Pomfret Magazine — Winter 2018

Inside:

Cover: The Grauer Institute

Profile: Artist John Sargent ’66

Sports: One Hundred Years of Football

Contents 4

52

CLASS NOTES

HILLTOP

80

IN MEMORIAM

CHAPEL TALK

84

FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

Winning Streak

8 32

News, Arts, Athletics

Leslie Rosario-Olivo ’18

86

Pomfret School 398 Pomfret Street • PO Box 128 Pomfret, CT 06258-0128 860.963.6100 www.pomfret.org

Reunion 2017, Alumni Profiles

Remembering Bob Sloat ICONOGRAPHY

Old Hockey Pond

GATHERINGS

Beyond The Hilltop

Editor-in-chief Melissa Perkins Bellanceau mbellanceau@pomfret.org

Contributing Photographers Aiden Bourke ’18 Jim Coleman Jamie Davis Jim Gipe (Pivot Media) Jamey McSweeney Lindsay Lehmann Deb Thurston Sarah Youngman ’16

Managing Editor Garry Dow

Pomfret Magazine is published by Pomfret’s Communications Office © 2018

Copy Editors Louisa Jones Tammie LaBonte Tina Lefevre

We Want to Hear from You Really, we do. These are your stories and this is your magazine. If we’ve inspired or challenged you, please tell us about it.

Class Notes & Gatherings Editor Deb Thurston dthurston@pomfret.org

— Submit To —

Designer Jordan Kempain

Our Mission: Pomfret School cultivates a healthy interdependence of mind, body, and spirit in its students as it prepares them for college and to lead and learn in a diverse and increasingly interconnected society.

Contributing Writers Jamie Feild Baker Lydia Mann Tim Richards P ’15 Katie Wells James Goodale ’51 Walt Hinchman P ’81, ’83, Fac. ’64-’02

Melissa Perkins Bellanceau mbellanceau@pomfret.org

Pomfret School does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, handicap, gender, sexual orientation, age, or national origin in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, financial aid, or other programs administered by the School.

features 34 44

The Grauer Institute A retrospective.

The Art of Activism

An artist in his element. An island in peril.

48

Then and Now

One hundred years of Pomfret football.

FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

Winning Streak

By Tim Richards P ’15

4

POMFRET WINTER 2018

“

We have accomplished so much in the past three years, and it is impossible not to feel the momentum building.

W

inning. This simple word has been invoked in different ways by famous coaches, star athletes, unhinged Hollywood actors, and countless politicians. When I was still coaching, I always admonished my players to be humble in victory, but I also think it’s occasionally defensible to be a bit immodest and share news of hard-won successes.

I have written much over the past few years about our ongoing and tireless efforts to reimagine how we teach and learn at Pomfret.

The evidence of this shift is abundant and it is a source of real pride for me. But, of course, this evolution did not come about by accident.

The academic successes we are celebrating today were made possible by former Board Chair Peter Grauer P ’02, ’10 and his wife, Laurie, who four years ago made an extraordinary commitment to Pomfret School when they announced their $3 million gift to establish the Grauer Family Institute for Excellence and Innovation in Education.

Wisely, Peter had big things in mind for this project, and so he challenged us to raise an additional $2 million to endow ongoing support for the Institute by June 2017. Those funds would largely be used to provide the professional development opportunities that our teachers need to bring to life emerging best practices in their classrooms. Last spring, ahead of the timeline we had agreed on with Peter and Laurie, we completed the fundraising for The Grauer Institute. Over the past few years, more of our teachers have had deep and meaningful professional development than ever before, and this is a tribute to Peter and Laurie’s vision and to the combined efforts of a terrific Advancement Office team, a fantastic faculty, and many parents and alumni, all of whom shared our vision for how this Institute could help shape our future.

The success of The Grauer Institute was no accident, but another win certainly was. In August 2016, a bolt of lightning struck the head of school house, Eastover, ultimately leading to a blaze that required several local fire departments to extinguish.

The fire was eventually contained, but not before much of the

”

house was lost. That near tragedy turned to triumph when Trustee Tom Campbell P ’09 stepped up to provide the bulk of the funds needed to purchase a new head of school house, a nearby property that had just come on the market. Tom’s gift allowed us to use funds from the insurance policy to convert Eastover into a dorm.

In the process, we gained a highly desirable dorm that allowed us to address some real pressure points within our student housing structure, while also adding another on-campus faculty residence. The cherry on top is the new head’s house, called Campbell House, which is a terrific space for hosting events and entertaining large gatherings.

Our winning streak continued earlier this fall when we broke ground on the new Health and Wellness Center. Situated between Robinson House and Main House, the facility will represent a quantum leap forward. The new building will have four private sick rooms, four more distinct rest areas for students needing a lower level of care, intake and consultation rooms, and private and confidential counseling rooms, a long-overdue need of the institution. We will house all members of our health and wellness team under one roof, and will provide a clean, state-of-the-art facility filled with abundant natural light where students will get exceptional care. Finally, the second floor of this new building will feature two beautiful faculty apartments. This project is fully funded, and will be open for the start of school next September. In addition, with the funds raised for this project, we will retrofit a part of the Strong Field House to create a multi-use space for yoga and meditation. Winning indeed.

Accomplishing great things is a team effort, and there are countless people who have made our recent progress possible. We have accomplished so much in the past three years, and it is impossible not to feel the momentum building. I hope that as we continue to strive boldly to achieve our goals, more people will jump in and become active. For while winning isn’t everything, or the only thing, it sure does feel good to be playing for a team on such a roll.

5

FROM THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Meet Laura Pierce POMFRET’S NEW ALUMNI ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT LOOKS TO THE FUTURE.

L

aura Keeler Pierce ’03 is no stranger to Pomfret. An active volunteer, she has been a class agent since 2003 and a member of the Alumni Association Executive Council (AAEC) since 2011, including a three year stint as vice president.

“Laura brings a wonderful combination of perspective, skill, and experience to the position,” said Melissa Bellanceau, who oversees alumni relations at Pomfret. “We could not be more thrilled to have her take the reigns.”

A graduate of Colby College and the Rhode Island School of Design, Pierce is the owner of Keeler & Co., a Boston-based boutique interior design firm. Before she started her own company, Pierce held roles in development at Rectory School and St. Mark’s School. She also spent time at Corinthian Events in Boston.

At Pomfret, Pierce was a member of the varsity field hockey team, varsity lacrosse team, and the JV ice hockey team. She was also an honor roll student, dean’s assistant, and the recipient of the Science Award in her senior year.

“I am so impressed by all the visionary work happening at Pomfret right now,” Pierce said. “One of the reasons I am inspired to lead is because I want to share

6

POMFRET WINTER 2018

that momentum with my fellow Griffins. We should all be really proud of the work Pomfret is doing.”

Founded in 1899, the mission of the Pomfret Alumni Association is to actively connect alumni with the School — and each other — through social gatherings, college and career networking, and mentoring opportunities. More recently, the AAEC has begun partnering with faculty to enhance on-campus academic programming such as Project: Pomfret.

Pierce formally took the reigns as president in July, following in the footsteps of her two predecessors, George Santiago ’75, who led the association from 2015-2017, and Paul Fowler ’64, who served from 2010-2015.

“Paul and George laid a solid foundation for the work that lies ahead,” Pierce said. “I am excited to collaborate with other members of the alumni executive council to build on their successes.”

Nine months into her new position, Pierce has several big projects in the works. Chief among them: the celebration of the School’s 125th anniversary, a revamped Reunion experience, the launch of a new social media campaign, a totally re-imagined alumni induction dinner, and the expansion of alumni events around the country.

“I want to connect more alumni, more deeply, with the School,” Pierce said. “All these years later, Pomfret is still a big part of my life. Preserving and enhancing the School community means the world to me. It drives everything I do.”

124th Commencement Sunday, May 27, 2018 2:00 PM Clark Memorial Chapel Lawn Please contact Assistant to the Head of School Diana Brennan if you have questions concerning this special event.

860.963.6113 | dbrennan@pomfret.org

HEATHER ABBOTT A survivor of the Boston Marathon bombing, Abbott is this year’s 2018 Commencement Speaker.

7

HILLTOP

n i a g A n r Bo the x from the ashes, ni oe ph a e lik g isin r, was campus, Eastove newest dorm on the e for the start of finished just in tim academic year. e head htning struck th lig , 16 20 t us ug In A significant astover, causing E e, us ho ol ho of sc months, the building. Within e th to e ag m da door to home right next e at iv pr a ht ug School bo

R

8

POMFRET WINTER 2018

to become way for Eastover e th ng ri ea cl r, e Eastove erty to become th op pr ed ir qu ac e r the a dorm, and th oughly a year afte R e. us ho ol ho sc new head of as a dorm r opened its doors ve to as E ke ri st lightning new head of month later, the A e. tim st fir e th med for se, was officially na ou H l el pb am C 9, who school house, as Campbell P ’0 om Th ee st ru T of in honor n. the transformatio in le ro l ca iti cr a played

9

HILLTOP

Family Weekend OCTOBER 26-28, 2017

(L-R): Matt and Trang Aronian, Kayla Doan ’21 holding Mason Aronian, Quyen and John Glowik and two daughters Lilly and Ella

(L-R): Asiye, Peri ’19, and Peter Kay

10

POMFRET WINTER 2018

(L-R): Danielle, Brian, and Chelsey ’19 Castle

(L-R): Pete, Sarah, Maddy ’19, and Toby ’89 Metcalf

(L-R): Bowen Smith (GP), Bryce Voges ’18, and Kendall Smith (Mom)

(L-R): Lesley and Jeffrey ’20 Gibbs

(L-R): The family of Jaime Ortigüela Lòpez-Chacarra ’20

(L-R): Mariella ’18 and Rosie Catalano

(L-R): Birgit and Leah ’19 Maffucci

11

HILLTOP

Xintong “Eva” Qi ’20 HOMETOWN: BEIJING, CHINA

Sarah-Anne Wildgoose 12

POMFRET WINTER 2018

CHAIR OF THE DIGITAL ARTS, TECHNOLOGY, AND DESIGN DEPARTMENT

The Future of Design THINKING IN 3D WITH XINTONG “EVA” QI ’20

L

ike a snowflake, Eva Qi’s ideas start from almost nothing at all — a speck of dust, a wisp of cloud, a drop of rain. “I’m fascinated by the way the physical world intersects with the digital,” she says.

The process of creating three-dimensional objects from digital files dates back to 1986 when the first 3D printing patent was issued to the American engineer Chuck Hull. Today, 3D printers have taken the world by storm, revolutionizing the way everyday objects are made. Stoneware vases. Bicycle parts. Cheeseburgers. Nothing is off limits.

For the past ten years, engineers and designers have used 3D printers to make cheap prototypes before embarking on the real thing, but that is quickly changing. By the year 2020, many experts believe the use of 3D printers could account for 50 percent or more of all finished products.

In principle, 3D printing works much the same way as traditional inkjet printing. If you were to print over the same page a few thousand times, a three dimensional model of each letter would eventually emerge.

Though modern 3D printers have improved upon that concept considerably, the idea is basically the same.

The nexus of the 3D revolution at Pomfret is the Digital Arts, Technology, and Design Department. Housed in the duPont Library and chaired by Sarah-Anne Wildgoose, the program focuses on design, media, photography, film, and sound. Before becoming the chair of the department, Wildgoose was an adjunct professor at the Rhode Island

School of Design (RISD) in Providence, one of the best design schools in the country.

“Eva is insatiably curious,” Wildgoose says. “She sees the world from an entirely different perspective.” As a student in Wildgoose’s Design Build class, Eva fell in love with the magic of 3D printing. Before long, she had embarked on a string of successful design projects, each more ambitious than the last.

The first assignment was a snowflake. To start, Eva cut several designs by hand. “Computers are great, but I prefer to start with paper and pencil.” After scanning her favorite design concept into the computer, she used a program called SolidWorks to further develop her idea, slowly turning a 2D image into a 3D model.

After four weeks of work, she was finally ready to hit print.

And just like that, the machine whirred to life, its print head moving slowly (really slowly) back and forth across the build platform, laying down one intricate layer of material after the next. Eighteen hours later, the snowflake was ready. “It takes a long time,” she says, “but is definitely worth the wait.”

As a sophomore, Eva’s future is bright. She already has a full roster of projects in her print queue, including a trio of models with movable joints. “By the end of the spring term, I am hoping to build a person, a wolf, and a bird,” she says. “If I can imagine it, I can make it.”

THIS STORY FIRST APPEARED IN POMFRET’S 2016-2017 ANNUAL REPORT OF APPRECIATION.

13

HILLTOP

TURNS FIVE

14

POMFRET WINTER 2018

B

right red balloons hung in the air. Below them, teams of students were busy showing off their project work to friends, family, faculty, and alumni who had gathered in Strong Field House to celebrate the culmination of Project: Pomfret 2017. It was a fitting end to the School’s signature academic initiative, which turned five in December.

In one corner, a project group was screening a gravity-defying video of geese flying high above the Pomfret campus. Halfway across the room, another team was talking about the link between gratitude and attitude.

A few tables down, a third group was highlighting work they had done on Pomfret’s extensive trail network.

In total, twenty-three different project teams, plus a group that had traveled to Costa Rica, were on hand to share what they had accomplished during the project period between Thanksgiving and Winter Break.

“My experience this year was the most progress-packed, two-anda-half weeks of school so far,” says Beny Huckaby ’19, who co-led the Drones and Technology team. “This year’s project was fueled by interest and passion. I woke up every day excited to get to work.”

Huckaby’s enthusiasm is not unique. These days there is a real sense of energy and excitement on campus. “For young people to flourish, lead, create, and solve complex problems in a changing world,” says Head of School Tim Richards, “we must prepare them wisely, differently, and well.”

Project: Pomfret does just that by encouraging students to tackle complex problems in ways that are deeply and uniquely transformative.

Students working in small teams immerse themselves in the design thinking process, which emphasizes empathy, problem identification,

ideating possible solutions, creating prototypes, and testing those prototypes in the real world to gather feedback. The capstone of the program is a project fair, where students share and celebrate their design work with the Pomfret community.

This year, students investigated problems in important areas like science and technology, the arts, media and communications, the environment, health and wellness, and community building. “Design thinking gives every project group a common framework to work with,” says History Teacher Katie Duglin ’01, who coordinates Project: Pomfret. “Even though they are working on vastly different problems, they are using the same process and the same language.”

Throughout the project period, faculty members served as co-learners and journey guides. Their job was not so much to teach (in the traditional sense) as it was to facilitate. “I felt like our group’s direction was a process of continuous consensus building,” says History Teacher Katie Wells, a faculty mentor with the Natural Awareness team. “More so this year than any previous year, I leaned into the idea that decision making was not in the adult’s hands.”

In addition to the faculty mentor position, a new position called the faculty coach was introduced in 2017. Science Teacher Bill Martin coached three different project teams. “I was responsible for guiding teams through the universal design process,” he says. “I (mostly) kept out of the specific details involved in creating the various project components. As a coach, my job was to take more of a 2,000-foot view, which allowed me to guide the progress in a more general way.”

15

HILLTOP

As part of the design thinking process, students also worked with alumni consultants, who offered feedback, provided resources, and participated in programming. This year forty alumni, representing a wide range of interests and expertise, participated in the program, up from twenty-four last year.

One of those alumni consultants was Derry Allen ’65, who worked with the team studying food waste at Pomfret. “One-third of the food produced in the world is not eaten,” Allen says. “The fraction is lower at Pomfret, but the students saw opportunities to reduce food waste in the dining hall by promoting student awareness and behavioral change.”

Allen should know. He spent a long and distinguished career at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) tackling issues of sustainability, including food waste, on a national scale. Based, in part, on his suggestions, students researched the subject, and conducted interviews and surveys to better understand student perceptions of the issue. The result was a series of food waste recommendations. “When I visited the campus recently,” Allen says, “one of the student leaders was pleased to show me small signs at each table in the dining hall encouraging students not to waste food.”

This was a big year for Project: Pomfret. After carefully reviewing feedback from the previous year, Katie Duglin decided to make several

targeted improvements. “This program is not set in stone,” she says. “It is designed to change and evolve. My goal was to assess what was good about previous iterations — the things we wanted to keep — and to modify the things that were less successful.”

In particular, Duglin felt the School needed to modify the project requirements so that all projects would tackle human-centered, relevant, and meaningful problems. In addition, she made changes to the daily schedule, giving project groups more flexibility. To better support faculty, she added a weekly meeting for them to ask questions and give feedback in real-time. She also offered more training, particularly around the design thinking process, and beefed up support for student project leaders.

In the end, those changes paid off. “I came into the project thinking I knew exactly how it would unfold, but after multiple productive discussions and healthy debates, we refined our vision,” says Ellie Sangree ’20, who was a student leader on the Natural Awareness team.

“It was surprising how much could change from a single discussion! It made me think about the project in terms of continuity and durability — producing something that will hopefully last longer than my relatively short time at Pomfret.”

FRESHMEN FUNDAMENTALS DURING PROJECT: POMFRET, THIRD FORMERS EXPLORED THE ART AND IMPORTANCE OF STORYTELLING.

H

ow do we capture and tell the stories of others? This big question became the framework for the freshman class during Project: Pomfret this year.

Students began the two-week experience with a visit to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. By examining a variety of artistic mediums, they gained deeper insight into how art can communicate complex stories. On the heels of the MFA visit — and inspired by the well-known photoblog Humans of New York — students fanned out across Boston to practice their interview skills, capturing conversations with ordinary people right on the street.

During the second week of the project period, students conducted a genealogical survey of nearby Sabin Cemetery in Pomfret. The heart of the experience was a grave rubbing exercise. After taking

a look at other people’s families in the cemetery, students turned their attention to their own family trees, conducting interviews and research that stretched back four generations.

The culmination of the freshman experience was a project modeled after NPR’s The Moth, which challenged students to identify and tell the stories of “survivors” in their extended families. These stories were delivered live during the project fair.

“This project was a challenging and richly rewarding process for our students,” says Director of Student Growth Erin Fisher, who coordinated the freshman experience. “What they offered one another and the whole school community was unique, special, and a gift to us all.”

PROJECT LIST Project 1 | Documentary Filmmaking Project 2 | Student Diet and Nutrition Project 3 | Culture and Food Project 4 | Environmental Impact

16

POMFRET WINTER 2018

Project 5 | GriffGo App Project 6 | Robotics Project 7 | The College Process Project 8 | Health and Wellness - Team 1

Project 9 | Health and Wellness - Team 2 Project 10 | Screen Printing Project 11 | Healthy Meals and Food Waste Project 12 | Rescue Animals

THE FIVE STEPS OF

DESIGN THINKING

1 EMPATHIZE Gather information.

Keep an open mind.

Listen.

2

TEST Share your prototypes.

Solicit feedback.

Make changes.

DEFINE Describe the problem you want to solve.

5

PROTOTYPE Bring your best ideas to life.

Keep it simple.

Project 13 | Community Outreach Project 14 | Student Expression Project 15 | Drones and Video Project 16 | Working with Younger Students

4

IDEATE Brainstorm. No idea is too improbable to write down.

Project 17 | Ending Stereotypes about Gamers Project 18 | Gratitude + Attitude Project 19 | Pomfret Prep Sports Network (PPSN) Project 20 | Environmental Appreciation

3

Project 21 | Improving the Campus Appearance Project 22 | Music Performance Project 23 | Pomfret Life Hacks Project 24 | Trip to Costa Rica

17

HILLTOP

People First, Labels Second What LGBTQ+ really means

By Katie Wells and Lydia Mann

W

hat is the first remark you often hear a doctor exclaim when a baby first appears in the world? “He’s a boy!” or “She’s a girl!”.

Or maybe you attended a gender reveal baby shower before that moment ever arrived?

At the beginning of the school year, we hosted a faculty development session about gender identity. Our purpose was to broaden and deepen the conversation surrounding LGBTQ+ people here on campus. While there is so much to understand, we dedicated most of our discussion to the T (transgender) in the acronym, because it isn’t a question of whether or not Pomfret will have transgender or gender non-conforming applicants in the future, it’s a question of when.

We realize that becoming fluent in the vocabulary of human rights can take some practice. Since it is not the responsibility of those who identify in the LGBTQ+ community to educate the cisgender or straight community, we were gratified to see so many faculty curious to grow and engage in the conversation. No one person — ourselves included — can claim expertise. We asked everyone to “come as they are.” Whatever base level of understanding participants had coming into the session was okay by us.

We began with the basic distinction between gender, sex, and sexuality. Although some faculty might have left with more questions than answers, most faculty walked away having wrestled with a primary distinction: identifying with the sex you were assigned at birth (cisgender) is different from not identifying with the sex you were assigned at birth (transgender). We also emphasized the difference between how you identify as an individual (gender identity) and who you are attracted to (sexuality). These fundamental distinctions in terminology were a good starting place, but they did not represent a culmination of our discussion.

18

POMFRET WINTER 2018

This isn’t only about terms. At the heart of this movement, we are asking people to step away from their ingrained desire to label. Lesbian women, gay men, bisexual people, trans people, questioning people, queer people, and closeted people have always existed in human history — everywhere on Earth. However, history has not always possessed the vocabulary to help society label and understand LGBTQ+ folks.

In recent history, the lexicon has steadily grown. Some now even mock the length of the acronym (LGBTQ+) as endless. We encourage humility, patience, and courage, because asking “when will it end?” is not the point. Asking another human being “what makes you feel whole?” or “what makes you, you?” is the point. Society has not always had access to the labels that we hear and utter so frequently today. By parallel extension, society has not always had access to the term “PTSD.” Just because the term didn’t exist before does not mean the condition did not exist before.

Now that we have access to all sorts of labels, it is important to not allow the label to define the person. Each human being has a unique story to tell.

The greatest coming out story is not the latest headline from Caitlyn Jenner or the first trans member of Congress or the updated bathroom policies on boarding school campuses. The greatest coming out story will be when straight, cisgendered people can break free from the temptation to label others. As cisgender women, we do not get to decide the identity of our neighbors. We do not get to limit identity to a stagnant list of pronouns in the English language. We have to evolve because the people around us, whom issues of gender most affect, need us to do the learning.

Everyone should be allowed to identify themselves on their own terms and, as a school, we want to be ready when they do.

Katie Wells is the Chair of the History Department at Pomfret and advisor to the Gender Sexuality Alliance on campus. Lydia Mann is the Associate Director of College Counseling.

Breaking Ground

T

The new Health and Wellness Center is slated to open this fall.

en men and women stood in the grass, each with a shovel in hand. Before them, a crowd of nearly one hundred people had gathered to celebrate the groundbreaking of Pomfret’s first new building in ten years.

“How many of you have seen our health center?” asked Head of School Tim Richards. Almost nobody raised their hand. “There’s a good reason for that. We don’t show it to people.”

Hidden away in the lower level of the Main House, the current health center is dated. It was created in 1979 when its predecessor, Pyne Infirmary, was converted to a dorm. It has only one examination room and limited space for intake, treatment, and observation.

There are no private bedrooms, and no private spaces for counseling.

“We have an incredibly talented group of doctors, nurses, and counselors who do great work with our kids,” said Richards, “but the space is not particularly warm or inviting. It’s not a great place to care for children.”

Scheduled to open in the fall of 2018, the new $4 million Health and Wellness Center — situated between Robinson House and the Main House — will be a state-of-the-art healthcare facility filled with abundant natural light. The standalone building will feature four single bedrooms with private baths, a multi-bed observation room, intake and consultation rooms, and three private counseling rooms. Rounding out the project, the

building will include two faculty apartments on its second floor, and a new $600,000 multi-use wellness studio in Strong Field House.

Among the biggest operational changes, the new center will bring nurses and counselors together under the same roof for the first time, allowing for a higher level of collaboration, and ultimately, of care. “We’ve made a commitment not just to the health side,” Richards said, “but the wellness side as well.”

The new center will also solve another problem. The current health center is only staffed for twelve hours a day during the week and three hours per day on Saturday and Sunday. That means faculty are tasked, sometimes in the wee hours of the morning, with taking care of very sick kids. The new health and wellness center will be a state-licensed infirmary that provides twenty-four hour nursing care seven days a week.

Near the end of the ceremony, just before nine shovels pierced the soft ground, Chaplain Bobby Fisher took to the podium and delivered a blessing to mark the occasion: “May this ground on which we now stand soon be the foundation for something transformational... The center where good health and total wellness bridge to reach every other element and aspect of our busy and often complicated lives... We are grateful, humbled, and excited to be gathered, standing on this ground, at the moment of beginning for such a dynamic, vital new addition that will undoubtedly enrich the quality of school life and our lives.”

19

HILLTOP

A Call to Action AT POMFRET, SERVICE IS MORE THAN AN IDEA.

I

n May, the Community Service Office announced a new afterschool program that places student interns with social service agencies in the local community.

“Pomfret is located in one of the poorest counties in the state,” said Anne Richards, who oversees community service at Pomfret. “By participating in the community service program at Pomfret, students form the values and life lessons they will need to lead lives

20

POMFRET WINTER 2018

of integrity, civic engagement, and social responsibility as adults.”

So far, three local organizations have joined the program: TEEG in North Grosvenordale, The Arc Emporium in Woodstock, and the Pomfret Public Library in Pomfret. As a requirement of the program, student interns volunteer one or two days each week for the duration of the academic term.

“Our partners benefit from the energy and ideas (not to mention free labor) of our students,”

Richards said. “In turn, our students build transferable skills and gain valuable work experience while serving others.”

One of the early success stories has been a partnership with the Arc of Quinebaug Valley, a nonprofit human services agency committed to supporting individuals (and their families) with intellectual and developmental abilities.

As part of its charitable work, the organization runs The Arc Emporium, a thrift store offering

new and used clothing items and accessories for resale.

Student interns placed at the Emporium recently opened an unofficial satellite location on the Pomfret campus, with proceeds going back to the Arc. “It is fully student run,” Richards said. “It opened this year with a dorm item sale, and all the proceeds went to hurricane relief.”

Flora and Fawn-a

By Ellie Sangree ’20

W

hen I was in second grade, someone on NPR said that nature is beautiful in all senses. Nature is beautiful in all senses. I thought that they meant in all senses — seeing, smelling, hearing, touching, and tasting. I don’t know why this of all things left such an impression on me, but I’ve carried it with me, let it board my train of thought. I remember that because of this memory, I always wanted to give fair chances of being beautiful to both the good and the decidedly less good things in nature. On hikes with my family, I would stop to smell both dainty, sweet wildflowers and humble earthy moss; hear both lovely twitters of wrens and rough cackles of crows; look at the twitching green canopy above and the dirty iron-stained rivers with the same objective view.

I also remember realizing that nature is everywhere. It was in the cracks of sidewalks and gardens full of weeds; it was in mosquitos just as much as it was in waterfalls. Nature, as a mysterious and pervasive force, was undoubtedly an influential presence in my life growing up.

When I was in fith grade my family got a TV; later, they got me a laptop. This fascination with nature, while still present when going on family hikes, was dulled. Instead, Cartoon Network and the Disney Channel captivated my young mind, like any other kid, for hours at a time.

Two summers ago, I got really into health and fitness and would go on trail runs in the woods almost every day.

Phone in hand, earbuds in, and blasting, I ran on the trails near my house in determined discomfort. One such day, I was running on a trail that paralleled a river, listening to a podcast about parasites. That’s all I experienced: discomfort from running and a podcast about parasites that I barely remember because of focusing on running and not tripping over rocks — just rocks and a blur of green and brown around me. I didn’t notice a single feature of the landscape; I was determined and unobservant.

I turned around at some point and headed back the way I’d come and then about halfway back to my starting point a shrub at my waist snagged my headphones right out of my ears. I must’ve made some sort of a startled noise from the surprise of it, because at that moment something on the ground twitched. Right off the trail, nestled against an old stone wall, laid a fawn. I stared back at

it, wondering why it wasn’t running away from me. I tiptoed closer to it. It blinked at me. A twig snapped loudly under my weight, and the fawn exhaled sharply in panic. We were both frozen for a solid minute, probably thinking totally different things.

Coming out of this daze, I became aware once more of the phone in my hand. I started thinking about how I would text my sister about this; how I could take a picture and share it with my friends. I’m still not quite sure what it was, but something — some mysterious force — stopped these thoughts dead in their tracks and made me turn away from the fawn.

I, like the fawn, became immensely startled and confused.

That force, whatever it was, was at the forefront of my mind; it pushed and pulled my thoughts to all sorts of places.

It made me look up at the trees above, whose branches stretched out like a splintery Jackson Pollock painting on a ruffled cerulean canvas. My head, tilted up to the sky, absorbed the sunlight like the magic of photosynthesis taking place many feet above. Then the mysterious force pulled my gaze to the ground, to the leaves sprawled about, waiting their turns to return to the earth and later grow as something new. Then to the river, which gushed and skipped through the forest like it had somewhere to be. The rocks, which stood defiantly in the middle, had white veils of hastened water pulled over them; they made me think of widowed brides. Then finally, it brought my gaze back to the fawn, which now I saw in vivid detail. Its sweet brown coat, speckled with those signature white spots, twitched as if every muscle of its body was tensed with my presence. Its eyes — huge, brown, and unsettlingly empty — still gazed up at me in unblinking terror. It was unsure what I would do, and I was too. Then, suddenly interrupting the mysterious force, my phone buzzed in my pocket; my mom was asking where I was. I nodded at the deer, who undoubtedly had no idea what was going on, and turned to leave.

I started down the trail, my mind a spinning wheel of thought. I was walking instead of running; experiencing instead of doing. I was noticing little things like the dewdrops on the ferns and the twisting vines reaching into lovely uncertainty.

A moth fluttered this way and that, it too going somewhere I didn’t know. Some dying mushrooms melted into the earth, releasing an odor of rotting flesh in some sort of defiant final act. Everything had intention; everything was beautiful — in all senses. Then I realized that I hadn’t put my headphones back in my ears; then I realized: I didn’t want to.

19

HILLTOP

The NEW Pomfret School Gallery A public celebration of the creative spirit

T

he new and improved Pomfret School Gallery opened to great fanfare on Friday, November 3, 2017. The evening included a ribbon cutting, refreshments, interactive activities, and the opportunity to meet Pomfret graduate and current Davidson College art student Rebecca Pempek ’16, whose inaugural exhibit, A Disfigure Study, decorated the new space.

Since 2013, the off-campus gallery has been home to a rotating exhibit of student, faculty, and guest artwork. In November, it moved from its original home inside Silver Circle Art Center into a much larger space on the second floor of the historic Bosworth Block Building, a few blocks away from the original location in the heart of downtown Putnam, Connecticut.

“We were limited by the size of the original gallery,” says Chip Lamb, who chairs the Fine Arts Department at Pomfret. “This space will allow us to do a lot more.”

22

POMFRET WINTER 2018

Overlooking Cargill Falls, the new venue is huge.

At 1,400 square feet, it’s roughly four times the size of the old gallery, with 12-foot high ceilings and red brick walls.

“It is the ultimate real world experience,” says Studio Arts Teacher J.P. Jacquet, who manages the gallery. “In addition to creating and curating exhibits, students will be responsible for pricing and marketing their own shows, and interacting with visitors.” In addition, many of the pieces are available for purchase, and the proceeds will benefit the operation of the gallery.

With the new space, Lamb and Jacquet have also begun to reimagine what a gallery can be: three-dimensional artwork, live performances, classes for the public, and special events.

Everything is on the table.

The change in location has also precipitated a small but important change in name. Formerly P.S.

“

In addition to creating and curating exhibits, students will be responsible for pricing and marketing their own shows, and interacting with visitors.

”

Art, the new space is simply called the Pomfret School Gallery. “Many members of the local community did not immediately associate the letters ‘P.S.’ with Pomfret School,” Lamb says. “Dropping the word ‘art’ reflects our desire to expand the scale and scope of what is possible in the new space.”

In January, the gallery wrapped up its second exhibit, Year in Review, featuring original paintings, drawings, sculptures, pottery, photographs, and mixed media pieces created by dozens of students, alumni, and faculty, with proceeds from the sale of artwork supporting a new art therapy program for at-risk youth in our region.

“For this thing to work, the community needs to embrace it,” says Jacquet. “And so far, the reaction has been very positive.”

Pomfret School Gallery is located at 134 Main Street, 2nd Floor, in downtown Putnam, CT. We are open Wednesday - Saturday from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM and Sunday from 12:00 to 4:00 PM. A special thanks to Silver Circle Art Center for helping us staff the Gallery.

A Disfigure Study

R

ebecca Pempek’s ’16 new body of work is a compilation of years devoted to perfecting the human form.

A Disfigure Study demonstrate an evolution and maturity in Pempek’s quest to understand the nuances of the figure. A Pomfret graduate and current studio art major at Davidson College, her drawings and large oil paint canvases evoke a stream-of-consciousness narrative.

For Pempek, this means painting as she goes and leaving marks, intentional and unintentional. “What initially began as clear figuration,” she says, “shifted to more cerebral imagery that questions the human spirit.”

This is a collection of juxtapositions: birth and death, light and dark, order and chaos, organic and inorganic, and remembering and forgetting. The gap between real and ideal is blurred harmoniously, and each work allows for a contemplative look at what is aesthetically accepted, ultimately asking the viewer to look closer.

23

HILLTOP

Scenes from American Life

Scenes from American Life

The fall theater production was Scenes from American Life by A. R. Gurney. Told with razor sharp wit and peppered with keen social commentary, this play is about the decline and fall of elitist American society in Buffalo, NY over a period of about 50 years.

Ensemble: Colin LeSage ’18 Arden Heminway ’19 Won Lee Cho ’19 Leslie Rosario-Olivo ’18 Emily Caspersen ’20 Elli Xiao ’18 Emerald Yu ’19 Blair Carpenter ’19 Arrietty Ji ’19 Cat Corona ’18 Oscar Xing ’20 T Dinh ’18

24

POMFRET WINTER 2018

Fall Dance Showcase

Fall Dance Showcase Choreographers: Trina Madziwa ’20 Vivien Mark ’20 Christina Mark ’21

Featuring: Jared Beniers ’18 Julia Klok ’20 Crystal Obuobi-Donkor ’20 Reece Sowka ’18 Patrick Burke (faculty) Tim Deary ’05 (faculty) Guests: Bridget Tsemo (faculty) Melissa Wyse (faculty) Marvin Aguilar (faculty) Jack Terwilliger ’20 Conan McGannon ’20 Emily Caspersen ’20 Dave Joly Directed by: Nina Joly

25

HILLTOP

“Seeing Sin” by Henry Reynal ’20

Manuscripts A REGULARLY PUBLISHED PORTFOLIO OF STUDENT AND FACULTY ARTWORK, WRITING, AND MUSIC.

“Martian” by Minnie Kim ’21

“Pomegranate” by Anastasiia Eremina ’20

26

POMFRET WINTER 2018

“Insomnia” by Candice Wang ’18

“Landscape” by Kathy Liang ’19

“In Salute to Renoir” by Emerald Yu ’19 “Paper Garment” by Ava Zhi ’19

27

HILLTOP

FRESH FACES

THIS YEAR WE ADDED 12 NEW FACULTY AND STAFF MEMBERS TO THE POMFRET COMMUNITY. MELISSA WYSE English Teacher Not Pictured

TODD MATTHEW English Teacher Soccer and Lacrosse Olive Cottage

QUINN MCMAHON Assistant Director of Admissions Lacrosse Orchard Cottage SABRINA PUTNAM Associate Director Admissions Lacrosse Olive Cottage

BECKY GRASSI Student Activities & Events Coordinator

CHARLOTTE MCMAHON English Teacher Field Hockey and Crew Orchard Cottage

ROB TOSTE History Teacher Soccer and Basketball Pyne Dormitory

READ THEIR FULL BIOS @ WWW.POMFRET.ORG

28

POMFRET WINTER 2018

CHLOE PRUDDEN Spanish Teacher Soccer and Basketball Eastover Dormitory HALEY SANBORN Director of Learning Support Lacrosse Orchard Cottage ERIC AURELIEN Assistant Athletic Trainer Plant Dormitory TUCKER PRUDDEN History Teacher and Learning Support Hockey and Lacrosse Eastover Dormitory SHANE DUNPHY ’11 Assistant Director of Admissions Hockey Bourne Dormitory

FACULTY & STAFF NEWS In November, Connecticut state legislator Pat Boyd, who is also a history teacher and assistant dean of students at Pomfret, was named 2017 Legislator of the Year by the Connecticut State Firefighters Association at their annual convention. The award recognizes Pat’s efforts and dedication in advocating for Connecticut firefighters.

History Teacher Quinn Brueggemann and Chemistry Teacher Tim Rose were married on June 24 in Vermont, surrounded by family, friends, and a number of Pomfret colleagues.

Athletic Trainer Lauren Jarominski and her husband Brian welcomed Ethan Stanley Jarominski into the world on June 28.

Former faculty member Matt Green (academic dean and english teacher from 2001-2009) will be the next head of school at Falmouth Academy in Falmouth, Massachusetts, starting in the 2018-19 school year. He is currently serving his ninth year as head of the Upper School at the Haverford School in Haverford, Pennsylvania.

History Teacher Katie Watkins and Director of Education Technology Tie Watkins added a new member to their family, Esme Gayle Watkins, on July 1. She joins twin sisters Cecelia and Vivian.

We were saddened to learn that former staff member Linda Welchman passed away on December 11. She was the wife of former faculty member Nick Welchman [Languages, 1962-1972]. Our condolences go out to their children, Geoff ’82 and Jennifer ’77, and the entire Welchman family.

29

HILLTOP

he 48: T Page otball Team o Great F 7 of 191

CHAMPS FOOTBALL CAPS PERFECT SEASON WITH CHAMPIONSHIP WIN

30

POMFRET WINTER 2018

Girls Varsity Soccer NEPSWSA CLASS B FINALIST

Chace Signs with Mountain Hawks

P

omfret midfielder John Chace ’18 signed a National Letter of Intent to play lacrosse for the Lehigh Mountain Hawks next year. “I chose Lehigh for the great lacrosse program, outstanding academics, and amazing campus,” Chace said.

Among his many accolades, Chace is a NXT Philly Invitational All-Star, Baltimore Summer Kickoff All-Star, and Jake Reed Bluechip Standout. In addition to Pomfret, he has played for the Top Gun Fighting Clams, a club program whose players have gone on to to play at some of the country’s most competitive colleges and universities. At Lehigh, Chace plans to study economics.

T

he girls varsity soccer team took their season all the way to the NEPSWSA Championship Class B Final, defeating Middlesex and Tabor in the quarterfinals and semifinals, before falling to Loomis Chaffee in double-overtime.

The team finished the season with a record of 16-1-2.

After the season ended, Erin Fisher was named Region Coach of the Year by United Soccer Coaches. Founded in 1941 and based in Kansas City, United Soccer Coaches is the world’s largest soccer coaches’ organization, serving members at every level of the game.

This prestigious award was presented at the annual High School Coaches Breakfast on Saturday, January 20 in Philadelphia, in conjunction with the 71st United Soccer Coaches Convention.

This year, Fisher led the girls varsity soccer team to the NEPSWSA Championship Class B Final, where they fell to Loomis Chaffee in double overtime. The team finished the season with a record of 16-1-2.

Deeded Award Winners - Fall » Maksim Kopnin ’18 » Claire E. Anderson ’18 NOBLE FIELD HOCKEY AWARD » Mariella R. Catalano ’18 BURKE FOOTBALL AWARD » Thos O. Kuffour ’18 THE RICHARDSON FOOTBALL CUP » Tobias R. Ketchum ’18 GIBLIN & METTLER SOCCER AWARD » Alvaro De Zabala ’20 DOMMERS SOCCER AWARD » Olivia C. Ferrara ’18 ROSENBERG VOLLEYBALL AWARD » Francesca M.M. Salerno DeGruchy ’18 WOOD SOCCER BOWL » Denton P. Lane ’18 WOOD SOCCER BOWL » Chase A. Zimmerman ’18 LUFKIN CROSS COUNTRY AWARD

KEATOR CROSS COUNTRY AWARD

31

CHAPEL TALK

CHAPEL TALK

American Girl

By Leslie Rosario-Olivo ’18

C

lose your eyes. It is December 25, and you are sitting criss-cross-applesauce on the floor of the apartment you share with your grandmother and your mom. The wooden floors are older than you are. Your small hands are feeling the scars that wandering furniture has left on them over the years. The air seeping in through the cracks where the radiator meets the floor sends chills up your back. You do not care. Your wellloved, monkey-themed pajamas are occupying your hands, the slightly beaded cotton balled up in your fists. The rustles of wrapping paper tighten your grip. You can smell your mom’s perfume. It dances its way around you. It is the same perfume she wears to her job at the bank. You like visiting her there. It dismantles the mystery of what she spends most of her days doing, if only for a little while. There is a grand staircase, and canvases bigger than your bed, and all of your mom’s coworkers think you’re adorable.

She has spent significantly more time there the last three months. There’s a slight whistle coming in from the left corner window. Someone forgot to close it all the way.

You can tell she has stopped moving. “Okay, you can open your eyes,” she says. You take in a deep breath, and see the red boxes with the pink stars. The logo reads clear in white, American Girl Doll, and you can feel the scream bubbling in your throat. You lunge at her before you bother to touch the boxes. You look at the boxes, you look at her, then back at the boxes, then back at her, all while screaming to avoid exploding from all the emotions coursing through your body. The labels read the same as the items you circled in the past three catalogues. You had tried to make them yourself out of a mixture of flour and water you dubbed clay because everything seemed to cost twenty-five dollars or more and you felt selfish asking for it. You carefully open the boxes. In your peripheral vision, you can see your mom on the edge of the couch beaming. Her eyes are tired, but she smiles with her phone in-hand recording your reactions. These are your first real status symbols, and it could not be more fitting that they were called American Girl Dolls. You will later learn what status means, but in the meantime, you just relish in the happiness of knowing you can belong to something outside of the apartment.

32

POMFRET WINTER 2018

You are older now. You are twelve and you are wading in a pool with your best friend somewhere in Vermont. The water is up to your shoulders at the four-foot section, and below the ripples, you are weightless. You push the water between your fingers, it reminds you of when you were younger and would pretend to be a waterbender. There are blades of grass where snow usually climbs up the tall windows shielding you from the outside. There’s a shove of water from behind you. Your eyes shut themselves and you hold your breath before the chlorinated water can make its way into your lungs. Your best friend yells at her brother, and he laughs, and their voices harmonize in chaos. The walls bounce it back to each other until they give up and let the sound fall. Your hair is now gently guiding drops of water down the strands and you do your best to keep it out of your face. Were it anyone else, you would’ve been filled with annoyance, but instead you feigned anger because you’ve been in love with the boy since fourth grade. “I’m gonna go get a Kit-Kat,” you announce to your best friend, and she decides to join you.

You pull your body out of the water.

It is heavier now. The fading blue tiles are rough. Your toes have gone wrinkly, but you still fear you’ll slip from the puddles. You can hear small splashes behind you as you waddle towards the door. “You know, you would be perfect if you were just a little bit skinnier.”

You instinctively look down at your body. You do not blush, you feign anger again, and walk past the

“

Status is starting to make sense to you.

You are quickly realizing you are not the American girl you thought you could become if you tried hard enough.

doors to the vending machine. Your best friend failed to hear what he said, so she does not say anything. Your favorite bathing suit with the blue wildflowers now feels too tight. Everything will always feel too tight. You forget about the Kit-Kat bar. Later that night you will look through Tumblr and wonder why only cute couple pictures with skinny white girls keep popping up. You wonder why your thighs and hips refuse to melt, why your hair refuses to dry sleek and straight, why your skin seems yellow rather than pink. You will later learn what status means, but in the meantime, you just wallow in the disappointment of knowing you do not look like the girls the boys you like seem to fall in love with.

You have grown a bit more, and you find yourself in a car with your dad. You are driving through New Jersey on your way to a friend’s beach house. The houses are pastel-colored with neatly manicured lawns. Every one of them has a boat. You double check the address your friend gave you and confirm the house number for your dad. He pulls into their driveway, and you jump out of the comfort of the air-conditioned car. You land on gray, rounded pebbles. Your friend’s family greets you and they invite you inside. You are, at first, overwhelmed by the resemblance their entrance has to a Town and Country magazine, but you are eventually reminded of the warmth and love radiating within their home. There are figurines made of driftwood on the walls, navy blue accents, and a smell similar to that of the Nantucket Breeze candle you bought last week.

Your friend has cornered you into the kitchen with her mother. You can hear your dad’s broken English blending with her

”

dad’s perfect English in the background as you catch up with her mother. You are tense at first, concerned about how they will react to your dad’s makeshift phrasing, but you are quickly reminded of the warmth they offer their guests. You do not choose to, but you can feel your voice climbing its way up to your nose. You do not sound like you are from the South Bronx anymore, and you continue to make the small talk you’ve mastered within the ivy covered brick buildings in your New England prep school. Your mom often mocks you for this and calls it your “Connecticut voice.” It comes time for your dad to start driving back home, so you hug and kiss him goodbye. His stubble leaves a slight itch on your cheek. Your friend’s mom asks you if you ate on the drive over and you confirm you had a sandwich and a Go-Go-Squeeze, to which your friend laughs and goes to grab one for herself from the refrigerator. You are fumbling with your pearl choker when she asks you, “So were you born here or in the Dominican Republic? I only ask because you don’t have a hint of an accent and it seems your parents do.” You are grateful for the redness from your dad’s stubble because you can feel heat rising to your cheeks. You explain you were born here, you spent some time living in the Dominican Republic, you speak Spanish with your grandmother, and you switch between the two with your parents.

You skip the story and only memory of first grade when your whole class laughed at you for answering an English grammar question wrong and you vowed to yourself that you would perfect the language. You do not resent her, and you do not resent her question.

Status is starting to make sense to you. You are quickly realizing you are not the American girl you thought you could become if you tried hard enough. The world will learn to say Galifianakis, Pawlowski, even Kravtsov correctly, but they will most likely stumble on the R’s and accent in Rosario-Olivo. You may dress like them, but you are shaped like the women of the island you are quickly forgetting. You may visit them at their upstate house, their seaside house, their year-round, five-floor house, but your zip code is still 10454. You may go to a prep school, but you will still miss the trips to Europe because the airfare is your tuition. Love will remain complicated, and you will keep your poetry about the boy you like who walks like he’s trying to get gum out from under his shoes to yourself from fear of similar words, but you will learn to appreciate yourself a little more. And you do not resent them. It has taken you so long to realize it, but you are not wrong for existing in more than one world, two worlds, five worlds even, because you exist in the gray areas of every place you’ve ever stepped foot in, and you wouldn’t wanna be anyone else.

33

FEATURE

The Grauer Institute: A Four Year Retrospective

By Jamie Feild Baker, Director of the Grauer Institute

34

POMFRET WINTER 2018

The story of bold innovation and leadership at Pomfret, including the scars we have to show, elicits amazement and envy from our peer schools.

A

H

ead of School Tim Richards often introduces me as Pomfret’s Chief Disruption Officer. My charge as Director of the Grauer Institute is “to create initiatives, approaches, and environments to drive bold educational innovation designed to establish Pomfret as a recognized leader in boarding school education” (from the job description). When I arrived at Pomfret almost four years ago, start-up funding and the idea of urgently questioning the status quo was all there was to the institute.

The Grauer Institute was established to oversee all aspects of the academic life of the school as a strategic initiative of the 2013 strategic plan, The Pomfret Purpose.

The Grauer family made a significant gift to underwrite the institute. Pomfret alumni, reunion class gifts, and interested individuals have also contributed to the institute because of the results, momentum, and excitement generated by its good work. In addition to funding the directorship, the Grauer family gift also established an annual budget to be directed by the institute for new endeavors only.

The strategic objective of the Grauer Institute is to align program, practices, processes, place, people, and possibilities to fulfill the school’s mission and cornerstone principles in a manner that is congruent with the world today. What is often not realized is that aligning to a world that is constantly changing requires relentless attention, diverse skills, and simultaneous projects and initiatives in process school-wide. Tony Wagner, co-director of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, uses the term future-wise to express this need for constant contextual relevance.

Pomfret’s strategy to become future-wise is to develop a school culture that understands, embraces, and engages in constant reassessment and redevelopment without incident. This highly agile culture welcomes disruption

IDEA

because of where it leads us and makes us better. We will know our culture has become agile when changing evolves from an emotion-laden event coordinated by endless meetings to an imperceptible, ingrained way of thinking and being.

Like developing any muscle, we develop our cultural agility by focusing time and effort to do the work of questioning, eliminating, problem-solving, designing, implementing, reflecting, iterating, celebrating. The institute intentionally began by holding provocative conversations and initiating projects to agitate the status quo, reveal limiting mindsets, and cut through entrenched habits and routines. We did so to clear space for creative motivation and vision to emerge. The difficult reality for any community, much less one that lives together, is that pressuring what is the norm creates friction, tension, and discomfort. Resistance and anxiety are unavoidable, growing pains, part of the work out process. Working through the emotions as well as the details of creating new is messy.

The story of bold innovation and leadership at Pomfret, including the scars we have to show, elicits amazement and envy from our peer schools. They are beyond curious about how we are moving forward. The institute’s many projects and initiatives have transformed the learning environment, deepened our commitment to relevant curriculum, increased faculty’s repertoire of teaching approaches, and created a new energy and excitement around supporting each other as well as our students. Looking back at the work that has been accomplished through the influence of the Grauer Institute, I believe Pomfret has become more than a thought leader. Pomfret is actually defining the modern learning experience for traditional boarding schools.

35

FEATURE

THE

» Analyze everything from lens of student-centered, relevant, and meaningful

» Drop the Advanced Placement (AP) curriculum » Support faculty-created curriculum with well-defined skill outcomes

» Promote interdisciplinary course development and cooperative teaching

» Develop curriculum that teaches how, not what, to think.

» Organize program to achieve foundational skills

mastery and student responsibility for lower forms and deeper content exploration in upper forms › Freshman Fundamentals program Freshman Experience during Project: Pomfret period • Freshman study hall and skills seminars Arts Immersion Humanities 1 & 2 •

› ›

› Sophomore Sequence: Health & Wellness, Art Elective, Communication

» Increase student choice in areas of interest and

course selection in upper years › 300 and 400 level offering for juniors and seniors › Distinct term offerings in core requirements › Certificates of concentration in Sustainability, STEM, Social Justice

» Increase opportunities for global study and

international travel › Global Sustainable Development course and travel › Language-based travel › International summer program

» Focus on critical thinking and creative

problem-solving during Project: Pomfret

I see the work of the institute as motivating Pomfret and its faculty to think of the best ways to educate our students. Through our new schedule, Project: Pomfret, initiatives like our study abroad partnership in Costa Rica, and a strategic focus on faculty growth, the Grauer Institute has helped us shift, change, and grow in positive ways. As a teacher, the work of the institute has allowed me to truly become a creator.

Through professional development opportunities, I have consistently thought about, reflected upon, and shifted my practice. As a faculty, we now, more than ever before, consistently share our practices and work together to help colleagues and students learn, grow, and improve. The culture of sharing, thinking, and growing that has been established by the institute over the last four years has made us better. There have been growing pains during these shifts, but, in my opinion, the Grauer Institute’s overall impact has been positive for our students, faculty, and our entire school community.

Patrick Burke, Director of Faculty Mentoring and Development, History Teacher

36

POMFRET WINTER 2018

As a new faculty member, the Grauer Institute has helped shape my pedagogy. I was fortunate to attend Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education this past summer and will be attending a conference on educating mindful students this spring. These educational opportunities allow me to learn beyond the content of my classes and require me to dive deeper into the psychological and social-emotional learning of my students. I am thankful that even as a younger faculty member I am able to gain quality experience through the learning environment that the Grauer Institute is developing.

Samantha Slotnick ’10, Math Teacher

» Increase hands-on experiences › The Helios Greenhouse and Grow beds › Open spaces with both low tech and high tech tools › Design-thinking and prototyping › TEDx › Engineering courses › Model UN course and conference participation › Forensics course with active excavation of bones » Increase knowledge and use of growth or mastery-based assessments › Mastery Transcript Consortium › Ongoing placement or leveling assessments › College Work Readiness Assessment › Tessera Assessment of Social and Emotional Skills › Adaptive technology that targets instruction like ALEKS and MEMbean › Performance tasks workshop

» Develop ways to offer frequent, meaningful, and

actionable feedback › Performance assessment comments pilot › Reflection-based assessment strategies during Project: Pomfret › Rubrics built from NAIS Essential Skills Capacities › Standard syllabus format with assessments as first design decision

» Teach for clear understanding and application

of knowledge › Skills and thinking goals in addition to content › Switch between whole group, small group, and individual work modes › Letting students discover through inquiry instead of lecture › Harvard’s Project Zero Classroom thinking routines and strategies › Exhibitions and culminating learning demonstrations and products › Performance tasks › Portfolio

» Model continuous inquiry and learning › Faculty to attend and present at regional and national conferences

› School Visits › Host visitors from other schools › Goal-setting and reflections about teaching in Folio

The Grauer Institute continues to nudge Pomfret faculty to look carefully at our curriculum and challenge our assumptions about what we teach, how we teach, and why we teach. The focus has been on the student experience and how this experience is preparing our graduates for lives of fulfillment and success in the world today. While these changes have not always been easy, the institute has invigorated the faculty and prompted a level of creativity and curiosity that brings us closer as educators. We talk more, collaborate more, and champion innovation.

Chip Lamb, Arts Department Chair, Theater Director

37

FEATURE

» Create spaces for active learning and collaboration › Classrooms with no front-of-the-class › Mobile and flexible furnishings › Ample writable surfaces › Seamless access to technology everywhere › Learning spaces in hallways and common areas › Collaborative offices for departments › Collaborative study spaces and group work spaces › Collaborative Learning Center and renovation of du Pont library

› Centennial auditorium as multipurpose learning space

› Language and computer labs to flexible

» Arrange time and schedule to support inquiry, creative

problem-solving, discussions of learning › 80-minute classes, 6 block schedule › 3 classes per day › Dedicated office hours, advisory periods, faculty and department meeting time › Discontinue faculty meetings in the evenings and during breaks › Active and engaged learning in the classroom › Students lead learning, questioning › Students collaborating versus competing › Teachers as learning coaches and guides

learning spaces

Urgent pushing by the Grauer Institute opened the door and provided an opportunity for the core ideas behind the Helios Project to germinate and grow. The critical factors were the institute’s bold directives of creating significantly longer class periods and replacing the AP curriculum with more hands-on, relevant, and meaningful learning. With the institute’s help in securing a grant from the E. E. Ford Foundation, we were able to construct a passive solar aquaponic greenhouse completed through significant student efforts. Without the Grauer Institute’s insistence on looking at our long-held assumptions about education, its leadership questioning everything we do, and help in imagining new ways, none of this exciting work would have been possible.

Bill Martin, Biology and Aquaponics Teacher, Helios Project Founder

» Build broader range of teaching skills, strategies,

and common language › Strategic application of professional development funds › Weekly faculty meetings › Bi-weekly department meetings › 3 professional learning days per year › Department and administrative retreats › Summer Institutes at Pomfret › POMCon › Outside expert and speaker workshops › Technology upgrades and skills workshops › Google Apps for Education › Apple platform for faculty and students › Piloting iPads and Virtual Reality system in language study › Email signatures denoting all teacher roles

38

POMFRET WINTER 2018

» Develop institutional education philosophy aligned

to mission and cornerstone principles; increase teacher skills and strategies › Project Zero at Harvard Graduate School of Education for all teaching faculty › Bard College Writing & Thinking Institute for year-long professional learning with English and History departments › Henry Ford Design Thinking Institute › High Tech High Deeper Learning Conference › Folio Summer Institute › Hewitt Foundation Performance Task Institute › Multicultural Teaching Institute › NEASC accreditation workshop › Independent Curriculum Group retreat

Participation in the Harvard Graduate School of Education Project Zero and the Bard College Writing and Thinking Institute are examples of options never available before to English Department members. As a result, I have witnessed a significant change in faculty attitudes and practices. There is more collaboration and an authentic commitment to growing professionally that did not exist before the Grauer Institute. Pomfret students are learning how to think and work together by encountering dilemmas with no right or wrong answers. They are moving around in our classes, which stimulates more diverse thinking from different parts of their brains. Our students are growing into better critical thinkers instead of just passively listening to teachers lecturing, which was the primary teaching approach at Pomfret before the Grauer Institute intervened.

As educational changes are made at private schools, some choose the long road with a slowpaced introduction of teaching and learning models. To be truly forward-thinking, Pomfret took a chance by diving right in with the guidance of the Grauer Institute. Longer classes and more student-centered learning stretched us all to be better. Curriculum changes are evolving as a result of in-house, faculty-led workshops and attendance at conferences. I have appreciated the input I have gained from my colleagues, as well as the encouragement from the administration to try new things and to not fear failure.

Jim Rees, Senior Master, French Teacher

Bridget Tsemo, English Department Chair

Since joining the school in 2015, I have been impressed and energized by the innovation in learning and teaching that the Grauer Institute has brought to Pomfret. Attending the Harvard Graduate School of Education Project Zero after my first year at Pomfret added significantly to my toolbox as a teacher.

Our students are unable to be passive because regularly they are engaged in ways that require they show their learning and their thought processes. Teachers now visit other teachers’ classes and we are learning from each other how to engage our students while pushing them forward in their thinking.

Doug MacLeod, Curriculum Coordinator, History Teacher

» Increase instructional leadership and coaching › Department Chair leadership training at AISNE › Learning and Teaching Coordinator › Folio › Redesign enrollment, registration, comment-writing processes

» Share research-based knowledge of how students learn,

optimal learning environments, and student motivation › Director Student Growth to develop 4-year program to increase student positivity, self-management, social and emotional intelligence, resilience, and engagement › Learning and the Brain Conference

» Build professional network and connections › Increased faculty attendance at regional and national › ›

education conferences such as NAIS, TABS, OESIS, NEASC, AISNE, CAIS, ACTFL, NCTM Present workshops about Pomfret’s transformation at NAIS, NEASC, TABS, ADVIS, AISNE, NJAIS, MAIS, CAIS, Folio Institute Join Mastery Transcript Consortium, International Society of Tech Educators, Association of Technology Leaders in Independent Schools, Independent Curriculum Group, Boarding School Innovator’s group, Global Education Benchmark Group

39

FEATURE

The Grauer Institute has provided us the permission, professional development, confidence, and urgency to make changes happen. The sunsetting of the AP curriculum unshackled our teachers, allowing them to bring students on new passion-inspired ventures. The schedule change gave us a great opportunity to reconsider both how and what we teach. We are now able to expand into full project-based learning on a more regular basis, going deeper than ever with authentic scientific work. Our students have bloomed in this new skills-driven environment.

Josh Lake, Science Department Chair, Physics and Astronomy Teacher

The Grauer Institute has challenged and empowered me as a department chair and as an educator. The institute has inspired many changes in the math department, including a clearer and better-articulated vision, the use of an artificially intelligent learning system, and a shared philosophy of student centeredness and relevance. The institute has allowed us to critically examine the curriculum and our teaching methods and inspired us to change. We now provide a better math experience – one that grounds skill in application and readies students for their futures in the world today.

Brian Rice, Math Department Chair

» Position department chairs as instructional and curricular leaders of their disciplines

» Institute Teaching and Learning Committee (TLC) to consist of the department chairs, Academic Office, and project leaders

» Revise all Academic Office job descriptions to focus on realizing school vision

» Use school-wide collaborative approach to

prepare New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) re-accreditation report

» Add Director of Student Growth position to create programs that target positive student culture

» Appoint faculty members to lead Because of the strong influence of the Grauer Institute, World Languages classes are now much more student-centered. The new mobile furniture and technology, the conversion of hallway space to learning space, iPads, virtual reality equipment, as well as the way our classrooms look, make our environment much more appealing for our current students and for visiting prospective students. The members of the World Languages Department are all on board with the direction the school is going and we share the outcomes and goals the Grauer Institute is aiming for.

Pablo Montoro Alonso, World Languages Department Chair

40

POMFRET WINTER 2018

long-term projects of curriculum review, instructional coaching and support, accreditation follow-up, online learning, mastery assessment development, and Project: Pomfret

» Develop faculty design teams for new

courses and initiatives like Humanities 1 and 2, Arts Immersion, Freshmen Fundamentals, Sophomore Sequence, discipline-based certification programs

The freedom I have felt in the classroom in the past few years because of the work of the Grauer Institute has been palpable. The opportunities to collaborate with colleagues both at our school and at other schools have been limitless. I have attended conferences and been to schools where I learned from and was challenged with regard to classroom protocols, curriculum, design, and diversity. Faculty are taking risks regularly and are learning from both the mistakes and successes they are experiencing.

Martha Horst, Learning and Teaching Coordinator, Math Teacher

The Grauer Institute has given us the opportunity, time, and skills to ask why and to dream about what if.

We are supported in taking steps to reinvent how we teach along with what we teach. We have been given new types of classrooms and hands-on learning spaces. Attending the Harvard Graduate School of Education Project Zero has strengthened the faculty, developing a unified approach to teaching and learning as well as boosting collegial collaboration. As educators we have felt free to re-see, re-evaluate, and re-invent our academic lessons and overall course offerings in order to reach all of our students.

» Develop more modern and relevant courses › Robotics, engineering, coding, app building, genetics, gaming, systems design like urban planning

» Merge disciplines » Plan curriculum around world problems our

students will face in upper years › Interdisciplinary exploration and application of knowledge to solve problems › Project: Pomfret period used to address meaningful real world issues

» Offer robust online curriculum opportunities » Participate in collaborative competitions › Drone competitions › Team gaming › Robotics › Chess › Forensics (debate) › City planning and design » Leverage virtual reality (VR) for learning » Require comprehensive portfolios for students and teachers

» Develop series of summative experiences and performance tasks to show growth

» Expand idea of school and learning beyond 3:30 PM and beyond structured courses

Sarah-Anne Wildgoose, Digital Arts, Technology and Design Department Chair

Many independent schools claim to be places with innovative learning and teaching, but Pomfret actually delivers. I have almost completed my first year at Pomfret and am excited that teachers here are given license to bring joy and discovery back to learning.

As one who has been shackled to the AP curriculum for so many years of teaching, I find this freedom liberating. I am fortunate to be at Pomfret at this time when the fruits of the Grauer Institute initiatives have yielded such a different and exciting classroom environment. I am thrilled to be part of this innovative school community.

Todd Matthew, English Teacher

41

FEATURE

The Grauer Institute has helped Pomfret explore how best to achieve and make real the school’s mission, vision of the graduate, and learning principles. The results are adult and community learning, innovative practices, and curricular invention in all areas of school life at Pomfret.

There is now a model of distributed leadership that empowers teachers, advisors, coaches, and residential staff to extend learning beyond the classroom in relevant and meaningful ways.

Don Gibbs, Director of Studies and Institutional Assessment, Engineering Teacher

The community drive to stay sharp and up-to-date to serve students is what attracted me to Pomfret. During my two years at Pomfret there has been so much opportunity for learning. The Grauer Institute has given me the chance to attend an array of workshops ranging from pedagogy to prepare me as a new teacher, to conferences covering my discipline, to focusing on ways to get our students to think. These opportunities have confirmed my passion to teach.

Mary Screen, Biology and Chemistry Teacher

The Grauer institute has spearheaded a sea-change in what teaching and learning looks like at Pomfret. The faculty has been challenged to explore new possibilities in pedagogy, allowing new courses and programs to emerge. The Freshmen Arts Immersion course has been exciting to design and implement, and it has shown students how the arts matter at Pomfret. Though there is still a lot of work to be done in continuing to modernize our practices, the energy on campus is dynamic and forward-looking.

Tim Peck ’00, Artist-in-Residence, Director of Contemporary Music

GRAUER INSTITUTE ADVISORY BOARD Tony Wagner, Senior Research Fellow at the Learning Policy Institute Stephanie Rogen, Principal and Founder of Greenwich Leadership Partners, LLC John Hunter, Master Teacher and Inventor of the World Peace Game Alec Ross, American Technology Policy Expert and Author of Industries of the Future

42

POMFRET WINTER 2018

THE IMPORTANCE OF A Q&A with Peter Grauer

P

eter Grauer is the Chairman of the Board and former CEO of the global media conglomerate Bloomberg, L.P. Peter and his wife Laurie became active in the Pomfret community through their daughters, Victoria “Tory” ’02 and Nina ’10. Peter served on the Pomfret Board of Trustees from 2000 to 2012, and in the role of Board Chair from 2006 to 2012. He was also chair of the search committee that recommended Tim Richards as Head of School in 2011. Peter serves the Grauer Institute as financial backer, provocateur, and encourager. From his experience at Bloomberg, he infuses the institute with a sense of urgency for excellence that is forward-focused and competitive. He has strong ideas about the inability of a school to be competitive while stuck in a traditional model of education.

Why is it important for a successful school like Pomfret to have an institute dedicated to innovation and new initiatives?

When Bloomberg hires young people, what do you look for as markers of success and possibility?

An institute dedicated to innovation and developing a modern learning environment provides an additional set of capabilities for faculty to help teach students. Each class of students has a range of learning skills. The Grauer Institute helps by expanding teacher knowledge and teaching skills to reach a wider variety of students. A dedicated position filled by someone with an outsider’s perspective pushes Pomfret to challenge the deeply ingrained assumptions that hold the school back from creating contemporary greatness. In innovating, the goal is to incorporate the best of old and new.

The successful work of a dedicated institute gives Pomfret a strategic competitive advantage to attract new students and their families as well as new faculty.

We hire thousands of young people each year. We look for commitment to hard work and continued learning. We also look for the ability to collaborate and work in a team. Solid communication skills are essential as is emotional intelligence.

New hires must be a good match for our culture, which is driven by curiosity and a willingness to learn, discover, question, and innovate.

How do innovation and change happen at Bloomberg?

We innovate every day as a company of ideas in an intensely competitive global environment. It is part of our DNA and has been from the first day thirty-six years ago. I often describe our culture as one of creative paranoia.

We are very attuned to the reality that if you are not moving forward, then you are moving backward and will inevitably be surpassed by competitors who ask hard questions and take risks to stay on top of their game.

How would you define “a good education”?

A good education is a combination of soft and technical skills. One’s time spent being formally educated must result in good communication skills in a range of media, achievement which demonstrates a solid work ethic, and ongoing intellectual curiosity about the world. With this foundation, anyone can do anything.

In what ways do you think the Grauer Institute has increased Pomfret’s ability to provide a good education?

In a world of rapid change caused by increasing technological advancement, staying contemporary and relevant in how we educate the next generation is critical. The institute allows Pomfret to move ahead of the pack and ahead of the game. Anyone aware of the institute’s accomplishments would agree that the Grauer Institute is helping Pomfret set new standards and expectations for learning in the current boarding school arena.

43

FEATURE

44

POMFRET WINTER 2018

The Art of Activism An artist in his element.

An island in peril.

By Garry Dow

J

ust beyond the tip of Long Island’s North Fork in Gardiners Bay sits a small, misunderstood island. “People have a real negative view of Plum Island,” says John Sargent ’66. “You hear these stories about it being radioactive, about it having genetically modified monsters. My paintings help dispel those myths.”

Recently, Sargent wrapped up a monthlong exhibit at Pomfret entitled The Natural Beauty of Plum Island, NY. Each painting is a large, colorful, richly textured interplay of earth, water, and light. The full collection

includes thirty-five acrylic and pastel paintings

by Sargent and twenty-five prints by the photographer Robert Lorenz.

About fifteen of Sargent’s paintings were on display when a slimmed-down version of the exhibit came to Pomfret in November.

Waves lapping the rocky shore. Seals turning beneath the waves. Birds soaring overhead.

Grass bending in the wind. Together, Sargent’s paintings depict the natural beauty and simple grandeur of the seaside. “They are portraits of an island whose future is in question,” he says.

Photo: John Sargent ’66 painting on Plum Island.

45

FEATURE

“

If we do nothing, Plum Island will be sold in public auction to the highest bidder.

The Highest Bidder Sargent is just one voice in a growing chorus of private individuals and nonprofits trying to save Plum Island from development. At the center of the movement is a broad-based alliance of more than ninety conservation, environmental, and civic organizations called Preserve Plum Island Coalition (PPIC). The mission of PPIC is to “secure the permanent protection of the significant natural and cultural resources of Plum Island.” In particular, the group wants the majority of the island, approximately 80 percent, to become a National Wildlife Refuge, or its equivalent.

“The island is a beautiful, wild place,” Sargent says. “It provides habitat for hundreds of bird and plant species, some rare and endangered. It is also the most significant haul out for grey and harbor seals in southern New England.”

46

POMFRET WINTER 2018

”

Owned and operated by the United States government, Plum Island has long been the subject of controversy. It is the site of the former U.S. military installation Fort Terry (1897) and the historic Plum Gut Lighthouse (1869), but it is best known as the site of the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, established by the Department of Agriculture in 1954.

A federal research facility dedicated to the study of animal diseases, including hoof and mouth disease, the center comprises 20 percent of the 840-acre island.

Today, the whole island is part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which assumed ownership from the USDA in 2003, though USDA scientists still manage the lab. The public is not allowed access to the island without special permission.

In September 2008, Congress directed the General Services Administration (GSA) to close the research center, sell the island, and use the proceeds to construct a new lab in

Kansas. In January 2009, DHS announced that the new high-security animal disease lab would be called the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF), setting the stage for the public sale of Plum Island. “The new lab is set to come online in 2023,” Sargent says. “If we do nothing, Plum Island will be sold in public auction to the highest bidder and this environmentally significant place will be lost to development.”

Beyond the Bubble

John Sargent discovered his passion for art and activism as a student at Pomfret in the mid-1960s. “Cole, Morgan, and Dunbar stand out for me as early mentors,” he says. “And especially Hagop Merjian. He first introduced me to social consciousness. I guess you could call it a more urban, global view of things.

He widened my world. Showed me what was beyond the bubble.”

After graduating from Ohio Wesleyan University, Sargent spent two years working in a neighborhood community center and an alternative high school for dropouts in Atlanta, Georgia. It brought him in close contact with poverty, racial injustice, and the plight of urban public education — interests that would only grow in the decades that followed.

In 1971, disenchanted with US politics and disgusted by Watergate, Sargent bought an old farmhouse in rural Quebec, where he spent the next seven years growing food in his backyard garden and working as an art teacher and woodshop instructor at a center for developmentally disabled young adults. “I contaminated my Pomfret French en parlant FranÇais Canadian,” he says with a grin.

After receiving his master’s degree in art education, he returned to Connecticut. He found a job teaching art and encouraging future activists at the Williams School in

New London, Connecticut, where former Pomfret faculty member Steve Danenberg was headmaster. In 2008, he retired after twenty-three years of teaching. He currently works out of his home studio in Quaker Hill, Connecticut. The majority of his artwork is now inspired by the landscape and nature of eastern Long Island Sound, a place he has been an observer of for most of his life.

A Chance Encounter The seeds of the Plum Island show were planted in 2010 when Sargent met photographer Bob Lorenz on a tour of Plum Island organized by Save the Sound. “We were both inspired by the natural subject matter,” Sargent recalls, “and we decided to create artwork that could be shown in public venues around Long Island Sound to bring awareness to the public.”

“

Between October 2014 and December 2017, Sargent and Lorenz made ten trips to the island, including a circumnavigation by boat. “We traveled to the island during all four seasons, different times of day and weather conditions.

We had to get clearance from Homeland Security for each trip and have our backpacks checked. We were always escorted by security personnel. We did however get to see parts of the island rarely seen. Our project was unique.”

Since then, Sargent’s paintings have appeared in libraries, museums, and community centers up and down eastern Long Island Sound, including the lab on Plum Island. From March 17-30, the full collection will be shown in Hartford on the concourse between the Capitol and Legislative Office Building.

“Art can be influential,” Sargent says. “It can inspire people. It has the power to turn the tide.”

Art can be influential. It can inspire people. It has the power to turn the tide.

”

47

FEATURE

0

llory ’2

Bill Ma

THEN

48

POMFRET WINTER 2018

The Great Pomfret Football Team of

1917

By James C. Goodale ’51 and Walter Hinchman P ’81, ’83, Fac. ’64-’02

I

t may have been Pomfret’s greatest football team, the 1917 team, which had two future All-Americans on it. This year’s season marked the one hundredth anniversary of that team.

The team outscored its opponents 259 to 9. It beat college freshman and JV teams and generally ran rampant over the prep school football scene at that time.

The two future All-Americans were Charley Buell ’18, and “Memphis Bill” Mallory ’20. Buell was a consensus All-American in 1922 as was Mallory in 1923. Buell was captain of the Harvard team in 1922 and Mallory captain of Yale in 1923. Buell’s Harvard team of 1920 was number one in the nation and declared national collegiate co-champion. Mallory’s team in 1923 was also ranked number one and also declared national collegiate champion. Mallory was selected for the National Collegiate Hall of Fame in 1964. Both had legendary college football careers and met twice on the collegiate playing field. Buell’s team, Harvard, beat Mallory’s team on both occasions.

Mallory was one of seven Mallorys who attended Pomfret. His was a Memphis family in the cotton business. He entered Pomfret as a third former and also played baseball and hockey, of which he was captain.

Buell, from Hartford, whose father was a stockbroker, entered Pomfret in the second form and, like Mallory, also played hockey and baseball, of which he was captain.

Mallory made his reputation in college as a hard-charging fullback and as a defensive star. Walter Camp, the father of American football, called Mallory “the greatest defensive fullback in the history of the game.” The

summer of his junior year at Yale, he also taught himself to dropkick by practicing in his backyard. In those days, field goal kickers were generally dropkickers. The football was fatter then and it was not out of the ordinary for 55-yard dropkicks to split the crossbars.

When Mallory’s undefeated 1923 team played at Harvard, the field was a quagmire. Yale’s coach told Mallory to placekick a field goal from the 37-yard line. As recounted recently to us by his son Neely (captain of the Pomfret 1950 team), his father told the coach he had never placekicked before. You have no choice, the coach said, because a dropkick will get stuck in the mud and will be unkickable. Mallory’s placekick went through the crossbars and then he did it again from the twelve-yard line. The final score: Yale 13 Harvard 0. The 1924 Yale class book said, “[Mallory’s] remarkable performance [was] an achievement of the highest order.”

Charley Buell was thought to be the smartest player in college football when he was Harvard’s quarterback. He was also an excellent dropkicker, passer, and runner (punt return specialist). In the 1920 Harvard-Yale game at the Yale Bowl, he dropkicked three field goals and beat Yale 9-0 in front of the largest crowd for a football game at that time (80,000 fans). A year later, he broke open the H-Y game with a long punt return.

Buell led the nation in dropkick field goals in 1920 with six. His national reputation, however, was as a passer. He revolutionized Harvard football by making the pass an offensive weapon. In 1922, he passed for seventeen touchdowns. Buell was elected president of his class at Harvard and Mallory was chosen as the outstanding member of his Yale class. Yale’s greatest athletic award is named in his honor, as is Pomfret’s baseball field.

49

FEATURE

“

Pomfret was a small school (140 students). Its team was small. How in the world did it beat larger schools and college teams?

Buell was reasonably small at Pomfret, 5’9” and 150 lb. Mallory was no giant either, clocking in his third form year at 5’8”, 142 lb., although by college he had grown to 5’10”, 175 lb. Buell added 10 lb. in college.

The Pomfret football team of 1917 was also quite small, an average of 5’9” and 155 lb. per man. Size was no deterrent to this team, however, he team opened with a 25-0 victory over Worcester South High School, beat Suffield 12-3, Choate 13-0, Huntington School 38-0, Dean College JV 14-0, Monson 48-0, and the Tufts freshmen 41-0. Against Tufts, in one twenty minute stretch, Pomfret scored 35 points. Pomfret was on a roll and the next week it defeated Allen School 68-0.

Up to this point, Pomfret had outscored its opponents 259-3. And then came the last game of the season against mighty Taft. Its student body was almost twice the size of Pomfret’s. Taft’s team was on average two inches taller and 10 lb. heavier than the Pomfret team. The sad result was Taft 6, Pomfret 0. Taft went on to an undefeated season and crowed in its yearbook that it had beaten “a powerful and polished Pomfret team.”

Pomfret’s yearbook bravely said, “although greatly outweighed, it held Taft to a 6-0 score and played perhaps the best game of the season.”

Pomfret was a small school (140 students). Its team was small. How in the world did it beat larger schools and college teams? First, the team was extraordinarily talented and Mallory, who was only a fourth former at the time, did very well to make the squad. Buell, who played halfback, was a star passer on the team, but it took him five years to make the varsity team.

Both Mallory and Buell were superb athletes by the way. Each played three major sports and won the athletic bowl senior year. Buell, in addition, was on the tennis team, a minor sport at the time.

50

POMFRET WINTER 2018

”

How can it be that two future All-Americans became captains of the most powerful college teams of their time, but were not even football captains in prep school? The answer is that Pomfret then was a football factory where every student was required to play. Competition for the varsity was therefore fierce. It raised the level of play to such an extent that Pomfret was able to compete with larger schools and college teams.

This was the age of muscular Christianity popularized by Reverend Endicott Peabody at Groton. (See Bundgaard, “Muscle and Manliness, the Rise of Sports in American Boarding Schools.”) He believed students should be manly and football was the ultimate test of manliness.

Reverend William B. Olmsted (Mr. O.) Pomfret’s barrel-chested headmaster, also believed in muscular Christianity. He attended every football practice and when there, as reported by Time magazine, “issued brusque suggestions and took mental notes to pass on to parents.” He made football a most important, if not the most important part of a Pomfret education. He and Peabody were both masters at St. Mark’s School, as was Pomfret’s founder William Peck (in fact its headmaster). Doubtlessly, St. Mark’s was where muscular Christianity began.

“Memphis Bill” Mallory died in a tragic air crash at the end of World War II in which he served as a major. Charley Buell, after getting his masters at Harvard, became the head of the history department at Milton, the headmaster of Greenwich Country Day School, and ended his career at St. Paul’s, where he died in 1964.

NOW

Undefeated The fall and rise of Pomfret football

T

he team was at a crossroads. Dwindling interest and a string of disappointing seasons had killed morale and put the program under a microscope. So much so that when the team’s captain, Aidan McGannon, delivered his senior Commencement address in 2016, he began the speech this way: “I am deeply honored by the trust placed in me to deliver this graduation speech... I don’t think I can do much worse than the football team this year, so I’ll be all right.” Everyone chuckled, but it was far from a laughing matter. Pomfret Football, the cornerstone of the School’s athletic program since 1894, was about to be eliminated.

“It looked pretty bleak,” said Athletic Director Jon Sheehan. “We had two options. Cut the program, or join an eight-man league.”

In recent years, the game of football has attracted a lot of attention, not all of it welcome. Concern over head injuries, the rising cost of play, and an increase in one-sport athletes have led to a steep decline in the number of kids playing football in the U.S. At the high school level, these effects have been most acutely felt by small schools like Pomfret. Large schools like Exeter enroll as many as 1,000 students annually. In comparison, Pomfret enrolls around 350 students per year.

“We were having a hard time fielding a team,” said Assistant Coach Steve Davis. “I remember one of our last eleven-man games up at Brooks. I was standing there on the sideline during warmups.

Our team had eighteen, maybe twenty guys. Then I looked over at the Brooks side. They had fifty guys. Never mind competing. It was starting to become dangerous.”

After the 2016 season, several NEPSAC schools began talking about forming their own eight-man league. Between 2009 and 2016, this variation on the traditional game had risen by 12 percent nationally.

Thirty states had already adopted at least one eight-man football league, representing roughly 1,600 total teams. It seemed like a workable solution, but it had never been tried before in New England.

By the start of the 2017-2018 season, four pioneering prep schools had signed on to play in the new league: Forman, Gunnery, Millbrook, and, of course, Pomfret.

Eight-man shares the same rules, procedures, and structure as the traditional eleven-man game, but there are some key differences.

Eight-man is played on a narrower field, typically 100 yards by 40 yards.

Offenses usually eliminate two linemen and a fullback or tight end.

Defenses tend to drop two defensive backs and a lineman. With fewer players and more room to run, the games are faster and the scores higher.

An average scoring game can reach 50 points or more.

For whatever reason, the new format clicked: On a chilly afternoon in November, Pomfret defeated Millbrook 44-20 in the championship game, capping a perfect season. Seven wins. Zero losses. It was the School’s first undefeated season since 1958, and its first championship in twenty-four years.

These days, Pomfret is routinely fielding inquiries from other schools looking to make the transition. “No one knew what it was, but we gave it a try,” said Head Coach Dave Couillard, who was an assistant back when the Griffins won their last championship in 1993. “The program’s rallied now. We’ve got thirty kids and we’re back on track.”

51

Winter CLASS NOTES

1935-2017

1935 | 1936 | 1937 | 1938 | 1939 | 1940 | 1941 | 1942 | 1943 | 1944 | 1945 | 1946 | 1947 | 1948 | 1949 | 1950 | 1951 | 1952 | 1953 | 1954 | 1955 | 1956 | 1957 | 1958 | 1959 | 1960 | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | Reunion Years

52

POMFRET WINTER 2018

1953

’53

Congratulations to Hunter Temple on another stellar performance in aquabike competitions. After winning his division at the USA championship, Hunter qualified for the world championship in Penticton, Canada, on August 27, 2017. The event was a 13K swim and a 120K bike ride.

He finished third in his age division. Still at it at age 83!

1955

’55

Michael Hard wrote, “Like most of my classmates, I assume, my wife Kathy and I are trying to age as ‘gracefully’ as possible while warding off various illnesses. We are fortunate to divide our time between Tucson, Arizona in the winter and Flagstaff, Arizona, in the summer and fall. We keep busy with keeping up our house and cabin and trying to figure out how to start downsizing. I also serve on three foundation boards, two which give away money and one, an archaeology museum, which is desperate for operating funds.

These are longstanding commitments of mine (thirty-five years with the museum). As with everyone else, our real joy is being with our grandchildren, two of whom, fortunately, are doing graduate work in Tucson. I always regret being so far away, so I can’t visit Pomfret more often.”

Hardy Eshbaugh wrote, “We continue to live in Oxford, Ohio, where I still have an office at Miami University. I teach in our Institute for Learning in Retirement, which is fun. The classes last five weeks with only one lecture a week. In April 2017, Barb and I took a natural history trip to Trinidad, which focused on birds and sea turtles.

In June I traveled for two weeks to Mongolia with our son David with the International Crane Foundation looking at their conservation efforts in this awesome and inspiring landscape. I have never seen such magnificent grasslands.

And in September Barbara and I celebrated our 59th wedding anniversary.”

’53 Hunter Temple ’53 (right) at the Aquabike World Championship.

’55 Barb and Hardy Eshbaugh ’55 in October 2017.

Class notes featured in this issue were received prior to December 15, 2017. Notes received after this date will be published in the Summer 2018 issue. Class notes are appreciated and may be submitted via your class agent, the Pomfret School website, or by e-mail to: Debby Thurston, class notes editor, at dthurston@pomfret.org.

We encourage and welcome appropriate news items and photographs from all alumni and friends. Please note that not all submissions are guaranteed to appear based upon subject matter, photo reproduction quality, and space availability. Also, we reserve the right to edit for consistency and style, but we will give every consideration to each author’s individual writing style.

53

CLASS NOTES

Celebrating their 60th reunion, the Class of 1957 are (L-R): B. Lee Mallory, Peter Fairchild, Joseph Hewes, Eric Watkins, Sam Thoron, Dan Fales, Horace Work, and Dave Unsworth.

1958

’58

Dave Allan reported, “I have just completed a $3 million project on Lake Champlain for the ferry company, rebuilding their marine railway. It is 600 feet long, and is 30 feet under water at the end. I had been there since May, and have enjoyed the challenges, as well as the folks I’ve met in the Shelburne [VT] neighborhood.”

Bill Woods was honored on December 13, 2017 with the Buddy Gray Lifetime Achievement Award from the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition. The founder of Applied Information Resources (AIR), Bill and his team provided the first comprehensive study on homelessness in Cincinnati, with research beginning in 1984. He has worked with every director of the Homeless Coalition since its founding. Bill also established the Christ Church Cathedral Community Issues Forum, creating an environment that allows difficult topics to find a voice and gain understanding. He has led in the effort for campaign finance reform and the effort to enact sensible state redistricting amendments.

54

POMFRET WINTER 2018

’58 A section of a marine railway system completed by Dave Allan ’58 and his firm. It is used to haul out ferry boats from Lake Champlain.

’59

1959

Jack Payne wrote, “Susan and I send all best wishes to The Class of ’59 and all in the Pomfret family from Washington, Connecticut. When in the area we expect you to check in for a drink and tales of yesteryear. Our kids and grandkids are great: our son JP IV + 3 in Marblehead, Massachusetts; daughter Sarah +2 in NYC with a weekend house, which has a path to our house which makes gramma Susie (and me) very happy. Let’s all try to give something — anything — this year if nothing more than to do a fraction of Bob’s and Jeb’s great generosity. Until we see you, be well …”

’63 (L-R): Marc Appleton ’63, Mark Simon ’64, and Mark Hildebrand ’65 at the Yale School of Architecture 45th Class Reunion in September 2017. The three Pomfret alumni didn’t realize they’d be in the same YSoA class until first day of classes in September 1968!

Owen Williams wrote, “You never know where the next adventure might be. Over the summer of 2017, we were trying to deal with some accumulated boyhood ‘treasures,’ one of which was an 18th century sword I had inherited as a five-year-old from my grandmother in Connecticut.

Knowing little about it and starting with only Google as a beginning point, it turned out after an intriguing odyssey of four or five months to be a quite sought after item, which will become a featured piece in 2018 as part of the newly opened Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia.” [An article about the sword appeared in the November 12, 2017 edition of The Baltimore Sun.]

’59 Jack Payne ’59 and his wife Susan.

1963

’63

Deke Simon wrote, “As an addition to my skill set in my relatively new career as a psychotherapist, I just completed a three-year course in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, a somatic approach to trauma, and it’s been an eye-opener for me and a boon to my clients. Onward!”

1964

’63

Bill Pinney reported, “At Pomfret in the early 1960s I was interested in science and writing, and later drifted into writing as an investigative reporter and publisher. For those like me who aren’t comfortable with the supposed conflict between liberal arts and science, you might be interested in a book I’ve just written called Chappaquiddick Speaks. It combines investigative reporting with science to solve an old mystery about Ted Kennedy’s 1969 accident at Dike Bridge. You might also find it relevant to today’s politics.”

55

CLASS NOTES — 1964 Continued Mark Constantian’s third book, Abuse, Body Shame, and Addictive Plastic Surgery: The Face of Trauma, is in the final stages of publishing and is due to be released in the spring of 2018. “I’m happier with it than anything I’ve written because it contains so much new material and so much that has never been looked at from the surgeon’s perspective before,” Mark said.

Mark Simon, principal at Centerbrook Architects and Planners in Connecticut, announced the firm published their fourth book (aptly named Centerbrook Four) in the fall of 2017. The book celebrates four decades of design work as one of the most influential architecture firms in the United States. Through revelations, drawings and photographs, four principal architects from the firm guide the reader through their team’s creative process of designing a diverse range of projects.

Paul Fowler reported, “What started out as a class email announcing the release of Bill Pinney’s new book surfaced a number of other recent books, art, shows, and woodwork by other class members.

These included the upcoming release of Mark Constantian’s third book, and Peter Corbin’s new print release The Char Hole, from a trip to the Flowers River in Labrador in early 2017. Frank Paine published The Financing of Ship Acquisition in 1989 and is currently working on The Tehran Cyber Connection, which will be semiautobiographical. Peter Clement published Stonelea, a couple of years ago, a recap of the architectural history and renovation of a wonderful old house in New Hampshire. These do not include the many books, short stories, and articles written by Barbie Lazear Ascher and Allen Cobb. Many noted that they have donated copies of their books which are featured in a special section in the Pomfret School library.

1965

POMFRET WINTER 2018

Participants in the 1963 Pomfret School International Affairs Seminar to Africa gathered in Philadelphia in August 2017 for a combined reunion and 95th birthday celebration for both Barbara and Warren Geissinger, leaders of the trip. (Front Row, L-R): Rufus Phillips ’64, Barbara Geissinger, former faculty Warren Geissinger, Julie Mariano; (Back Row, L-R): Mari Thomas, Mary Danenberg, Matt Hobbs ’64, Loretta Grubb.

’65

Jim Seymour wrote, “Sharon and I flew to England in early October 2017 to visit our oldest granddaughter and her new school in Chester. Then we trained down to Oxford to visit our two youngest granddaughters and see their new school there. We brought them in to London to spend the weekend with their father, our son Stephen. I left Sharon in London to spend time with Stephen while I traveled on to Mumbai for my continuing business, Pontefract Global Strategies, as advisor to private equity funds in emerging markets. I traveled again on business with three days in London at the end of November, which also included a very enjoyable dinner with Emily Rand ’05 at a fascinating Peruvian restaurant. Emily manages monthly pop-up Mexican restaurants in London where Mexican restaurants are rarer. I flew on to Mauritius for a board meeting and dinner, then returned to London where I spent the day with Stephen and his daughters who hosted a tree-trimming party for fifteen children and their parents. I left the same evening to fly to Dhaka, Bangladesh for meetings with another private equity client. Returned home to Rhode Island after this trip for ten days before Sharon and I returned to London to spend Christmas with our two sons and our three granddaughters. Life in Wickford, Rhode Island, and Naples, Florida, with all the cultural and social activities, along with my diverse business and pro-bono activities, continues to be wonderfully full, exciting, and rewarding.”

56

’64

’65 Corbin Schneider ’18 and Justin Klein ’65 on a fishing boat off Harwich Port, Massachusetts, in August 2017. Corbin was a member of the crew.

1966

’66

John Van Praag wrote, “At the end of September 2017, I moved to Thailand. I was there on vacation in 2005 and almost didn’t leave, but my partner at the time, Lucrecia, had other plans for us. She and I recently had an amicable parting of the ways so I am now free to live where I want.

And so, back to Thailand. I get to see if it is as much fun living like a local as it was frequenting luxury hotels and resorts. It’ll be cheaper, anyway, I expect. If any Pomfretians happen to be in the neighborhood, living or vacationing, I’d be happy to hear from you.”

’65

POMFRET SCHOOL

Dean Moss ’65 and Justin Klein ’65 on a cycling trip in Burgundy, France, in July 2017.

SAVE THE DATE

DAY OF GIVING 05 14 18 57 55

1967

’67

Larry Miller wrote, “In our 33rd year, the Laurence Miller Gallery moved this summer to West 26th Street in Chelsea.

Any alumni with an interest in fine art and photography should stop by and accept a free gift from our sizable library.

Also, I am pleased to announce that I have been elected to the Board of Directors of the Print Center in Philadelphia.”

’67 (L-R): Class of 1967 mates Michael Petty, Cal Coquillette, and Corbin Eissler visited together in October 2017.

58

POMFRET WINTER 2018

Class of 1967 Celebrating their 50th reunion, the Class of 1967 are (Front Row, L-R): Larry Miller, Doug Baldwin, Jeff Oppenheim, Miles Canning, Kenyon Clark, Scott Lord, Andrew Sereysky, former faculty Hagop Merjian, Tom Downing, former faculty Walt Hinchman, Corbin Eissler; (Back Row, L-R): Lansing Duncan, Bill Hayes, John Davis, Head of School Tim Richards, Ken Griffen, Rich Hubbell, Jack Viertel, Michael Petty, Cal Coquillette, David Feffer, Bruce Gordon, former faculty Ben Williams, Tony Guiterman, and former faculty members Bill Mees, Phil Morton, and Bob Sloat. (Missing From Photo): Andy Sokobin and Joe Twichell.

’67 Corbin Eissler ’67 (left) and Michael Petty ’67 at Pomfret’s Washington, DC, reception in September 2017.

59

CLASS NOTES

1969

’69

Robert Shasha, along with his brother Dennis, is funding a project called the Iraqi Jewish Voices Project, under the the nonprofit Sephardi Voices, an ongoing project designed to create an audiovisual documentary archive of life stories, photographs and artifacts of Sephardi and Iranian Jews. It aims to collect thousands of interviews of Jews who lived in Arab and Muslim lands. The project builds on the book Iraq’s Last Jews: Stories of Daily Life, Upheaval, and Escape from Modern Babylon, a collection of oral stories co-edited by journalist Tamar Morad and the Shasha brothers.

Gary Tharler reported, “Survived the California wildfires intact; they came within five miles of my home. To give you an idea of what it’s like…picture you are driving from Pomfret to Putnam.

Everything looks fine and then you pass the hospital and things start looking odd. Charred trees. A chimney standing where there used to be a lovely home with landscaping. Then you come into town and it’s gone. I got to provide chair massage for the firemen which was great. You couldn’t meet a bunch of nicer guys outside a Pomfret soccer team.”

Peter Welsh reported, “Following my second retirement in November 2016, I enjoyed a few months off over the holidays with the goal of continuing to work, albeit without the responsibility of my operations management 24/7 mindset. In February 2017 I entered the Sudbury, Massachusetts, school system as a substitute teacher focusing on middle school. When I tell the sixth graders I was in their grade in 1961 and 1962, their jaws sometimes drop because they cannot comprehend anyone other their grandparents being so old. Mostly I have enjoyed reinventing myself there and have made many good bonds with faculty and students. I generally averaged a threeday workweek, loved the six-minute commute, and enjoyed the summer off. My wife, Martha, and I visited Ireland on a nine-day trip in late September exploring Dublin and the south and west coasts. Driving was quite an experience! After ten seasons performing in a professional quality community Gilbert and Sullivan opera company, The Sudbury Savoyards, I took a pass for the 2018 season and in August 2017 joined the Mystic Chorale, a large Arlington, Massachusetts, based chorus. In November, I performed my first solo in the Folk Music Revival concerts. A challenge for me, but I was pleased with my performance. Wishing my classmates and many others a productive and healthy 2018.”

60

POMFRET WINTER 2018

’69 Andy Goldmark ’69 and Robert Shasha ’69 at the Beverly Hills Hotel in April 2017 following a breakfast of dough balls!

Class of 1972 Celebrating their 45th reunion, the Class of 1972 are (L-R): Paul Rathe, Roger van der Horst, and Harry Fisher.

Class of 1977 Celebrating their 40th reunion, the Class of 1977 are (L-R): George Santiago ’75, Joanie Huberman Walmsley, John Leeming, Nina Lederman, and Skip Leonard.

Class of 1982 Celebrating their 35th reunion, the Class of 1982 are (L-R): Michael Gary, Mike Zurbrigen, Joey Moffitt, James Snyder, Luis Cruz, trustee Mark Cohen, Sean Skaggs, and Lizz Lincoln. (Missing From Photo): Jim Baker, Caroline Hofe Nowak, and Mimi Ashmead-Robinson.

1974

’74

Dan Blumenthal has joined the law firm of Wenig Saltiel, LLP in Brooklyn, New York, as Special Counsel, where he concentrates in the area of general real estate and landlord/tenant litigation including mortgage and condominium lien foreclosure at both the trial and appellate level, as well as negotiating commercial leases. Additionally, since 2014 Dan has authored the expert Practice Commentaries for Thomson Reuters’ McKinney’s Consolidated Laws of New York Annotated, Volumes 49 (Real Property Law) and 49½ (Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law).

’75 1975 Amy Cohen announces the engagement of her daughter, Alexandra. Alexandra will be married in October 2018.

’76

’76 Amy Diaz ’10 and Arthur Diaz ’78 ran into Paul Callahan ’76 (center) at a Beach Boys concert in August 2017.

61

CLASS NOTES

’79 1979

Amy Salerno DeGruchy wrote, “My daughter Francesca delivered her Senior Chapel Speech on November 13th. It was a very moving testimony to the [Pomfret] school community about her Guatemalan adoption journey.”

’82 1982

’79

Francesca DeGruchy Salerno ’18.

Caroline Hofe Nowak wrote, “My family and I continue to enjoy the South Shore in Massachusetts. My oldest is now attending Hobart and William Smith Colleges. She will be majoring in Biology and playing D3 lacrosse for the William Smith Herons. We will be putting a lot of miles on our car this spring! My youngest is a freshman in high school. I am so glad we have another four years with her before she goes off too! Were we not just in high school ourselves? I truly enjoyed visiting with people at the Pomfret weekend in May 2017!”

1983

’83

David Watstein wrote, “Our daughter Molly graduated Bristol Central High School as Class Valedictorian in June 2017. A Wesleyan University freshman, she is studying physics and astronomy. Lauren and I are very proud. A great anecdote from Middletown, CT: while waiting in a restaurant bar for a table [during] parents’ weekend, I met Al Washco’s roommate from Brown University. I am happy to hear Al is doing great and we talked about what a terrific athlete he is.”

’83 Lauren & David Watstein ’83 at Yankee Stadium in September 2017.

62

POMFRET WINTER 2018

— 1983 Continued Sander Coxe and Hilary Romaine ’84 are putting the finishing touches on their first batch of songs. Their band, Dusk Divine, is a work in progress and being held together by glue, tape, good cheer, and some great friends lending their talents. Presently based in NYC and Nashville, respectively, their collaboration also owes much to the internet and thus Al Gore since he invented it. They got pushed out of the nest a little early in October when the great Tom Petty, one of their biggest idols, died. In between crying jags a song came to them about his passing and how much his music meant to them so they demoed it out. You can hear “A New Kind of Lonely” (for TP) — on YouTube at www.youtube.com/ watch?v=neY12It6MCw. A proper version fully produced is on its way soon. In other news, they will invade the Pomfret campus for Reunion 2018 to try and make a few new fans — please come on back to the Hilltop and join us!

Julie Johnson reported, “I’m still living in London and working for large private vet group as Head of Region for South West London. Loving the mix of clinical and managerial work; a big change from years working for a charity. [My stepson] Josh just finished university and is working for an investment bank in the City of London; [stepson] Dom is about to become a Royal Marine. Son Tom is applying to universities to study mechanical/automotive engineering. I recently spent some time with Judy Gascoigne Pashioan and her wonderful family. Judy and I are ‘sisters’ as my father and her mother married.”

’83 Hilary Romaine ’84 and Sander Coxe ’83 lead a band called Dusk Divine.

’83 ’83 The “five boys” of Julie Johnson ’83: husband Matt, stepsons Joshua and Dominic, son Thomas, and Moffat the collie.

(L-R): Class of 1983 mates Lisa Wood, Ned Hallowell, and Wendy and Jim Enelow in Sun Valley, Idaho.

63

CLASS NOTES

— 1983 Continued

able to impact. My son, Chandler, has started a Facebook group called Sibling Truths where he is hoping to share his thoughts and support for bio siblings of foster families. We have been a foster family for six years now, adopting our first placement and fostering over thirty-two other children, with a latest placement being with us for three years. Chandler has been a huge influence in their lives and wants to share the ups and downs of his journey with others. We are hoping to make it back for our reunion.”

Linda Bryan Brenske wrote, “[My son] Forrest is a junior at the University of Minnesota and [my son] Nick is here with me in York, Maine. Life is going by too quick! I spend as much time playing paddle tennis as I can in Maine, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. I’d love to see any alumni traveling to Maine!

I will be coming back for reunion and am looking forward to seeing everyone.”

Amy Hare reported, “My family recently donated my old piano to Pomfret in memory of Bob Sloat. The piano is part of a new piano studio at Pomfret. I plan to attend our reunion as long as I am not picking up either of the girls from college that weekend.”

’83

Tom Faulhaber wrote, “Things are going well. I work for Rite Aid Corporation as an IS Operations Manager in Dayville, Connecticut, (about ten minutes from Pomfret). I keep busy by working on my seventeen-year-old BMW WAGON (daughter

Robin Deane-Gray ’83 and Tom Faulhaber ’83.

Tim Eustis wrote, “Our son Henry is a Pomfret third former living in Olive Cottage, my junior year dorm. He made varsity soccer and loves it. I have taken on a new position as a sommelier and wine buyer at The Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, (our family hotel). We’d love to see any Pomfret friends come to visit us there or any other of our hotels. See www.mainstreethospitalitygroup.com for the complete list in Western, Massachusetts. I will be back for our 35th Reunion and am looking forward to seeing everyone!”

Jim and Wendy Reeder Enelow wrote, “We had a great summer and enjoyed seeing Lisa Wood as well as Sara and Ned Hallowell in Sun Valley, Idaho. We also visited the Hallowells in Manchester-by-theSea, Massachusetts, where we saw Monty Lewis ’82. We are looking forward to catching up with everyone at our 35th reunion!”

Ozzie Nelson reported, “I have been having a lot of fun building my business through merger acquisition. Our latest acquisition [Wakefield Beasley & Associates, Inc.] is Atlanta’s third largest architectural firm. That acquisition was our 40th in the last ten years.

We are now one of the largest firms in the nation with offices in most US cities. I’m hoping to attend the reunion [in May].”

Ingrid Black Burnell wrote, “My eldest, Lindsay, landed a job here in Georgia working as a high school counselor at South Forsyth High School, her alma mater. She is loving her position and the lives she is

64

POMFRET WINTER 2018

’83 (L-R): Wendy and Jim Enelow ’83, Ned Hallowell ’83, and Monty Lewis ’82 got together in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts.

hates it), doing Spartan races, visiting my family place on Sebago Lake in Maine, and trying not to be driven crazy by my two dogs (a black Lab and a coonhound). Life is pretty full. I have a sixteen-yearold daughter who is looking forward to visiting colleges this summer.

It’s astonishing how fast they grow up! I saw Robin Gray this past fall and he is doing very well. He, too, has a sixteen-year-old daughter, and both his and my girl have the same name and were born within two months of each other! I’m looking forward to the reunion and plan on attending!”

James Heath wrote, “I’m living outside of Philadelphia; playing lots of USTA tennis. I’m enjoying watching my twelve-year-old son Akira grow up. I’m still in touch with Anthony Dodds, Jimmy Kellogg, and David Hollenbeck. I always have fond memories of Pomfret.”

Stephanie Gledhill Conzelman reported, “Our oldest child, George, started his freshman year at University of Tampa this past fall and is loving being out of Maine and in sunny Florida. He intends to major in International Business and recently became a brother at Theta Chi. Our daughter, Sam, is finishing up her high school senior year at Burke Mountain Academy in Vermont, where she continues to ski race with hopes of skiing for a college team next year. I am still living

in Maine with Fred and spend the winters at Sugarloaf Ski Resort and the summers in Boothbay Harbor where we own and run a small restaurant, the Blue Moon Cafe. I work remotely full-time for 3BL Media as Director of Business Development. On the weekends, in the winter, I coach skiing at Sugarloaf. All in all, life is good.”

Ned Hallowell wrote, “I have been living in Los Angeles for nine years now. My wife Sara and I celebrated our third anniversary this past summer. I have a wonderful eighth grade stepson named Walker. I’m excited about seeing everyone and the school at our 35th reunion. I’ve already booked my room at The Comfort Inn & Suites in Dayville!”

Sue Diaz Killenberg wrote, “After living in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for ten years, we recently moved back to Rhode Island. I work in Providence as the chief psychiatrist in the state’s office of Social Security Disability. Our youngest started college this year, so my husband and I are officially empty nesters. I am looking forward to catching up with others at the Reunion in May!”

’84 1984 Jeff Curran reported he enjoyed meeting Pomfret representatives Vassar Pierce (Associate Director of Advancement) and Quinn McMahon (Assistant Director of Admissions) during their visits to Seattle. Quinn’s visit has inspired his boys to check out Pomfret, which they plan to do next fall.

Lexie Rosenthal Proceller wrote, “I am pleased to say I am still living in Weston, Connecticut, with my husband Bill, and two daughters, Kelsey and Charlotte. Kelsey is currently in her second year at at The University of Maryland and loving every minute.

Go Terps!!! I am still working part time as an interior designer doing corporate build-outs in NYC. The other half of my time I am traveling to all kinds of national swim meets with my younger daughter, Charlotte, who is a junior in high school and gearing up to Swim D1 in college. A time consuming and rigorous task.

I would love to hear from my fellow Pomfret classmates. You can find me on Facebook as Alexis Proceller.”

Nat Reeder wrote, “Life has been great. It is hard to believe that we left the Hill almost thirty-five years ago, wow how time flies. My kids are growing way too fast as well: Samantha is sixteen, Shane is now fourteen, and Max is twelve. Leslee and I and the kids moved to Telluride, Colorado, seven years ago. I spend my time traveling back and forth between Telluride and Nantucket. I still guide on Nantucket in the summers, and three years ago I opened an insurance agency on the island, Grey Lady Insurance. The process has been life changing; I only wish I had done it twenty years ago. I had Matty Keator and his family on the boat this past summer, which was a blast. If any one finds themselves either on Nantucket or in Southern Colorado please let me know: nat@greyladyins.com.”

65

CLASS NOTES

Class of 1987 Celebrating their 30th reunion, the Class of 1987 are (L-R): Chris Kriz, Stephen Greer, Jono Hart, Laura Church Wilmerding, Kay Cowperthwait, Peter de Neufville, Monique Kapitulik Wolanin, and Scott Baker.

(Missing From Photo): Jody Anastasio, Tom Belknap, Geoff Cragin, Rob Ellsworth, Tucker Gallagher, Meredith Hughes, Ian Macleod, Josh Nelson, Lisa Walsh.

Class of 1992 Celebrating their 25th reunion, the Class of 1992 are (L-R): Form Dean Jim Rees P ’98, ’01, Jeep Post, Diana Heide Fredericks, Alex Hulse, Sheldon Stout Bright, Dolph Clinton, Lide Banks Goodwin, Ted Geary, and Wyatt Wartels.

1987 Lisa Walsh reported, “In June 2017 my daughter, Sophia McGee, and I moved back to the United States after living in Ireland for ten years. We are currently living with my parents in West Woodstock, Connecticut. Sophia is a junior at The Woodstock Academy and I am the Assistant Director of Communications at Rectory School, next door to Pomfret. Sophia is an epée fencer so we spend the majority of our weekends at fencing

66

POMFRET WINTER 2018

’87 competitions throughout New England. I continue to love photography, a passion instilled in me at Pomfret over thirty years ago, and use it every day for my job.

I was delighted to be able to come back for the class of 1987 30th Reunion in May 2017 where I saw many classmates. It has been so great to be back in the US and be reconnected with so many of them.”

’90 1990 Jamie Hunt is still living in Tucson, Arizona, with his wife, Ginger, and sons JD and Bobby. He still flies A-10 Warthogs as a part-time reservist and now flies full time for Southwest Airlines. In 2015, he deployed with the Michigan Air Guard A-10s for several months of combat missions against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Jamie is looking forward to taking his boys on a school tour in 2018.

’90 Jamie Hunt ’90 with his wife Ginger.

Morning Joe

F

ormer WBZ-AM morning anchor Joe Mathieu ’92 has a new gig. In August, the Emerson College graduate joined the WGBH newsroom as the host of Morning Edition, taking over for Bob Seay. Before joining WGBH, Mathieu spent seven years as a morning news anchor and reporter at WBZ. He also worked as a program director at Sirius XM and as the managing editor and anchor for CBS MarketWatch. “The opportunity to join WGBH as the host of Morning Edition is exciting for me both personally and professionally,” Mathieu said in a statement. “I have been listening to WGBH radio for my entire life.” Joe got his start on the air while still a student at Pomfret. When he was just 14 years old, he began working as a weekend disc jockey at WINY Radio in nearby Putnam, Connecticut.

67

CLASS NOTES

’93

1993

Bonnie Watson Underwood is in her fourth year of teaching at the American School of Milan in Italy. She is joined by her husband, Julian, and sons Willy (13), James (11), and Taylor (8).

’95

1997

’97

Hadley Weiss Rosen announced, “My husband and I welcomed a little girl, Eloise Amalia Charlotte Rosen, on January 19, 2017. She joins big brother Cabot, now four. I had a nice visit to the Hilltop this past summer with Miriam Jamron Baskies and Wheeler Simmons Griffith. Mrs. [Louisa] Jones led us on a tour of the beautiful new additions to campus!”

1998

’98

Arthur and Stacy Durbin Nieuwoudt were thrilled to announce the birth of their first child, Adelaide Grace Nieuwoudt, who was welcomed into the world on January 25, 2017 weighing 5 lbs. 3 oz. and measuring 18 inches. Stacy noted, “We continue to enjoy living in the Bay Area and would love to reconnect if you are in the area.”

Jennifer Latson published her book, The Boy Who Loved Too Much, in June of 2017. In it, she follows the story of a boy coming of age, intertwined and complicated by Williams syndrome, a genetic disorder that makes people indiscriminately trusting and unconditionally loving toward everyone.

’95 Chris Bezamat ’94 (right) celebrated his wedding on Block Island, RI this past summer with Whitney Cook ’95 and Nick Mettler ’95.

1996

’96

Unny and Thitithep ‘Loy’ Jearkjirm announced the birth of their baby daughter, Thiraya Jearkjirm, on October 29, 2017.

’98 Adelaide Grace Nieuwoudt.

68

POMFRET WINTER 2018

’0O 2000 Alex Milligan announced, “I am so pleased to share that my wife, Julie, and I had a beautiful baby boy, Pierce David Milligan, on October 4, 2017, at the same time we moved to Connecticut. Business is also going well. Our wines are selling well across the country, in particular the Domaine Fournier Sancerre and Château du Pizay Morgon.”

Ben Stapleton and his wife, Maureen, were proud to announce the arrival of their second child, Luke Collins Stapleton, on October 24, 2016. He joins big sister Ella, who is three years old. In the last issue of Pomfret Magazine, this note erroneously appeared in the class of 2002. We regret the oversight.

’00 (L-R): Stephanie Schuetz ’00 with her son Benjamin, Esezele Iseghohi Payne ’00 with her son Tripp, and Molly Graham Hanson ’00 with her son Bauer all visited with Esezele and her family in Charlotte, North Carolina, in May, 2017.

2001

’01

In May 2017, Libby Wood was awarded a master’s degree in psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, and in August she took a position with the state of Hawaii as a Behavioral Health Specialist (art therapy) working in the Kailua public school system on Oahu. She is pursuing additional training in the field with the objective of becoming a licensed marriage and family therapist.

’00

Luke and Ella Stapleton.

69

CLASS NOTES

’03

2003

Tyler Rogers has a new venture called Home Ice New York. For the past three years, he has been installing/maintaining/uninstalling and storing ice rink systems for clients in Westchester, New York, including some New York Rangers. The ice is kept frozen by chiller units and is completely disassembled at the end of the hockey season.

’04

’04 Congratulations to Cedric and Breanna Dobbe Chan on the birth of their first child, Carlin Jens Chan, on May 28, 2017.

Class of 2002 Celebrating their 15th reunion, the Class of 2002 are (L-R): Form Dean Louisa Jones P ’04, Sam Appleton, Rachel Schoppe Rogers, Eddie Otocka, and Form Dean Jeremiah Jones P ’04.

70

POMFRET WINTER 2018

Class of 2007 Celebrating their 10th reunion, the Class of 2007 are (L-R): Brian Flynn, Kaitlin Zeek, Ben Olsson, Chris Golden, Else Ross, Marlon Battad, and Holly Lorms.

(Missing From Photo): Matt Scanlan.

2005

’05

Jonathan McCooey, his wife Daniela, and their daughter Finley (3) moved to Sarasota, Florida, in 2016, where Daniela is doing an internal medicine residency. Jonathan is working as a professional services engineer at Tropics Software where they build a software platform for workers’ compensation insurance companies.

’05

2006

’06

Sarah Sweet ’05 and Andrew Roberson (center) were married on July 1, 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. In attendance to help celebrate were Pomfret alumni (L-R): Camille Byars ’05, Alexandra Sweet ’01, Sarah Mayor Brouwer ’05, and Laura Dunn Cona ’05.

Emily Humes Durst was selected by the U.S. Department of State for a 10-month fellowship project teaching English in South Africa at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU). Emily is one of only 140 U.S. citizens selected for the 2017-2018 English Language Fellow Program.

Michelle Gilmore Castiglione announced, “We welcomed [our daughter] Meredith Ginny Castiglione into the world on July 7, 2017 at 9lbs 2 oz and 21 1/2 inches. Big brother Marcus is adjusting well and though we are all tired, we are overjoyed. We hope to visit the hilltop as a family soon!”

Amanda Jordan wrote, “I moved to London, U.K. in May 2017 after accepting a role at Citi as the Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) Treasury & Trade Solutions Regulatory Change Manager, where I oversee major implementations in 54 countries. When not busy working, I have been exploring the city and enjoying the wonderful travel opportunities afforded by continental Europe. I attended the Pomfret London reception [in October 2017] and was happy to see some familiar faces!”

’06

’06 Meredith Ginny Castiglione.

Jessica and Peter Chaffee ’06 were proud to announce the birth of their daughter, Hannah Maree Chaffee, on September 20, 2017.

71

CLASS NOTES

’07 2007 Brian Flynn signed on to the Dallas Stars to play hockey for the 2017-2018 year. He previously played for the Montreal Canadiens.

’07

Emily Detmer announced, “I became engaged in March 2017 and will be married in my parents’ yard in May 2018.”

Cole Winans ’07 and former faculty members Ted and Pat Kelley (left) shared the celebration of the wedding of Shawn McCloud ’07 (right) and his wife Nichole on May 27, 2017.

’07

72

POMFRET WINTER 2018

Congratulations to Meredith Gagnon ’07 (center) who was married to Chris Burbank on July 28, 2017. Celebrating the occasion were (L-R): Dan Gagnon ’12, Kat Phrasavath Clements ’07, Roz Dunn ’07, [Chris and Meredith], and Ben Gagnon ’03.

Ethically Sourced

F

orbes recently named Matt Scanlan ’07 one of their 30 under 30 for social entrepreneurship in 2018. According to Forbes, “this annual encyclopedia of creative disruption features 600 young stars in 20 different industries.” Matt co-founded Naadam Cashmere, a socially-conscious brand that sources cashmere from local herders, following a trip he made to Mongolia in 2013. Since then, his company has transformed that industry’s supply chain. “We’re disrupting a thousand-year-old business model,” he says, “by purchasing wool directly from herders at fair prices.”

The company is now doing $20 million in yearly revenue.

In 2017, Matt was Pomfret’s Lasell Visiting Fellow and Alumni Achievement Medal recipient.

’08 2008 Congratulations to Felice Mueller, who won the first women’s elite single rowing event of the Lotman Challenge in the 2017 USRowing Club National Championships on July 16, 2017. She went on to take first place in the U.S. world championship trials in August, setting her up for the 2017 World Rowing Championships in Sarasota, Florida, in the fall. As one of the best top scullers in the world, Felice also competed in the Head of the Charles regatta in Boston as a member of the “Great Eight” women’s rowing team.

’08 Mark Pepe ’08 was married to Bailey Smith on May 19, 2017 in Cutchogue, New York. Best Man and groomsmen from Pomfret joined together for the celebration (L-R): William Romaine ’08, Charles Sullivan ’08, Vikram Saini ’08, Mark Pepe, Benjamin Pepe ’06, Peter D’Agostino ’07, and Henry Buck ’08.

73

CLASS NOTES

Every Mile Matters

O

ver the summer, Sofie Melian-Morse ’16

and L’Or Iman Puymartin ’13 completed

a forty-nine day, 4,000 mile, relay-style run from San Francisco to New York City. The event was organized by 4K for Cancer. Averaging ten to

sixteen miles a day, they raised $20,000 in support

of the Ulman Cancer Fund, which supports young adults affected by the disease. Both women

have a connection to cancer. In January 2015, Sofie’s mom was diagnosed with stage four

Leiomyosarcoma and died about two weeks later.

As a senior, L’Or was diagnosed and successfully

treated for thyroid cancer. “Love and support are crucial in the fight against cancer,” she says, “and this is my way of showing it!”

READ MORE ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCE AT WWW.EGGSWITHLEGGS.COM

2009

’09

Katie Kramer reported, “I graduated in May 2017 with my master’s in city and regional planning from the University of Pennsylvania and have moved to NYC to work as an urban designer. Before starting the new job, I took time to travel and visit Pomfret alumnae Sarah Howie, Sam St. Lawrence, Darcy McDonough, and Martha Schuchmann.”

’09 (L-R): Class of 2009 alumnae Sarah Howie, Sam St. Lawrence, Darcy McDonough, and Katie Kramer in Boston.

74

POMFRET WINTER 2018

2015

’15

Congratulations to Nick Fulchino on being elected to the Town of Pomfret’s Zoning Board of Appeals on November 7, 2017.

’09 Katie Kramer ’09 (left) with Martha Schuchmann ’09 in Hamburg, Germany.

2013

’13

Molly Schroder recently finished her second semester of clinical rotations at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Hospital in Lebanon, New Hampshire. Since graduating from Pomfret, Molly has been studying at Colby-Sawyer College and is enrolled in their nursing program. Students in the nursing program fulfill general education requirements freshman year and then plunge into rigorous nursing classes beginning the fall of their sophomore year. Now in her junior year, Molly has completed clinical rotations on pediatrics, mental health, and medical specialties units, as well as time on DHMC’s birthing pavilion. Molly was also accepted into the CSC Wesson Honors Program, which requires students to maintain a 3.5 GPA to be eligible each semester, and has served as the Student Nurses Association President for the past year. Molly now travels to DHMC and provides patient care under a registered nurse and clinical professor, and in a year and a half, at the end of her program, will sit for the NCLEX to become a registered nurse.

Luke Rivera, along with his brothers, Jake and Nick, joined Team USA as part of the Open Ice Hockey Team for the 20th World Maccabiah Games July 4-18, 2017 in Israel. The Maccabiah Games were the first time the Rivera brothers have competed as Maccabi USA athletes, as well as their first time playing on the same team. The brothers are Division I and Division III collegiate athletes; Luke plays hockey at the State University of New York-Fredonia. Over 1,100 USA athletes joined the 10,000 Jewish athletes from 80 countries participating in the Games. Team USA took the Silver Medal in the final game.

Congratulations to Daniel Kellaway on being elected to the Town of Pomfret’s Zoning Board of Appeals on November 7, 2017.

2014

’14

Alex Gerew, a senior captain on the Stonehill College field hockey team, was among forty-six student-athletes selected as participants in the 2017 Victory Sports Tours/National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) Division II Senior Game, which was played on November 18, 2017 at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky.

Chris Johnson, a junior on the Saint Michael’s College men’s ice hockey team, earned a spot on the Northeast-10 Conference Weekly Honor Roll for the week ending December 10, 2017.

He recorded a .916 save percentage while going 2-0 over three games that week.

’15 Molly Schroder ’15 (right) with fellow nursing students at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire.

2017

’17

Brandon Mitchell, a freshman on the men’s hockey team of St. Michael’s College, earned Rookie of the Week for the week ending November 12, 2017. Brandon posted the game-winning goal, thus breaking a deadlocked tie score.

75

CLASS NOTES

Network

Connect with alumni who share your personal and professional interests.

Events

Be the first to know when we schedule a gathering near you.

Volunteer

See all the different ways you can get involved.

Jobs

Find your next job or recruit your next employee.

News

Don’t miss a thing with our integrated social media feed.

JOIN TODAY

pomfretconnect.org

76

POMFRET WINTER 2018

WE LOOK FORWARD TO WELCOMING THE FOLLOWING CLASSES: 1943 • 1948 • 1953 • 1958 • 1963 • 1968 • 1973 • 1978 • 1983 1988 • 1993 • 1998 • 2003 • 2008 • 2013

Class of 2012

77

CLASS NOTES

CLASS AGENTS & SECRETARIES

Classes not listed do not have a class agent at present.

If interested in volunteering, contact Louisa Jones, Assistant Director of Constituent Engagement, at 860.963.5295 or ljones@pomfret.org.

1949 Tony LaPalme

1960 Ben Fairbank

1971 Jacques Bailhé

1983 Wendy Enelow

1951 Rolfe Floyd

1961 Tim Carey Steve Dexter Clark Groome Richard Jackson George Morgan George Walker

1972 Milton Butts

1984 Jeff Curran

1973 Pete de Treville John Matthews Andy Teichner

1985 Chris Berl Lisa Thompson Thomas

1962 Howie Mallory

1975 Andre Burgess

1952 Chuck Henry 1953 Fred Gaston 1954 Chet Lasell Bill O’Brien 1955 John Huss Brooks Robbins Will Stewart 1956 Tony Hoyt 1957 Dan Fales 1958 Galen Griffin 1959 Jeb Embree

78

POMFRET WINTER 2018

1964 Peter Clement

1977 John Leeming

1965 Donald Gibbs

1978 Mark Breen

1967 Michael Petty

1979 Brad Painter

1968 Rob Rich

1980 Rachel Kamen Martha Murphy

1969 Rick Levin 1970 Ben Bensen

1981 Eric Foster 1982 Luis Cruz Joey Moffitt

1986 Molly Meyers 1987 Kay Cowperthwait 1989 Katie Moriarty Whittier 1990 Rachel Baime 1994 Karrie Amsler Ed Wartels 1995 Carson Baker Whitney Cook Allison Glasmann Reiner Robin Thebault Dan Thompson

1996 Anderson Bottomy Mike Newton Rebecca Holt Squires 1997 Miriam Jamron Baskies Wheeler Simmons Griffith Hadley Weiss Rosen 1998 Buzz Evans Kip Hale Toyin Moses Livia Skelly-Dorn Roustan 1999 Lindsey Boardman Duerr TJ Patrick 2000 Hilary Gerson Axtmayer 2001 Caitlin Rogers Connelly Wendy Smith Scarisbrick 2002 Christina Galanti Dickson Jo Anna Galanti Fellon John Lindsey Colton Riley Chris Watkins Bill Wentworth

2003 Saleem Ahmed Chelsea Weiss Baum Laura Pierce Chris Pike Mackie Pilsbury Spadaccini Poon Watchara-Amphaiwan 2004 Bob Saunders Etienne Vazquez 2005 Davinia Buckley Laura Dunn Cona Tim Deary Alysia LaBonte-Campbell Josh Rich Bona Yoo 2006 Michelle Gilmore Castiglione Hillary Ross Charalambous Caroline Davis Young Hoon Hahn Maryam Hayatu-Deen Greg Jones Katherine Winogradow Munno James Pinkham Erin Wolchesky 2007 Emily Detmer Chris Golden Holly Lorms Shawn McCloud Else Ross Darren Small Melissa Stuart

2008 Alexandra D’Agostino Jo Gaube Nemeskal Steve Harkey Emily Johnson 2009 Molly Downey Katie Kramer Sam St. Lawrence 2010 Maura Hall Kayla Sheehan Samantha Slotnick Ryan Wainwright 2011 Matthew Bourdeau Kenri Ferre Czarina Hutchins Daniel Palumbo Margaret Thompson Ray Zeek 2012 Allie Bohan Helen Day Moira MacArthur Jack Nicholson Georgia Paige Sorrel Perka

2013 Alex Adams Lindsay Barber Alyson Chase Hayden Clarkin Jordan Ginsberg Lexi Gulino Dan Kellaway Dylan O’Hara Izzie Tropnasse 2014 Isaiah Henderson Meghan MacArthur Annie Zalon 2015 K.C. O’Hara 2016 Madison Dean Abby McThomas Caelan Meggs Sofie Melian-Morse Rhone O’Hara Chloe Saad Dave Samberg Sam Skinner 2017 Olivia Kremer Mallory McArdle Brandon Mitchell Sophie Nick

79

IN MEMORIAM

In Memoriam

80

’37

’42

’44

’46

Charles B. Ferguson ’37 January 7, 2018

William A. Riley II ’42 February 27, 2017

Wheaton B. Byers ’44 April 21, 2017

Ashton Harvey ’46 April 29, 2017

’49

’49

’49

’51

George Blagden ’49 August 9, 2017

Winfield S. Carrick ’49 June 25, 2017

Joseph P. Lorenz, Jr. ’49 December 10, 2017

Howard A. Baran ’51 November 20, 2017

POMFRET WINTER 2018

To request a printed copy of full detail alumni obituaries, call the Advancement Office at 860-963-6129.

’52

’53

Edward B. du Pont ’52 April 30, 2017

Edward K. McCagg II ’53 November 2, 2017

’56

’60

’62

’66

Edward Carleton, Jr. ’56 February 3, 2017

Eric R. Hansen, Jr. ’60 November 18, 2017

Pietro Nivola ’62 April 5, 2017

John S. Barbour ’66 July 8, 2017

’67

’67

’72

James A. Parker ’67 July 25, 2017

Joseph H. Twichell ’67 November 22, 2017

Robert A. Greenman ’72 May 18, 2017

Former Faculty Paul Keaney May 25, 2017

81

IN MEMORIAM

David L. Seymour ’54 February 20, 2017

82

POMFRET WINTER 2018

Bryan Kirkpatrick ’68 September 15, 2016

James L. Hard ’70 September 21, 2016

Gordon Wasley Austin ’74 November 28, 2016

Robert Eastman Sloat | 1941 - 2017

L

ongtime former faculty member Bob Sloat, who died in August at the age of 76, was a true Pomfret icon. During his storied forty-one year career, he held many positions, including math teacher and chair of the Fine Arts Department, but it was his deep and abiding passion for theater that defined him. By the time Bob retired in 2006, he had participated in the development of more than 200 dramatic performances, including what he considered his two standout school productions, Cats and The Diary of Anne Frank. “Making theater happen is what I really love doing,” he once said.

Bob was born in Rahway, New Jersey in 1941 to Edna Eastman Sloat and Frederick P. Sloat. After attending public schools, he followed his late father and older brother to Wesleyan University, from which he graduated in 1963. That fall, Bob took a position next door at The Rectory School, where he served as school organist and taught math and science.

He also joined the concert choir, which had recently been formed by Warren Geissinger, the music teacher and organist at Pomfret. In 1965, he and Caroline Fuller were married. When Geissinger left for India on sabbatical later that year, Bob was hired to fill in temporarily. The rest, as they say, is history.

Through a variety of fortuitous events, among them his capacity to teach mathematics, Bob was hired as a full-time faculty member at Pomfret and began putting down roots. Over the years, he held steadfast the importance of the arts in the Pomfret triad of academics, athletics, and arts, creatively and flexibly weaving time for the arts into the schedule so that all students would gain hands-on experience in painting and drawing, sculpture and pottery, film, photography, dance, choral and instrumental music, and the performance and production of plays and musicals.

A winner of the School’s 2006 William Beach Distinguished Service Olmsted Award, Bob also sought to make art visible (and audible) throughout the School. His thinking, for example, was incorporated into the design for the Centennial Academic and Arts Building (1996), which includes academic classrooms, studios for painting, pottery, and sculpture, and a small auditorium that doubles as a black-box theater.

When he retired in 2006, Bob did not want a formal dinner with speeches. Instead he wanted a celebration of the performing arts in Hard Auditorium, where he had spent so much of his time. Dubbed the “The Bob Sloat Retirement Show,” the resulting showcase of musical and dramatic presentations featured seventeen Pomfret alumni with careers spanning the performing arts.

His last official visit to the Hilltop came recently, in 2017, when Bob returned for the Class of 1967’s 50th reunion. That same weekend, he got to watch Broadway theater maven Jack Viertel ’66, one of his first theater students, receive the Pomfret School Alumni Award. Not surprisingly, he left dinner early to catch the spring play, The 39 Steps, directed by his successor, Chip Lamb.

On August 26, generations of Pomfret people flooded into Clark Memorial Chapel to remember Bob. During the service, Lamb addressed the audience: Bob taught math here at Pomfret, and he also taught another subject, but maybe not the one you are immediately thinking. Bob taught transportation. He transported us to different times and places. He made it possible for his students to transport themselves into different shoes, seeing the world, and themselves, differently. Bob knew the great value of this kind of transportation because it invited perspective, conversation, community, all those things that make a good education. And a good life.

Bob transported his audiences deliberately, sometimes when we needed it most, despite the risk of controversy. He had the courage to direct Luther by John Osborne right here in Clark Chapel during the 1960s and In White America in 1973. He revisited many standards too, because Bob knew the value of transportation along familiar paths — The Diary of Anne Frank, You Can’t Take It With You, and The Miracle Worker. As a man filled with, and by, music, he knew that tunes make the drama go down just that much easier. All those musicals, and Gilbert and Sullivan, the list is truly too long to mention.

Bob changed the course of my life. He did this by sharing the life he built with Caroline here at Pomfret School. A life dedicated to transporting young people with stories and characters, and music and humor. He showed me that such a life can have value, purpose and beauty. And he did all this without a trace of pretension. In fact, he always tried to keep things as simple as possible.

Just show up. Face the audience. Speak as loudly and clearly as possible. Please.

We heard you, Bob, loud and clear. We thank you for all those moments when you transported us, when we thought and laughed and cried. All those moments when we felt most alive.

Bob leaves his wife Caroline; their daughter Elisabeth ’86, her husband Marc Rothschild, and their children Henry, William, and Colin; their son Andrew ’95 and his partner Frampton Tolbert; his sister-in-law, Sarah Fuller ’72; and his niece and nephews, their spouses, and children. He has requested that friends wishing to make gifts in his memory contribute to the performing arts program at Pomfret.

83

ICONOGRAPHY

Hockey Pond M

any people still remember the old Brown Rink, named in honor of Charles Brown, a coach and athletic director in the 1920s. The rink was built in 1964, then renovated and renamed as the Jahn Rink in 2005. Far fewer people remember the rink’s outdoor predecessor — a small, man-made pond that was the home of Pomfret hockey for sixty years.

Two miles south of its spring-fed origins, Wappaquia Brook passes across the western edge of the Pomfret campus. In the early 1900s, the School dammed the creek at the foot of Brown Road, creating a shallow pond.

84

POMFRET WINTER 2018

Wooden boards formed the boundaries of three separate rinks. A nearby building served as a warming hut. Before the start of each game, players would walk from the hut to the ice down a wooden walkway.

Though the hockey pond was abandoned for Brown Rink in 1964, it still made a great fishing hole. Its shallow waters provided protected habitat for nesting sunfish while deeper spots harbored a sizable bass population.

On the morning of July 24, 1988, a heavy rainstorm flooded the spillway. Water quickly overtopped the dam and the whole thing collapsed. In a flash, the pond was gone. All that remains now are a few slabs of concrete, a handful of grainy photographs, and the fading memories of those who were there to see it.

85

GATHERINGS

Gatherings STAY CONNECTED Don’t miss the next gathering near you! Look for our Upcoming Events newsletter.

Connecticut Pickleball Event at Weed Beach, Darien JULY 25, 2017 (L-R): Former faculty Charlie Sachs, Barbara Cox, Austin Schwartz ’18, Joey Moffitt ’82, Mackie Pilsbury Spadaccini ’03, Mark Spadaccini, Aubrey Benzing-Plourde ’18, Bill Cox ’58, Meg Campbell P ’01, ’07, ’11.

Paddle Tennis at New Canaan Field Club, New Canaan NOVEMBER 17, 2017 (Front Row, L-R): Lisa (Boris) Boshnack ’96, Meg Campbell P ’01, ’07, Amanda Barnes Zampiello ’94, Winnie Goodrich ’05, Kenyon Clark ’67, Louisa Jones P ’04.

(Back Row, L-R): Greg Still P ’05, Paul Fowler ’64, Justin Boshnack, Robert Boris ’89, David Still ’05, Geoff Zampiello, Pete D’Agostino ’07, Thomas Clok, Joey Moffitt ’82, Will D’Agostino, Art Crabtree, Vip Van Voorhees ’64.

86

POMFRET WINTER 2018

Massachusetts Paddle Tennis at Myopia Hunt Club, South Hamilton NOVEMBER 3, 2017 (L-R): Mike Newton ’96, Fedor Smith ’95, Genevieve Richardson ’99, Dick Fates ’63, Associate Director of Advancement Vassar Pierce, Chad Cooper ’96, Louisa Jones P ’04, Paul Schauder P ’19, Julie Weinberg, Trevor Reid ’06.

Boston Holiday Reception, Boston DECEMBER 7, 2017

Boston

1

Boston

3

Boston

2

1.

2.

3.

(L-R): Nate Russell ’94, Damien and Elizabeth (Chartier) Rudzinski ’96, Ann Hinchman P ’81, ’83.

(L-R): George Baldwin P ’18 with Amy Sahler and Associate Director of Admissions Sabrina Putnam.

(L-R): Sean Driscoll ’06, Julia Field ’07, Holly Lorms ’07, Else Ross ’07.

87

GATHERINGS

Boston

4

4.

(L-R): Amy Diaz ’10, Alex Diaz ’12, Matt Bourdeau ’11 with his friend Alyssa, Lydia Brents ’12.

New York NY

1

New York Holiday Reception, New York DECEMBER 5, 2017

88

POMFRET WINTER 2018

NY

NY

2

3

NY

NY

4

5

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

(Clockwise From Upper Left): Board of Trustees Chair Justin Klein ’65, Derry Allen ’65, Miguel de Torres ’65, John Irick ’65 Kip Hale ’98 (left) and Brendan Mims ’98.

(L-R): Tobin Heminway P ’19, Raymond Hannigan P ’19, Robin Gordon P ’18 and friend Randy Barron.

(L-R): Sarah Howie ’09, Bill Hecker P ’10, Meg Hecker ’10, Katie Kramer ’09.

(L-R): Lexie (Rosenthal) Proceller ’84, Jessica (Slosberg) Benjamin ’83, Luis Cruz ’82, Christopher Scott ’83, Wendy (Reeder) Enelow ’83, Joey Moffitt ’82, Sander Coxe ’83.

89

GATHERINGS

California NAIS People of Color Conference, Anaheim NOVEMBER 30, 2017

(L-R): Director of Diversity Steve Davis, faculty member Dolph Clinton ’92, Liv Passarelli ’19, Leslie Rosario-Olivo ’18, Alexa McNeil ’19, faculty member Bridget Tsemo P ’17, Linzee Tracey ’18, Jahneh Haylett ’19, Ginny Eaton P ’91, Angel Kermah ’19, Marshall Eaton ’70, and faculty member Marvin Aguilar.

(Missing From Photo): faculty member Jillian Forgue.

Alumni Gathering hosted by Trustee Malik Ducard ’91, Los Angeles NOVEMBER 2017

(Front Row Kneeling, L-R): Marshall Eaton ’70; Althea Ducard, Malik Ducard ’91; Ginny Eaton P ’91, Director of Diversity Steve Davis.

(Middle Row, L-R): Alexa McNeil ’19, Kevin, Hannah Leo ’11, Elisabeth Costa de Beauregard Rose ’93 and her children, Toyin Moses ’98, faculty member Jillian Forgue, Liv Passarelli ’19; Angel Kermah ’19, Linzee Tracey ’18, Leslie Rosario-Olivo ’18; Emmy Clark-Christie ’17; Jahneh Haylett ’19, Sauda Johnson ’94.

(Back Row, L-R): Jordan Clark ’84, Chris McNeal, Dolph Clinton ’92, faculty member Marvin Aguilar, Reginald Carroll ’69, Andre Burgess ’75, Marc Crook ’04, Dotty Clark.

(Missing From Photo): Geoffrey Falk ’93, Devon Chivvis ’92, and Carl McAulay ’68.

90

POMFRET WINTER 2018

Maine Mount Desert Island Reception JULY 28, 2017

(Front Row, L-R): Ellie Buchanan P ’90, Jessica Paumgarten ’90, Elise Wolcott P ’18, Jessica Buchanan ’90, Katie Moriarty Whittier ’89, Dawn Stewart P ’20, Basia Paumgarten P ’90, Polly Pierce, Joe Crary ’70.

(Middle Row, L-R): Ollie Wolcott P ’18, Hal Paumgarten P ’90, Bill Buchanan P ’90, Ploy & Johnny Lorenz ’99, Diana Higgins P ’14, Lizz Poulos Fuller ’05, Arthur Poulos P ’05, Laura Keeler Pierce ’03, Jock Herron ’69, Chris Campbell.

(Back Row, L-R): Peter Southam ’83, Sarah Southam, Gordon Stewart P ’20, Richard Higgins P ’14, Christopher Scott ’83.

Washington, DC Artisan Food Fest at Gallagher & Graham Fine Spirits SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 (L-R): Tucker Gallagher ’87, Julia Oswald ’12, Caroline Hayssen ’12, Georgia Paige ’12, Derry Allen ’65, Michael Petty ’67, Michael Weaver ’14.

(Missing From Photo): Corbin Eissler ’67, Alex Gristina ’11.

91

GATHERINGS

Asia In November 2017, Head of School Tim Richards and Anne Richards P ’15, with Director of Advancement Melissa Bellanceau, traveled to Thailand, China, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Jakarta to meet with parents and alumni.

Thailand (L-R): Melissa Bellanceau, Apitana “Golf ” Jirawongkraisorn ’97, Nawita Direkwut ’94, Tim Richards, Krit Poonsirivong ’95, Anne Richards.

Beijing (L-R): Wen Yang P ’21, Lili Gao P ’21, Melissa Bellanceau, Steven Liu ’21, Tim and Anne Richards, Grace Peng P ’21, Yongxia Liu P ’20, Xiufeng Yu P ’21, Tian Kun Liu P ’21.

92

POMFRET WINTER 2018

Beijing (L-R): Anne Richards, Grace Peng P ’21, Tim Richards, Steven Liu ’21, Melissa Bellanceau.

Shanghai Melissa Bellanceau and Tim and Anne Richards shared dinner with Tiejun and Zhiwei Yang P ’18, their friends Mr. & Mrs. Tao, and their interpreter Wei.

Shanghai (L-R): Jack Lee P ’19, Tim and Anne Richards, Melissa Bellanceau, Michelle Yan P ’19 and daughter Claire Lee.

Shanghai (L-R): Minshan Xing P ’20, Anne Richards, Melissa Bellanceau, Tim Richards, Xiaoqing Niu P ’20, and their interpreter.

Hong Kong (L-R): Melissa Bellanceau, Anne and Tim Richards, Shirley and Alex Chen P ’20.

Shanghai (L-R): Tiejun Yang P ’18, Michelle Yan P ’19, Christine Sui P ’19, Anne and Tim Richards, Melissa Bellanceau, Zhiwei Yang P ’18, Jenny Zhang P ’19, Kevin Wei P ’19, Denny Ng P ’19, Chen Kan P ’15.

Hong Kong (L-R): Tim and Anne Richards, Zoe Chau P ’19, and Melissa Bellanceau.

Seoul The Korean Parents Association in Seoul, South Korea.

93

94

POMFRET WINTER 2018

PARTING SHOT Bob Sloat

95 93

398 Pomfret Street PO Box 128 Pomfret CT 06258- 0128 www.pomfret.org

Change Service Requested

Please notify us of any change of address, giving both the new and the old addresses.

CRATIA DEI MECUM

94

POMFRET WINTER 2018