then how imperialism created classification by race in South Africa.

“As teachers, we understood that going into this project there would be many bumps the first time through, but we did not want that to stop us from doing the work. We were impressed with the students’ willingness to ask good questions and to remain engaged on such a challenging topic,” Lyons said.

Working in pairs, all seventh-graders critically analyzed “the many ways that systemic racism permeates society and creates disparities in the opportunities and resources available to communities and individuals.” Each selected an area of focus: housing, education, health care, voting or environmental justice.

Students used an anti-racist notetaking framework to answer questions

the sound of music back on campus, adding, “It’s a year we hope and believe the light will pour back in.”

Melissa Lyons provided historical context for the unthinkable events at the Capitol building on January 6.

Looking to the Past to Understand the Present History faculty members Michael Polebaum ‘08 and

Celebration and Education Affinity group student leaders worked with the office of diversity, equity and inclusion

about and better understand their topic, examining it through the lenses of history, political equity and social injustice. They met virtually with community leaders from Boston and visiting organizations to learn about successes and obstacles, as well as social justice implications of each issue. Faculty and staff led workshops, then students brainstormed solutions and created presentations incorporating rhetorical strategies and clear persuasion tactics, including specific, actionable proposals.

They also developed an artifact (videos, artwork, songs or social media campaigns) and an artist statement, describing how design and messaging converged, anticipating audience reaction, identifying challenges, and evaluating their teamwork.

Final presentations to “inspire others to work toward change” took place over Zoom on March 13 to peers, faculty and members of Class V. From original artwork and raps to public service announcement videos and compelling Instagram campaigns, Sixies demonstrated their research skills, creativity and commitment to bending the arc toward justice.

One Sixie reflected, “My favorite part of RIPS was either learning about these issues and statistics or putting my own creativity into my artifact. Racism is a hard topic to talk about, and the effort Nobles puts into educating us on it will never be enough, but is so important.

Also, creating our Instagram posts was actually pretty fun. I drew an image for some creativity points, and I love sketching, so applying my hobbies to school helps me learn.”

to put together a 2021 series celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. The series educated the Nobles community about topics such as

redlining and housing inequality, voter suppression, and the importance of activism. “We hope that what you hear and

Achieve Program Names Reginald Toussaint as Executive Director Reginald Toussaint has been named executive director of Achieve, the Nobles-hosted program for middle school students from underserved Boston communities. The program aims to partner with families and help close the opportunity gap. Toussaint will be the third director to lead Achieve since its founding in 2007.

The search for Achieve’s new executive director began early last fall and involved a range of community members. “I am inspired by the experience, talent and vision that Reginald will bring to Achieve’s next chapter,” said Head of School Cathy Hall. “I am also enormously grateful for the time and energy of the volunteers who served on our search committee—Gabriel Gomez (chair), Tony DiNovi, Stacy Cowan, Amy Millay, Sylvia Kuzman, Reggie Farina ’00, Cynthia Rivas ’09, Jonathan Innocent (Achieve Pride 1) and Mary Higgins—and for the tremendous leadership of Ben Snyder this year in stepping in as our interim executive director and facilitating this critical search process.”

Toussaint comes to Nobles from the James P. Timilty School in Boston and, prior to that, from Mission Hill, Charlestown High School and City on a Hill. He has served as a community leader, dean of citizenship, academic team leader and history teacher, among other roles. In addition to his role as executive director of Achieve, Toussaint will work in other areas of Nobles, including as a history teacher. Toussaint will join a strong Achieve leadership team that includes associate director Janim Sayles.

Toussaint immigrated to the United States from Haiti as a teenager, graduating from Boston’s Fenway High School. He began his college journey at Mass Bay Community College before transferring to and ultimately graduating from Amherst College.

“While Toussaint’s extensive background as a community leader and educator equip him with the experience and skills to take on this role successfully, his wise, thoughtful and warm personality made it clear to us he was the perfect person to lead Achieve forward,” Hall said. “He exudes a commitment to the principles and values at the center of both our Achieve and Nobles missions.

see inspires curiosity about and action on behalf of the important causes for which Dr. King lived and died.”

Electrifying Guitar Charlie Moore ’21 graced us with his impressive guitar skills more than once in recent months, perform-

ing U2’s “With or Without You.” During another performance, Moore’s sister, Nitty Moore ’23, made a guest appearance on piano.

Thoughtfully Sewn Derek Days ’24 made masks for senior citizens over the summer as part of the More Good News initiative.

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NTC Site Celebrates Productions Vivian Tao ’21 has acted, directed and helped lead the Nobles Theatre Collective (NTC) since arriving at Nobles. Tao found yet one more way to share creativity and passion to benefit the NTC: by building a microsite celebrating recent productions.

Here, Tao shares the how and why of her recent project, which is accessible at nobles.edu/ntc.

Describe your connection to and work with the NTC and its impact on your Nobles experience.

I’ve participated in the NTC Collective for 10 afternoon program seasons and was also in the summer production of Spring Awakening. I’ve taken on a variety of roles, including tech, acting, assistant directing and stage management. I’ve also come to the club meetings since freshman year and am now a co-president. I would say that the NTC really helped me adjust to the Nobles community as a freshman, and I enjoy bonding with other students over a shared passion for theatre. Theatre is really important because of its ability to reach an audience, and I am grateful for the opportunities to reach the Nobles community in this way.

ing photos outside of Vinik [Theatre] and the shop. I was especially intrigued by the old photos of students who graduated way before I came to Nobles. I found that it sort of gave me a peek into what theatre was like when they were at Nobles. I thought of how another theatre group that I participate in had pictures from past shows, but Nobles didn’t. I kind of thought about how I felt looking at those photos from that other theatre group: When it was a show I was a part of, it brought back fond memories from the production process. When it was a show I wasn’t a part of, the photos drew me in: I was curious and engaged. Those two feelings are what I hope the website evokes in the viewer. For alumni/current students, I hope the website can bring back positive memories. For prospective

builder, I had the skills and the time to build it from scratch.

students, I hope it gives them a feel for what theatre is like at Nobles. Personally, when I was applying, I had no idea what Nobles theatre was like.

Talk about the development process and why you wanted to build this site from scratch.

So, sophomore spring I completed an online course in web development, and then I created a full-stack website for practice over the summer. I was eager to take on another ambitious web development project, which is why I wanted to build the website from scratch. There is an argument to be made for using website builders such as Wix or Weebly, but one huge downside to them is that the loading times tend to be slower. Though it is more convenient to use a website

You recognized how strong imagery could have an impact on students and families— especially those who were considering Nobles and interested in the arts. What was your goal in building a microsite to highlight the work of the NTC?

I first thought about creating a website when I noticed that they started display-

Realizing that the people who needed them most, senior citizens, could not get them, Days started making handmade,

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washable masks, which his grandmother taught him how to sew together. Days donated the masks to Dedham senior citizens.

Vivian Tao ‘21

Musical Menagerie Madi Shaer ’23 shared the Nobles musical theatre cabaret, a musical montage put together by

students, including a preview of Chris Tillen ’23 singing “Along the Way,” from the musical Edges.

Morning Duet Alex Janower ’22, piano, and Madeline Li ’22, vocals, joined their talents to provide the community with

a beautiful performance of “Samson,”

by Regina Spektor.

Totes for Hope Sally Tabakh,

Can you speak to what was technically most challenging?

There is an “edit mode,” which allows for someone with a secret passcode to create/edit/delete galleries. I had a lot of trouble with implementing the image upload feature. There were many issues: It could only upload one at a time; it uploaded too slowly, in the wrong order.

I used this image upload API called Cloudinary and spent a lot of my time reading the documentation. When I really struggled, I actually DMed the company account on Facebook, and a representative responded and helped me work through a lot of my issues.

What about the new NTC site or the process are you most proud of? What did you learn?

I think I’m proud of the whole process, of how I saw a problem within my community and was able to build a solution.

I also love that I learned a lot along the way—image upload for example. There is honestly too much that I learned to list it all here, but I think one of the most prominent examples is ES6 Javascript syntax and functions. Before, I had been coding in ES5 Javascript, which was kind of outdated. In this project I made the switch to the newer version and learned more advanced Javascript, such as async/await functions and Promises as well. (This actually came from figuring out the solution to the image upload problem!) Learning ES6 Javascript was super useful because I’ll be able to use it outside of web development.

Alejandra Mendez and Davae Lynch, all ’22, co-leaders of the new Red Cross Chapter at Nobles, asked the community

to compose notes of encouragement to accompany care packages for the Nobles Veterans Core.

A scene from Homeroom by filmmaker Peter Nicks

HOMEROOM,

BY PETER NICKS ’86 The documentary film Homeroom, by Peter Nicks ’86, screened at the Sundance Film Festival this winter. It follows two previous films, also set in Oakland, California, chronicling the challenges of the community there: The Waiting Room and The Force.

Sundance’s U.S. Documentary competition jury presented its editing award to Homeroom. Variety, one of many news outlets covering the release, wrote, “The film swirls with the buzz of classrooms, lunchrooms and hallways before finding a deeply attentive focus once things so profoundly shift for the kids, the nation, the world. Because the students and the filmmakers of this cinéma vérité documentary had to reckon with a year unlike any other . . . there’s something shrewd in the way the filmmakers go about the fall semester without any intimation of what’s to come. Homeroom lulls the observer into the intrigues and everydayness of what unfolds on screen. And then you catch yourself and remember which senior class this is and what 2020 has in store for them.”

The mission of Nicks’s nonprofit organization, Open’hood, is to use storytelling to create stronger, more active and more connected communities. Read more about his projects at openhood.org.

Gender Equality The Nobles Feminist Coalition, focused on bringing awareness to gender equality, talked about the barriers

broken by Vice President Kamala Harris, who said, “While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last.”

A Bookish Birthday The fabulous Nobles librarians announced that the library’s third birthday would be celebrated with plenti-

ful treats in Putnam, giving everyone at assembly something to look forward to.

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Learning with Love After Alejandra Mendez and Marieko Amoah, both ’22, heard Bettina L. Love, Ph.D. during the December 2020 Student Diversity Leadership Conference, they urged Provost Bill Bussey to bring her to Nobles. On February 19, they cohosted her long assembly. Love, an educational researcher and activist, is the award-winning author of We Want to Do More Than Survive and the Athletic Association Endowed Professor at the University of Georgia. She describes her work as the intersection of race, education, abolition and Black joy.

Inspired by abolitionist giants like Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman—“how strategic they were, how brilliant they were for justice”— Love wanted to shift those principles to the field of teaching. Decrying policies like educational redlining, she said, “What we have to understand in this country is that when we don’t educate Black and brown students to their highest potential, we lose as a society.”

Love distinguished between being an “ally” and a “co-conspirator” for justice, describing an ally as passive and performative, and a co-conspirator as taking active risks to dismantle injustice, recognizing their own unearned privilege. She advised students to join clubs, take a gap year, and gain experiences in college. “You can’t stay in your bubble. Get involved—there are no excuses.”

Acknowledging the toll activism can take, Love said,“You all are young and have the world to take on. I know it can seem like a lot, but make sure that you do this work with joy. What gift do you have?

Use it for justice. Think about the March on Washington — there was no Twitter, no Instagram. How’d they get all the people there? Somebody had to run logistics. Everybody has a role to play.”

While Covid-19 exacerbates many disparities, Love said, “A crisis is not a time to give up; it’s a time to double down on the ideas of justice and equity and love and abolition and anti-racism... So don’t feel discouraged because of everything that’s going on. This moment right now is the time that we say, ‘Enough is enough!’ and we come out of this crisis stronger, more thoughtful, kinder, more gentle, loving human beings who see our connections... Because even in a pandemic, the idea that your school is dedicating this time for us to dream, and to challenge, and to be critical, is a commitment to the fact that after this is over, we are together.”

Archiving Covid-19 Archivist Heidi Charles shared a slideshow of images from the influenza pandemic of 1918, ex-

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plaining that many of the challenges of the current pandemic resonate with that time.

Historic Win Nobles’ Model UN delegates Gabby Rayev and Kayla Henderson ’21 announced their historic finish at Har-

vard Model United Nations. “All 12 delegates won an award, and the entire delegation won the Best Large Delegation award for the

Covid-Coping Wisdom In long assembly on February 3, renowned psychologist, New York Times contributor and author of best-selling books including Untangled and Under Pressure, Lisa Damour, Ph.D., spoke about coping with stress and anxiety during Covid-19.

“This pandemic is about loss,” she said.

“You get to be really sad about [this].” She explained that just because most students’ pandemic challenges might seem minor, the impact remains powerful.

Damour talked about different types of stress. “When you work really hard, you have a really intense period of producing and stretching and growing. And then you get a chance to kind of recover,” she said.

“Stress is healthy. Stress is normal.” Until it isn’t. Damour noted that chronic stress raises levels of cortisol in the body and is caused by different sources such as a pandemic or chronic bullying, for instance.

Damour also shared perspective on the quality versus quantity of relationships, making clear that students—all people—are healthier when they have someone to tell their worries to; someone to share secrets with; and a group with whom they feel connected and appreciated. “There are people who look like they have big busy social lives, and they can be pretty lonely. There are also people who look like they have less going whose social need are well-covered,” she said.

“I love my job [because] I will never gain mastery, I will never get to the end of my job.

“Hang in there, guys,” she said.

conference, marking our place as the best high school model UN team in the world.”

The Beauty of Rest The Hidden Opponent, a new club started this year by Mike Lucasevicz, Luca Danos and Lily Bryant ’21,

PHOTOGRAPHY BY TIFFANY M. STUBBS (LEFT), COLLEEN CHRZANOWSKI (RIGHT)

Left: Kaitlin Schuster ’21 and other volunteers prepare to send masks and other necessities to a homeless shelter in Worcester. Kimberly Schuster ’17 in front of Ben Taub Hospital in Houston where she operates the Texas branch of the Cold Feet Warm Hearts Foundation.

SCHUSTER SISTERS WARM HEARTS Kimberly ’17 and Kaitlin ’21 Schuster continue to demonstrate what leadership for the public good looks like in the community. Together, they are making a difference for society’s most vulnerable populations through their Cold Feet Warm Hearts Foundation in Texas and Massachusetts. Both give credit to their work at Nobles with Community Service Coordinator Linda Hurley and their time volunteering in hospitals, which gave them the skills to start their foundation.

Kimberly started the foundation in 2019 when she was a junior at Rice University. As a dedicated volunteer at the Patient-Customer Service Department at Ben Taub Hospital in Houston, she works directly with homeless and underserved patients, helping them navigate the health care system. She learned that clothing insecurity was a problem with these vulnerable populations, so she created the foundation, which organizes clothing drives and raises funds to provide patients with socks, shoes, masks and

other articles of clothing. Kimberly says, “Working closely with the Ben Taub patients, I just knew I had to find some small way to help them. Starting this organization is a way to give back and help meet patients’ basic needs so they can address their larger health needs.”

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Kimberly’s classes went virtual, and she moved home to Massachusetts. She continued to run the Cold Feet Warm Hearts Foundation in Texas from afar. As the pandemic continued, she observed that Covid-19 exacerbated issues of health equity and access to medical care for the most vulnerable populations in Massachusetts, including the unhoused and people of color. Kaitlin, a senior at Nobles, worked with Kimberly to open the Boston Chapter of Cold Feet Warm Hearts in partnership with the UMass Health System, Boston Medical Center and three shelters in Worcester (The Martin Luther King Center, Queen Street and Hotel Grace). Kaitlin says, “It has

been great bringing Kimberly’s vision for helping people meet some of their most basic needs to Massachusetts.”

Over the past year, they have conducted four clothing drives and raised funds via social media to help provide socks, shoes, masks and clothing for Worcester’s population most in need.

They also partnered with the Emerson Hospital Auxiliary, which sewed more than 800 masks to help prevent the spread of Covid-19. Kait just created a new partnership with the Nashoba Learning Group in Bedford, Massachusetts, a group that helps children and adults with autism to function with the greatest possible productivity and independence in the community, home and workplace. Kaitlin says, “It is amazing how many people’s lives we can help make better through our work with this foundation.” You can learn more about the Cold Feet Warm Hearts Foundation at: www.coldfeetwarmhearts.org. Follow us on: coldfeetwarmhearts_org.

shared a video of Dan Gartenberg’s TED Talk, “The Brain Benefits of Deep Sleep, and How to Get More of It.”

player, Huang thought it would be fun to play the accompaniment as well. While Huang said it was challenging to match the two

Your Hair, Your Story Students of color were interviewed about their hair to encourage awareness of “Black hair love.”

Doubling Up on Talent Joyce Huang ’21 played “The Swan,” by Camille Saint-Saëns, on the cello. Also a piano

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN SOARES (LEFT), AMY QIN (RIGHT)

clips together perfectly, she added that the process was such an intimate experience that “brought her closer to the music.”

Sweet Serenade The Nobleonians strolled around campus with masks on, singing “This Magic Moment.” They car-

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by the numbers

Head of School Toast: Connectivity and Radical Healing Nearly 130 of Nobles’ most stalwart supporters joined Head of School Cathy Hall on Thursday, April 15, for a virtual event in lieu of the traditional Head of School Dinner. Whether online or in person, this annual gathering is a chance to recognize and thank the Nobles community for its extraordinary commitment to the school, especially during these challenging times.

Hall expressed her deep gratitude to the audience for their support and highlighted the vital role that community has played in helping Nobles this past year—one marked by a pandemic, racial injustice, political insurrections and other complexity. “Relationships and community. They are what have seen us through this year at Nobles, and they are what we are so eager to rebuild and restore again,” Hall said. “You can’t manufacture a community during a crisis, but you can certainly draw upon it. And we have.” She reminded the audience that recent challenges are also opportunities to bring to life the school’s mission in our daily lives. Nobles’ mission of leadership for the public good has never been more relevant, she said.

Few embody this mission more than Mariel Novas ’06 who was the featured speaker for the evening.

Novas, who recently earned a doctorate in education from Harvard, drew upon her experiences as a teacher, community organizer and education

ried roses and stuffed animals, and danced in classrooms while serenading students.

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Season of Renewal The affinity group Asian 2 Asian spoke about the importance of the Lunar New Year.

Four students shared

Mariel Novas ‘06 delivering her virtual keynote address from Lawrence Auditorium

advocate. She challenged the audience to think differently about the status quo when tackling racial injustice and white supremacy both at Nobles and in society at large. She applauded Nobles’ intensifying exploration of and commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion work, but also called upon community members to take inventory of our actions and perceptions. “I want to stress that no DEI work can be authentically conducted in the absence of a deep, personal and collective understanding of how white supremacy

some of their favorite family traditions and then played the video of President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden

wishing everyone a happy Lunar New Year and discussing the recent bill condemning racism against Asian Americans.

and systemic racism operate and manifest within us. It is my belief that we will always miss the forest for the trees until we get at the root of what is making our society so sick.”

Novas equated racial injustice to air pollution, given that it is all around us even though it might not be readily apparent. She referenced Nobles’ mission as a mandate to cleanse the environment. “Each of us is constantly breathing in polluted air, constantly absorbing racism and racist idealogy simply by virtue of existing in society,” Novas said.

“First, if Nobles taught me anything it is that, regardless, it is our responsibility to clean it up. Not just because it is the right thing to do in a moral society, but because it is what radical healing looks like.” She asserted that it is only through such radical healing that people can truly feel empowered to create needed change.

Novas closed her remarks on a hopeful note, reflecting again on the power of community. “I have fierce full hope that the antidote for this racism and sickness, for this pollution is within our grasp,” Novas said. “Our medicine is connectedness. Our medicine is in the healing offered by our beloved community anchored in a shared humanity and radical solidarity.”

In 2021, Novas was named Nobles’ Young Graduate Award winner. She is a former member of the Nobles Board of Trustees.

Music to Our Ears Music department faculty members Paul Lieberman, Nhung Truong and Antonio Berdugo,

announced that the Massachusetts Music Educators Association recognized five Nobles students who were accepted to the festival.

COMMUNITY SERVICE

1,000+

970

hours of community service so far this academic year

100

Thanksgiving “table-top pies” donated and delivered to local senior citizens at the Pine Street Inn and Single Parent Family Outreach

5 200+ 50

Nobles grads (Christina Matulis ’08, Dev Barker ’56, Jake Frechette ’07, Maria Montes ’09, Cody Todesco ’15) Zoomed in to talk about the polio epidemic, food insecurity, Covid-19, medical updates, climate change and the Texas power crisis.

Totes of Hope donated (hygiene and comfort items for veterans without homes)

students doing online tutoring, music lessons and enrichment activities since Immigrant Family Services Institute pivoted to its Virtual Academy

Number of students enrolled in the afternoon service program:

53 70 39 162

gently used winter coats and books went into holiday gift bags.

32

scarves and headbands (hand-knit by the afternoon program)

534 books collected by Ben Katz ‘22 and donated to the organization Everybody Reads

Fall

400 homemade treats and 120 handmade cards for Valentine’s Day

Winter Spring

for academic year 2020–21

2,500+

handwritten notes of encouragement/connection for veterans, first responders, senior citizens and elementary students

SPRING 2021 Nobles 13

sports

Winter Sports Awards ALPINE SKIING

BOYS VARSITY HOCKEY

Awards: James H. Bride Ski Bowl (for enthusiasm, spirit and sportsmanship): Katie Doyle, Hannah Epstein and Ben Clifford, all ’21. Coaches’ Award (for selfless attitude and consistent effort): Ellie Batchelder ’24 and Kaitlyn Willett ’23

Boys Varsity Hockey did not give out its

BOYS VARSITY BASKETBALL Awards: Clarke Bowl (for contribution to

team spirit): Robby Fuller ’21. 1983–’84 Basketball Award (for the player who best exemplifies the spirit, dedication, determination, attitude and improvement of the 1983-’84 team): Reid Ducharme ’23 GIRLS VARSITY BASKETBALL Awards: Seadale Bowl (given by the

Seadale family for overall contribution to the basketball program): Caroline Ducharme, Sydney Jones and Caroline Keating, all ’21. Richard Nickerson Award (in honor of the long-time coach, awarded to a non-senior for courage and determination): Hailee McSweeney ’23 and Nasi Simmons ’24

typical team awards, choosing instead to acknowledge all Class I players: David Jacobs, James O’Connor, Chris Pickreign and Zack Popiel, all ’21.

GIRLS VARSITY HOCKEY Awards: Anne Dudley Newell Hockey Cup (for dedication and excellence): Ellie Bayard, Taylor Hyland and Katie Pyne, all ’21

BOYS VARSITY SQUASH Award: Cutler Cup (awarded to the member of the team who has shown the greatest devotion to the sport): Drew Hesp, Jake Koeppel, Andrew Lazor and Charlie Moore, all ’21

GIRLS VARSITY SQUASH Award: The Cutler Cup is awarded to the entire 2020–2021 team. In a pandemic season, every single member of the team made it happen, contributed each day to make the season a positive, fun, and productive winter together.

VARSITY WRESTLING Awards: Warren E. Storer Award (for hard work and improvement): Jeremy Rodriguez ’21. Wilbur F. Storer Award (for the most outstanding wrestler): Max Hall ’22.

Steve Toubman Award (for sportsmanship, leadership and dedication to wrestling, exemplified by Coach Toubman’s coaching career): Darnel Cineas and Philip Spyrou, both ’21.

Season Summary The winter sports season tested our athletic Covid precautions that were established in the fall with a transition to indoor sports, but thanks to the diligence of our players, coaches and training staff, everything operated smoothly. Without a regular ISL season, teams focused on practices and intrasquad scrimmages, eventually building up to a handful of full-intensity scrimmages against a few ISL schools and culminating in a Milton weekend. Up at Nashoba Valley, the alpine skiing season operated almost like normal, but with each school grouped in the running order rather

14 Nobles SPRING 2021

than alternating. Due to the full-contact nature of wrestling, their season was completely reimagined with practices consisting of individual skill-work and conditioning. They had a lot of fun executing moves on throwing dummies, and did some non-traditional exercises with sandbags, kettlebells and similar equipment that works the full body. Though there were no wrestling scrimmages, Aidin Bina ’24, Max Hall ’22 and Matthew Loose ’24 competed in the National Prep School Wrestling Open in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania in May.

Clockwise from top left: Drew Hesp ‘21; Ellie Bayard ‘21; Caroline Ducharme ‘21; Ben Clifford ‘21

WINTER 2021 Nobles 15

my poems...

off the shelf

ONE JEWISH FOODIE, TWO COOKBOOKS If you were late to the game, you can now binge-watch the Amazon Prime original series “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” a dramedy featuring a young, glamorous, funny Jewish woman in the late 1950s. Her perfect life on the Upper West Side is turned upside down when her husband has an affair, and she subsequently discovers a talent for stand-up comedy. Some of the humor centers on Yom Kippur and the nail-biter of whether the rabbi might come to dinner.

A real-life funny Jewish woman, Rachel Levin ’92, who lives in San Francisco, has published two cookbooks in the last year—one focused on Jewish cuisine and a second using kitchen staples the way parents tell children to punch pillows—pummeling an object for emotional relief.

EAT SOMETHING

Eat Something (Chronicle Books; illustrated edition, March 2020) was inspired by Levin’s friendship with Evan Bloom, her coauthor. Bloom is a cofounder of Wise Sons Jewish Delicatessen in San Francisco and regarded as a leader of the Jewish food movement.

The more than 60 recipes for salads, soups, baked goods and holiday dishes are interspersed with commentary on Jewish life and customs such as Jews’ affinity for eating Chinese food on the gentile Sabbath and on Christmas day. A recipe for pastrami fried rice follows Levin’s commentary on this phenomenon, including notes on why a gastronomical love affair is not mutual: Jewish food isn’t, she writes, as good as Chinese food. Levin acknowledges, however, that the bagel is beloved almost universally.

The book is organized by phases in Jewish life, culminating in a section 16 Nobles SPRING 2021

on retirement, or the “Return to the Sunshine States” (and what ultimately follows). “The best thing about the Jewish death ritual? Following a funeral, the first thing bereaved Jews do is eat.

It’s called the sendat havra’ah, the meal of condolence.”

No condolences needed for Levin on the publication of this hilarious—and archival photo-filled—gem. Eat Something is as fun to read as it is useful as a cooking guide. The curious cook is rewarded with latke and rugelach recipes and much more. Mrs. Maisel would have so many things to say.

STEAMED: A CATHARSIS COOKBOOK FOR GETTING DINNER AND YOUR FEELINGS ON THE TABLE

The book cover of Steamed (Running Press, May 2021)) is a soothing pale blue, with illustrations that are, also ironically, quite Zen. In a March interview with Publishers Weekly, Levin said, “Cooking has always been thought of as therapeutic.

There’s humor that can be explored in that. When Covid-19 hit, and as 2020 unfolded, the ideas behind the book just became more pertinent. “‘Chopping onions is underrated.

There are reams of articles online on how to stop the tears. No one is explaining that there’s an upside! The kitchen is a good place for crying.’”

The recipes shared by Levin and her coauthor Tara Duggan offer cultural variety and, always, a release of tension. Think: Pummeled Pork Tonkatsu, Ripped Bread Salad With Tomatoes and Cucumbers, Sad Soy Sauce Chicken. These and other recipes are categorized into three sections: Anger Management, It’s All Right to Cry, Chilling the F- Out. “Yes, this is anxiety cooking—stress eating’s more constructive cousin: 50 recipes guaranteed to alleviate the madness, if only for a moment, if only for a meal,” writes Levin in the introduction. “To help you feel a wee bit better about the state of the world, while feeding the people you love most in it.”

Playful sidebars pace the book for browsing, reading or finding the perfect recipe for your mood. Enjoy ruminations on spilled milk, handy kitchen weapons, a list of cooking-as-catharsis films, or advice on how not to get hot peppers in your eyes (spoiler: Don’t touch your eyes when chopping the hot stuff.).

Jenny Rosenstrach, the New York Times best-selling author of Dinner: A Love Story, lauded Steamed. “Duggan and Levin get at the real reason we say cooking is therapy: so we can pound, slash, spear…and still make delicious, satisfying food.”

Levin is an ex-restaurant critic for Eater, a freelance journalist and, in addition to her cookbooks, the author of Look Big: And Other Tips for Surviving Animal Encounters of All Kinds. For more on Rachel Levin’s writing, go to www.byrachellevin.com.

APPRECIATING THE VARIETY OF VERSE

BY CHARLES DANHOF, ENGLISH FACULTY MEMBER

During National Poetry Month in April, I have a tradition of printing off poems and handing them out on campus. I missed that this year. Until college, I was unable to fully appreciate poetry until I realized that part of its beauty is figuring out meaning for yourself and discovering the vast world of verse. Imagine if you heard a song that you didn’t like—a long-winded classical piece, or an intense heavy metal ballad—and you determined you didn’t like music. This might sound absurd because music has such variety; so, too, does poetry, cousin in many ways to music. Through the these poems, I hope you find some enjoyment, some beauty, and even a new appreciation for poetry.

“BURNING THE OLD YEAR,” BY NAOMI SHIHAB NYE So much of any year is flammable, lists of vegetables, partial poems.

Orange swirling flame of days, so little is a stone.

This year is one in which the knowledge that “So much of any year is flammable” seems as important as ever. I also enjoy the imagery of the total and visceral destruction that burning creates. One can take heart in thinking about what can be burned, and what is left behind.

Like Nye’s imagery, her word choice is powerful and she is an effective storyteller.

“THE GUEST HOUSE,” BY RUMI Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.

Much of Rumi’s poetry is rooted in his spirituality and faith; I especially like his many ideas on how to live a good life. The reminder to welcome in thoughts and emotions of all kinds, good and bad and everything in between, is so helpful. Too often we want to ignore thoughts and emotions that we perceive as negative, but that strategy, while helpful in the short term, often comes back to haunt us.

“BOAT JOURNEY,” BY LADAN OSMAN What is it like to be so free?

To drift in water in a country you call Your own. Unprepared because you can laugh Into an official’s face. Explain, offer no apology.

Poems often mirror real life. Such is the case in Ladan Osman’s “Boat Journey,” the title borrowed from the Tony Allen song “Boat Journey” that Osman quotes throughout the poem. In telling a story of two blondes setting up an inflatable raft, she takes on immigration, racism, and other related issues.

“HEAL THE CRACKS IN THE BELL OF THE WORLD,”

BY MARTÍN ESPADA Here the bells sing of a world where weapons crumble deep in the earth, and no one remembers where they were buried.

This poem is just one of many that Espada has written that elevates powerful stories. It was written for the community of Newtown, Connecticut after the Sandy Hook school shooting. The imagery of bullets melting into bells permeates the poem and provides an optimistic look at what we can do with metals, instead of making bullets. I have had the pleasure of hearing Espada in person on multiple occasions; I felt his words boring into my soul as I sat in the auditorium in the Cambridge Public Library. His voice booms and reverberates from somewhere deep inside of him, from below his diaphragm and from his heart and soul.

“MRS. RIBEIRO,” (ALSO “ALL OUR WILD WONDER”)

BY SARAH KAY She spoke to us like we were scholars. Artists. Scientists. Athletes. Musicians. And we were. My world was the size of a crayon box, and it took every color to draw her.

In “Mrs. Ribeiro,” spoken word poet Sarah Kay tells about her principal’s effect on her and how she hopes to have a similar impact on students she teaches. The alliteration, storytelling, and onomatopoeia in the poem are engaging. Kay’s voice lifts you up; you might consider watching her perform this poem on YouTube. In it, she says that she and her peers are “dandelion seeds released to the wind” by the principal. As an educator, I especially love this image.

Note to the reader: I have attempted to broaden my reading interests in the last few years by not reading literature written by white, male authors. This list reflects that decision, one that has deeply enriched my life and broadened my perspective in immeasurable ways.

SPRING 2021 Nobles 17

perspective

Generation of Memory

Collage of VHS still frames from the Heider home-video archives.

Life lessons from my home-video archive BY BEN HEIDER, DIGITAL VIDEO PRODUCER/WRITER

I

recently came into possession of my family’s box of more than 100 home-video VHS tapes. Filmed from 1988 to 2005, these tapes cataloged—and in many cases created—my childhood memories. With family members scattered across the states and the pandemic blocking any chance of a visit, I turned toward that trove and decided to digitize them all so they could be more easily watched and shared. Since VHS tape is an analog format, it has to be transferred in real time, so you might as well watch the tape as it’s copying. After a month of processing a few every evening, I had watched and digitally recorded the better part of five days’ worth of footage: 114 hours.

While watching the entire video record of my childhood in a compressed time frame, I began to notice some patterns, techniques and novelties tucked into the nostalgia. Here are some musings, observations and advice as a professional filmmaker and casual videographer of my own growing family.

Over six cassettes, the total run time of the first year of my life clocks in at 13 hours. There must be a certain frame of mind you enter when holding a six-pound camcorder on your shoulder that says, “I made the effort to get this thing up here; I might as well record for a while.” Thus the tendency for the operator to shoot long-form. I analyzed a few tapes and determined that my parents would record for an average of 5 minutes and 52 seconds at a time.

Since bringing out the camcorder and its accompanying nuclear football of a briefcase was a “whole thing,” you’d think this would mean they would only film big events, holidays, performances, vacations.

18 Nobles SPRING 2021

Certainly those are the impetuses for the bulk of the footage—how could we possibly have footage of three Easter egg hunts every year? But luckily a ton of everyday life was filmed too: siblings snuggling on the couch, playing with toy trains, building a snowman, eating breakfast, feeding the geese—seriously, why is there so much close-up footage of geese?

Aside from shot length and image quality, the first stylistic element I noticed was the narration. There’s something surprisingly comforting about hearing my parents, 30 years ago at the age I am now, talking to themselves.

Every scene begins with the camera operator wondering out loud what day it is before diving into the location, who’s present and who’s doing what.

“Today is June twenty . . . eighth, I think. Tuesday of our vacation 1994.

Zack’s trying to catch the fish.”

For the most part, I recognize the settings and the characters, but in a lot of the early years, this exposition is super helpful. I found myself engaging in a dialogue with the narrator, hearing a longforgotten voice off-screen and blurting out at the TV, “Oh my gosh, is that Uncle Louis?” as he walks through the doorway and my mom greets him with, “There’s Uncle Louis!”

Now as I record countless moments of my own life with a young baby, I adopt the practice of narrating alongside the video, even though I know that the date, time and GPS coordinates will auto-

matically be baked into the digital files’ metadata. I’ve also started thinking critically of the future implications of these files. Fifteen-second snippets lend themselves to social media stories, but my social media sharing has been deliberately nonexistent, so will my future audiences prefer to watch a multitude of short clips, or should I spend more time on select moments to dive deeper into the tone and the mood, rather than just documenting for documentation’s sake? The cinematographer in me knows I really only need one good shot of the baby standing up on the deck of her rocking horse to build into a larger edit, but the fact that she repeated that action for five minutes gives more insight into her character and development that is lacking from a single take.

I maintain a meticulous file system.

Over the past year since my daughter was born, not counting anything shot for work, I’ve taken 1,101 video clips totaling over 17 hours of footage. When confronted with this sheer volume, I’m questioning whether I should be more discerning in what I film or just keep filming whatever so as not to fall into the time-honored tradition of documenting significantly less of each subsequent child. Wanting to analyze my filming habits from before and after watching 100 tapes’ worth of my parents’ camerawork, I calculated my average clip lengths. Before my crash course in VHS home-video recording,

“ There’s something surprisingly comforting about hearing my parents, 30 years ago at the age I am now, talking to themselves.” —BEN HEIDER

the average was 47 seconds, and afterward it ballooned to 85 seconds.

While I’m taking a crack at shooting more long-form, there’s one method that I like to call just-set-the-camcorder-up-on-a-tripod-and-let-it-roll-on-abasement-full-of-kids-for-85-minutes that I don’t intend to replicate. These shots are fun for the first few minutes as I try to match my cousins and neighbors with their 4-year-old selves, but they get very tedious very quickly.

I couldn’t believe it when I discovered this technique on more than one occasion. My parents shot a lot of birthday parties like this.

Sometimes it can be difficult to pull the lens away from the children and spend some tape on the older generations. There are a few moments from the late-eighties where my Pep is about to dive into a story and the camera quickly pans away as he gets cut off by a potential baby breakthrough. In that moment, you don’t realize that in half a decade, Pep’s memories will fail him and he’ll be gone before that baby becomes a teenager.

There were a few moments when my parents clearly brought the camera somewhere and then forgot to use it the whole time, only bringing it out for a short clip at the end to justify its schlep. Part of me

wishes we had the footage of that, but a bigger part of me is glad my parents got to just fully live in those moments and enjoy them without looking through a viewfinder. Now a cellphone has replaced the bulky shoulder-mount, and since it’s always in my pocket, I rarely find myself letting a cute movement or milestone go without recording a little clip. Maybe it’s time I start forgetting the phone and the camera on select occasions to just bask in the present and not be so concerned with generating future nostalgia. Who knows, maybe my kids will thank me when they don’t have to spend a month converting digital files into brain waves.

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PA RT I I N A SERIE S ON THE A F T E RN OON P ROGRA M D UR ING T HE PA NDE M IC; WATCH FO R A RTS IN T HE NE XT ISS U E

GRIT AND GRAT ITUDE IN IT TOGETHER IN THE FACE OF ADVERSITY

BY ANNE HUR L BUT | PHOTOGR APHS BY BE N HE IDE R , ANNE HUR L BUT AND TIM CAREY

20 Nobles SPRING 2021

I

Left: Brooke Asnis ’90 coaches the girls varsity lacrosse team during a weekly practice. Below: Becca Gill ’20, member of the girls varsity field hockey and lacrosse teams and captain of the girls varsity squash team.

t seems like a distant memory, the normalcy of it all: long bus rides when you’d rather have a home game; the smell of mud-filled cleats on a Wednesday afternoon; the familiar holler of a parent or guardian on the sidelines; that ill-fated penalty shot and the referee who “ruined” the game; the sweaty group huddles. We even miss the noise—the vibration of the sidelines, layered with fans cheering as athletes run, swish, shoot, score, fall and rise. In the past year we have not been able to bear witness to it all in the same way.

Despite the loss, gratitude—in symphony with the tulips—bursts through the hardened soil of the past year.

Director of Psychology and Counseling Jen Hamilton explains that while we must acknowledge the many losses our students have experienced during the pandemic, it is also important to focus on all they have gained in the crucial areas of non-academic social connection.

“While it has been difficult and challenging,” she says, “I think that we have been creative, innovative and thoughtful all around to just keep connected; it has been a humongous blessing that we have been able to do as much as we have.” Overwhelmingly, Hamilton has found that student-athletes at Nobles are appreciative of any opportunity to play, viewing the continuation of sports as a bright spot for social connection and wellbeing. “It’s really interesting to look at recent national data and see how levels of depression and anxiety decreased when kids were able to engage in their sport,” she says. “There are so many reasons for that—endorphins, playfulness, building and maintaining social connections, and just feeling like you’re part of something bigger than yourself.”

Research conducted by the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health examined what happened when adolescents returned to organized sports during the pandemic. The study determined a direct correlation between the return to sports and significant ben22 Nobles SPRING 2021

efits in mental and physical health, and while researchers acknowledged that continuing with sports under these circumstances is complicated, they deemed it “essential.”

For athletes in the Class of 2020, last spring should have promised daily practices, games and a final competitive season as bulldogs. Becca Gill ’20, who played varsity field hockey and captained squash and lacrosse during her senior year, recalls, “When it was announced that sports were officially canceled, I remember feeling so incredibly numb.

I continued to think that somehow I would get to be on the turf again with my team.” It wasn’t until June that Gill would finally accept that a regular season would not happen, a season that she “had been envisioning since freshman year.” Gill is not alone in her idyllic visions of senior spring—it is the culmination of years of hard work: the final games, records set, lead roles in plays, the last concert and the art show in Foster Gallery that would not come to fruition. The Class of 2020 was hit hard by the pandemic, but last spring and the ensuing months have not exclusively been spent bemoaning loss. “I have learned that nothing is guaranteed in my life and how important it is to make sure I am as fully present as possible when I am doing what I love or am with my friends,” says Gill. This has been the

sentiment among many Nobles students during the past year—athletes, musicians, actors and artists who were able to gather with frequency and consistency, albeit in varied forms. While it was not what they had envisioned, those connections made all the difference during a tumultuous time in their young lives.

“I love the sound of laughter,” exclaims science faculty member and girls varsity squash coach Deb Harrison, whose team has won the ISL championship for the past eight years and has brought home the national championship for the past two years.

Harrison says that during the 2020–21 season, the girls were just so happy to be together, adding that “it all happens with a healthy dose of silliness and a great feeling that being together is exactly what they need.” She points to the final day of practice as a reflection of the season as a whole—the younger girls had organized the annual tribute to the seniors, and there were “giggles, posters, streamers, messy confetti and more giggles.”

In June 2020, an NCAA study reported that the rates of mental health concerns experienced by college athletes were 150 to 250 percent higher than historically reported. Cognizant of the correlation between physical activity, connection and mental health, Nobles was steadfast about prioritizing the continuation of the afternoon program in whatever form possible. “At the Independent School League level,” says Director of Athletics Alex Gallagher ’90, “Dr. Hall has been a leading voice, making it clear that we must give kids experiences like what we offer in the afternoon program, despite the many logistical challenges. She has known how essential it is for the health and wellness of our student-athletes and our students in general, and she has unshakably insisted that we continue to move forward and do it safely and in a way that could celebrate the kids and celebrate the experience.”

“ When we play together out on the turf, the pandemic fades away. At our practices, we work hard and laugh loud; you can hear how much our players love and appreciate this team, now more than ever.” —BROOKE ASNIS ’90 While fall sports at Nobles began with in-person practices and few modified scrimmages, the winter and spring seasons started to resemble normalcy, allowing for a significant increase in interscholastic competition. The Wisconsin study, which showed that “those who returned to sport participation in the fall of 2020 reported lower anxiety and depression symptoms,” reinforces the push at Nobles to keep students playing.

The Class of 2021 certainly felt many of the losses associated with the pandemic, but the gratitude for all that they have been able to do is unmistakable. Katie Pyne ’21, captain of the girls varsity soccer and lacrosse teams and two-year captain of the girls varsity ice hockey team, embodies that sense of gratitude. Pyne explains that while the soccer team only played a couple of scrimmages this past fall, their focus was always on the positive. “Just being out on the field with my teammates was something I knew many other kids were not able to do,” she says.

“We made the most out of keeping our traditions alive and trying to get the

best possible experience we could.” As if the challenges of the pandemic were not enough, Pyne tore her labrum this winter and required surgery. While she laments not being able to finish the hockey season or play lacrosse during her final spring as the team captain, she remains optimistic. “That does not make me any less excited to be out there with the girls,” says Pyne, “and I am going to make the most out of it.

It was hard to know that I wouldn’t be playing Nobles sports anymore, but I have never felt more support from the school, my teammates and the coaches who helped me navigate through my surgery and recovery.” In Pyne’s eyes, it’s all really quite simple: “We didn’t look at what we were missing out on.

We just focused on what we got and how lucky we were.”

Hamilton points to the trait of resilience among Nobles student-athletes during the pandemic, noting that while “many adults were very worried about how kids were going to manage the disappointments, what we have found over and over is that kids are way more resilient than we think they are. Yes, they

are disappointed, but they are also so grateful for whatever opportunities they do have to play.” With gratitude in one hand and resilience in the other, Nobles students have weathered the storm of the past year with admirable poise.

Duncan Ayles ’21, captain of the boys varsity basketball and boys varsity crew teams, says his biggest challenge throughout the pandemic was the loss of the in-person season last year, but that it is not what defines this time for him. “I am most grateful for the opportunity to compete with my teammates and opponents despite the circumstances that have befallen us,” says Ayles.

As he recalls the final basketball game against Milton Academy, he shares, “the parents of seniors on both teams were allowed to come and watch the game, and we even had a rose ceremony, which was very meaningful to me.” When thinking about the spring 2021 season, Ayles says, “It is more important than ever to stay mindful of our health and cherish our time together.” The perspective that the student-athletes from the classes of 2020 and 2021 have gained, alongside students across all SPRING 2021 Nobles 23

“ There’s definitely a sense of appreciation when it comes to the athletic experience we were able to have this year. Hearing the experiences of other kids around the country makes me so grateful I was even able to step on the court with my teams this year.”

— SYDNEY JONES ’21 , CO -CAPTAIN OF THE GIRLS VARSITY VOLLEYBALL AND BASKETBALL TEAMS

areas of the afternoon program, has left an indelible mark on Nobles’ history.

History faculty member and boys varsity basketball coach Oris Bryant echoes Ayles’s sentiments of gratitude regarding the winter season. “We were able to play 12 games,” he says, “essentially half of the games that we would play in a normal season. This, regardless of the wins or losses, and along with our virtual and in-person practices, created many opportunities for the team to bond and grow.” Bryant illustrates the gratitude of the seniors on his team by recalling a moment after a win over a rival ISL school when an injured senior articulated how much he enjoyed being around the team even though he couldn’t play adding that graduating with a win over the rival school was a great gift and a great way to conclude his career.

Of course, upperclassmen were not the only beneficiaries of the athletic 24 Nobles SPRING 2021

program at Nobles during the pandemic.

Ainsley Gray ’24 explains that sports were a huge boost to her mental health this year. “Being able to either come to campus after a long Zoom day or walk down to the MAC after school always improved my mood and took my mind off of the difficult circumstances we are currently living through,” says Gray. “Sports and athletics have always played a large role in my life and in my Nobles experience, but I am especially grateful for the opportunities we have been provided during this unimaginable year.” Noah Douglas ’25 adds, “I definitely do feel the loss of not being able to play competitively against other schools; however, I am extremely grateful to everyone who helped allow us to play sports in the winter and the fall. Sports have helped both my mental and physical health this year, especially during the winter when it is harder to play sports like basketball outside. The whole middle school basketball

program was run really well; being able to play against each other while still remaining safe definitely improved the experience. Sports have been a big part of my life so I’m grateful that I’ve been able to participate.”

Gallagher has been astounded by the determination and positive attitude that Nobles athletes have shown throughout the pandemic. “The legacy left by the Class of ’21,” he says, “is as powerful as any class I have worked with in my long career at this place. The teams have felt special—they have felt like families; they have felt connected; they have been there for each other; they have brought light when there was darkness; they have done everything we hope Nobles teams will do, and that’s despite not playing for any championships and not hanging any banners. I feel so humbled by their efforts, and I have never been prouder to be the athletic director of this school.”

Gratitude, it seems, abounds here. N

“ There is nothing much better than having a team to spend time with and create memories with. One weekend we played Belmont Hill and we beat them for our first win of the year—the wins meant a lot, showed the character of our team, and felt like they mattered. These were moments when it felt like a normal year.”

—DAVID JACOBS ’21, BOYS VARSITY ICE HOCKEY CAPTAIN, BOYS VARSITY LACROSSE TEAM

SPRING 2021 Nobles 25

Rediscovering

Roots What happens when a country you love is literally and figuratively exploding with crises?

Ask Samer Abouhamad ’12.

BY HE ATHE R S UL L IVAN

26 Nobles SPRING 2021

SPRING 2021 Nobles 27

A A STUDY IN CONTRASTS

Globally, the past year has been a study in contrasts: loss and generosity; despair and resilience; chaos and beauty. For Samer Abouhamad ’12, these tensions have taken on meaning that might have been lost on him in any other year.

Abouhamad’s family is from Lebanon.

His parents, Rania Matar and Jean Abouhamad, attended the American University of Beirut before fleeing the civil war and landing at Cornell and Columbia universities, respectively.

Samer and his three siblings, also Nobles grads, hold dual citizenship.

After Nobles, Abouhamad earned a degree in business administration from Wake Forest University, which led to a couple of good jobs, including one in finance in New York. He liked life in New York until Covid-19 changed everything and, working remotely, the monotony and isolation of the screen left him seeking more.

Abouhamad had traveled to Lebanon many times in his childhood, he said, mostly staying with family and speaking to them in either French or English rather than Arabic, which he hadn’t learned. In September 2020, however, he went to his parents’ native country to live on his own, in a different way and for different reasons.

AN EXPLOSION

On August 4, 2020, a still-not-fullyexplained explosion of ammonium nitrate in the Port of Beirut left at least 200 dead, 6,000 injured and an estimated 300,000 people homeless.

A cargo of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate had been stored unsafely for years after it was confiscated

by Lebanese authorities from an abandoned ship. The explosion was preceded by a fire in the same storage facility: Beirut, which had once been known as the Paris of the Middle East, again rained rubble.

28 Nobles SPRING 2021

P H OTO G RA PHY BY RA NI A MATA R A N D SA MER A BO UHA MAD ‘12

“I remember when I came back here in the fall. My mom was with me when I first arrived, and we went to the explosion site. It was late September, a month and a half after the explosion. I looked around and saw buildings with no windows. But you also can keep driving and see leftovers from the civil war—bullet holes and buildings that haven’t been fixed in 30 years. So you have this new layer of rubble, and people are just used to it and are so resilient.

“From Boston I had seen images on the blast and was like, ‘This doesn’t look real.’ There was Covid; work was remote, and then the explosions happened. And I thought. ‘There’s a much better use of my time,’ so I came here.”

To make matters worse, an antigovernment revolution started in 2019, and a deflation problem is exacerbating the unrest, as is the challenge of refugees after 10 years of war in nearby Syria. “On my way to work, I see kids begging for money and on the street selling flowers.

That’s another part of the reality. And then you throw in Covid. And then you throw in the explosion that happened in August. It’s just, like, crazy.

“I’m coming from a position of privilege, but what I see here inspires me. And it puts everything in perspective.”

HELPING THE FAMILY’S HOMELAND, LEARNING ARABIC, AND ‘THE HAPPINESS-METER’ Wanting to help, Abouhamad decided to volunteer or the nongovernmental organization Offrejoie. The group was formed in 1985, during the civil war, when a group of young Red Cross volunteers worked together to help the injured.

Offrejoie values love, respect and forgiveness, while its volunteers and staff support healing throughout Lebanon.

Abouhamad explained that, through Offrejoie, he and others are working to repair and restore homes in two neighborhoods affected by the blast.

The volunteers are from Lebanon but also many other countries, especially in Europe.

“My role has evolved here, and now I’ll take up to a dozen volunteers, depending on the numbers, and then we’ll go out and do whatever we need to do, often bagging trash and walking it down however many floors to the dump. It’s work that needs to be done to help, and it helps other workers move more efficiently.”

Abouhamad said he likes the physical labor and is also grateful for the chance to learn Arabic. “On the job site, lots of the workers are from a northern Lebanese city or from Syria, and they don’t speak any English or French.

Working side by side with people for 8 hours a day, we speak Arabic. It’s helped me learn a lot.”

Other aspects of the experience have also inspired Abouhamad. “I’m Lebanese, and I feel like I have a reason to be here. But I’m working with a dozen French kids that are here with no Lebanese ties, and then there’s an amazing lady who is French and 72 years old. She comes in every day and is lifting stuff right beside me. She is a former air hostess and spent time in Lebanon during the civil war. And I am also in people’s houses, helping them and hearing their stories.

“I don’t regret anything and think you need to try different things to know what you like and what you don’t like. If I were to have a happiness-meter, I’m so much happier here—not making money, but volunteering—than I was this last year at home during the pandemic.”

FINANCIAL VOLATILITY: THE LEBANESE POUND CRASHES

Adding to the current troubles in Lebanon is a financial crisis. Since October 2020, the Lebanese pound has dropped precipitously, wiping out the purchasing power of citizens who are paid in the local currency. According

Above: Damage in Karantina, the neighborhood where Offrejoie is rebuilding; below: post-explosion scenes of Abouhamad’s family home in Beirut.

SPRING 2021 Nobles 29

to the National News in Lebanon, the weekly minimum wage was equal to $450 before the crisis, and in mid-March 2021, it was worth $50.

“Saving the Lebanese economy requires drastic reforms demanded by international lenders and donor countries, which the country’s leaders have failed to undertake in a year and a half,” reported the news outlet.

“It’s the duality of Lebanon,” Abouhamad said. “It’s so beautiful, but you’re just in this hotbed of where so much could blow up at any time. I’m sheltered, but my local friends are talking about the dollar spike, and they are wondering what they are going to do.”

A BRIEF HISTORY

“The civil war in Lebanon started in 1975 and went all the way till late 1990.

In 2005, Prime Minister Rafic Hariri was assassinated. My parents left in

1984. There was a whole wave of young Lebanese who left then—there are actually more Lebanese living outside of Lebanon than in Lebanon, in the United Arab Emirates, Europe, Canada, Brazil, West Africa and the U.S. But before that, Beirut was considered the Paris of the Middle East.”

He explained that the ’60s were a roaring time in Beirut. It was a global city and boasted a tramway line and exceptional schools.

Abouhamad said he’s grateful to be born in Boston yet is familiar with some of the strife in Lebanon from his childhood. In 2006, he was visiting with his family when there was a war with Hezbollah in Israel and the airport was closed. “We went through Syria, and then France, and then we got out.

“That was the most real it had been for me. We would hear bombs 2 kilometers away and see flares. It was

scary, but I felt American. Part of my coming now is because I really want to connect with my roots.

“Both of my mom’s parents came from Palestine in 1948. She grew up in Lebanon, and she has a Lebanese passport. My dad’s dad is from the region between Syria and Lebanon in the mountains. And then my dad’s mom, from a southern coastal town, was born in Syria, so it’s sort of a mix-and-match.”

Beirut is one of those places where extreme beauty coexists with periodic chaos and intense loss. Abouhamad describes a city in which rubble from the civil war of the 1970s and 1980s remains.

But Lebanon is more than that.

“If you ask an average American kid what they know about Lebanon, they probably don’t know much except what

“ It’s the duality of Lebanon.

It’s so beautiful, but you’re just in this hotbed of where so much could blow up at any time.”

30 Nobles SPRING 2021

Left page: Abouhamad at the peak of Mzaar Kfardebian, one hour from Beirut and, left, In the mountainous village of Laqlouq; above: Abouhamad’s mended road bike, at rest where Nahr-El-Kalb (Dog River) meets the Mediterranean Sea.

CYCLING THROUGH SPACE AND TIME

they see on the news after a bad event. But you can ski here. You can go to the sea. The physical landscape is beautiful. The country is beautiful.

I just want to show people the beauty of Lebanon.”

Much of Abouhamad’s exploration of Lebanon has been on his bike.

“I like to bike. I’ll go to the coast early in the morning, and it’s beautiful.

People are biking or walking, like the West Side Highway in New York or like the Charles River in Boston.”

Yet the tranquility is mixed with the unpredictable. “You really, really never know what to expect here. I was biking around last night just to get dinner, and the roads are closed with tires burning because people are protesting.”

He also shared that he was recently biking with three friends in the Bekaa Valley, near the Syrian border and also close to the Israeli-Palestinian border in the southeast corner of Lebanon.

“We got stopped at a checkpoint. I had forgotten my ID, and one of us was Syrian. Another friend’s last name is one of them. His last name is Hariri, like the politician who was assassinated. And the other guy’s last name is Nasrallah, which is the same last name as the head of Hezbollah. So it was a weird situation.

And they stopped us and took us to the army station for 10 hours.

“They were like, ‘Who are you? What are you doing? What are you doing with these guys?’ Because to them, it’s unfathomable that you could have this mix of people biking together. We told them we just love to bike and that religion [isn’t a problem for us]. It doesn’t come up.”

Abouhamad noted that the good vibes are stronger than the sense of danger, even when he was detained.

“We spent hours with the army platoon around a fire. Despite that situation, they were really nice.”

Abouhamad rides a road bike, which belongs to his dad but was stored at his grandfather’s apartment. And even the bike has a complicated history: The force of the explosion last August cracked its frame. It has since been repaired, but the fused metal remains visible.

“It was a big black carbon stain. So every time I’m biking, and I’m suffering, and my head is down, I’m staring right at that fixed crack. It’s a reminder of like, ‘Wow. What’s going on?’ For me, it just means that I won’t stop. I can’t stop.”

IN THE TIME OF COVID

Abouhamad said that both of his Lebanese grandfathers were vaccinated in

March. Like many places, however, the vaccine is not widely available to the public. “There are definitely people calling out politicians who are cutting the line. There’s still no restaurants right now. My work stopped for a month and a half. I had Covid in early January, but I was fine.”

Abouhamad plans to stay in Lebanon through October 2021 before deciding what’s next. In the meantime, he continues to explore his identity. “I have a Lebanese passport and an American passport. In the U.S., I feel American, but people see my name and assume I’m not really American: ‘You’re Lebanese.’

But then the reverse is true when I’m in Lebanon: ‘You can’t speak Arabic. You’re American.’ Having been here more than six months, I am feeling more Lebanese now, you know?”

Abouhamad said that before he leaves Lebanon, he is planning a twoday, 350-mile bike tour around the perimeter of Lebanon after he completes the neighborhood rebuilding project. He then hopes to work with children, possibly in a refugee camp.

“Nobles led me to this point. I took a two-week trip to South Africa my junior year, and it planted the seed for what I’m doing now.” N SPRING 2021 Nobles 31

Bringing Biodesign to Silicon Beach

BY KI M NEA L PHOTO G RA PH BY MA X G ER BE R

Editor’s note: The content of this story draws upon a March 10, 2021, interview by Alex Slawsby ’96, a classmate of Desert Horse-Grant ’96, as part of a webinar series by the Nobles graduate affairs office, and a March 18 interview by this author.

32 Nobles SPRING 2021

WINTER 2021 Nobles 33

The UCLA Biodesign leadership team

Desert Horse-Grant ’96 is leading tomorrow’s health care transformers in the charge against Covid—but she has a superpower: bringing together the right people with the right skills at the right time to innovate patient care. “I do think of that as ‘my unique superpower.’

Is it because I’m of mixed heritage?

Because my family includes differing socioeconomic status?’ I always grew up with this intersectionality of socioeconomics and ethnicity.”

AS CHIEF OF INNOVATION at the UCLA

Hospital System and co-executive director of UCLA Biodesign, and previously at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Horse-Grant has been recognized as “one to watch.” In 2020, she was named a Top 25 Innovator by Modern Healthcare. Five years ago, she welcomed the opportunity to report to Johnese Spisso at UCLA Health, the No. 4 ranked hospital in the United States according to U.S. News & World Report. Spisso is the organization’s first non-male, nondoctor president and CEO— a background Horse-Grant shares. “It was an incredible growth opportunity to get that mentorship; at the same time, we had the first woman dean of the school of engineering and the first woman dean of the business school.

So I created a program that cut across medicine, engineering and business.

Along with the relationships I built with those deans and being inspired by them, it really has created my dream job in my dream city,” says Horse-Grant.

While Horse-Grant has set an impressive career trajectory, she has always created opportunities for others 34 Nobles SPRING 2021

through mentorship and innovative training programs. As early as college, she led the Stanford Medical Youth Science Program, which later received a national award from President Obama for its impact on first-generation college-bound students. “I mixed the lab and the passion and the human element together, and started to figure out what kind of career I wanted,” she says. That trifecta continues to guide her.

UCLA Biodesign is a medical innovation hub that is pioneering solutions in Silicon Beach (SoCal’s counterpart to NoCal’s Silicon Valley) using medical, business and engineering principles to speed the translation of an idea to commercialization. Horse-Grant’s alma mater, Stanford University, ran a biodesign program through its engineering school, but she flipped the model based on her years of clinical expertise. “What if we let the hospital be the conduit to the medicine, business and engineering schools, and to the world? It took some championing.” That model became the pillar of innovation at UCLA. “What Stanford did so successfully with Silicon Valley, I wanted UCLA to do with Silicon Beach, because 500 tech companies moved to Los Angeles, and we have the sun.”

Another Stanford alumnus, Jennifer McCaney, PhD, is co-executive director of UCLA Biodesign. A faculty member at both UCLA Anderson School of Management and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, McCaney also serves as associate director of the UCLA Clinical and Translational Science Institute.

Through UCLA Biodesign, she and Horse-Grant train “the next generation of healthcare transformers” over a year, teaching product development, identification of clinical opportunities and initiation of a new venture. All the while, they are paving the path for academia to promote its work, judiciously eyeing conflicts of interest of industry, promoting equity, and driving down

costs, while securing validations and the right approvals—all to benefit patients.

“This year, because of Covid, we picked infectious disease and pulmonary critical care as the areas to investigate and try to solve a complex problem within,” Horse-Grant says. “Next year, we’re going to look at ways Covid has affected the heart, which was already a space where there are equity issues with women. We want to focus not just on cardiology, but intervention, and also women’s health. Every year changes the lens, but this past year, the only way was to just dive into the pandemic. It’s been fascinating, a lot of hard work, but some great projects have emerged.”

COVID-19 AND THE CALL FOR CREATIVITY

When medical supply chains hit catastrophic snags in 2020, Horse-Grant and her task forces sprang into action.

A shortage of nasopharyngeal swabs for Covid testing inspired 3D-printed designs, requiring a validation study to meet FDA standards. Horse-Grant recalls the pressure during the clinical trial: “Imagine the patients already so sick in the hospital diagnosed with Covid.

We had to ask them, out of the goodness of their hearts, would they let us test PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF UCLA BIODESIGN

three additional swabs. You didn’t want to just validate one type of swab; they ended up being very different in terms of effectiveness. And imagine the UCLA Biodesign fellows volunteering to go into these rooms with patients who were infectious. It was a time that we really jumped into the fire, and it was worth it,” Horse-Grant says. “With everyone’s help as a community, we were able to pull through it and learn what could be most helpful to patients. Moving forward, infectious disease is going to hit over and over again, but our supply chain is definitely shored up and expanded. Our physician and nurse innovators were the people who shined during the pandemic to come up with solutions.”

UCLA Biodesign fellow and engineer Glen Meyerowitz channeled his alarm about the national shortage of ventilators into building a low-cost prototype from Home Depot parts (for about $1,000 vs. the usual $30,000). “When you think about the global ramifications for underresourced communities, that has a huge impact,” Horse-Grant marvels.

“He’s going to validate it and try to bring it to a clinical trial. I’m so grateful for students; it’s always the young people who keep us on course. I’m keeping him for a second year.”

Many of this year’s UCLA Biodesign fellows swerved from planned industry externships to address the crisis in novel ways, improving patient outcomes and reducing costs. Other notable projects included a guidance system that allows surgical instruments to better navigate multiple sharp turns; a system for forecasting pandemic patient influx and the projected impact on bed capacity; and inventory and management systems for tracking, procuring and efficiently using personal protective equipment (PPE).

EQUITY IN HEALTH CARE

Horse-Grant, who is herself an underrepresented minority, has always addressed health care equity for higherrisk marginalized groups—from briefing Obama-era Surgeon General David Satcher on health disparity issues as an intern in Washington, D.C., to writing a thesis at Stanford about indigenous people’s health, to 13 years at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York co-founding and running their brain tumor center as administrator for the department of neurosurgery. Her early work at MSKCC was in prostate cancer, which disproportionately affects Black and Latino males. It aligned with her values, and, she says, “It allowed me to see SPRING 2021 Nobles 35

Health care is going to be an issue as long as humans are on this earth...

The feeling that you get for helping and for impact, it’s such a fantastic rewarding space. how many facets really affect our ability to deliver care.” Horse-Grant knows the urgency and impact of delivering compassionate care; by the time she joined Nobles in ninth grade, her fascination with science and experience as a caretaker for ill family members had already crystallized her calling. “The mother of one of my best friends died of breast cancer, leaving four children, which had a profound effect on our community. And my grandfather got cancer. . . All of us seem to be affected in some way by cancer, and I wanted to commit to how I could contribute to the betterment of our communities, in particular for cancer research.”

The global pandemic brings existing equity issues into even sharper focus and fuels Horse-Grant’s desire to revolutionize the health care landscape.

The professional backgrounds of her program fellows are diverse, but most seek to serve underresourced communities in the United States and abroad. Citing the recent “telehealth explosion” as an example of the digital divide, she says, “You see all the disparities of people who aren’t able to use a resource, due to a lack of English proficiency, or not having internet at home, or maybe not having a smartphone.

It highlights exactly what we need to work on,” Horse-Grant says. This April, she pitched a new health equity challenge for innovation to allocate funding and resources to doctors, nurses and staff working in health equity. Some of the vulnerable groups they’ll serve are children, incarcerated inmates, nonnative English speakers and those who suffer from mental health issues.

“Behavioral health is one of the areas that changed dramatically during the pandemic. There has been an uptick in people feeling like they could get help and that they could do it from their homes. People are suffering from 36 Nobles SPRING 2021

behavioral health issues. It’s really tragic, and this is an area that we want to prioritize,” Horse-Grant says. “The pandemic really helped highlight that this was the right thing to do.”

CARRYING THE TORCH

To those Nobles students testing their ideas in Baker Science Center labs and dreaming up tomorrow’s solutions, Horse-Grant says, “Health care is going to be an issue as long as humans are on this earth. In terms of actual critical need, and the feeling that you get for helping and for impact, it’s such a fantastic rewarding space. And the collision of tech with so many sectors from finance, retail, telecomm, agriculture, health care—there are so many ways to intersect your interests and to do it in a space where you can profoundly effect change.”

Horse-Grant encourages students to set themselves apart and not take no for an answer. “It’s such a space where you can carry the torch—and it’s tough—but you can carry the torch to whatever your vision is.” She says: “Find your great mentors. I still reference my mentors from high school, from college; I’m still in touch with them to this day.

It’s a sincere relationship that has a bidirectionality to it.” She remembers Nobles admission officer Marian Dora Howe-Taylor, who took her in during ninth grade, when housing was too costly and Horse-Grant was waiting to board.

“It’s always something that I remember, so I’ve always done things for students,” she says. Horse-Grant, who maintains strong relationships with her career mentors, tells trainees that authentic connections lead to opportunities.

In a room full of influential contacts, she advises, “Find one or two people and actually have a 10- to 15-minute conversation and make yourself memorable; get their information, stay in touch, and be sincere.”

graduate profile

A typical working day for Tom Bartlett ’76 consists of visiting prisons, parole offices and housing units to assess his clients’ most critical needs and develop a plan to address them.

THE FUTURE OF HEALTH CARE

During a March 2021 webinar hosted by the UCLA Anderson School of Management, “Pandemic-Induced Change in the Business of Health Care,” Horse-Grant shared lessons and future implications that she hopes to integrate and bring back to UCLA: ■

■

■

■

■

“Wellness apps and more ways to monitor and participate in our own personal responsibility for health care will continue. Even wearing masks— how far does it go, our personal responsibility to wellness and to our communities?”

“In telehealth, we were able to really expand; we went up to a half a million cases right away. . . . Covid prompted us to get all of our care providers and our mental health experts online to meet patients where they are.”

“Institutional racism and systemic racism have all been heightened for many of us who have been living it for a long time; it was already our work of passion. But as a nation and globally, there’s definitely a s potlight we’ve never had before. . .

I hope we’ll continue to see the academic research translate over to our clinical care and into new business decisions that make us more equitable.”

“My personal passion is around precise diagnosis and treatment of patients. As we advance, those are the areas where we’ll help save lives and also save money.”

“Our health and wellness also should include our planet. As we look at who we are and what we want to be, we want to not only be healthy for ourselves, but our planet has to survive as well.”

Sounds like a job for someone with a superpower. N

Through the Gate Freedom and Fresh Starts in Her Majesty’s Prison Service

BY CASEY HASSENSTEIN

Tom Bartlett '76 left the United States in 1991, not knowing he would help "prison-leavers" in England find their way home.

L

iving in the Thames Valley, a region of South East England that is north and west of London, Tom Bartlett ’76 works with clients who are serving or have served “at the pleasure” of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. These men and women are not military officers or part of the royal court, but rather inmates or prisonleavers (as those about to be released or recently-released are referred to in England) in Her Majesty’s Prison Service, or HMPS, for crimes ranging from shoplifting to murder.

For the past three years, Bartlett has worked in the Through the Gate program of Aspire, a charity that focuses on empowering people facing homelessness,

ART CREDIT PHOTOGRAPHY

BY DAVID P. STEWART PHOTOGRAPHY

poverty and disadvantage by finding them housing and employment. He draws upon his experiences as a teacher and career advisor to counsel more than 20 current inmates and/or prisonleavers quarterly and help them start fresh and successfully rebuild their lives.

After graduating from Nobles, Bartlett attended Dartmouth College and was preparing for a future in law when he decided that teaching best suited his interests and passions. He worked at the Fessenden School in West Newton, Massachusetts, for four years teaching middle school English and history, eventually becoming the head of the English department there. In 1991, three years after receiving his master’s in education at Boston University,

Bartlett was ready for a change and took a job teaching at the American School in London. “My father was a diplomat, so I spent most of my early life overseas,” says Bartlett. “When the opportunity came up in London, I thought it would be a nice change of scene, and my mom and dad were living in Belfast, Northern Ireland, at the time where my father was Consul General. I knew it would be nice to see my folks and teach in London—an ideal opportunity—so off I went.” He has remained in the United Kingdom ever since.

While family played a part in luring Bartlett to England, love, ultimately, has kept him there. During his second year in London, he met his wife, Linda, and they settled down in the Thames Valley.

Bartlett continued teaching English and British history, and developed a keen interest in the Mayflower Pilgrims after learning of his personal ancestral link to John Howland, one of the ship’s original passengers. Up until Covid-19 hit, in addition to his work with his prison clients, Bartlett was giving American tourists who trace their lineages to the Mayflower tours of their ancestors’ SPRING SPRING 2021 2021 Nobles 37

graduate news

graduate profile

hometowns and providing them with an historical overview of what life was like in England more than 400 years ago.

Bartlett transitioned to career advising after two decades of teaching, and it was this second career that led him to become an advocate for prison reform and a front-line worker supporting inmates and prison-leavers. “I went from managing career advisors in prisons to actually going into prisons myself and organizing what happens next when someone gets out,” recalls Bartlett. “My goal today is to help people smoothly transition out of prison so they don’t end up back there, which is a huge problem here.”

A typical working day for him consists of visiting prisons, parole offices and housing units to assess his clients’ most critical needs and develop a plan to address them. Bartlett acknowledges that the 12 weeks after a client is released from prison are the most critical—if they receive the necessary support in areas such as job training, drug and alcohol counseling, housing, managing family relationships, etc., the likelihood of a return to prison is minimized. “When a client, let’s call him Joe Smith, is referred to me, I assess his situation and determine what services he most needs. Joe may be fine with his family and does not have a drug problem, but he may never have worked a day in his life,” remarks Bartlett. “I identify what his priorities are and work with him on a C.V. and interview training, while also finding employers in his hometown who are accepting of people with criminal records and who are willing to give them a second chance.” His years of teaching and mentoring students have helped him build strong personal connections with his clients, as well as give them the writing and editing help they need when submitting job applications. Sometimes, however, his work is focused on lifetraining skills. Helping former prisoners learn the local bus routes or how to buy

38 Nobles SPRING 2021

groceries can make all the difference.

Bartlett is able to impact lives not only through his hands-on work but also through the power of his written words.

An avid writer and strong proponent of prison reform, he writes grants on behalf of Aspire to secure funding for everything from laptops for inmates so they can receive online job training to proposing a different approach to financial assistance for those transitioning from prison to the outside world. “I am currently pushing for a new model in which there are going to be new collaborations,” he says. “This would include having a departure ‘lounge’ or center just outside of a prison for those leaving with all the needed services for the prison-leaver in one place. There would also be arrival ‘lounges’ or centers in local communities with informal atmospheres where they can meet with professionals and talk with others in similar situations about needs and job prospects.” The goal is to streamline services and make help more immediately accessible. There is also an element of connecting prison-leavers to each other so that they can share lived experiences and be sources of support.

As with so many professions, the Covid-19 pandemic has made Bartlett’s work all the more challenging. He and his colleagues have been forced to connect with their clients often via just email and phone calls, rather than through in-person meetings. In addition, the need for mental health services for clients has skyrocketed. Bartlett describes the states of many of his clients during this past year saying, “Most of my guys are stuck in a cell 23 hours a day, which is brutal. A lot of them are 19 to 24 years of age, and their mental health is in a terrible, terrible state. Added to that, the temptations when they are released can be hard to resist. A drug dealer can make more than £1,000 a day, and we try to steer them to jobs, say, working in a warehouse, that pay in the region

of £8 per hour. For a young guy, that's a tough sell.” If there is a silver lining from the pandemic, he reflects, “Covid-19 has shown that locking people down for long periods of time has a definite negative impact on their mental health and their whole development as people.” He hopes that there will be an increased focus on mental health and a more humane approach to containment, such as the use of electronic bracelet tags keeping prison-leavers more under a phase of house arrest than actually behind bars.

As Bartlett ponders his own retirement in the coming years, he is fully aware that there will still be much work to be done after he steps away. There will always be more clients who need help, and there will always be a need for people to work handin-hand with them if they have any chance of enjoying a fulfilling life after incarceration. “I’m trying to mentor others and have had university students studying psychology and criminal justice take time to come and work with me,” says Bartlett. “It takes energy and a certain degree of commitment and passion to do this work. Hopefully, I have set an example that anyone at any age can do it and go for it.”

Bartlett is celebrating his 45th Reunion from Nobles this year. He admits that as a Nobles student he never thought he would be doing what he is doing today. Yet he credits Nobles for giving him the freedom to be who he wanted to be and to try new things. Now, far from Dedham, he is helping those in need find their own freedom. “I believe in treating my clients as any other human beings—any other colleagues.

Many of them are so motivated to get back on track. It is not just about finding a job for them. Much more is at stake. As the saying goes, we provide a hand up, not a handout and we try to motivate our clients to find ways to keep themselves out of prison.”

NOTES & ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM CLASSMATES

1940

1949

1950

CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Of the original 26 members of the Class of ’49, there are only a handful of us left. I would like to hear from you hardy souls with your news. Deceased need not respond.

I’ll start.

Bob Morrison: “I am now living at the Commons in Lincoln retirement complex with Gretchen, my wife of 67 years. We have four married children, most living in towns contiguous to Lincoln, Massachusetts. In addition, we have 13 grandchildren and four greatgrandchildren. Life in retirement is good . . . and somewhat boring.

Please share your news.”

Henry Briggs and Sid Eaton had a great catch-up over the phone, reminiscing for over an hour about their time at Nobles!

Percy Nelson

617-244-4126 percylnelson@comcast.net

1946 1947 1948

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 Nobles 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/ Please note: If you do not have a class 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 ’99 at kbrown99@nobles.edu.

1951 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Willauer. Class of 1953: William Badger, Bruce Biddle, John Childs, John Farlow, Evan Geilich, Robert Hoffman, Edward Jennings, Stanley Johnson, Harris Poor, Charles Soule, David Thibodeau and L.H. Wakefield. Looking for a better response in the future when presumably more opportunities for a normal life will exist. Stay well!”

Galt Grant

781-383-0854 galtgra@gmail.com

1954 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

1952 & 1953 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Peter Partridge

508-548-9418 bluechip7676@hotmail.com

John Childs

johnchilds37@gmail.com

1955

John Childs writes, “Perhaps it reflects the debilitating burdens of this persistent pandemic, or a total lack of significant happenings in our lives, or our dwindling numbers. Whatever, there was no response to my plea for class notes this time, and I guess I’m a part of this silence by resisting making phone calls. Alas, the ‘Hooley’ streak of one- to two-page Nobles class notes and your expansive responses to me has ground to a halt. So, the best I can offer is to tell you that the current count of living guys from our two classes stands at 22. We hope that the following are in reasonably good health and will confirm next time that they are enjoying the elevated status of longevity: Class of 1952: Donald Atwell, Peter Bennett, John Blanchard, Stanton Burgess, Jacob Dunnell, Lucius Hallett, Stephen Hopkins, David Horton, Benjamin Taylor and Peter

CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Bob Chellis

781-237-9436 rdchellis@gmail.com Our classmate Bob Taylor passed away last November 1 at his Old Town Farm after some years of failing health. Carolyn, his three children and all but one of his grandchildren were with him.

He loved the Farm, and it was a pleasure to visit him—with the big red barn, houses, barns and garages for his boys, Carolyn’s grand organic gardens, swarms of year-round birds and the mountain views.

On another sad note, on Christmas Eve Jim Doty’s widow, Koko, died of Covid-19 at Bridges in Westwood. She had left Fox Hill Village several years ago to find appropriate health care. Koko was a free spirit—she and Jim were exuberant models of eccentricity,

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and that is a compliment! What a couple they were! I hope you saved your copy of the Graham Shipman “Marshall Spleen” cartoon from years ago, blaming a restaurant fire on the work of “that Evil Insurance Man, Jeeves Jimson Dirty and his Fiendish Side Kick Coo-Coo.” But actually, the fire was just from all the candles on Charlie Nichols’s birthday cake. I have it framed, and it makes me laugh every day. As it was supposed to.

Sam Gray and Gerry feel “very lucky to be here in Wareham.”

They have plenty of projects indoors, are on the water, and have lots of walking trails.

Larry Flood writes from Maine: “Most serious people my age are wisely reducing their real estate footprint. At our lovely place in Blue Hill, Maine, we are doing the opposite, increasing ours . . . and by a considerable extent. Why? Is it Covid-19? Global warming? Or senility? My answer comes from a marvelous comic strip on my bathroom wall. At a pub, Monty is asking his friend Moondog McHorney, dressed in his usual zany Hawaiian shirt and by midmorning already into his fourth or fifth pint, to explain his midlife crisis and why he is so determined to become a banker. Moondog replies: ‘Yeah, but man, if you give up on your dreams, your dreams will give up on you.’ So first, I’m buying 10 acres of adjoining shore property from my nephews, for protection.

Second, we had no choice but to repair our guest cottage—homebuilt and falling off its feeble foundation. Riggers have now raised it 10 feet off the ground and 100 feet away, where it sits like a turkey on its roost awaiting a totally new basement to be poured, whence

40 Nobles SPRING 2021

it will then be moved back where it was. Winter has postponed that last objective, so the turkey forlornly shivers and waits. Third, as an outlet for my frustrated career as an architect, somewhat behind Charlie Nichols, we hope to build a new, additional guesthouse on the opposite side of our property. The stairwell in a three-story tower will showcase a marvelous 20-foot-tall totem pole I bought a year ago at auction. Two green roof decks of native plants will offer expansive views—with eagles and ospreys soaring overhead in their shoreline flight path during cocktail hour.

Stay tuned in on progress and come up for a visit.”

John Harrison and Sally are carrying on in Dedham. He’s proud of his two overachieving granddaughters. And he still helps with the Annual Nobles Fund—so give early and often and make his life easier!

Covid limitations caused Wally Stimpson and Susie to stay at North Hill, enjoy Christmas here, and then fly down to Naples, Florida. Things here at Fox Hill are disappointing and diminishing. To get necessary health care, for instance, my wife, Sandy, like Koko and others, have had to move off-site. So the fizz is gone. With bold, diversified, non-profit leadership, continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) are usually terrific. But beware of co-op retirement communities where the boards include residents only.

Aging and myopia rarely create a utopia. I should have known better.

Isn’t hindsight wonderfully clear!

I have made a happy discovery—a new whiskey from the Boston Harbor Distillery: Putnam New England Rye Whiskey! Sounds

good to me. And how fitting to toast Eliot T. Putnam with a fine Putnam whiskey? Or savor it with a book by the fire.

Speaking of cocktails, I think Nobles expects Reunions to be virtual this year—and whatever they can do will be fine. But if anyone can suggest something more face-to-face, like a dinner off campus, that would be great.

I’ll bring the Putnam Whiskey. Let Charlie Nichols or me know your thoughts. And get vaccinated, so we’ll be ready for anything.

1956 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Gren “Rocky” Whitman

443-691-9370 grenwhitman1@gmail.com Dave Hoffman writes: “I am sorry to report that my bride of 60 years, Sarah Hoffman, age 79, passed last August 26 of complications from many years of COPD and emphysema. She gave up smoking 40 years ago, but that was too late. She had many other ailments, perhaps stemming from secondhand smoke when a child, and those years of cigarettes. God bless her soul.”

Bill Wiese says he continues to vegetate as he shelters mostly in place, but he asserts that he’s not yet ready for composting.

(His correct email address is bjwiese@comcast.net.)

“Because I am almost bald,” writes Tom Oleson, “I have grown a beard to show what my hair would be like if I had some. I had an operation on my heart in November 2019 and have not played golf since. I read a lot more now. Given the virus, we did not go to our ranch

in North Dakota this year, but the oil company still sends Kathleen a check monthly for her grandchildrens’ college tuition.”

From Dev Barker: “For New England Patriots football fans, it was not a great year given the standards we have come to expect. Tom Brady left us and has continued to succeed elsewhere. A bright light has lately emerged, however. Coach Bill Belichick has declined to accept the Presidential Medal of Freedom, our nation’s highest civilian honor, because of the chaotic events of January 6 at the U.S. Capitol. ‘Above all,’ he said, ‘I am an American citizen with great reverence for our nation’s values, freedom and democracy.’ Good for him!”

Retirement on Cape Cod is wonderful, says John Fritts. “Now I can make a dent in the books on my shelf. Mr. Eaton would probably want a report on each one! We have an Audubon Society bird sanctuary across the street, so there are visitors in our yard all the time. Classmates who enjoy birding would really enjoy this area, as do my grandchildren, as they try to identify species. It keeps them away from the video games.

“If you eliminate the virus and Washington, D.C., 2020 was a good year for my family. No traveling, but we sold our home in Wellesley.

My second son and his wife bought a home in Plymouth. The entire family gets together a couple of times each month, just to stay in touch. I doubt any of us would have dreamed of doing this in 1956. Not to mention cellphones for instant communication. I remember a teacher at Fort Monmouth, when I first went into the Army, telling us

that all this would happen in the next 25 years. Nobody believed him, except one guy from MIT, who spoke a different language from us liberal arts types.

“As we struggle through these difficult times, I realize how fortunate we are. No war, good economy, close family, wonderful medical care and freedom to express our views. My financial advisor is worth every penny so that we can enjoy a good life. I just hope the politicians in Washington don’t ruin it.”

A small town at the end of the road is likely one of the best places to evade the virus, says Rocky Whitman.

1957 CLASS CORRESPONDENTS

John Valentine

jean6157@icloud.com Eliot Putnam

etputnam@earthlink.net John Valentine writes: “I have moved to a retirement community in Northampton, Massachusetts, to have timely access to a renal dialysis routine I am taking three times a week. With Covid, all the residents were separated and confined basically to their assigned rooms. Slowly I have observed my colleagues and admire their tenacious approach to their lives here. All of which has led me to updating the riddle of the Sphinx, which should now include: ‘What goes on four feet, on two feet and three, then cart wheels extensive, far rangier to be. . . .’ My apologies for giving in to Covid-itis.”

Robert McElwain says, “I think if Capitol police officer Eugene

Goodman had not confronted and decoyed that vicious mob away from the Senate Chamber on January 8, there could have been horrendous consequences. He is an American hero. I am thankful and happy that he will be receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor.”

Wade Williams wrote: “I am currently hunkered down with son Ben and daughter-in-law Katherine, who live in Cary (near Raleigh), North Carolina. I have also made long visits to my other son, Andrew, and daughter-in-law Ann, who live in Madison (near Huntsville, Alabama), as well as my daughter and son-in-law, who live in Philly.

Healthwise I am in pretty good shape considering I am being treated for prostate cancer and thyroid cancer. I continue to surprise my doctors at how well I am tolerating my treatments. I am lucky for the seamless medical support from my Massachusetts and Raleigh doctors. And all my family have been supportive as well. Thanks to Zoom I have been able to participate in Tai Chi and stay in touch with my family and friends.”

Eliot Putnam wrote: “The pandemic drags on, and I am increasingly inarticulate and uncreative.

Phone conversations with classmates are welcome, but we soon confront the fact that there’s not much to say. My saving grace is, of course, Jan. Our time together is richer and more supportive than ever. But the absence of meaningful interaction with the rest of the world is felt. And now, to top it off, as I write, Massachusetts, the supposed seal of all that is good and pioneering in health care, is sorely lacking information about when the octogenarian generation will be able to get its first Covid-19

vaccination. We trust this will be history when this appears in print or. . . . Hang in there, one and all.”

Nim Marsh says, “So far, the winter of 2020–21 has been busy and productive. Aside from editing feature stories and organizing maps for Points East magazine, I, like many sailors, use winters for dreams of and planning for small adventures.” To this end, he has been devising a new reefing system for his septuagenarian English sailing dinghy, and a more ergonomic main-sheet block arrangement for the boom. An improved cockpit cover is in Frith’s future too.

Nim is still training for a 5k road race, which he will run with his stepdaughter Leah, a fellow marathoner with whom he participated in a number of 5k and five-mile events some 20 years ago. With another 82-year-old, Nim mountain-bikes two or three times a week for the pure joy of being in the woods on wheels. Yes, at 82, as dinged up as an old alley cat, and he has a great story about each and every scar. Ask him about the bolt hole marks in his back, incurred when a truck ran over him while he was riding his bike. The bike survived without a scratch.

Lance Grandone says, “Another year has passed, but I will abide by my pledge not to discuss politics and religion in these notes. I will say that the events of January 6 were beyond the pale. Karin and I officially moved to a condo in Venice. The market is very hot right now in Florida, so we have hopes for an early sale. We are still isolating, primarily due to the new, more contagious strains of Covid-19 that are circulating in Florida. Getting tested is no longer a problem, but getting

a vaccine shot is incredibly difficult.

One area of controversy is that the majority of people receiving the vaccine are from out of state.

Needless to say, this did not make local residents happy. Let’s hope the new regime can get things back on track.

“Our son and his wife are visiting from Colorado but are anxious to get back to skiing the slopes.

Our daughter, Susan, is locked down in Australia. If she leaves, she probably won’t be allowed back in. We talk on the phone frequently, thanks to VoIP. So we are just hanging in there, trying to stay healthy, with lots of reading, PBS TV and other streaming services.

“I hope all of you are staying well and have a positive attitude.

We will get through this!”

1958 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Chris Morss

knossos@aol.com Peter Wadsworth writes: “I used to think that retirement at age 50 would be nirvana. But on the eve of my 80th birthday, I find myself still working, with a bipartisan group of retired health executives, including the former head of Medicare and Medicaid under Bush 43 and several distinguished health economists. In the last six months we’ve designed a program to address affordability and access to care for all Americans and published three articles on the subject, most notably ‘How the Biden Administration Can Make a Public Option Work’ (HBR 11/25/2020).

We hope that major elements of the eponymously named Better Care Plan will be incorporated into

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the new administration’s changes to the ACA. On another subject, I was saddened to read the obituary of childhood friend Nick Soutter ’59 that appeared in the Globe, but an impressive homage to Nick.”

Bill Russell writes: “At the end of November 2020, I finally had the long-anticipated lower-back surgery, primarily ‘lumbar decompression fusion’ of L4 and L5, plus some ‘clean out’ in one or two other places. So I’ve been navigating the necessary recovery course that, as I’m sure you all know, is a very long, slow process. Things seem to be going well so far. My varied vocational and avocational experience for over six decades in education, and observations of accelerating institutional changes in the nation, led me a few years ago to begin recommending to friends and acquaintances Orwell’s classic, 1984. Lamentably, what’s been a long evolution of erosion of common ground and understanding of the abiding virtues makes me now believe this book should be required reading for everyone.

“On a happier note, recently I have greatly enjoyed long phone conversations with some of our classmates. I intend to have more as an effective antidote to the boredom of the splendid isolation (without the splendor) I assume we all have been undergoing because of Covid precautions.

Unexpectedly, Jan and I recently were offered the opportunity to schedule our vaccine shots, and so those occurred on January 16. Best wishes to all.”

Peter Norstrand writes: “No news, but looking forward to being vaccinated so that we can ease up this seemingly eternal isolation.”

Chris Morss writes: “In light

42 Nobles SPRING 2021

of Covid, life is necessarily, though not unhappily, quiet, but the days fly past, and to break isolation, it’s wonderful to have modern technology, such as email and Zoom, to stay in touch with people. This year, Santa Claus nearly overloaded his sleigh with an enormous load of books so that a wonderful bounty of reading material offers a happy diversion for the long winter nights.”

1959 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

sure. Another one of comforting waltz music is on the way. And, I decided at this age, it’s no problem to embarrass myself by signing up for a Zoom group waltz fiddling together project at the Front Porch music school in Charlottesville, Virginia. Yes, we’ll be muted while playing to the performer, but we will all take turns being the performer. We’ll be playing some favorites like ‘Ashokan Farewell’ and ‘Scarborough Fair.’ Connie and I have been to Scarborough, U.K. Nice village perchez.”

Whit Bond

whit.bond@verizon.net

1960

Ned Bigelow writes: “My hope is that this entry finds everyone healthy and staying out of harm’s way. This has been quite a year, one for the history books and one to put behind us as we look hopefully to a far brighter, happier, kinder, healthier, more civilized 2021. I hope the lessons learned will endure and action taken where action is needed. This I fervently hope for the sake of our children, grandchildren and all people. Stay in touch and be well.”

1965

1966 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Ned Reece

773-213-0442 ned4047@sbcglobal.net

1967 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Drew Sullivan

781-461-1477 drewsull49@aol.com

1968 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Andy Lord

617-899-3948 ajliii@yahoo.com

Buzz Gagnebin

CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Jim Summers

imbuzz@me.com

Albert Vandam

jimsummers@post.harvard.edu

arvandam42@gmail.com John Gibson

jgib1963@aol.com

1961

Buzz Gagnebin writes: “This Covid time has caused us all to take a different route down life’s path, and hopefully, despite the trials we have experienced, some good things have happened worth reporting in the magazine. While I have avoided contact other than with a favorite takeout lunch spot for frozen yogurt and visits to Connie’s family, particularly her mom’s 100th birthday drive-by at the Garrison House in her hometown, Chelmsford, I have been more active in music. Yes, I know at Nobles in the ’50s I would never have been expected to ever play an instrument in any way, and Van Kleek condemned my playing my father’s Vega Tenor Banjo.

One way I contributed at this time was helping in the creation of comforting music on YouTube by professionals I know. You got at least some of those links, I’m

CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Jim Newell

802-467-3555 newell43@gmail.com

1962

Bill Sargent says, "My latest book, Terror by Error? The Covid Chronicles, explores the murky interface between biological research and biological warfare to discover the origins of tick-borne disease and biological warfare.” Thanks to Bill for his Nobles author book talk in January 2021!

CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Peter McCombs

215-947-8017 or 516-629-7983 prm9244@gmail.com

1963 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Jim Lehan

508-520-1373 jblehan@aol.com

1964 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Ned Bigelow

781-704-4304 moe9817@aol.com

Bill Sargent ’65’s book, Terror by Error? The Covid Chronicles, explores the murky interface between biological research and biological warfare to discover the origins of tick-borne disease and biological warfare.

1969 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Peter Pach

860-267-9701 peterbpach@gmail.com We seem to have lived many years in just this one. One benefit for me, a class correspondent, is that classmates have appeared more eager to hear what others are doing and to share their experiences. Changes in careers, altered lifestyles to accommodate the strictures of living under Covid, and life’s passages, albeit often observed on Zoom, all continue in the shadow of this virus and the civic turmoil that has roiled the country. Life in Middle Haddam, Connecticut, is quiet and tranquil, though at times it seems like we’re under a gentle house arrest. By the time this is published, we hope to have gotten our vaccine shots and perhaps be feeling a little more latitude in movement. My wife,

Kathy, and I have managed only a couple of visits to see our mothers, who both live in Needham, which is hard on everyone.

Mark Haffenreffer wrote in January: “I am in my last few weeks of orthopaedics and will retire near the end of the month. I must say I have truly enjoyed it. I also have had both shots, with the second one leaving its calling card quite emphatically. I have several options open on the next level, and I am not sure which I will do.

Sitting around is not one of them.

I now live in Dedham, not far from Ursuline Academy. So far no Covid, but it has taken a toll and still restricts. Stay well, ’69, and enjoy.”

Stew Young reports he has a new grandson, Cameron Forbes Young, who was born on October 21, 2020, joining his sister, Lila, who is 2 1/2. “Covid makes visiting a problem,” Stew said, “but thank goodness for FaceTime. Lila is old enough to carry me around on an iPhone, so we can chat and she shows me her stuffed animals.

Curling is happening, but I’m taking the year off. I just don’t like the indoor aspect. Paddle tennis is the new Covid sport. My selectman gig for Gosnold has been a challenge.

Early on, we had one cluster of cases from partying and fortunately none since. A plus from Covid is that the one-room school on Cuttyhunk, which had been closed last year due to no students, now has five in grades seven, five, three and two.”

Bob Perkins spent a quiet Christmas. “Just Kate (my wife) and me at home without a tree, without family members. . . . We are actually extremely lucky to have come through this entire year with our basic lives intact. The

hardest part is not being able to get the last 12 months back since we last saw California grandchildren. My grandson started high school from his bed! We probably would have thought that was pretty cool, but I think the pandemic has made all of these kids realize how much they love school and wish they could just get back to normal.”

Bob underwent a full knee replacement around Christmastime and found the recovery more complicated than first hoped: “I’m glad I’m not someone in the next PT room overhearing my colorful exclamations from my torture sessions. I expected things to go smoothly, and I have had to learn the uncomfortable lesson that medicine abhors arrogance. My present plans are to be back on the water rowing this summer and playing hockey next winter— maybe skiing too.”

I had a number of holiday greetings, including from Weston Wellington, who was at home in New Castle, Colorado, with his wife, Karen. They were sharing a Christmas dinner with their next-door neighbor, Emily. “Quite a contrast to the usual extended family gathering,” Weston said.

Also checking in and holding up in the year of Covid were Steve Baker from Florida and Wigs Frank, from Berwyn, Pennsylvania. Peter Gates decided to nix a planned trip to Florida with his wife, Debbie, because of the virus, and was at his home in South Dartmouth for Christmas.

Chip Harding’s life includes lots of music, which is spread throughout his family. His son Sam is “a drummer and a lacrosse coach and works in Berwick

Academy’s Advancement office.

Our son Joe is a professional bass player, and our oldest, Mathieu, lives in Indiana with Rebecca and our two grandbabies, Polia and Olivin. He’s an artist and is redesigning cover art for some of the older albums I’m remastering. I’m basically archiving all my music at this stage of the game and getting things sounding and looking their best in the process. I’ll be adding a third CD to the site in a few weeks (https://chipharding1. bandcamp.com). This past August I did release a new album, called Canada, which includes songs I’ve written over the years that reflect our family’s profound connection with Québec (my wife is from there) and Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. It took me a while to get past the idea stage with that project, but when it became clear that we couldn’t cross the border this past year, I was moved to finish it. Not getting up to Cape Breton this past summer was almost disorienting, and, of course, Madeleine can’t even go home to see her family.

I’m still teaching music on Zoom (at Berwick) and am running almost monthly virtual open mics to bring people together to share community and music.

“It’s been a tough week (January 6) with the madness that descended on Washington, but hopefully a new administration and the vaccines will make it a hopeful new year.”

Toby Talbot seems more active than ever in the civic life of Calais, Vermont. “As an essential health worker in the ambulance service, I have gotten my first vaccine shot.

We have had some ambulance calls with patients who were Covidpositive. It has been a struggle,

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with some staff having to quarantine after the exposures, making it difficult to fill shifts. Thank goodness Vermont is the safest state in the nation, as folks here have listened to the facts and acted responsibly. Masks and distancing are working here. I’m getting used to multiple Zoom meetings each week with the fire department and the town government. Really miss in-person contact. Luckily, have a small group of trusted friends who we gather with on a regular basis.”

Toby added, “I bumped into a masked Leigh Seddon in the liquor store the other day. Seems like my liver may take a beating during this pandemic.”

Jim Lack is coming back to New England with his wife, Candice, and their two young boys. He wrote, “We are moving back to Boston in June 2021. Everyone is well, and we are all careful about Covid.”

John Clark wrote in from New Hampshire: “The Center of the Universe is not immune, but Epping has taken on the pandemic thoughtfully, safely and for the most part very cooperatively. I volunteered at the polls this year, and for the November vote was assigned to helping folks exit the school in a safe one-way path.

We had a handful of voters who refused to wear masks and were asked to fill out their ballots in a different room, but most folks masked up and voter turnout was very strong. We also learned that we have far more M’s voting than any other letter, and after a few hours, the K’s and L’s were moved to the H, I, J line, and the M’s had their own line! My wife, Carol, and I have survived without getting Covid, and, after a few people at work were infected, I am now

44 Nobles SPRING 2021

working remotely from home through at least January 18, 2021.”

I’m on the mailing list for the Malta House of Care Mobile Medical Clinic, whose mission is to provide free primary care to uninsured adults in the Hartford area.

A recent annual report featured an entire page on Brad Wilkinson, who was given the Heart of Malta award for his 15 years of volunteer medical care for Malta clients. The report detailed his work for Malta and a clinic he and other doctors established in the Dominican Republic: “He’s donated thousands of hours of time, treating thousands of sick and scared patients with respect and compassion and extraordinary professional attention, each one made to feel special and important. His value to Malta— and to the people whose lives he’s changed and, in many cases, saved—is incalculable.” Brad was quoted as saying he is the one getting the biggest benefit from his time at Malta House: “Seeing the collective happiness, relief and gratitude on the faces of thousands of patients I have attended when they realize that finally they have found a place where they are not scorned or ignored but rather treated with dignity, warmth and concern is a magical experience.”

Finally, I had a nice, if somewhat chilling, phone call catching up with Tom Taylor, who is now fully relocated from Martha’s Vineyard to Parish, New York, which is a small, rural town in upstate New York not far from Lake Ontario and known for great salmon fishing. Tom was in good spirits despite having survived a harrowing experience last fall. He was alone using his wood splitter a distance from his house when

he found his left hand was stuck deep in the machine. He doesn’t remember what led to his getting caught and surmises that he might have tripped and put his hand out to catch himself. He managed to extricate his hand by restarting the machine and then, holding the injured hand over his head, was able to work his cellphone and call for help. Fortunately, the town fire chief was traveling nearby and came quickly to Tom’s aid along with two fire department volunteers who were close behind.

The rescuers managed to halt the bleeding and rushed Tom to the nearest hospital, where he spent two days. He lost his little and ring fingers, and the others are being rebuilt. I asked Tom how he managed to stay awake and alert given the extent of his injury and bleeding. If he had passed out, it would have been a long time before anyone knew he was in trouble.

Tom gave Nobles credit: “I’m glad I went to Nobles. I think it taught me how to be tough.”

Don Watson reported from South Dartmouth: “The lack of human contact is bugging even me, though I am not known for my outgoingness. Still, our son and spouse (and grandson) have moved two miles away, and we enjoy seeing them all. Our daughter is in California with her husband and grand-dog. We are missing her terribly. We are maintaining a pretty tight bubble because of our grandson. A few years before my mother died, I bought (with her money) a 27-foot powerboat to take her and her sister out on. She was about 94 at the time. We called it Puffin, as my mother was a big fan of those pelagic birds. We did make some

trips, but not enough. I have taken on a complete restoration of this boat. I have removed the engine for rebuilding, the fuel and water tanks, every wire and every hose, etc. I am going to paint the boat and replace all systems. This project will keep me busy into 2022.”

After a career spent building boats, Don is likely to improve on the original by the time he is finished.

1970 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Levy Byrd

781-449-7555 levbyrd@comcast.net

1971 CLASS CORRESPONDENTS

Harry Blackman

Harry.Blackman@skadden.com John Dewey

jrdewey@usa.net Nick Mittell

phred.j.dog@gmail.com

Left: A look back at our 25th Reunion! The Mableys, Paul Ayoub ’74 and the infamous Gene Knox ’74. Right: Henry Singer ’76 with Mila (8), Alicia and Max (4) Singer in London.

sign Review Board for the town of Sudbury, Massachusetts. I demo’d and redesigned a fix-me-upper in Sudbury, in which I am now living, and I built a post-and-beam 12x16 shed (a man-cave, mind you, not a Cheryl’s she-shed). Now I am keeping busy doing a lot of reading, hiking, biking and gardening. I have been enjoying reading the monthly picks of the PBS NewsHour/New York Times ‘Now Read This’ book series. Hope that in 2021 we will see the end of the pandemic and less division, with renewed hope, kindness and understanding.”

Clinical Consultants of Boston, in December 2020. I took a trip this fall to Nantucket and met up with my classmate Jan Jelleme.

I continue to do volunteer board work with Heading Home Inc. and the Massachusetts Organization for Addiction Recovery.”

1975 CLASS CORRESPONDENTS

Jed Dawson

508-735-9663 jdawson711@gmail.com Doug Floyd

Win Perkins

wperkins@mmuftc.com

1974

781-788-0020 dfloyd44312@yahoo.com

CLASS CORRESPONDENT

1972 1973 Jim Parker retired two years ago after practicing interventional radiology at MetroWest Medical Center Framingham/Natick for more than a quarter of a century.

“After retiring, my travels and volunteer plans were cut short due to the Covid pandemic. I have been able to pursue interests in design and woodworking. I joined the De-

Kevin McCarthy

617-480-6344 kjmc.bc.msw15@gmail.com

1976 CLASS CORRESPONDENTS

Tom Bartlett Kevin McCarthy writes, “In the wake of the events of 2020, I have been fortunate in the face of misfortune for so many.

Since the last edition of Nobles magazine I have been promoted to clinical coordinator for substance addiction services for Eliot Community Human Services. In addition, I launched my private clinical practice,

+44 1908 647196 tom_bartlett58@hotmail.com Rob Piana

617-491-7499 robert.piana@vanderbilt.edu An enjoyable and banter-filled Zoom before Christmas was a nice preview to our 45th reunion (What?!?) this year. In the room

were Rob Alevizos, Gino Borgo, Andy Goode, Jeanne Hilsinger, Elliott Pratt, Cathy Gray, André Stark, Lisa Weber Wood and two of the Toms (Bartlett and Lamb).

My fellow England expat Henry Singer writes from London: “The Christmas holiday was a nice break from partial lockdown—Tier 4, as it was called here in London. We are now in complete lockdown, as the second wave of Covid here in Britain is far worse than the first, given the far more contagious version of the virus, which seems to have originated here. London is the epicenter, so we are being extra careful. My film company made a film for Channel 4 here in the UK following four patients in the ICU in a south London hospital: one died; two survived and should recover almost all their functions; the fourth will probably end up in a nursing home. All were/are younger than members of our class. Sadly, despite films like these, there are plenty of people here who still think Covid is either a hoax or a bad case of the flu. Of course, I write this four days after the storming of the U.S. Capitol, so alternative ‘facts’ are hardly unique to this now rather insignificant island nation, cut off, as it has

chosen to be, from Europe with the completion of Brexit. Despite this and the frustration (an understatement, believe me) of trying to homeschool Mila, 8, and Max, 4, we are all ‘keeping calm and carrying on,’ as the Brits were encouraged to do to prepare for WWII. Hope all my classmates are doing the same, wherever you are.”

Meanwhile, back on the home (domestic U.S.) front, Eli Ingraham reports in (for the first time?): “It has been a year for the literal record books, for sure. Our family is well, but we have not been without our share of some pretty intense health issues. All I will say on that front is that kids are really complicated. That said, everything is pointed in a positive direction, and we will get through it. The Universe decided to give us a break by surprising me with a couple of truly wonderful work opportunities. While many of my peers are winding things down, I seem to be finally hitting my stride.

Always the late bloomer. The first is that I am leading an initiative called TIE Global Artisans, which reduces poverty among indigenous textile weavers in Africa (to begin with) by creating the conditions necessary for them to innovate their craft, make market linkages with world-class designers, and earn an exponentially better wage.

We’re folding in some cool tech, like blockchain, digital currencies and RFID threads. And, of course, sustainable fashion. I’m incredibly happy to be deeply engaged in social impact work after so many years in the corporate sector. The other is that I was invited to be a founding member of the Knowledge Pledge, based on the Giving Pledge idea, but instead of giving

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away wealth, we give away knowledge. Our purpose is to accelerate progress on the world’s most pressing issues (UN’s Sustainable Development Goals) by connecting global experts with social entrepreneurs to scale impact. TIE Global Artisans was just formally accepted into the program, as was the World Food Programme, which just won the Nobel Peace Prize!

While I am sad to have missed our recent virtual reunion, I look forward to connecting with any and all of you in the near future.

Let’s plan another one! Be well, my friends. I do miss you.”

We also heard an update from André Stark that he was a postproduction supervisor for a film called Etched in Glass: The Legacy of Steve Ross, which is about a boy who was 9 when Hitler invaded Poland, and who spent five years in the death camps doing everything possible to stay alive.

1977 1978 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Christopher Reynolds

Cell: 800-444-0004 Home: 508-358-7757 chreynolds@comcast.net

1979 Dan Rodgers

212-423-0374 drodgers@wfw.com So now it is 2021. An attempted coup failed, and we have a new president. And these class notes!

But since the crickets have been chirping again, and I didn’t hear

46 Nobles SPRING 2021

from any of you directly, who knows what I might have to say here. I certainly don’t have a clue, so in the words of the immortal Jackie Gleason, “Awaaaaaay we go!”

Once again, turning to postings on a well-known social media app no longer used by our descendants, I have the pleasure at this very moment of looking at a picture of Nancy Pratt Hurley, Vicki Palmer Chase and Holly Charlesworth Casner at one of our reunions. Gotta agree with Jamie Tayler’s comment that you all look great!

Moving on, this same social media app suggests I might know someone named William O’Toole, and it seems that our buddy Bill, I’m pleased to report, continues to provide legal services to the health care industry, and more important, he looks well.

Among the 11 friends that Bill and I have in common, according to this social media app, is some guy named Charles Mark Byers, but I could have sworn we called him Mark! He, too, is wearing sunglasses and looks quite a bit like Robert Culp during his I Spy days on TV in the 1960s. (It’s the sunglasses, Mark, just the sunglasses!) From what I can tell, Lord Byers is the king of outdoor advertising in Oklahoma, but I remember him as having the best throw-in on the varsity soccer team! And Mark has a really cool Led Zep video on his page with Plant and Page running through “When the Levee Breaks.” Check.

It. Out! Also a frequent flier on this social app is Ginny Aldous Emerson.

And you want star power? Here’s some star power for ya: Ginny is a Tony Award-winning assistant

costume director at the Huntington Theatre Company. Take that, Jackie Gleason!

1980 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Martha Kittredge Rowley

martharowley@comcast.net

1981 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

John Fiske

johnfiske@comcast.net Connie Moore says she is “glad that 2020 is over” and writes, “Hi, all, sorry we have to miss reunion!

All is fine here with WFH for me and Giles and an empty nest (Lydia, 25, in London; Charlie, 23, in MKE/Chicago). Looking forward to many better things in 2021 so we can all be together again.”

George Whiting has begun planning a district energy system for the Medfield State Hospital property, in Medfield, where he lives with his wife, Anna, and Linnea and Henry.

Rob Raymond wrote in October: “I was honored to see Jock Adams’s daughter, Katie, get married last fall in Newport, Rhode Island. Jock died while she was a young girl, but his genetic and spiritual presence was evident at the wedding. I have been living in Fort Collins, Colorado, for almost 30 years. We are very lucky to be riding out the pandemic and wildfires relatively unscathed. I write software for Google but don’t commute to Boulder for now. Our kids graduated from college last spring and are starting careers or grad school remotely. If you are ever in Northern Colorado, come visit.”

Jack Sylvia says he feels like a “hermit” working from home, and actually looks forward to returning to the office. His two sons have graduated from Dartmouth, and daughter Michaela Sylvia ’19 is a sophomore at Duke. Jack and his wife, Eileen, have been on several bike excursions in Europe in recent years.

Please send your notes to the correspondent; they are a great way to stay in touch. Our next reunion will be five long years from now (or, 10 since the last one).

1982 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Holly Malkasian Staudinger

914-925-2340 hollyamalkasian@gmail.com

1983 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Nancy Sarkis Corcoran

nlsc3@me.com I hope all my classmates are surviving these tough times. Hopefully, better days are ahead for all.

Steve and I have enjoyed our time with our son, Holden Corcoran ’18, as he was home for two months for the holidays. By the time this is published, he will be done with junior year at Georgetown. He plans to stay in D.C. for a summer internship. We miss him like crazy but we’re so happy he’s enjoying his journey. I had outdoor lunch with Kim Huskins this fall.

Although she lost her dad last March, she’s doing well and looks great. It’s always fun to catch up with Nobles friends.

It was great to hear from John Montgomery, who sent

this update about his kids: “Sam Montgomery ’18 has been attending Middlebury remotely (although on-campus was an option). He was able to fashion a good experience this fall . . . continuing to do fishing charters on the weekends in the early fall, and then spending a month in Hawai’i . . . ‘studying’ remotely. After spending the last two years in San Francisco working as a software engineer, Max Montgomery ’14 packed up his things to move back east. Max is a lieutenant in the Army Reserves and will be training in Georgia before being deployed next summer. I joined him for the drive cross country, which was really fun. As I’m sure many of our classmates have experienced, a silver lining to this pandemic has been the opportunity to ride things out with family. It has been nice to have extended time with Max, Morgen Montgomery ’15 and Sam—in the same place at the same time.

Before heading south from Massachusetts to Georgia, Max spent some time in Cohasset visiting our classmate Jeff Schwartz. It has been really comforting to remain connected to so many of our classmates over the years, but it is especially gratifying to see my kids maintain their own relationships with them as well.”

1984 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Christine Todd

christinetodd@me.com

1985 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Neil Bleicken

neil.bleicken@gmail.com

1986 CLASS CORRESPONDENTS

Heather Markey

617-365-3836 hsmarkey@icloud.com Jessica Tyler

781-934-6321 tylerjessica@me.com Eliza Kelly Beaulac

703-476-4442 embeaulac@verizon.net

1987 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Emily Gallagher Byrne

781-721-4444 egbyrne@verizon.net Elise Gustafson

elise_gustafson@yahoo.com Here are some thoughts from Darryl Sterling’s brother, Ian Sterling ’86, immediately after Darryl’s passing: “Yesterday, my brother, Darryl Christian Sterling, passed away at Punta Pacifica hospital in Panama City, Panama, due to pulmonary complications related to systemic lupus, a preexisting condition with which he was diagnosed at the age of 13. He was 51 years old.

“My parents, Harry and Diana, were able to see Darryl, awake, on Monday after receiving one-time clearance to enter the hospital. Due to Covid restrictions, they were not permitted to enter the hospital after that. Fortunately, because the hospital is only five minutes away from my parents’ apartment, Darryl’s doctor was able to make ‘house calls’ on Thursday and Friday to provide an update on his condition.

“We know that Darryl was on a respirator and sedated for most of the week, but we don’t have a firsthand account of his status during the hospital stay. This heinous Covid situation prevented my parents from seeing him, even asleep, in his final days and hours.

“Darryl, you are a wonderful person with a truly positive outlook on life that everyone should envy and emulate. You remained strong and resolute, notwithstanding the lupus that wreaked havoc on your body and mind for decades. We love you and will always remember you.

“Not to be preachy (but here I go anyway!), but in these early days of 2021, I’d encourage you all to make one New Year’s resolution: Be grateful and thankful for everything you have and cherish now—your family, your partners and spouses, your authentic friendships, your physical and mental well-being, the fact that you might have a college education or an advanced degree, your not-so-ideal job, your home, the fact that you eat at least three meals a day and have choices to boot, the fact that you can go for a walk, a swim or a bike ride. I could go on, but you get the idea. . . .

“Darryl, I don’t need to say ‘rest in peace’ because I am certain that you are now truly at peace. I love you, bro!”

1988 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Sasha Leland

sasha@thelelands.com Tim Russell writes, “Last year I switched jobs and now run the

Members of the Class of 1988 on a Zoom call celebrating David Aznavorian’s birthday

international division of Savvas Learning—we’re the ones who make the math, science and English textbooks used at Nobles and schools around the world. The pandemic has shut down all international travel, so I’ve been loving idyllic life on our farm in Southern Pines, North Carolina, surrounded by my wife, Natasha, the two kids, four horses, three dogs and two cats. If anyone is coming to Pinehurst to play golf, be sure to look me up!”

Sasha Leland says, “Like so many Americans in 2020, we hunkered down at home, remaining content to work on our digital marketing business and walk our dog. Erin spent many hours sewing and donating masks.

I spent many hours renovating a small family A-frame in New Hampshire. And our garden went bonkers again, keeping us both busy. (For some reason, our peach tree decided to almost pull itself apart with all the fruit it produced!) We enjoyed a few socially distanced outdoor visits with David Gerber and his fam.

And I regularly (virtually) checked in with Jane Weintraub, who remains thrilled with her choice to move to Maine. But generally, it was a very quiet and solitary year for us; 2020 was a good time to be an introvert, but it was never more apparent that

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you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone. Very much looking forward to seeing more of everyone in 2021.”

David Aznavorian says, “Hope everyone in the class—and their families—are safe and well given everything going on. Between the pandemic and remote work, I’ve been spending a lot more time away from New Jersey and up in Massachusetts, getting in socially distanced runs with Curt Stevenson, lunch with Craig Pfannenstiehl and take-out dinner with Ben Snyder. Enjoyed an awesome 50th b-day Zoom surprise from many Nobles ’88ers, a welcomed respite from bingewatching Alf reruns and Season 2 of Cobra Kai.” Curt Stevenson writes: “I’ve been living in West Roxbury, and was getting to Nobles a lot pre-pandemic, as my younger two children are recent Nobles grads.

One silver lining of the Covid cloud is that I’ve spent more time than ever with some of our classmates via Zoom and text. I’ve been fortunate to meet up a couple of times during the pandemic with Dave ‘Az’ Aznavorian for a socially distant run.”

Marisa Zona says, “Grateful Jeff and I were lucky to escape the craziness in Chicago for most of 2020 on Lake Delavan in Wisconsin. Experienced my first flight of 2020 the day after Christmas (yes, I was geared up like a stormtrooper) to Turks & Caicos, where I completed my open-water dive scuba certification! We are planning to be in Vail, Colorado, for February and March of 2021 and will hopefully run into Nobles folks.

Stay safe and healthy!”

48 Nobles SPRING 2021

1989 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Rachel Spencer

917-921-5916 rachelwspencer@yahoo.com

1990 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

semester at Boston Children’s and found her passion for supporting pediatric cancer patients. She continued volunteering in the outpatient pediatric oncology clinic during her three years at Syracuse University. She got her master’s degree at Arizona State University and received an American Cancer Society Clinical Training Internship.

Lisa Donahue Rose

lrose90@nobles.edu

1993

1991

CLASS CORRESPONDENT

CLASS CORRESPONDENT

978-409-9444 sambjackson@hotmail.com

Amy Russell Farber

Sam Jackson

amy.farber.143@gmail.com

1992

1994 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Marni Fox Payne

Lynne Dumas Davis

mpayne@berkshirepartners.com

703-623-4211 lynnemddavis@gmail.com Sarah F. Kurker has a new publication titled “Effective Group Therapies for Young Adults Affected

by Cancer.” For the past 20 years, Sarah has worked in pediatric and adult oncology social work in Boston and Arizona. She has also been a faculty instructor at Arizona State University School of Social Work. She has published articles in various journals as well.

During her senior year at Nobles, Sarah did a volunteer

Sarah Kurker ’92

Happy New Year to the Class of ’94. I hope that everyone is staying healthy and happy. Sara-Mai Conway wrote in: “I’ll share some news! Like many, Covid shifted my work to the online space entirely, and now there’s no going back. I took advantage and finally executed on a permanent move to Mexico after two months of traveling the U.S. in an RV to visit family. I’m living in San Juanico, a small fishing village off the Pacific coast of Baja. There’s no cellphone service here, but the miracle of satellite internet keeps me working, and I’m surfing and teaching yoga in my downtime. Anyone who’s up for an adventure is more than welcome to visit! When the world is relatively Covid-safe again, I’ll be back to hosting yoga and meditation retreats.”

Annie Stephenson also sent an update: “Happy New Year,

all! Hard to believe we made it through the year! It wasn’t all a flaming garbage dump for my family and me—my boyfriend and I got engaged (twice), bought and renovated a house for our blended family of six, and managed to find the best possible balance of WFH and distance-learning life by spending more time outside in nature. Now living in the hills of Mill Valley, California, and 10 minutes from the beach, we bought a stand-up paddleboard and crab pots (two of which we promptly lost in big swells), and we feel so lucky that 2020 provided us with the time to slow down, connect with our kids, and explore all the gorgeous corners of Marin County. Our family has been blessed with good health thus far, and for that we are truly grateful! As a mother now I appreciate more than ever the way in which Nobles held space for its students in times of turmoil and did its best as a community to unravel the most challenging events of our time. (For me, I will always remember the Thursday morning assembly that went all day when the Gulf War broke out, and the day spent teasing out the complexities of racism and antiSemitism from viewing Schindler’s List.) We’ve spent much of this year as a family watching the coverage of the pandemic, the BLM movement, political unrest and the most recent insurrection at the Capitol from the comfort of our safe bubble, and as much as I wish my kids had an educational community like Nobles, we are committed more than ever to explore our own anti-racism education and take more action in the efforts to ensure justice and

equality prevail in 2021. Wishing everyone in the Nobles community health and happiness!”

1995 1996

zations. As I engage in practice coaching (including pro-bono and ‘low-bono’) to earn my coaching certification, I’m eager for connections and referrals!”

2000 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Lisa Marx Corn

Alex Slawsby

lisamarx@gmail.com

alex.slawsby@gmail.com

1997

2001

CLASS CORRESPONDENTS

CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Bobbi Oldfield Wegner

Lauren Kenney Murphy

617-980-1412 bobbiwegner@gmail.com

Lauren.kenney1@gmail.com

Jessie Sandell Achterhof

781-990-3353 jessie.achterhof@gmail.com

1998

Andrea Berberian Gardos writes: “Steve Gardos ’98 and I welcomed a baby boy, born on Christmas Day. Laszlo George Gardos joins his brother, Ozzie, and sisters, Lennox and Winslow. He shares his birthday with his dad!”

CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Dave Klivans

dave.liquid@gmail.com

2002 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

1999 CLASS CORRESPONDENTS

William N. Duffey III

617-893-1040 williamduffey@gmail.com

Stephanie Trussell Driscoll

stephdriscoll32@gmail.com Gabriela Herman

gabriela.herman@gmail.com Kristin Harrison writes: “‘Transition’ has been a prominent theme for me recently—transition into parenting and out of the institutional world of school leadership— for now at least! Professionally, I’m journeying into the world of leadership coaching and consulting with a focus on coaching leaders of schools and nonprofit organi-

The Class of 2002 had a great showing this go-around, kicking off with some exciting new additions: Tara (Mead) England shares: “My husband, son and I moved to Minneapolis from NYC two years ago. We welcomed a new little love to our quaranteam, Charlotte, in July!”

Kellen Benjamin and wife Jess welcomed a beautiful baby girl, Wesley “Wes” Yve Benjamin, at 9:02 p.m. on November 8, 2020.

Kellen serves as senior vice president, talent sales and marketing, at

Wasserman and spent many hours during the pandemic lockdown renovating their new home in Sag Harbor, New York. Continuing the big year for the women in Kellen’s family, his mother, Dr. Joan Wallace-Benjamin, published Leading a Life in Balance: Principles of Leadership from the Executive Suite to the Family Table, which can be purchased on her website: www. jwallace-benjaminconsulting.com.

Samantha (Strauss) Hanman continues to play a leadership role as board member of the Pink Agenda, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization committed to raising money for breast cancer research and care, as well as awareness of the disease among young professionals. Samantha was also appointed to Brimmer and May School’s board of visitors, which consists of a prominent group of former trustees, alumni, current and former parents, local community leaders, educators and friends.

She, husband Jon, and daughters Penelope and Eloise (along with proclaimed “first baby,” Tobey the dog) will be moving to a new home in Chestnut Hill soon, which they spent 2020 renovating.

John DiCamillo writes, “I’m still representing the southern transplants for Class of ’02 down in Atlanta, Georgia, and am grateful the onslaught of campaign ads is finally over. For the past few months, our full house has hosted a first-grade classroom, kindergarten classroom and nursery.

We hope that with my wife, Sara, completing her vaccine this month, it is the beginning of a new season.

I’ve recently joined a health care– focused software company within Deloitte and, should travel return to normal, will be visiting Boston

with some regularity. Would love to reconnect with some Nobles folks when that happens!”

Zach Foster got creative with a socially distanced Zoom New Year’s trivia game consisting of 50 home-grown questions. I (Billy Duffey) respectfully bowed out at the half-time break as my high score was deemed too high for sportsmanlike gameplay, which was both unfounded and defamatory. While on the topic of me, during the pandemic I’ve taken up various hobbies—many of which have proven unsuccessful (e.g., window gardening, extreme puzzling and others). I have, however, found great success in the category of adult paint-by-numbers.

Scott Johnson recently moved to Jupiter, Florida, and continues to work on his short game in between his finance deals and Japanese studies. He said he looks forward to inviting ’02 friends to his new place once travel opens up again with vaccinations.

Kristin Blundo Douglass, based in New York, is an equity partner and director of the strategic client group at TortoiseEcofin. Kristin manages the firm’s research relationships with key clients, including broker-dealers and institutional platforms. She is a member of the Sustainability & Impact Committee, focused on enhancing the ESG and impact framework for the firm and its thematic strategies. Kristin continues to serve as treasurer, executive board member and volunteer for Ice Hockey in Harlem, a non-profit youth organization focused on educational and athletic advancement.

And last, but certainly not least, Megan Markey recently left

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the cold winters of Brooklyn, New York, and has re-resettled gold rush style in sunny Los Angeles, along with her pitbull, Melvin. She invites Nobles friends to look her up when visiting the West Coast!

2003 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

For more than two years, the site has been meticulously crafted with historic materials as well as a new copper roof from the current Revere Copper Products Company now operating in Rome, New York.”

2004

Laura Marholin Garcia

CLASS CORRESPONDENT

laura.marholin@gmail.com

Carolyn Sheehan Wintner

Julianna Manzi recently started Names for Good, a customized bracelet business that donates 100 percent of proceeds to children’s charities. After becoming a new mom to Belle, 1, during the pandemic, she wanted to spread a little joy to others and began sending friends personalized bracelets. As the demand for the bracelets grew, she saw an opportunity to turn what was a creative hobby into a force for good in the world. For more, check out www.namesforgood.com.

Executive Chef Marc Sheehan, of Loyal Nine in Cambridge, just opened a new restaurant, Northern Spy, around the corner from Nobles at the Rolling Copper Mill along the Neponset River in Canton. It features classic New England cuisine made with locally sourced ingredients and is currently offering a focused familyfriendly menu for takeout and delivery only.

The building itself has a lot of historical relevance. From Northern Spy’s website: “Early American patriot Paul Revere founded the Revere Copper Company in Canton, in 1801. Today, settled along the Neponset River, Northern Spy inherits Revere’s striking brick Rolling Copper Mill.

50 Nobles SPRING 2021

781-801-3742 carolyn.wintner@gmail.com

2005 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Saul Gorman

617-447-3444 saul.gorman@gmail.com Kate Spelman married Sandra Butler on October 10, 2020, in an intimate ceremony with immediate family (because it’s a pandemic!) on Great East Lake in Maine.

2006 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

E.B. Bartels

ebandersenbartels@gmail.com Damn, ’06, you all have been busy.

Can’t let a pesky global pandemic keep you from kicking a$$ and taking names!

First, shout-out to Becky Barbrow and her husband, Mark, who welcomed their daughter, Sophie, on December 11, 2020. Becky wrote to me that Sophie “juuust missed being Mariel Novas’s birthday twin, unfortunately, but we are all healthy and couldn’t be happier!” Congrats, Becky!

Second, congratulations are also in order to Matt Salmon and

his wife, Ashley, who welcomed their daughter, Madison (Maddie) Mitchell Salmon, in November 2020. I hope you’re all doing well!

Third, Covid can’t stop the engagements! I am so happy for both Erin Greene and Julia Carn, who both got engaged in November, though, alas, not to each other. (I’ve made this joke before, haven’t I? Guys, I’ve been doing the class notes a long time. I’m running low on material.) Erin and her fiancé, Greg, got engaged on November 7, which also is Erin’s birthday and also happened to be the day that Biden was confirmed the winner of the election, so it was a pretty great day overall.

(Good job, Greg, coordinating all that!) Julia and her fiancé, Chris, got engaged on November 24 and are planning an October 2021 wedding while Julia dives into the second semester of her master’s.

(Casual, Julia!)

Fourth, everyone’s favorite harpist Krysten Keches has been teaching harp lessons on Zoom for the past 10 months! Krysten writes: “I’m planning to crash my parents’ porch for outdoor, socially distanced lessons in the spring. It’s been a challenge, but also a good learning experience, and I’m really proud of all my students (including faculty member Jen Hamilton) for making the best of the situation!”

Fifth, as always, Harry Aspinwall wrote in with some news to share: “My fiancée bought a house in Providence, Rhode Island, which we’re fixing up in between endless rounds of board games. Last year, my Netflix film The Sleepover came out, and I wrote and shot my own first feature, Banishment, which is being edited now, hopefully done

sometime in the spring.” (By the time you read these notes?!?)

Harry continues: “I’ve also been keeping a diary since January of last year. At the end of January, I’m going to California for five weeks to be in a TV show.” (By the time you read this, that will be in the past.)

Harry finishes: “Otherwise I have no concrete plans, but tentative hopes that everything will be safe enough to go back to Scotland and do some other traveling this year and see friends.”

Sixth, did you hear the most awesome lady ever, Loris Toribio, eloped on New Year’s Eve?! Congratulations to Loris and her nowhusband RJ Ferguson! The bride wore an extremely stylish white pantsuit that I am 100 percent obsessed with.

Seventh, Hannah Mauck Sokol very kindly purchased her dog, Mary, her very own house in West Roxbury. (Hannah, her husband, Greg, and their daughter, Nell, will also be allowed to live there.)

Faculty member Alden Mauck has kindly been helping Hannah and Greg paint. (Mary refuses to assist with any home improvement work—how rude!)

Finally, did you know Caroline Holland runs the Instagram account @dorothyzbornakfashion? The more you know!

2008 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Michael Polebaum

mpolebaum08@nobles.edu Greetings, friends! I hope that this issue of Nobles magazine finds you well. A lot has happened since the last issue of class notes, and it should be noted that I’m writing these notes five days prior to the inauguration of President Biden. I can only hope that our country is in a better place than we find ourselves right now in mid-January.

First and foremost, a huge shout-out to all of our classmates who have been working in health care over the past year as we continue to endure this global pandemic. There are many classmates who have been doing phenomenal work saving lives and helping their communities. Talk about leadership for the public good.

2020 wasn’t all bad. Julia Macalaster gave birth to her son, Winship “Win” Frederick Leisman, on October 30 at the UVM Medical Center. Julia reports, “Win is a true Vermonter and already loves long walks through the snow and skiing!” Julia and her husband, Andrew, have been quarantining in Stowe for the past year but hope to return to their home in Williamsburg, New York, by the time this

magazine is in your hands.

Sharing in the excellent baby news, Ben Norment and his wife, Cyndal, welcomed their beautiful daughter, Elliot “Elle” Danielle Norment, on January 4. Just a few months earlier, Ben and Cyndal moved from their home in Marshfield, Massachusetts, down south to Charlotte, North Carolina. While this correspondent will certainly miss their company in the chilly Northeast, I know that I will soon be jealous of the fact that Ben still has yet to pull out a winter jacket.

Jen Rappaport Coassin gave birth to her second child, the beautiful Esme, in April 2020. I’m sure her older sister, Siena, just loves the new company. She writes: “Hi, class! Hope everyone is doing well during these unusual times. I had my second daughter, Esme, in April 2020! Was actually an oddly good time, as most of the first weeks, mamas are at home nesting with the new babe. I am a social worker so have been fortunate that I could work remotely and then eventually resume in-person counseling. I primarily work with teens, though my practice spans the ages. I am located in Fairfield, Connecticut.

Thinking of you all!”

Sarah Plumb Dornak and her husband, Brad, welcomed their first son, Robert James “RJ” Dornak, on March 14, 2020!

2007 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Kat Sargent

katharine.sargent@gmail.com

Stay connected ■

Congratulations to Anne Sholley and her husband, Peter Erhartic, who welcomed their daughter, Marlow, on October 13, 2020, in New York.

■ ■

Send us your news and photos: www.nobles.edu/community/ graduates/submit-a-class-note/.

Follow Nobles grads on Facebook (@NoblesGrads) and Instagram (@nobleandgreenoughgrads).

Connect with Nobles graduates through our networking and directory platform at noblesgraduates.com.

Chris Steele and Stephanie welcomed their second daughter, Lucy Rita Steele, to the world on January 4, 2021. Lucy’s 2-year-old sister, Reese, is taking her big sister responsibilities very seriously!

Everyone’s good friend Rick Goode seems to be living the ideal life with his wonderful wife, Hannah, in Brookline. Loving being a father to the super-adorable Colin. Rick also started a new job at Cirkul in Watertown. Rick says, “We make sugar-free flavor cartridges that attach to a water bottle, to help people drink more water and eliminate the need for single-use plastic bottles.”

If you can believe it, 2 percent of our class currently lives on Martha’s Vineyard. Kelsey Grousbeck Cosby and Emma MacDonald both live on the idyllic island. While Kelsey has been on the Island for two Christmases (because that’s how you should be measuring time), Emma moved to MV at the beginning of the pandemic. Emma reports that she “has unsuccessfully been raising six chickens (edit: five after one wandered off) on Martha’s Vineyard since relocating from Brooklyn in March 2020.” She continues to work in the music industry with artists including Raffi, the Woggels, and Lauv (only one of those is true). She adds, however, that “really these chickens are what requires most of my brainpower on any given day. In retrospect, I wish I had listened to my wife and just gotten a second puppy.”

On the other side of the Island, Kelsey reports that she “has not left the house since March 2020.”

I’m pretty sure she’s watched enough 30 Rock at this point

to understand my Woggels reference above.

Tim Nelson has ventured west and settled in San Francisco back in June. While he’s living with his all-star wife, Alex, he seems to be in need of friends, as he has asked me to mention that he would love to connect with any Nobles grads in the Bay Area. Might I suggest, Tim, that you utilize the wonderful Nobles graduate website, noblesgraduates.com, to find all the friends you could ever want!

Congratulations to Taylor Cazeault, who writes, “After rescheduling our wedding twice due to the pandemic, we decided to get married at my husband’s family home in Chestertown, Maryland. It was a beautiful day on the Chester River and immediate family celebrated with us. We are planning a larger reception next year (fingers crossed!).”

Hagghai Kipsat relocated back home to Kenya in late 2019.

He enjoyed his time in the United States—from high school at Nobles through graduate school and working in New York City and Chicago. He is currently working with the United Nations in Nairobi.

I’ll wrap up by sharing the note that Abram Dawson sent along, as I think we all share the sentiment: “Looking forward to a (hopefully) saner 2021!” I do truly hope that the ensuing months between me typing these notes and you reading them are full of sanity and good health. I do hope that I can see you all soon. Once we are past this pandemic, Nobles will once again throw open its doors, and I’ll be here to welcome you home.

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2009 2009 CLASS CORRESPONDENTS

Maria Montes

mcmontes14@gmail.com Liz Rappaport

617-413-6070 lizrap21@gmail.com George Tall writes: “I’m engaged!

I proposed to Emma Sarkisyan this Christmas morning in our apartment in San Francisco.

Here’s a photo of the two of us above. on New Year’s Eve. Emma is a mergers and acquisitions lawyer at Wilson Sonsini law firm, and I’m still at DoorDash (which acquired lvl5, the company that Andrew Kouri ’10 and I started).”

Maria Montes says, “I moved to Austin, Texas, in 2016 with my now-fiancé, Alec Sibilia. We bought our first home in 2018 and live with our two pups, Mila and Luca. We got engaged Christmas Day 2019 and will have an intimate nuptials ceremony on Cape Cod in 2021. The larger ceremony will take place in Austin in 2022 due to Covid-19.

52 Nobles SPRING 2021

“Alec grew up in Reading, Massachusetts, and is a software engineer for a startup in NYC. I recently completed a sustainable business graduate program from the University of Virginia’s McEntire School of Commerce and will be working at Sprout, IT recycling software for enterprise companies, starting in March 2021. One of my favorite parts of a challenging 2020 was our weekly Bachelorette Zoom dates with Melina Chadbourne and Hannah Roman Pasterczyk. We’re continuing the tradition this year.”

Hanna Atwood writes: “I have moved to Portland, Maine, and am really loving the community here and having access to outdoor adventures at my fingertips! I have been coaching at a local run studio (fit with treadmill ‘run pods’ to keep everyone germ-free and as safe as possible when running indoors), which has been a great way for me to connect with other active-oriented folks like myself. I have also started working with a new organization called the Contentment Foundation, a foundation that develops and implements well-being curricula for

Left to right: Sarah Elizabeth Mitchell ’09, photographed in Venice, California; George Tall ’09 got engaged to Emma Sarkisyan on Christmas morning; Maria Montes ’09, Melina Chadbourne ’09 and Hannah Roman Pasterczyk ’09 on Zoom.

teachers and students in schools around the world. With my experience as an educator, I am grateful to have this opportunity to help integrate indestructible well-being tools into the educational space, especially during this time when meaningful connection is needed more than ever.”

Sarah Mitchell survived the pandemic both personally and professionally as an actor in Los Angeles in 2020 (despite widespread production shutdowns mandated by the government and the guilds due to the threat of Covid-19).

She looks forward to receiving the vaccine and returning to working on set and attending gatherings such as festival screenings in 2021.

Learn more about Sarah and follow along with her journey through the entertainment industry at SarahElizabethMitchell.com.

Cynthia Rivas writes: “I am currently living in Brockton, Massachusetts, with my husband, Aldrich, and my 2-year-old son, Ezekiel. This will be my second year serving on the School Committee of Brockton. I was able to create and currently chair the Diversity, Race, Equity and Inclu-

sion Subcommittee, where our main goal this year is to create policies to make curriculum and the instruction more culturally relevant and appropriate for the students of Brockton and to ensure all students are getting a rigorous education. This is my fourth year teaching in the Boston Public Schools. We started fully remote, and we have been transitioning into a hybrid model. Experiencing the aftermath of Covid-19, and how it continues to affect us all, especially Black and brown communities. This year I continue to devote myself in fighting toward racial justice and equity by teaching my seniors a math seminar class with a social justice twist. I continue to work in the Nobles Achieve program, which I have done for the past four summers, and I currently sit on the executive director hiring board, working hard to find the person who will continue this awesome work at Nobles!”

2010 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Tori Goyette

tgoyette10@gmail.com

Tori Goyette got a dog, Beacon (See photo opposite).

Chris Pratt is crushing it as an uncle and finishing his master’s at Wesleyan.

Patrece Joseph is a Ph.D. candidate at Tufts University with an expected graduation of May 2021. She uses community-engaged methods to understand adolescents’ health behaviors and help them build skills for advocating for better health for themselves and their communities.

Willy Bliss got a dog, Polly.

(See photo right.)

Dori Rahbar interned for the New York Attorney General at the Bureau of Internet and Technology and is now in the 2L year at Columbia Law. Darcy Banco was named a chief resident at NYU next year and is generally crushing it as a health care worker during a pandemic. Shout-out to all of the other amazing health care workers in 2010!

Iesha Caisey is serving as the school counselor for International High School at Langley Park in Maryland. She has led her students through a turbulent year. More than 95 percent of students are either immigrants, refugees or asylees, and many are still adjusting to life, school and their surroundings in the United States. Just under a quarter of students are newcomers who have been in the United States for less than a year. While the majority of students are Spanish speakers, this program will serve students from more than 20 countries.

Despite that, her seniors have been incredibly resilient, with 60 percent of the class applying to college, bringing in more than $2 million in scholarships after the early-action college deadline.

Nick Shoelson started working at WHOOP and got a kitty, Randy.

(See couples costume photo below.)

Mollie Young and Mark Hourihan welcomed a baby! See photo on page 59.

Denna Laing writes, “In February 2020, I moved to Louisville, Kentucky, to participate in a clinical trial. Due to Covid-19, I did not have my surgery until June, where they implanted an electric stimulator on my spine. Surgery went well, and I have completed 108 of 160 sessions so far. My sessions focus on blood pressure regulation, standing, and activating all the muscles used for standing.”

2016

2019

CLASS CORRESPONDENTS

CLASS CORRESPONDENTS

Sabrina Rabins

Cyan Jean

srabins@gmail.com

cjean040@gmail.com

Mariana Vega

Ally Guerrero

vegamariana612@gmail.com

alessandra.guerrero@bc.edu

2017

2020

CLASS CORRESPONDENT

CLASS CORRESPONDENTS

Harry Sherman

Drew Barry

harry74sherman@gmail.com

andrew.t.barry.24@dartmouth.edu

2018

Hailey Brown

heb4@williams.edu

CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Jill Radley

2011

jillradley22@gmail.com

CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Katie Puccio

508-446-0726 krpooch@gmail.com

2012 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Coco Woeltz

ccwoeltz2@gmail.com

2013 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Caroline Thayer

carolinejthayer@gmail.com

2014 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Alexandra Charron

alexandra.l.charron@gmail.com

2015 CLASS CORRESPONDENT

Natalie Hession

2010 Clockwise from top left: Willy Bliss ’10 with his new dog, Polly; Nick Shoelson ’10 in costume with his new cat, Randy; Tori Goyette ’10 with her dog, Beacon.

Natalie.a.hession@gmail.com

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in memoriam Louis W. Cabot ’39 Louis W. Cabot ’39, former president and chairman of Cabot Corp., passed away March 5, 2021, in St. George, Maine, at age 99.

Cabot attended Noble and Greenough School and graduated from Fountain Valley School in Colorado before he attended Harvard College. He graduated from Harvard in 1943 and then served in the U.S. Navy’s V-7 program as an aeronautical engineer. When he returned home from WWII, he graduated with honors from Harvard Business School before going to work for Cabot Corp., the specialty chemicals and materials company founded by his grandfather.

Cabot’s first role in the family company after business school was as a laborer in a carbon black plant in Texas. Eventually, he was brought into the executive ranks of the company and moved to England to open a carbon black plant, which was the first facility in England built as part of the Marshall Plan to renew Europe’s post-WWII economic prospects.

In 1960, at the age of 39, Cabot was named president of Cabot Corp. Under his leadership, annual sales increased from $27 million to $1.4 billion, according to his family, and as president, he took the family business public.

Cabot was a former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and was a member of numerous boards, including those of Arthur D. Little, Wang Laboratories, New England Telephone and Telegraph, Owens-Corning Fiberglas and Penn Central Railroad. A passionate believer in education and access to high-quality education for all, he was a former board chairman of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the National Council for Financial Aid to Education. He was also a former member of the Harvard University Board of Overseers. In addition, he led a group of corporate executives who pushed for more financial support for leading private institutions.

In 1986, Cabot stepped down as chair-

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man of Cabot Corp. and served on the Defense Secretary’s Commission on Base Realignment and Closure, formed in 1988 to recommend for realignment and closure of U.S. military installations. Previously, he was a member of the President’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Defense Management, created in 1985 by President Ronald Reagan.

After his retirement from Cabot Corp. he began chairing the Brookings Institution board of trustees. He was determined to raise public awareness for Brookings in hopes of increasing donations to the think tank and strengthen its work.

In 1997, he married Mabel Brandon Cabot. “Humor was one of his great charms, but it also was a mechanism to get consensus,” reflected Mrs. Cabot. “It also worked in his family, and it was a family with lots of laughter and lots of teamwork and pride.”

She went on to say, “He didn’t change gears.

What you saw is what you got, and it was a warm, generous, friendly man who was genuinely interested in you.”

Cabot is survived by his wife, Mabel; his daughters, Helen, Anne, and Amanda; his sons, James and Mithran; a brother, Robert; a sister, Linda; and eight grandchildren.

Nathaniel Cushing Nash IV ’41 Nathaniel Cushing Nash IV ’41 passed away peacefully on December 28, 2020, at age 98.

At Nobles, he was a member of the football squad and rowed crew. He was also in the Glee Club and Science Club. His Classbook entry stated, “We have no doubt that Nick will find, both in college and later in life, as many true friends as he has here. His pleasantness and affability have made him into a man with whom it would be hard not to get along.”

Born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Nash entered Harvard College in the fall of 1941 after graduating from Nobles. Like so many others in the Greatest Generation, he left Harvard during his sophomore year and enlisted in the U.S. Army. After basic training, Nash landed on the beaches of

Normandy just after D-Day as a battlefield replacement. He was then assigned to the 197th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion, where he served until the conclusion of the war.

Nash participated in the campaigns of Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes and Central Europe, and was one of the first American soldiers to enter a liberated Paris. He was tasked in Paris with placing antiaircraft guns in position at the airport in case the enemy returned with a surprise air attack.

Nash was also in one of the first groups of American soldiers to enter the concentration camp in Buchenwald, Germany, where he provided aid to the abandoned prisoners.

When WWII ended, he stayed in Germany for several months, serving in the U.S. Army of Occupation. He was discharged from active duty with the rank of 1st Lt. but was recalled to active service again during the Korean War. Nash returned home after WWII and resumed his studies at Harvard. During this time, he met his wife, Caroline Barker, who was a graduate research student at Harvard.

In 1948 they were married and enjoyed 61 wonderful years of marriage together before Caroline’s passing in 2009.

Professionally, Nash spent most of his career in management positions in the accounting department of New England Telephone. He retired from there in 1982.

A passionate environmentalist, Nash established and served as chairman of a town Conservation Commission while living in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. He believed strongly that we are all custodians of our planet and was concerned about the dangers of DDT being used in the environment. In line with his love of the outdoors, he was profoundly interested in birds, following new species far and wide and through all weather conditions to add them to his list.

He meticulously documented his sightings in numerous volumes of personal journals and was a licensed bird-bander. He was also an excellent photographer, avid tennis player and gardener.

Nash will be remembered as a quintessential gentleman with a charming, polite and gentle way about him. His warm and caring nature led him to place concern for others above himself. He had a superb command of the English language, which he used skillfully to showcase his quick wit and generous sense of humor. He kept active and curious, and maintained an enthusiasm for life right to the end.

He is survived by his daughter, Deborah Molander; daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Nash; five grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; and a step-great-granddaughter.

Samuel Stickney Hall III ’42 Samuel Stickney Hall III ’42 passed away at age 95. At Nobles, he played football, hockey and baseball. He was also a member of the Dramatic Club and on the Classbook committee. His Classbook entry stated, “Yet after all of these [athletic] accomplishments have been dimmed by the passing years, we will still remember the fine, laughing Sam, interested in everyone and everything, and we will be proud of the high moral standard of personal integrity which he has set for each one of us.”

Born in Montclair, New Jersey, Hall graduated from Nobles in 1942 and Harvard College in 1944, having participated in the accelerated naval ROTC program. In WWII, he served as an ensign in the Pacific.

At Harvard, he met his wife, Ruth Sutherland, and they were married in 1946. In 1949, he returned to Harvard and obtained his MBA. Settling in Rochester, New York, he worked in a variety of executive capacities for Edwards Department Store, Security Trust Company and Wilmorite Corp. Hall also served on the boards of the Rochester School for the Deaf and the Baden Street Settlement. In addition, he was president of the vestry at St. Paul’s Church.

In 1973, Hall and his wife purchased a women’s retail clothing store, changed its name to Reed-Kent and moved the business

into a building they had built on the historic Erie Canal. They ran the store together until 1983, when they sold it to Talbots Inc. Hall is survived by three of his four children, Stewart Hall, Charlotte Jacobstein and Cathy Davis; eight grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.

Robert Gould Shaw IV ’47 Robert Gould Shaw IV ’47 passed away at the age of 92 on February 9, 2021, following a short illness. Shaw was born in Boston in 1928 and grew up in Tuxedo Park, New York, as well as in New York City, and on family farms in Boxford and Hamilton, Massachusetts. At Nobles, “Bob” was a member of the football, hockey, track and crew squads, as well as a member of the wrestling team. His Classbook entry stated, “Bob’s utter peace of mind has made him an extremely popular member of the class, and we know that his lightheartedness will win him many friends everywhere.”

His father, Alexander Shaw ’24, also attended Nobles, as well as his two uncles, Louis Shaw ’26 and Gould Shaw ’22. Shaw credits former headmaster Eliot Putnam with his chance to attend Trinity College; after graduation in 1947, Putnam asked “Bobby” to stop in Hartford on his train trip south to see his good friend George Funston, Trinity College president. Shaw matriculated three months later and graduated in 1951.

Shaw met the love of his life, Cass, at the debutante party of Lee Bouvier, sister of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. He was so taken that evening with Cass that he (uncharacteristically) left the young lady with whom he had arrived at the party in order to take a late-night swim with her, followed by a dawn baseball game and scrambled eggs. Cass and Bob were married in Cold Spring Harbor in July 1952. After a honeymoon in Bermuda, they moved to Tuxedo Park. In 2017, they celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary.

Shaw launched his professional career as a security analyst for Fiduciary Trust Company and later joined Lionel D. Edie &

Co., where he served as a vice president and investment counselor until 1976. He spent the following two decades as a volunteer docent at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, specializing in American Art, the Great Masters and French Impressionism.

Shaw was also an avid sportsman and worked with his wife breeding and training Springer Spaniels for field trials. He enjoyed upland game hunting, competitive skeet and trap, and took every opportunity to ballroom dance with Cass. They taught their four young children how to dance in their living room to recordings of the Lester Lanin Orchestra.

He is predeceased by his wife, Cass Ledyard Shaw (née Ruxton), and is survived by his sister; three sons and one daughter; seven grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

Harald A. Smedal ’54 Harald A. Smedal ’54 passed away November 5, 2020, at his home in Brooksville, Massachusetts, surrounded by his family, at age 84. At Nobles, he played ice hockey. “He is known for his bright smile and cheerful point of view, which seems to be ageless,” recalled his Classbook profile.

After graduating from Boston University with a B.S. in political science, Smedal entered the Navy as a naval aviator, flight instructor and safety officer. He proudly served his country for eight and a half years.

While stationed on Midway Island, Smedal often tracked Santa’s flight on Christmas Eve for children and took hundreds of photos of the gooney birds on the island.

Upon leaving the Navy, Smedal joined Pan American Airlines as a navigator. He particularly enjoyed the flights that took him to Buenos Aires, Brazil, where he enjoyed both the wonderful food and warm people. After a number of years with Pan Am, his minister pointed him in a different life and professional direction. Smedal was encouraged to pursue his Master’s of Divinity at Bangor Theological Seminary. As a seminary student, he began serving the West Brooksville Congregational

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Church and Saunders Memorial Church in Little Deer Isle, Maine. He remained a minister after ordination in the UCC for 30 years. After retiring from the ministry, Smedal worked as a teaching aide at George Stevens Academy and Bucksport High School, where he enjoyed working with the students and getting the chance to share his life experiences.

Smedal had a wide range of passions and hobbies, from gardening and athletics to politics and religion. He enjoyed digging in the dirt and planting acres of vegetables, fending off deer and porcupines, and selling his produce to local markets and restaurants.

Sports played a large role throughout his life, and one of his favorite jobs was parking cars at Fenway—where he would proudly boast that he never scratched a fender. He will be remembered as a kind and gentle soul who was always open and accepting of others and different perspectives.

Smedal is survived by his wife, Susan; his children, Gregory, Mari, Matthew and Katrina; and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Robert Chapman Foster III ’54 Robert Chapman Foster III ’54 passed away on December 30, 2020, at age 84. At Nobles, he was a member of the Dramatic Club. His Classbook profile stated, “Although he hasn’t been the leading star on the athletic field, he has given his best at all times, typifying the traditional Nobles spirit.”

Chapman grew up in Newtonville, Massachusetts, and summered in Ocean Point, Maine, where his grandparents were among the initial summer “rusticators” of the 1890s.

During these summers, Chapman would sail the waters of Boothbay, honing his great lifelong love of the sea.

Enrolling in Bowdoin College after Nobles, he left college prematurely to join the U.S. Navy. In the Navy, he served as a naval aviator and was deployed to the island of Malta off the Italian coast. There, he was badly injured as a passenger in an off-duty flight, and his injuries led him to cut short his flying career.

In 1994, he completed his studies at Bowdoin.

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Professionally, Chapman was a leader in the world of advertising and was one of the original so-called Mad Men. As an advertising executive, he represented several magazines in the 1960s and 1970s, including Life, Time and Sports Illustrated. His work led him to CBS-TV, where he navigated the network into the cultural niche that magazines occupied at the time. He authored two books, Ad Man: True Stories from the Golden Age of Advertising, and Cadet, a book about his adventures as a Navy pilot.

After stepping away from advertising, Chapman served as marketing director for the Boothbay Harbor Shipyard, where he brought in significant restoration projects, including the 1929 Belle Adventure designed

by William Fife and built in Scotland, and the replica ship Bounty, from the Marlon Brando movie Mutiny on the Bounty.

In 1996, Chapman settled full-time in East Boothbay, Maine, at his beloved Grimes Cove Farm. In 2018, he moved to Tucson, Arizona.

Chapman was an adventurer and lover of the sea, enjoying many ocean passages, islands, people and cultures. He will be remembered for his passion for art and painting, having studied both in Rome and Paris.

He is survived by his wife of 30 years, Janet; his four children, Robert Chapman Foster IV, Jonathan Hartwell Foster, Abigail Foster Howard and Priscilla Foster Pritham; five grandchildren; and one great-granddaughter.

Charles Gordon Sprague Jr. ’55 Charles Gordon Sprague Jr. ’55 passed away January 10, 2020, two days before what would have been his 83rd birthday.

Born in Portland, Maine, “Charlie” spent many childhood summers on the beaches of Prouts Neck with his large extended family that included 17 cousins. Before entering Nobles, he attended the Fessenden School.

Sprague married Louise Higgins and lived out in coastal California before returning to the Boston suburbs, where their daughter Stacey was born. His second marriage to Lynn Earl ended after the sudden and tragic death

of their daughter, Samantha, in a car accident.

At this time, Sprague moved to the island of Mallorca in Spain and became the coowner of a bar. It was there that he earned his nickname, Charlie Putte. In Mallorca, he met Mie Luf, and together they had their son, Juan.

Sprague, Mie and Juan traveled and lived in a number of different places around the world, including Spain, Denmark, Wales, Portugal and Mexico. Eventually, in 1976, Sprague returned to the United States and made his home in North Conway, New Hampshire.

As a resident of Mount Washington Valley and a successful business investor, Sprague was committed to improving the region, generously contributing to programs and facilities that were most meaningful to him, including the Gibson Center, the Community Center, Memorial Hospital and Pine Tree School.

Later in life, he divided his time between homes in New Hampshire and Florida before paring his worldly possessions down to two duffel bags and moving to Costa Rica. There, he spent the last four years of his life enjoying the landscape and helping others.

His full life was marked by friends and adventures at every turn. He will be remembered fondly for his quick wit, charm, lack of convention and wonderful storytelling abilities.

He is survived by his daughter, Stacey; his sister, Harriet Skapinsky; and his two grandchildren, Dylan and Isabel.

Robert S. Taylor ’55 Robert S. Taylor ’55 passed away November 2, 2020, at Old Town Farm in Peterborough, New Hampshire, surrounded by family. At Nobles, “Bob” played football and hockey, and was on the crew squad. He was also a member of the Choir and Glee Club.

Taylor was born in Boston and raised in Millis, Massachusetts. After graduating from Nobles, he went on to attend the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

He served as a director at the Garber Driving School in Boston before settling on his family’s farm, Old Town Farm. It was here that he would raise his family and take over Old Town Farm Antiques.

Taylor will be remembered for his kind and caring nature, always lending a helping hand to those in need. He was a true family man in every sense of the word and especially relished the time he was able to spend in his later years with his beloved wife, Carolyn, and children and grandchildren at Old Town Farm.

He is survived by his wife, Carolyn; his daughter, Lisa Taylor; his sons, Bill Taylor and Bob Taylor Jr.; his brother, Ben Taylor ’52; his sister, Laurie Gardos; six grandchildren; and one great-grandson.

Nicholas Benedict Soutter ’59 Nicholas Benedict Soutter ’59 passed away November 22, 2020, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, after a brief illness. At Nobles, Soutter was a strong athlete, playing football, hockey and baseball. He was also a member of the Debating Club and received the Class V Improvement Prize.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Soutter grew up on Bridge Street in Dedham just a few hundred yards from the back gate of Nobles and within walking distance of Motley Pond. He spent countless hours in the winter on the pond mastering ice hockey, and he would later become the starting goalie for the 1959 Nobles varsity hockey team. In the fall and spring, respectively, he played football and baseball at Nobles.

Soutter’s classmate, Bill Cutler ’59, remembers Soutter’s athletic talents and competitive spirit, writing, “Nick was my catcher senior year. He was behind the plate when we beat Milton 5–4. He insisted on maximum effort and total commitment on every pitch. He made everyone better through his own effort.”

Soutter’s mother, Mary Soutter, was his biggest supporter and a constant presence at Nobles games, both home and away. Mrs. Soutter also pretended not to notice when he snuck out of their Bridge Street home to go to Bruins games on school nights. Mrs. Soutter instilled in her son a dedication to the equality of women, which Soutter became known for in his professional and personal life.

Soutter’s impact at Nobles was not purely made on the athletic fields. His friends and classmates recall his love of debate and his quick wit during their Nobles years. In his senior year, Soutter and classmate John Hitz ’59 faced off in a debate about immigration.

“As I recall, I was on the pro side, and Nick on the contrary,” writes Hitz. “I produced a pro-immigration quote from Herbert Hoover; he produced one from Hoover contra. I did not think to ask which Hoover and lost the debate. His quote was from J. Edgar.”

His five years at Nobles left an indelible mark on his life, largely because of the relationships he formed with many of the faculty and the support they provided him. Soutter’s Latin teacher, Mr. Bird, was one of these teachers. Soutter lacked academic confidence, and Bird’s enthusiasm for him gave him the encouragement he needed. Passing him in the hallways, Bird would shout, “Hiya, Soots!” Mr. Bird helped Soutter uncover his extraordinary gift for languages. Later in life, Soutter would go on to master Latin, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German and Russian.

After Nobles, Soutter went on to attend Harvard College. The summer before his freshman year at Harvard, he attended an intensive Russian program at Choate Academy and then traveled to the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. He later traveled to Paris, where he gave tours of the Louvre. Soutter was not employed by a tourist company, and he had no particular expertise in French art, but he earned enough money through these tours to travel to Germany.

One of his most memorable anecdotes came during this visit to Germany. At the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, he had a long conversation with a Russian guard who had not seen his family in three years. The guard agreed that Soutter could cross into East Germany to drive a well-known loop of the Eastern autobahn, but he said that he would time Soutter to ensure he made no stops on the Eastern side. Upon his return, the guard let out a low whistle. Soutter had broken the standing speed record for the trip—obliterating any concern that he could

have engaged in nefarious pro-American spy-craft in East Germany.

After graduating from Harvard, Soutter earned his J.D. from Boston College Law School and dedicated himself to the practice of litigation. He opened an office as a solo general practitioner in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and, for the next 20 years, represented clients of every background, language and legal need, from civil litigation to murder trials. He was passionate about an individual’s right to a vigorous defense and represented many pro-bono, non-English-speaking criminal defendants.

In 1998, Soutter moved to Colorado Springs with his wife, Diane Reed. There he offered language lessons for free to anyone, anywhere in the world, who wanted to learn.

He taught more than 20 students, from elementary school to graduate school, Spanish, French, German, Latin and Russian. He taught in-person to local Colorado students, and via Skype for students as far away as Boston, Spain and India.

He will be remembered by his students for his wisdom and humor. He gave each of them the gift of his tenacity and optimism, his pragmatism, and his enthusiasm for their futures. Soutter lived a life of great adventure and spirit, and he did many remarkable things. Perhaps his most extraordinary skill was his ability to take a deep interest in every person he encountered. He was a great talker, but he was also a profound listener.

Hitz described Soutter, writing, “Nick Soutter is someone you don’t forget even if you haven’t seen him in 61 years. In our staid class of 1959, Nick stood out for his imagination and panache.”

He is survived by his wife, Diane Reed; his son, Nicholas Lamar Soutter; his daughter, Elizabeth Soutter ’94; and five granddaughters.

Thomas Borden Bradford Jansen ’61 Thomas Borden Bradford Jansen ’61 passed away peacefully on January 2, 2021, in Fall River, Massachusetts. At Nobles, he played football and was on the crew team. He was

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president of the Glee Club and also sang in the Quartettes and Nobleonians. He served on the Student Council and was also a member of Deutscher Verein, Cercle Français and the Dramatic Club.

Jansen attended Trinity College in Connecticut upon graduating from Nobles and served as a member of the U.S. Army Reserves until 1970. While his first love was his family, music was a true driving force in his life. Jansen was the music manager for Trinity Church in Boston, where he sang in numerous church choirs. Through his more than 15 years at Trinity Church, he was fortunate to participate in many musical recordings, tours of England and Central Europe, and performances of major works.

He was also president of Sine Nomine, an a cappella group.

He is survived by his wife, Barbara; his children, Thomas Jansen and Laura Slingerland; his sisters, Caroline Knox and Trintje Jansen; his brother, Nicholas Jansen ’63; and three grandsons.

Mark N. Angney ’63 Mark N. Angney ’63 passed away peacefully on January 20, 2021, at age 76 in Boston, Massachusetts. At Nobles, he was involved in all aspects of student life. He played soccer, basketball and tennis. In addition, he was a member of the Glee Club, Nobleonians and Quartettes. He served on the board of the Nobleman and was a member of Societas Latina and Cercle Français. Cobusiness manager of the Dramatic Club, he also was in the Camera Club and a member of the Classbook committee. Angney was awarded the Class II Wiggins Essay Prize and won Honorable Mention in the Science Fair in Class III. He was on the Honor Roll in Classes IV, III, II and I, and cum laude in Class I. Angney grew up in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and after Nobles went on to graduate from Harvard College and Northwestern University. He pursued teaching immediately upon finishing his studies and spent the entirety of his career working with students.

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Known as “Mr. A” to his students, he was a longtime English teacher at Concord-Carlisle High School. He was able to share his passion for the written word, as well as his many hobbies with his students.

When not in the classroom, Angney enjoyed baking bread, reading aloud, writing haiku, digging for clams, playing cribbage, refereeing high school soccer games, chatting with complete strangers, and sharing witty observations with old and new acquaintances. A 35-year resident of Jamaica Plain, Angney enjoyed getting out of the city and visiting Chatham in the summers.

His positive spirit and keen intellect will be missed by all who knew him, especially his family, college friends, teaching colleagues and reading group members.

He is survived by his wife of 53 years, Nancy Gilmore Angney; his daughter, Heather Angney Edelman ’88; his brothers, David Angney ’60 and Brett Angney ’67; and two grandchildren.

John McKay Bailey ’71 John McKay Bailey ’71 passed away on November 9, 2020, at age 69 after a yearand-a-half battle with cancer. At Nobles, “Bails” or “JB,” as he was often known, played football and ice hockey. He was on the football team which recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of its historic win over Milton on Burr Field. On the ice, he was considered a fast, smooth skater, a team stalwart and unflappable on defense. His goalie at Nobles, Curt Gowdy Jr. ’71, recalls, “JB always made me feel secure. He was a rock in the front of the net.”

Bailey grew up in Needham, Massachusetts, and attended Dedham Country Day School before enrolling at Nobles. After Nobles, he attended Lake Forest College in Illinois, where he graduated with a degree in liberal arts and psychology.

He returned to the Boston area after college, and together with his friend and Nobles classmate John Boyd ’71, started Fine Arts Express (FAE), a fine art transportation and storage company

that grew to become one of the leading museum services and fine art handling firms in the world. Boyd describes what Bailey brought to the business saying, “He was instrumental in developing new methodologies that transformed how art and antiques were packaged and transported. During his career, he became a nationally recognized art packer himself. He handled priceless objects, from Cezanne’s Sunflowers to Abraham Lincoln’s hat to the ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz to the Apollo 8 space capsule. He will be deeply missed by artists, museum professionals, collectors and fellow art handlers throughout the world.”

Bailey had a variety of interests and passions, including traveling, gardening, and foraging in the woods. He loved skating black ice and was always one of the first to test out the Charles River when it froze. His total lack of fear when it came to heights was a source of constant amazement and terror. His closest friends remember his handstand on the top of the Myles Standish monument in Duxbury. He loved music and hosting memorable gatherings and dinner parties alongside his wife, Deirdre.

All in all, he was a people person through and through. His classmate Jeff Franklin ’71 remembers, “Some people just have the ability to align themselves with others, and John was one of those people. That kind of strong empathy is very rare, and there were times that experiencing that with John left me awestruck.”

He is survived by his wife, Deirdre; his mother, Joan P. Bailey; his brother, Andrew C. Bailey Jr.; and his sister, Lee B. Graham.

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1. Chris Steele ’08 with his wife, Stephanie, and his daughters, Reese and Lucy Rita Steele, born on January 4, 2021. 2. Jen Rappaport Coassin ’08 and her husband, Lawrence, with new baby Esme (almost 9 months) and Siena (3 years old). 3. Julia Macalaster and her husband, Andrew Leisman, welcomed their son, Winship (“Win”) Frederick Leisman, on October 30, 2020. 4. Taylor Cazeault ’08 married Ethan Littman in October 2020. 5. Kellen Benjamin ’02 with wife Jess and their daughter, Wesley, born November 8, 2020. 6. Matt Salmon ’06 and his wife, Ashley, welcomed their daughter, Madison (Maddie) Mitchell Salmon, in November 2020. 7. Sarah Plumb Dornak ’08 and her husband, Brad, welcomed their son, Robert James “RJ” Dornak, on March 14, 2020. 8. Kate Spelman ’05 (right) married Sandra Butler (left) on October 10, 2020. 9. Baby Wesley Benjamin 10. Andrea Berberian Gardos ’01 and Steve Gardos ’98 welcomed a son, Laszlo, on Christmas Day. 11. Colin, son of Rick Goode ’08. 12. Mollie Young Hourihan and Mark Hourihan (both ’10) welcomed baby Grace Young Hourihan on December 27, 2020. 13. Marlow, daughter of Anne Sholley ’07 and her husband, Peter Erhartic, was born on October 13, 2020, in New York City.

announcements Engagements:

New Arrivals:

Erin Greene ’06 to Greg Millar in November 2020; Julia Carn ’06 to Chris Sabatini in November 2020; George Tall ’09 to Emma Sarkisyan in December 2020.

Ben Norment ’08 and his wife, Cyndal, welcomed their daughter, Elliot “Elle” Danielle Norment, on January 4, 2021; Julia Macalaster ’08 and her husband, Andrew, welcomed a son, Winship “Win” Frederick Leisman, on October 30 at the UVM Medical Center; Jen Rappaport Coassin ’08 and her husband, Rence, welcomed their second daughter, Esme, in April 2020.

Sarah Plumb Dornak ’08 and her husband, Brad, welcomed their first son, Robert James “RJ” Dornak, on March 14, 2020; Chris Steele ’08 and his wife, Stephanie, welcomed their second daughter, Lucy Rita Steele, to the world on January 4, 2021; Kellen Benjamin ’02 and

Marriages: Taylor Cazeault ’08 married Ethan Littman in October 2020; Loris Toribio ’06 married RJ Ferguson on New Year’s Eve 2020; Kate Spelman ’05 married Sandra Butler in October 2020 in Maine.

his wife, Jessica, welcomed their daughter, Wesley “Wes” Yve Benjamin on November 8, 2020; Matt Salmon ’06 and his wife, Ashley, welcomed their daughter, Madison (Maddie) Mitchell Salmon, in November 2020; Andrea Berberian Gardos ’01 and Steve Gardos ’98 welcomed a baby boy, Laszlo, born on Christmas Day 2020; Anne Sholley ’07 and her husband, Peter Erhartic, welcomed their daughter, Marlow, on October 13, 2020, in New York City; Mollie Young Hourihan and Mark Hourihan (both ’10) welcomed baby Grace Young Hourihan on December 27, 2020; Becky Barbrow ’06 and her husband, Mark, welcomed their daughter, Sophie, on December 11, 2020.

SPRING 2021 Nobles 59

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Ready to Help Us Soar?

TEMPORARILY CURTAILED In the week following the first game of the fall 1955 season against St. Mark’s (pictured above), four members of the Nobles varsity football team contracted polio, resulting in the cancellation of numerous soccer and football games that season as well as a two-week pause of the fall athletic program.

After an unprecedented year, Nobles is ready.

Each and every gift made to the Annual Nobles Fund (ANF) continues to lift Nobles higher, supporting students and faculty in the ways that matter most.

To make your gift to this year's fund, visit nobles.edu/giveonline or contact Director of Annual Giving Allie Trainor at allie_trainor@nobles.edu.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY BEN HEIDER

60 Nobles SPRING 2021

SPRING 2021 Nobles 61

Noble and Greenough School 10 Campus Drive Dedham, MA 02026-4099

JADE QIAN, CLASS IV “Fly Fishing” Medium: Colored pencil “This drawing was originally a picture of my sister and me, and it was a really experimental piece where I wanted to play with cool colors. My family has always owned multiple large fish tanks, and I just think koi fish especially are very peaceful and symbolic creatures.”