Alumni Profiles

Ross (’03) and Whitney (’04) Howayeck

Ross Howayeck was a sophomore at St. Johns, standing in the hallway at his locker, when he first glanced over at Whitney Rosenberg. They were in different grades, but he saw her often. They’d smile at each other, and eventually slipped notes into each other’s lockers. They began sitting together at lunch, and Ross would walk Whitney to her car at the end of the day. “It took some time and a bit of fate,” said Ross, “but sure enough, we made a connection and the rest is history.”

The pair got married in April 2013 and continue to make their history together, now living in Northern Virginia with their two girls, Olivia (6) and Juliet (3). Ross is a pilot in the Air Force and Whitney, an occupational therapist who has temporarily put things on hold to raise their girls. Both have fond memories of St. Johns Country Day School, and not just of meeting each other.

“Through St. Johns, I found a highly motivated and academically competitive peer group,” Whitney recalls. “Among this group, I also found lifelong friends.” She remembers countless nights studying at the office of Mittauer & Associates with Kate Mittauer Withers ’04 and Krista Gilligan Young ’04. “We’d lose track of time discussing various novels from Mr. Warner’s English class and prepping for exams.” She says she always felt like the faculty took a genuine interest in her, not just as a student but also as an individual outside the classroom. “In my time there, I truly felt like I had a St. Johns family. While at St. Johns, I was a competitive gymnast in a local club practicing nearly 20 hours a week. So at a young age, I learned the importance of time management, self-discipline, a strong work ethic, and perseverance. St. Johns helped me develop these characteristics and apply them to all aspects of my life. Needless to say, I felt very prepared when entering college academics.”

Ross agrees. He says he thinks back on his time at St. Johns nearly every day and that the School made a big impression on him. He lists a stream of teachers who made the biggest impact: “Mrs. [Carolyn] Sellars was my first teacher at St. Johns and welcomed me with open arms. She not only helped me feel welcome, but made me feel at home from the beginning.” Others include art teachers Mary Ann Petsca and Tami Culbert, Janet Huntley, and Sarah Harvey. Ross says Tina Sachs “always went the extra mile to relate her material to real-world applications,” which he appreciated. In fact, in Grade 6, Ross says, Sachs had the students split up into groups and had each group choose a business. Then she asked them to prepare business models and cost structures before they went into a one-week simulation where each business would interact with each other, forming a micro-economy. “Needless to say,” Ross relates, ”some businesses developed conflict and I found myself at the end of the week in 6th grade civil court.” He was being sued by Brittany Acree ’03, “for I have no idea what. Long story short, [fellow student and lifelong friend] Ryan Mittauer ’03 represented me and inevitably lost his first case. Consequently, Ryan is now a big-time lawyer in Jacksonville,” Ross says, “which I don’t believe is a coincidence.”

He also remembers Una Pardue, who Ross remembers took time to make her class experience fun and exuded an infectious enthusiasm and School spirit; Martha Hellmuth and Mrs. Joanne] Gilligan, who were “warriors on the battlefields of algebra;” Mrs. Garrison, “who brought an unmatched passion to her history class” (and all things, really, Ross adds), and, finally, Beth Herzog, who taught him to write and speak publicly, giving Ross an enormous head start, he says, over his peers at both the University of Florida and in the United States Air Force. “Each of these amazing people left a lasting impression on me,” Ross says.

Whitney goes on to cite lifelong friendships forged in the hallways and classrooms of St. Johns: Kate, Krista, Will Gibbs ’04, Marleigh Gibbs Gulliford ’05, Sue Ann Koe ’03, my sisters Lindsay Rosenberg Mastrangelo ’02 and Jillian Rosenberg Morgan ’05, and, of course Ross, now her husband. “I didn’t know what the future held for us at age 15, but I did know that I never wanted the time we had together to ever end.”

Ross also remembers cutting up with classmates Patrick Weaver ’03 and Nick Courtney ’03 during St Johns on Broadway’s “Music Man” and “Saturday Night Fever,” going to Space Camp with Brandon Dodd ’03 and Jason Sanders ’03, his time on the Varsity Swim team with Doug Benefield ’03 and Brittany Acree ’03, and jamming out with the St. Johns Jazz Band and then later in the evenings at Young Life with Mrs. Garrison and company.

They both went on to the University of Florida, Ross studying architecture and Whitney psychology. Whitney continued gymnastics through college, and says “being a part of a Division 1 team in college is an accomplishment that I will never forget. I was so proud to be a member of the Florida Gators gymnastics team.” She continued on at UF to attain her master’s degree in occupational therapy.

Whitney’s parents instilled in her at an early age the importance of helping others. “I was very confident that I wanted to work in healthcare,” she says, “but I also valued flexibility to include a career that I could take everywhere with me. I couldn’t have picked a more rewarding or ‘portable’ profession for myself.”

Ross also knew what he wanted to do: “I always knew I wanted to fly. I also wanted to follow in my dad’s footsteps.” His dad had been a pilot in the Vietnam War and by the time Ross came along he’d transitioned to United Airlines.”He never missed an opportunity to share the joy of aviation with my brother and me,” says Ross. “I am proud of his service and his 37-year career with United. In addition to my dad, my mother also served United Airlines as a 42year Flight Attendant and Purser.”

Beyond that element, Ross says, he remembers sitting in Mrs. Garrison’s history class when someone leaned in the door and told her to turn on the television. “We had barely read the banner at the bottom of the screen when we watched United Flight 175 hit the south tower of the World Trade Center. My desire to be a pilot changed in an instant into a call to serve our country. My road to achieving Air Force wings was anything but easy and I could not have done it without Whitney and countless others who put me on this path. Coincidentally, fate would have it that my first daughter was born on September 11th, 2016.

After travels in some of the country’s most beautiful places, the family now lives in Northern Virginia. “Somehow the stars aligned,” Ross says, “and I was offered a position in the 1st Airlift Squadron (1 AS),” where he would fly a specially modified commercial Boeing 757 aircraft. Ross clarifies that while most people think of it as Air Force 2, the callsign is reserved for any aircraft transporting the Vice President of the United States. In addition to the Vice President, the 1 AS also supports the remaining four members of the “Top Five,” including the First Lady of the United States, The Secretary of State, The Secretary of Defense, and The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “I am proud to have served all of these National Leaders and Senior Military members,” Ross says, “but my most memorable missions include those involving Vice President Kamala Harris and former Vice President Mike Pence.

After leaving the 89th Airlift Wing and his adventures with the 1st Airlift Squadron, Ross was given another unique opportunity to serve in the White House Military Office. He now bounces between the White House and Joint Base Andrews where he serves as a liaison for Presidential Travel.

Meanwhile, the family is loving their time in Northern Virginia. “Although we still ride the struggle bus through the winters and long for North Florida weather, living in Virginia has been amazing,” says Whitney. They live near Mount Vernon and love to immerse themselves and their girls in all that Virginia and the District of Columbia have to offer, from museums to monuments, or just a casual bike ride around Mount Vernon.

The family still maintains close ties to Jacksonville, with their parents and Whitney’s younger sister still in the area. “We try to get back at least a few times per year,” she says.

“We have lived in Navarre, Florida; Columbus, Mississippi; San Antonio, Texas; Fairfield, California; Dover, Delaware; and currently Alexandria,” Whitney says, continuing that she has been fortunate enough to practice as an occupational therapist in each state where they’ve lived. “Leaving jobs and coworkers, houses we’ve made homes, and friends who are truly family, does not get easier even though we’ve done it so many times,” says Whitney, “however, I wouldn’t trade this adventurous lifestyle for anything!”

Britt McTammany ’87

Britt McTammany ’87 says there’s no doubt attending St. Johns Country Day School helped shape him. “St. Johns instilled in me a passion for learning, for just wanting to know things,” says Britt, “and that still holds true today.” And, he says, the mentorship available to him through the faculty was just amazing. He mentions Grover Howard, Carol Hart, Mike McMillan, Rod and Mary Virginia Fisher, drafting teacher Dick Sirch, Anita Snell, John Long, and Leslie (Ritch) DeStefano.

Britt has had a St. Johns connection from the very beginning. His mother, Mary Jo Cotney McTammany, was a member of the school’s fifth graduating class in 1960. His father Thomas attended St. Johns for a short time, and his grandfather, the Rev. John McTammany, was asked to bless the original campus buildings when they were completed in 1957.

“My parents really fostered my personal growth and education,” says Britt. “A lot of the stuff I had to learn on my own.” He talks about how his dad encouraged his exploration. “I would do graphic layout just for fun, and there’s where I learned a lot about balance, typography, and use of white space. Of course photography is a part of that, so my dad bought a camera and I just started taking pictures.”

He and Matt Costarakis ’87 were both student photographers in their school days, taking photos for the yearbook, the newspaper, and anything else that was needed. “Matt’s still my best friend,” says Britt. “I’m still friends with so many people I went to school with— Matt, Mark Fackler ’87, Kristin Holman ’87, and so many more.”

As he progressed through St. Johns and beyond, his end goal changed—architecture, digital art—he wasn’t sure where his path would take him. He attended Jacksonville University, initially to study digital art, but soon decided that he’d probably end up working on his own anyway. “Originally I didn’t know what I wanted to do, and there are a lot of things that I like to do.” So

he pursued a degree in business and marketing. “That way,” he thought, “I’ll understand all the business side of things and I’ll figure out all the other things on my own.” That has served him well over the years.

He started off as a music composer. “I was good with computers because my dad introduced me to them, and I had a computer that had a sequencer. I am not a trained musician. I can’t read music, but I know how to make a computer create what’s in my brain.”

“I was able to write music on the fly, and eventually I got hired to go into edit sessions and watch a commercial, then I’d go away on headphones for thirty minutes or an hour, compose something, get notes, make changes, and be done with it. That’s how I got my foot in the door at a post-house, White Hawk Pictures.”

“They had a computer in the basement, an Avid. They were the first non-linear, computer based editing system. I figured out how to use it and within three months I was doing work for Ford, for Diane Sawyer on ABC Primetime, for all sorts of big names.”

From there, he and two partners founded their own company, Digital Video Arts, in 1994. It doubled in size within a year, and within another year they’d paid back their investments and the company was theirs. He was with DVA for almost 20 years before, almost overnight, the industry changed. The mid-2000s brought in radical shifts, including new computer capabilities, the launch of YouTube, and the advent of the DSLR. “Before the DSLR,” says Britt, “you had to get a crew of 10 people if you wanted it to look good.” But when DSLR came out, “that’s when I felt like I could shoot video that I didn’t think looked bad. I didn’t like the way video cameras or handicams looked. I wanted it to look more cinematic. And that’s when I started to be able to do that.” It’s also when he met Franklin Ritch ’12.

“I was up at the school shooting photos,” Britt says, “I was wandering around and this little red haired kid comes up to me and says ‘what are you shooting?’ I told him I was shooting stuff for the school, and he asked me about my camera. We struck up a conversation and it wasn’t too long after that that he said, ‘Hey, I’ve written a script’ and asked me if I’d be interested in shooting it. This was the beginning of Static, released in 2010. (Check it out on YouTube, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZL_CGi-Xg0)

Since then, the pair has done at least a dozen films, says Britt, including their latest, The Artifice Girl, which hit theaters this past spring. The pair has been touring film festivals this year, attending screenings, gathering audience feedback, and winning awards.

To St. Johns students who have an interest in photography, Britt says “just get out there and do it. If you want to make a film, get your friends together, get a camera—everybody has a phone, there’s a camera there—and do it. Watch, and absorb. Find some idols, some of the great DPs out there, and just study them. Just learn and do.”

Britt’s kids, Iain and Olivia, who both attended St. Johns, are also involved in film work and worked on The Artifice Girl and several other films. “They could have a career in whatever they want to do because they’re both smart and resourceful,” but he doesn’t think they’ll follow in his footsteps “I think it’s challenging for kids to find direction these days because there are so many different things they can do, plus they’re stimulated by all this digital stuff, instant gratification” It can be hard to narrow down. When they do ask his career advice, he tells them “I wish that you could find something that you’re passionate about, that you love, that you enjoy doing, that doesn’t feel like you’re working at all. I’m fortunate that way.” he says.

That’s still advice he’s taking himself. When he’s not behind a camera, he’s working on what he’ll be shooting next. “I’m always doing the stuff that I’m doing now,” he says. He just finished a short for someone he worked with on Artifice Girl. “I love the Director of Photography job,” he says. “The DP’s job is whatever you see on the screen. It’s not just lighting. It’s blocking, and talking to production designers and wardrobe. It’s makeup. Their job is to get whatever you see on the screen as close as possible to the director’s vision, and I love that role. Thankfully I have a lot of experience in management—herding cats and getting consensus on a vision, and making it all come to fruition, on a timeline, and on budget.”

Asked what’s next, things get hazier. “Franklin has a bunch of irons in the fire,” says Britt. “And I think that’s the way to go. You never know what [a potential funder] might be looking for.” As to which might pan out, we’ll all stay tuned to find out.

Franklin Ritch ’12

As a student, the thing that Franklin Ritch ’12 liked most about St. Johns was that it was very supportive. “St. Johns was a school environment where you could go to the dean or to a teacher and say, ‘I want to make a short film,’ and they’d say, ‘Okay. What do you need?’ It’s the kind of school environment that lets you get a lot out of applying your own initiative to things. That was my experience at St. Johns as far as setting me on the path to become a filmmaker-there was an openness to say ‘yes, if this is something you want to do and you want to apply yourself to it, let us know how we can help.’” And there were a lot of teachers and staff at St. Johns who facilitated and encouraged that, Franklin says, including theater teacher David Patton, his mother, Leslie Ritch (now Leslie DeStefano), Pat Rodifer, Mary Virginia Fisher, and Brenda Scott.

“I’ve had a love for film as far back as I can remember,” says Franklin. “Even at a young age, in grade school I knew that that was something I wanted to pursue. When you’re that age, every kid wants to be an astronaut or a movie star, but for me, I had a light bulb moment in second or third grade when I watched a Wallace & Gromit short film. It was a big moment for me because I realized ‘Oh, I could do that! You get a picture camera and some plasticine, and you just take one frame at a time.’ You didn’t need actors or a big set. I could do that at home. So I did. And for a long while, through Middle School, I was doing a lot of stop motion animation, and that was how I kind of self-taught the medium of film.”

He remembers a family tree project that he was particularly proud of. But of course, being a filmmaker, instead of building a family tree out of paper mache like everyone else did, Franklin recorded interviews with his family members and then animated individual plasticine birds and had each of the birds lip synced to the interview. “It was like the birds were telling stories that my family had, all these experiences, and the birds were sitting on different limbs of this family tree. It was so great because you got a real sense of the humanity behind each of these people and the nuances and absurdities. In one moment, when I’m interviewing one of my grandmothers and she gives an answer that my dad, who is sitting off to the side as I’m interviewing her, doesn’t agree with and he’s like, ‘no no no, that’s not right. Re-ask that question!’ and so I had his bird peek in and point just like he did, and so it was great. And again, St. Johns was the kind of place where you could say to your teacher, ‘I’d like to do it this way,’ and nine times out of ten they’d say ‘great, go for it.’ I think that’s a huge part of who I am today. If you have that initiative and you can apply that to your ambition, St. Johns is a great school to be at.“

“In Middle School we had an improvisation class and that was a fun experience. I remember in that kind of environment middle schoolers tend to be kind of loud and intense, and one time, the quietest kid in the class, the kid who seemed he didn’t have an extrovert bone in his body, who had been quiet the whole time and we had never seen do any kind of acting, stood up and in just a few seconds made everybody laugh. That kid’s name was Joe Capps and since then, since that day, he still is my best friend. We see each other every week and he’s one of the greatest people I’ve ever met in my life.”

In high school, Franklin graduated up to making live action short films with friends. “St. Johns was always the environment where you grab a few friends, you take a camera, you find a classroom that’s not being used, and you shoot a short film,” Franklin says. “That was what we did.”

I think I was in tenth grade when I saw this guy on campus with this really nice looking camera, and I remember saying to my friend, ‘That’s a DSLR. That’s a Canon 5D. Do you think he’s shooting photos or video?’ and so I remember walking in front of his camera just to gauge his reaction, to see if he was shooting photo or video.” Franklin struck up a conversation with the photographer, who turned out to be Britt McTammany ’87, and asked him what kind of camera he was shooting with. “That was the beginning. We talked to our theater teacher and we organized a little film shoot that we were going to do as a sort of extracurricular type of thing,” which turned into Static.

Franklin wrote Static with help from theater teacher David Patton. The cast included Franklin, David Patton, Joe Capps ’12, Tory Finley ’12, Taylor West ’11, Katie Ivie ’10, Patrick Glenn ’11, and Hunter West ’13. It was produced by Savannah Markham ’10, with Britt McTammany as cinematographer. (Watch it at youtube.com/user/StaticTheMovie.)

“Flash forward,” Franklin says, “and I drop out of college and accept a job at Britt’s company, Digital Video Arts, and worked there. I started as an associate producer and ended up writing, directing, editing--all sorts of projects with him. Shot my first major festival short film with that company, and then after I go do my own freelance stuff, Britt and I kind of reconnected in 2015 or 2016, and he said, ‘hey, I’ve been kind of burnt out on doing all this kind of corporate healthcare stuff. I want to do something creative.’ And we had worked really well together on previous projects, so he said, ‘Is there anything you want to make, because I just want to shoot something.’ And I said, actually, I’ve got a script. It was a short film called Bedridden. (Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=IAt67BF07io) So we got together and shot that in a matter of a few hours, and from there, we just have been working together almost exclusively, as a director-DP (Director of Photography) team. Britt’s the Director of Photography and manages all the camera, lighting, all that sort of stuff, while I write, direct, and edit and manage that other side of it.”

The film premiered at Fantastic Fest in 2018 which, Franklin says, let the duo ultimately make this film that they just released in April, The Artifice Girl. “It’s so crazy now,” he says. “We’re going to all these festivals and walking these red carpets together, and obviously we’ve been doing this for so long we basically finish each other’s sentences but it’s just really cool to see that it all started because this kid noticed this guy with this camera on St. Johns’ campus. That’s how it all started.”

Part of that, Franklin says, comes down to Britt. “He is always into teaching other people,” Franklin says,

“and he has an infectious enthusiasm about the craft so if anybody reciprocates that, he’s always really good about talking to and sharing experiences with them.”

The pair have made a dozen short films now, including Still Life (Sleeping Giant Fest 2019), Powerful (Southeast Regional Film Festival 2019), and The 27 Deaths (Fantastic Fest 2021). Check those out at youtube. com/@LastResortIdeas. The Artifice Girl is their first major feature (you can buy it on your favorite streaming platform), with several more projects on the horizon.

Franklin was voted Most Likely to be Famous in his senior yearbook, and while he denies that he’s anywhere close to that, he does admit, “I’ve got red carpet photos, and you can Google me and it shows a photo of me at South by Southwest, but that’s the closest I’ve gotten to being considered famous. I’d rather it be about the films that we make and the stories we tell, that people recognize them. I don’t really care if someone recognizes my name, but if someone says, “Oh, yeah, The Artifice Girl. I watched that!” That means more to me, and I’m sure to Britt as well. We care more about what we make than our status.“

Asked about his dream talent to work with, Franklin mentions Artifice Girl’s Lance Henriksen (who many people know as Bishop in 1986’s Alien). “That was a huge dream come true. He’s a sci-fi legend. And I’m a big fan of Keith David. I’ve always wanted to work with him. He’s a terrific actor with an incredible voice. There’s a long list of people I’d like to work with.” Franklin would also love to act in a Bollywood

movie. He mentions the Indian blockbuster RRR, which won an Oscar last year. “I would love to play a British bad guy in one of those films,” he says.

“In high school, I had a long list,” he remembers. “I wanted to work with this person and that person. And now that I’m having conversations with these people, I feel like it’s less about that opportunistic, ‘Ooh, what can I make with this person?’ and instead it’s more about fostering genuine personal relationships with people, and if projects happen, projects happen, and if they don’t…. People are more important than the projects, so just getting to know the people and having conversations with them I think is more important.”

Franklin feels that the best storytellers do more than just tell stories. “They are experiencing life and they’re doing a variety of things and learning about people so that their stories are better and more interesting.” He also tries to get involved in community service. “I love things like the library and museums, and I’m a big fan of Jacksonville as a city, so trying to stay involved in that kind of stuff is really important to me. I want to try to give back to the community.”

He thinks it’s important that kids of the next generation know how to use the tools at their disposal, like cell phones, to tell their stories, especially when they’re in parts of our society that get undervalued or ignored. He has been trying to branch out into teaching the next generation about how “if you have a cell phone, you have everything you need to film and to tell your story, and why your story is valuable.”

While Franklin admits he’d rather everyone believe that he’s perpetually working on movies, he says the fact of the matter is that he does have to pay the bills. “So I do have a number of other smaller jobs that I try to juggle. I do everything from delivering Thai food to barista-ing. I’m not above anything. I need to get a lot of work done just to survive, but it’s worth it because you get to make films. And hopefully one day I’ll get to do that and that will also pay the bills. That’s the goal.”