QUAD Winter 2016

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

at Riverdale

WINTER 2016 /// Volume XXXIX /// NUMBER 1

of note SHOWING GRIT

Photo by David Kenas Photography, DKshots.com

NYSAIS CHAMPIONS The Boys Varsity Soccer team won their second-straight NYSAIS Championship with a 2-0 win over UNIS, following a close 5-4 semifinal victory against Poly Prep that included two 10-minute overtimes and two 5-minute golden goal overtimes. | CONGRATULATIONS!

ON THE COVER Winter 2016 /// Volume XXXIX /// NUMBER 1

Middle School students enjoyed a lighthearted moment during Community Day 2015.

CONTENTS

HIGHLIGHTS

Feature Community Engagement at Riverdale 02 | CET Helps RCS Community

Examine Tough Issues

2

Community Engagement With the help of several diversity-minded administrators, RCS is tackling some tough issues.

04 | Lower School Affinity Group

Continues to Grow and Evolve 06 | Parent Committees Collaborate with

CET to Build Inclusiveness

Project Knowmad

08 | CET Explores 'Belonging' as

This Year's Middle School Theme

Expanded offerings for Summer 2016 include adult opportunities.

10 | Lower School Introduces Town

Meetings to Build Community

Within the Community 12 | Head of School Dominic A.A. Randolph

Goes to Washington

22

The RCS Community 14 | Retirements and Farewells 15 | Riverdale Welcomes New Trustee 15 | New Faces on Hill Campus R+ The Riverdale Campaign 16 | Construction Update Educational Opportunities 22 | Project Knowmad Expands Partnerships,

Offerings for Summer 2016 Outstanding Events 24 | RCS Welcomes Alumni, Current

Families to Homecoming 2015 Riverdale Alumni 28 | College Destinations for the

Class of 2015 30 | Class Notes IBC | Profile: Mali Locke ’95 QUAD is published by the Communications Office.

Mary Ludemann, QUAD Editor and Director of School Information Lila Locksley, Director of Communications Georgia Tucker, Communications Associate Robin Gottlieb, Director of Alumni Affairs Design: White Communications, Inc., Tuxedo, NY

12

The Teachers Guild Project Riverdale is partnering with the First Lady on the Better Make Room Initiative.

24

Homecoming/Reunion 2015 Felix the Falcon was happy to welcome so many familiar faces back to campus.

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FEATURE

R

Community Engagement Team Helps RCS Community

Examine Tough Issues

It isn’t always easy to discuss sensitive topics such as race and socio-economic disparity, but with the help of several diversity-minded administrators, members of the Riverdale community have been able to start—and continue—meaningful conversations in these areas.

The seven members of Riverdale’s Community Engagement Team (CET) who are tasked with the challenge of helping everyone in the RCS community—from students and faculty to parents and alumni—grapple with these sensitive subjects are more than ready for the challenge.

Through a variety of touchpoints, including (but not limited to) assemblies, professional development workshops, and everyday conversations, the CET provides a framework for discussing “the big eight” of social identifiers (ability, age, ethnicity, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, and socio- economic status/class), as well as other cultural identifiers such as family

composition and body image, among others.

Emily Schorr Lesnick ’07, the Upper School Diversity Coordinator, says that she knows Riverdale is making strides in these areas when a student will engage her in a discussion about an assembly that happened two weeks earlier. “If the students are still talking about it, still thinking about it, I am happy people are wrestling with the issues.”

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COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT at Riverdale

Dwight Vidale ’01, Middle School/Upper School Director of Community Engagement (standing at far right) hopes to continue connecting students and alumni so they can explore the idea of belonging at Riverdale.

Dwight Vidale ’01, Middle & Upper School Director of Community Engagement, agrees that one sign of success is the degree to which individuals are “having conversations in quieter moments, popping up at lunch and in offices.” In addition, “Teachers will say they discussed something in class that was addressed at an assembly, and that’s how you know the process is working, when everyone is engaged in a continuing dialogue.”

A collage of identity Just as the Middle School has adopted “belonging” as its theme for this academic year (see story on page 8), so has the Upper School, both students and faculty. Liz Fernandez P’23 and an ethics teacher at Ethical Culture Fieldston School, recently worked with the student affinity leaders on a “collage of identity” that is unique to each student. “They used words and pictures to construct their identity in a creative way,” explains Vidale. “Belonging was the lens through which they looked at themselves in the context of the larger Riverdale community.”

Vidale also worked with the faculty on a communal definition of belonging, creating a word cloud to visualize it (artwork opposite). During the exercise, faculty were asked to define belonging individually, in pairs, in groups of four and then groups of eight, each time refining their definition as they discussed it amongst themselves.

The CET also engaged the RCS community at this year’s Homecoming (for more on Homecoming, see pages 24-27), hosting a workshop for alumni, parents, students, and faculty. Called “Supporting Multiculturalism at Riverdale,” the workshop provided a launching pad for Vidale and Latoya Allen, the Lower School Director of Community Engagement, to introduce a new student-alumni initiative designed to create dialogue between the two constituencies around the belonging theme.

“At the Homecoming talk we wanted to encourage connections and conversations,” Vidale explains. “We are working against legacies that are not pretty,” he admits.

“But the school is changing and we want to check-in with alumni so they know that. We want to know how we can move forward and continue to make RCS more inclusive.”

“It was great to reconnect with alumni of color at Homecoming, and to show them where we are as a school and where we are going,” adds Allen.

“We want alumni of color to think differently about Riverdale. While they might not have had the best experience at RCS, they are hearing a different story from the current Middle and Upper School students.” Allen also told alumni about the Lower School affinity group, SOCS (for more on SOCS, see page 4). “I hope it got many of them to start thinking about RCS for their children.”

Current students, alumni, and parents of color engaged in conversations about multiculturalism at Riverdale during Homecoming 2015.

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FEATURE

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LOWER SCHOOL AFFINITY GROUP CONTINUES TO

Grow and Evolve

Eight years after launching SOCS as one of the first affinity groups at an elementary school division, the LS remains committed to providing a safe space for all students of color.

SOCS students engaged in an activity called "Friend Venn," where they talked with their buddy and created a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting each other. They then turned that Venn diagram into a self-portrait.

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Reflecting on how much the Lower School community has changed in the eight years since the founding of SOCS, Riverdale’s Lower School Students of Color Society, Latoya Allen is proud to note that the group has grown from a handful of students and faculty to more than 52 students (and several more faculty members) in 2015. Allen, the Director of Lower School Community Engagement as well as Associate Director of Lower School Admission, recalls the excitement she felt when the group first swelled to 20, outgrowing the classroom they had been using. “Now, we have two sub-groups, Senior SOCS and Junior SOCS, organized using the same grade structure as the

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT at Riverdale

academics, with Senior SOCS comprised of students in Grades 3 to 5 and the Junior SOCS coming from Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 2.”

Allen recalls that SOCS was founded “with the goal of having a group where all Lower School students of color could meet in a safe space.

This was at a time when there weren’t as many students of color on the River Campus, so it helped the students feel like they weren’t alone.”

As the makeup of the LS community has grown increasingly diverse, the structure and focus of SOCS has shifted, too. “When we first launched SOCS we had specific topics we wanted to talk about at each meeting, but the kids felt it was too academic,” Allen recalls. “They just wanted to be together and enjoy each other’s company. We recognized that the conversations had to be more interactive.” Now, the SOCS meetings include “rewind sessions,” where each member talks about what they do outside of school, with their families. It is within this context that the students

“teach each other about their religions, their cultural traditions, things like that,” Allen explains.

In addition to the focus of SOCS shifting, so has the demographics. Representation from

The onus is on all of us in the Riverdale community to educate all of our children and teach them how to thrive in a world of differences.

Asian-Americans has grown significantly, and many more students identify as multiracial. This provides a richness to the SOCS discussions, Allen notes. “It’s obvious that our community is changing, which we are very proud of. The onus is on all of us in the Riverdale community to educate all of our children and teach them how to thrive in a world of differences.”

Latoya Allen, Lower School Director of Community Engagement (at left), and the children of SOCS at the 2015 SOCS graduation ceremony.

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FEATURE

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Parent Committees Collaborate with Community Engagement Team to

Build Inclusiveness

The Parents of Color

In addition to working with students and faculty on a and International variety of diversity initiatives, Parents committees on the Community Engagement Teams (CET) on the River and Hill each campus strive to Campuses also collaborate with celebrate diversity, both parents, particularly with those within Riverdale and in on the Parents of Color (POC) and International Parents (IPC) the broader world, with committees. “We want to have all Riverdale families. everyone—students, faculty, and parents—on the same page in terms of diversity initiatives,” explains Dwight Vidale ’01, Middle & Upper School Director of Community Engagement.

“The CET is here as a resource for all people, not just people of color,” says Latoya Allen, Lower School Director of Community Engagement as well as Associate Director of Lower School Admission. Allen notes that some parents are afraid to have conversations about diversity with younger students, but she always advises them to “lean into your discomfort and have that conversation.” She—as well as the other CET members—is always available to offer guidance for those parents who need help starting that conversation.

One way that the CET supports Riverdale parents is through its yearly Resource Night, where families can learn about what academic and co-curricular programs are available for their children, as well as how to go about taking advantage of them. “Many families that are new to independent schools don’t know where to go when they have questions and don’t feel comfortable asking for help,” Vidale explains.

The Resource Night format puts all of the information and the go-to people squarely in front of parents in an accessible, comfortable environment.

Addressing the need for all members of the RCS community to feel a sense of belonging is important, ongoing work, Vidale adds. For example, “How can we connect with families who speak other languages? What can the school do to help them feel that sense of belonging?”

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Parents enjoyed cuisine from all over the world at a recent potluck dinner sponsored by the International Parents Committee.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT at Riverdale

A shared sense of community The IPC and POC committees of the Parents Association (PA) are providing myriad opportunities for parents to feel connected and to share their heritage with others.

Laurie Lindenbaum ’81/P’15/P’19/P’20, one of the IPC co-chairs, explains that the mission of the IPC is to celebrate the international nature of the Riverdale community and the broader world through informal gatherings and events that welcome all RCS parents and families. “IPC events highlight the unique and shared aspects of various international cultures, traditions, and cuisines. We have organized breakfasts and coffee chats, U.N. Day at the Lower School, an international foods potluck dinner, a museum tour, dinners at local restaurants featuring a particular type of cuisine, and a Lunar New Year celebration. This year, we are talking about organizing events that would highlight an important aspect of a country’s culture, such as its music, dancing, literature, or film.”

Nandita Sood P’26 and Yael Benadrete P’28/P‘25, two other IPC co-chairs, recently organized this year’s LS U.N. Day around the theme, “Wonders of the World.”

In addition to an introduction at a LS assembly and interactive displays outside the gym that provided handson learning activities for all LS students to learn about several countries (Egypt, Italy, Japan, India, and Peru), the IPC worked with LS faculty to find ways to extend the theme into the classrooms by tying it in with the curriculum where possible. Some of the ways in which that was done was through music, art, reading, social studies, and math.

Gwen Adolph P’23, one of the Lower School POC cochairs, explains that the POC was started more than 25 years ago on the Lower School campus to give parents of color a safe space to talk about their experience in the school. Susan Kalicharan-Garcia P'19/P'23/P'27, one of the MS/US POC co-chairs, adds that the mission of the POC today—on both campuses—is to empower parents, facilitate fellowship, and build community. POC activities range from meetings that address racial challenges to social mixers to programs that celebrate the history, contributions, and culture of communities of color.

For example, in October, the LS/MS/US POC co-sponsored a poetry slam in celebration of Latino/Hispanic Heritage Month. That same month, the LS POC hosted a Dia De Los Muertos and Halloween party for students during its business meeting for parents. Other educational and community-building events are planned throughout the academic year, on and off both campuses.

It is important to note that IPC and POC meetings and events are open to the entire Riverdale community.

Students learned about several countries during the Lower School U.N. Day in October.

For more information, contact the Community Engagement Team (CET) Hill Campus (MS/US) Dwight Vidale MS/US Director of Community Engagement dvidale@riverdale.edu 718.519.2769 KC Cohen MS Diversity Coordinator kccohen@riverdale.edu 718.519.2716

River Campus (LS) Emily Schorr Lesnick US Diversity Coordinator eschorrlesnick@riverdale.edu 718.549.8810, ext. 2207 Kelly Tracy Community Engagement Team Member ktracy@riverdale.edu 718.549.8810, ext. 2204

Latoya Allen LS Director of Community Engagement lallen@riverdale.edu 718.549.7780, ext. 4815 Lorraine Mahony LS Diversity Coordinator lmahony@riverdale.edu 718.549.7780, ext. 3102

Antoinette Quarshie MS Diversity Coordinator aquarshie@riverdale.edu 718.549.8810, ext. 2121

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FEATURE

R Each school year, the

Community Engagement Team Explores ‘Belonging’ as This Year’s

Middle School Theme

Middle School chooses a theme that will be the focus of Community Day, assemblies, and other events. For 2015-16, “belonging” was chosen so that everyone in the MS community can explore the role they play in making Riverdale a more inclusive place.

When asked why belonging was chosen as the Middle School theme this year, Dwight Vidale, Director of Community Engagement for the Middle and Upper Schools, explains that it was in part because of David Yeager’s work at the University of Texas at Austin. Yeager and his research colleagues found that certain targeted messages, delivered to college students in the right way at the right time, seemed to counteract the doubts about belonging and ability that can undermine students’ academic potential. Vidale says that the since “community” is one of Riverdale’s three pillars, it is necessary to explore what that means.

“Do people feel they belong? Does RCS allow different people to feel like they fit in?”

Antoinette Quarshie, another member of the Hill Campus Community Engagement Team (CET), notes, “Identity is complex and our circles of belonging should celebrate the

richness/fullness of who we are so that we are all able to come to school free to be our authentic selves. By June, we hope students understand the role that they play in making the community a more inclusive place.”

Quarshie continues, “The CET can bring in great speakers to motivate and inspire students, we can lead by example, we can engage in difficult conversations—but ultimately, it is up to each member of the community to be more reflective and thoughtful about the type of community that we would like to build, to collectively put words into action. By introducing students to interesting people who explore issues of identity, inclusion, and belonging we hope that students will begin to recognize the fact that diversity actually strengthens a community.

“We often do not know what to think when we hear the word ‘diversity,’” Quarshie adds.

“We tend to think solely in terms of race, class, and gender… and then think, ‘I’ve heard it all before, been there, done that.’ Diversity is much more complex and nuanced than those three identifiers; it is about our way of

After attending a MS Community Day session with other boys of color, Justin Aguirre ’20 (left) and Kofi Samuels ’20 asked Head of Middle School Milton Sipp to help them continue the conversations by launching a Middle School affinity group for boys of color.

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COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT at Riverdale

being in the world, across the intersections of a wide variety of identifiers, some highly visible and others invisible. Regardless of how we identify publically and privately, we should always feel that school is a place where we all belong together.

“Sadly, the word ‘diversity’ has become taboo in independent school circles because it has the power to threaten our sense of privilege. Diversity is not a zero-sum game where someone has to lose in order for someone else to win. Diversity benefits all of us by making us a much more thriving, vibrant community.”

Inspired to embrace differences

Nurturing the seeds of an idea Traditionally, affinity groups have not been a part of MS Community Day. However, this year the MS decided to offer affinity groups for the first time by creating spaces for boys and girls of color to meet together and experience a sense of belonging. Learning Resource Team (LRT) member Tiffani Lynch led the group for girls and Head of Middle School Milton Sipp led the group for boys. Says Quarshie, “Both workshops were incredibly successful—so successful that Kofi Samuels and Justin Aguirre, two eighth-grade boys who participated in the group with Milton Sipp, decided that the discussions about belonging between boys of color could not end on Community Day.

The Middle School launched the theme of belonging through the performance of dynamic speaker, actor, poet, and psychologist Dr. Michael “Mykee” Fowlin, who has a way of delivering his message through laughter and tears while speaking to the heart of listeners as they recognize themselves and their friends portrayed in powerful monologues. “The Middle School walked away from his performance aware of the ways in which we tend to ‘cross it out’ without thinking and instead, felt inspired to embrace differences,” according to Quarshie.

“They asked Mr. Sipp to serve as an advisor and started meeting as a group of boys on a regular basis. Kofi and Justin lead the group together, distributing articles and current news stories along with sharing video clips for the group to discuss. The best part of an educator’s job is planting a small seed of an idea and then seeing how students nurture those ideas until they grow, develop, and thrive within the community. Knowing that students feel empowered and can self-advocate gives me a great deal of satisfaction.”

This work was continued through MS Community Day, which enabled students to celebrate their identities and community through the theme, “I Am Because You Are: Our Stories of Belonging.” The logo on the Community Day T-shirt, designed

by Sarah Ludemann ’22, “captured this idea of a deep shared humanity and interconnection within community by rotating cogs moving and turning together. In fact, each individual cog needs the other cogs in order to turn. It was a graphic metaphor for community and belonging,” Quarshie says.

KC Cohen—who wears many hats at Riverdale, including Middle School Coordinator of Community Engagement, Middle School/ Upper School Counselor, health teacher, and coordinator of the Middle School homebase program—notes that the Middle School tries to address how belonging is (or isn’t) happening, wherever it is natural to do so. “We follow up in homebase, and we cover bullying in health class. We try to make connections to what’s happening in current events—Black Lives Matter, for example—during morning meeting. Sipp does that all the time.”

Shazia Durrani, Co-Dean of Grade 6, initially invited 19-year-old singer/songwriter Alessia Cara to visit on Community Day because of the ways in which her single, “Here,” explores the theme of belonging. Although Cara was not able to visit that day, she spoke to students and performed in November to a Middle School crowd who wanted to bust the doors down in order to see this young singer with a positive message about being true to self.

Cohen’s and Quarshie’s favorite story from Community Day involves a new seventh-grade student who shared during the closing assembly, “It’s been difficult to be at a new school. . . after Community Day, I really feel as if I belong.”

Beth Sholtes, Assistant Head of MS and Dean of Students for Grade 7, watches as (from left) Ella Neuwirth ’22, Sloane Ptashek ’21, and Maya Bradley ’21 participate in an interactive workshop about belonging during MS Community Day 2015.

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FEATURE

R Early Learning (PK-2) and Upper Learning

Lower School Introduces Town Meetings to

Build Community Within the Community

(Grades 3-5) Town

This September, the Lower School introduced a new type of meeting to students forum for small-group and faculty: Town Meetings, discussion and ageorganized by Lower School appropriate learning, division (Early Learning and Upper Learning). Designed to as well as a sense of supplement the monthly Lower community.

School assemblies, these town meetings provide an additional venue to explore community and character development in age-appropriate ways.

Meetings provide a

Director of LS Curriculum and Academic Programs Karen Fierst explains that town meetings were born out of conversations the adminstration had about everything they wanted to accomplish in community and character development with LS students. First, they decided to move LS assemblies from their traditional Friday morning time slot to Monday mornings, in order to set the tone for the week. Then, with the building construction causing the campus to feel almost split in two by LS division—the Early Learning students are now all centered in what used to be called the K-3 Building and the Upper Learning students are based in the Learning Complex at the other end of campus—the LS administration team realized they had the opportunity to use this naturally occurring separation to create a strong sense of divisional community within the larger LS community.

Thus, the EL and UL Town Meetings were born. Each group uses its monthly town meeting to explore character work and discuss community norms in an interactive way that gets all of the students and teachers involved. “In the past we occasionally had grade-wide town meetings but they were more reactive and situational. Our new town meeting structure allows us to really plan for them, and because everyone is free at this allotted time, specials teachers can be involved in these conversations along with the classroom teachers,” Fierst explains, adding, “It truly is community time.”

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At an Early Learning town meeting, faculty make things fun and interactive through skits and storytelling.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT at Riverdale

Director of Early Learning Rebecca Greller (standing at left) involves students in town meetings by asking for their suggestions on solving whatever problem is being discussed.

Pete the Cat has made appearances at several town meetings, both as a costumed character (brought to life by one of the teachers) and in stories, songs, and slideshows. This familiar character helps keep children engaged.

LS psychologist Dr. Tammy Kaminer adds that town meetings “allow us to work on a thread, such as empathy, from many different angles, tailored to the developmental needs of each group.” So while the topic of both the EL and the UL town meeting one month might be “What it means to be a buddy,” the EL meeting would explain to the younger students what it means to have an older buddy and the UL meeting would emphasize how to be a good buddy to a younger student, to provide just one example.

Town meetings also “can absorb any issues the community needs to address,” says Fierst. The administration works with teachers to address specific concerns, such as proper use of playground equipment, as well as on things like positive identity development. “Town meetings can be used to prep for an upcoming LS assembly,” explains LS health and physical education teacher Melissa Carver, “or the assembly can follow up on a town meeting. They work in tandem.”

The structure of town meetings is flexible, offering a chance to bring in students from the other LS division as needed, as well as providing opportunities for teachers to take on a leadership role and share their ideas with the larger group.

For example, Kaminer and Carver worked with Fierst and Early Learning Director Rebecca Greller on the launch of the initial town meetings, while subsequent town meetings have been planned and executed by other faculty, including the kindergarten team.

The UL town meeting can also be used to facilitate small group discussions, with mixed groups of students in grades 3 to 5.

“It’s a nice place to have supervised, cross-graded conversations,” Fierst notes, adding, “Teachers like working with students they don’t know, and the students enjoy getting to know teachers they haven’t had.”

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FEATURE

Q & A

The Teachers Guild, a joint project of Riverdale Country School and IDEO, is partnering with the First Lady on the Better Make Room initiative to encourage all students to think about going to college.

Recently Head of School Dominic A.A. Randolph was on hand at the White House—along with a number of social media stars well known to youth across the country—to help First Lady Michelle Obama introduce the program.

Q. How did Riverdale Country School First Lady, Michelle Obama, was announcing the get involved in the First Lady’s Better launch of the Better Make Room initiative (https:// Make Room initiative? bettermakeroom.org/), in which The Teachers Guild, sometime in the spring of 2016, will sponsor DAAR: Riverdale has partnered with well-known a challenge that involves opportunity to go to design firm IDEO to start a new online platform for college. As a partner with IDEO in The Teachers teachers that helps them support the development Guild, we were both invited to attend the launch. of solutions to challenges in schools, become While there are many partners on the Better Make better educational designers, and incubate Room campaign, I believe we are one of the few interesting ideas to improve education. It is called educational partners. Most of the other partners are The Teachers Guild (www.teachersguild.org). The media companies.

Head of School Dominic A.A. Randolph Goes to Washington 12 | QUAD WINTER 2016

Q. How is The Teachers Guild work aligned with the goals of the Better Make Room initiative?

DAAR: We developed The Teachers Guild platform with IDEO since we are committed to bringing "design thinking" into schools in deeper ways. We developed the Design Thinking Toolkit for Educators a few years ago in partnership with IDEO (www. designthinkingforeducators.com). This is the next step in that work.

At the same time, I believe that school communities like Riverdale (students and faculty) should be playing a national role in the debate on education and helping to incubate effective ideas to improve learning in our schools. This is a small step in that direction. I hope that the community will rally around this effort to get more people all thinking about continuing their learning by taking the opportunity to go to college or university. I hope that the Riverdale community will learn more about how lucky we are to have all our students go on to study at university and how we need, as a nation, to get our college/university completion rates back up in the global rankings. (I believe we are now 12th in the world but used to be first).

The goal of The Teachers Guild is to engage educators in finding solutions to a series of 30 challenges over three years. We also want to shift the negative perceptions around the idea of change in education, and to reimagine the concept of professional development for teachers.

The first Teachers Guild challenge was launched in July with Google for Education and the West Contra Costa Unified School District in California’s Bay Area; about 200 educators engaged with the challenge over the course of two weeks (challenges will generally last two months but this test was shorter). Google is currently trying to build out some of the solutions that were proposed during the challenge, “How might we create rituals and routines that establish a culture of innovation in our classrooms and schools?”

We hope to have Riverdale faculty engage in The Teachers Guild challenges. I would also be very supportive of having some students involved in the challenge.

Q. What was your trip to the White House like?

DAAR: The First Lady was incredibly inspiring in her speech and the way that she is so inclusive in bringing people to support her cause. She is an amazing role model for us all.

I also met a number of social media stars, such as Jerome Jarre, who is a Viner, and the Merrell Twins, who have more than 500,000 subscribers to their YouTube channel. I didn't realize how large an audience some of these social media stars actually have. It is an incredible set of platforms with which to cast out worthy ideas. It was smart of Michelle Obama to partner with so many social media companies and personalities in order to promote the Better Make Room initiative.

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THE RCS COMMUNITY

RETIREMENTS & FAREWELLS After a combined 40 years of service to Riverdale Country School, Tom Gatch, Michelle Brown, and Dr. Edwin P. Gordon have bid the school farewell.

After two decades at Riverdale Country School, history teacher extraordinaire Tom Gatch retired this past school year.

Tom taught in the Middle and Upper School over the course of his teaching career and was a valued colleague for his entire tenure at the school. Joel Doerfler, who worked with Tom both at Riverdale and at Columbia Preparatory School nearly 40 years ago, spoke for the entire school when he said in his tribute to Tom last spring: “From my first days as a teacher all those many years ago, right up to the present moment, Tom has been for me an inspiration, an exemplar, and a most-valued and beloved friend. He has made my teaching life infinitely more fun than it would otherwise have been.”

Gatch’s students, too, will miss his madcap classroom adventures, as evidenced by how many of them joined the faculty and staff flashmob to send him off in style at the end of his last day as a classroom teacher. The entire RCS community wishes Tom well as he begins a new chapter in his life.

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Michelle Brown, the Middle and Upper School Admission Coordinator for 15 years, took a well-deserved retirement this fall. A calming presence in a busy office, Michelle’s dedication and professionalism is a model for all. Jenna King, Riverdale’s Director of Admission and Enrollment, shared this reflection on Michelle’s commitment and work ethic at Riverdale: “For many years, Michelle has been one of the first people to arrive on campus, always arranging to get herself there just in case our first prospective family happens to cruise into Vinik an hour early for their 7:45 interview. Michelle greets every individual with the same friendly welcome, regardless of who they are and where they’re from... She has the patience of a saint and the calm presence that I’m sure every admission team would want in their office. Without ever being asked to do a thing, Michelle keeps the office functioning, always anticipating what is coming next.” We wish Michelle much happiness and peace in her retirement.

Edwin Gordon left Riverdale in June after four years as Head of Lower School.

Colleague Ellen Greengrass, Director of Upper Learning (Grades 3-5), captured Edwin’s impact on the school: “His calm leadership, laughter, and solid presence have organized the Lower School for success—a solid door we walk through daily. Our students have felt like they had a friend, but at the same time, they respected and followed [his] lead. Whenever teachers wanted to try something new, he supported it.

[Edwin was always]... a humble leader” at Riverdale. We wish Edwin well as he moves on to new adventures.

(Above left): Middle and Upper School history teacher Tom Gatch reacts to a flashmob assembled to honor him on his last day teaching at RCS. With Gatch are former English teacher and Dean of Students Jane Moore and her son Jack.

(Above center): Michelle Brown was the face of the Middle and Upper School Admission Office for 15 years.

(Above): Dr. Edwin P. Gordon served Riverdale as its Head of Lower School for four years.

Riverdale Welcomes

New Trustee

In June, Charles M. Blow P’12/P’15/P’15 departed Riverdale’s Board of Trustees after four years. This fall, Gwen Adolph P’23 joined the Board. We thank Charles for all of his hard work and dedication, and we look forward to working with Gwen.

After receiving her undergraduate degree from Duke University and her J.D. degree from Emory Law School, Gwen Adolph P’23 pursued a career in law and government. She served as Deputy Director of Purchasing for Fulton County in Georgia before moving to Nigeria. While there, she worked with a small London-based trading company overseeing its contracting practices, including ventures in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Gwen also cofounded and managed the Pierce/Blount Agency—a boutique speakers’ bureau representing notable African-Americans—until 2002, when she moved to New York. Today Gwen works as a

New Faces on the Hill Campus

professional writer and devotes much of her time to community service through various national and local organizations. Her focus is education and social justice. She was appointed to the Board of the College of New Rochelle in the spring of 2014, and was elected Chair in December 2015.

Gwen lives New Rochelle, NY, with her husband Gerald, a principal with Strategy & (formerly Booz & Co.), the strategy consulting business of PwC, and their son Harris ’23.

Kevin has worked as a science teacher, administrator, coach, and dorm head for 35 years in day and boarding schools.

Most recently he was Dean of Faculty and then Director of Teaching, Learning & Educational Partnerships at the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey.

Kevin also has a background in experiential education and has led students and faculty on trips around the world. He holds a PhD in zoology and a BA in biological sciences from Indiana University.

Kevin Mattingly has joined Riverdale as Director of Co-Curriculum. In this new position, Kevin’s goals for the coming year are “to learn as much as I can about the rich and varied co-curricular offerings at Riverdale, to understand more about the student learning that goes on in each, and to seek ways to integrate that learning meaningfully with the academic curriculum, when appropriate. In addition, we’ll be looking for ways to continue Riverdale’s history of innovation and providing real-world learning opportunities for our students.”

2 | QUAD WINTER 2015

acting classes for high school students over the past seven years. She also has directed the Middle School plays for the past two years.

A 20-year veteran of the New York theater world, Laura has worked closely with faculty in the English department to bring innovative approaches to the classroom, including a Macbeth workshop for Middle School students and the Modern Drama elective for the Upper School that featured advanced level scene study and improvisation exercises.

She has a keen vision for the department that includes reaching all students: “I love the idea of a theater department that offers excellent training for students interested in drama in its most traditional sense, but also curriculum that focuses on nurturing creativity, empathy, and critical thinking skills for students who are not interested in being on Broadway, but benefit from the same lessons nonetheless.”

Laura Desmond has been named Chair of the Theater, Film, and Dance (TFD) department. She joined Riverdale in 2008 as the assistant to the Head of School, and in addition to those duties, she has taught several Middle School drama and advanced

Laura holds a BFA in drama from New York University and an MS Ed in education theater from City College.

WWW.RIVERDALE.EDU | 15

THE RIVERDALE CAMPAIGN UPDATE

Construction Update from Head of School Dominic A.A. Randolph

Work is progressing nicely at both campuses, with the Perkins replacement building rising like a phoenix from the site of the original and the Aquatic Center being built on the site between Frank J. Bertino Memorial Field and the Linda M. Lindenbaum Center for the Arts.

Foundation work being done at the Hill Campus’ Aquatic Center site.

16 | QUAD WINTER 2016

(Right): The Perkins building days before demolition began in June.

(Above): The Lower School construction site near the end of the demolition phase.

WWW.RIVERDALE.EDU | 17

THE RIVERDALE CAMPAIGN UPDATE

Construction Update

The pool's north and east supporting walls are being built first.

18 | QUAD WINTER 2016

(Below): Perkins' second floor is coming together quickly.

(Right): The decking for the second floor of Perkins is in place.

(Far Right): A closeup of the curved wall at one end of the new Perkins building.

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THE RIVERDALE CAMPAIGN UPDATE

Construction Update Lower School Celebrates “Topping Off” at New Perkins Building The entire Lower School community gathered on the River Campus tennis courts on Friday, December 4, 2015 to witness the “topping off” of the new Perkins building. A topping off ceremony is traditionally held when the last beam is placed atop a structure during its construction. In this case, the LS celebrated the placing of a ceremonial beam that had been signed by the many students, faculty, and staff who wanted to leave their mark—literally—on the new LS building.

At press time, the Hill Campus was planning its own topping off ceremony for the Aquatic Center, to be held sometime in April.

(Above): Lower School students, faculty, and staff were given an opportunity to put their marks on the new Perkins building by signing the ceremonial beam, which was painted white.

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(Above): The entire Lower School community gathered to watch the topping off ceremony on December 4, 2015.

(Below): A crane hoists the ceremonial beam and prepares to bring it over to its final destination.

(Below): Almost there!

The signed beam is eased into place.

(Above): The Lower School watches as the final beam is lowered into place.

WWW.RIVERDALE.EDU | 21

EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

Project Knowmad Expands Partnerships, Offerings FOR

Summer 2016

Now open to students outside the Riverdale community and offering expanded options throughout the summer, Project Knowmad continues to bring innovative educational opportunities to learners in the NYC metro area.

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W

hen new Riverdale parents Daria and Joe Zawadzki were looking for an education program that would give their children a unique learning experience last summer, they were pleased to discover Riverdale’s Project Knowmad. The week-long experiential learning courses scheduled for the end of August worked perfectly with the family’s vacation schedule, and a robotics course for Middle School students called “BOTS: Build a Robot” caught their eye. Their daughter, Dune Rose ’21, had been admitted to Riverdale for the 6th grade and her parents were delighted that she would have a learning experience at her new school before regular classes began in the fall.

In addition, sInce the summer programs at Riverdale are now open to all students whether they attend Riverdale or not, Dune’s younger brother, Jack, was able to take the class with her.

Maker’s Space Coding Robotics “The class turned out to be much more than a good opportunity to get Dune acquainted with the Hill Campus and meet other Riverdale students,” the Zawadzkis report.

“It was a very exciting learning adventure, Dune enjoyed a meaningful introduction to robotics, and the teacher, Andrew Abate, was fantastic! We are so glad we were a part of Project Knowmad, and would excitedly sign up for another Project Knowmad course in the future."

BOTS! was part of the successful summer learning initiative at Riverdale (now in its fifth year) that enrolled 73 students in eight different courses in June and August 2015, ranging from robotics to theater arts to wilderness experiences in New Hampshire and Alaska. Plans are underway to expand the program for Summer 2016. Starting in June, Middle School, Upper School, and even adult learners can attend “field-based” classes taught by teams of Riverdale teachers. Project Knowmad will offer 10 to 15 different courses (depending on interest and enrollment). An enhanced technology program will mean that students can take coding and/or robotics, as well as utilize the school’s maker’s lab for nearly the entire summer.

This program is part of Riverdale’s ongoing mission to allow students to learn through doing, not just in the classroom. Therefore, Knowmad courses take a “field-based” approach. Students, along with their teachers, spend their days in New York City and its environs, working on interesting projects and having fun.

chance to spend a week with passionate students totally free of all the other noise, stress, and worries of their everyday lives.

Classes are done so the kids can just focus 100 percent of their energy on this one interest and explore it to its fullest. The result feels like we achieved several months’ worth of work in a single week. Also, taking kids outside of the classroom allowed for exposure to the kinds of guests it would be much trickier to bring up to the school; they got to meet and see a variety of people and places that would've been impossible in any other kind of format!”

Photography Sports Psychology Culinary Arts Musical Theater

Jacqueline Weiss, mother of Rebecca Thau ’16, experienced the value of the class right away, as “Rebecca came home bubbling over with stories. I know that there was so much more to the program than the impressive show we saw [the students perform]. It is vitally important for people who think they may want to make theater their life’s work to hear from people who are doing so.”

If you are interested in investigating the options for Summer 2016, visit either www.riverdale.edu/usknowmad or www.riverdale.edu/msknowmad for complete program descriptions, application information, and enrollment deadlines.

Middle and Upper School Theater, Dance & Film teachers Kellen Blair and Stephanie Simpson taught a new course last year called “40-hour Musical Challenge,” in which students wrote and performed a 15-minute musical. Blair shared what he feels is the value of the program to both students and faculty: “It was such a rare and wonderful

WWW.RIVERDALE.EDU | 23

OUTSTANDING EVENTS

RCS Welcomes Alumni & Current Families to

Homecoming 2015

The beautiful fall weather helped welcome back alumni and current families to the Hill Campus, where everyone enjoyed a day full of fun, food, and athletic contests.

Sunny skies and sunny smiles greeted the hundreds of alumni, parents, and students who came to the Hill Campus on Saturday, September 26th, for Homecoming 2015. There were lots of opportunities to connect with others in the Riverdale community, from cheering on the Falcons at a half-dozen athletic contests to chatting with old friends and new acquaintances at the barbecue luncheon under the tent, and from attending award

The Boys Varsity Soccer team celebrates a score during their 3-0 victory over Horace Mann.

(Top) Director of Early Learning Rebecca Greller P’19 gives Felix the Falcon a high five during the football game.

(Bottom) Adults and children alike enjoyed the close gridiron battle between Riverdale and Fieldston.

24 | QUAD WINTER 2016

presentations to enjoying performances by the Upper School dance team and the alumni/parent band, Betty & Veronica. There were also plenty of fun activities for all ages—including games, bubble making, and a photo booth—as well as classes that offered information about Riverdale’s approach to experiential learning and the Community Engagement team’s new Student-Alumni initiative that aims to create dialogue between current students and alumni around this year’s theme of “belonging” (for more, see article on page 2).

It was a day of hilltop rivalries for Riverdale’s fall varsity sports teams, with boys’ and girls’ soccer, field hockey, girls’ tennis, and volleyball taking on Horace Mann (HM), and the football team facing off against Ethical Culture Fieldston School (ECFS).

Boys’ soccer enjoyed a comfortable 3-0 win over HM, while the girls’ soccer team suffered a 3-0 loss to the Lions. The girls’ tennis and volleyball teams also had a tough day, losing 5-0 and 3-0, respectively, to HM. The field hockey team enjoyed a 3-0 victory, and the football team toughed out a 26-24 win over the ECFS Eagles.

In addition to cheering on their Falcons, many alumni enjoyed

celebrating their reunions, from the Class of 2010’s five-year reunion to the Class of 1945’s 70th reunion (whose lone representative, Robert Reed, celebrated with his wife Louise and his daughter and son-in-law). For more on specific Reunion events, see Class Notes, beginning on page 30.

Several awards were presented during the barbecue luncheon, including the Reunion Class Award to the Class of 1965 (see photo on page 36). Of all the Reunion classes, the 50th Reunion class raised the most amount of money for the school. Congratulations!

Clifford Ross ’70 received the Alumni Achievement Award for his myriad contributions to the fields of art and photography, while Susan Kohlmann ’75, P’04/’08/’12, was awarded the Ernest McAneny 1925 Alumni Spirit Award for her 40+ years of enthusiastic support of the school (see photos on page 27).

We hope these photos give you a sense of the wonderful day Homecoming/Reunion 2015 was, and we look forward to seeing you back on campus October 22, 2016!

Among the fans cheering on the Falcons were seniors (from left) Vixi Press, Olivia Strautman, Jackie Urwin, Taylor Atkin, and Sara Wetzler.

The Lower School float parade, a muchanticipated event each Homecoming, included this float, driven by Co-Head of the Lower School Parents Association, Lee Michel, along with her daughter, Cleo ’24, and David Lederer ’24.

Among those attending a breakfast reception to thank supporters of the school were (from left) Dick and Grace Ball P’79/’83, GP’12/’15/’16/’18; Tom Plimpton ’80, Rose Moreno P’07, and Michael Moreno ’07.

WWW.RIVERDALE.EDU | 25

OUTSTANDING EVENTS

Members of the Class of 1965 not only celebrated their 50th Reunion at Homecoming, they also were presented with the Reunion Class Award for their fundraising prowess.

The Riverdale Dance Team performed a routine prior to the Frank J. Bertino Memorial Football Game.

26 | QUAD WINTER 2016

(Far left): Clifford Ross ’70 (right) received the Alumni Achievement Award from Head of School Dominic A.A. Randolph for his successful career in art and photography.

(Left): Milo Rodriguez ’25 (in the Riverdale shirt) was among the Lower School students who had as much fun playing soccer as they did watching it.

(Far left): Zach Gronfein ’19 goes up for a catch during the the Frank J. Bertino Memorial Football Game.

(Left): Justin Aguirre ’20 (left) and Kwesi Samuels ’24 were among those who enjoyed the bubblemaking supplies.

(Far left): Julia Gardner ’17 fights for the ball during the Girls Varsity Soccer game against Horace Mann.

(Left): Director of Academic Technology Sean Dagony-Clark and his daughter, Ava, enjoyed the kids’ games and activities.

(Far left): Joining Head of School Dominic A.A. Randolph of one of the floats were (from left) Harriet Goldman, Roxanne Goldman ’27, Ava Siegel ’25, “driver” Olivia Sorrel ’27, and Anya Siegel ’27.

(Left): Head of School Dominic A.A. Randolph presented Susan Kohlmann ‘75/P’04/’08/’12 with the Ernest McAneny 1925 Alumni Spirit Award during the barbecue luncheon.

WWW.RIVERDALE.EDU | 27

RIVERDALE ALUMNI

College Destinations Khalif Andre Brown University

David Asch University of Michigan

Jeremy Barovick Middlebury College

Margaret Barrett Elon University

Daniel Bendelac

Haverford College Jennifer Berger Tulane University

Tascha Berkowitz Vanderbilt University

Camryn Berman Bucknell University

Will Berman University of Southern California

Ian Blow Middlebury College

Iman Blow Columbia University

Lia Bradley

Ithaca College Gabriella Brown

Trinity College Caillin Campbell

Stanford University Austin Chrislock-Soto

Georgia Institute of Technology Caroline Cline

Dartmouth College Blake Cohen

Wellesley College Miguel Colon

Haverford College Margaret Corn

Northwestern University Olivia Corn

Cornell University Caroline Cutler

Dartmouth College Charles Davis

Colby College

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Conrad de Menil Wake Forest University

Julia Ditkoff Emory University

Alec Donelian Columbia University

Dorian Dreyfuss Boston University

Jordan Dubin Harvard University

Penelope Edmonds Stanford University

Karl Ehlert Johns Hopkins University

Jack Fascitelli

Trinity College Sophie Fisher Stanford University

Rebecca Flowers Dartmouth College

Caleigh Forbes-Cockell

Williams College George Frank

Washington and Lee University Laura Fuchs Tulane University

Harrison Fukutomi Emory University

Matthew Gallea Georgetown University

Hannah Gallen

Dartmouth College Michael Gardner Johns Hopkins University

Tyler Gibbs Trinity College

Samuel Ginzburg Carnegie Mellon University

Daniel Gittler Southern Methodist University

Marion Goldberg

Claremont McKenna College Thomas DeWitt Goss

Southern Methodist University

Kay Gottlieb

University of Pennsylvania Victoria Gross

Columbia University Kamala Hargrove

Trinity College Claire Hawkins

New York University Eliza Hayes Georgetown University

Amaris Hemmings Columbia University

Jane Hendrickson Duke University

Estefani Hernandez Williams College

Sarah Horne

Harvard University Miranda Hoyt-Disick

Wesleyan University Gabrielle Isom Barnard College

Nairobi Jeanniton Boston University

Colin Johnson Vanderbilt University

Hayden Jones Wesleyan University

Madison Kahn University of Pennsylvania

Daniel Kastenbaum Duke University

Jared Katz Cornell University

Aliza Klingenstein Bowdoin College

Julian Klinow Johns Hopkins University

Cameron Koffman

Yale University Jennifer Kronish

Harvard University David Lamis

Colorado College

for the Class of 2015

Andrew Ravaschiere Josh Lane University of Pennsylvania

Wesleyan University

Maria Raven Jacqueline Laret Amherst College

Georgetown University

Annie Reiner Gillian Leffler Kenyon College

Skidmore College

Cameron Richardson Ian Lipman Boston College

Vanderbilt University

Ethan Rosenbaum Daniel Lucas Cornell University

Colgate University

Ethan Rosenthal Keifer Ludwig Amherst College

Oberlin College

Simone Rothberg David McDaniel Skidmore College

Middlebury College

Danielle Rothstein Julia McKinney

Bucknell University Tulane University

Joshua Rothstein Fernando Medina Hamilton College

Brown University

Madeline Meyer Morgan Savige University of Pennsylvania

Northwestern University

Bradley Schenker Jose Modeste University of Pennsylvania

University of Vermont

Amanda Schnell Gabriela Morales

University of Michigan

Columbia University Jason Schoen Corey Morrison Tulane University

Brown University Julia Selch Branko Mravic University of Chicago

Johns Hopkins University Brett Selinger Katharine Mullin Cornell University

Hamilton College Erik Silberstein Leila Murphy Emory University

Yale University Owen Silitch Alexandra O'Shea Bowdoin College

Skidmore College John Silver Willow Pagan Vanderbilt University

Dartmouth College Taryn Silver Berk Pearlstein Connecticut College

University of Southern California David Silverman David Pochapin University of Michigan

Lehigh University Forrest Simpson Robert Proner

Yale University

Yale University Patrick Smarr Christina Puccinelli

College for Creative Studies

Middlebury College

Kyran Somar

Arcadia University Rachael Sonnenberg

Wesleyan University Jake Spirer

Franklin and Marshall College Andrew Steinberg

University of Wisconsin Noah Stern

University of Wisconsin Diana Stettner

University of Pennsylvania Alexander Stillman

Washington University Alexander Sudolsky

University of Michigan Julia Taitz

University of Pennsylvania Courtney Taylor

Connecticut College Kirk Thaker

Cornell University Sarah Tiffany

Emory University Emily Vega

Gettysburg College Belinda von Breitenbach

Tufts University Yuheng Wang

Swarthmore College Samuel Weinberger

Colby College Akeem Williams

Amherst College James Wolf

Duke University Joshua Zemser

Colgate University Samantha Zemser

Cornell University

WWW.RIVERDALE.EDU | 29

Congratulations to the Classes ending in 0's and 5's, who are celebrating their reunions in the 2015-2016 school year!

RIVERDALE ALUMNI

Class Notes Please send your news to your Class Correspondent before MAY 1, 2016.

1941, 1942, 1943 Dick Korf ’42 info@mycotaxon.com

1944 Richard D. Rosenblatt rrosey26@gmail.com

1943

Barbara Asch has clear and most warm memories of her years at Riverdale, including loving the bus ride from the Upper East Side and playing left back on the field hockey team. She has particular memories of two wonderful teachers, Miss Hovey and Mrs. Dawson. “Miss Hovey was an amazing woman who conveyed to her students a great love for art and art history, and Mrs. Dawson changed my life!”

1944

From Class Correspondent Richard Rosenblatt: “Dear old friends, we are looking for all those who were in our class through the years, many of whom, to their regret, went on to other schools, but are nevertheless very much with us in our memories. If you, or anyone else, have addresses for them, please take a moment to send them to me. Also, please send me

30 | QUAD WINTER 2016

your stories of Riverdale that we shall include in our next issue.

“Today, I am writing about the buses that carried those boys who traveled the lengthy ancient route from Manhattan to Riverdale.

This was in the 1930s, before the days of the East River Drive or the West Side Highway. Our trips took between an hour and an hour and a half as we progressed through various routes through the city.

“These great gray, fat, lumbering and ungainly buses were under-

powered and over-loaded.

The seats were covered with dark, cracking, overstuffed leather that tended to stick to your skin on warm days. Lower Schoolers wore short shorts, Middle Schoolers wore knickers with long socks, and older boys graduated into long trousers.

“There were rules as to bus behavior. It was a benevolent dictatorship, based on age; and enforced by a book smack on top of the head. The youngest sat in front and were under the occasional protection of the career bus driver.

Classes ending in 1's and 6's will have their reunion in the 2016-2017 school year, beginning the weekend of October 21-23. Please save the date!

CLASS NOTES The oldest sat in the very back, where they ruled because of their size, vantage point, and deeper, more authoritative voices.

“Stacks of books were carried loose or held together by leather belts, and occasionally in bags or briefcases. Slow students took the opportunity to do homework, but the talk was generally too interesting to allow concentrated study. I recall that during the Roosevelt/Landon election in 1936 Donald Bliss said, ‘Roosevelt is a traitor to his class.’

“Donald was a classmate and good friend. On the bus during the campaign he showed us a copy of the Literary Digest that he was bringing to school. It said, in headlines, ‘Landslide for Landon.’

Turned out Roosevelt won every state but Vermont and Maine.

As a result Donald Bliss received the class sobriquet, ‘Ignorance is Bliss’. I remember almost every Riverdalian on that bus through the years, just as I recall all the winding routes up to Riverdale Avenue.

“Often, we crossed over to the West Side and crawled up Riverside Drive. We had to go to Broadway to get to the Bronx, and pass Yankee Stadium. Some days we lumbered through Harlem.

We passed The Cotton Club, The Abyssinian Baptist Church, and once, all of Harlem sitting on the stoops listening to a Joe Louis fight.

We saw Horace Mann, Manhattan College, and the Riverdale Home for the Aged; and finally, West Hill Sanitarium, and then pulled into school with a load of exhausted boys.

“NEWS: Huffington Post carries an amusing commentary by our super-active classmate, Richard Abrons. Just look it up under "Religion". It was posted on September 29, 2015. I would include Dick’s great article here, but I don’t want to involve our dear alma mater in a copyright lawsuit with Ariana.”

1945

Sad news from Dave Stallard: “Betsy and I are greatly saddened to hear very recently about the passing of Class Correspondent Dr. Thomas D. Goodrich on November 5, 2015.

“I first met Tom in freshman year at Riverdale and was fortunate to be his classmate through senior year. He was always kind and humorous. After graduation we kept in touch at reunions and other times. Tom was always loyal to Riverdale, promoting reunions and sending in alumni news.

“Tom was outstandingly successful in all major parts of his life – family, friends, faculty, teaching, and scholarship. I feel very privileged to have been a friend of his.

1950

Class Correspondent Bina Pawley writes, “Last year I went to Australia and New Zealand.

Loved NZ, but could do without the former (Australia). This year I’ve had what seems like a zillion things to do; voice lessons, a demanding church choir with a lot of performances in and out of the church, and lessons on my new tablet. I also still like to do crossword puzzles and read. Love to all my classmates, especially the ‘girls’ I’ve come to know so well and the men I’m coming to know.”

Peter Gillette ’50 and his wife Nedra returned to Riverdale to celebrate Peter’s 65th Reunion. 

“I am sure that Tom’s widow, Sarah, would be grateful for notes of condolence. Her e-mail and postal addresses are: altotooter@ comcast.net and 4830 Kennett Pike, Apt. 1537, Wilmington, DE 19807.”

Please send your news to your Class Correspondent before MAY 1, 2016.

1945 Be a QUAD Class Correspondent*

1946 Elizabeth Eidlitz eidlitz@gmail.com

1947 Be a QUAD Class Correspondent*

1948 Victor S. Noerdlinger Box 385 East Orleans, MA 02643

1949 Barbara Neebe Thompson 26 Dorchester Avenue Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706

1950 Bina Pawley beanpawl@gmail.com

Robert Reed represented the class at Reunion/Homecoming 2015, celebrating his 70th Reunion with his wife Louise and his daughter and son-in-law (see photo below).

 From left: Bina Pawley ’50, Naomi and Peter Rosenblatt ’50, and Stevel Sobel ’50 enjoyed catching up during the Reunion dinner at RCS on September 26, 2015.

 Robert Reed ’45 (left) at the Reunion dinner with his daughter, wife Louise, and son-in-law.

WWW.RIVERDALE.EDU | 31

Congratulations to the Classes ending in 0's and 5's, who are celebrating their reunions in the 2015-2016 school year!

RIVERDALE ALUMNI

1951 Please send your news to your Class Correspondent(S) before MAY 1, 2016.

1951 Karl R. Heiser krheiser@verizon.net

1952 Barbara Dean Schuler 17 Bronxville Road Bronxville, NY 10708

1953 Gail Fletcher Edwards blueheronlake@msn.com William H. Gardner whginc@mindspring.com

1954 Nancy Bomeisler Nightingale nbnight@optimum.net

From Class Correspondent Karl Heiser: “Dick Bernhard sent a laudatory article (see photo below) about his family’s involvement with the NC State University Libraries, which just appeared in their magazine FOCUS. Writes Dick, ‘I’m just starting my 65th year in college, still undecided what I'm going to be when I grow up but continuing to enjoy being a college kid. I’m teaching a big graduate course on engineering economics to more than 50 graduate students, mostly from Asia and the Middle East, and I’m serving on the Executive Committee of the NCSU Faculty Senate, which involves being on lots of other committees, too. It appears I'm again going to be chair of the Campus Parking and Transportation Committee. If you come here and get a parking ticket, tell them you’re a friend of mine, and they’ll probably charge you double. Pay cheerfully. Like every other state agency with severely reduced budgets, they really, really need the money!’

“And, from Dorothea Hutton Scher: ‘This year I checked off the only item on my bucket list: A visit to New Zealand. The trip was on a small ship, 96 passengers from MIT, Harvard, and Smith. It couldn’t have been better and two weeks covered an amazing amount of the country. I continue to visit France every April and feel lucky to be in shape for it.’

From Jack McGinty: ‘Getting our act together, starting our move in

Dick Bernhard ’51 was featured in FOCUS, the magazine of the NC State University Libraries. 

32 | QUAD WINTER 2016

January 2016 from the CA desert (after 25 years here) to Santa Barbara.’

I empathize with Lyle Thompson’s plaintive note: ‘I was asked recently to provide a photograph of me at 18. I have no idea where my yearbook is, so I asked Robin Gottlieb for help, which she provided in less than 10 minutes. She e-mailed me a copy of my page in the ’51 yearbook.

I opened the attachment and I admit that had I walked by the picture anywhere, I would never have recognized the person in it.

I immediately went to a mirror and became totally depressed. If my body were once a temple, it is now a shack. My advice to my classmates is to never open your yearbooks: it can be hazardous to your wellbeing.’

“Finally, thanks to all who keep in touch; my hope is that more of you contact the RCS community in the coming year!—Karl”

1953

In August Walter Gans wrote: “We will be in the U.K. and France for almost a month from midSeptember and thus will miss Homecoming, though perhaps we’ll catch up with Bob and Shirley Milligan. Grandson Nick returned to Lehigh for his second year and granddaughter Heather started at Bowdoin, for which we are thrilled. We travelled to Vietnam and Cambodia in July, dividing our time between the Mekong

River and its villages and Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Phnom Penh and Siem Reap (including Angkor Wat). Fascinating, particularly Cambodia.”

From Class Correspondent Gail Fetcher Edwards: “Quiet summer, weather perfect for my garden, where I can be found every day and from which I derive much pleasure. Kids and grandkids are fine. The opera season starts soon and that makes me very happy.

“I speak with Tamzin Carr Hutchinson regularly—she and her daughter are on the way to Ireland for a couple of weeks—she says she needs a vacation after the normal Nantucket summer when everyone mistakes her home for a hotel (actually, she LOVES IT). I briefly caught the eye of Ellen Braestrup Strickler last winter, who I had no problem in recognizing—she is ‘younger than springtime’—hasn’t changed a whit! Bravo!”

Dale Carson recently wrote to Gail, “It’s fall—and I can still see you and Renate Nissen and Eloise Finch with me and Viv trailing in the wings, Kay and Sandy and Dora and Wendy and Tam and Wendy behind us—all of us sailing down the hockey field with the leaves beginning to drift.

“I can still see Betty Sue doing barrel rolls, and Wendy’s hair cut and Ellen’s blond hair and Nancy’s little face, and Barbara always chic and Monica in Spanish class. I sometimes remember us better than yesterday. As you say, we’re 80 now.

“As for me, still writing, still running Bick Publishing House, legs too far gone to teach in India or rehabilitate orangutans in Borneo anymore, finally settled down with one tall Irishman after all those marriages, children and even grandchildren all grown up.”

Classes ending in 1's and 6's will have their reunion in the 2016-2017 school year, beginning the weekend of October 21-23. Please save the date!

CLASS NOTES

1955

Bill Mow and his wife Rosa were back on campus for Bill’s 60th Reunion, where they ran into Nina and Tim Zagat ‘57 (see photo below right).

1956

George W. Liebmann’s latest book, The Fall of the House of Speyer: The Story of a Banking Dynasty, was published this summer in the U.K. and in the U.S. in September. The book tells the story of a German-Jewish banking family prominent in New York City life at the turn of the 20th century. To order the book online, go to www. ibtauris.com/speyer and enter the discount code AN2 when prompted.

Harry Gould writes that he has sold his company, Gould Paper Corporation, the thirdlargest paper distributor in North America, to Japan Pulp & Paper, and is already anticipating his next venture. In the meantime, he continues as Vice Chairman of New York City Housing Development Corp., member of the board of Roundabout Theatre Company and the Board of Overseers at Columbia Business School, as well as Trustee Emeritus of Colgate University. He and his wife are also enjoying their three grandchildren, who currently attend the Grace Church School.

1957

Paul Dickson’s 66th book, Contraband Cocktails—A Discursive Prohibition Formulary, was published in October. Paul’s book is about the paradoxical rise of the cocktail and a stylish, urbane cocktail culture during Prohibition.

The book includes an annotated formulary of drinks from the Dry Years. Paul is working on a biography of Leo Durocher, the baseball player and manager.

In the summer Steve Goldstein took a cruise with his entire family—kids, grandkids—to Turkey,

Greece, and Italy. Steve spoke at meetings at the Shanghai Taiwan Studies Institute and Nanking University in October during his sabbatical.

In July Tim and Nina Zagat spent several days in Sao Paulo, Brazil. They toured Sao Paulo with residents Eva and Mario Adler.

Among other activities, Mario is the Vice President of the Board of Latin America’s foremost medical center, Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein: caring for a nursery of 100 underprivileged children.

In August Rick and Barbara Bates visited Warren and Jane Ellan Golde in Lewes, DE. Warren heads up a group of 125 volunteers who have made Lewes a three-time winner in the America in Bloom competition. The flowers, plants, and landscaping in Lewes are magnificent.

Larry and Margie Johnson have moved from Randolph to Raynham, MA. Larry now works from home as a semi-retired lawyer and only goes to his Boston office for meetings and court appearances. This gives Larry more time with his eight grandchildren.

Richard Meade has sold his home in Paris, where he lived for 43 years.

He continues to maintain his home in Cambridge, England.

Class Correspondent Rick Bates and his wife Barbara visited Hingham and Cohasset, MA, where Rick’s ancestors lived from 1635 to 1933. The oldest residence in Cohasset was built by a Bates in

1695. Presumably it has been enhanced with indoor plumbing.

Class Correspondent Marty Zelnik lettered in five sports at Brandeis and was inducted into the Brandeis Hall of Fame. Marty’s tennis coach at Brandeis was Bud Collins, who went on to be a TV sportscaster and a Boston Globe correspondent.

Marty has maintained his friendship with Bud and for the last year has lobbied for an honor to Bud. In September Bud invited Marty to the dedication of the Bud Collins U.S. Open Media Center in Flushing, NY, during the U.S. Open. Bud was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame in 1994.

Please send your news to your Class Correspondent(S) before MAY 1, 2016.

Ros Fraad Baxandall had an advanced stage of kidney cancer.

Years ago she told her son that if she ever contracted such a disease, she would throw a large party. True to her word, she gave the party at her summer home in Truro on Cape Cod. After Labor Day she returned to her apartment in New York City, where she died on October 13, 2015.

Rick Bates rick.bates27@gmail.com

1955 Jane Samet Rogers jazzpiano77@verizon.net

1956 Barbara Rearden Farnham bf66@columbia.edu

1957 Judy Austin judyaustin40@yahoo.com

Sue Jacobs Schaffzin craftyme33@hotmail.com Marty Zelnik panzel1@aol.com

In her New York Times obituary, Ros was hailed as ‘a feminist historian who was among the first to bring scholarly attention to the historical role of women in the workplace and to expand the meaning of ‘women’s work’ ”. Ms. Baxandall served on the front lines of the feminist movement in New York in the late 1960s.”

Ros is survived by her son, Phineas Baxandall; her sisters, Harriet Fraad Wolff and Julie Fraad; and two grandchildren.

 Tim ’57 and Nina Zagat, Head of School Dominic A.A. Randolph, and Rosa and Bill Mow ’55 in front of the building that bears Bill’s name: William C.W. Mow Hall, which was affectionately known as the Main Building when Tim and Bill attended RCS.

WWW.RIVERDALE.EDU | 33

Congratulations to the Classes ending in 0's and 5's, who are celebrating their reunions in the 2015-2016 school year!

RIVERDALE ALUMNI

1958 Please send your news to your Class Correspondent before MAY 1, 2016.

1958 David F. Lahm dflahm@gmail.com

Bennett Galef has moved to Durham, NC, and has trips planned to West Africa (Benin, Burkino Fasso and Ghana) and to Chile.

From Alex Garvin: “In the spirit of Goeff (I remember the old spelling), I still have not moved from the Upper East Side, I am still teaching three courses a year at Yale, and in the next two months I shall be traveling to Toronto, Zurich, Bern, and Los Angeles.”

Frank Clarke writes, “Finally planning to retire in 2016 and move full-time to Stuart, FL. So now are into downsizing possessions. Will do some consulting and board work from there. Vera keeps busy with her home staging business.

“Of our 11 grandchildren, three are now in college in the northeast.

One more follows next year— he spent some of the summer building a school in Peru.

“We traveled to Cambodia and Vietnam last January.”

The latest novel from Ken Burrow 58’s wife, Erica Jong. 

34 | QUAD WINTER 2016

From Jim Marrow: “My wife Emily and I will be resident in Cambridge, England, from late October through December and would be delighted to see or put up any classmates who might pass through. I am busy writing entries for the catalog of a major exhibition ("Pages from the Past: Illuminated Manuscripts from Boston-Area Collections") that will open in September 2016 at three venues in Boston: the Houghton Library (Harvard University), McMullen Museum (Boston College), and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Emily published her first book (E.M. Rose, The Murder of William of Norwich: The Origins of the Blood Libel in Medieval Europe, Oxford University Press, 2015) to rave reviews in the London Sunday Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Huffington Post, and the Wall Street Journal.

Paul Jablow writes, “I recently completed perhaps the most exciting project in over a decade of freelancing (following more than three decades of newspapering). I was co-producer of Glen’s Village, a documentary about a West Philadelphia youth who went from selling crack on street corners to the University of Pennsylvania Class of 2017. The filmmaker/ producer was Dorian Geiger, who was exactly 50 years behind me at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. The film was named best short documentary at a festival in Flagstaff, AZ, and is a finalist at eight other festivals.

The project was sponsored by the Philadelphia Public School Notebook, a newspaper and website covering the Philadelphia schools, under a grant from the van Ameringen Foundation. You can see it at https://vimeo.com/127166555.

Phil Proctor writes, “Glad to see we’re all still buzzing around out there!

“When not editing my memoirs, Where’s My Fortune Cookie?, I’m writing and taping a new web series, Boomers on a Bench, with my comic partner, Jamie Alcroft: www.boomersonabench.com.

“My voice can be heard in Pixar’s Inside Out and The Good Dinosaur, as a villain in the ‘Batman:Arkham Knight’ game, and I still appear regularly in various live audio presentations and in readings at the Antaeus Company here in LA. “Like many of us, I’ve lost an amazing number of friends recently, including Marcia Strassman, Karen Black, Stan Freberg, Judy Carne, Merl Reagle, and another founding member of The Firesign Theatre, Phil Austin.

“Nonetheless, Phil’s genius will soon be on view in Everything You Know Is Wrong: The Declassified Firesign Theatre 1968-1975, a DVD compilation of films, including TV interviews, commercials, live

performances and rare home movies, available at our website this fall.

“And my wife, Melinda, returned to Italy in September, acting in an American Playwrights’ Workshop at La Mama International Theatre Symposium in Spoleto, while I stayed home and fed the cats.

“Last year, we stayed with George White in England, and next year, we hope to visit Sevan Minasian in his new digs in Deutschland, with a side trip to Bern, Switzerland, in search of my Amish ancestors.

“You can keep up with my shenanigans on Facebook or at www.planetproctor.com.”

Phil also wanted to let his classmates know about Ken Burrow’s wife’s new book, Fear of Dying. Ken’s wife just happens to be well-known author Erica Jong.

Mari Gold writes, “Not reporting news unless you consider a terrific three weeks in Italy last May— first in Rome, then two weeks in Puglia—followed by a very busy summer in many places, including Maine (which included a visit to Campobello) newsy.”

To which Class Corrsepondent David Lahm says, “Newsy and envy-provoking, Mari.” He also reports, “For myself, it’s been a busy summer and fall here and in SW Michigan, where I spend about half my time. Plenty of music both places; I'll be playing in a cabaret for the first time since 2008 when I accompany the Granats (father and daughter) at the Metropolitan Room (W 22nd St) at 7:00 p.m. on November 23.”

Classes ending in 1's and 6's will have their reunion in the 2016-2017 school year, beginning the weekend of October 21-23. Please save the date!

CLASS NOTES

1959

From Class Correspondent Geoff Howard: “This summer has been a busy one for ’59, with two wonderful opportunities for getting together.

“The first was the summer pool-and-barbecue party at Ron Winston’s lovely home in Westchester (see photo below right).

About 15 of us—with significant others—gathered at the exact same spot where we partied on graduation night a mere 55 years before! The food was amazingly good, the weather glorious, and we were almost able to keep straight faces when someone said, “We haven’t changed a bit!” It was a truly memorable day… and enormous thanks to Ron and Heidi.

“And as if that wasn’t enough, there was the delightful party at Sue Rosenfeld Lehmann’s New York apartment in honor of the publication of Mike Spring’s intriguing new book, Sacred Bones, a beautifully crafted and written account of the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of Deusdona, a Ninth Century peddler of bones and relics, the Willy Loman of his times, according to Mike. Anyway, great book and a great excuse for a gathering of old friends (see photo below).

“In other news, Chris Hobson writes that he recently spent time in Germany with his good friend Sevan Minasian ’58 where they ‘ate well, talked, and remembered the vanishing world of New York in

the 1950s.’ Also, his latest article is ‘Prophecy and Doubt in James Baldwin’s Just Above My Head’ (Baldwin’s last novel, 1979).

“John Lahr’s new book, Joy Ride: Show People and their Shows,” is now out from Norton. It is a series of profiles of playwrights and directors along with reviews of some of their shows. As for his new-but-not-latest book on Tennessee Williams, it has won a boatload of awards, too many to list here. The phrases, ‘Nice going!’ and ‘Still going strong’ seem very much in order.

“Retirement seems to be just about the furthest thing from Ron Winston’s mind. He writes, ‘For the past five years I’ve been very involved re-entering the rocket science field in which I formerly won two national awards in my college years. I have a small lab outside Silicon Valley. Our work is in hybrid rocket fuel. The combination is half liquid, half solid, and so far the tests are static, which means the device is held in place. In the future we hope to launch into space. I also busy myself with a research foundation, which is looking at AIDS and other immune problems. Lastly, but not least, I am writing a screenplay with my cowriter and finishing a book on the family history.’

“And he went to express the thought so many of us had after our reunion: ‘Words cannot express the joy I felt in being together on July 11th.’

 The Class of 1959 at a summer get-together, from left: Chris Schwabacher, Ron Winston, Sue Rosenfeld Lehmann (kneeling), Caddie Zagat Eland, Micki Seligson, Mike Otten, Mike Spring, Geoff Howard, Susan Stevenson Brown, Tim Gaydos, and John Lahr.

“As for me, Carole and I celebrated our 45th/her 70th this summer with a terrific hiking trip to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons.

I have gotten deeply involved in the ‘re-purposing’ of a recently closed (2011) medium-security prison here in Warwick, and as I write in late September, it is poised to reopen as a combination 150-acre technology park and a 600-acre, multi-use recreational area. The process was not without its frustrating moments and there’s still more to be done, but for the moment, it’s a nice ‘win’ for the community.”

1960

Several members of the class were on hand to celebrate their 55th Reunion at a dinner held on Riverdale’s campus the evening of Homecoming 2015, September 26, including Sara Gore Stone and Maida Posner Hirschkorn (see photo below).

Please send your news to your Class Correspondent(S) before MAY 1, 2016.

1959 Micki Seligson 139 Cushing Street, #1 Cambridge, MA 02138 Geoff Howard howards@warwick.net

1960 E. Harvey Meer ehmeer@aol.com

1961 Lawrence Rosenbluth rosenbluth342@yahoo.com

1962 Joseph Pickard jpickard@oristanocapital.com

1963 Stephen R. Blank stephen.blank@att.net Peter W. Philip petersells@aol.com Paul K. Safer pksmd@msn.com

 Maida Posner Hirschkorn ’60 (left) and Sara Gore Stone ’60 attended their 55th Reunion dinner in September.

 The Class of 1959 in the water, from left: Russ Jelinek, Ron Winston, and George Weiss; standing from left: Mike Otten, Moto Imai, Chris Hobson, Mike Spring, Ned Chase, Chris Schwabacher, Terre Alper Otto, Don Shea, Tim Gaydos, Bob Feuer, Geoff Howard, and Tom Garvey.

WWW.RIVERDALE.EDU | 35

Congratulations to the Classes ending in 0's and 5's, who are celebrating their reunions in the 2015-2016 school year!

RIVERDALE ALUMNI

1964 Please send your news to your Class Correspondent(S) before MAY 1, 2016.

1964 John H. Jiler johnjiler@earthlink.net

1965 Gail Hart York86@aol.com Melissa Gordon melmelg48@aol.com

1966 Be a QUAD Class Correspondent*

1967 Mary Lou Scott marylou.scott@gmail.com

1968 John M. Davis johnmdavis3@gmail.com

1969 Nancy Duff-Boehm nduff611@aol.com Susan Tembeck Riccardi Plookie51@gmail.com

The Class of 1965 at the 50th Reunion dinner on September 26, 2015: Back row, from left: David Rubin, Robert Blum, Thomas Wilcox, Jim Fuld, Robert Rosenheck (in hat), Henry Allen, John McDowell, and Robert Krulwich; Middle row, from left: Jeffrey Richards, Javier Sanjines, Fred Lehrman, Jane Lisman Katz, Melissa Gordon, John Siffert, John Brendler (with cane), and Richard Aronson; Seated, from left: Maddie Bertino Graham, Sue Kaffenburgh Thimme, and Barbara Foley. 

36 | QUAD WINTER 2016

Class Correspondent John Jiler’s newest play, Half Moon Bay, is about “a dark obsession. It was mentored

by John Patrick Shanley and features some of New York’s best young actors. I’ve very proud of it.”

The show ran from October 3-25, 2015 at the New Ohio Theatre.

1965

The Class of ’65 had a fantastic 50th reunion! The reunion planning committee of John Siffert, Gail Hart, Fred Lehrman, Calvin Hill, and Robert Flug worked hard to make it happen. First we enjoyed a barbecue lunch under a tent on the Hill Campus and were presented with the Alumni Reunion Award (see photo on page 26). Then people toured the campus, while others went to soccer and football games. Later we gathered inside for a cocktail party and dinner.

John Siffert and Robert Krulwich toasted our class with thoughtful, memorable words. As a souvenir we all received a CD with our favorite songs from our high school years.

Maddie Bertino Graham travelled the longest distance (California), but others came a long way, too: John McDowell and family (Indiana); Javier Sanjines and his son Frederico (Michigan); Bob Blum and his wife (Baltimore); Suekey Kaffenburgh Thimme (Cape Cod); Dick Aronson (Amherst); and John Brendler (Swathmore).

The New York contingent was well

represented, too: Chris O’Sullivan; John Siffert and his wife; Melissa Gordon and her husband; Fred Lehrman and his wife; Jim Fuld and his wife; David Rubin and his girlfriend; Jane Lisman Katz; Robert Krulwich; and Jeff Richards.

At the night’s end we were sad to say goodbye to each other and felt that we had re-kindled our former, high school friendships. We are all hoping to come to the 55th reunion, only about 1,825 days away. Be there or be square!

1968

From Class Correspondent John M. Davis: “On August 27, 2015, Michele, the daughter of my lifelong friend, Diane Levbarg Klein (President of Riverdale School for Girls Class of 1968) and her husband Martin, was married at The Pierre Hotel in New York to Max Rayden of London. The mother of the bride looked resplendent and glowing in Missoni (see photo below right). Luca Missoni walked Diane down the aisle. “

1969

Class Correspondent Nancy DuffBoehm has compiled the following notes from her classmates of 1969: From Peter Kazaras: “In addition to my duties at UCLA as Professor of Music and Director of Opera Studies, I’m also lucky enough to

get the chance to direct on big (and small) professional stages throughout the country. That means I can work with singers from 17 to 70. Amazing that much of the process is the same! Last year included debuts at Glimmerglass Festival, Washington National Opera, and The Dallas Opera.

This season has included a world premiere of a piece about the forcible removal and incarceration of the Japanese-American population during World War II (An American Dream) at Seattle Opera, and I’ll be making my LA Opera debut next spring with La Bohème.

Next summer comes a new production of Rossini’s The Thieving Magpie at Glimmerglass, which is a great place for a weekend of operatic fun, with the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown right down the street.

“My husband Armin Baier has a full-time psychotherapy practice in Los Angeles, and has recently been made a faculty member of the Pacific Gestalt Institute. He has also prepared and is slated to teach an online course in Addictions Treatment for Columbia University School of Social Work next fall. We both wonder when the alleged ‘golden years’ start. Tommy, our miraculous miniature poodle, does not bother himself with such worries, but is content to live each day to the fullest. He is a good teacher.

Mother of the bride Diane Levbarg Klein ’68 at her daughter’s August 2015 wedding. 

Classes ending in 1's and 6's will have their reunion in the 2016-2017 school year, beginning the weekend of October 21-23. Please save the date!

CLASS NOTES “In RCS-related news, I was happy to have a terrific reunion last winter with Tony Gardner, Stewart Wetchler, and Alan Hirschfeld over dinner in NYC. I am sorry I missed the big reunion in October.

If anyone is near LA or Cooperstown or DC next fall (The Marriage of Figaro) please let me know and we can get together: maxpushkin@mac. com or (917) 915-1324.”

From Kathy Valyi: “Can’t remember whether I’ve written since mid-May, but we’ve got a grandson named Ajax Brennan Nulty Herr, born May 16. At 3 1/2 months, he’s over 18 pounds and we’re all building biceps cuddling the not-so-little guy.

Peter and I are getting to know the NY-Denver flights well and are lucky our two daughters are in the same city. Kieran, our son, flies in for little reunions whenever his insane work schedule permits.”

Greg Kriser writes, “My son, Ryan Alexander Kriser, is engaged to be married to Heather Jacobus on October 29, 2016 at the Mar A Lago Club in Palm Beach, FL! They are having an engagement party November 2, 2015 at the Soho Grand Hotel in NYC! Best regards!”

Laurie Tisch reports: “The last several months have been VERY busy ones for me. I became a grandma to Penelope Tisch Blodgett (born seven weeks early but all caught up and simply adorable). She was named in honor of her beloved great grandpa, Preston Robert Tisch, and seems to have his large personality and constant smile.

“I became mother of the bride again in a beautiful and meaningful ceremony, as Emily Tisch Sussman married her wonderful beau, Kevin James Craw.

“And, on a personal note, I became co-chair of the remarkable and stunning new Whitney Museum.

All in all, much to celebrate and embrace.”

Sam Williams writes, “What a group of great friends we have.

Earlier this year I was having major circulatory issues that might require having surgery. I would like to thank the outpouring of support I received through e-mails and texts from our Riverdale community.

Bobby Franco ’71 even spoke to my vascular surgeon requesting the quality of service I was to receive.

You folks are awesome and I am blessed to be a member of such a wonderful community.”

And from Nancy Duff-Boehm: “On August 13, 2015, my husband Greg and I were blessed with the birth of our first grandchild: Margaret Katherine (aka Maggie) Boehm (see photo below right). She is the light of my life, and although she and her fabulous parents, Nick and MK Boehm, live in San Francisco currently, we receive pictures daily and are becoming familiar with FaceTime.

“Greg and I continue to work trying to stem the tide of opiate addiction, one family at a time, in Cleveland.

We are especially passionate about our intensive program exclusively for pregnant women. I am also still committed to my work to improve the lives of individuals in physical rehab and long-term care facilities.

agent and journalist, will again document the voyage with diary entries of the trip and freestyle charcoal drawings.

After extensive interviews for the upcoming trip, the following classmates have been chosen: Dr. Alan Hirshfeld, medical officer with triage experience; Donald Pearce, Esq., able-bodied seaman and legal council; Gregory Schwed, a triathlon athlete who recently participated in the Western Rocky Mountain Iron man contest; and finally, rounding out the team will be Michael Gumport, who questioned the validity and intent of our first trip... but has decided to join us as galley hand and assistant chum attendant.

We are soliciting funding for this trip solely from private donors.

The sudden loss of our previous financial sponsor (due to his extradition on mail fraud charges, which we all believe are totally unfounded) will be sorely missed.

Calm seas and light winds, Captain Bob Susinno

Nancy Duff-Boehm ’69 with her first grandchild, Margaret Katherine Boehm. 

“Love to all, and thanks for responding to our call for news. It is so good to hear from everyone!”

On September 30, 2015 Captain Bob Susinno and members of the Class of 1969 met at the Atlantic Grill on the Upper East Side to reunite after many lost years and begin new plans for the next KonTiki reunion voyage. Only one of the original crew has decided to return, while the other four—having conflicts with work or being too exhausted—will not repeat the arduous trip. Anthony Gardner will be returning with Captain Bob Susinno for hopefully a wonderful, safe, and rewarding adventure.

Captain Bob, a retired dentist, currently runs a charter boat called the Esscattore out of South Carolina and will lead the team for a second year. Anthony Gardner, literary

 Members of the Class of 1969 Kon-Tiki reunion voyage (from left): Greg Schwed, Alan Hirshfield, Bob Susinno, Don Pearce, Michael Gumport, and Anthony Gardner.

WWW.RIVERDALE.EDU | 37

Congratulations to the Classes ending in 0's and 5's, who are celebrating their reunions in the 2015-2016 school year!

RIVERDALE ALUMNI

1970 Please send your news to your Class Correspondent(S) before MAY 1, 2016.

1970 David Asencio david102251@msn.com Robert Kahn bob@kahnconsulting.com

Mitch Alfus, owner of Libra Leather, reports: “What could be nicer or more gratifying than working on a daily basis with both of my children (Alik ’07 and Sofi) in both NYC and now Los Angeles…Well, experiencing fatherhood all over again with my 7-year-old, Mila, who is also enrolled in RCS…That’s what!!”

Clifford Ross was on campus for Homecoming/Reunion 2015, where he was honored with the Alumni Achievement Award (see photo on page 27). Congratulations!

Ken Davies shared this update from Jinja, Uganda: “Perhaps best to start at the beginning, which was our departure from Rome in a rented Europcar van on June 10, arriving in Denmark the following midnight after sleeping in a small village in the mountains of northern Italy, where people spoke German and only halting Italian, and explained that they maintained their cultural affinity for Austria, although the area had been ceded to Italy after WWI. Many huge, almost-empty monasteries to be seen on numerous hilltops and the locals explained that they used to be isolated during the winter in the mountain valleys, until the new highway was put through the area in the 1970s.

“We had a wonderful summer in Denmark at our house on Thuro Island, off Svendborg. We had multiple guests, including my elderly parents, who had a great visit despite some physical limitations; my very spry 84-year-old aunt from the U.S. and her granddaughter and friend; one of the Ugandan youth football players who is now working in IT in Glasgow; and an Irish friend who used to work with Margrethe at Solidarity with South Sudan in Rome. The highlight was our hosting of a 24-hour family reunion for 44 members of Margrethe’s family in August: three generations, comprised of her siblings, their

38 | QUAD WINTER 2016

kids with spouses/partners, and children. The karaoke was a huge success and everyone—from young to old—strutted their talents (or lack thereof). Heartily recommend karaoke for any family reunion you may ever host. Four of our kids made it to DK for a visit during the course of the summer, which was wonderful, and three scheduled their vacation so as to join the family reunion.

“The summer in DK seemed more like an extended summer vacation than ‘retirement.’ I kept busy with the garden, bicycling almost every day, swimming in the sea, socializing, and fixing up the old house. DK was really a ‘probationary retirement’.

“Benjamin is now in Minnesota working for the University of Minnesota as a researcher in soil science. Daniel began his new job as a lawyer with the Refugee Law Assistance Project (RLAP) in Cairo in July. He is swamped, working with Syrian, Iraqi, Yemeni, Somali, Eritrean, and South Sudanese asylum seekers in Egypt, assisting them to gain formal refugee status and apply for third country resettlement if eligible. They are in the midst of the refugee outflow and providing informational outreach to refugees/asylum seekers on ‘irregular migration’ (read the exodus to Europe across the Aegean or Mediterranean).

Lukas is still working with Mahindra in Mumbai and busy applying for new jobs for next year. Emma is her final year of university in Maine and also beginning to apply for employment for next year (parental fingers crossed). Johannes is in his second year at Macalester College in Minnesota, enjoying his university experience and incredibly busy.

“So the ‘real’ retirement began on September 15 when Margrethe and I boarded a plane in Copenhagen and flew south to Uganda, arriving the next day.

“We spent our first day in Kampala with Margrethe visiting her former colleagues at Reach Out Mbuya Paruish HIV/AIDS Initiative, and a visit with colleagues at the WFP Kampala office. We arrived in Jinja, our new home, that evening, which is about 85 kilometers east of Kampala, at the top of Lake Victoria where the White Nile begins flowing north to Egypt.

“Jinja is a sleepy and fairly run-down old town (founded 1907). We have rented a renovated old colonialera house from an elderly English engineer who is out of the country.

We are across from the golf course (shame I don't play golf), which has Marabou storks, goats, and many rough spots to complicate the game.

The road outside our gate has two deep erosion trenches that could swallow a car whole, and there are few roads that are not mostly potholes. We spent the first week settling in, getting phone cards, Internet router, DSTV, buying a battered 20-year-old Toyota RAV4 and beginning to look at property along the Nile River, where we might build a small house for our retirement. Last week we saw one plot on the other side of the river that I loved, overlooking some of the only remaining rapids left since the construction of a second dam a few years ago. It then turned out that the plot was too small for siting a house, close to a potentially very loud new tourist resort, and overpriced for the size of the land. Then we fell in love with a big plot of land (four acres) for about the same price on this side of the river, but it is 16 kms from Jinja town on a terrible road that is almost impassable in the rainy season, but my, what a place it would be to live—and one could work with the local community that receives few quality services.

And then yesterday we saw another piece of land that is only 5 kms from Jinja and has just come on the market (owned by the local LCV, or elected head of district government, who reportedly wishes to sell to finance his campaign for the

Classes ending in 1's and 6's will have their reunion in the 2016-2017 school year, beginning the weekend of October 21-23. Please save the date!

CLASS NOTES February elections). It has no rapids, but a lovely view downriver, and we are going to drive out to take another look.

“The property search feels a bit like a being on a rollercoaster: up one moment and full of nervousness the next. There are so many aspects to consider, such as legitimacy of the land title, setback from the water line for construction, neighbors, potential for resale if/when that becomes necessary, and distance from town. It is all moving so fast and we don't want to feel we are rushing into committing too rapidly.

So I do feel that retirement has now begun, and we need to make plans each day as to what our priorities are. We have met so many new people since coming to Jinja that it seems we have been here for an extended period already. It is mind blowing to us when we realized yesterday evening that it was only two weeks since we boarded the airplane in Copenhagen to bring us back to Africa.

“One interesting development is that Harvest Plus, an agricultural development initiative that traditionally breeds higher-nutrient staple crops (such as high-protein maize, yellow flesh sweet potato (vitamin A), and high-iron beans, for example) contacted me this summer and asked if I would join their Programme Advisory Committee, which meets twice a year. I accepted and the next meeting is in DC on October 19/20.

As they are buying me a ticket, I’m taking the opportunity to also visit Benjamin and Johannes in Minneapolis for a weekend and my parents north of NYC. And since I’d be in town, one of Benjamin’s graduate professors asked me to speak at a seminar on my experience with WFP and on P4P. Margrethe has been invited to a ‘Grandmother’s Gathering’ that the Stephen Lewis Foundation is sponsoring in Entebbe, where Graca Machel, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, and Stephen Lewis will speak on the role of grandmothers

in addressing the AIDS epidemic.

Apparently 500 grandmothers are scheduled to attend.

“So you see we are busy and now truly embarking on the next chapter of our lives. Please do stay in touch. You can always reach me at my Yahoo! e-mail address: kendavies52@yahoo.com. My new phone number here is +256 704 60 11 33.

“Look forward to hearing from you, and hope you are all well and in good spirits.”

Michael Gury writes, “When informed that it has been 45 years since graduating from Riverdale, I was somewhat surprised, but not being Rip Van Winkle, I know where every minute of those years went.

And every one of them has been a thrill, and then some.

“I’ve lived in London, Paris, spent years working in South America, traveled to a ton of other countries, created television programs and more commercials than I can remember, was mentored by some incredible people, met and befriended a number of my childhood heroes, pulled rabbits out of hats, launched earth-shattering multi-billion dollar products, did some acting here or there, was the Dalai Lama’s security chief for a few days, still play the same guitar I had while in the dorm at Riverdale (I am actually better now), married/ divorced, and have two incredible daughters, aged 30 and 26; and, like some of you I’m sure, became the grandfather of one hell of a little girl last year.

“There has always been the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.

And so it goes, for most of us I expect. I seem to have figured out how to deal with setbacks. The Art of War is a bit of a bible on that score.

“I want to extend a special greeting to those of you who were with me in Riverdale’s long-gone dormitory.

I was there from 1964 to our

graduation in 1970. Those of us who lived there had a kind of a special brotherhood. When I look back at my years at Riverdale, it is through the lens of that experience.

Those of you who went home in the afternoon didn’t have the time of your lives watching Muhammed Ali’s fights or the World Series with a bunch of whoopin’ and hollerin’ kids from different countries, backgrounds, races, and creeds. We were big on pranks and otherwise over-the-top theatrical behavior.

Some of the teachers lived in the dorm with us, and they were known as “Masters”. The cranky ones weren’t so appreciative of our rambunctious behavior. The cool ones joined in.

“And special appreciation must go to those thespians who tramped the buskin boards with me and delivered what, at the end of the day, were terrific efforts at theater, however bad and however heroic.

Appreciation, too, to those teachers who tried their best to turn us into disciplined actors and actresses.

Appreciation, too, to the parents who endured our noble endeavors.

“As my daughters went through their teen years and studies, I was most intrigued by the kinds of topics they drilled through, either in history or social studies. Things like the Civil Rights movement, assassinations, the Vietnam War, riots, hippies, Kent State, the SDS, the guys who walked on the moon–all of these were in their syllabi. I don’t think they listened to me that much, but they’d do some fact checking with me once and a while. Mainly I just shut up and thrilled to my own flashbacks of awakening in the morning in the dorm with frightening and horrific news delivered to me through my AM clock radio. Seriously, we lived in a scary time.

“I’ve tried to teach my girls that being active in causes is actually a pretty good thing. I will confess that, in order to show them how to start doing it, I took them to

WWW.RIVERDALE.EDU | 39

Congratulations to the Classes ending in 0's and 5's, who are celebrating their reunions in the 2015-2016 school year!

RIVERDALE ALUMNI

Please send your news to your Class Correspondent(S) before MAY 1, 2016.

1971 Jerry J. Fall fall.jerry@gmail.com Charlotte Jones McCormick shamimccormick@gmail.com

1972 Elizabeth S. Lasdon eslasdon@gmail.com

1973 Tony Melchior melchprod@aol.com

1974 Donnamarie Barnes donnamariebarnes@gmail.com Roger Sherman rsherman@cyruscapital.com

The Class of 1970 at Homecoming 2015 (from left): David Greene, Clifford Ross, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Juliet Gal, John Tucci, Michelle Moye Martin, Rick Feldman, David Gikow, and Fred Li. 

Washington a few years ago to a march on the Pentagon during the tenure of G.W. Bush. Apologies to those of you who think the war in Iraq was a great idea. As a footnote, the SDS had merely a small card table set up with pamphlets. My younger daughter explained to me what the SDS was about on her campus. At this point I think it should aspire to being like the Rotary Club.

“Recently, having grown up a bit (but still not that much), and surveying five years of complete ennui in Stamford, CT, I decided to change things up a bit. I certainly needed a vacation and it was in the course of booking a diving trip to Belize when I impulsively purchased a one-way ticket. At the beginning of this month, I moved to Belize.

“I don’t know that I have a bucket list, but doing something different once in a while has been one of my things. I’ve got a nice place, pretty much in the jungle, and the Caribbean is a five-minute walk from the house. I’ve traded in my grey flannel suit for one that I wear all day and in the water (when I feel like wearing it). I also have a job that I do online, but I consider this whole escapade a retirementby-proxy.

“To those of you who have befriended me on Facebook, it’s been great following your life’s adventures, and I much appreciate your befriending me to begin with. I’m afraid that I have been a terrible Facebooker, but I did take a

swing at it a couple of days ago when posting that I decamped Stamford for Belize. A couple of people noticed. A few were very grateful that I was no longer in their midst.

“My daughters, granddaughters, relatives, and few friends are in contact via FaceTime and Skype.

So far the Belizean electric and cable outfits have done their share to maintain Belize’s distinction as Third World Extraordinaire, contending with Yemen. But I always have a sense of humor about these things and when I pray, I often get Skype to work. I may, in fact, see family and people far more than I did when in Stamford. Really: Who wants to go to Stamford? I am taking reservations for any guest, and any among you who would care to visit Belize. Book early! Only kidding.

“At the end of this screed, I am including some contact information.

I shall also update Riverdale’s files, if only to reassure any of the curious that I am still alive; still living by my wits alone, as well as by machete. I have also started a blog of sorts: http:// michaelsbelizetravel.com/. It’s sort of a primer on how insane it is to do what I just did, but with pictures.

“Again, congratulations to my favorite Class of 1970! And above all, congratulations to all of us for having made it this far! Personally, I’m rather amazed, and rather amused, that I have.

“E-mail: michaelgury@msn.com or michaelgury@gmail.com; Skype: michaelgury; Skype Tel #: +1 (203) 987-5406; International mobile: +1 (203) 232-8177; Also international mobile but local: + (00501) 671-1318. Cheers, and God Bless us all!”

The Class of 1970 was well represented at Homecoming 2015, as evidenced by the two photos (below).

1971

Virginia Drewry, wife of H. Curtis Martin, reported the sad news that Curtis passed away in May. She noted that Curtis was very fond of his time at Riverdale and she would love to hear from any classmates who have memories of him. Letters can be sent to: Virginia Drewry, 118 Prince Street, Alexandria, VA 22314.

1974

QUAD extends condolences to the family and friends of Liz Perle, whose eight-year battle with breast cancer ended on August 20.

Liz, who served as publisher of William Morrow, among other top level positions across publishing houses, also was the author of When Work Doesn’t Work Anymore: Women, Work and Identity (Delacorte Press, 1997) and Money: A Memoir (Henry Holt, 2006). In 2002, Liz, together with Jim Steyer, co-founded nonprofit organization

 The Class of 1970 (Boys School) at the Homecoming 2015 dinner (from left): Rick Feldman, Todd Gordon, John Tucci, Eric Rosenberg, David Greene, Robert Kahn, and Fred Li. 40 | QUAD WINTER 2016

Classes ending in 1's and 6's will have their reunion in the 2016-2017 school year, beginning the weekend of October 21-23. Please save the date!

CLASS NOTES Common Sense Media, which provides information about media and entertainment for children, parents, educators, policymakers, and others.

In 2013, Liz appeared in the Emmynominated HBO documentary, 50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus, which was produced and directed by Steven Pressman, her husband. The film tells the previously unknown story of Liz’s maternal grandparents, Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus, who rescued 50 Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Vienna and brought them to the United States in 1939.

In addition to her husband, Liz is survived by her son David Perle McKenna and her stepdaughter Roshann Pressman.

Classmate Alison Carlson writes, “I am deeply sad that our classmate Liz Perle passed away after a recurrence of breast cancer. Peter Gleick and I attended her memorial service at Temple Emanu-el in San Francisco, the city Liz called home since the late 1990s. Her New York Times obit outlined her impressive career in publishing, writing (Money: A Memoir being her most recent book), and editing; the service revealed the breadth of admiring and loving community she built during her too-short lifetime, and her uncommon energy, smarts, and humor. I’d like her classmates to know that Common Sense Media (www.commonsensemedia.org), which Liz co-founded in 2002, has created a Liz Perle Fellowship program to honor her remarkable talents and mentorship of young writers and editors. Her co-founder, Jim Steyer (my Stanford classmate), welcomes input and ideas for the program from friends of Liz. Contact jim@ commonsense.org.”

1975

From Class Correspondent Lisa Turgell Friedland: Nearly 40 Class of ’75ers gathered to celebrate their 40th reunion at

a restaurant in Manhattan. Barely a soul needed to check the photo nametags because we all looked exactly as we did 40 years ago. A bit of alcohol and the warmth of rekindling old friendships contributed to a raucous evening of story telling and memory sharing. One person admitted that he didn’t quite know what he expected but couldn’t believe how much fun he had.

The next day, many of the group convened on campus to celebrate with Susan Kohlmann, who was given the Ernest McAneny Alumni Spirit Award for her outstanding work on behalf of Riverdale (see photo on page 27). And the following week, some classmates went to William Galison’s concert and raved about it.

Thank you to the following classmates for being willing to join us at the reunion: Dede Arnholz, Jon Beitler, Andy Brenner, Donald Burger, Karen AdvocateConnolly, Ellen Fischer Fischer Dawidowicz, Jonathan Dorfman, Lisa Gelb Feiner, Michael Fields, Lisa Turgell Friedland, John Frumer, William Galison, Jeffrey Graham, Richard Griggs, Kenny Gronningsater; Kathryn Himoff, David Jablons, Josh Jablons, David Katz, Gerard Koeppel, Susan Kohlmann, John Kurzman, Lauren Guarino Oltarsh, Keith Outlaw, Robert Pordy, Doug Pressman, Kate Kubert Puls, Kate Riley, Briana Rose, Tony Rudie, Jeff Russell, Jeff Silberman, Andy Simon, Peter Steinman, Jeanne Straus, Denise Tennen, David Thomson, and Peter Tuchman.

are or what you are up to, please let us know and keep us up-to-date on contact information. If we don’t have your e-mail and you are willing to share it with us, please do. There has been some interest in getting together again before the 50th.

1980

Class Correspondent Dana Cantelmo submitted the following: Hi classmates, it was truly wonderful to see and hear from so many of you, near and far. Ken Fischer writes, “Great reunion at Kenny’s house.” And it was! Thanks to Ken for hosting and for sending around photos old and new! Twenty-eight (28) classmates attended, chatted, laughed, and stayed up late. We marveled at the closeness we still felt and the fun we can still have together, and we mostly credited RCS, and our very special class.

Eleven (11) of us even made it to campus (which looked beautiful) and the class photo the next day.

Many more made our virtual (e-mail) reunion, including Kathy Kinter Hertz, Laurie Grobman, Alex Weindling, Susan Ephron, Junko Hasegawa Arai, Julie Gartenberg, Joanne Birsch, Julie Polkes, Jill Lipton Lecar, Peter Doyle, Chris Steiner, Theo Spilka, Rob Goldrich, Penny Paul, Andy Bernstein, and Steven Bram. A lot of classmates expressed a desire to get together more often; I will help and Ken is happy to host! It’s been great seeing and hearing from all of you; please keep writing, and of course, if you have e-mail addresses of classmates that I don’t, please send them to me!

Please send your news to your Class Correspondent(S) before MAY 1, 2016.

1975 Jonathan J. Beitler jjbeitl@emory.edu Lisa Turgell Friedland lisa.friedland09@gmail.com Jeffrey J. Russell jjrussell@clearbridgeadvisors.com

1976 Daniel Easton mashfly007@aol.com

1977 Be a QUAD Class Correspondent*

1978 William McGowan bill@claritymediagroup.com

1979 Lori Tarnopol Moore dlmoore4@aol.com

1980 Dana Swinsky Cantelmo danaswinsky@me.com

Members of the Class of 1975 at their 40th Reunion. 

Sorry to have missed Anahid Avakian Gregg, Andy Bodner, John Coles, Ezra Deutsch, Sharron Herman Dupler, Tom Finnegan, Kathy Lajtha, and Roger Low, who all said they wanted to join us but were unable due to prior commitments. We hope to see you at the next reunion.

In the meantime, if you would like to stay in touch or let your classmates know about where you

WWW.RIVERDALE.EDU | 41

Congratulations to the Classes ending in 0's and 5's, who are celebrating their reunions in the 2015-2016 school year!

RIVERDALE ALUMNI

Please send your news to your Class Correspondent(S) before MAY 1, 2016.

1981 Elizabeth A. Holoubek-Sebok eholoubek@aol.com Lisa Burge Swotes lswotes@gmail.com

1982 Meryl Poster meryl.poster@ superbentertainment.net The Class of 1980 at their 35th Reunion (from left): Front Row: Jeff Markelson, Peggy Sand, Liz Rosenberg Zimmerman, Leslie Karkus Nutkis; Second Row: Arthur Magnus, David Booker, Ted Zang; Third Row: Ken Fischer, Niki Vorhaus Thran; Fourth Row: Tony Asnes, Ellyn Alper Schoen, Margaret Nachtigall Giordano, Abbe Goldman Klores, Cathy Altman-Silver, David Roberts, Luca Vignelli, Karen Waddell, Brita Heimarck, Dana Swinsky Cantelmo, Ellen Archer, Lauren Davis Reicher, Dean Shapiro; Standing: Juanita Lieberman-Plimpton’s husband Tom Plimpton ’60, Ted Sylvan, Ken Schlesinger, Andy Kramer, Patience Moore, Michael Hedges, Elena Jones, and Elena’s husband Tony Chambers. 

42 | QUAD WINTER 2016

In addition to our e-mails regarding music and memories (thanks Patience Moore), for the notes, Susan Ephron wrote, “While I miss good bagels, Randy and I love the Pacific Northwest. Seattle is a fabulous city—great food, coffee and beer, close to the mountains and water (and with a fabulous football team). I'd love to see anyone who makes it out here.”

Julie Peterson McClain is also sorry to have missed the reunion!

“Living in Boulder, CO, where my two sons are seniors at CU Boulder and Colorado School of Mines.

Anyone who comes out this way, please get in touch!”

Michael Hedges reports that he is a managing partner in the High Times Growth Fund associated with the eponymous magazine.

His wife’s cognitive damage and pain led Michael into researching the medicinal benefits of the plant. That in turn exposed the investment opportunity and now Michael reports having the most fun of his career. Michael lives in the city and enjoys kite surfing and skateboarding with his teens and business colleagues.

Patience Moore wrote, “I am a clinical social worker working in a public elementary school in New Jersey. I am completing my

memoir and giving as inspirational as possible talks about surviving breast cancer, and life in general!

Please let me know if you have an audience that might be interested. I am also launching a private practice even as I write this. I still sing here and there and enjoy swimming and ever-lengthening cycling trips.

Currently at 55 miles; hoping to work up to a century ride. I live in Montclair with my awesome 14and 11-year-old boys near Penny Paul, whom I see often! I enjoyed Steven Bram’s movie this past year and saw many beloveds at the reunion party. Rock on!”

And from Dave Roberts, “So, the last 35 years. I married Debbie in 1985. All else follows from that.

We met in 1984 at Area, which was the hot NYC downtown nightclub of the moment. To clarify, Area was hosting a Jewish Guild for the Blind Junior Benefit on a Sunday night, and I went because I knew buying a ticket to the benefit would be my only shot, ever, to get past the bouncer. We have three children. They all graduated from Riverdale. Lauren ’06 teaches high school English at York Prep in Manhattan. (She popped in to the reunion party at Ken Fischer’s.)

Andrew ’08 is a second-year law school student and lives in San Francisco. Michael ’12 is a college senior. Debbie and I both grew up

on the East Side. We converted to the West Side, where we raised our kids. They all went to Rodeph Sholom for nursery and elementary school. When we became empty nesters, somewhat to our chagrin, we moved back to the East Side. I realize this betrays a microscopic and provincial view of geography!

The more so as I found out at the reunion that some classmates had lived in Bali. I have been in the investment business since 1983, most of the time at an alternative investment management firm called Angelo, Gordon. I now have a diversified set of tasks including work for Angelo, Gordon and a number of education not-for-profit boards—the charter school network Success Academy, UPenn’s Graduate School of Education, and my sixth year as Chair of Riverdale’s board.

I am also almost two years into writing a novel, which I have found to be incredibly challenging. With regard to Riverdale, I love serving with Dominic Randolph as the Headmaster. He is an inspirational leader and a great manager, which I think is a rare combination. I also think the Board’s culture is terrific; the Trustees are there based on a sincere love of the school. Finally, I have a great deal of gratitude to Riverdale, both for my own education, but even more for the education my three children received.

 The Class of 1980 at Homecoming (from left): Ken Fischer, Dana Swinsky Cantelmo, Cathy Altman-Silver, Ted Zang, Ellyn Alper Schoen, Margaret Nachtigall Giordano, Karen Waddell, Ken Schlesinger, Brita Heimarck, Ted Sylvan, and Elena Jones.

Classes ending in 1's and 6's will have their reunion in the 2016-2017 school year, beginning the weekend of October 21-23. Please save the date!

CLASS NOTES “I have generally not been good at keeping in touch with classmates.

I realized this poignantly at the recent 35th reunion party. It meant a lot to me to see people with whom I shared an indelibly formative experience. It brought back memories long forgotten (some long suppressed). I would welcome hearing from anyone.”

From Cathy Altman-Silver: “I have just come to my second ‘end of an era’ at Riverdale. I had been back at RCS for the past 18 years—my two older kids, son Jarrod and daughter Harlie, now 22 and 21, both started RCS in Pre-K, graduating in 2012 and 2013, and my youngest daughter Taryn, now 18, just graduated in June 2015, having started in kindergarten.

Although so much has changed (the River Campus now being the Lower School), so much still felt so familiar. There was never a time when I was up at school for an event of any kind that I didn't run into people from ‘our day!’

“I have been in physical therapy private practice, Altman Physical Therapy Center on the Upper East Side, since 1987. Having all three kids in college now will give my husband Russell and me an opportunity to actually finish a conversation, and possibly enjoy some quiet time!

“It was so great seeing so many people at the reunion! Those of you who weren’t there were missed.

It’s incredible how after so much time has passed, being together again felt so ‘easy’! I hope to see old friends again sooner than the next 35 years!”

just started high school! Every day something reminds me of our days back on the River Campus— especially my 6th-grade daughter, who is now on her school’s field hockey team. If any of you remember, she is crazy like me and playing goalie!!”

Please send your news to your Class Correspondent(S) before MAY 1, 2016.

1983

 From left: Hazel Rose Eidelberg and Bennett Asher Eidelberg, children of Adam Eidelberg ’82.

1982

Adam Eidelberg and his wife, Hillary Jassey, had their second child, Hazel Rose Eidelberg, on May 15, 2015. Hazel joins her big brother Bennett Asher Eidelberg, 3 years old (see photo above).

1984

Class Correspondent Eve Reppen Rogers writes, “My summer was fantastic, with a few weeks in Cape Cod. I can’t believe my son

 The Class of 1980 at Homecoming (from left): Ken Schlesigner, Ted Sylvan, Cathy Altman-Silver, Ken Fischer, Suzy Jurist-O’Shea, Dana Swinsky Cantelmo, Brita Heimarck, Karen Waddell, Margaret Nachtigall Giordano, Ellyn Alper Schoen, and Elena Jones.

From Tony Barkan: “Eve, I know how you feel about watching your son start high school. My biggest personal news of the summer was my oldest daughter Sammie starting college and my youngest, Julia, starting high school. Sammie and I took a week to drive her halfway across the country to Macalester College in Minneapolis.

The highlight was our 24 hours in Chicago: Cubs game, Second City show, and her discovering that NY pizza is soooo much better than deep dish. Earlier in the summer, the girls and I celebrated their moving up in school ranks with 10 days in Rome and Tuscany. It was amazing.

“Professionally, I’m halfway through setting up my own asset management company, Allagash Partners, which will focus on real estate debt and equity investing.

I should start managing money in the new year. Very exciting.

“My best to everyone. I hope we can do another get-together soon.”

Eric Yamin eric.yamin@ubs.com

1984 Eve Reppen Rogers evejewels@earthlink.net

The Class of 1980 at their 35th Reunion (from left): Front Row: Jeff Markelson, Peggy Sand, Liz Rosenberg Zimmerman; Second Row: Arthur Magnus, David Booker, Ted Zang; Third Row: Ken Fischer, Ellyn Alper Schoen, Margaret Nachtigall Giordano, Abbe Goldman Klores, Cathy Altman-Silver, David Roberts, Luca Vignelli, Karen Waddell, Patience Moore, Brita Heimarck, Dana Swinsky Cantelmo, Ellen Archer, Lauren Davis Reicher, Dean Shapiro; Fourth Row: Tony Asnes; Standing: Jaunita LiebermanPlimpton’s husband Tom Plimpton ’60, Ted Sylvan, Ken Schlesinger, Andy Kramer, Michael Hedges, Elena Jones, and Elena’s husband Tony Chambers. 

WWW.RIVERDALE.EDU | 43

Congratulations to the Classes ending in 0's and 5's, who are celebrating their reunions in the 2015-2016 school year!

RIVERDALE ALUMNI

1985 Please send your news to your Class Correspondent(S) before MAY 1, 2016.

1985 Allison Unger Brody a.brody@elsevier.com

1986 Sanford E. Cannold Sandy.cannold@gmail.com

1987 Karyn Boosin Leit karynleit@mac.com

1988 Stacy J. Grossman S144man@yahoo.com

1989 Allison R. Rouse allison.rouse@gmail.com

1990 Jeffrey L. Korenman jkorenman@hotmail.com Achikam Yogev achikamyogev@gmail.com

1991 Stefanie Firtell Donath sadonath6873@gmail.com

1992 Laura J. Kleinman kleinmanlaura@yahoo.com

QUAD extends condolences to the family and friends of Emily Caigan, who passed away April 19, 2015 after a valiant battle with ovarian cancer. Emily is survived by her husband Khem and twin daughters, Tuli and Gage.

1987

From Karen Kerr Stone: “I live in Seattle with my wife Penny and our two sons, who are ages 3 and 6. I am a retired lieutenant with the San Francisco Fire Department, currently a research associate on a women firefighters’ breast cancer study, and I serve on a couple of boards.”

1990

The Class of 1990 celebrated their 25th Reunion with a luncheon at Homecoming 2015 (see photo below left).

1991

Assistant Head of School/Head of Middle School Milton Sipp let QUAD know that Oliver Freundlich was featured on Remodelista, in a story about his company’s latest cafe design for One Girl Cookies in Industry City, Brooklyn. You can see the feature at www.remodelista.com/ posts/one-girl-cookies-newestbrooklyn-outpost-designed-by-oliverfreundlich.

 More than a dozen members of the Class of 1995 got together for their 20-year Reunion at Homecoming 2015.

From Laurence Lederer: “Over Homecoming weekend, the members of Riverdale’s 1990 undefeated football team got together to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their accomplishment. The 1990 team was ranked 10th among all schools in the tri-state area, 4th in NY State, and was Riverdale’s 20th undefeated team. The following people are pictured below right: Laurence Lederer, James Castle ’93, Eli Casdin, John Castle, Oktay Dogramaci ’92, Keith Meister, Michael Lythcott ’92, Kevin Jenkins, Steve Hunt ’92, Nick Lagemann, Coach Hidalgo Nagashima, Coach Kevin Kreso, and Coach Richard Knazik.

“The following members of the team were also in attendance

over the course of the weekend’s festivities: Dan Shlomm ’92, Eric Eusanio, Abe Fernandez ’92, Charlie Goldschmid ’94, and Coach Dan Donner.

“The team celebrated, reminisced, watched a grainy VHS highlight tape, and remembered their departed teammate and friend, Zack Knight. Special thanks to John and Rosie Castle for hosting cocktails on Friday and to Jason Strauss ’93 for hosting the afterparty at his PH-D rooftop lounge on Saturday evening.”

1995

Several members of the Class of 1995 were at Homecoming 2015 to celebrate their 20th Reunion (see photo above).

1993 George D. Creppy gcreppy75@gmail.com Alexis Higgins alexis.higgins@gmail.com

1994 Danielle J. Englebardt denglebardt@gmail.com

1995 Brittany Podell Levin bpodellco@gmail.com

44 | QUAD WINTER 2016

 The Class of 1990 enjoyed a 25th Reunion luncheon in their honor at Homecoming 2015.

 Former football coaches and members of the Classes of ’91, ’92, and ’93 met recently to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Riverdale’s 1990 undefeated football team.

Classes ending in 1's and 6's will have their reunion in the 2016-2017 school year, beginning the weekend of October 21-23. Please save the date!

CLASS NOTES

2000

Gui Stampur was recently named Associate Director of Safe Passage, a non-profit in TriBeCa that provides free legal services to undocumented children. Last year, Gui started a soccer team at Safe Passage that plays games throughout the city. On October 25th, Riverdale Country School hosted Safe Passage and 100 of its clients at the Upper School as part of a Field Day celebration with the seventh- and eighth-graders from RCS.

Class Correspondent Alex Horn got married in October 2014 in Detroit, MI. He lives with his wife in Los Angeles, where they both work in entertainment.

2004

Congratulations to Reva Minkoff, who got engaged this past May. Fellow Riverdalians Leah Okin and Rebeka Radna-Crasta ’05 celebrated with her at a party in Pine Plains, NY (see photo below).

2001

Gabriel Pincus wrote with the following news: “On October 24, 2015, I will be marrying my fiancée, Kristen Koenig, who I met while we were both completing our MBAs at Vanderbilt University in 2014. Additionally, I recently launched an eponymous Hedge Fund, Pincus Funds (www. pincusfunds.com), based on a proprietary strategy that I developed two years ago. I am happy to announce that this fund is now available for outside accredited investors.”

1996

2001

Lara Englebardt Metz larametz@gmail.com

Samantha A. Acunto ac.samantha@gmail.com

Tim Morehouse tim.morehouse08@gmail.com

Adam Brenner adam.brenner@gmail.com

1997

Alex P. Horn alexp.horn@gmail.com

John C. Kirkham jckirkham@gmail.com

Charles Curtis had his first novel, Strange Country Day, published in August by Month9Books. It's the first book in a middle grade series (for 9- to 13-year olds) focused on a group of 7th grade football players who suddenly find out they have mysterious special powers, all while dealing with the stresses of middle school life.

This past August, Class Correspondent Lana Jacobs Edelman joined Stephen Gaynor School's admissions department.

Lana began her career there as a head teacher and after taking time off to focus on raising her son and developing a private tutoring business, she is happy to return to the school, where she will be focusing on educational evaluations.

Please send your news to your Class Correspondent(S) before MAY 1, 2016.

1998

David Rausnitz drausnitz@gmail.com

Jessica Endelson Baum jessbaum@live.com

2002

Catherine Silver Smith catherinesilversmith@gmail.com

 From left: Rebeka Radna-Crasta ’05, Reva Minkoff ’04, and Leah Okin at Reva's engagement party in May.

Samara J. Fetto samara.fetto@gmail.com

1999

Benjamin Z. Koblentz bkoblentz@gmail.com

Matt Balaban MattBalaban1@gmail.com

2003

2000 Lana Jacobs Edelman lanarose@gmail.com

Adam R. Heller adamheller1@gmail.com Ariel C. Schneider schneider.ariel@gmail.com

2004 Brandon Cohen Brandon.adam.cohen@gmail.com

2005

Several members of the Class of 2005 were on hand at Homecoming 2015 to celebrate their 10th Reunion (see photo below).

Nearly a dozen members of the Class of 2005 gathered at Homecoming 2015 to celebrate their 10th Reunion. 

Cristina E. Haley crissy.haley@gmail.com

2005 Daniel A. Perelstein dperelstein@gmail.com Amy R. Schneiderman amy.r.schneiderman@gmail.com

WWW.RIVERDALE.EDU | 45

Congratulations to the Classes ending in 0's and 5's, who are celebrating their reunions in the 2015-2016 school year!

RIVERDALE ALUMNI

Please send your news to your Class Correspondent(S) before MAY 1, 2016.

2006 Tracy Dansker tdansker@gmail.com Eric B. Nusbaum ericnusbaume@gmail.com Sandra Thomas SandyT@princeton.edu

2007 Kate Lehrhaupt kate.lehrhaupt@gmail.com

2008 Michael Roberts michael.roberts@law.nyu.edu Andrew J. Taub andrew.james.taub@gmail.com Zoe Zetlin-Fishbein zzetlin@gmail.com

2009

Assistant Head of School/Head of Middle School Milton Sipp shared several photos (below) from the Labor Day weekend wedding of Tim Lloyd and Megan Sparks in Ventura, CA. Milton was the Dean of the Class of 2005. Serving as groomsmen were Jamie Cornwall and Kunal Khaitani.

Congratulations to Kira and Omari Ramirez, who were married on April 27 (see photo below right).

Adam Tishman, along with two of his colleagues from Wharton, has launched a new startup company called Helix Sleep. An online mattress company that sells personalized mattresses, Helix Sleep provides “cutting-edge engineering based on your specific biomechanics and ergonomics for sleep; all shipped to you quickly and for a great price.” For more, visit www.helixsleep.com.

2007

From Mike Moreno: “I had an awesome summer! Recently returned from the U.K. and especially enjoyed my behindthe-scenes tour of Wimbledon. I had an opportunity to attend the New York Junior Tennis + Learning Summer Gala at the Boat House in Central Park and was happy to be interviewed in the August 28, 2015 issue of the Bronx Times Reporter regarding my work as a tennis coach. Looking forward to joining the CitySquash volunteer coaching team at Fordham University’s Rose Hill campus in the fall and returning to Rome, Italy with the

Princeton Club of New York 4.0 Squash Team next spring. Wishing my fellow alums warm regards!”

2010

Several members of the Class of 2010 were on hand for their 5th Reunion (see photo below), held during Homecoming 2015 in September.

2011

Congratulations to Charlotte P. Kassimir, who received a BA from Hamilton College this past May. A psychology major, Charlotte graduated summa cum laude with departmental honors in psychology.

IN MEMORIUM ALUMNI Ros Fraad Baxandall ’57 H. Curtis Martin ’71 Liz Perle ’74 Emily Caigan ’85

FORMER FACULTY Richard “Dick” Karman Jean Hunter Tomat

Dean of the Class of 2005 Milton Sipp (left) with newlyweds Megan Sparks and Tim Lloyd ’05. 

Kira and Omari Ramirez ’05 on their wedding day, April 27, 2015. 

 Best man Jamie Cornwall '05, groom Tim Lloyd '05, Dean of the Class of 2005 Milton Sipp, and groomsman Kunal Khaitani '05 at Tim Lloyd’s September 2015 wedding.

 Members of the Class of 2010 posed for a photo during Homecoming 2015, where they celebrated their 5th Reunion.

Daisy Hackett hackett.daisy@gmail.com Josh A. Howard jh1003@gmail.com Joshua S. Pearl josh@joshpearl.com Gracie Phillips egphilli@gmail.com Ashley M. Rainford ashley.rainford@gmail.com Alyssa J. Smith alyssajaclyn@gmail.com Danielle Suchman danielle.suchman@gmail.com

2010 Ethan Gracer edagracer@gmail.com Ali Kokot alikokot@gmail.com Michael Shelton michael.e.shelton@gmail.com 46 | QUAD WINTER 2016

Classes ending in 1's and 6's will have their reunion in the 2016-2017 school year, beginning the weekend of October 21-23. Please save the date!

CLASS NOTES

Faculty and Staff News Congratulations to Hill Campus Learning Specialist Annie Anderson, her husband Jamie, her mother-in-law, Hill Campus Learning Specialist Candy Anderson, and their entire family on the birth of Emma Hartley on July 21.

Maryanne V. Fraleigh, Assistant to the Head of School, welcomed grandchild number three on June 9, 2015 (see photo below). Hunter James weighed in at 8 lbs., 5 oz. and was 19.5 inches long. Congratulations!

Former Faculty Riverdale extends condolences to former Lower School technologist Ben Lesch, whose mother, Judith Willia Lesch, died from pancreatic cancer this past July. Our thoughts and prayers are also with Director of Early Learning Ellen Greengrass, whose mother, Nina Rake, died peacefully at home in September after a battle with cancer.

Geoffrey Zelnik ’84 notified the Alumni Office of the October 31, 2015 passing of Richard “Dick” Karman, a former history teacher and former Head of Upper School who spent 15 years at Riverdale (September 1970 to June 1985).

We extend our condolences to his friends and family.

Andy Tomat, son of Jean Hunter Tomat—who taught music at Riverdale in the 1950s—wrote to let QUAD know that his mom passed away peacefully on May 20 at the age of 89:

 Hunter James, grandson of Maryanne Fraleigh, Assistant to the Head of School.

“Born in Lowell, MA, and raised in Chelmsford, MA, and New Jersey, Jean received undergraduate degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the University of Rochester, and a graduate degree from Columbia University. She performed as a marimba player, organist, and classical singer.

“During summers her lifelong love of sailing enabled her to serve as a camp counselor and sailing instructor at sailing camps.

co-author of Learning through Music for Special Children and their Teachers.

“She and her husband Len met while leading a student production of Finian’s Rainbow at Riverdale—Len directed the acting, Jean directed the music—setting an example for their future life together with a shared love of travel, education, music, drama, family, and friends.

“After raising their son Andy in CT, they enjoyed a 20-year retirement on Cape Cod. Following her husband’s passing in 2011, Jean headed west to the California sunshine to be near her son Andy, who noted that Jean “maintained contact with many of her students and fellow faculty members. Al Davis was a good friend of both my mom and dad.” QUAD extends condolences to Andy and all of Jean’s former students and friends.

Congratulations to former Coach and Archivist Al Davis, who turned 91 this past November. Al enjoyed spending some time on the Hill Campus with faculty, studentathletes, and alumnus John Jiler ’64 (see photo below).

Correction: In the Spring/ Summer 2015 edition of QUAD, we erroneously reported that the former head of the Riverdale Neighborhood School, Nona Burtch Bruce, died in March 2015, when she in fact died March 10, 2014. We sincerely apologize for the error.

Please send your news to your Class Correspondent(S) before MAY 1, 2016.

2011 Laura Berman laura.e.berman@gmail.com

2012 Jay Dessy jbdessy@gmail.com Chloe Getrajdman cgetrajdman@gmail.com

2013 Khari Dawkins Kd4@williams.edu George Niedermayer george.s.niedermayer.17@dartmouth.edu

2014 Travis Brady travis.brady@yale.edu Saranya Vijayakumar svijayakumar@college.harvard.edu

2015 Corey Morrison dactadeo@gmail.com Robert Proner robertproner@gmail.com

* TO BECOME A CLASS CORRESPONDENT, CONTACT Robin Gottlieb Director of Alumni Affairs (718) 519-2703 alumni@riverdale.edu

“She began her career in music education in Port Jervis, NY, and then directing choirs at the Hartridge School for Girls in NJ before moving on to the wonderful years she enjoyed teaching at Riverdale Country School—where she met her husband, Len Tomat—and then at the Hartt School of Music in CT. “Jean was one of the early innovators in music therapy, and was a

 Celebrating former Coach Al Davis’ 91st birthday recently were John Jiler ’64 (seated with Al) and, standing from left: Al's caregiver, Manisha Doran, Roberta MacIvor, Kent Kildahl, Sue Fleming, Amy McDonough, Lance Ramer, Doug McDonald, TJ Barnett, and Carol Pouliot.

WWW.RIVERDALE.EDU | 47

Board of Trustees 2015-2016 Gwen Adolph Terri D. Austin, Secretary Ellen Nachtigall Biben ’83 David Blitzer Tory Burch John Castle ’91 Kenneth Eberts Sandra Kim Hoffen ’83 Mark D. Hostetter ’77 John Kao ’68 Michael A. Karsch Roger H. Kimmel, Treasurer

Betsy Kenny Lack Kass Lazerow Gary A. Lieberman Marc Lipschultz Daniel C. Lubin Lara Englebardt Metz ’96, AAEC President Thomas K. Montag John A. Neuwirth Jeffrey Pash Kathleen M. Pike Dominic A.A. Randolph, Head of School

David N. Roberts ’80, Chair Allan V. Rose Daniel J. Rosen ’92 Vice Chair Dr. Susan Drossman Sokoloff Deborah Sonnenberg Jamie Alexander Tisch Wendy Topkis, PA President Phillip “Tod” Waterman III ’84 Stacey Weinstein David Westin, Vice Chair

Trustees Emeriti Michele R. Cohen Gandolfo V. DiBlasi Thomas C. Israel Jane Lisman Katz ’65 Peter M. Lehrer Linda Lewis Lindenbaum ’54 Dr. William C.W. Mow ’55 Harvey Schulweis Robert A. Staub Thomas W. Strauss Jeffrey N. Vinik ’77 Ada G. Zambetti Richard S. Zinman

Alumni Association Executive Committee 2015-2016 Samantha Acunto ’01 George Anagnos ’76 Rebecca Levy Anikstein ’99 Harrie Bakst ’03 Jessica Endelson Baum ’98 Amanda Rubin Blankman ’82 Liz Clyman ’97, Vice President Stefanie Firtell Donath ’91 Edem Dzubey ’07 Danielle J. Engelbardt’94

48 | QUAD WINTER 2016

Tara Pfeifer Englander ’93 Joseph Goldschmid ’04 Paul Goldschmid ’96 Betsy Fields Hayes ’86 Michelle Kirschtein Jacobs ’81 Christopher Kelly ’02 David F. Lahm ’58 Laurence B. Lederer ’91 Brittany Podell Levin ’95 Tiffany Austin Liston ’94 John Low ’90

Lorraine Mahony, Faculty Representative Anthony Melchior ’73 Lara Englebardt-Metz ’96, President Philip R. Michael ’00 Shary Moalemzadeh ’89 Ron Murison, Faculty Representative Omari Ramarez ’05 Amelia Levin Relles ’87

Carolyn Braun Rosen ’92 Daniel J. Rosen ’92 Peter R. Rosenblatt ’50 Alison Ginsberg Shefter ’89 Jessica Elghanayan Shell ’95 Roger Sherman ’74 Jonathan Shifke ’06 Abigail Spiegel Sroka ’99 Elizabeth Heyman Winter ’99

ALUMNI PROFILE

Mali Locke ’95 Mali Locke graduated from Riverdale in 1995. She received her bachelor’s degree in French literature from Yale University in 1999, a certificate in nonprofit management from Columbia Business School’s Institute for Nonprofit Management, and her master’s degree in organization change management from the New School. She currently works as Director of the Maverick Capital Foundation, the philanthropy arm of hedge fund Maverick Capital.

Can you talk a little bit about your current profession?

In my role as Director of the Maverick Capital Foundation, I assist the employees of Maverick with their personal philanthropy in addition to organizing company-wide volunteer programs and grants to local non-profits in New York City. One of these programs is our annual holiday drive for POTS (Part of the Solution), a Bronx-based organization that has partnered with Riverdale since I was a student. While the holiday drive at Maverick preceded me, it has been a nice overlap with my student experience and represents continuity with the work that I do.

I work with a group of wonderful people, and am continually blown away by their generosity and by how grateful they are for the occasions we provide them to give back to the community. We are fortunate to have the lives and opportunities we have, and it is meaningful to have the chance to give thanks for our gifts.

How did Riverdale help prepare you for your current career path?

Riverdale set me on a trajectory for success in higher education and beyond. During my freshman year of college, I did not have the same types of growing pains and stresses as many of my peers. The level of academic rigor that existed at Riverdale allowed me to enter college with confidence, a strong sense of self, and a solid foundation in writing, math, and across various

disciplines. All of my Riverdale classes, but particularly ILS (Integrated Liberal Studies), really helped to prepare me.

In addition, Riverdale helped me to form a cultural sensitivity. I am aware of how fortunate I am for the opportunities I have had. This has fostered in me a lifelong desire to help people in all parts of the world to have access to similar experiences.

What was the most important aspect of your Riverdale education?

The two things that had the greatest impact on my life were the faculty and the opportunities available to me.

Riverdale was a special experience. We had such small classes and were able to engage in all kinds of interesting and unique programs inside and outside of the classroom.

We had access to many talented and passionate faculty members—Bill Pahlka, Mike Michelson, Denise Hoffman, Joel Doerfler—all of whom really cared about what we felt and what we were learning. I can’t say enough about them.

Riverdale gave me the ability to grow so much academically, culturally, and socially at a young age.

It allowed me to try out a variety of activities and to be exposed to so many different people from diverse backgrounds, which prepared me well for the future.

NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID S. HACKENSACK, NJ PERMIT NO. 79

Riverdale Country School 5250 Fieldston Road Bronx, New York 10471-2999 www.riverdale.edu

Riverdale Country School Though Riverdale may look a little different today, our mission has remained consistent: Riverdale still strives to provide academic programs of the highest caliber and a transformational educational experience on a beautiful “country” campus.

• No matter the size of your gift, everyone’s participation counts equally, and high participation remains the key to our success.

• Make it one of your goals to support the Annual Fund this fiscal year and help sustain another year of innovation and discovery for today’s students!

• There is no time like the present; please make your contribution to the 2015-2016 Annual Fund today!

Please mail checks to: Riverdale Country School Attn: Development Office 5250 Fieldston Road Bronx, NY 10471-2999

You can also donate online: www.riverdale.edu/donate

For more information, please e-mail annualfund@riverdale.edu or call the Development Office at 718.519.2745.