23 minute read
Alumni Stories
Jon Seigel | Proctor Arts Department1979-1989
Advertisement
Jon taught in Proctor’s Arts Department for a decade alongside his wife, Patrice Martin. Jon currently lives in Wilmot, New Hampshire and continues to teach woodturning. He occasionally is a special guest in Proctor’s art classes.
How did you and Patrice find Proctor and become involved with the school?
I arrived at Proctor by accident. Initially I came for three weeks to oversee a senior project in woodworking with three students. Of the three students who were doing the senior project, one of them, Bob Gagne ‘76 became my life-long friend until he died in 2014 and one of the other students also became a professional wood worker. The following January (1979) I came back as a temporary fill-in for a teacher who left suddenly. In the spring David Fowler unexpectedly asked me to stay on. Patrice joined me, and a year later she started teaching ceramics. I stayed for ten years, but Patrice taught ceramics and photography for 35 years.
Reflecting on your (collective) time at Proctor, how did your friendships with colleagues shape your experience at the school?
The friends I made at Proctor shaped my whole life. I loved being in an academic community where there were experts on every subject. George Emeny took me under his wing and showed me his vision of what the industrial arts department could be. We resurrected the blacksmithing program that had been dormant for decades and built the forge. George also taught me about the history of machine tools, and how that history is all around us in New England. Today the restoration of antique machine tools is a big part of my life.
Patrice taught at Proctor for more than 35 years, as her husband and a fellow artist, what was it that kept her inspired to impact students for so many years?
Both Patrice and I felt honored to be teaching at a school that valued the arts so highly. Patrice loved her students and had close relationships with so many of them. In the ceramics studio and the darkroom, Patrice wanted them to thrive and feel relaxed and know they were heard and understood. As a result, they trusted her and valued her advice and calming influence.
After Patrice passed away in 2017, a group of alumni started the Patrice Martin Arts Scholarship. This scholarship is provided to current students each year who have a passion for the arts. What is your vision for this scholarship fund into the future?
It’s my hope that alumni who knew Patrice will feel inspired by the Patrice Martin Scholarship to sustain this fund so the arts will continue to thrive at Proctor. I envision this fund as a magnet for students who are committed to the arts.
Since leaving Proctor, you began your own business as a wood turner and tool creator. Can you tell us a little more about this work and recent projects that have kept you busy?
After leaving Proctor I went back to woodturning full time. I have worked on many architectural restoration projects of historic buildings. To see a sample of my work go to my website www. bigtreeturnings.com, or visit the State House in Concord and look at the bench in Representatives’ Hall. This piece of furniture has fifty-four turnings.
I never stopped teaching and have had numerous students in my shop, regional woodworking schools and symposia. In 1990 I was one of the founders of an organization for woodworking education, The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers, that started with twelve people and is now approaching 700 members. I also have two patents on woodworking tools. The second one was obtained in collaboration with my most memorable former student Grinnell More ‘82, whose daughter, Hannah ‘12, later attended Proctor as well.
Any additional thoughts or memories to share with the Proctor family?
One day I sat down to what I thought would be a quiet lunch in the dining hall. Suddenly Eva Mansell (drama director) sat down on one side of me and Paul Silverman (music director) sat down on the other side — and the next thing I knew I agreed to be in the production of Fiddler on the Roof. I had never been in a play before, but found it to be one of the most exciting experiences of my life, especially working with Eva and with Tom Eslick who played the lead role so brilliantly.
Alumni Stories
Bob Martin ’65
A FoundAtion For LiFe
Being the youngest of four and having a family that all attended prep schools, it was always in the cards for Bob Martin ‘65 to leave Springfield, Ohio, to attend a New England boarding school. The only uncertainty was which one. Bob had family attend the Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, but after considering the size of the school, it was quickly dismissed as an option. As luck would have it, Bob’s math tutor at the time had recommended a small New Hampshire school that seemed like a good option–Holderness School, and that’s where Bob’s journey from an Ohio farm boy to Andover, New Hampshire began.
With some additional research, Bob and his family added Proctor to their list of schools to visit. Bob reflects, “My father and I flew to Boston and drove to Andover. I remember walking into Maxwell-Savage and meeting Ernie Sherman. I was so intimidated by his demeanor, and left his office in tears after I thought I had completely failed the interview.” Bob’s father would remain with Mr. Sherman as Bob waited patiently to hear what they had decided. “Mr. Sherman was a Navy veteran and someone that did not give off the ‘Mr. Friendly’-vibe. However, once you got past his tough exterior, he really cared about us. After my father met with Mr. Sherman he informed me that I would be accepted. The fear of going through another interview like that was enough for me to convince my dad to hop in the car and get back home.”
From an early age, Bob was active outdoors with athletics always serving a central role in his upbringing. During his time at Proctor, he would play football, hockey, and lacrosse, with lacrosse growing into a lifelong passion. “I did not know too much about lacrosse when I arrived, but I knew I wanted to give it a try since all the ‘cool’ guys were playing it. I chose to try out for goalie, and fortunately, we had an outstanding coach in Cliff Gillispie. Coach Gillispie was one of the most remarkable men I have ever been around. I was lucky to have played for him for three years before he moved on to St. Paul’s School.” During Bob’s senior year, another young faculty member, David Fowler, joined the Proctor community and would leave a lasting impact on countless students during the next forty years. After Proctor, Bob matriculated to Denison University where he majored in English and continued his lacrosse career. As captain of the lacrosse team, Bob became an All-American goalie, and won a national championship in 1968. In 2011, Bob was inducted into the Denison Athletic Hall of Fame.
Upon graduating from Denison in 1969, Bob chose to enlist in the Army instead of potentially being drafted for the Vietnam War. “I figured I would rather choose what I got to do than leave it up to someone else, so I enlisted and worked with the Army Corps of Engineers building bridges. After I finished my enlistment, I went to graduate school at Ohio State University, graduating with a natural resources and resource economics degree. I also used the G.I. Bill to attend the Conway School of Landscape Design.” Bob’s first job post-military led him back to prep school life, where he served as a dormitory parent at Northfield Mount Hermon School while working full-time for the State of New Hampshire Natural Resource Department. “I was asked to create New Hampshire’s first Land Use Map. Satellite imagery was pretty primitive, and everything was heat sensored. Dartmouth would make these little shapes with the actual ground location that indicated the degree of heat and take that information to render onto a map to demonstrate what activity was where. It was Google Maps before Google Maps.”
With Bob’s environmental background, he was one of the first people to work alongside Proctor students when the school launched Mountain Classroom, teaching students resource mapping. His work led him down the career path of working with natural resources and the environment in Cleveland, Ohio and Kentucky where he wrote environmental impact statements on industrial complexes, airports, and railroads, while consulting with coal miners on shale projects and energy conversions in six different states. Today, Bob lives in Columbus, Ohio, where he started a new career as a stock trader, specializing in commodity trading, working with Wells Fargo Advisors. Reflecting on his journey from Ohio farmboy to Proctor student, and now a 75 year old looking to retire soon, Bob is excited about what the future holds. “If only I were younger, I would love to teach and give back like the educators at Proctor did for me during my time there. As I near retirement, I still enjoy many of the things I fell in love with at Proctor, especially writing poetry and being active. Proctor set me up for a successful life.”
Max Cobb ’83
AppLying Lessons LeArned At proctor on the WorLd stAge
When Max Cobb ‘83 enrolled at the Carroll School as a 6th grader who had recently been diagnosed with dyslexia, he was barely reading at a 1st grade level. Little did he know that the arduous work during those early years at Carroll would unlock a series of experiences that would define the next forty years of his life, including connections made at Proctor Academy that would lead him to Dartmouth College and a career with US Biathlon.
It was during Carroll School’s Outward Bound program that Max first learned about Proctor Academy while attending a summer camp on Elbow Pond run by Proctor. Max and his family knew he would need additional learning support in high school, and Proctor was a logical choice. “I underwent a rapid progression at Carroll, and it was great and hard and difficult, as it is for all dyslexic kids, but I knew I still needed Learning Skills and Proctor was able to provide that support to me.” With Alice Fowler as his Learning Specialist, Chuck and Sarah Will as dorm parents and Sarah Will as his advisor, Max flourished at Proctor. “Proctor was just wonderful for me. I loved the outdoors and Orientation. I became involved with the Proctor Fire Department, played lacrosse, skied, had the most amazing time on Mountain Classroom. I learned to read and survive, and was surrounded by adults whose relentless enthusiasm and support of us as students permeated the school’s culture.” Max points to his time serving as School Leader and his interactions with Head of School David Fowler as truly transformational, “The lessons I learned from David around consensus building remain just as important to my work today as it was almost forty years ago as a student.”
Academic work at Proctor remained incredibly difficult for Max, however. “Life as a dyslexic was incredibly challenging before the era of personal computers and spell check.” When it came time to apply for college, Max had his sights set on Dartmouth College. “I went in and told Tim Norris, my college counselor and ski coach, that I would like to apply early to Dartmouth and he promptly responded, ‘No you don’t.’ It was a bit disheartening, but when I went back the next day and affirmed my desire to do so, Tim did everything he could to support me and wrote me a wonderful recommendation explaining my learning journey.” While initially deferred during the early-decision process, Max eventually found himself Dartmouth bound after raising his SAT math score more than 200 points, something he credits to Lee Carvalho and her relentless support of her students as an AP Calculus teacher. Club, skiing on the Nordic ski team, and serving as president of the Dartmouth Biathlon club. A job guiding a visually impaired skier named Joe Walsh during the 1986 World Championships gave Max his first taste of international Nordic racing experience, and he was hooked. When a job opportunity to work with US Biathlon opened up in 1989, Max jumped at it. “I remember completing my job interview with US Biathlon over the radio phone at Hurricane Island as I was working there for the summer, and thought it would be a great job for the next year or two before I went back to graduate school. By February 1992 I was marching into the opening ceremonies with the US Olympic Team and realized there is a lot to international sport and maybe I want to stick around. More than thirty years later, I am still with US Biathlon and could not be more excited about our future as an organization.”
As program director, Max launched a new approach to recruit young talent that laid the groundwork for an athlete development program that produced a gold medal at the 1997 Junior World Championships. He went on to become a technical delegate for the International Biathlon Union (IBU) in 1998, helped design and build the biathlon venue in Salt Lake City for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, and was chosen to serve as the Competition Chief for the Salt Lake games, an honor he says is still the highlight of his career. With an intense travel schedule, and his first child born in the summer of 1998, Max still found time to help create the Maine Sports Center in 1999, an organization he would work alongside to bring the 2004 Biathlon World Cup to rural Maine. Promoted to Executive Director of US Biathlon in 2006 and President and CEO in 2010, Max’s international sport career has blossomed over the past decade, serving as Chair of the IBU Technical Committee and later on the Executive Board, while also being heavily involved in investigations of the Russian doping scandal that marred the sport and led to new anti-doping laws.
With the IBU’s first strategic plan completed with Max’s leadership, the organization is poised to benefit from new marketing and broadcasting contracts that will drastically improve the athlete and athlete development experience. In parallel to this success, Max has reengaged with Proctor as a member of the Board of Trustees, “It has been really fun to come back as a trustee and see so many of the essential pieces of my Proctor experience - experiential learning, supporting Learning Skills students, and having this open and vibrant dialogue within the community - still alive and well. The essential spirit of Proctor goes on as I remember it and as I had hoped it would.”
“The lessons learned from David Fowler as School Leader around consensus building and managing meetings have been incredibly helpful while chairing international committees with representatives from nine different countries. I used what I learned at Proctor to change the culture, to have more open discussion and benefit from the diversity of opinions and experiences around the table.”
“It is both luck and hard work. I have come to respect the role of both in one’s life. And luck comes in many forms, including the people you meet and the relationships you have the opportunity to develop along the way. Proctor was a big piece of my ‘luck’ and I remain grateful for the role it played in shaping me and my path through life.”
Cristina Berta ’95
embrAcing neW opportunities on A gLobAL scALe
At the end of every episode of the podcast “How I Built This”, host Guy Raz asks his entrepreneurial guests what roles luck and hard work played in their success. For Cristina Berta ‘95, the answer to that question lies somewhere in between as she reflects on her journey as an exchange student from Romania to Kearsarge Regional High School, Proctor Academy, Middlebury College, and Harvard Business School before launching a global career in business.
When Cristina earned a scholarship from the Soros Open Society Foundation to leave her home country of Romania and study abroad for six months in the United States, she had no idea the path that lay ahead of her. “I was one of four students who earned this opportunity and when I got on the plane, I was asked where I wanted to study in the US. I said ‘New York’ because that sounded interesting. We landed at JFK airport, and then immediately hopped on a smaller plane that landed in Manchester, and I ended up in New London, New Hampshire. Not quite New York, but I had an amazing experience (despite the cold) with the Ensign family as my hosts.” Cristina’s plan to return home to continue her pre-med preparations in Romania before university after six months in the United States was foiled when she was informed her high school credits from the US would not count and she would have to repeat her entire junior year. “I called Steve (Ensign) in a panic not knowing what to do next. He helped me apply to a number of independent schools in the United States, Proctor being one of them, and I was fortunate to receive a financial aid package at Proctor that allowed me to complete my senior year in Andover.”
Cristina made the most of her one year at Proctor earning Salutatorian honors. She credits her English teacher Tom Eslick, psychology teacher Chris Norris, and AP US History teacher Connie Appel for teaching her to love learning, “I was coming from a system where I was just expected to memorize facts, but stepping into a classroom at Proctor where teachers wanted to hear what I had to say, and valued my perspective, shaped the rest of my life. Adults encouraged me to tell them what I think. I have this crystal clear memory of my first English paper I wrote for Tom returned to me all crossed out in red with simple feedback: ‘You’re not telling me what you think.’ Proctor was the first place where I truly was encouraged to express myself and given direct and personal feedback and it changed how I thought and thought of myself.” Cristina remained close with the Ensign family, spending holidays with them and becoming a part of their family. “What began as simply a host family relationship quickly evolved into a lifelong friendship. I remember so clearly Steve helping me pack my car for my first job out of college and always welcoming me home for Thanksgiving or Christmas as I began my professional journey.”
That professional journey began at the apex of the internet bubble working at a small consulting firm in Washington, DC followed by a tech startup in Boston. After three years in the tech industry, Cristina enrolled at Harvard Business School. “Before the revolution in Romania, my father jokingly told me, ‘If you study hard, when you get into Harvard, I’ll pay for it.’ I don’t think he ever thought it would be a reality.” Her early experiences laid the groundwork for her career in international business, “I had an amazing boss at IBM who challenged me and encouraged me to learn sales as a foundational skill in business. He pushed me to go to business school, and then told me I had a responsibility after Harvard to go take a ‘real’ job and make a difference in the world. And that’s what I tried to do.”
Recognizing the role consumer technology would play in the upcoming decade, Cristina identified she wanted that ‘real’ job to be in the mobile phone space. After interviewing with Samsung and Nokia, she took a job at Nokia in corporate development and eventually moved to Mexico City where she managed a $3 billion account from 2006-2010. In 2010, a move to London with Nokia led to an unforeseen career twist when a former colleague asked Cristina to advise a South African fund focused on mobile. Cristina soon found herself managing a portfolio of twelve different investments around the globe. “I was either on the plane finding new deals or representing our firm in an existing deal. It was an amazing seven years of learning and seeing things and experiencing the entrepreneurial excitement from the investor side.”
One of those companies piqued her interest. “I started working with Picnic - an end to end grocery delivery company - in 2019 and fell in love with their story. My family, including my eight year old daughter, Mara, are happy and healthy and loving life in the Netherlands. I still keep a toe in the investing world as an investment scout for Sequoia Capital and as an advisor for a publicly traded company building automated parcel lockers, but I am enjoying learning how to build a company and not just recognize a good one. It is this thrill of building something that has me so excited right now.”
Christine ( Toriello) Walshe ’97
the grounding Found Within community
To step into a community requires you to put the well-being of that community above your own self-interest. For adolescents, it is a nearly impossible task; not because teenagers lack an appreciation for those around them, but because so few have deeply felt the benefits of living and learning in community with others. When Christine (Toriello) Walshe ‘97 stepped into the Proctor community as a repeat sophomore from a small farming community in New Jersey, she never knew how effectively a school community could surround her with the love, support, and the accountability she needed.
As the youngest of four children, Christine struggled to navigate public school and her large class sizes with her severe learning differences. “As a dyslexic with ADHD, school was incredibly hard for me, for any student with my learning profile. You simply get worn down by the effort it takes to get by. My father identified with my learning challenges and told me there were better ways of learning that would capture my strengths and allow me to thrive.” As good friends with former faculty member Anne Swazye’s cousin, Christine’s father learned about Proctor and they drove the five hours to campus for a visit during her sophomore year. “I fell in love with the brochure of Proctor during my interview with Michele Koenig, but it was not until I arrived on campus for Wilderness Orientation with Susan Eslick that I began to fully understand the power of this place.”
It was the community of friends, teachers, staff, and local families within Andover that provided Christine the support she needed to thrive at Proctor. “I hit a really rough patch of homesickness just before winter break of my first year, but one of my newly made friends, Kelcey Loomer ‘96, invited me to live with her family for the remainder of the year. The hospitality and love that the Loomers expressed was life changing, as was my connection to Cindy and Benny Benson and their family, and others in the local Andover community who allowed me to feel grounded in who I was for the first time.” Combined with the love and support of teachers like Dave Pilla, Patty Pond, Anne Swayze, the Hinkleys, Terry Stoecker, and Patrice Martin, as well as her Learning Specialist Dale Milne, Christine came to understand herself as a learner, “I couldn’t retain from a flat page, I had to experience something fully in order to connect with it and so Proctor’s educational model allowed me to see the process of learning in a totally new way. Dyslexics are massively strong in 3D learning, and so by building a hope chest in woodworking or throwing a pot in Slocumb I was able to understand in new ways the process of learning.” She adds, “My teachers believed in me, in us. They allowed us to run student-directed plays in the theater, to manage budgets and have unfettered access to the costume closet, to take risks, to explore in the woods. At the same time, they were always willing to hold us accountable while supporting us when we needed them most.”
After terms on Ocean Classroom and Mountain Classroom, Christine recognized what she needed out of her future college experience: a community where adults cared about her, knew her, and were willing to hold her accountable. That place was Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina. “I initially pursued a wildlife science major because Dave Pilla changed my life through his teaching and I wanted to be just like him, but quickly pivoted to the humanities and a dual major marrying art history and religion - the ‘Patrice’ route. I think I had such a transformative experience at Warren Wilson because I already knew the value of wholly investing myself in a place and its people based on my time at Proctor.”
Following graduation at Warren Wilson, Christine headed to Atlanta to interview for an internship with the High Museum of Art. Late to the interview process, the only available internship was within the Museum’s development office. That internship quickly led to a full-time role as an executive assistant at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. This early exposure to fundraising evolved into a nearly twenty year career in the industry, first with U.S. Ski and Snowboard and since 2004 working with the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee. In her current role, Christine serves as the Chief Development Officer of the USOPC and the President of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Foundation (USOPF). As a hands-on fundraiser, Christine also oversees a staff of 30 and helps lead the USOPF in its $30M in annual fundraising among the 55 national governing bodies that make up the Olympic and Paralympic movements in the United States. Christine is committed to the mission and envisions leading the Foundation through the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic and Paralympic Games when the country will celebrate thirty years since it last hosted a Summer Games.
As Christine and her husband Andy raise their ten year old identical twin girls, they are keenly aware of the communities into which their children step. “As my girls grow older, I want them to always have adults in their life who look them in the eye and not only believe in them and their unique potential, but hold them accountable to the community that surrounds them. It is the greatest gift Proctor gave me, and I know the greatest gift I can give them as a parent.”
“If given the opportunity, you learn that your learning differences are actually super powers. They never go away, but they allow you to find alternative ways to do things. You learn to be really, really comfortable being different. But you cannot embrace your differences without the tools to succeed, and Proctor gives young people with learning differences the tools they need to succeed.”
