Andover magazine - Reunion/Fall 2018 Issue by Phillips Academy

REUNION/FALL 2018

Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts 01810-4161

Households that receive more than one Andover magazine are encouraged to call 978-749-4267 to discontinue extra copies.

REUNION/FALL 2018

REUNION WEEKEND 2019

Gil Talbot

Come back home to Andover Calling all Big Blue alumni from classes ending in “4” and “9”: It’s not too early to start planning for Reunion 2019, June 6–9.

Going the Distance 1968 Reunion Bike Tour

REUNION 2018

David J. Murray

Andover Dedicates the Richard T. Greener Quadrangle Campaign gift honors a trailblazing alumnus and enduring values In the early fall sunshine, the Academy gathered as one to celebrate the legacy of Richard T. Greener, Class of 1865, for whom the “Great Quad” will be forever named. Greener was an active and notable voice for the rights of black Americans in the Reconstruction period, serving as both dean of Howard University Law School and associate editor of Frederick Douglass’s newspaper, New National Era. He also held a key U.S. diplomatic post in Vladivostok, Russia, during the Russo-Japanese War.

Photos by John Gillooly and Gil Talbot

A deeply loyal alumnus, Greener referred to his time at Andover as “my awakening.” During the ceremony on September 29, Head of School John G. Palfrey P’21 emphasized, “The qualities he displayed as a student were instrumental years later as he navigated civil rights and international conflicts. These are the kinds of qualities we see in our students today—rigor and purpose in their work, shared values of knowledge and goodness, respect for differences.”

The dedication was made possible by an anonymous Knowledge & Goodness campaign donor who wished to recognize Greener’s significant contributions to his alma mater and the era’s discourse on issues of equality and justice. An additional campaign gift will establish an endowed fund to advance equity and inclusion initiatives in Greener’s name. This new fund will present an opportunity for other alumni, parents, and friends to collectively invest in such vital programming. The school first recognized Greener in 1989 by creating a scholarship in his memory. On the occasion of the quadrangle ceremony, Andover’s anonymous donor reaffirmed the school’s vision with these words, “We honor one man to represent all those who have enriched the Academy through the diversity of their thought and backgrounds and those who, for generations to come, will help Andover live up to its ideal of youth from every quarter.”

90 14 FEATURES DEPARTMENTS:

Andover Bookshelf 20| Class Notes 21| In Memoriam 85| End Note 90|

1968 alumni rack up memories and miles on a Reunion bike adventure. 6

A Secret Life in Letters

When the Princeton Library makes public more than 1,000 letters from T.S. Eliot to Abbot drama teacher Emily Hale in 2020, it may illuminate the true nature of their relationship.

CLOSE-UPS: Kristin Ryan ’89: Seattle developer 37| Tom Sarnoff ’43: NBC executive 60|

Going the Distance

Class Photos

Why, you all haven’t changed a bit! Browse through the 2018 reunion class photos. 14 Andover for Life Access these sites at www.andover.edu/intouch

Alumni share their thoughts on favorite teachers, graduation keepsakes, and special memories. 16 A Year of Tulmult, Rebellion, and Change

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The year 1968 forever shaped the perspectives of those who lived through it. 18 Investing in Music

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How Andover’s new facilities initiative will shape practice, performance, and more.

Andover | Reunion/Fall 2018

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

REUNION/FALL 2018 Volume 112, Number 1 PUBLISHER Tracy M. Sweet EDITOR Allyson Irish DESIGNER Ken Puleo ASSOCIATE EDITOR & CLASS NOTES EDITOR Rita Savard CLASS NOTES COORDINATOR Laura MacHugh CLASS NOTES DESIGNER Elizabeth O’Brien CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Matthew Bellico, Katie Fiermonti © 2018 Phillips Academy, Andover, MA. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Andover, the magazine of Phillips Academy, is published four times a year by the Office of Communication at Phillips Academy, 180 Main Street, Andover, MA 01810-4161. Main PA phone: 978-749-4000 Changes of address and death notices: 978-749-4269 alumni-records@andover.edu Phillips Academy website: www.andover.edu Andover magazine phone: 978-749-4677 Email: andovermagazine@andover.edu Periodicals postage paid at Andover, MA, and additional mailing offices. Postmasters: Send address changes to Phillips Academy 180 Main Street Andover, MA 01810-4161 ISSN-0735-5718

The summer issue of Andover magazine is splendid. Congratulations to all involved.

Richard H. Pille ’55 Your double-page picture of the “Great Elm” in the Summer 2018 issue reminds me that for many years the office of Public Safety discreetly stashed an extendable ladder by Day Hall during Reunion Weekend. I learned why at the Reunion parade in June 1975, at the end of my first year on the faculty, in conversation with a campus policeman about his activities the evening before. “It was,” he told me, “a busy night. I had to help a man from the Class of 1960 out of the giant elm tree in front of Day at about one in the morning. He was quite tipsy and very apologetic, but he told me that he’d always wanted to climb up in that tree and now he had finally done it. ‘And Officer,’ he said to me, ‘I’ll bet you’ve never had to do something like this before.’” “And you know, I just didn’t have the heart to tell him that I pulled a member of the Class of 1925 out of that tree at 11:30.”

Victor W. Henningsen ‘69 Independence Foundation Instructor in History & Social Science Emeritus It was a missed opportunity for the entire alumni community not to have the Af-Lat-Am@50 Reunion featured on the cover of the Summer 2018 issue. As an institution, Andover has long espoused equity and inclusion, and certainly now more than ever in the midst of the Knowledge & Goodness campaign. At last spring’s event, every class from 1982 to 2018 was represented, along with 10 classes from 1961 to 1979. These figures include attendees who have had limited or no trips back to campus since Commencement. In many ways, via this milestone, a new covenant was created between alumni who were just recently coming to grips with a transformative, but sometimes isolating and difficult, experience and a community that needed to be reminded of their existence. To retrieve the magazine from my mailbox with a cover devoid of any alumni photo added to my frustration, knowing that an image exists of more than 400 beautiful black and brown faces from every quarter, inspired and unified by this homecoming. A celebration of Af-Lat-Am is a celebration of our entire community. I hope that we will recognize and seize every opportunity to promote and acknowledge the richest experiences of our students and alumni.

—David C. Brown ’95 “Andover’s Great Elm” (Summer 2018, page 5) is an engaging spread. It features not only a great tree, but also the great team caring for it, and it highlights the beauty and history of Andover’s extraordinary campus. Unfortunately, the following sentences in that article are fact-free: “In the early 1800s, Samuel Farrar, the Academy’s treasurer, transported several native elms from a nearby swamp to campus. This double row of trees eventually grew into the stately Elm Arch.” These words derive from a 1915 Claude Fuess speech: “The trees Squire Farrar set out in the huckleberry marsh towards the street have grown into the stately Elm Arch…” Fuess was a fine English instructor, writer, headmaster, and storyteller. Occasionally, however (especially when it came to Squire Farrar), his storytelling shaded toward the telling of tall tales. The early landscape history of the campus is covered in the chapter I wrote for the Addison’s monograph Academy Hill: The Andover Campus, 1778 to the Present, published in 2000. The first records of campus elms date to the 1780s. Samuel Phillips Jr. (whose family owned a tree farm) had elms planted around the second Academy building. The planting plan for the Great Lawn (including the Elm Arch) dates to the years 1808–1821. It was a committee effort, led by Board President Eliphalet Pearson. As treasurer, Samuel Farrar paid the bills; beyond that, he had no part in tree planting.

Cover photo by Tory Wesnofske

Andover | Reunion/Fall 2018

David Chase Faculty Emeritus

Letters to the Editor Policy Andover magazine welcomes letters of 200 or fewer words from members of the Andover and Abbot communities addressing topics that have been discussed in the magazine. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, and civility. Opinions expressed in the Letters to the Editor section do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of the editorial staff or of Phillips Academy.

John Barclay ’68 (left), his wife, Wendy, and Peter Quinlan ’68

ISTOCK: RIDERS, AARROWS; TREES, RICHMAN21

by Rita Savard LIKE SO MANY DREAMS that come and go, this one began with beer and a conversation. It was Reunion Weekend five years ago, and Peter Quinlan ’68 and Christopher “Kit” Bennett Rawson ’68 rolled into the festivities via bicycle from Vermont. “We were back on campus, just talking and catching up with each other, when an idea was tossed out that presented a unique challenge,” recalls Quinlan. “Feeling a little bold after a daylong bike ride, it was suggested that we ride cross-country for our 50th.” Life takes alumni down many different paths after high school, but for Quinlan, Rawson, and classmate John Barclay, one thing remained unchanged: Their camaraderie and competitive spirit

ck a r i Alumn

felt as fresh as it did in 1968. Logistics were debated. Route revisions were made. The decision that followed after six months of planning was unanimous: The trio would embark on an epic 1,968-kilometer road trip beginning down South and ending at Andover. Rawson, an avid cyclist and meticulous planner, combed over every detail of the Reunion ride with Barclay, and in summer 2017, they were ready to go public. “It was a big step,” Barclay says, “because as soon as you say it out loud, people hold you to it.” He emailed Rawson, wondering if his longtime friend had any thoughts to share before the big reveal. He never replied. Rawson’s wife, Kathy, reached out a day later. Rawson had a heart

mories and mil e m es up

on R

attack and died on Aug. 7, 2017. The loss was devastating. Since meeting as teenagers at PA, away from home for the first time and through college, careers, marriage, children, and grandchildren, the three friends had become more like family. For Rawson—who friends described as a “strong, fast, lovable bear”—life on a bicycle was soulful wonder. And thoughts of “the bear” with the wind at his back, mouth curled up in a wicked grin, while making the most painful uphill climb look easy, sparked inspiration. “We’re a team,” says Quinlan, “and you don’t let the team down.” It was time to go public. Barclay shared the news with Andover, family, and friends: The Class of ’68’s 50th

eunio e n bike adventur Andover | Reunion/Fall 2018

Photos by Tory Wesnofske

GOING THE DISTANCE

Reunion Tour—pedaling 1,968 kilometers (1,222 miles) to PA—was on. Three friends in pursuit of a dream. “Make no mistake,” says Quinlan. “This wasn’t a memorial ride. Kit was with us, the whole way.” IT WAS RAINING STEADILY when Barclay and Quinlan took off from Winston-Salem, N.C., on May 18. Friends and family followed on social media, and Barclay’s wife, Wendy, followed in a trusty Ford Explorer stocked with supplies and decked out with PA 50th Reunion Tour flair. “Sixty-nine miles of gorgeous, lush countryside covered with lots and lots of rain,” Barclay reported at the end of day one. Determined to grind it out, through

Andover | Reunion/Fall 2018

more rain they rode. Past long swaths of fields and farmland, and over dirt roads with “potholes that taught potholes how to be”—where “every bicycle-chasing dog” you can imagine seemed to pick up their scent. When the rain let up, they baked under a blistering Virginia sun. Steep climbs can test your willpower, make your calves and hamstrings cry for mercy. This was when Barclay’s voodoo juice—straight shots of pure pickle juice—came into play. It's a remedy, he says, to ease muscle cramps. Think of it as smelling salts for the weary. That, and a little philosophy gleaned from PA pushed them to the next mile, and the next. “You can get lost in your thoughts when your eyes are glued to the road,” says Barclay. “One mile turns into 60, and there’s nothing like a long climb to

snap you back into the moment. That’s when it all goes back to Andover. The mantra was always the same: You can go a lot farther than you think you can.” Even the most well-planned adventure can have its fair share of complications: rough riding conditions, inclement weather, a shortcut that turned into half a day of backtracking due to road construction, a malfunctioning tire. But the journey is the reward. And their worst day, muscling through an agonizing climb, showed them that. The uphill ride through the Delaware Water Gap was a Hail Mary kind of experience, where the body pauses and the mind says, “Hell no!” Wendy Barclay, driving ahead of the guys, was the first to see it. When Barclay and Quinlan

ISTOCK: RIDERS, AARROWS; TREES, RICHMAN21; BEAR, PREDRAGILIEVSKI; CELEBRATING RIDERS, VENCAVOLRAB

Above: Rob Barber ’68, Nick Barber ’03, Al Alessi ’68, Rob Freedman ’68, Secretary of the Academy Thom Lockerby, Stan Crock ’68, John Barclay ’68, Wendy Barclay P’94, Peter Quinlan ’68,

Jim Harman ’68, Brandt Andersson ’68, Carter Bacon ’68, Dick Dumez ’68, Mary Hynes Johanson, wife of David Johanson ’68, and John Buchanan ’68. • Inset: Kit Rawson ’68 reached the top of the pass, there it was, like a wink and a nod. A black bear ambled across the road, paused, and stared directly at the two men. “Of all things,” says Quinlan. “On the toughest day. It was an amazing and powerful reminder of Kit.” BARCLAY’S TRAVEL LOG on June 5, after 18 days on the road: Over 80 2-ounce pickle juice shots consumed. Sixty-four large bottles of orange Gatorade. Unimaginable amounts of water. Approximately 1,006.2 miles covered and 55,778 feet of vertical gain. Along the way, other ’68ers and friends joined the ride: Carter “Bink” Bacon in Otisville, N.Y.; John Buchanan, Dick Dumez, and Jim Harman in Norfolk, Conn. In Massachusetts, the

group added Rob Freedman and Brandt Andersson in Wilbraham; Karen Seaward and Nick Barber ’03 in West Boylston; Mary Hynes Johanson and Secretary of the Academy Thom Lockerby in Acton; and Al Alessi, Stan Crock, Rob Barber, and Head of School John Palfrey P’21 in Billerica. Thursday, June 7, was a bright day as the peloton headed toward Andover. It was also Kit Rawson’s birthday. A coincidence? Maybe. But for the Class of 1968, it seemed like there was something greater afoot. Along the road from Paresky Commons to George Washington Hall, friends and loved ones cheered the arrival of 16 riders, making arguably the grandest entrance ever recorded on a Reunion Weekend. Looking around at the

group, Barclay says he could not think of any other circumstance where these same people would be standing together like this. “That’s the magic of the ride,” Barclay says. And, on Rawson’s 68th birthday, a toast was made to lifelong friends and to finishing at the place where it all started. “I will always have a powerful memory of Kit pedaling up the steepest grade I’d ever encountered as if it were a Sunday afternoon ride around the block,” says Barclay, remembering his friend’s adventurous spirit. “Quinlan warned me of this. As Kathy (Rawson) and I pushed our bikes a few hundred yards behind, we looked up as Kit disappeared over the rise, around a sweeping right hand curve.” 

Andover | Reunion/Fall 2018

A Secret Life in Letters

The mystery surrounding the ambiguous relationship between the world-famous writer and the Abbot Academy drama teacher will be brought to light when Princeton University Library makes public more than 1,000 never-before-revealed letters T.S. Eliot wrote to Emily Hale during the mid-1900s.

Andover | Reunion/Fall 2018

Scripps College

Jane Christie ’58 remembers the photograph of famed poet T.S. Eliot in her drama teacher’s apartment. It sat on a bureau in Emily Hale’s Northampton residence, where Hale was living following her teaching career at Abbot Academy. Christie, who was continuing her studies at Smith College after graduating from Abbot, occasionally visited Hale at her home for tea. “The photograph was large. And though I remember it was inscribed, I am foggy on the inscription,” says Christie. “Clearly, he’d given it to her.” The mystery surrounding the ambiguous relationship between the world-famous writer and the drama teacher from Boston will soon be brought to light. On January 2, 2020, Princeton University Library’s Department of Rare Books and Special Collections plans to make public more than 1,000 letters Eliot wrote to Hale during the mid1900s. Never before revealed, the letters were donated by Hale with the stipulation that they be unsealed 50 years after the latter of their deaths; she died after Eliot

ISTOCK: BACKGROUND, BADAHOS

by Katie Fiermonti

in 1969. The correspondence could illuminate what scholars have long debated: What was the true nature of Eliot and Hale’s secret relationship? “I became fascinated with the notion that [Eliot] had this American girlfriend no one knew about,” says Sara Fitzgerald, an author, journalist, and consultant who is writing a novel about Hale’s life. During Reunion Weekend in June, Fitzgerald described her research and findings to a room packed with Abbot alumnae—including some who had Hale as a teacher. It was the same room—the School Room in Abbot Hall—where Eliot, at the invitation of Hale, addressed students in the spring of 1956. “Emily Hale is painted as someone who fell apart, who had a nervous breakdown after loving Eliot for so many years and seeing him marry another woman,” adds Fitzgerald. “I didn’t necessarily find that to be the case. I felt she got over this blow and kept living.” Abbot alumnae who remember Hale directing them in plays or correcting their diction describe her as a small woman with a modest, kind demeanor. “She was very old-school,” laughs Sandra Castle Hull ’58, who acted in

Scripps College

Right: Eliot in 1919 and Hale in 1914.

Getty Images

Opposite page: Eliot and Hale in 1936.

one of the plays Hale directed, She Stoops to Conquer. “If she said for you to have your lines learned by Wednesday, you learned your lines by Wednesday!” An Abbot drama teacher from 1947 to 1957, Hale grew up in a well-connected Boston Brahmin household. She attended the Berkeley Street School in Cambridge and Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Conn., but did not attend college. According to Fitzgerald, “Emily longed to be a professional actress, but her family did not consider that to be an appropriate career for a woman.” Eliot and Hale met in 1913 and became very close. He was 24 and a student at Harvard. She was 21. “They may have met at a debutante party,” says Fitzgerald. “I decided to begin my novel in February 1913, when he and Emily performed in a stunt show to benefit a local charity. Emily sang several popular songs, and she and Tom appeared together in a skit based on a scene from Jane Austen’s novel Emma. They also participated in an amateur theater group called the Cambridge Social Dramatic Club.” Eliot left Boston for Oxford University in 1914, and according to published writings left by Eliot’s second wife, Valerie Eliot, the poet said

he had told Hale he was in love with her, though he later maintained that she didn’t reciprocate at the time. In November of that year, Eliot wrote to his friend Conrad Aiken, asking him to arrange to deliver Hale roses at a play in which she was performing. But in 1915, Eliot suddenly married Vivienne Haigh-Wood, an English governess and artist, just three months after their first meeting in Cambridge, England. The marriage was highly publicized as an unhappy one, with the couple separating and Haigh-Wood spending years in a mental asylum, where she died in 1947. Eliot, who became an English citizen in 1927, took a vow of celibacy the following year. “So, what happened to Emily?” asks Fitzgerald. “She went to visit her aunt and uncle in Seattle and took acting classes there. She returned to Boston and assumed starring roles in major amateur productions. Based on the available newspaper reviews, she was obviously talented.” Hale taught voice instruction at Simmons College, then went on to teach at Milwaukee-Downer College in Wisconsin, and traveled several times to Europe. In 1927, at the age of 36, she decided to write to Eliot, rekindling a relationship that would result in Andover | Reunion/Fall 2018

that Hale’s years at Abbot framed the time period during which Eliot told her his unhappy first marriage left no room in his heart for love. “But he marries again, to a woman 38 years his junior,” Fitzgerald says. “I imagine Emily picks up a Boston Globe on a snowy day, and that’s how she finds out the great love of her life has married his secretary.”

Hale and Eliot’s secret relationship was the focal point of a reunion discussion with Abbot alumnae.

…Footfalls echo in the memory Down the passage which we did not take Towards the door we never opened… But time, distance, careers, and the outbreak of World War II kept them apart, and the relationship eventually faltered. The degree of romance between Hale and Eliot has never been definitively determined, though Fitzgerald believes the Nobel Prize– winning poet strung Hale along for years. Post-war, the relationship would never recover. Hale came to Abbot Academy as a drama teacher and instructor of elocution in 1947, about a year after Haigh-Wood’s death. She may have still hoped that Eliot would eventually marry her, but a proposal never came, though she did host him on campus on several occasions. Hale remained at Abbot until 1957—the year Eliot married his secretary, Valerie Fletcher. In her research, Fitzgerald found 8

Andover | Reunion/Fall 2018

Hull, Christie, and their Abbot classmates maintain Hale’s private drama with Eliot never interfered with her job. Learning that their teacher and the acclaimed poet had a deeper relationship comes as a surprise to many former students. “We had no idea,” says Christie, who also acted at Abbot. She remembers seeing Eliot and Hale lunching at the Andover Inn after his Abbot poetry reading. “I met Miss Hale in my ninth-grade speech class. I liked her. And we certainly read T.S. Eliot. But there was no mention that she knew him until he came to campus.” Eliot’s marriage to Fletcher

happened at the start of Hale’s final term at Abbot. At the end of the term, she decided to retire. Hale subsequently acted in a number of well-received plays, maintained close relationships with friends and students, taught briefly at Oak Grove School in Vassalboro, Maine, settled in Northampton, and eventually died just before turning 78 in Concord, Mass. According to Fitzgerald, Hale wrote to Eliot in the early 1960s, telling him that it was “difficult” for her to consider her life to be important just because they had been connected. “She ended on an upbeat note, hoping that they could still be friends,” she says. “Eliot never responded.” He died soon after in 1965. Eliot was reportedly upset that Hale had donated his correspondence to the Princeton archives and notoriously burned all of Hale’s letters to him in response. Fiercely protective of his own narrative, he had once asked his mother to incinerate their correspondence, and burned other family letters as well, though some are held at Harvard’s Houghton Library. “That he burned Emily’s letters makes me angry and more determined to tell her story,” says Fitzgerald. Princeton’s curator of manuscripts, Don Skemer, anticipates a deluge of media, literary scholars, editors, and history buffs when the collection goes public in two years. Hale’s former students, like the rest of the world, will also be watching and hoping to gain more insight into the drama teacher’s fascinating, secret life once the treasure trove of letters is opened. 

Katie Fiermonti is a freelance writer based in Durham, New Hampshire.

ISTOCK: BACKGROUND, BADAHOS, STACK OF LETTERS, ALKIR

both parties crossing the Atlantic to visit each other, even when Hale took a teaching job at Scripps College in California. Fitzgerald says the stillmarried Eliot gave Hale a ring and attempted to obtain a legal separation from his wife. When Hale was teaching at Smith College, Eliot sent her drafts of his play The Family Reunion for her suggestions, some of which he incorporated. “The play focuses on the guilt a husband feels following the death of his wife; biographers believe Miss Hale was the model for one of the characters,” says Fitzgerald. Hale remained in Eliot’s thoughts and is also believed by some literary critics to be wistfully immortalized in many of his poems, including “Burnt Norton,” Eliot’s 1935 poem that refers to an abandoned Oxford estate garden the pair explored together during one of Hale’s visits.

TOGETHER AGAIN “

Photos by John Gillooly and John Hurley

It was fun feeling like a teenager for a weekend again, amid the flood of memories. But more importantly, it was amazing to see the warmth and fondness we all share for each other and for Abbot Academy.” —Jakie McGinty ’68

Andover | Reunion/Fall 2018

“

We drank a toast, a toast that I am sure all of us—those who were at reunion and those who were not—will share: Here’s to being together again in five years.” —Peter Marvin ’63

“

After shutting down our own dance party, we joined 1993’s 25th Reunion party and managed to take over their dance floor!” —Zoe Niarchos Anetakis ’98

Andover | Reunion/Fall 2018

“

There were cook-outs and work-outs, dancing, Frisbee, convocations, and remembrances of friends past and passed. There was backslapping aplenty and telling tales that just kept getting larger and longer and crazier and funnier.” —Gordon Baird ’68

“

In all, it was a very memorable weekend for many and a wonderful way to ‘rediscover’ Andover after a few years away from campus.” —M.J. Engel ’13

Andover | Reunion/Fall 2018

“

One of the great things about coming to Andover has been, and still is, the great friendships we’ve made that have lasted a lifetime. Without coming here, we never would have made these significant connections and that’s one of the most fundamental strengths of the school—people coming from all across the country and the world, in this experience together. 12

—Bill Stiles ’58 Andover | Reunion 2017

“

The best advice I received at PA was to be thoughtful in my actions and always consider others, because people may not remember all the good things you do—but they will remember every slight.” —Osei Wilks ’08

“

There may be no better place to begin or end an Andover reunion than on the porch of the Andover Inn. It has become a place where you know you can find your friends, especially after 4 p.m. on a Friday.” —Peter Morin ’73

Andover | Reunion/Fall 2018

ANDOVER Marc Anderson, Maria Nkonge, Jina Corneau, and Ryan McChristian, all Class of 2003

Favorite Big Blue basketball memory

Alumni share what’s on their minds as they revisit campus and reconnect with friends.

“I knew immediately—as soon as the ball left my hand—that it wasn’t going to be pretty, and I was left with no recourse within the profound expectant silence of the crowd other than to shout, Nooo!” —Marc “Stretch” Anderson with 2003 classmates Maria Nkonge, Jina Corneau, and Ryan McChristian To read more about Marc’s dashed basketball dreams, visit andover.edu/magazine.

Hear more reunion stories at podcast.andover.edu

Evette Maranda Clarke, Bruce Hamilton, and Sandra Morales, all Class of 1988

An Andover moment I didn’t see coming “It started in a classroom in Graves Hall—a class of four people doing a senior seminar on Brazilian literature, music, economics, and culture. I didn’t know much about South America at the time but fell in love with the culture through that class. It led me to study abroad in Brazil to explore the country more. ” —Aaron Finder ’13

Andover | Reunion/Fall 2018

My biggest “wow” moment at Reunion “Seeing these people right here! The fact we’ve managed to stay connected with each other over the years is something I’m extremely thankful for. I made lifelong friends at Andover.” —Evette Maranda Clarke ’88

Photos by John Gillooly, Jen Myers, Gil Talbot, and Jessie Wallner

for LIFE

Anne Spader Byerly ’73, Peggy Bliss ’74, Faith Barnes ’74

My favorite Abbot graduation keepsake “A 1948 Smith Corona typewriter. The $85 typewriter was a graduation gift from my parents. It’s the only typewriter I’ve ever had.” —Jane Dewey ’48

The best Abbot teacher I had “It has to be Latin teacher Susan Clark! I had a good time with some others, but my friendship with Susan Clark has spanned all these years and is stronger than ever. I also miss Jean St. Pierre a lot.” —Anne Spader Byerly ’73

Jake Bean ’08 and Jonathan Adler ’08

Most influential Andover experience

Most anticipated Reunion accessory Rusty Pickett ’68 hauled his trusty old Weber smoker up from Charleston, S.C., and slow-cooked enough BBQ to feed a small army.

“Writing for “Features” (a satire section now called “The Eighth Page”) in The Phillipian was super influential—probably the most influential thing that I did here. The fact that it was uncensored was really cool, and it forced me to write a lot every week. That really set me up to sharpen my own, well, whatever comedic voice I was figuring out.” —Jonathan Adler ’08 Andover | Reunion/Fall 2018

Moderated by history teacher Matt Hession, who teaches a 1968 senior elective course, the Reunion panel “1968: A Year in Crisis and the Aftermath” included 1968 alumni Kenny Blake, Stan Crock, and Ted Chapin, and recent graduates Patrick Doheny ’18 and Nell Fitts ’18.

Come mothers and fathers Throughout the land And don’t criticize What you can’t understand Your sons and your daughters Are beyond your command Your old road is rapidly agin’ Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand For the times they are a-changin’ —Bob Dylan, “The Times They Are A-Changin’”

hough Bob Dylan’s epochal song was released in 1964, the lyrics were even more prescient four years later when it seemed the entire world had erupted. The assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. The Vietnam War and the launch of the Tet Offensive. President Lyndon Johnson’s stunning announcement that he would not run for re-election. Richard Nixon’s election as president. And protests—for civil rights, gay rights, and women’s rights. “The events of the year would reverberate,” said PA history instructor

Andover | Reunion/Fall 2018

Matt Hession. Indeed, the impact was felt all over the world, including at Andover’s bucolic campus. As graduates of Abbot and Phillips academies shared during their 50th Reunion, the events of 1968 have forever shaped their lives and perspectives. “To a certain extent, we were in the Andover bubble,” said Gary Meller ’68 who helped organize the 1968 discussion. “We were focused on getting into colleges and passing History 4, plus all the other activities that we had. But the nature of the events that were happening was so large that it kept impinging on our lives at Andover.” How could it not?

A CAMPUS IN SHOCK Living in Nathan Hale House his upper and senior years, Sumner Smith ’68 recalled hearing about three “incredible, shocking events” on three separate morning walks to Commons: the explosion of the Apollo 1 in 1967, and the assassinations of MLK and Bobby Kennedy in the spring of 1968. “I thought, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me’ You got that news and you just could not believe it.” On the Abbot campus, Lee Sullivan ’68 remembered being equally shocked. PA boys would occasionally walk down the hill to talk with the Abbot girls about current events, and that happened often in the spring of 1968. “It was a very tumultuous and very difficult time,” Sullivan said. Though struggling with their own emotions and questions, faculty members also tried their best to answer questions and console students during this period. Pardon Kenney ’68 recalled walking into History 4 the morning of April 4 and seeing legendary teacher Tom Lyons in tears, reeling over the news of King’s assassination. The

ISTOCK: BUTTON, EMARTO; HELICOPTER, GSMUDGER; STAMP, SINOPICS. BACKGROUND IMAGE, 1968 POT POURRI

A year of tumult, rebellion, and change

by Allyson Irish

lesson plan abandoned, Lyons gathered the students and spoke with them for the remainder of the class. NO MORE WAR Many alumni recollected a growing distrust of long-respected institutions such as the government and the military. One of the hallmarks of the late ’60s, Meller recalled, was a general division between the generations. “The saying was: Don’t trust anyone over 30.” The older generation—the Greatest Generation—represented sacrifice and nobility. Kenny Blake ’68 acknowledged that it was difficult to question those in the Greatest Generation. “To actually look at the most noble character I happen to know, who is my dad, and say ‘No’—that was not the correct way to go.” With the war raging in Vietnam, Andover boys were rightly concerned about the draft. “Words can’t even begin to describe it,” Blake said. “I think of [the draft] as a giant Transformer that would come into neighborhoods and just take people.” Ted Chapin ’68, who attended Yale after Andover, said that one of his college classmates who drew a low draft number tried to starve himself in order to fail the military physical. “Vietnam

Watch the taped videos from Reunion 2018 at media.andover.edu.

was the first really stupid war,” Chapin said. “It made us all so frustrated with the absurdity of a government run amok.” Although he too received a low number, David Johanson ’68 found a loophole and was able to evade being drafted. Johanson said he has often thought about that experience and how it affirmed for him “the difference between those of us who had the privilege of being at a school like Andover and really studying and knowing what to look for, and the many people who did not have that same degree of privilege and education. That was an eye-opener for me. It’s hard for people today to imagine the impact the draft had on all of us.” IN THE STREETS AND ON TV After graduating from Abbot, Ann Doty ’68 attended Mills College in Oakland, Calif. She and her friends would regularly attend marches for women’s rights and other social movements, traveling to San Francisco, Detroit, and Washington, D.C. “We were radical at Mills, but it was also just the natural thing to do,” Doty said. “We knew things were changing and we definitely felt it.” On the other side of the country, the atmosphere was equally radical. At Yale,

Chapin and others were aware that gay activists were starting to organize in Greenwich Village. The lead-up to the Stonewall riots the following year “changed the Zeitgeist,” even at conservative Yale, where, Chapin said, in one year the Homosexuality Discussion Group had changed its name to the Gay Alliance at Yale—GAY. While some were actively involved in marches and demonstrations, everyone could watch what was happening at home on TV. Despite their distrust of government, most people held journalists in high regard. Walter Cronkite of CBS and David Halberstam of the New York Times were expected to tell the truth and, for the most part, the public believed them. A journalist himself for 30 years, Stan Crock ’68 commented on the media climate today compared to that of 1968, when reporters and consumers “had the opportunity to focus on one thing at a time. There were a number of momentous events during that year, but there weren’t daily momentous events, as there are today.” Crock and others on the panel lamented the rise of “fake news” and the increasing cynicism about news organizations. “Walter Cronkite would say, ‘And that’s the way it is,’ and you believed him,” said Chapin. 

Andover | Reunion/Fall 2018

KNOWLE DG E & GOODNE SS : T HE ANDOVER CAMPAI G N

A Harmonious New Home for Music

Inside Andover’s Commitment to Artistic Discovery The Academy is making an unprecedented investment in the musical arts with a new instructional and performance center that will elevate the Andover experience for the entire campus community. The 30,000-square-foot structure will replace an outmoded Graves Hall—which will be thoughtfully repurposed—and serve the more than 700 students who participate in music programming annually. To be located on Phillips Street, adjacent to the Peabody Institute, the music building will become the prominent western anchor of a newly defined “cultural corridor” on campus. The center will be acoustically engineered and climatecontrolled to provide students and faculty with exceptional opportunities to explore their talents together and collaborate on technique and interpretation. A key feature will be a series of flexible ensemble spaces that will double as rehearsal areas and concert venues, accommodating all instrument groups from small string quartets to the Academy Symphony Orchestra.

Andover | Reunion/Fall 2018

“Music and the arts are such a vital part of today’s Andover education,” says music department chair Christina Landolt ’02. “We want to provide our students with every chance to grow and thrive, and this building will be nothing short of transformative.” The facility will house light-filled classrooms, individual practice rooms tailored for voice and instrumentspecific use, and a cutting-edge recording studio. The new studio and sound booth will accommodate rock bands and the school’s radio station as well as classical and jazz musicians, allowing artists with diverse interests to interact on a daily basis.

“ We want to provide our students with every chance to grow and thrive, and this building will be nothing short of transformative.” CHRISTINA LANDOLT ’02 Chair, Music Department

NUMBERS & NOTES

30,000 ft2

purpose-built structure on two floors

flexible ensemble spaces

ARC / Architectural Resources Cambridge

250

seats for performances

state-of-the-art classrooms

practice rooms

technology labs, plus electronic music studio and “Rock Room” with recording and broadcast capabilities

Andover’s teachers will similarly benefit from enhanced amenities—with a faculty suite more than doubling the work and meeting space available to resident and adjunct instructors.

8,500+

recordings and digital databases in music library

The new center will be built through donor support of Knowledge & Goodness: The Andover Campaign, the largest and most comprehensive fundraising initiative in Academy history. Early investors include Michelle and Kevin Kwong ’95, who made a gift in honor of his family. “My parents inspired me throughout my education,” says Kevin. “My father, a musician himself, encouraged me to pursue music, which became a significant part of my Andover experience. With this gift, we are thrilled to help forge new and exciting opportunities for the school’s talented performers.” To support this initiative, please contact Nicole Cherubini, director of development, at 978-749-4288 or ncherubini@andover.edu. Discover more at www.andover.edu/ourcampaign. Andover | Reunion/Fall 2018

A N D O V E R BO O KS H ELF Struck: A Husband’s Memoir of Trauma and Triumph By Douglas Segal ’79 Prospect Park Books When Douglas Segal’s wife, Susan, and daughter were hit head-on by a Los Angeles city bus, his wife faced a series of lifethreatening injuries, including the same one that famously left Christopher Reeve paralyzed. Following the accident, Segal began sending regular email updates to their circle of friends and family—a list that continued to grow as others heard of the event and were moved by the many emotional and spiritual issues it raised. Segal’s compelling memoir is an intimate and honest chronicle built around these emails, and is a profound example of how people show up for one another in times of crisis. Maternity: Mothers and Children in the Arts of Africa By Herbert Cole ’53 Mercatorfonds On the African continent, images of mothers and children are found wherever the visual arts are, from early rock-art sites in Egypt and the Sahara to the contemporary arts of South Africa. Defining maternity as a biological and cultural phenomenon, the author goes beyond obvious notions of fertility to consider the importance of maternity in thought, ritual action, and worldview. Maternity images of all eras evoke deep and significant messages— well beyond what meets the eye. The China Option: A Guide for Millennials—How to Work, Play, and Find Success in China By Sophia Camille Erickson ’11 Travelers’ Tales A few months after her 21st birthday and shortly after graduating with a degree in modern European history, Sophia Erickson was waiting tables in rural Massachusetts and contemplating years of student loan servitude. After a chance email exchange with an old friend, she bought a one-way ticket to Beijing. This insightful guide explores Erickson’s experiences in China over the following two years as she learned to maneuver around Asia, went through various jobs in Beijing, and discovered the rich rewards China offers those willing to take the plunge. Waste Land: Meditations on a Ravaged Landscape By David T. Hanson ’66 Taverner Press Though they constitute a shocking degradation of our landscape, Superfund sites are never seen by most Americans. In the course of one year, David T. Hanson traveled to 45 states to take aerial photographs of 67 of them, documenting both U.S. geography and its ravaging by industrial waste in one artistic odyssey. Hanson’s Waste Land series is a master photographer’s meditation on the country’s most dangerously polluted places. Each work in the series juxtaposes the artist’s photograph with a modified topographic map and the EPA’s own description of the site’s history and hazards.

The Creative Wealth of Nations: Can the Arts Advance Development? By Patrick Kabanda, faculty emeritus Cambridge University Press Incorporating aspects of international trade, education, sustainability, gender, mental health, and social inclusion, The Creative Wealth of Nations demonstrates the diverse impact of applying the arts in development to promote meaningful economic and social progress. Drawing from his own experience of the support music provided growing up amidst political and economic turmoil in Uganda, Kabanda shows us the benefits of an arts-inclusive approach in Africa and beyond. The Last Lobster: Boom or Bust for Maine’s Greatest Fishery? By Christopher White ’74 St. Martin’s Press For the past five years, the lobster population along the coast of Maine has boomed, resulting in a lobster harvest six times the size of the record catch from the 1980s, an event unheard of in fisheries. The Last Lobster follows three lobster captains, Frank, Jason, and Julie (one the few female skippers in Maine), as they haul and set thousands of traps. Unexpectedly, boom may turn to bust, as the captains must fight a warming ocean, volatile prices, and rough weather to keep their livelihood afloat. The 5 Percenter: Defying Death and Embracing Life By Michael Murphy ’74 Learning Zone Books Michael Murphy is a “5 Percenter,” one of the 5 percent of patients who survive sudden cardiac arrest and a severe lack of oxygen to the brain, referred to as an anoxic Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Murphy’s doctors thought he wouldn’t live, and when he did, the same doctors said he would never walk again. And when he does, defying the odds, he embraces life, those he loves, and the great game of golf. The 5 Percenter is an inspiring story of one man’s survival, recovery, and second chance at life. Father of The Man By Anthony Robinson ’49 CreateSpace The setting for Anthony Robinson’s novel is the famous Maverick Art Colony in Woodstock, N.Y., where the author grew up in the 1940s. His father, Henry Morton Robinson, wrote the best-selling novel The Cardinal, which was made into a film. Many years later, Robinson revisits those early days through the eyes of 13-year-old Billy Darden and his writer father, Jacob Darden. Billy’s complex relationship with his father, and Billy’s and Jacob’s individual lives in their eclectic town, are at the heart of Robinson’s moving and deeply personal eighth novel.

If you would like your book to be considered for Andover Bookshelf, please email a high-resolution image of the book cover and a 75-word summary of your book to rsavard@andover.edu. Books will be included at the discretion of the editor.

Andover | Reunion/Fall 2018

E N D N OTE

Reunion is a good time for a walk down memory lane. For Richard See ’78 and friends, it turned out to be a climb uphill. See and his Class of 1978 pals Warren Patterson and Gary Levine took some time during Reunion Weekend to search through poison ivy–infested Holt Hill in search of the old alpine ski jump. The trio found the jump and recalled their halcyon high school days, their fearless endeavors, and their old mathematics teacher and ski coach, George Best. “The bonds of friendship that were formed at Andover—and on the ski team—have lasted a lifetime and were reignited at our 40th Reunion,” See wrote. The recollections continued after Reunion and led to a Holt Hill Facebook page, which led to a visit to Coach Best and his wife, Helen, which led to a series of Skype sessions between the coach and his former athletes. “Excited by the new Facebook page and wanting to share more… we conducted a live Skype session with Mr. and Mrs. Best to share just how much this couple meant to each of us. A few minutes into the discussion, Coach Best wiped tears from his eyes and the stories ensued.” Big Blue memories never die.

Holt Hill

—Allyson Irish

Read See’s full essay about the experience at www.andover.edu/magazine. To join the Holt Hill Facebook page, email richard.see@gmail.com.

Andover | Reunion/Fall 2018

ISTOCK: SKIER, SORINVIDIS; SNOW, DMYTRO SYNELNYCHENKO

Memories of

REUNION 2018

David J. Murray

Photos by John Gillooly and Gil Talbot

REUNION/FALL 2018

Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts 01810-4161

Households that receive more than one Andover magazine are encouraged to call 978-749-4267 to discontinue extra copies.

REUNION/FALL 2018

REUNION WEEKEND 2019

Gil Talbot

Come back home to Andover Calling all Big Blue alumni from classes ending in “4” and “9”: It’s not too early to start planning for Reunion 2019, June 6–9.

Going the Distance 1968 Reunion Bike Tour