St. Andrew’s Magazine, Spring 2023

ST. ANDREW’S

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TALK OF THE T-DOCK

2 LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

10 HEAD OF SCHOOL’S MESSAGE

12 STORIES FROM AROUND CAMPUS

LET’S GO SAINTS

20 A BANNER SEASON

The 2022 state champion girls cross-country team traded solo spotlights for a group victory

26 THE LOWDOWN ON LOGOS: A HISTORY

FEATURE STORIES

28 THE SPACE TO DO WEIRD THINGS

A conversation with novelist Lydia Kiesling ‘01 on the spaces we move in and through, and how St. Andrew’s prepared her to become a writer

36 THE ARTISTS’ ROUNDTABLE

A celebration of creative Saints

52 RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF EVERY PLAY Remembering MOMA Curator Kirk Varnedoe ’63

CAN’T HELP BUT CONNECT

60 ALUMNI REFLECTION

George Mitchell ’55 will never stop having questions for science teacher Bill Amos

64 CLASS NOTES

74 IN MEMORY

80 THE LAST WORD

ON THE COVER:

Associate Dean of Students Terrell Myers takes a coffee break to admire self-portraits by III Form students in Art Foundations, a new course added to the Arts Department curriculum this year. }

Great Horned Owl, Sumi ink and watercolor on paper, 30 x 22.5 inches. Artwork by Christopher Reiger ’95.

Letter from the Editor

Hi. I’m new here. Well, as new as one can feel at St. Andrew’s.

By that I mean it did not take long after my June 2022 arrival to be intimately swept up into the school’s places, faces, traditions, and stories. That’s kind of what St. Andrew’s does—warmly makes you a part of its narrative in a way that feels important and earned, even if you still mix up The Garth and The Cloister. (I’m working on it.)

Many of the tremendously talented creatives from various artistic disciplines that we spoke to for this issue—which is our love letter to the arts at St. Andrew’s—shared their origin story: that decisive, magical moment when it became clear that their passion would become their place. Inspired, I thought I’d share my own.

When I moved to Middletown in 2018, I began to meet the most wonderfully witty, wellread, intelligent, kind, and compelling people, whom I found, upon incessant inquiry, all had this place in common. ... The challenge became: How do I get invited into the family?

When I moved to Middletown in 2018, I began to meet the most wonderfully witty, well-read, intelligent, kind, and compelling people, whom I found, upon incessant inquiry, all had this place in common. I thought, How lucky that I’ve found my people! The challenge became: How do I get invited into the family?

Thankfully, a day or so before I showed up to desperately knock on the door of Founders with luggage in tow (mostly books and boxes of Cheez-Its, if we’re being transparent), an opportunity opened to join the school’s communications team under the hilarious, vibrant, and brilliant Liz Torrey. I now find myself in a position I’ve never experienced: authentically blissed-out to come to work.

While we’ve yet to meet, you, reader, are an important part of why I feel this way. Every Saint who has marveled at a Noxontown sunset, every Saint who has leapt off the T-Dock, every Saint who still reveres passages from literature discussed in these classrooms, every Saint who unleashed the hidden artist within, every Saint who ever dizzied themselves spinning on the Front Lawn for no reason other than joy to be present on this campus—you remain. So, too, does the culture you helped sustain. Thank you.

Now for the bittersweet.

In an issue devoted to creatives, it’s appropriate to celebrate the departing Liz Torrey, whose voice has given energy, love, and urgency to St. Andrew’s since 2015. Losing her ideas, judgment, and insight—as well as her laugh, which is a wonderful employee perk—is difficult to even write about. Yet I find comfort in what I’ve learned working on this issue: Saints don’t do goodbye.

When I spoke with Christopher Reiger ’95, he noted he’d begun illustrating to house music, something he picked up from Lydia Kiesling ’01. When I spoke with Lydia, she noted (with gusto) that she was at that moment staring at a piece of Reiger’s art on her wall. Before Ian Stabler ’09 would answer a single question about himself, he insisted I call Peter Brownlee ’09, the “most creative guy I know.” And on and on went the connections. Good, important art endures, much like these bonds.

We hope these stories move and inspire you to get deep into your own creative pursuits, or to reflect on the arts at St. Andrew’s.

I very much hope you’ll write to me and tell me about it, too.

AK White

ST. ANDREW’S MAGAZINE

MAGAZINE EDITOR

AK White

DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS

Liz Torrey

COMMUNICATIONS TEAM

Jack Keffer, Amy Kendig

CLASS NOTES EDITOR

Chesa Profaci ’80

CONTRIBUTORS

George Mitchell ’55

PHOTOGRAPHY

Misty Dawn Photography, Erin Farrell Photography

MAIL LETTERS TO: St. Andrew’s Magazine, 350 Noxontown Road, Middletown, DE 19709-1605

GENERAL EMAIL: magazine@standrews-de.org

CLASS NOTES EMAIL: classnotes@standrews-de.org

St. Andrew’s Magazine is published by the Communications Office for alumni, parents, grandparents and friends of St. Andrew’s School. Printed by Pavsner Press in Baltimore, Md. Copyright 2023.

Mission Statement of St. Andrew’s School

In 1929, the School’s Founder, A. Felix duPont, wrote: The purpose of St. Andrew’s School is to provide secondary education of a definitely Christian character at a minimum cost consistent with modern equipment and highest standards.

We continue to cultivate in our students a deep and lasting desire for learning; a willingness to ask questions and pursue skeptical, independent inquiry; and an appreciation of the liberal arts as a source of wisdom, perspective, and hope. We encourage our students to model their own work on that of practicing scholars, artists and scientists and to develop those expressive and analytical skills necessary for meaningful lives as engaged citizens. We seek to inspire in them a commitment to justice and peace.

Our students and faculty live in a residential community founded on ethical principles and Christian beliefs. We expect our faculty and staff to make our students’ interests primary, to maintain professional roles with students and to act as role models at all times, to set and maintain healthy boundaries with students, to encourage student autonomy and independence, to act transparently with students, and to support each student’s developmental growth and social integration at the School. Our students collaborate with dynamic adults and pursue their passions in a co-curriculum that includes athletics, community service and the arts. We encourage our students to find the balance between living in and contributing to the community and developing themselves as leaders and individuals.

As an Episcopal School, St. Andrew’s is grounded in and upheld by our Episcopal identity, welcoming persons regardless of their religious background. We are called to help students explore their spirituality and faith as we nurture their understanding and appreciation of all world religions. We urge students to be actively involved in community service with the understanding that all members of the community share responsibility for improving the world in which we live.

St. Andrew’s is committed to the sustainability and preservation of its land, water and other natural resources. We honor this commitment by what we teach and by how we live in community and harmony with the natural world.

On our campus, students, faculty, and staff from a variety of backgrounds work together to create a vibrant and diverse community. St. Andrew’s historic and exceptional financial aid program makes this possible, enabling the School to admit students regardless of their financial needs.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Scott M. Sipprelle ’81 P’08, Chair

Henry duP. Ridgely ’67, Vice Chair

Kellie S. Doucette ’88 P’18,’18,’21, Secretary

Richard B. Vaughan ’88 P’24, Treasurer

Mercedes Abramo P’18,’22

Michael Atalay ’84 P’17,’19,’23

Aaron Barnes P’21,’24

The Rt. Rev. Kevin S. Brown Bishop of Delaware

Mati Buccini P’21,’23

Porter Durham P’13,’25

Charles P. Durkin ’97

John Eisenbrey, Jr. ’74 P’01,’05,’07

Ari K. Ellis ’89

Moira Forbes ’97

Grace Gahagan ’10

Edith “Sis” Johnson P’11

Monica Matouk ’84 P’18,’21,’23

Joy McGrath ’92

Head of School

L. Heather Mitchell ’92

Paul F. Murphy P’17,’19,’22

Laurisa S. Schutt P’18,’23

Kate Sidebottom Simpson ’96

Andrea Sin P’16,’17

Jennifer B. Thomas P’22

TRUSTEES EMERITI

Katharine duP. Gahagan GP’10,’11, Chair Emeritus

J. Kent Sweezey ’70, Chair Emeritus

Sabina B. Forbes P’97,’06 GP’21

Monie T. Hardwick P’02,’04,’07

Maureen K. Harrington P’91,’93,’96,’99,’02

Timothy W. Peters ’66 P’91,’93 GP’19,’21,’24

Steven B. Pfeiffer P’95,’97,’00,’04,’09

Sally E. Pingree P’01

Caroline duP. Prickett GP’18,’20

Edward M. Strong ’66 P’07,’10

Alexander D. Stuart P’09

Shania Adams ’23, in the role of Deloris, belts out “Sunday Morning Fever” in Sister Act, this past winter’s Forbes Theater musical production— and Finn O’Connell ’24, in the role of Monsignor O’Hara, couldn’t help but feel the Holy Spirit!

NASA theoretical astrophysicist and painter Dr. Ronald Gamble, right, visits with Kyle Share ’23. Gamble was on campus February 10 to deliver this year’s William A. Crump Jr. Endowed Physics Lecture, in which he discussed black holes, cosmic geometry, representation in STEM, and that special place where arts and science meet.

Bridget Schutt ’23 surveys her domain. Schutt, pictured here on January 14 during her 3-0 win over Episcopal High School, has owned the squash courts at St. Andrew’s over the last four years. She earned the No. 1 spot as a freshman and never conceded it, winning team MVP honors as a junior and senior.

Message from the Head of School

Makingart is a practical matter. At St. Andrew’s, our studios are workshops, and students dress in clothes they can get dirty. The sinks are filthy with paint and color. Visual arts students use Lava soap, the same brand my grandfather used when he came in from a day of work on the farm. The work itself is seeing, really seeing, and then making. Actors, painters, writers, and musicians measure and build, outline, organize, practice. They practice and practice. They solve baffling challenges that present themselves as they make and remake what they have seen. Artists must create works, new things from what they have observed, that can exist in time and space. The translation of the ordinary—26 letters, 12 musical notes, countless words and colors—into the sublime requires effort, revision, grit, and urgency.

The works of art that have changed me simply have shown me myself. They have reflected back to me things that I have known and observed about humanity in ways that are awe-inspiring, wonderful, and terrifying. In an interview in the Paris Review in 2008, the novelist Marilynne Robinson said, among many other wise and astonishing things, “Cultures cherish artists because they are people who can say, ‘Look at that.’ And it’s not Versailles. It’s a brick wall with a ray of sunlight falling on it.” If you have seen Edward Hopper’s painting “Early Sunday Morning” at the Whitney, you know exactly how something so ordinary can shake us until we really see

This is why, over the course of the school’s history, the arts have grown into a major component of school life and a required foundation of the curriculum. As the stories of alumni in this edition of the St. Andrew’s Magazine illustrate, the arts are an essential way to develop those habits of mind and life that will serve our students well in their lives and in what remains of their education when they leave this place. I hope each young person who graduates from St. Andrew’s possesses the persistence, patience, and humility to see, to observe a thing; to break it down into words, notes, symbols, colors; and from these to create something entirely new.

This is the work of the artist and the work of critical thinking; it is the work our faculty are nurturing, and the work our students are doing. It is a privilege to traverse these halls each day, to be arrested by the sound of practice in Engelhard, to see a new painting hanging in the critique room, to hear the invitation of the artist: “Look at that.” J

The works of art that have changed me simply have shown me myself. They have reflected back to me things that I have known and observed about humanity in ways that are awe-inspiring, wonderful, and terrifying.

From the Mail Bag

Remembering Mrs. Foley and Chef Walter Marryat

I greatly enjoyed Bill Amos’ tribute to Lillian Foley in the Fall 2022 magazine. I remember Mrs. Foley well, although I don’t think I ever knew she was a soft touch who handed out cookies and ice cream. I remember a very efficient kitchen manager who was a lovely woman and always impeccably coifed in her signature beehive hairdo, a style that didn’t really come into common use until years later during the ’60s, as I recall.

I also enjoyed the reference to Chef Walter Marryat. I got to know Walt well during the summer of my IV Form year. I secured a summer job in Rehoboth that year working on a pier in Rehoboth Bay where we rented skiffs with 3-HP Evinrude outboards and sold fish heads for bait, collected daily from party boats out of Indian River Inlet, for people to go crabbing in the bay. We were open seven days a week, and on one of my days off I went to get my hair cut. I was surprised to see Walt, a barber in the summer time. I knew he was from Smyrna, as I was, and I had known his mother, who occasionally stayed at our house when my parents took short trips, but I had never really talked with him at school. We bonded that summer, having each endured the teasing and taunts from other students who made fun of us local yokels from a small country town in Delaware that they considered to be of no particular significance.

About 11:00 one morning while I was working, Walt walked out onto the pier and gave me a huge softshell crab he had caught on his day off. I had never seen such a large softshell before, easily 7" wide from point to point, nor have I ever since. I put the crab into one of our live bait buckets and hung it off the side of the pier in the bay. At lunch break, I hurried home with the crab, and my mother cooked it and served it to me in a sandwich. Best softshell crab I ever ate, and I still remember Walt fondly for his selfless gesture. Mose Price ’59 •

Talking Baseball

I was thrilled to see the baseball oral history in the magazine. I was a SAS baseball player in ’92, ’93 and ’94, finishing as team captain. I credit a lot of my success in life to my time at SAS and specifically, my time on the diamond with the baseball team. The only two things I ever wanted to be in life were a professional baseball player and an FBI agent and I am lucky to have done both. Bullets Campbell ’94 •

Kudos on the Magazine

ST. MAGAZINEANDREW’S

While attending Parents Weekend, I picked up the Spring 2020 and Fall 2021 copies of the magazine. Well-written, super informative, lovely photographs and layout—I am very impressed with its quality! Kudos to all of those who produce such an excellent publication! Mrs. Rufus Tieder P’92 GP’25 •

Saints on Social

ST. MAGAZINEANDREW’S

In August, we posted an @sasdelaware Instagram video of the Class of 2023 practicing their “welcome” song—“Lean on Me”—the night before Opening Day in the Chapel. Turns out the Class of 1989 sang the exact same song at the memorial service for Rick Hall ’89 just a few months earlier. Thanks for sharing this, Catherine (Soles) Pomeroy ’89!

Stories from Around Campus

DR. PHILIP WALSH BEGINS TENURE AS EDITOR OF THE CLASSICAL OUTLOOK

The Classical Outlook, the nation’s leading scholarly publication for teachers of Latin, Greek, and the ancient Mediterranean world, has found itself a new institutional home at St. Andrew’s. The journal will be in Middletown for a while—incoming editor Philip Walsh will oversee The Classical Outlook for the next four years. His 2023 tenure comes with a prestigious birthday: the journal, originally called Latin Notes and rebranded as The Classical Outlook in 1936, will turn 100 in November.

“I hope we’ll do something meaningful to commemorate this milestone,” says Walsh. “It’s so interesting to think of all the different things that have happened in our world and in the discipline of classical studies since 1923.”

Walsh, who serves as Classics Department chair, considers himself a teacher first and foremost. “I love being in the classroom and engaging with students,” he says. “But I was trained as a scholar, so I’m looking forward to getting back to that work, sharing it with my students, and helping to shape the discourse of the discipline: ‘What does it mean to be a classicist in the 21st century?’ ‘Why should we study the ancient Mediterranean world?’ ‘What’s the significance of learning ancient Greek and Latin?’ These are crucial questions, but teachers at all levels of instruction struggle to answer them. Over the years my own views have been informed and enriched by St. Andrew’s students: how they use Latin and Greek to explore nuance, complexity, and ambiguity; how they recognize and appreciate the dynamic relationships between past and present; and how they apply the humanistic lessons of Latin and Greek in other classes across the disciplines.”

The Classical Outlook, which publishes quarterly, is composed of scholarly essays, book reviews, original poetry, translations, interviews, and more. Walsh is already finding ways for St. Andrew’s students to contribute to the journal. He’s tapped Emma Hunter ’25, a Latin student and creative artist, to draw classically-inspired illustrations for each issue. He’s also thrilled at the marks an enhanced network will leave on the school. “When working with educators and writers from around the world,” Walsh says, “I’ll be able to tell the story of St. Andrew’s, and I’ll have first-hand access to innovative, interdisciplinary work. I’m going to bring the best ideas back to St. Andrew’s, and our students will benefit.”

Walsh spent a few months shadowing the journal’s previous editor before his first issue, which will be published this month. Under his tenure, he hopes to support voices that are important to hear but perhaps difficult to elevate. “I’m thinking of a high school teacher who has never had a chance to express her ideas in a scholarly forum,” he says. “Helping a new writer develop an argument, find a voice, and offer encouragement through the peer-review process is an exciting opportunity.”

The journal’s broad audience of K-12 teachers, college and university professors, administrators, and students offers what Walsh considers a unique chance for authentic connection. “I think there’s often a firewall between what happens in high school and elementary school classrooms, and what happens in college and university classrooms,” he says. “Ultimately, we’re on the same team as educators. If the journal can bridge some of those gaps and create moments of intellectual exchange, understanding, and collaboration, then that will be an important contribution.” •

WILL REHRIG ’11 COMPETES IN AARC PHILADELPHIA MARATHON

This past fall, SAS faculty member Will Rehrig ’11 placed 16th at the AARC Philadelphia Marathon, setting a new PR at 2:25:33 (that’s a pace of 5:33 per mile if you’re doing the math at home). For context, 10 of the 15 runners that finished ahead of him are ranked by World Athletics in the marathon event, while three other runners are internationally ranked in other events. It’s quite the rise for Rehrig, who ran JV cross-country his senior year at St. Andrew’s. Now he has his sights set on qualifying for the 2024 Olympic team trials. “I never saw this coming,” says Rehrig. “It’s been a constant evolution of like, ‘Wait a second, I did something I thought I could never do.’” By the way, he’s doing this while teaching three science classes, serving as co-dean of residential life, and advising Model UN. Not even his storied, heaping plates of greens are as full as his schedule this year. •

ENTREPRENEUR CLUB HOSTS BILL SPIRE ’89

This past December, the Entrepreneur Club gathered at the home of Head of School Joy McGrath ’92 for dessert and a deep-dive conversation with impact-investor Bill Spire ’89. Students were treated to observations from his 20 years of experience as a venture capitalist, and asked thoughtful questions about Spire’s investments in projects that create social value through green tech and medical advancements. “His passion for his work was pretty obvious and incredibly inspirational,” says Grayson Culliford ’24, a co-leader of the club. Culliford took an especially strong interest in Spire’s biotech companies, like TyreFlow Environmental, which is working to create a full end-to-end waste tire upcycling solution. Spire also spoke about the St. Andrew’s values—like promoting intellectual curiosity, asking thoughtful questions, and listening—that are critical habits that support his business endeavors. •

ANDREAN ENSEMBLE PERFORMS AT WHITE HOUSE

Tourists winding their way through the White House on December 3 were treated not only to the Christmas decorations at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue but, upon entering the East Room, the Andrean Ensemble, waiting to wow them with a holiday performance. The choir traded songs with the Naval Academy Marching Band for the better half of two hours. “The best part was the little kids who didn’t want to leave,” says John Teti ’23. “Their parents had to drag them out.” Teti and the rest of the ensemble later toured the White House, admiring the presidential portraits, dinner sets, and festive decor. “It was an unforgettable day, and they absolutely crushed it,” says Director of Choral Music Quinn Kerrane. •

MEDICAL MISSION TRIP INSPIRES DIRECTOR OF HEALTH SERVICES ANNETTE RICKOLT ’87 P’14,’16

As any former Saint knows, service to others is a critical element of the St. Andrew’s experience. SAS Health Center Director Annette Rickolt ’87 P’14,’16 took that message to heart on a medical mission trip to Ecuador in September 2022. Rickolt and a team of surgeons, residents, anesthesiologists, nurses, and a pediatrician traveled to Ecuador with New Jersey’s chapter of children’s medical charity Healing the Children. The team provided surgical procedures for 38 children on the mission—due to COVID-19 restrictions, some of those children had waited more than two years for life-changing surgery to repair urological and gastrointestinal ailments. “It was inspiring to watch this dedicated surgical team work even in sometimes difficult situations,” Rickolt says. “It was incredible to see how happy and grateful the kids and families were. There were many times that we were choked up because of the stories and the gratitude.” •

PERRY YEATMAN ’82 DELIVERS FOUNDER’S DAY CHAPEL TALK

This year’s Founder’s Day Chapel left an impression with the St. Andrew’s community. Perry Yeatman ’82, who was honored with the Distinguished Alumni Award at Reunion Weekend last June, spoke to students about embracing and valuing their unique personal strengths. “I want to let you know you can do important, meaningful, and impactful things despite your imperfections and your insecurities,” Yeatman told students. Currently the head of corporate for Save the Children, Yeatman touched upon her multifaceted career, the support from St. Andreans—even in the furthest places from home—and the dignity of self-acceptance. Inspired by her speech, the next day Director of Dance Avi Gold placed a large mirror outside the entrance of the O’Brien Arts Center for students to walk past on their way to School Meeting. Gold encouraged the community to reflect on their insecurities, leave them outside the door, and instead see the wonderful things about themselves that the community sees. •

TRUSTEE’S CORNER

Get to know members of our Board of Trustees

For new trustee Kate Sidebottom Simpson ’96, St. Andrew’s is a family affair. She married fellow Saint, George Simpson ’92, even though they never crossed paths during their time in Middletown. The two met years later, when each showed up at a St. Andrew’s alumni gathering in North Carolina. “The rest, as they say, was history,” Simpson says. “I think one of the best things about being married to a St. Andrew’s alumnus is that we actually enjoy going to each other’s reunion. That’s never the case in a marriage.” At last June’s Mega Reunion, Simpson’s sons, Pierce and Whit, were introduced to campus. “They really got a kick out of living on dorm, and found the shared-bathroom experience particularly interesting,” Simpson says, laughing. “They’re already asking me when they can come back.”

Simpson, who has made her career in finance, is open to offering her perspective as a trustee not only on the financeinvestment side, but on the athletics side, too. “I met new Director of Athletics Neil Cunningham, and am really excited about what I’m seeing in athletics,” says Simpson, a field hockey standout at SAS who won the Henry Prize for her service to athletics; at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she was a member of the two-time NCAA Championship women’s field hockey team. “I’m excited at the opportunity to come to the table as a woman athlete,” she says. “My eyes and ears are open to any way that I can add value to the board and be a true thought partner.”

On Simpson’s first official campus visit in the capacity as a trustee, she says she was thrilled to see the new faculty homes nearing completion on the Old Farm site. “Campus housing is a priority, and I think the two homes are an example of wonderful use of space,” she says. “I can’t wait to see the finished project.” Simpson notes she’s looking forward to her next visit—even though the boys are disappointed that they can’t come along with mom.

“I am so flattered and honored to have been asked to serve the school in this way,” she says. “It’s so wonderful to be able to give back to a place that has given so much to me and my family.” •

Trustee Trivia

A Quick Q&A with Kate Sidebottom Simpson ’96 about SAS and Beyond

THE LAST SHOW I BINGED WAS … White Lotus season two.

ST. ANDREW’S IS … a very special place.

MY FAVORITE SPOT ON CAMPUS IS … the Front Lawn.

THE LAST BOOK I READ WAS … The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin.

MY FAVORITE WORD IS … absolutely.

THE BEST THING ABOUT BEING A BOARD MEMBER IS … gaining an even greater appreciation for how special St. Andrew’s is.

SOMETHING THAT MAKES ME LAUGH IS … when other people can’t stop laughing!

MY FAVORITE ST. ANDREW’S TRADITION IS … Service of Lessons and Carols.

WHEN I WAS A KID I … wanted to be an interior designer.

ON WEEKENDS I … enjoy watching my kids play sports.

IF I COULD HAVE MY OWN SAS BOARDROOM WALKIN SONG, IT WOULD BE …

“Push It” by Salt-N-Pepa.

T H E S A I N T S S T E P P E R S THE SAINTS STEPPERS A

ST. ANDREW’S FIRST

Seven students dressed simply in neon t-shirts and denim take center stage in Engelhard Hall—and we do mean  take. The energy, passion, and fire vibrating off the newly formed Saints step team translates into total ownership of a space, of a moment, of a culture.

In rhythm tied to a shared story, on stage, the seven girls—each dancing to their own individual choreographed vignette—slowly sync up together to one collective movement. “That step is the jump-under-front-back,” says Masai Matale ’23. “We put that in the beginning of our dance because no matter where you come from, if you’re a little Black girl, you’ve picked that step up somewhere. That’s our childhood. It’s unifying.”

Unity. That’s the word at the heart of the new team—a first in SAS history—co-led by Matale and Shania Adams ’23. Supported by five other dancers—Tamia Ferguson ’24, Madison Rodriguez ’26, Gloria Oladejo ’25, Jayda Badoo ’25, and Ashley McIntosh ’25—the team put on their first performance of the year at Parents Weekend on October 28. But getting to that stage was a long time coming for Adams, who started dreaming up a step team her sophomore year.

“Step is something I’ve always been interested in,” Adams says. “First, it’s something we’ve never had at St. Andrew’s. Second, it’s connected to Black culture and that resonated with me. Third, the whole point of step is to be together as one, and that’s important to me.”

Adams took her idea to Director of Dance Avi Gold. “I showed him what I’d been working on. He said, ‘Wonderful. Let’s do it, but you’re in charge,’” she says, laughing.

Initially she felt pressure. “It felt like it was all on my shoulders, and I really wanted it to work, but also to last,” she says. “Then this year Masai came to school really excited about step, and I felt like I wasn’t alone.”

Adams and Matale gathered a group of interested Black female students in the dance studio to see what they could do. The result? Magic.

“The feeling in that room the first time is something I’ll never forget,” Matale says. “We started breaking out in all these different dances, hyping each other up, singing. It was so special. Hearing from the freshmen in the room about the impact, that they felt that was one of the safest spaces for them on campus, it was unreal.”

Matale and Adams knew they had tapped into something bigger than themselves, so they went to work choreographing. “I was always walking around with this melody in my head,” Matale says.

“Or just tapping my fingers to this beat. Shania and I choreographed what I was hearing into the dance.”

The duo gives snaps to Dean of Inclusion and Belonging Dr. Danica Tisdale Fisher for stepping up to support the team as it charted its path. “She was really there for us,” Matale says. “She helped us with the choreography and had us over for dinner as a team. We didn’t even talk about dance. We shared stories, aired grievances, laughed and felt heard. She is an amazing role model for every Black girl.”

There is a moment in the denouement of the dance, when Adams calls into the darkened theater, “What is a Saint?”

“For that last part, I felt like we needed something that was ours,” Adams says. “It was something on my heart. At St. Andrew’s, we are not just accepting you for half of who you are. We are accepting you for all that you are. For me, that’s my likes, my dislikes, my Blackness. There are things we won’t compromise because we are in a predominantly white space. We want Black St. Andreans to know this is a place for you to be you, to be confident, to have artistic expression.”

Adds Matale, “I know for a lot of students of color, St. Andrew’s can be a culture shock. There is so much going on [at St. Andrew’s] that feels set in stone: This is your optional path, these are your optional activities. But our team proves you can bring something of your self that wasn’t [offered] and share it and be supported.”

Adams and Matale will leave St. Andrew’s this school year, but they want the roots of what

here. But when I’m doing other genres, my moves are calculated. In step, whatever I’m feel ing—anger, happiness—I leave it all on the stage.”

Speaking of that stage, what was the mo ment like for Adams, when her dream finally felt realized?

“Incredible,” she says. “When I’m on that stage, all I can think of is, ‘I’m here, I’m Black, I’m surrounded by Black students, and this is a place for Black culture.’ It’s so raw and amazing.”

By the way, in case you were wondering, “What is a Saint?”

The team will answer that for you: “That’s me. That’s you. That’s us.” • AK WHITE

Visual Arts Instructor Navanjali Kelsey on the office that’s become a waffle hotspot

01 HANGING UMBRELLAS A gift from Kelsey’s mother, who discovered them at an artists’ open market in New Delhi.

02 WATERCOLOR ON PAPER The product of Kelsey’s time earning her MFA at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. “This work incorporates Indian figurative elements from the imagery of my childhood home, and is layered with china marker, watercolor, gouache, and paper cut-outs.” (Kelsey titled it “Where are you going to, little brown mouse? Come and play in my underground house,” a line from a favorite children’s book in the Kelsey house, The Gruffalo.)

03 FISH MOBILE A piece of art from Kelsey’s childhood. “I made that when I was 16 years old, just for fun,” she says. “I feel like there’s a lot of little interesting things [in here], just from my life.”

04 PAPASAN CHAIR An advisee fanfavorite spot to sit.

05 WAFFLE IRON An iconic treasure in Kelsey’s office: the waffle iron. “One of my advisees was really into waffles,” she says. “During the advisory break we’d make waffles. Other students in my classes learned that I have a waffle iron, so it’s a thing—we eat waffles in art class and during advisory.”

06 PHOTOGRAPH A photo of Kelsey’s two sons.

07 DRAWING A drawing from Kelsey’s oldest son.

08 QUOTE A quote that reads, “Hint: It’s not about art. Drawing teaches us to look so we can see each other and ourselves and the world around us and love, not fear, each other or ourselves. We all want to be seen. We all want to connect. This can only happen when we learn to look and see what and who is really right in front of us and not what we, especially white people in the United States, have been taught to see and ignore.” The quote, from illustrator Wendy McNaughton, is a favorite of Kelsey’s.

09 SARI One of her mother’s saris, upcycled into décor. “I almost painted the walls with saris,” she says. •

A BANNER SEASON A BANNER SEASON

The 2022 state champion girls cross-country team traded solo spotlights for a group victory

BY JACK KEFFER

On a warm, sunny November 5th morning, girls cross-country coach Jennifer Carroll stood on top of a hill at Winterthur and nervously watched the New Castle County Championship race unfold. Her St. Andrew’s team was further back than usual after the first mile, but the leading trio of Lily Murphy ’23, Leah Horgan ’25, and Lia Miller ’23 was still running together. Then, over the next mile and a half, Carroll noticed the lead pack, pushed by Murphy, with Horgan and Miller at arms-length behind her, making significant moves towards the front. She watched in awe.

Headed into the meet, Carroll hoped to finish second or third in the most competitive race in the state. Unlike the state meet, the county meet pits all schools against one another, regardless of size. In addition to racing against well-respected Division 2 programs like Tatnall, Ursuline, and St. Mark’s, the Saints also had to compete with schools like Padua, the Division 1 powerhouse that’s dominated the sport over the last decade.

After the girls finished their race, Carroll applauded their efforts, content with the anticipated results. Once the team caught their breath, they softened into smiles and casual

conversation. Carroll joined them, unaware of the shocking news spreading throughout the crowd.

“We were on our cool down run and [Saints boys cross-country assistant] coach Will Rehrig came over and humbly congratulated us,” recalls Carroll. “The girls and I were looking at him, like, ‘What are you talking about?’ Then we pulled up the results online and immediately fell into tears.”

For the first time in the 30-year history of the New Castle County Championship, St. Andrew’s had won. Murphy, Horgan, and Miller had climbed three places in the final mile to seal it.

“We were screaming at the top of our lungs,” says Horgan. “Everyone was in tears. It felt surreal.”

“The win really wasn’t on our radar,” admits Murphy.

Despite the shock, the win was not an accident. For several years, Carroll had her sights set on

this season as the year to win the DIAA State Championship. Her team outdid themselves, and while the stakes and expectations were higher than anticipated, they still captured the program’s first state title a week after the county race. If anything, it speaks to the character of her team.

This group of runners, populated by heroic role-players and tenacious competitors, was fearless in its efforts to push beyond what each could achieve as individuals. From rainy-day runs to broken toes, the girls cross-country team and its diligent coaches leaned into a collection of zany personalities and cultivated an unorthodox running style that, at the root, blended the girls’ competitive nature and genuine friendships. As a result, they became the most successful team in program history.

“There was a year or two where we had a faster top-five average,” says Carroll, “but the

way this group raced, running in packs, running all together from top to bottom, and the power that came from that. … They were clear to point out they were running for a team performance.”

Leading the team of over 60 girls were the top three runners: Murphy, Horgan, and Miller. Or, as Horgan dubbed them, the “L-cubed” trio. Senior captain Murphy has set the tone for the team as

its top runner since her freshman year. A former competitive gymnast, she had never run a mile before stepping foot on St. Andrew’s campus and did not want to race when she initially joined the team. Murphy says she is “very self-motivated” and channels that while racing. During her junior season, she finished 7th overall at the county championships and earned All-State honors. In four years, Murphy transformed from an apprehensive novice into a college-bound runner (she will continue racing at Hamilton College after graduation).

Horgan, conversely, was raised as a runner. Her mother, Marianne Marini, was Delaware’s top distance runner in 1988, while her grandfather, Dante Marini, set the two-mile record at the University of Delaware in 1956. That long familial line has shaped her into one of the most disciplined and experienced runners on the team. It was no surprise

“I’m going to miss everything about crosscountry,” says Miller. “It’s a really special group of people.”

All three of the girls praise Carroll and her personable coaching style. It comes naturally to Carroll, who has coached and competed in both lacrosse and cross-country. At Hamilton College, Carroll was an All-American lacrosse player who captained her senior year team to a DIII National Championship. She also ran cross-country her first two years in college and found her way back to the sport at St. Andrew’s as an assistant coach under Wilson Everhart. Carroll is quick to credit her predecessor with creating the feel-good culture of the team. “[Practice] was a fun place to show up to every afternoon,” she says.

Carroll found immediate success as a head coach. In her first season in 2015, the team placed second at states empowered by the impressive individual second- and third-place finishes of Louisa Belk ’16 and Caitlin Cobb ’17, two of the best cross-country runners in school history. Eight years later, Carroll found another group of runners that could contend for a state title. This time, however, it required an allhands-on-deck effort.

for Carroll when she opened her email in the middle of the summer to see Horgan’s name atop her inbox, suggesting the team incorporate band workouts into practice. For Horgan, running never stops.

For Miller, running started as a means to condition for swimming and lacrosse, but gradually transformed into a much-needed pandemic release. Miller continued running in the mornings when she returned to campus her sophomore year. One spring morning, Carroll spotted her on the trails, and by the start of the fall entering her junior year, Miller was on the team. She immediately relished the camaraderie of the program and the easy friendships that developed over long-distance runs. While Miller only spent two seasons with the team, she lights up when talking about her cross-country family, a list of people that even includes Carroll’s young children.

A cross-country race, and running in general, is inherently an individual pursuit. Each runner has a formulated strategy to exert maximum effort over the course of 3.2 miles. Carroll and her staff knew they would need to extract this from each of the runners if they wanted to compete with the top teams in the state. What she and the rest of the team soon realized was that undertaking a more collaborative approach by running in packs was the best way to accomplish this.

“We knew we were similar speeds and we trained together every single day,” explains Horgan. “We were similar in our interval times, even if we were finishing a little bit further away in the races. We trained as a pack, so we just thought midseason, ‘Why don’t we do this during a race?’ We are stronger that way anyways.”

That mindset stemmed from the contagious support cultivated at practice every day. It’s standard for runners to constantly give and receive encouragement as groups run past one another. That attitude carries into the downtime, too. Carroll remembers an instance this season on an ugly, rainy

“Even if someone beat you during an interval, we all thought, ‘If they are getting faster, our team will get faster, too. I’m training with them, so I’m inevitably going to get better.’”

Lily Murphy ’23

day when Josie Pitt ’23 and Izzy Paris ’23 bolstered the team with lively bouncing and positive energy. Often, that energy spilled into silliness, like during pre-practice games of chicken-in-the-henhouse. The girls would jump on each other’s backs and race around in circles, cheering each other on. This culture—the support, the authentic bonds, and goofiness—was immensely helpful in channeling the team’s competitive nature.

“We were competing with each other, not against each other, which was way more enjoyable,” says Murphy. “Even if someone beat you during an interval, we all thought, ‘if they are getting faster, our team will get faster, too. I’m training with them, so I’m inevitably going to get better.’”

At first, this mindset did not come naturally to Murphy. She started the season with a PR, shaving nearly 40 seconds off her best time from last year. A nagging injury, however, sidelined her, and she began to falter. Murphy dug deep, and with the help of her teammates and coaches, made “a really intentional shift” in her role to prioritize the team’s success.

“The injury was really a blessing in disguise,” says Murphy. “I don’t think I would have been committed if I hadn’t taken that shot to PR early in the season. Coming to St. Andrew’s, I realized cross-country is so much more about being part of a team.”

The shift for Murphy spread to the rest of the team.

“When it became clear for Lily, it became everyone’s goal,” says Horgan.

The first time they ran in a race as a pack was in mid-October at Killens Pond State Park, the future site of the state championship. In her first race back from injury, Murphy was set to pace the group until the final 800 meters which, as Murphy says, “is an all-out sprint to the finish.” In typical fashion, the runners fell silent as they zoned in before the start of the race. The moment the starting gun went off, the girls were alive in not only movement, but speech.

“During races, especially in the first mile, we were the most vocal team,” says Miller. “It made a big difference. We ran as a team every day during practice and talked to each other then. It felt natural during races.”

In the final stretch of the race, sandwiched between farmland and forest, Horgan started peeling ahead of Miller. As she passed another runner, Horgan, still sprinting at full speed, began yelling to Miller to catch up, expending the last bits of her own energy on motivating her teammate.

“Leah was just screaming at me,” says Miller, laughing. “I don’t know how she had the lungs for it. She was encouraging me to catch up.”

It worked. Miller passed the runner and the L-cubed trio crossed the finish line 4th, 5th, and 6th, all within 12 seconds of each other. St. Andrew’s won the meet, with their top-five time outpacing secondplace Newark Charter by a full minute. They found their winning formula.

While the team had their top three runners set, Carroll still needed strong runners at the back to ensure team victories. Entering the season, she and assistant coach Jon Tower were looking for a fourth runner to close the gap. They talked at length about a freshman, Claire Hulsey, who hadn’t run a race yet. In mid-September, they entered her in the JV race at the Middletown Invitational to test the waters.

“She passed the one-mile mark with no one near her,” says Carroll, “and won the race by two minutes.”

As the season progressed, practices became more difficult and, perhaps counterintuitively to most, goofier. Carroll brought her own spin to keeping things light, like asking the team to create a song and perform it after a long run or challenging them to a pie bake-off. She’d join every running group throughout the season to get to know every athlete. As much as she listens, Carroll talks, too, adding her voice to the flavorful, varied conversations the girls hold over long-distance runs.

“I probably talked to Coach Carroll and my teammates about personal things more than anyone else,” says Horgan. “We would spend hours a week running and chatting.”

This—the extraordinary experience of friendship—is what this cross-country team will remember. More than all the races and trophies and accolades, they will remember loud team dinners, making TikTok videos during van rides, and assistant coach Chris Sanchez’s excessive dabbing. What St. Andrew’s will remember, however, long after each girl graduates, is the state championship banner they leave behind.

The girls would agree that the week leading up to the state championship race in early November was the most grueling of the season. By winning the county championship, the state championship suddenly became an expectation. As the pressure mounted, creeping thoughts of doubt and failure entered the athletes’ minds. The girls dispersed to knock on nearby trees during practice runs whenever the subject was brought up.

“Having all of the students there in St. Andrew’s colors. … seeing that for the first time was stunning,” says Miller.

Adds Horgan, “Once I saw the students get out of the buses, I realized we were not just doing this for ourselves.”

Horgan vividly remembers the same stretch on the course where, a month prior, she had yelled encouragement at Miller. On her right was the forest, but instead of farmland on her left, she saw a wall of St. Andrew’s red, cheering loudly, willing her forward. When they finished, the trio collapsed in exhaustion. They rolled around with unsettled stomachs and bloodshot faces, slowly collecting themselves as each runner crossed the finish line. Their fans watched from a distance, idling and waiting for the results. Finally, the fans heard what they came for: the sounds of screaming triumph from the Saints’ tent. St. Andrew’s won the meet handily, and they got to enjoy it with the community that rallied behind them.

“That week was the most stressed I’ve been,” says Murphy. “It was a huge weight on our shoulders. We’d hear announcements like ‘T-minus six days ’til the girls cross-country team tries to bring home the first cross-country championship in school history!’”

The team leaned on Carroll throughout the week. Horgan remembers her advice: Keep your routines, keep fueling up, and stick together.

The state championship race at Killens Pond differed from their mid-October race in a few ways. First, it was a significantly warmer day, an oddity in mid-November in Middletown. Second, there was a much bigger crowd, the majority of which was there for them. St. Andrew’s students, faculty and parents arrived in droves. Chuck Durante of The News Journal later wrote, “The smallest school had the biggest fan base.”

Even in their big moment, the girls stayed grounded. While gathering for a group photo, they realized Caroline Meers ’24 was missing and paused the celebration so Meers’ father could carry her over. As it turned out, Meers had broken her toe during the second mile, yet still managed to grit out a 22nd-place finish. It’s the starkest example of how far these girls were willing to go for one another to accomplish their goal.

“It was just a great way to do something for our program that has done so much for us,” says Murphy. “I’m grateful our community came out to support us, they made the moment so special.”

“They didn’t win it by chance,” Carroll says. “They all put the work in, they built towards it, and they loved and trusted each other a ton. It was special that it was this group of girls.” jJ

“Once I saw the students get out of the buses, I realized we were not just doing this for ourselves.’”

Leah Horgan ’25

So far, how have you approached your role as Director of Athletics?

By being present. I have to be where the kids are. I need them to see me seeing them. That goes beyond simply sports. I think the [athletic director] has to be one of the most visible people on campus. The thing for me is every sport is just as important as the next. Thirds-volleyball athletes and coaches are just as important to me as varsity-volleyball athletes and coaches in terms of how I approach things. “Being there” extends well past the fields.

Besides competitive teams, what will be a measure of success for you?

When I was a college coach, I never looked at how many games I won, I looked at how many connections I made. The test is, can I call a kid 12 months after they graduate and say, “Hey we’re trying to get this kid that’s from your hometown to come and play lacrosse. Any chance you can call him and tell him what St. Andrew’s did for you?” That’s the true beauty of these relationships—you don’t close the loop. That’s how I’ll judge my success here: How many kids feel so connected that the loop never closes?

What’s the wildest thing you’ve ever done?

I orginally moved to the United States from England for a job that paid no actual money. Seriously. There was no salary. But eventually, years later, that initial opportunity led me to St. Andrew’s. I love it here. I think the culture here of “every student is an athlete” means we have the opportunity to do important work, and that that work can make an incredible difference in these kids’ lives. J

We put three big questions to new Director of Athletics Neil Cunningham

Lowdown Logos

The interesting thing about creativity at St. Andrew’s is that you can find it just about everywhere: yep, even in athletics. We thought we’d celebrate the rollout of our “new” St. Andrew’s athletics branding—updated by our own in-house head creative Amy Kendig—by taking a look back at nearly 90 years of Saints in uniform.

COMPILED BY JACK KEFFER

1934

St. Andrew’s athletics gets their first logoed uniform. The baseball team sports simple “St. Andrew’s” block letters.

1935

The first crew uniforms with a simple “SA” debuted. The team flirted with the school’s traditional crest for two years before they settled on “SAS” for the left chest logo in 1947.

1961

The first time we see the infamous “STA” baseball hat logo. Previously, the team wore caps with an “S,” “SAS” or, more often than not, no logo. This is the original St. Andrew’s sports logo that is now featured as the primary logo.

1971

After a quarter-century, the crew team adds a white stripe and a “SAS” shield with crossed oars to its uniform. This logo appeared for the first time in 1959, and became our iconic look, thanks to the success of the girls and boys teams in the ’70s and ’80s. Pictured is the 1971 boys senior eight, considered one of the best rowing eights in St. Andrew’s history. They won the Stotesbury Regatta and placed second at Nationals.

1975

New baseball script uniforms appear, replacing the block letters that prevailed from the ’30s. This became the standard look for the baseball team, which also wore “Cardinals” in the same script on their away uniforms up until the mid2000s.

1976

For the first time, the basketball teams put words on their uniforms. The girls are the first to do it with a simple “St. Andrew’s” above the numbers. Three years later, the boys team put “Saints” on their jerseys.

1981

The boys soccer team won their first and only state championship wearing a St. Andrew’s crest with striped sleeves and a classic collar look. Forty years later, the St. Andrew’s soccer team reached the state championship game again, sporting a hybrid logo combining the school crest and griffin.

1985

The first time the Cardinal logo appears is on the football team’s helmets in the mid-80s. A few years later, John Lyons took over as coach and brought the winged helmet with him from Middlebury College, which is still in use today.

1990

The girls country-country team brings back the SAS logo in big block letters. Girls and boys soccer adopted the logo up until 2010.

1993

The wrestling singlets started with an arched “St. Andrew’s” in the 1950s and 1960s before adopting the “A” that a pair of wrestlers are wearing in this team picture. Earl Walker ’90 won a national championship wearing that singlet. Two years after his graduation, the team adopted the primary “STA” logo.

1997

The first Griffin to appear on a St. Andrew’s uniform was when girls crew sported it in 1994. It was the first time a crew team ventured away from the shield and crossed oars. Since then, the Griffin has been featured on crosscountry, wrestling, and racket-sport uniforms.

2005

The two most dominant runs in school history are undoubtedly the boys tennis teams’ five state championships in the 1980s and the girls lacrosse programs’ four-straight state titles in the early 2000s. While capturing their fourthstraight title in 2005, they upgraded their uniforms from crossing lacrosse sticks to this modern look that set the tone for the rest of the athletic programs in the 2010s. The boys lacrosse team, which won the 2004 state championship, sported similar uniforms, but featured the “STA” on the jersey sleeve and shorts.

2023

St. Andrew’s sharpens its athletic brand by going back to our roots, adopting the “STA” as our primary logo with simple red and white colors with black trim. Rhaki Lum ’25 and the boys basketball team were the first to feature the new look in January.

1990 1993 1997

2005 2023 1985

PHOTO BY ERICA J. MITCHELL

The Space to Do Weird Things

Lydia Kiesling ’01 on the spaces we move in and through, and how St. Andrew’s helped her become a writer

If any alumnus were to be perfectly suited to an edition of If These Walls Could Talk—our series of conversations between current students and past Saints who inhabited the same living space—it’s Lydia Kiesling ’01.

A nationally celebrated author—Kiesling’s debut, The Golden State, was an NPR Best Book of 2018 and landed her a buzzy 5-Under-35 nod from The National Book Foundation—Kiesling likes to ruminate on the spaces we move in and through, and the experiences we connect to those spaces. Her next novel, Mobility, which drops in August, explores just that.

It didn’t take much to entice three young creatives-in-bloom to chat with Kiesling. Caroline Adle ’24, Marie Dillard ’24, and Katia Papadopoulos ’24 spoke to the Portland-based author about their shared space of K Dorm, Kiesling’s career, and the magic of “expelling hairballs” from your psyche. 

A conversation with novelist

MARIE: Why was St. Andrew’s the school for you?

LYDIA: I would not have gone to a boarding school if my dad was not in the Foreign Service. He and my mom were posted to Armenia in 1997, and I didn’t speak Armenian and to my knowledge there was not an established international school at that time. The federal government has a program wherein if you’re in the Foreign Service and you are posted somewhere where there isn’t a school that your kids can easily attend, they will cover much of your tuition to a place like St. Andrew’s.

Before their Armenia posting, we lived in Washington, D.C., so I went to public school. In the Foreign Service, you never know where you’re going to go. You bid on postings every few years and say, “Oh, here, let me rank the places I would like to go.” Then you find out, and you usually have six months to a year to prepare. I interviewed at a few different boarding schools, and St. Andrew’s let me in.

CAROLINE: Then dorm life on K had to be a big thing for you because you couldn’t really go home.

LYDIA: I was very lucky that people took me in. One of my hallmates my freshman year, Emily (Behl) Wells, lived in Virginia. Her mom would take me to their house. Other parents, too, over time were really kind and let me stay with them. I did do a lot of flying back and forth [to Armenia], but I was very dependent on the kindness of others.

KATIA: Were there any St. Andrew’s traditions that made you feel really welcome?

LYDIA: I’ll be painfully honest: I wasn’t the greatest St. Andrew’s student. I wasn’t my best self in high school in many respects—this included being able to do things on time. I did participate in things. I remember there was this Square Dance and other types of activities. And I do remember that the seniors or upper-class students who were on our floors were always very good at icebreaker things that let people get to know each other. St. Andrew’s was a very welcoming place and it had a lot to offer, I just didn’t take advantage of those opportunities to the fullest.

KATIA: We’re actually on our way to the Carol Shout. Did you do that?

LYDIA: I do remember the Carol Shout. That was a good time. Do you do the Frosty Run still?

KATIA: Yes! We’ve never experienced the Carol Shout. Only heard things about it.

LYDIA: Oh yeah: the pandemic. I can’t imagine how weird it must have been the last few years for you all dealing with that.

MARIE: It was very weird. What do you most remember from K Dorm?

CAROLINE ADLE ’24

MARIE DILLARD ’24

KATIA PAPADOPOLUOS ’24

LYDIA: I remember it being small and very tightknit. There was a strong communal feeling. Even though not everyone might have hung out outside of K, inside K, it felt really cozy. Once, I got really sick and hallmate Piper (Monk) Booher, who was a really good cook, prepared this giant feast to celebrate when I could eat again.

I remember it struck me that all the boys were together in one zone, and they could roam back and forth. I don’t envy the boys at St. Andrew’s, at least from my time, but they did have access to each other in a different way than we did as girls. It felt like we were just … warehoused in these locations. But I suppose there were some nice things about that, too.

CAROLINE: We have a nickname for K Dorm now and it’s kind of embarrassing: “K Dorm Slay Dorm.”

LYDIA: I like it! That’s fun. We weren’t that innovative. I remember we liked to go to Burger King, and so sometimes we incorporated “K” into the “BK” of Burger King. Yours is much better.

CAROLINE: Do you think you came to St. Andrew’s as a future writer, or did you develop your writing here?

LYDIA: I was a kid who would write weird little stories and who loved to read, but I truly was a bit of a disaster at St. Andrew’s. Even at that time in my life, though, I could tell one thing: my English teachers were amazing. What they gave me in terms of the ability to do close reading and really analyze a text—even when I was at my lowest and not turning in stuff on time and struggling with the regimented life of St. Andrew’s—was miraculous.

I’m still haunted by breakfast sign-in and sports practice. I was that person. I was telling someone about this the other day: I did cross-country because it was the only sport that you didn’t need to know any rules. My rationale was, “How hard can it be? You run.” But then my coaches would be like, “Today we’re having an eight-mile practice.” And I would have to be picked up in a van. Literally.

It’s still sometimes difficult for me to have empathy for myself at that time, for all kinds of reasons. That said, my experience of having been a teenage mess, within the very cosseted parameters of a place like SAS, helps me now as an adult to

have empathy for people in a variety of different circumstances. It absolutely informs my work as a writer, and it informs my parenting as my kids get older, navigate school and a pandemic, and unfurl into little people with their own unique personalities and idiosyncrasies. I try not to project onto them, but I do think a lot about how I want to support them in the future, while also being very cognizant of the kinds of societal currents that shape peoples’ adolescence in any era.

Yet even in those moments when I was flailing, I felt incredibly lucky to be in those English classes and surrounded by the teachers I had. I do very much credit the fact that I eventually became a writer with my English education there. I got started as a writer doing book reviews. It was years after I had left high school, but 100 percent something that I started learning how to do at St. Andrew’s. St. Andrew’s level of discussion and assignments were essentially college courses.

KATIA: Were there any particular teachers or advisors who helped you through your classes—or even those eight-mile runs?

LYDIA: My first advisor was Mr. [Lindsay] Brown, and he was very supportive. Then I had Mr. [David] Beckman, who was also my English teacher, and he held my hand through a lot and was an excellent,

I do very much credit the fact that I eventually became a writer with my English education [at St. Andrew’s]. I got started doing book reviews. It was years after I had left high school, but was 100 percent something that I started learning how to do at St. Andrew’s. St. Andrew’s level of discussion and assignments were essentially college courses.

What Are You Reading?

We couldn’t let nationally beloved author Lydia Kiesling go without asking her this question. Below, her picks for your next great read.

Everything’s Fine BY CECILIA RABESS

(June 2023 release)

“It’s being marketed as a romance, but it ends up being a provocative exploration of elite schools and workplaces, class and race, and how people move through the same space in very different ways.”

Wolf Hall trilogy BY HILARY MANTEL

“I’m rereading these because they’re so good. I feel like these are definitely books I could have read in a St. Andrew’s classroom.”

The Furrows BY NAMWALI SERPELL

“Namwali Serpell is an amazing novelist— check out The Old Drift also. This one has a mystery at the heart, but it’s more deeply about family, grief, and memory.”

The Last Samurai BY HELEN DEWITT

“I love weird, experimental books, and this is that. It follows no rules. She had a really hard time getting it published, and when she finally did, it became a cult classic. I remember reading this and being like, ‘Oh, you can do anything. You can write anything you want, and if you really commit to the bit, you will find a reader.’”

A Suitable Boy BY VIKRAM SETH

“This is one of my favorites. It’s the longest book printed in the English language [at 1,488 paperback pages]. It’s about Indian politics after independence, but it’s also a love story, a family story and it has a million characters.”

excellent teacher. Ms. [Monica] Matouk was incredible, and the English Exhibition experience was formative.

MARIE: What was your creative energy like during quarantine?

LYDIA: That’s a great question. My first book, The Golden State, came out in 2018. Then I slowly started writing a second novel, Mobility, but I was flailing. It took me a long time to figure out what it was. By early spring 2020, I felt like I had gotten into a rhythm and knew what I was doing. And then COVID. I have two kids who then were both in preschool. Their preschool shut down, naturally. Because I am a freelance writer, the way I earn money is irregular. I don’t have a steady paycheck. My husband does. In a situation like COVID where someone has to be the primary caregiver, it made sense that it’d be me.

The way it works for publishing novels is that usually you have to write the whole manuscript before you can actually get an editor to buy and publish it. It’s different with non-fiction books. With those, you sell a proposal and write the book after. You have to do the whole thing first for novels because no one believes novelists can finish anything. I had only gotten halfway through my second book and had no guarantee that someone would be like, “Yes, I’m going to publish this, and pay you.” So it became really hard for me to work on it, which sounds depressing—ideally you’d be like, “My work is everything! My creative art is all that matters!” But I had to be practical. The work that I took on during COVID was freelance essays [for outlets like The New Yorker and The Cut].

After seven months of hell, I was like, “Okay, I need to start my book again.” I worked it out with my husband where I left for several days and went to very cheap Airbnb in the middle of Oregon to write. I did this probably four or five times. One of them was an RV that was just parked in someone’s backyard. There were many composting toilets along the way. But I felt alive again.

KATIA: What makes a good story for you?

LYDIA: For freelance non-fiction stuff, if someone asks me to do something and it seems easy, I’m like, “Yes.” But in terms of what is meaningful to me, it’s often those things that would be hard to pitch as, for example, a magazine story. I am really interested in how people convey certain experiences or feelings, or how they experience a particular space: how they interact with the objects in their house, how they feel about their home. If you contact an editor and you’re like, “I want to write an essay about how I feel about my house,” it’s more like, “Um, can you give us the 10 best shows to watch if you like White Lotus instead?”

That’s why fiction became appealing to me. Even though there are some, depending on who you talk to, different rules about fiction and what makes stories work or not work, it really is very dependent on the reader. The novels that I like most are ones if you look at lineby-line, sometimes you’re like, “This should be a mess. But for some

reason, it’s really resonating with me.” That’s the magical thing that a fiction project gives: the space to do weird things.

MARIE: Speaking of Mobility, your new book, what story do you want to tell? What changed in your life to open the door to that conversation?

LYDIA: I just have to say you’re all asking awesome questions. Thank you for that.

I think that when you write a book, you’re expelling hairballs from your psyche, the stuff that’s just rattling around in your brain that you need to find a way to talk about. With The Golden State, it was definitely that I had had my first child and was thinking deeply about what it’s like to take care of a child, how we are or are not prepared to do that, and how, for some, it can be lonely, unsupported work.

It was different for Mobility. I mentioned the reason I went to St. Andrew’s is because my father was in the Foreign Service, so we moved around a lot. The older I get, the more I was thinking about what it’s like to have that kind of upbringing where you’re traveling and you’re going places, but it’s in a very specific context. I was thinking about that kind of upbringing, and how that informs your relationship to a place.

The other thing that was going on is that I was reading a lot about the oil and gas industry, specifically in the former Soviet Union. My family was posted in Armenia, next door to Azerbaijan. Both countries were coming out of the Soviet Union. Azerbaijan, unlike Armenia, had enormous oil wealth under the Caspian Sea. All of these foreigners were coming over and trying to figure out how to get their hands on that oil. So then I found myself thinking about my own experience growing up in a Foreign Service family, but also about the geopolitical happenings that drive world events. For a while I was trying to write two wholly different books. I was like, “I want to write about being a teenager, but I also want to write a giant book about the oil and gas industry.” There’s so much history there and a lot of it informs so much of the way that we live—good and very bad. I think it’s the story of the 20th century. But then I had the humbling realization that I’m not the writer to do an opus on oil and gas. I basically found a way to jam the two themes together and write about

someone who did grow up in the Foreign Service context that I did, the choices they made as they grew older, and how they end up working in the oil and gas industry.

Sorry, that was a very long answer. Did I mention I like long passages?

CAROLINE: We were just going to ask that! How would you speak to your writing style?

LYDIA: The Golden State was first-person and voice-driven. Very voice-driven. It’s colloquial and spoken and you’re inside someone’s head. If you go on Goodreads.com, the reviews are like, “What the hell is she doing?” For that book, because I had never written a novel, that was a very useful style because the personality and interiority becomes part of the story. If you can’t think of events and

The novels that I like most are ones if you look at line-by-line, sometimes you’re like, “This should be a mess. But for some reason, it’s really resonating with me.”

That’s the magical thing that a fiction project gives: the space to do weird things.

KIESLING STUDIES IN HER ROOM ON K DORM

create some really complex plot, a strong voice is helpful. I didn’t want Mobility to be in first-person; I wanted it to be much less voice-y.

I started over several times to figure out how to write in the third-person. I wrote thousands and thousands of words in the extended universe of this book, but they didn’t end up in the book because I felt like the third-person I was coming up with was still too voice-y. That took a while to strip out.

Things that both [books] share are long passages of descriptive writing. I like maximalist writers who will always err on the side of having 20 adjectives rather than none.

KATIA: Since it sounds personal, does Mobility have St. Andrew’s scenes?

LYDIA: There’s a school that’s similar. You don’t see the protagonist in this school. You see her on a summer break between her sophomore and junior year. She’s talking and thinking about the school. It’s not St. Andrew’s explicitly, but if you went there, you might be like, “Hmm.” And then she goes back [to campus] in her mid-20s for a classmate’s wedding. There are some moments that reflect things about the school at my time that I think are not really the case anymore, in very good ways. When I read through the St. Andrew’s Magazine now, it’s clear that different kinds of conversations are happening on campus now. The way certain topics are being addressed has come a long way from when I was there. That is deeply heartening.

MARIE: I think St. Andrew’s now is very selfconscious of what and how we teach. We’re all part of Girls Collaborative, an affinity group, and I remember our deep conversation about Roe v. Wade when it was overturned. I really enjoy conversations here.

LYDIA: I’m so glad to hear that. What I’ve seen from the magazine makes me feel very positively about what students are talking about and the kind of questions they’re asking.

CAROLINE: Considering the conversations you thought weren’t happening, how did you find your voice after you left?

LYDIA: I had to muddle through, like anybody. You have to figure out how to be a person for yourself and exist in the world. But then you also have to figure out what your values are and learn from other people who have different values. You’re getting a political education anywhere you are, it just might not be called that. But I think a more explicit understanding of what was happening around me came after I left St. Andrew’s. I graduated in 2001. My first week of college, September 11th happened. I watched awful things develop with America’s public discourse and saw the terrible political and geopolitical choices made. When I was at St. Andrew’s, [Supreme Court recount case] Bush v. Gore was being decided. The kids who were plugged in and cared about things, they were paying attention to that. But for me, it was just like, “Huh, that’s happening.” Once I left St Andrew’s, it’s like, “Oh, the world is being very much affected by the choices that the United States is making.” That was very eye-opening.

KATIA: How do you generate ideas for your books?

My experience of having been a teenage mess, within the very cosseted parameters of a place like SAS, helps me now as an adult to have empathy for people in a variety of different circumstances. It absolutely informs my work as a writer.

LYDIA: You have to go out and live and have jobs and have relationships and meet people because that is ultimately what goes into writing. Those hairballs that I was talking about, the things that have felt urgent for me to describe? They’ve all been taken from experiences that I’ve had in life or people I’ve met or relationships. Of course I’m making things up all the time—it is fiction—but the stuff that’s undergirding that is real. Life experiences are what ultimately will inspire you and become part of your creative process because those are the things that you’re processing when you are making art.

MARIE: How do you build a career and a reputation in literature? It feels … really hard.

LYDIA: If you want to write and be published, it can feel impossible. I didn’t have it in my mind as something that you could do, that it’s a job that you can get. Because in many ways, it isn’t. But the beauty of writing is that you don’t need anyone’s permission. There’s no credential or degree that you need. I don’t want to downplay the fact that there is, of course, gatekeeping and barriers to publication. Those are very real. But at the same time, if you have a story to tell, you don’t need permission to tell it. For nonfiction, you look for outlets that publish work of the kind you want to be doing, you develop your pitch, or idea, and you email the editor. The worst someone can say is “No.”

Can I ask you girls a question?

KATIA: Please!

LYDIA: Are you having fun? Do you find school challenging?

KATIA: It’s definitely hard. You’re challenged, but I want to be. I really like it here and I think it’s always getting better. There’s room for improvement in all things, but I think we’ve been on a steady rise.

MARIE: It’s strange for me because I’m an only child, so I went from living with just my parents to being surrounded by a bunch of people. When I first got here, I was like, “Mom, I can’t stand it. Why are these people in my room? I want to be alone. I can’t even get in the shower!” But now I love it. Although I do worry sometimes that St. Andrew’s people are nice to a fault, to the point where I’m worried for my future when I get into the real world and realize people aren’t really that way.

KATIA: I feel like we don’t have a big wrap up question for you.

LYDIA: Writing doesn’t always work like that, either, so it’s okay!

MARIE: I feel like my biggest question after talking to you, and knowing the book is coming out this summer, is just: How do you feel?

LYDIA: I’m nervous and excited every day: that’s my baseline. I was actually weirdly nervous about this conversation, which, in retrospect, was so silly because you were all so nice and your questions so smart. But I feel so grateful I am able to do this work. I feel nervous, excited, grateful, tired, and alive. J

If you’d like to be one of the first with Mobility in hand, you can pre-order at zandoprojects.com/books/mobility. Interview condensed and edited by AK White.

KIESLING IN THE K DORM COMMON ROOM DURING HER TIME AS A STUDENT

The Artists’

We sat down with alumni artists from various disciplines to see what they’ve been up to since leaving St. Andrew’s. While these former Saints have taken very different career paths, from theater to illustration to music, they all agree on this:

At St. Andrew’s, the arts matter.

Roundtable

BY AK WHITE

The World Builder

LANA ABRAHAM-MURAWSKI ’93

Maybe it’s the fruits of the rich cultural tapestry of her Guyanese roots, which include Black and West Indian heritage. She’s connected to Polish culture, too, via her husband and their son.

Maybe it’s the worlds she’s personally moved through—Born in Guyana, her family arrived in New York when she was 5 to pursue the “American Dream.” She was then educated in Delaware, and after St. Andrew’s, Trinity College in Connecticut. She’s also lived in Maryland, Virginia, D.C., Brooklyn, and New Jersey.

Or maybe it’s just because of an ongoing infatuation with quirky filmmaker Tim Burton.

“It sounds like a weird choice to make as an artist you admire, right?” says AbrahamMurawski, laughing. “But he creates these crazy, grotesque worlds that don’t look like anything you recognize, yet you can’t help but feel connected to it.”

A kid who grew up drawing “weird” characters and places, the crux of her work is fantastical landscapes that intend to transport her onlooker somewhere alien.

“I always had this idea of going to another world,” she says. “Surrealists like Salvador Dali, Max Ernst, and Frida Kahlo created that kind of space, which I was fascinated by. I was never into exact realism, although I think the beauty and technique of that art form is amazing. I’ve always wanted to create magical places.”

If Abraham-Murawski has done her job the way she wants to, her art will inspire her viewer to ask big questions.

A lover of Aesop’s Fables as a child, AbrahamMurawski is drawn to what each fable does. “You’d go to this place and there’s a challenge, and within that challenge, you discover a moral. That’s kind of the same idea with my work,” she says. “I want to take you to a landscape or environment

where there may be a conflicted situation: ‘Do I follow this familiar, yet unfamiliar creature? Am I in a good situation or bad? What can I learn?’ I am hoping through my art, to dive into your brain and ask you to use your creative juices to follow my unique, richly colored forms, and shapes—which are often connected to nature or industrial elements—to not only get lost, but to help you find something too. It’s a transformative experience.”

She credits mentor and former SAS arts faculty Peter Brooke for giving her the space and the freedom to pursue her vision. “Peter Brooke was such an inspiration, and not only in what he did for me at SAS, but in his work,” she says. “He also creates imaginative landscapes that look like real places. However, they are completely from his memory and experiences.” She says it was Brooke who helped her escape the everyday. “I was encouraged to unreservedly create these places, which allowed my brain to relax,” she says. “Emotionally what I was experiencing at that time was tough. Being able to express myself onto paper was freeing.”

She also credits advisor and former Head of School Tad Roach. “As I was finding my identity as an artist with Peter, Tad was helping me find my identity as a person,” she says. “We had many talks about the core of who I was and who I wanted to be. A lot of what I learned about myself at St. Andrew’s was through conversations with those two figures.”

The essence of those conversations resonated. In fact, some of the artwork Abraham-Murawski is doing today had their genesis in ideas she had under Brooke’s tutelage. “They just keep evolving,” she says.

For Abraham-Murawski, 2022 was a benchmark year. “I focused on getting to a place where I can be immersed in art every day,” she says. She moved into her studio space at Mana Contemporary, an artists’ collaborative in Jersey City. She showed at Transport, an all-women artists exhibit. She also joined the Black Artist and Designers Guild (BADG).

“BADG is a community where Black artists come together and work within creative industries nationwide and internationally,” she says. A 2022 collaboration between BADG and famed fabric and furniture house Kravet offered Abraham-Murawski a new opportunity: furniture design. Although the piece, “The Treebird Throne,” was a first-of-its-kind project for the mixed-media artist, it settles comfortably into her oeuvre. The chair hints at a bird with wings and claws, inviting one to fly. “The idea is to sit and be transported to a place of power and growth, ready to take flight,” she says. •

Feeling bold enough to travel to a new reality? Grab your passport and head to lanaabraham.com

ABOUT THE ART

Meeting of the Minds, oil on wood, 48 x 20 inches (top)

The Treebird Throne (bottom)

The Broadway Handler

Megan Dieterle ’04 still feels guilty about missing her St. Andrew’s 15th Class Reunion in 2019. As guilty as one can feel, anyway, considering she missed out because her presence was required at the 73rd Annual Tony Awards.

“I have a group text with my St. Andrew’s friends, and I could almost feel their eye rolls when I said, ‘Sorry, I’ll be at the Tonys,’” Dieterle says, laughing.

It was a moment four years in the making for Dieterle, who, in 2015, was in the room where it happened: the very first meeting between her boss, Broadway director Des McAnuff of Jersey Boys fame, and playwright Dominique Morisseau, a MacArthur Genius Grant Fellow. The fruits of that meeting eventually became Broadway darling Ain’t Too Proud—The Life and Times of the Temptations. Which brings us back to the Tony Awards.

The musical, which debuted in October 2019, racked up 12 nominations (it won one, for choreography) and was much beloved: Oprah is a huge fan. Hillary Clinton came twice. John Legend backed it as a producer.

“I frequently wonder: What would 16-year-old Megan, who was terrified about making her stage debut in The Crucible at St. Andrew’s, say if she saw me now?” Dieterle muses. “Working in New York City theater as a line producer for Des McAnuff, being involved every step of the way for years on a show like Ain’t Too Proud, which I love deeply—I sometimes can’t believe this is my life.”

A line producer is, essentially, the doer of all the things. “The line producer makes everything that needs to happen, happen,” Dieterle says. That means attending every writing session, audition, casting conversation, table read, marketing meeting, design meeting, tech rehearsal, and working out every logistic. Ain’t Too Proud was Dieterle’s day-to-day for years until it debuted. Which is why it’s been so painful to say goodbye.

“It is heartbreaking that we only ran about a year before the pandemic,” Dieterle says. “This is a show that was not only successful with audiences; it was critically successful. For perspective, people expected this to run longer than Jersey Boys, which ran for 12 years.”

After theaters were shuttered, Ain’t Too Proud reopened in October 2021. Then Omicron. “This is a sleek, expensive show. If people don’t come, you can’t keep going. You just bleed money,” she says. “I struggled with saying goodbye to this wonderful family. Even harder to come to terms with is this is a story that needs to be told in this moment—the story of five Black men who, despite everything, became The Temptations.”

The show will live on in London’s West End. Dieterle spent February through April of this year in London laying the groundwork for the show’s next family of cast, production team, and crew. It debuted last month.

“I wish somebody had told me that there’s an entire world of theater behind the curtains,” says Dieterle, who, ironically, has terrible stage fright. “The administrative offices, the producing offices— these are where the creative decisions are made that, years later, end up on stage.”

Some of those creative decisions have been Dieterle’s. “One of the greatest parts of working for Des for the past seven years is feeling heard,” she says. “This is all Des’s vision ultimately, but he’s so collaborative. Some of my ideas are on those stages, and it’s humbling.”

A writer herself who notes she fell in love with creative writing at St. Andrew’s, Dieterle’s play Debridement was picked up by the 10x10 Short Play Festival and staged in Manhattan in 2014. She’s now finessing the final touches of a TV miniseries she’s shared with a few L.A. producers that has generated some buzz.

“Working in theater isn’t always easy,” she says. “It looks glamorous, but there is often pain. But every day I come with an open heart because

everything that we do is steeped in emotion. Theater is emotion. People come to be moved, whether that means laughing, crying, or just watching in awe as a Broadway ensemble tap-dances their faces off. Every night is an opportunity to watch someone do something extraordinary. How lucky am I?” •

“Working in New York City theater as a line producer for Des McAnuff, being involved every step of the way for years on a show like Ain’t Too Proud, which I love deeply—I sometimes can’t believe this is my life.”

The Art Educator

JENNY HUGHES ’92

When it comes to eureka moments, one can assume not too many begin with a vintage iron printing press unearthed in an old barn. “I don’t know how the heck Mr. [Peter] Brooke moved this thing, but he brought this printing press to St. Andrew’s and put it in the art building for us,” remembers Jenny Hughes ’92, who quickly found herself entranced by the machine. “I came to Middletown from public school in the Bronx, and there weren’t enough resources dedicated to the arts. One of the things I first really loved about St. Andrew’s was the realization that this was a place where art matters.”

In fact, she notes, she was in the middle of her St. Andrew’s admissions interview with former history teacher Ashton Richards ’78 when he said to her, “So you like art. What did you think of the art building?” When Hughes told him she hadn’t seen it, he stopped the interview. “Mr. Richards said, ‘We’re going right now,’” she says. “I was like, ‘Right now? In the middle of this important conversation? Okay then!’ That was the first indication to me like, ‘Wow. This is cool. Art is serious here.’”

Hughes says she came to St. Andrew’s as an “artist in hiding.” But when Brooke asked her if she wanted to give the printing press a try that day, there was no more hiding. “I started doing monoprints, which is a way of painting on a piece of plexiglass and putting paper on top of it and running it through the press,” Hughes explains. “The image offsets from the plexiglass to the paper.”

Hughes, now the chair of the visual arts department at Milton Academy in Milton, Mass., has spent the past almost-decade in fulltime arts education. Before that, she worked in galleries and museums and taught adjunct art courses while making time for her own creative pursuits. She’s had residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and Maine’s Pickwick Press, and has worked in a number of print shops including Muskat Studios in Massachusetts.

“That Vermont residency was like grad school all over again: all I had to do was eat, sleep, and make art,” she says. “When I think about my life in art, those are the times that are highlights.”

Although one might think a full-time job teaching art might impact an artist’s ability to make art, Hughes says often, she can trace changes in her own artistic vision as a direct result of what’s going on in the classroom.

“I firmly believe in practicing what you preach,” Hughes says. “It’s important for the students to see their teacher as someone who is a practicing artist, that I’m not someone who is just pulling creativity out of thin air. Once we’ve progressed from pencil and charcoal, to painting, to pastels and color theory, we begin abstract work. Abstract isn’t necessarily a path I’ve pursued much in my art, but I’ve begun to experiment with it. I think this new direction is directly related to my teaching.”

Prior to the evolution to abstract work, Hughes—who most identifies as a printmaker— explored portraiture. “My work is often my visual way of telling a narrative, with scenes that tell a story about things I’ve experienced,” she says. “My mother died a few years ago, and something she always loved while she was sick with Alzheimer’s was for me to do her nails. I spent so much time

focused on her hands that I worked on a large series rooted in those images.”

In the series, her mother’s hands made cake. Her mother’s hands held a fork. Her mother’s hands readied her children for church.

“I’m going through one of those cycles right now where I’m focused on the next stage of my work and thinking about showings and juried exhibitions,” Hughes says.

With a sketchbook often in hand—in Starbucks, on the bus, at a faculty meeting—Hughes is always in the process of making art, a process she first learned at St. Andrew’s.

“A key moment for me came in my senior art class. There were about six of us and Mr. Brooke the teacher. One day he told us, ‘Grab a camera. We’re going on a walk and we’re going to take photos that we’ll later use for paintings in the winter when it’s too cold to go outside and paint landscapes,’” Hughes says. “I remember just having the freedom to walk around and do only that and it struck me: ‘Oh, this is actually the process of making art. How amazing is this?’” •

ABOUT THE ART

Mother Never Taught Me

My

How to Braid Hair, woodcut on paper, 48 x 24 inches (top left)

Waiting to Lick the Bowl and Beaters, lithograph (top right)

What do you get when you cross a natural-history nerd with an art and design geek? The answer is Field Guide, a vibrant spin on the often imperfect and complicated science of bird taxonomy from Christopher Reiger ’95. His whimsical wink-wink-nod to bird classification is a series 100-strong and counting. “I’ve been in touch with a few publishers who want to do a book presentation of it eventually, but I’d feel better approaching 500 images before I can really have that conversation,” Reiger says.

Reiger the artist, illustrator, and lover of the natural world is fascinated by birds (he’s fascinated by all animals; in fact, his work plumbs the complex and interesting relationship humans share with nonhuman animals and the natural world).

Reiger the designer is fascinated by color and order. So when he found himself needing to decompress after a day of especially “frenetic pandemic parenting,” he let himself linger on an idea that had been rooting about: How might a bird look, taxonomically speaking, if it was classified by a simple gradient color map?

His method involves studying images of a chosen bird; comparing those images, pixel-to-pixel, in Photoshop; and then building a color map that digs deep into the bird’s nuanced plumage. The end result is a radiant column akin to a Pantone paint strip. The hues that appear most occupy a larger block of color real estate.

A Roseate Spoonbill, for example, blooms as a rosy, soft palette, a tower of pinks, lilacs, corals and whites, supported on the bottom by slivers of black and a punch of marigold. “This is my playful celebration and critique of the scientific field,” Reiger says. “It’s also a really satisfying way to live day-to-day as an artist. Not only is the project up my alley, but it’s fun and engrossing. I can also listen to a podcast while I work. It’s not the type of work where I need to be in the studio making a mess. The one-release-a-week format keeps me on track—that structure allows the creative gears to keep turning.”

Field Guide also happens to be the perfect series to poster-ize. “I find some artists feel a little sheepish about direct sales in affordable mediums as opposed to a piece of original artwork, but I don’t,” he says. “What’s to feel sheepish about if more people can live with the imagery you created? You want your work out in the world and a

“To be able to just go somewhere, find something to discuss and look at then draw was special.

[Art and Biology] was critical in terms of nurturing my love of art, outdoors, natural history, and my own sense of curiosity.”

part of people’s lives. If that’s a really nice inkjet print, that is an honor for me.”

In December 2022, the Audubon Society Magazine (the Harper’s of the bird-watching set) featured Field Guide; in January 2023, Reiger showed selected images at the Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation Gallery.

He also spent 2022 as the Artist-in-Residence at the Pepperwood Preserve in Sonoma County, where progressions of his newest series (still in an explorative stage), The In Between, is showing until spring. The work focuses on crepuscular animals, those most active in those magical, electric moments at dawn and dusk. Reiger is also still creating for Familiar, an unsettling portrait series he began in 2019 that boldly asks us to go eye-to-eye with wild, wild things.

“The work I’m making today is still animated by a fundamental truth: my deep wonder, awe, and enjoyment of the outdoors,” Reiger says. “Not much has changed in terms of inspiration, even though visually, the work has.”

For a naturalist artist in the making, St. Andrew’s was a dream. “It is such a wonderful place to be outside,” he says. “I took a lot of walks, sometimes alone to look for birds and sometimes with friends for conversations. I particularly loved the interface of the large farm fields next to the woodland. It was an inspirational setting.”

Also inspiring, Reiger says, were biology teacher Dr. Peter McLean and studio art teacher Peter Brooke, who joined forces to create the hybrid course Art and Biology.

“It was a small group of us and we would just go out and draw,” Reiger says. “It was like scientific journaling: You’d make notes about your observations. Then you’d select some of those drawings to be more fully formed artworks, which I think the school turned into postcards. We spent every class outside. To be able to just go somewhere, find something to discuss and look at then draw was special. That class was critical in terms of nurturing my love of art, outdoors, natural history, and my own sense of curiosity.” •

You don’t have to be a bird nerd to check out Reiger’s work at christopherreiger.art

ABOUT THE ART

Field Guide (left)

Grey Fox (Urocyon Cinereoargeuteus) (top)

Great Horned Owl (on the cover)

The Builder

We assume the statute of limitations has expired and so we can bring you the true story of how Virginia-based natural builder Ian Stabler ’09, with the help of a few friends, stole across Noxontown Pond one misty night in a handcrafted raft and tricked out the school’s old Bio Barge (a new one had just been purchased), which was resting across the water.

“To be clear, we did not touch the brand new Bio Barge,” Stabler says. “The old one was just docked out there, and it was kind of crappy. That year, Pirates of the Caribbean was huge and we wanted to be Jack Sparrow. We dragged the barge into the woods and rebuilt it into a pirate ship.”

Then, naturally, they attacked St. Andrew’s by sea, launching water balloons at unsuspecting students.

“When I think of St. Andrew’s, that’s what I remember. Not because of what we did, but because of how the school received it,” Stabler says. “We probably should have gotten in trouble, but instead, our creativity was celebrated. The school was like, ‘That you built these things is amazing.’ I credit [art teacher] Mr. [John] McGiff, too. He was such a light and celebrated all creativity.”

Stabler has since gone on to build bigger things. Famed American painter Frolic Weymouth was so taken with a sculpture that he spied in the backyard of Stabler’s grandmother, Peg Stabler, who was a friend, that he inquired into its origins.

“I gave my grandmother the sculpture as a gift,” Stabler says. “Frolic reached out to me after seeing it. This was a man who amplified other people. He was magic. He founded the Brandywine River Museum [in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania] and asked me to do a sculpture on the grounds.”

Although Weymouth died in 2016 before Stabler completed 2021’s Queen Anne’s Lace Pod, a work that serves as a whimsical reminder that art and nature are much the same, Stabler dedicated the work to him. A shelter made of gathered and found materials, the sculpture’s name is inspired by Stabler’s favorite work of Weymouth’s, August (1974), which features Queen Anne’s Lace.

Also that year, Stabler built a house for himself and his wife, Sarah. “That is the greatest piece of art I ever made because it’s so entwined with function, and yet the intention is to facilitate a beautiful life,” Stabler says. “I think as artists, what we’re always trying to do is replicate a feeling. It’s like, ‘Okay, I’ve got this feeling and I want to put it on the canvas and I want you to come and feel it, even if I’m not there.’ The best art does this.”

Perhaps the biggest thing he’s building, though, can’t be defined by medium: community.

“As I’ve become an adult, I resist the idea of the ‘artistic genius.’ It’s like, ‘I’ve got this vision and I’m going to make this vision happen and it’s all about me.’ That’s where I lived in my 20s,” Stabler says. “That’s shifted. What most excites me now is allowing for that third thing

that comes from two people each with a vision, and you end up with something that couldn’t have existed any other way. For me, when we make things that are only coming from us, they drift like ghosts. I want to connect over shared vision. That feels much more powerful.”

Stabler walks that walk at Springhouse, a 20-student, eight-staff day school in Floyd, Virginia, where he’s an art teacher, a cohort advisor, the facilities manager, fixer of stubborn door knobs, and keeper-of-the-keys for Springhouse Downtown, an art center he co-founded with a colleague that offers space for artists to partner on creative pursuits.

“Art and creativity are such amazing tools for connection,” Stabler says. “Our school’s vision is that all life deserves to thrive and we’re focused on the development of a human being beyond academics. My work at Springhouse and at Springhouse Downtown feels like a really beautiful way to use my creativity and my gifts to serve my community.” •

You can check out Stabler’s body of work, including handcrafted instruments (but not pirate ships), at ianstabler.com

ABOUT THE ART

Scenes from the house Stabler built (above)

Queen Anne’s Lace Pod, gathered and found materials (left)

The Musicians

We’d like to start by acknowledging we are set up for failure—there are simply far too many fantastic musicians who once walked our halls. If we missed you this time, we apologize. To all Saints musicians, we invite you to drop a note to magazine@ standrews-de.org to help us curate the ultimate St. Andrew’s playlist.

MAGGIE ROGERS ’12

We can’t write about music at St. Andrew’s without writing about singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers ’12. The last time we saw the artist was 2019, when she stopped by the Dining Hall for an impromptu two-song acoustic set. Two years earlier, in 2017, Rogers performed a surprise concert in Engelhard. On stage she told a cheering crowd, “I really believe this has all worked out for me because I came here. I came to a place where I was supported, at a school that teaches you one person can make a difference. Every night I stand on stage and I try to create community. I learned that here.” Since then, she’s released three albums, picked up a Best New Artist Grammy nomination, and, oh yeah, earned her Master of Religion and Public Health from Harvard Divinity School. Her latest album, Surrender, dropped last summer.

MUST LISTEN Nostalgic for your SAS days? Cue up Surrender track “Shatter,” in which Rogers turns back time: “But now we’re going back/To being sixteen, flying like you’ll never collapse.”

BOB AMOS ’75

Former frontman and lyricist for Front Range, an internationally renowned bluegrass band, Bob Amos ’75 is an award-winning songwriter who recorded 12 albums and toured throughout the U.S. and Europe. Amos’ “One Beautiful Day” won the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Gospel Song of the Year in 1995. More recently, his song “Blink Of An Eye,” released in 2021 by three-time International Bluegrass Music Association male vocalist of the year Danny Paisley, spent two months at No. 1 on the National Bluegrass Song Survey and was a final nominee for the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Song Of The Year award. These days, Amos performs with daughter, Sarah, in the Bob & Sarah Amos Band. “I was given a great start in music by Larry Walker and Marc Cheban, was involved in the jazz band and concert choir, and was in the first full-production musical ever done with only students: The Fantastiks, in the spring of 1975,” Amos tells us. Bonus fact: it was on that stage where he met future wife, Anne Rhodes ’78. “We had the lead romantic roles,” he says.

MUST LISTEN “Down in Caroline,” off Front Range’s The New Frontier album. Good luck keeping your feet still.

PETER SALETT ’87

It’s hard to decide where to start with Peter Salett ’87. There’s his own music—right now he says he’s at work on new songs, creating under the name Peter Salett’s Blue Palace. Look for the album to drop later this year. Then there’s his scoring. Salett’s credits include 2018’s Netflix horror film Seven In Heaven (Blumhouse/ Universal), National Geographic Channel’s Breakthrough docuseries (2015-2017) and the HBO documentary Cat Dancers, which won the 2007 Special Jury Award at the SXSW Film Festival. Then there are the original songs he’s composed for Hollywood, like “Heart of Mine,” the main theme in the Edward Norton/ Ben Stiller/Jenna Elfman love triangle Keeping The Faith (2000); “Wet Hot American Dream,” from Wet Hot American Summer (2001); and the vampire opus “A Taste for Love,” from rom-com Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008), among others. But what Salett is most jazzed about these days, he says, is The Hometown Project, the nonprofit he founded in 2017. “I founded The Hometown Project based on a simple idea: encouraging people of recognition to support local candidates in their hometowns, where just a few hundred votes can make a huge difference,” he says. Salett drew on his long history of working in feature films to focus Hollywood’s power of influence locally by employing stars like Kerry Washington, Selena Gomez, Mark Ruffalo, Sarah Jessica Parker, Wanda Sykes, Jason Mraz, and many more to promote their hometown candidates.

MUST SEE/MUST LISTEN If we have anything to say about it, the final performance scene in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, “A Taste for Love,” is among the most perfect two minutes ever filmed.

NICK KINSEY ’01

For years, drummer, producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Nick Kinsey ’01 has been carving out a compelling space for himself within the world of indie-folk rock. Critical indie darlings like Kevin Morby and Waxahatchee have found themselves in Kinsey’s New York-based recording studio, The Chicken Shack, where he’s worked with both artists as a producer. You can hear Kinsey the drummer on Waxahatchee’s 2020 album St. Cloud, a record that bewitched fans and music critics alike and ended up on many “Top Albums of the Year” lists, from NPR, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Paste, and more. While Kinsey spent 2016 to 2019 on the road playing with Kevin Morby, he found some time to drop his own music, 2020’s Random Access EP. “Lately I’ve taken a step away from touring, which I did for years and years before the pandemic, and am focusing on producing and engineering records out of my studio,” Kinsey says. His latest collaboration released last month, a project with Scott McMicken, lead singer of beloved indie rock band Dr. Dog. “I played on, engineered, produced, and mixed the new release by Scott McMicken and THE EVER-EXPANDING,” Kinsey says. The album, SHABANG, dropped March 31.

MUST LISTEN Kinsey’s gorgeous, strippeddown version of “Barbie Girl” (yes, we do mean the 1997 Eurodance-esque sensation) would be perfectly at home on a dinner party playlist for any St. Andrew’s alum.

JUAN PATINO

WYNDHAM GARNETT

PETER BROWNLEE ’09

A musician since the age of 9 when he first picked up a cello, it tracks that Peter Brownlee ’09 went straight from St. Andrew’s to Berklee College of Music. Now he’s taken up residence in L.A., where he works as a freelance music producer, engineer, and mix engineer. He’s also managed some time to rub elbows with other musically inclined Saints. “I’ve been spending time out here with Josh Speers ’09 and Andrew Jarowenko ’12, who are also working in music,” he says. We won’t assume the St. Andrew’s phone policy has anything to do with this, but Brownlee has been taking it old-school lately at Infinite Spin Studios, where he works as first engineer. “We’ve been making records entirely analog using tape machines and analog console without the use of a computer,” he says. A frequent collaborator with folk indie artist Glenn Echo, Brownlee has directed, filmed, and edited Glenn Echo music videos for songs like “Moon Seems Lost”—a track which, by the way, he also produced, engineered, mixed, and played piano and percussion. He’s working on a second Glenn Echo video now, and, by the way, worked on Edgar Winter’s album “Brother Johnny,” which won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album this year. “SAS was where I really got to explore my love for recording music,” Brownlee says. “The studio was a playground for me to experiment and to learn and develop my passion.”

MUST LISTEN In “Moon Seems Lost”—an intimate rumination on love—voice, guitar, strings, and bass combine for a sound that could accompany you on your next scenic road trip as easily as it could serve as a tonic on a bad day. Bonus points for Brownlee’s accompanying video—is it just us, or does that opening waterfront imagery remind you of some place you’ve been before?

DOUG JAMES ’69

It would be easy for Doug James ’69 to rest on his laurels. After all, he only penned one of the most recognized songs on planet Earth—the monster 1982 Michael Bolton ballad “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You.” James and Bolton shared a tight bond while giving life to the song. “Doug and I certainly were fully engaged in our first series of songwriting sessions and in all that followed,” Bolton wrote in his 2013 memoir The Soul Of It All. “We’d spend hours and hours in our little room playing off each other, testing riffs and lyrics. There were times when the maintenance crews threw us out so they could finish their work, but we wised up and began slipping cash to the security guards so we could work through the night to complete songs and polish the demos.” James has also written songs for artists like Dionne Warwick, Joe Cocker, and Cher, among others. Yet the artist is still hard at work. Just last year, his latest work, “Christmas Isn’t Presents (The Best Gift of All),” was nominated for a 2022 Hollywood Music in Media Award in the holiday category.

MUST LISTEN Settle in with the classic “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You.” (We know you’ve already been humming it anyway.)

SARAH STIVERS ’83

Sarah Stivers ’83 had a pretty powerful dream: become a doctor. Yet, she admits, “I didn’t have the courage or, frankly, the discipline, to go to medical school.” It wasn’t until Stivers was 42 that she finally did something about it. “I was tired of wishing I had tried,” she says. “So I just decided to make it happen, even though the odds were against me.” Yet a funny thing happened on the way to her dream—another dream called her instead. In 2010, she gave her med school spot to someone else, scrubbing out of medicine and into music. “Around that time, my [entertainment producing] business had just exploded and I realized I was already doing what I loved, plus helping other entertainers and musicians do what they loved, too,” Stivers says. For Stivers, music had always been there: She had a transformative experience in 1983 when she sang at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Romanced by singing and the French language, in 2003 she was hired to perform in a trio in a Parisian club. Her time there forever informed her musicality. Noted for her smooth, clean and vibrant vocals, Stivers’ repertoire runs the gamut from Mozart to Maroon 5. While live performance is her first love (and you’ll still find Stivers booked to perform), she spends most of her time managing Stivers Productions, her one-stop entertainment and production company that works with clients to produce and staff the event of their dreams. Stivers brings an impressive client list to Stivers Productions: she’s worked with The Temptations and The Four Tops, and has booked for events from Churchill Downs to NFL Super Bowl kick off parties and more. “I am truly following my bliss,” Stivers says.

MUST LISTEN Easy listening and lounge vibes await on “This Girl’s In Love,” the lead single from Stivers’ album of the same name. Find it on Spotify.

MICHAEL WHALEN ’84

If it’s doable in music, Michael Whalen ’84 has done it, to the tune of 800 million lifetime streams across all platforms, two Emmy Award wins and eight nominations, one BMI Award, 650 television and film scores and thousands of advertising jingles. And he’s still going strong. Whalen, who wrote his first music at St. Andrew’s, has been busy. “Since 2017, I think I have been creating some of the best music of my career,” he says. “From ambient jazz to classical, I have created 14 albums of new music in six years. I have also worked on music for the films Fantastic Fungi, Gratitude Revealed, and Exaltation.” The new work augments an already deep bench of work that includes scores for dozens of films for networks like National Geographic, Discovery, The History Channel, ESPN, PBS and more. He reports he and his wife just bought a new home near The Rockaways in New York City. “The water of Jamaica Bay is a source of continual inspiration not unlike Noxontown Pond,” he says.

MUST LISTEN The haunting “I Have Loved You For a Thousand Lifetimes.” It doesn’t have 38 million streams for nothing. Find it on Spotify. •

Right in the Middle of Every Play

Remembering MoMA Curator Kirk Varnedoe ’63

BY LIZ TORREY

Art historian Kirk Varnedoe ’63 has been described in turns by colleagues, classmates, and reporters as an innovative, blockbuster-producing, pot-stirring curator at the Museum of Modern Art; a MacArthur Genius Grant recipient; a transformative teacher; a fantastic boss and an even better pee-wee football coach; and above all, a friend who made things fun. A man who “charmed his way past the Gorgon-like director of the Musée Rodin and gained access to hundreds of unseen drawings” (per The New York Times). A man who “spoke French with a Southern accent” and “spent one summer riding around Europe on a Moto Guzzi investigating art frauds in little towns” (per his St. Andrew’s roommate Brent McCaghren ’63). A man whose lectures “felt like a Baptist revivalist meeting. … people pretty much got up and cheered at the end” (per his former student and fellow curator Pepe Karmel). A man who spent the last day of his life “talking about Hitchcock films and eighteenthcentury hospital architecture” (per his colleague and friend Adam Gopnik in The New Yorker).

A man who also happened to be red-green colorblind.

“When we were at St. Andrew’s,” recalls McCaghren, “there was a little wastewater treatment plant down in the gully that was painted green. We called it the ‘green dragon’ because of all the noxious odors that would emanate from it. Kirk didn’t understand why we called it the green dragon, because he thought it was painted St. Andrew’s red.”

Yes, a man who made his living looking at art, arranging art, and explaining art to other people could not in fact distinguish between two of the six colors of the rainbow.

“Like a lot of things, he overcame that, and did quite well with it,” McCaghren adds. “I don’t know how

he did, but I attribute it to his great intellect and determination.”

That intellect and determination were always in service to the driving force in Varnedoe’s life: his passion for art.

Specifically, Varnedoe loved sharing his passion for art. “I think that to believe that art is something which is essentially a very separate ethereal realm, not involved with the day-today truck of your worries about your life and your body and other things, is just wrong,” Varnedoe said in an interview published in the winter 1987 issue of this magazine. “It takes a good teacher to show you how the realm of your own experience is involved in works of art and to bring those two things together.”

“He loved life in its most tangible forms,” Gopnik said in Varnedoe’s obituary. “Art was [to him] always material first—it was never, ever bound by a thorny crown of ideas. His incredible faith in real things for him found its highest expression in art, but extended way beyond to include everything from an Elvis record to a bottle of Krug, and it brought to life, every day, the ordinary existence of everyone around him.”

This summer will mark the 20th anniversary of Varnedoe’s death at age 57 from colon cancer, but while he was still on this mortal coil, it was that palpable passion, that intense love of life that fueled his work at the highest echelons of the art world, and his lasting contributions of creative scholarship.

“[His rise] was meteoric,” says Karmel, now a professor of art history at New York University, “but he was weirdly like Lancelot. As an art historian, [he was] pure of heart. He really, seriously cared about the art. He wanted to do the best shows possible, and he wanted to do the best possible by the artists. He wasn’t a politician. He was just happy to share his love

of art and his enthusiasm with people around him.”

***

Varnedoe was born and raised in Savannah, Georgia, then “an isolated, hothouse environment … segregated, poor, crumbling, too genteel to be as reactionary as the rest of the South, but certainly a participant in a rigid class system rooted in race and money,” recalled journalist Albert Scardino in Varnedoe’s eulogy. Varnedoe’s family was well-to-do, and “Kirk was oblivious at the time,” Scardino continued. “He was the class entertainment, sketching caricatures of teachers on the blackboard ... art, and, as he later described it, the vocabulary of art, had almost no place in that time, in [that] place.”

The historical record does not show the seminal moment in Varnedoe’s childhood in which he first discovered his inclination to create. “One of the reasons I wound up where I wound up was that I was born with, or early showed, a fairly good mimetic ability,” Varnedoe said in an interview. “I could just draw things. I could replicate visual experience on paper. That was always my party trick.”

As the youngest of four, by the time Kirk came along, his mother Lilla Comer Train—who went by the nickname “Diamonds”— “was worn out,” McCaghren says, worn out enough to allow Varnedoe greater latitude for adventure than perhaps had been granted his older brothers and sister. “Once you can get a boat, when you’re 10 or 11, you’re Huck Finn, Robinson Crusoe, with all these barrier islands are around you,” Varnedoe recalled of his childhood on the Georgia coast in an oral history he recorded at MoMA. “You have an enormous amount of freedom.” Diamonds had, however, energy enough to push her youngest son to attend St. Andrew’s.

“It was Diamonds who determined to force Kirk out of the nest, who

packed him off to Delaware … to start his real education, to shape him into an intellectual, to let him find his own voice—and to start him on his way of amplifying the voices of so many others,” Scardino said. “Had he stayed glued to Savannah, Kirk might have accepted a comfortable role as an eccentric aristocrat.”

Varnedoe’s sketches appeared in various SAS yearbooks, and he painted thematic backdrops for school dances. “For one of the dances, the VI Form decided their theme was going to be New Orleans,” McCaghren recalls. “Kirk did this huge mural and one of the scenes was a fellow playing a trumpet.” After the dance, the mural wound up in Varnedoe and McCaghren’s C Corridor triple. “We developed a thing where first we would throw darts [at it], using the trumpet as a bullseye. We quickly tired of that, and we started throwing hunting knives at it. We didn’t realize, of course, that behind the painting, the knives were making a giant hole in the wall.”

After he left St. Andrew’s, Varnedoe noted, he was on the hunt for “a place that had art. [But] I wanted a good liberal arts education, because my other strong suit was English.” He found his “good liberal arts education” at Williams College, where he promptly fell in love with a discipline that perfectly married his two strengths: art history.

“The thing I most treasured about Williams,” Varnedoe continued, “is that… it [had] a real ‘work hard, play hard’ ethic. I loved the rugby and football and drinking and dating as much as the other things that I did.” (He reportedly wore a suit made entirely of Budweiser beer labels—gifted to him by his older brother Gordon—to many a Williams party.)

“He was just a lot of fun,” McCaghren says. “I had a secondhand charmed life myself because of my friendship with Kirk.”

Varnedoe credited Williams art history professor Lane Faison for igniting his initial passion for the discipline. “What Lane did was to show me that I could use writing and verbal expression to do something with art—to put the two sides together— that art history would entertain both my interest in art and my interest in writing,” he recalled.

Varnedoe is remembered by many not for his ability to sketch, but rather for his much greater capabilities with language; he is described as being “disarmingly fluent.”

“Kirk’s delivery and energetic rhetoric were stunning, though he spoke with a bare minimum of notes— the scholar’s equivalent of working without a net,” noted Blake Gopnik (Adam’s brother) in a 2003 Washington Post remembrance. Varnedoe gave talks and lectures throughout his life—even up until the very end, when, in his last major public appearance, he delivered the National Gallery’s 2003 Mellon Lectures to “record-breaking crowds,” Gopnik said. “By the end, fans were waiting hours in line for a chance to hear him speak.”

One such person waiting in those lines: current Head of School Joy McGrath ’92, who, in 2003, was on the St. Andrew’s faculty. She remembers loading up a van with students on May 4, 2003 and driving to Washington, D.C.

“Our group was lucky to get seats in the main auditorium and were mesmerized by his talk,” McGrath says. “The lecture was a tour de force delivered extemporaneously as Kirk clicked through a carousel of slides with images of the art he was discussing. Neither the students nor I had ever seen anything like it for its brilliance and fluency. I still think about things I learned that day whenever I’m in a museum.”

After the talk, the St. Andrew’s students and their teacher approached Varnedoe and introduced themselves.

“His face broke into a huge smile,” remembers McGrath, “and after thanking us for coming, the first question he asked us was, ‘How is Coach Colburn doing?’ Since then I’ve often considered how exhausted Kirk must have been in that moment, and yet he asked for Bob Colburn, his football coach. It was a vivid illustration of how influential our coaches and teachers from St. Andrew’s are, no matter where our lives lead us.”

That he asked for Colburn makes sense for all who knew Varnedoe: his third lifetime passion was football, which he discovered at St. Andrew’s and played in college. “When we came [in as new students] in our IV Form year, Kirk was already there for early football,” McCaghren recalls. “Now, he was not invited to early football, but he wanted to play, and with his determination, he became a good player.” So much did he love the game that he spent the last spring of his life spending weekends in Central Park, coaching a flag football team comprised entirely of 8-year-olds.

“Kirk was a tackle and he was right in the middle of every play,” remembers SAS teammate Gardner Cadwalader ’66 P’00,’03. “Not a big man, but a tenacious, fiery spirit and tough as nails.”

Years later, when Varnedoe had established himself within the art world, Cadwalader caught up with his old friend. “Wonderfully, the same Varnedoe was right there in front of me,” he says, “ready to be put in the next play.”

That tenacity put Varnedoe in good stead as he entered the competitive world of art historical scholarship. (“Academics in general can be weirdly like the WWE,” Karmel notes, “where they pretend to throw each other around. How else are you going to get people to get all worked up about Jackson Pollock or Cubism?”) Following a year of post-grad teaching and coaching at Williams, he pursued a

Ph.D. in art history at Stanford under Rodin scholar Albert Elsen, ultimately collaborating with Elsen to produce a 1971 exhibition of Rodin drawings at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.—Varnedoe’s first major museum show.

Following Stanford, Varnedoe met his future wife, the sculptor Elyn Zimmerman. They “met cute” when Varnedoe wrote a rave review of Zimmerman’s photographs and drawings on view at the 1974 Whitney Biennial. He took teaching positions at Columbia University, then the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU. All the while, he was curating exhibitions at museums around the country: “Gustave Caillebotte” at the Houston Museum of the Fine Arts (a show said to have single-handedly resurrected the reputation of that Impressionist painter); a survey of late 19th-century Scandinavian painting at the Brooklyn Museum; and the blockbuster “Vienna 1900: Art, Architecture, Design” at MoMA.

Perhaps his first major experience with the contentiousness of the New York art world occurred while cocurating MoMA’s 1984 exhibition

“Primitivism in Twentieth-Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and Modern” with the museum’s thenchief curator of painting and sculpture William Rubin. Notes MoMA’s own archival description of the show: “‘Primitivism’... is best remembered not for the work it displayed, but for the criticism it inspired.” A review in the November 1984 issue of Artforum described the show as an “absolute repression of primitive context, meaning, content, and intention” and a display of “Western egotism still as unbridled as in the centuries of colonialism and souvenirism.” Despite, or because of, the show’s failings, some art historians say that the critical brouhaha surrounding “Primitivism” ultimately resulted in the development

Cartoon’s Varnedoe published in The Cardinal during his V Form year.

of new critical approaches to art history.

The show also solidified the bond between Varnedoe and Rubin, who later hand-picked Varnedoe to replace him as MoMA’s chief curator of painting and sculpture in 1988—a position described by The New York Times as “the most powerful curatorship in modern art”—at the ripe old age of 44.

Of course, there is no meteoric success without a comet’s tail of criticism, so it’s around this time that Varnedoe begins to collect detractors. Some MoMA colleagues were surprised that Rubin hand-picked his successor rather than conducting a formal search. Others wondered about Varnedoe’s art historical interests up to that point, which tended to focus on the 19th century—not ideal for a museum whose oldest piece dates to 1872. A third cohort of critics from outside the museum questioned Varnedoe’s approach. “My bent,” he explained in 1990, “is not theory first. It tends to be objects first. I’m suspicious of theory becoming a discipline unto itself. The result is you have very little time for the art that you’re supposed to be dealing with.”

You might call Varnedoe something of a “formalist”—formalism being an art historical approach that

prioritizes the examination of the material qualities and innovations of a given artwork itself over the social or historical frameworks surrounding the artwork’s creation. Formalism had dominated art history and criticism in the mid-20th century, but by the 1990s, “theory-first” was in vogue. Sometimes referred to as “the new art history,” this approach centered social history and various critical “lenses” (Marxism, feminism, semiology); attempted to deconstruct traditional art historical narratives; and elevated artists outside the traditional canon of art historical scholarship, with a particular focus on art by women and people of color. Formalism, meanwhile, had become “tarred by its association with the corporate and political establishment that had embraced abstract art as a symbol of American democracy,” notes Karmel in a 2003 Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society article.

Into this fray stepped Varnedoe, at the curatorial helm of a museum that, at the time, couldn’t make anyone happy.

“There was a great deal of antagonism towards the Museum of Modern Art,” Karmel explains. “There’s a kind of art-world leftism that’s opposed to the Museum of Modern Art on principle, because its board members are filthy rich capitalists. MoMA was the great

symbol of the establishment, and clearly its agenda must be to further the domination of capitalism.” On the other side of the turnstile, but with somewhat similar complaints, were those who favored previous iterations of the MoMA: smaller, quieter, more thoughtful. In 1983, writes The New York Times culture reporter William Grimes, MoMA had reopened after a renovation that doubled its gallery space, transforming the museum from a “temple of ‘difficult’ art” into what some saw as a “shopping mall, a noisy gathering place where the semicultured can perform the self-affirming rituals of art consumption.”

“Kirk became the lightning rod for all that criticism,” Karmel says. “Criticism of the Modern, and everything that was bad [about it], became criticism of Kirk. He felt perpetually under siege.” For the first few years of his appointment, he declined all interview requests—only, that is, after agreeing to be photographed in an expensive suit by celebrity photographer Annie Liebowitz for an ad campaign for Barney’s, and subsequently experiencing an enormous amount of mockery in art world circles. (Varnedoe was not paid for his “endorsement”— the ad campaign was meant to benefit a homeless advocacy organization.)

Kirk Varnedoe (left), Director, Department of Painting and Sculpture, and Adam Gopnik, Art Critic, The New Yorker, installing the exhibition, “High and Low: Modern Art and Popular Culture.” October 1990. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Department of Communications Records, II.B. 2577. The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York

© THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART LICENSED BY SCALA / ART RESOURCE, NY

Even with the myriad challenges facing him, Varnedoe’s devotion to the magic of art never faltered. In fact, it’s probably what saw him through it all—though his “tenacious, fiery spirit” didn’t hurt. By all accounts, he simply put his head down, got to work, and stuck to what he believed. By some accounts, he saved the museum in the process. First, slowly but surely, he won over many of his internal doubters. “He was not just a great curator, but a good human being and a good manager,” says Karmel, who co-curated a 1998 Jackson Pollock retrospective with Varnedoe. “There was this wonderful feeling of being a team, and that everybody’s opinion was valued. Kirk really cared about people.”

By the time Varnedoe left MoMA in 2001, he had curated further blockbuster shows (Cy Twombly; Jasper Johns; “High and Low,” which examined the relationship between early modern art and pop culture); reinstalled the museum’s collection; and expanded its post-1960 collection. In so doing, he “created a broader public understanding of modern art,” wrote Michael Kimmelman in Varnedoe’s obituary in The New York Times

“He progressively turned what had been a hard and narrow view of

the course of modern painting and sculpture, focused almost exclusively on France and then the United States, into a more flexible and inclusive narrative,” Kimmelman wrote. “His installations gave new prominence to Russian, German, and Italian art before the war, and to a wide array of art since 1960, including art by women. The galleries were literally opened up so that they were no longer arranged as an inescapable sequence of rooms dictating a single story. It was a judicious, diplomatic reappraisal, not a drastic overhaul, reflecting his personality. Naturally, conservative critics and more radical revisionists fumed anyway, but the changes have come to be widely accepted and imitated.”

Some suggest that Zimmerman, Varnedoe’s wife, was the inspiration behind his innovative Artist’s Choice series, in which a working artist creates an exhibition by selecting pieces from the museum’s permanent collection. “We have to recognize that a crucial part of the modern tradition is the creative response of artists to the works of their peers and predecessors,” Varnedoe said at the time. “I would really like the public to see the collection through the eyes of the people to whom it means the most.” The series is now in its

fourth decade, and some say it helped reconnect MoMA to the contemporary art world.

There are other remnants of his legacy for those who wish to dive in. In addition to countless journal articles, exhibition catalogues, and A Fine Disregard: What Makes Modern Art Modern, a collection of essays published in 1990, Varnedoe’s Mellon Lectures were also collected into a book and published posthumously as Pictures of Nothing: Abstract Art Since Pollock

“There are an endless number of reasons why I’m sad that Kirk died so young,” Karmel says. “I loved knowing him. He was a big part of my personal life as well as my professional life. But I’m sorry he died when he did because the art world has gotten to be a nicer place. It’s gotten to be more like what he dreamed of. The division between the critical-theory people and the more empirical, formalist people— that antithesis has largely dissolved. Twenty, thirty years ago, we [were] at loggerheads. Now it’s like ‘Okay, we have different approaches, but we can sit down and have a beer and a conversation.’ I just wish that Kirk had lived long enough to see this truce, enjoy it, and be a part of it.” J

Scott Burton (left) and Kirk Varnedoe in the garden with works from the exhibition “Artist’s Choice: Burton on Brâncuși” in Spring 1989. The Museum of Modern Art. Color print, 3 7/16 x 4 7/8" (8.8 x 12.4 cm).

Scott Burton Papers, II.155. The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York

© THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART LICENSED BY SCALA / ART RESOURCE, NY

From the Archives

“For the first time ever, St. Andrew’s School will devote a day in the Spring specifically to the appreciation of the arts. It is hoped that this day will bring the families and friends of students together to enjoy such things as music, prose and poetry, painting and sculpture, as well as shopwork, all of which will be produced by the boys. ‘Arts Day’, as it will be called, will give those who attend a chance to appreciate and evaluate the creative work done by SAS students.”

—from the front page of The Cardinal, dated March 14, 1970, which announced the newly created Arts Day. The founding of Arts Day, now Arts Weekend, is credited to former Arts Department Chair Larry Walker and arts instructor Eleanor Seyffert, St. Andrew’s first full-time woman faculty member.

Items of Interest (clockwise from left)

The March 14, 1970 issue of The Cardinal announcing the founding of “Arts Day”; the May 30, 1969 memorandum announcing the plan to combine the Music and Art Departments and Shop into the Communicating Arts Department; Guide to Arts Day from the First Annual Arts Day program; cover artwork for the first annual Arts Day.

Alumni Reflection

Bill Amos on My Shoulder

by George Mitchell ’55

Recently, George Mitchell ’55 has been thinking about life, and the many influences of St. Andrew’s on it. Following is an excerpt from his writings in tribute to science teacher Bill Amos. Mitchell hopes this excerpt encourages other St. Andreans to think about the St. Andrew’s influences still present in their own lives.

Bill Amos made a tremendous difference in my life. From helping me discover my deep curiosity for nature and aptitude for engineering, to teaching me photography, and so much more. I thought of this recently while lying on my stomach on the side of our dock near sunset on a cool November day, only wishing Bill (Bugeye) was there to answer the questions that kept coming into my mind.

We have a waterfront home in Maryland. About five years ago we encountered a retired Navy captain who sold oyster farms—or actually, the makings of the floating caged habitats that could be attached to a dock so that as the tide went up and down, the small oysters inside would constantly be turned over. A single oyster can filter 20 gallons of water a day. Besides being an important environmental contribution, it was a good business deal: buy a farm for $500, get a $500 Maryland tax credit, and either provide 500 oysters to a state oyster bed or keep them off your dock. So, we got one pot, and then added a second the next year.

But when I turned 85, it appeared prudent to bring my oyster-farming days to an end. It was easy to use a line and boathook to guide the floats back near the shore, but opening the wire mesh was quite a task. I got one float open, then in chest waders was able to throw 500 small oysters out to where the hard mud is excellent for oyster growth. The heavier float with the older oysters was more of a challenge.

Starting to empty that float is where my thoughts of Bill flowed in. I know he would have loved to be right there with me, both for the marine experience and also to see my scientific mind still firing all these years later. The older oysters were sometimes 3" wide, 4" long and almost 2" deep; others were 1.5" wide, 4.5" long and 1.5" deep. Questions for Bill included: How big do oysters get? How long do they live? Will anything bad happen since I’m mixing big and small oysters in the same bed? What are these tiny crabs crawling over the oysters—do they survive the winter; do they become big blue crabs? Then I had questions about the barnacles growing on the oyster shells: Will they stay on

the shells no matter where the shells are moved? Will they die in deep, cold water?

With formations of Canada geese honking overhead, it was well after sunset before the last of the oysters were tossed into the oyster bed. Only if Bill could have been with me. Instead, I headed to the house, warmed up, and set about to research, just as Bill and St. Andrew’s taught me. I admit though, I got distracted remembering the other SAS masters and experiences that made such a difference in my life. J

George’s full essay will be cataloged in the SAS Archives.

Alumni Books

SEVENTY-FIVE: CONNECTIVITY THROUGH THE AGES BY TERRY

WILD ’65

Terry Wild ’65 on being 75: “Becoming 75-years-old was, for some reason, a revelation. It crept up on me. It was challenging to my post-polio syndrome mobility and creative intuition. The desire to be ‘out and about’ was diminishing. ‘In and around’ was manageable. I have reached a time of transition between birth and death. Then, unexpectedly, Lori Joseph called me to wish me a happy birthday. Lori is a work associate, friend, and writer/poet. She suggested we generate a project together—a picture a day up to 75 for which she would create a poetic union. Despite physical limitations, the idea ignited acceptance in me.

“As long as I can remember, the visual world has been my teacher. People, places, and things have become my life observations. Technology has developed to the point at which my iPhone is a simple tool to qualitatively harvest all that reveals itself. At 75 years of age, the tendency is to deal with each day as different and potentially your last. As a result, the commonplace can become complex and symbolic. Pictures can become much more than what they appear to be. Accompanied with metaphorical expressions, the combination can transport the viewer to a higher level of understanding. With our exchange, Lori has somehow been able to compose words that bring associative insight to each image. Her unique perceptions helped me find deeper meaning with each image. She confirmed and renewed my belief that images can help us have reflections about a more attentive world. Lori’s inspired perceptions have brought this project to wonderful heights.”

LIGHT UP THE GRIND BY RICHARD EVERTS ’96

In Light Up the Grind, Richard Everts ’96 talks long-term fulfillment. Infusing his own life lessons and experiences with success and failure, this short memoir takes self-help to different heights. Everts provides humorous pop-culture insight to dealing with real-life struggles. Everts’ advice ranges from why adults should still believe in Santa Claus to how the secret to a loving marriage is in having separate bathrooms. Light Up the Grind is an intellectual and insightful collection that pulls you in with its simplicity and leaves you with an unexpected deep understanding on life, love, and the grind.

TEURITH OF LORING BY KOREN COWGILL ’87

Two girls in two different lifetimes face challenges far beyond their years: from a magical evil with roots in the past to a secret love with unforeseen consequences.

From Koren Cowgill ’87: “As I grew up reading and loving Tolkien and other high-fantasy novelists, I always wanted to write a fantasy story of my own. For a long while I wasn’t able to, didn’t have it in me. After I finished the first novel I felt somewhat comfortable sharing with the public, I had the idea for Teurith of Loring

“I am not much of a planner—that rarely works for me. I intuit most things, and that probably isn’t the ‘proper’ way to write. I let the characters do what they please and they guide me through the story. This is also true with Teurith of Loring. The characters are painfully human at times, and face issues that many of us have dealt with such as mental illness, abandonment, child abuse, loss, and hopelessness. But there are also moments of great joy and love, triumph, and compassion.

“When I write fiction I write many drafts. And the work is still never finished; I am never satisfied. The constant tinkering could go on forever. At some point though, you have to let it go and move on to the next.

“My most important reason for writing, however, whether it’s music or fiction, is because I must. When I neglect the creative urges that stir in my gut, I make everyone around me nutty. Creativity is necessary and cathartic for me, a means of exorcizing demons and staying sane.”

REASSEMBLED BY TILDEN DAVIS ’10

Reassembled is not a “how-to” book, but a book about finding your own extraordinary light within. This inspiring story ignites the mind, heart, and soul, and reminds all readers that our worst life-shattering moments may actually reshape us into the most beautiful version of our truest selves.

From Tilden Davis ’10: “Over the last year I have been working hard on self-publishing my memoir, Reassembled: Unlocking the Extraordinary Within, which I was eager (and a little nervous) to put out in the world. As attending St. Andrew’s was pivotal to my personal growth, it is of course a part of my book. Will Speers was also kind enough to write an endorsement that is included in the first pages!” •

Can’t Help But Connect

1 SAS faculty member Melinda Tower P’26, Treava Milton ’83, and Stacey Duprey ’85 at SAS last fall. 2 On a recent road trip from Maryland, Chuck Shorley ’71 (right) stopped in Louisiana and met up with Andy Ringle ’66 3 Members of the Class of 1981 Scott Sipprelle, John Paradee, Karl Saliba, and Fred Townsend at Game 3 of the World Series. 4 1982 classmates at the University of Delaware Homecoming last fall (l. to r.) are J.W. Clements, John Buda, and Peter Orth, with Steve Hart ’81 and his wife, Amy. 5 2021 classmates Andrew Mitchell, Tyler Wood, Matthew Mitchell, Matthew Kijowski, Arvin Vanikar, and Caden Wood returned to SAS over the holidays. 6 Alison (Amos) Muller ’78 (center) met up with Greg Tonian ’78 and his wife Laurie when Greg and Laurie were visiting Fripp Island in South Carolina, where Alison lives. They hope to see many more classmates at the SAS Reunion in June. 7 1983 pre-reunion reunion with Sarah Stivers, Nancy Beth (Soles) Garrett, Jill (Phillips) Rogers, and Marnie Stetson 8 Friends for 40 years, Michael Whalen ’84 and Will Wrightson ’84 P’22,’25 caught up at Michael’s studio in New York. 9 SAS besties Erica Stetson ’85 and Anne (Gammons) Crocco ’85 caught up in Providence, Rhode Island. 10 Mike Fallaw ’90 and Tim Gibb ’90 resumed their winter ski adventures after a two-year COVID-induced hiatus, reporting, “We made a trip to Whistler and were blessed with snow and sun.” 11 Erin Tarasi ’95 shares, “Edward Jones ’95 and I went for a hike while he was visiting Los Angeles. We had a wonderful time catching up!” 12 Childhood friends Claire (Foster) Avett ’99 (left) and Bernadette Devine ’99 (right) reconnected during their children’s camp carline. Avett boys in the back. 13 Holly (Austin) Fling ’97 (center) got to hang out with Wes Fling ’93 (left) and Manuel Fullana ’93 (right) in Puerto Rico last fall. Holly and Penn (Graves) Lunger ’98 recently attended a Carolina Hurricanes game. (Side note: Holly and Penn go running together every Wednesday morning.) 14 Liza Court ’06 came by campus with her husband, Tom, and daughter, Astor, last fall and ran into Stacey (Williams) Duprey ’85, Liza’s senior dorm parent. •

Class Notes

1953

Class Agent Tom Quirk rounded up this news:

Charlie Pickett moved to South Carolina near Myrtle Beach and reports that he is no longer known for his biceps.

Art Wright keeps active rowing, and continues to work offshore—and has two projects off Papua, New Guinea coming up.

Dave Giammattei reported that while he expected to pass three years ago, he is still hanging on. Way to go, Dave!

Harrison (aka Wedge) Owen is living in Maine. He visited Beijing six years ago, and since then, thanks to Covid and Zoom, has been engaging with colleagues around the world and writing. Having published 12 books, he finds himself concentrating on short pieces which he finds to be more fun and equally challenging. “Life has been very full and rewarding,” he says.

“Your humble Scribe [Tom Quirk] is living in an assisted living facility in Massachusetts close to my eldest son. Old age is not for the faint hearted!”

1956

Hank Price, J.D. Quillin, and Tom O’Rourke were on campus last May to check on Noxontown Pond. Class Agent Tom reported to his class: “We met our new Head of School Joy McGrath ’92 and took a close look at the condition of Noxontown Pond. Joy shared the work that goes into keeping the pond healthy. Every year the school treats the pond to keep invasive weeds from choking out the natural flora. A riparian buffer has been planted along the shoreline, especially near the farm areas to mitigate run-off. Two years ago, the bulkhead along the campus waterfront was replaced. We all approved of the efforts. We then spent time along the Pond’s edge, recalling days gone by and asking questions of Joy about the state of the school today, before heading to historic Odessa for lunch at Cantwell’s Tavern.”

1957

Class Agent George Brakeley sends this Class report:

“Our 65th Reunion attendance in June did not set any records—only Mike Bateman, Bev and Jack Kramer,

and Mike Quillin were on hand, the other ‘regulars’ having had one conflict or another. Hardly skipping a beat, however, Tim Bloomfield promptly proposed a gathering in September in Annapolis.

“Our mini-reunion in Annapolis was a great success, thanks to good work by Tim and (mainly Susan) Bloomfield. On hand were Bev and Jack Kramer, Janet and John Cogswell, Tamara and George Brakeley, Tim and Susan, Mike Bateman and Sam Wyman. We stayed at the Annapolis Waterfront Hotel (Marriott), whence the Bloomfields picked us up in their boat early Monday evening to take us up the Chesapeake Bay to Cantler’s Seafood Restaurant for a sumptuous but messy feast (mainly blue crabs) and back—a beautiful evening cruise. Sam was with us only for the dinner.

“Next morning, we met at a famous local restaurant location, Chick & Ruth’s Deli, for brunch, followed by walking around downtown Annapolis, including the historic State House and other buildings, while some of us toured parts of the Naval Academy. Later in the afternoon we took a sailing tour around the Bay on the Woodwind Schooner, followed by a delightful dinner hosted by Tim and Susan at the Annapolis Yacht Club. On Wednesday, while the Cogswells departed early for Wyoming, the Kramers, Brakeleys,

’84

p 1956 classmates Hank Price, J.D. Quillin, and Tom O’Rourke with the plaque recognizing their creation of the Davis A. Washburn ’44 Endowment for Noxontown Pond, which was established at their 50th Reunion in honor of their class advisor to promote the long-term health of Noxontown Pond.

p Jay Walker ’84, Philip Oechsle ’84, Mike Loessner ’84, Jay Gerner ’83, and Bert Rosas ’84 all showed up for Homecoming last fall, and paused for this group photo on their stroll down memory lane.

and Mike enjoyed a brunch at Tim and Susan’s lovely waterfront home in nearby Sherwood Forest, a quietly elegant gated community. The proverbial good time was had by all. All credit to Susan and Tim for the idea and the planning of a grand event!

“Shortly after the event, Mike Bateman wrote to us: ‘For those of us who have been able to be more active, it has been a joy to get to know and appreciate one another far better than we ever did while attending St. Andrew’s. Speaking for myself, I’ve been so impressed by the quality and kindness of all, and consider it a privilege to have been able to build deeper, richer friendships with some of you. Having said that, for those who were unable to make our minireunion, I think it was our best ever. While I doubt that we will ever be able to surpass this event, for those of you

who weren’t able attend, you missed a wonderful experience and might want to make every effort to show up for our next reunion. Sadly, our numbers might be diminished by then, but the group might be able to plan something creative along the lines of this past mini-reunion to spice it up.’

“Little did we know then that Mike Bateman had less than three months to live. Evidently things went rapidly downhill after our mini-reunion and he died in early December.”

1958

p (l. to r.) The Atalay Family—Bulent, Carol Jean, Zachary, Isabella, Michael, Amelia, Elizabeth, and Alexander Atalay, Jeannine Harvey, Delilah Harvey, Michael

As of February 2023, the Class of 1958 has had 28 monthly Zoom meetings. For many, they have invited SAS schoolmates from surrounding classes as well as special guests from other classes relevant to the topic at hand. Topics have included SAS First Girls and Coeducation; Dead Poets Society: The Movie vs. Our School Days; Jim Thomas’ Letters Home; Modern Maturity; Remembering Classmates; Non-Overlapping Magisteria (NOMA); Medieval Institutions and Social Media’s Threat to Democracy; Man, Machine, and God, based on a presentation at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. on AI; Pelé at St. Andrew’s; and ChatGPT. Special thanks to Bulent Atalay and John Hammer for being the Zoom masters. The Atalay family—Bulent ’58 and Carol Jean P’84 GP’16,’17,’19,’23, Michael ’84 and Elizabeth P’17,’19,’23, Amelia ’17, Alexander ’19, and

Zachary ’23 Atalay, and Delilah Harvey ’16—have been making up for lost time. Their post-pandemic family trips together have included Iceland, Boston, London, Portugal, Italy, Turkey, Mexico, and Malta.

In Palermo, Italy, the Atalay family met up with the Neil sisters Juliette ’16 and Anna Sofia ’19!

1960

Class Agent Brian Fisher and his wife Flo who live in Florida caught up with 1960 classmates in Maryland and Colorado. Brian reports:

“Charles Wayne and his wife Barbara, Woody Woodruff, Flo and I got together for lunch in Chevy Chase, Maryland. One discussion led to another and it turns out that both Charles and Woody have done a lot of summer reading and suggested a

’57 ’58 ’58

’58

p (clockwise, bottom left) Members of the Class of 1957 George Brakeley, Janet Cogswell, John Cogswell, Mike Bateman, Tim Bloomfield, Susan Bloomfield, Bev Kramer, and Jack Kramer. Photo by Tamara Brakeley.

Harvey, and Sophia Harvey.

p (l. to r.) Michael Atalay ’84 P’17,’19,’23, Zachary Atalay ’23, Alexander Atalay ’19, Anna Sofia Neil ’19, Juliette Neil ’16, Amelia Atalay ’17, and Bulent Atalay ’58 P’84 GP’16,’17,’19,’23 in Italy.

p John Hammer ’58, Bulent Atalay ’58, Victor van Buchem ’89, Chesa Profaci ’80, Mose Price ’59, Chip Hulick ’58, Brian Fisher ’60, George Brakeley ’57, Chuck Miller ’58, Mike Quillin ’57, Doug Pell ’58, Kris Atchley ’58, Tom Rightmyer ’57, Steve Washburne ’58, Kathy Hart ’85, Gordon Appell ’60, Pele, and Michael Atalay ’84

class Zoom call regarding what others were reading this summer as well.” The Class of 1960 had that Zoom meeting late last summer.

Flo and Brian Fisher then headed to Colorado and had a great visit with classmate Gordon Appell and his wife Teri, along with friends from Glastonbury, Connecticut, where the Fishers used to live. Brian connected old and new over lunch at the Denver Botanical Garden and then spent the afternoon with Gordon as he showed them some of the results of his work as the director of city planning for Denver.

1963

Eric Burkett was honored last June at the recent graduation party for graduating third-year medical residents at Monmouth Medical Center. “Five years ago, the chairman of the Department of Medicine asked me to come back and teach part time in the outpatient clinic. I thought it was a great opportunity and went back to teaching up to 40 hours a month since then. In 2020 I received the Attending Mentor award, this year [2022] the residents gave me

the Outstanding Attending award.” Congratulations, Eric!

1968

Ned Trippe reports, “The SAS world is shrinking. Maureen and I stopped into the newly opened Auberge Stanly Ranch resort in Carneros (about five minutes from our house), for a late nosh. We met a delightful young lady who is the director of wine and beverage. We chatted: How did you get to Napa, where are you from? And somehow college and high school came into play. East Coast upbringing and went to small school in Delaware. Yep, SAS. It was Jane-Paige D’Huyvetter ’04! What a treat and great fun. Glad to see SAS expanding its presence in the West, especially in Napa.”

1969

Classmates Rob Sides and Walt Greene caught up in Austin, Texas. Rob writes, “This has been an ongoing effort since our 50th Reunion [in 2019], from Texas to the Pacific Northwest, with one thing or another getting in the way numerous times since. We took a drive into the Texas Hill Country outside of Austin to visit a friend of Wally’s in Canyon Lake from when he lived there years ago. The friend’s place has a great view of the dam so we used that scene to commemorate. On the way home, we dropped the top and cruised more

of the Hill Country to stop for a beer at the classic Devil’s Backbone Tavern. Scott Beard and his wife Gaby from Stuttgart, Germany, and Dave Lyon and his wife Maureen from California also met up in Florence, Italy last spring.

Dave and Maureen were on a trip from Venice through Florence to Rome, and Scott and Gaby decided to try and meet them in Florence. It all worked out, and they met in Florence on April 28, did the museums and things in Florence on the 29th, and a tour through Tuscany including a

p Adam Waldron ’80, Meg (Wenzell) Waldron ’81, Suzanne (friend), Thomas Murray ’81, Lizzie (Bleke) Clark ’81, and Chris Clark in Cascais, Portugal

p Charles Wayne ’60 and wife Barbara, Woody Woodruff ’60, Flo and Brian Fisher ’60

p (front, l. to r.) Maria Bonaiuto (friend), Gordon Appell ’60, Flo Fisher. (back) Lou Bonaiuto (friend), Brian Fisher ’60 and Teri Appell

p Scott Beard ’69, wife Gaby, Dave Lyon ’69, and wife Maureen at the small private winery in the Chianti area where they had a great wine tasting.

p Rob Sides ’69 and Walt Greene ’69 in Canyon Lake, Texas

’81

fabulous wine tasting on the 30th. “All in all we had two great days together enjoying each other's company, Tuscan joie de vivre, and catching up with each other,” Scott says.

1981

Classmates Bret Peters, Meg (Wenzel) Waldron, Lizzie (Bleke) Clark and spouses, Adam Waldron ’80, and Chris Clark took a two-week trip to Portugal last October. They traveled to Porto, Santar, Coimbra, Lisbon, and Madeira Island. They rendezvoused with classmate John Cullen for an exhilarating day and delicious dinner in Porto, and also had a wonderful visit with classmate Thomas Murray in his beautiful hometown of Cascais.

Heidi Crockett received the Yankee Small College Conference (YSCC) Coach of the Year Award for 2022. During her almost decade as head women’s soccer coach at

New Hampshire Technological Institute, Crockett won the YSCC Championship four times in her tenure (2014, 2016, 2017, 2018), including an undefeated season in 2018. She has led NHTI to three USCAA National Championship Appearances (2016, 2017, 2018) as well as been a two-time YSCC Coach of the Year (2017, 2018).

Gillian Davies, a senior ecologist and natural climate solutions specialist at Massachusetts engineering firm BSC Group, presented at the 14th Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar Convention), hosted by China and Switzerland and held in Wuhan, China, and Geneva, Switzerland. In Geneva, Gillian spoke about protecting the rights of wetlands in the context of how wetlands can help protect biodiversity and mitigate climate change. She also helped promote the certification of wetland scientists around the globe.

Todd Golde was named director for the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease and professor of pharmacology and chemical biology and neurology at Emory University’s School of Medicine.

1984

Maylene Hugh started a new position as business development, Medical BU at Ahlstrom-Munksjö.

1985

Michael Collins is the new chief executive officer at Adwerx.

1986

Charlie Crystle has started a new software company. Nudgebase is an automated platform that helps small businesses add recurring income through simple, automated customerengagement tools and programs.

1987

Clair Colburn presented at the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Academy of Architecture for Justice in Austin, Texas, last fall. Her work was titled “Inclusive Design: Policies, Neighborhoods and Judicial Centers.”

1988

Kathy Bunting-Howarth, associate director at New York Sea Grant, spoke at the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC. The

p Gillian Davies ’81 (left) joins fellow wetland scientists from the U.S. and U.K. who represented the Society of Wetland Scientists and the SWS Professional Certification Program and met with representatives of several governments as well as Ramsar Convention Secretariat staff.

p John Cullen ’81, Bret Peters ’81, Adam Waldron ’80, Lizzie (Bleke) Clark ’81, Meg (Wenzell) Waldron ’81, and Chris Clark in Porto, Portugal

p Friends gathered on the Eastern Shore of Maryland for a send-off for Gordon ’75 and Pam Brownlee P’05,’09,’14. (l. to r.) Elizabeth Shields, Louisa Zendt ’78 P’03,’05,’09, Bill Shields ’75, Kelly Showell, Harvey Zendt P’03,’05,’09, Tripper Showell ’75, Pam and Gordon, Jean Greenlee, Ian Brownlee ’73, Steven Brownlee ’77, Chris Walsh ’75, Denise Brownlee, Meg Walsh, and Bob Greenlee ’75 Photo by Janet (Brownlee) Luke ’79.

1988 classmates are in high gear anticipating their 35th Reunion. Julie Leopard ’88 and Jonathan Banks ’88 are making lots of ’88 connections. Julia connected with classmates during a summer road trip from Georgia to Pennsylvania, with stops along the way, and of course, at SAS!

1988 CONNECTIONS

1 Julie (Herbert) Leopard and Jonathan Banks 2 Julie and Denise (Stroud) Lanser 3 John Moore, Julie, and her son John Leopard 4 Julie, John, and Morgan Murray 5 Julie and Rob Timmons 6 Mary (Chilton) Unruh and Jonathan 7 Kathy Bunting-Howarth and Jonathan.

CAMPUS VISIT PROTOCOL

Driving through Delaware and want to come to campus?

Email or call the Alumni Office at (302) 285-4260 ahead of time so we can let security know you’re coming. We’d love to welcome you, walk around campus with you, answer any questions you might have about the current state of SAS, and, as always, hear your wonderful St. Andrew’s stories.

CAMPUS IS OPEN: COME SEE US!

session, hosted by the government of the Arab Republic of Egypt, focused on initiatives to build on previous successes and pave the way for future ambition to effectively tackle the global challenge of climate change.

Steve Rao is serving as a member of the Political Analyst Team on PBS Carolinas, and will be an analyst on Black Issues Forum, and also appear in a new show, State Lines.

Oliver Wilcox is happy to share that he started a new position as senior advisor to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation of the U.S. Department of State.

1989

Wade Cooper had a “fantastic visit to SAS” with his daughter Gracie in January.

Allison HamiltonRohe is now the business development manager of strategic alliances at First Book. ’89

p Wade Cooper ’89 and daughter Gracie take a classic SAS selfie.

’88

p Steve Rao ’88 (center) on the set of State Lines

’88

1990

Adams Wood’s documentary, Hunger is Real: Voices of Western North Carolina, gives a look at the state of hunger in western North Carolina. It premiered at several regional film festivals in 2022, and was awarded “Best Short Documentary” at the Full Bloom Film Festival.

Catherine van Ogtrop is now the director of philanthropy with I C THAT: The Integrative Center for Trauma Healing, Advocacy and Transformation.

1991

Nick Messore started a new position as vice president of business development at Solirr.

1994

Dionne (Thomas) Pulcinella is happy to announce that she was recently elected to represent M&T Bank, serving on the board of trustees of The WorkPlace, a workforce development program based in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

1996

Mary Nicklin was published in National Geographic. The article, which appeared in January 2023, was titled “Can tourism help protect the iconic Mont-Saint-Michel?”

Congratulations to Bestie Bot cofounder Rich Everts for his first patent on a new AI and robotics architecture. The patent is titled “Localized Situational Intelligent Awareness from Multiple Sensor Types Through a 4-Dimensional State System.”

1999

Chucky Johnson is happy to report that he has started a new position as information technology support analyst at Grand Canyon Education, Inc.

2000

Nick Conell writes that he is now the US value and access transformation director at Amgen.

Morgan Scoville shared, “NAIS [National Association of Independent Schools] reached out to me this past December to ask if I would serve on their seven-person faculty for the Institute for New Heads [INH]. Of course, I accepted. I’ll have a seventh of the roughly 95 new heads in my homeroom cohort, and will meet with them every morning and at the end of the day. I will present to all seven homeroom cohorts as they rotate through each of the seven faculty members’ presentations.

“Led by an esteemed faculty, INH will focus on the following key topics: Working with your board and board chair; strategic planning and design; diversity, equity, and inclusion leadership; building and managing your teams; financial planning and sustainability; advancement and fundraising; enrollment management; legal support; and leading through a crisis. My presentation is titled ‘Entry Planning and Your First 12 months: Perils and Possibilities.’ I did the Institute for New Heads after my first year at Fay with about 95 other new heads and got a lot out of it.”

Caroline (Salas) Gage has been promoted to head of the Americas at Bloomberg News.

Andrew DeSalvo shares that Kodi Shay visited him in Florida in January, demolishing Andrew’s 6-year-old son Brayden in every sport that they played but also graciously allowing Andrew’s 6-month-old daughter Rose to play with his beard after her baptism, which was performed by his father and former faculty member Reverend David DeSalvo P’00,’04

2002

Henry Palmer reports that he raced at the Head of the Charles this fall in a Senior Masters Eight for North Dakota Indoor Rowing Team NDIRT, and then in the Parent Child 2x with son Callum, who was “youngest-ever HOCR competitor.”

2003

Tyler Grove announces that he has joined the partnership at Hughes Hubbard and Reed LLP.

2005

Monique McDermoth-Grimes started a new position as physician at MidAtlantic Permanente Medical Group/ Kaiser Permanente.

Alicia (Repeczky) Smart is now partner manager, advertising business development at Spotify.

2006

Nancy Graves has joined PwC Ireland as a senior associate, and is excited to dive back into recruitment.

p Henry Palmer ’02 with his son Callum at the Head of the Charles. Photo credit: Sport Graphics.

p Kodi Shay ’00 visited with classmate Andrew DeSalvo, shown here with Andrew’s daughter Rose and son Brayden.

Mac McCallum has taken on a new role at Pace Academy: director of admissions and financial aid.

In 2022 George Toothman became a registered associate at Morgan Stanley, Private Wealth Management in San Francisco, where he’s been enjoying time with his siblings in the Bay Area and checking out local sights and hikes.

2007

Shabazz Stuart was named in New York’s City and State Transportation Power 100 list. “My dream as a boy in Brooklyn was to be a bus or subway operator. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would make it onto lists like these alongside fellow New Yorkers of this caliber.”

Shabazz also reports that his company Oonee was part of a team that installed New York’s newest secure bike parking station at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Bus Terminal. This was the first of their newest generation of infrastructure, which will soon provide 20 free parking spaces to commuters and the general public on a 24/7 basis. “Brick by brick, we are bringing a green mobility network to New York and New Jersey,” he says.

Eloise Repeczky is the new executive director of the Windy Hill Foundation, which provides safe, decent, and affordable housing to low- and lower-income individuals, families, older adults, and adults with disabilities in Loudoun and Fauquier

Counties in Virginia and encourages self-improvement and self-sufficiency among residents. Specific resident programs include after school academic and social programs for children, including summer camp, tutoring programs, family programming, and personal enrichment, social, and health programs for both younger and older adult residents.

2008

Ruby Cramer is now national political enterprise reporter at The Washington Post Esi Hutchful is senior policy analyst at the Center for the Study of Social Policy, a national, nonprofit public policy, research, and technical assistance organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in New York City and Los Angeles.

June Koo shares, “I ran into Bayly Buck ’07 at the law firm cafeteria a few weeks ago. I hadn’t seen her since she graduated in 2007, 15 years ago. Turns out we are both lawyers at the same firm. We both kind of did a double take and then grabbed coffee that afternoon and had a long catch-up chat.”

2009

Hayley Swan has been promoted to senior director of corporate partnerships at the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Mary Shea (Valliant) Watson started as senior copywriter last fall at Willow Tree in Charlottesville, Va.

2011

Taylor Cameron ’90 visited Kervin Zamora in his hometown of Groningen in the Netherlands to witness Kervin’s naturalization ceremony as a Dutch citizen. Kervin is currently living in Groningen, teaching at Hanze University, and coaching a professional women’s futsal team.

2012

Cesca Fleischer is head of marketing at Evervault in London.

2013

Will Hughes is now the product lead at Rippling.

2016

Neel Puri is a private equity associate at Apollo Global Management, Inc.

2017

Max Mayer is project coordinator at Locarno Legacy.

2020

Blake Hundley and his W&L fraternity connected with a mobile food pantry in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian last fall to deliver food and water to elderly residents of Daytona without electricity. His days leading the SAS cross-country team came in handy as he went up and down the highrise staircases with supplies.

Billy Ewles is an incoming avionics intern at SpaceX. •

WE LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!

We hope you’ll share any news from the small to the large—including news of your recent alumni meetups (including virtual gatherings!); job changes and professional achievements; recent travel; weddings and new additions to your family; acts of service, and anything else you want to let us know!

HOW

www.standrews-de.org/connect

p Kervin Zamora ’11 and Taylor Cameron ’90 at Kervin’s naturalization ceremony as a Dutch citizen.

Saints Babies

1 Anna (Hickman) Shiroma ’02 and her husband, Alex, welcomed their second child, Kai Joseph, in January. Big sister Lily already loves her baby brother! 2 June Koo ’08 shared this photo of her daughter, Lou Reedy, born November 2021.

3 Frederic Gunnemann ’07 and his wife, Marie-Louise, announce the birth of their second son, Conrad, born on March 17, 2022.

4 Matthew Roach ’04 and his wife, Kate, welcomed Wolf Rogers Roach on January 27, 2023. Wolf poses here in front of Matt Westman (baby’s uncle) SAS artwork! 5 Chris Speers ’07 reports, “Lucas Francis Speers was born on Monday, February 27, coming in at 6 lbs., 14 oz. and just under 19 inches long. His older brother Mateo’s face says it all! Colburn has already made a scouting visit, and we’re confident Lucas will be able to get some cuts in before the Cardinals home opener.”

Saints Get Married

1 Frederic Gunnemann ’07 married MarieLouise on September 10, 2022, in Herford, Germany. (l. to r.) Alfons Gunnemann ’73 P’07,’09, Will Speers P’07,’09,’13, Julius Gunnemann ’09, Frederic, Henry Toothman ’07, Marie-Louise Gunnemann, Robert Bryan ’07, Christopher Hildebrandt ’08, and Penn Daniel ’07. 2 Kevin Dowling ’12 and Rachel Fogel were married at Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh on October 8, 2022. Michael Ding ’12, (right), Kevin’s four-year roommate at SAS, was a groomsman in the wedding party. 3 Abby (Westcott) Stauffer ’08 and Matt Stauffer were married on July 3, 2022, in Chittenden, Vermont. Henley Cox ’08 and William Heus ’08 were in attendance.

4 Vivian (Smith) Michaels ’09 and Nick Michaels were married on Sunday, July 17, in West Hartford, Connecticut.

5 Elizabeth Wolinski ’09 married Santchai Crawford at President Lincoln’s Cottage in Washington, D.C., on October 15, 2022.

Matthew Wolinski ’00 officiated the ceremony. (front, l. to r.) Emma Van Wagenberg ’09, Kasey (Christiansen) Cunningham ’09, Sadie Hammond ’09, Elizabeth, Santchai, Katie (Wolinski) Coombes ’02, Sarah (Bowers) Hensley ’00, Dr. Mary Vaughn Moor ’99, Katie Lillard ’05, Jenn Wilson ’03. (back, l. to r.) Nick Watson ’11, Mary Shea (Valliant) Watson ’09, Jessica Yanez ’09, Brendan Crosby ’08, Chris Burton ’08, Derin Akintilo ’09, Tim Merlino ’09 (Sara Khan ’09 hidden in back), Matthew Wolinski ’00, and Kodi Shay ’00. •

2

4

1

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In Memory

ALUMNI REMEMBRANCES

1957

MICHAEL K. BATEMAN Bloomfield Hills, MI 12/10/2022

“Mike and I were 14 when we first met. We ended up in the East Dorm. Mike had a certain confidence in the whole thing because his older brother Larry had given him the low down from prior SAS experience. Mike became friends with everyone, and was admired for his athletic talents: football, basketball, tennis, and baseball. We were roommates in the IV Form.

“Every time we went home or came back, we were on the same train together, allowing us to discuss all aspects of school life including the possibility that we could spend the summer together. Our V Form year, I introduced my dad to Mike and he said to invite him to work at the ranch the following summer, and so Mike came to the T Bar Ranch the following summer. We were put to every job that was possible, including early rising, putting up hay, fixing fences and windmills, riding horses, gathering and loading cattle, and so forth. I had no brothers, and Mike became like a brother. He was special. He was the only friend from SAS who knew our family and lived the life common to rural people in western Kansas. He had stories to tell others at SAS as we helped manage the school as Prefects our senior year.

“Mike went to Brown and frequently stopped by to see me at Yale. Several times we got in his old car and drove to Poughkeepsie or some other place to go see girls at a dance. One time his car quit on the way home. We started a fire beside the road and talked all night. Our conversations were extensive on all kinds of subjects. I was overwhelmed that he did not graduate from Brown but nonetheless got a job with Arthur Andersen to help with its

computers. This experience put him in the right place at the right time to the end that he likely did better than any of us in accumulating friends, computer know-how, and wealth.

“Mike drove almost everywhere he went, usually to see his children far away from California. He always stopped at my home in Buena Vista, Colorado, to spend the night and catch up on what was going on with the political situation and other issues. We were both good Republicans. Later, during a class Zoom session in early 2022, we all took a deep breath when he told us he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and had maybe a year to live. I called him and told him he had to recover because I could not lose the brother I had adopted in 1954. My tears flowed unseen during this call, though the inflections of my punctuated words betrayed me.

“During our reunion in September in Annapolis, Maryland, we all took a sailboat ride out in the Bay. Mike sat by himself in the bow, clearly reminiscing about his life. I could not help but think that Saint Paul was right when he said, ‘As the outward man perishes, the inward man is renewed day-by-day.’ I knew Mike’s time was coming. When his wife Chris called to tell me he was about to pass, I said a few things to him that he likely did not understand. I could only think he was a monument in our class, always had a smile for everyone, and was more loyal to our class than anyone. I could only think of our many conversations and, to this day, he is still with us. And the rest of us are not far behind.” —JOHN

COGSWELL ’57

“We all have admirers, and we all have our nay-sayers, but some people simply have no enemies, and Mike Bateman was one of those. At SAS, he was admired and respected, not only for his remarkable athletic talents but also for his quiet but steady leadership. Mike and I were not really close when we were at SAS, but he never missed

a reunion, and our friendship ripened through those intermittent gatherings and in between by phone. Mike let us know in his typically undramatic way about this illness. I recall thinking, ‘Hey, did I hear right? Pancreatic cancer?’ From then on he was positive, cheerful and determined to beat the disease, but, alas, he did not. When we had our mini-reunion in Annapolis in September, he drove all the way from and to his home in Michigan a mere three months before his death without complaint. I suspect it was not easy for him, but he was determined to join us. Such was his commitment to St. Andrew’s and our class.” —GEORGE

BRAKELEY ’57

“Mike always impressed me as someone who kept moving forward, no matter what. He showed this marvelous character trait so clearly this summer when, knowing he was dying, he chose to drive to/from Annapolis to be with his classmates/friends one last time. I shall never forget the private words he spoke to me that evening.”

SAM WYMAN ’57

“I think we can say of Mike: he had ‘a good life, well and fully lived.’ He was a really great guy; I didn’t know him very well at SAS, except as a bright spirit, gifted athlete and all-around good guy. I was happy I got to know

MIKE BATEMAN, MIDDLE, WITH COACHES CHES BAUM AND DAVE WASHBURN

him better as a result of our various reunions.” —TIM BLOOMFIELD ’57

“I met Mike and his brother LARRY ’55 at the Wilmington depot in September, 1953. We met up to be driven, in a pickup, to the school, and I drew the short straw so I sat on laps. Mike turned up in the East Dorm, across from my cubicle, as did Cogswell—three fellows from the West. He was a great athlete and a good friend. Requiescat in pacem.” —JERRY WIGGLESWORTH ’58

Touching sentiments also poured in from TOM RIGHTMYER ’57, JOHN RANCK ’57, BILL NUCKOLS ’57, MIKE QUILLIN ’57, and PIERRE GOIRAN ’57.

1960

LAURENCE L. FITCHETT

Wilmington, DE 5/9/2022

“Larry was a friendly and funny guy. For those of you who can still remember, Larry organized a beach weekend for some of us after graduation, starting with lunch at Larry’s home then progressing to someone’s family place near Ocean City, Maryland. I found out then that some teenagers snore like old men. I think some beer was consumed as well. Also, I seem to recall that the Rev. Hummell was involved somehow. Not for a church service—perhaps to cover for us? Larry was a wonderful classmate.”—BOB FAUX ’60

“I remember Larry as the running back on the Saint’s football team, who was so reliable that we called him ‘horse.’ He was funny and always friendly.”

GORDON APPELL ’60

“Larry was hard to tackle. He just kept trucking, not fast, just kept moving. I looked back at the reports we wrote about ourselves in 2010 for our 50th Reunion. Larry said the following: ‘I remain forever grateful to St. Andrew’s and its community. The standards that enveloped me, a sense that one should aspire to the better way, have always been a significant support to me.’”

BRIAN FISHER ’60

JOHN S. HASSAN Albany, CA 12/5/2022

“I grew up hearing of St. Andrew’s. I almost feel as though I went there myself. My dad really liked continuing to be in touch with his classmates after all these years. I want to thank everyone who has reached out and shared their stories of their experiences with my dad. Hearing stories from others is the main way he is being kept alive for myself and my family, especially my daughter, who was the apple of his eye in his later years. My dad was so proud that Dead Poets Society was filmed at St. Andrew’s with the great Robin Williams. I can't tell you how many times he and I watched it. He would excitedly point out where the different movie scenes took place. And, of course, the icing on the cake was meeting Robin Williams in person and getting Robin to autograph his SAS Alumni Directory.” —DAUGHTER SARAH HASSAN

In August 2021, the Class of 1960 had a Zoom to discuss Dead Poets Society, parts of which, you well know, were filmed here at St. Andrew’s in the late 1980s. On that Zoom, John Hassan shared the story of how Williams came to sign his directory. John

had a chance meeting with the actor near John’s office at the University of California, Berkeley Library. John had the presence of mind (and organization) to grab his directory and have it signed.

1970

TIMOTHY G. BOBBITT

Charlottesville, VA 2/17/2022

“Tim had a kind heart, was creative and soulful, earnest and funny. Oh, and smart! He and Tree (our departed BRIEN DEERING) were the only two I knew who really did attend Woodstock, August 1969. Tim carried a nickname ‘LT,’ for ‘Lost Tim.’ I don’t think he was lost; he was exploring places where others were not. In this photo we engineered for the yearbook, a takeoff of the Wyeth mural, Tim is at the far right, with a pillow and squash racquet, and blowing out a candle. That day was the last time I saw him.”

—CHRIS CLEGHORN ’70

“I wanted to share a photo of Tim from SAS days. This one was taken in 1983 when I ran into Tim at the Corcoran Gallery in D.C. while there on business. Pure chance! We ended up spending the day together, carousing in D.C. bars with his girlfriend, and then going to see the movie The Big Chill. Tim was a consultant with a Republican lobbyist if I recall and thoroughly enjoying the Washington hustle and bustle.” —ALAN SIBERT ’70

YEARBOOK PHOTO SUBMITTED BY CHRIS CLEGHORN ’70 OF TIMOTHY BOBBITT ’70, FAR RIGHT

1971

MARK G. ABBOTT Berlin, MD 4/16/2022

“I thought it was worth the embarrassment to send along this picture of Mark Abbott and myself on our first day at SAS in 1966. Rest in peace, Mark.” —CHUCK SHORLEY ’71

1976

CHARLTON T. QUAILE Pittsboro, NC 11/18/2022

“The sudden passing of Charlton Theus Quaile is another reminder that our time here is so very tenuous. One of the greatest honors I’ve had in my life was serving as best man in my dear friend Charlie and his wife Wendy’s wedding some 40-plus years ago. He’s been a rock to so many, and an example to all: a true man of a rare mixture of strength and humility; humor and faith. As a co-wrestler at St. Andrew’s School and then UNC Chapel Hill, his positivity profoundly influenced both teammates and opponents. His respect for his opponent was legendary, extending so far as to at times rile our UNC coach. Charlie was born one day after me. We always spoke to each other on our birthdays. We once moved an older lady, as a favor, out of her apartment across from mine into assisted living, bumping purposely into

each other in the hallway for fun. We attended Gary Stalling’s evangelical ‘Word of Life’ church in Durham for a while. We prayed together a lot. When I once bought a new leather Bible, Charlie bit the binder to my astonishment, leaving permanent bite marks, and exclaiming, ‘A reminder to feed on every word of God!’ During a tough transition, Charlie would send me letter after letter of encouragement. At his memorial service, it was mentioned he did so for a myriad of others. His early morning hours were spent in active prayer and support of others. I’ve had many joyful stays with Wendy and the family on their picaresque little farm in Pittsboro. He encouraged me to go through Marine Corps Officer Candidate school, and I did so a year after him. I have never met anyone of greater character. He met every challenge with a caring, can-do attitude. After a morning bike ride this past fall, Charlie’s large heart beat its last on earth, and moved to an eternal rhythm, for which he’s always prepared. It will beat forever in the lives of his five children, and many grandchildren, but also in all the lives he touched and improved through his endless smile, encouraging words, and strong helpful hands. I will miss you, my friend. Thank you for the example of a life well-lived. You are with us always. I know you are at peace, and the world is a better place for your being in it. The following verse was written for him:

Resurgam

His smile will chase eternity, As waves a beach restore. Their teasing tips, Once kissed by moons, Soul deep the sands explore.

His grip’s a vice of God’s intent

Composing a fortress fired, Then designing channels, directing rains, To flow as God desired.

Of Fire and Water

A life was sewn, Twist the fabric of our being,

Threading heat of hope With refreshing flow, To visions beyond seeing.”

—BRENNEMAN THOMPSON ’78

“I remember his quick smile that lit up his face, his warm eyes that revealed such compassion, and his strong frame that was exceptionally skilled in wrestling moves. Charlie was a kind individual who I am certain lived a life full of integrity.”—MICHAELA

(PENNY) COLE ’76

“I remember Charlie as always having that impish smile on his face and being relentlessly kind. And back in the day, what a good wrestler. I have a very vivid memory of him. A loss indeed.”

—MARSHALL KENT ’76

“Whether running football drills, practicing wrestling takedowns–both with Coach Madigan yelling in the background—or fighting for cookies at break-time, Charlie always had unrelenting positivity.”—JIM

MCNAUGHTON ’76

“I spent so much of my time at St. Andrew’s with Charlie. We shared so many laughs and the bond that occurs when you compete in the athletic arena—wow was he a competitor! I will always consider him a brother because of how loyal and loving he was.” —ROB

SPENCE ’76

“My first introduction to Charlie was during football camp in August 1974. Weighing all of 120 pounds, I was given a blocking pad and told to stand in the secondary. The offense was running plays. Charlie cut through the line, bumping various defenders along the way. When he hit me, I must have flown 10 feet backward. It was one of those moments you don’t forget, and made me realize that tackle football wasn’t going to be my sport. Charlie of course came to be a wonderful friend and classmate. I loved watching him on the football field and the wrestling mat. He was a gentle beast.” —HEYWARD

ROBINSON ’76

“They didn’t come any nicer than Charlie. I called him a year ago to tell him he should have been tailback, not

ALAN SIBERT ’70, LEFT, AND TIMOTHY BOBBITT ’70

MARK ABBOTT ’71, LEFT, AND CHUCK SHORLEY ’71

fullback. We had a good chuckle.”

BRUCE ABBOTT ’76

“Charlie was kind and decent to everyone. He was the teammate I practiced with the most on the wrestling team. Had I been as good as him, I could have competed in his weight class, but had to bump up to a higher one. I last saw him in college in Blacksburg and didn’t get to know him in later life, which I regret.” —RUSS SALTER ’76

“I can still see him running the football.” —RICHARD CORNEY ’78

“I am blessed to have known Charlie. He was a true gentleman and the poster child for the word stalwart. Charlie was always reliable and could be counted on, both on his teams, and with his demeanor. I was amazed at his capability, especially when combined with his humility.” —PAUL RADA ’76

“Amazing athlete, and most of all, a real gentleman. His life touched all of us.” —RALPH HICKMAN ’76

“Charlie Quaile epitomized what is good in a ‘man,’ or is it ‘human?’ So many great qualities: great athlete, scholar and yet humble and with great empathy. A great leader and mentor for those younger than him.” —DOUG MOON ’79

“He was gentle, gracious, kind, and made us all better people for being in his orbit.” —TRISH MCGEE ’76

“Charlie had the best smile, and was nice to everyone—which frankly doesn’t always happen in high school. He was a talented athlete, and an allaround good guy.” —SUE MOON ’76

1987

KENNETH J. FRIEDLI P’20,’22,’25 Easton, MD 6/21/2022

“Ken’s sudden passing only six days after spending our 35th Class Reunion with him at St. Andrew’s in June was devastating. As we drove with him to SAS, we chuckled about mix tapes, the police car still parked at the end of Noxontown Road, and the massive development of Middletown. We laughed and reminisced as we meandered the corridors, sharing stories of our past and boasting about our children’s more recent accomplishments. Ken’s memorial service reflected how loved and respected he was in every aspect of his life: a great father and devoted family man, a successful and respected businessman, a loyal and irreverent friend. At Ken’s service, CORMAC [KEHOE] and J.C. [BRANNER] shared delightfully mischievous memories of Ken’s time at St. Andrew’s, truly summing up his honorable character and wicked sense of dry humor. Ken’s passing has hit us all hard, and as we continue to process his loss, our hearts are with his wife, Chris, and their children Josie, Parker, and Grayson. He is missed.” —CLASS OF 1987 CLASS AGENTS KIBBEY (PERRY) CRUMBLEY, KAREN PUPKE, AND JILL (WILLOCK) CARON

“Ken was my best friend while at SAS. I believe that my God puts gifts in my life and it’s my responsibility to receive them. Who Ken was shapes the man I am today: this is my gift. Thanks old buddy, I’ll never forget you.” —J.C. BRANNER ’87

Former Faculty/Staff

JOHN GARRICK, FORMER ENGLISH TEACHER Albuquerque, NM 12/28/2022

“A most brilliant man and the best teacher I ever had. Ever.” —KATHRYN NEVIN ’84

“Legendary!” —TRACY (RIDDLE) JOHNK ’80

“He was very influential to my life. Best and most favorite teacher I ever had.” —ANDY KELLY ’83

“He was my favorite teacher at SAS and an inspiration to many.” —JOHN BAHR ’83

“Sad to hear this. I lived next door to the Garrick family and played tons of wiffle ball with his kids.” —VICTOR VAN BUCHEM ’89

“Sometimes when we were having a class discussion, Dr. Garrick would stop and take a deep breath like what one of us had said was so profound, he was speechless. He made us feel brilliant even if we weren’t. He is a big reason why I majored in English in college and became an English teacher myself.” —ANNE (GAMMONS) CROCCO ’85

“He is indelible in my mind. He was brilliant, controversial, and his own person.” —JEFF LILLEY ’82

“I’ve thought about him so many times over the years.” —MARNIE STETSON ’83

“Taught my first classes in Jung and film (mini-term). Both lifelong studies and passions of mine.” —KEVIN GRANDFIELD ’82

“So many of us learned how to write and how to think more complexly because of him. It was a gift to be one of his students.” —STEPHANIE MARKUS ’81

“He was an inspiration to me.” ERICA ANNE STETSON ’85

“He made me love vocabulary. I remember vividly [the word] ‘Panache!’” —TERRY HEMPHILL ’80

JUDITH F. ODDEN P’86 Centerville, MA 9/2022

For two decades, Judy ran the St. Andrew’s School Store. From the book Time to Remember:

Upon her start in 1982, Judy transformed what for 50 years had been basically a bookstore in a dark basement into an SAS emporium to serve not only students’ basic requirements but their interests,

CHARLIE QUAILE ’76, LEFT, AND BRENNY THOMPSON ’78

hobbies, hunger, and ephemeral fashions.

Every Wednesday Judy went shopping for the SAS School Store, to Smyrna, Dover, and Elkton, Maryland, to get cookie mixes, cookies, instant soups, cocoa mix, microwave popcorn and much more. The school station wagon was loaded to the roof.

In stocking the store, Judy would put herself in a student’s place and think about what a teenager would need or want, things they might run out of and need immediately. As importantly, she also made the rounds of variety shops to find good prices and exciting and fun items students couldn’t find in Middletown or at the mall.

The store under Judy’s merchandising also helped promote a new school spirit by offering glassware, clothing, bags, and more, all with the SAS logo.

Her work also changed over those two decades. Many St. Andrew’s alumni remember giving Mrs. Odden their student ID number to write up a sales slip and then talley at the end of each day. By 2002, debit cards and accounting software were in place— much easier than memorizing new student account numbers and faces every year—which Judy championed and alumni still remember.

“Mrs. Big O was the best.” —ALFRED RAYNE ’84

“Her ability to remember everyone’s order! And she was so patient with us. I can remember her sympathetic smile as she told me, ‘Sorry, we’re out of Skor bars!’ before I even asked. The store was such a huge part of daily life at SAS, and she really made

it wonderful.” —CATHERINE (SOLES) POMEROY ’89

“She would have my snacks on the counter before I even told her my order. It was always a pleasure to go downstairs to see her.” —JIMMY BUTLER ’92

“A wonderful woman and a second mom in many ways to many people, including me.”—BILL BRAKELEY ’86

“She was so kind and calm to our frenzy, like another mom when ours were not around.” —HEATHER EVANS WILLIAMS ’94

“I loved the school store. Grateful for her role in making it what it is today.” —ESI HUTCHFUL ’08

“The first time I ever had a pop tart it came from the school store.” —KIBBEY (PERRY) CRUMBLEY ’87

“I have many wonderful Christmas ornaments made by Judy Odden. I am so happy to have known her.” —ANN (MATTHERS) TAYLOR ’86

“She was such a wonderful presence in our lives. I loved seeing her at the school store.” —PATRICK HAZELTON ’98

“Mrs. O had so much love and support for us, and the school store/mail stop was often a highlight of a day because of her.”

—LISA (RICH) MCIVOR ’93

“She was such a kind and warm light in my life at SAS.” —MARY (CHILTON) UNRUH ’88

“Such a loss! She was a comforting presence in my life. I used to stop by after graduation. I so enjoyed her company.” —KATHY BUNTINGHOWARTH ’88

“Judy faithfully slung Handi-Snacks and Sunkist orange soda my way for many years, without judgment.”

DAVE SKAFF ’93

“She was wonderful! She chose me and others to work behind the counter as our school job, and I was so flattered and amazed she thought I could manage the chaos. She was such fun to work with.” —BETSY (RIVINUS) DENNY ’93

“I loved working in the store with her. She was so kind and generous.” —KAY RHEE ’89

“Mrs. Odden was a wonderful, kind lady. I loved working in the school store for her, back when everything was written down. She was amazing.” —ANITA (PAMINTUAN) FUSCO ’86

“A legend has passed. I trust Mrs. O will remember my student number when I see her again; she always did. Godspeed.” —JEFF TRABAUDO ’88

“Although some may have thought she was reserved, Judy was a lovely lady with a marvelous, impish sense of humor. Wonderful memories of a good friend.” —MARY LOESSNER

Additional condolences poured in from HUGH LESSTER ’85, VAN ELY ’80, BRANDY (BENNETT) NAUMAN ’03, CHRISTINA (ROBBINS) CAIN ’90, TOMAS PUKY ’89, LISA HENSON, VALERIE (SMOOT) STEVENS ’84, STEFAN GRANITO ’86, FRAN ALTVATER ’87, JILL (WILLOCK) CARON ’87, DAWN HILLMAN ’86, BREFFNI KEHOE ’86, REYNOLDS LOCKHART ’91, PETER FALLAW ’86, PATRICIA (EVANS) DENZ ’94, CAMILLE CRANSON ’93, and ERIN (MAREK) YUN ’90.

ELEANOR “ELLIE” E. WASHBURN P’68,’71,’76,’82 Blue Hill, ME 8/25/2022

Ellie and Dave Washburn started out their married life at Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania and moved to St. Andrew’s School, where they lived and worked for 43 years. Ellie was a gracious hostess to all and she was a stand-in mother to legions of students. She worked for many years in the SAS Alumni Office and as the administrative assistant to the Headmaster.

JUDY AND TOM ODDEN WITH GRANDDAUGHTERS

JUDY ODDEN IN THE SCHOOL STORE

One of her favorite memories was hosting crew picnics for both the rowers and their parents in the backyard of their campus home on alumni point, now Brownlee Overlook. Her impact on students, faculty, trustees, and parents was so monumental that many of them were in touch with her throughout her life. Along with her positive spirit and wonderful sense of humor, she always had a kind word for everyone.

“Glad I got a chance to say hello on a Zoom call at a recent virtual reunion. I will always remember the advisee meetings at the house at Brownlee Overlook. Homemade pizza on a cold winter night. Anchovies as I recall. She was a real lady.” —CHUCK SHORLEY ’71

“She was a lovely, gracious woman, and I have many fond memories of her.” —ALISON (AMOS) MULLER ’78

“A lovely woman, with a generous heart and a beautiful warm smile.”

TERRY HEMPHILL ’80

“She epitomized graciousness and was truly the mom we all needed so far from home: no judgements, just refreshments and a warming smile to welcome us all.” —LETITIA (HICKMAN) GREEN ’80

“She was a wonderful woman who made everyone feel welcome. The crew picnics were always so great. We were so lucky to have her at SAS.” —SPUNK KUEHLWEIN ’82

“Denise Waite and I lived with the Washburns the first half of our III Form year while the girls’ dorms were being completed. An unforgettable time in our lives.” —ANDY KELLY ’83

“She was such a bright light! What an apt tribute to all she gave to SAS.”

MARNIE STETSON ’83

“What a wonderful, kind, gracious woman she was!” —CHRISTINA (ROBBINS) CAIN ’90

“What a warm and lovely lady she was! Her smile always made me feel so special.” —CATHY RAFAEL P’83

In Memory

1948

CRAIG ALDERMAN, JR. Lansdowne, Virginia May 3, 2022

DAVID S. HUMPHRIES McDonough, Georgia May 28, 2022

1949

PHILIP JOHNSON, JR. Santa Ana, California May 24, 2022

1951

WILLIAM F. MURPHY III Hoover, Alabama January 7, 2023

1952

J. M. P. “PICKETT” WRIGHT, JR. Edenton, North Carolina July 14, 2022

1955

PETER K. KADZIELEWSKI Spring Lake, New Jersey September 7, 2022

1956

CHARLES E. “CAP” MARVIL II P ’81 GP ’17

Wilmington, Delaware July 23, 2022

1958

JOHN P. BURKETT, JR.

York, Pennsylvania

June 23, 2021

1963

ROBERT W. “JERRY” SODERBERG, JR.

Wilmington, North Carolina

March 10, 2022

1964

EUGENE M. ARMSTRONG II Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

December 17, 2014

1978

JOHN A. SPRINGER

Painesville, Ohio

October 20, 2022

Former Staff

JOSE FONSECA

July 5, 2022

PABLO O. VELASCO P’82,’83 GP’09

October 3, 2022

WALTER WILLIAMS

December 27, 2022

In Memory as of January 15, 2023. Visit standrews-de.org/inmemory to read full obituaries and leave remembrances for departed Saints. If you would like to submit a remembrance of a deceased alumnus or former faculty member, you can do so via email to Chesa Profaci (cprofaci@standrews-de.org).

ELLIE AND DAVE WASHBURN

BACKYARD CREW PICNIC: ELLIE WASHBURN, LAURIE MOSS, DAVE WASHBURN, AND WARD WALLACE.

Eight Things I Learned from Being Director of Communications at St. Andrew’s for Eight Years

My husband Will and I joined the St. Andrew’s family in the summer of 2015. Having just gotten married that May, we interviewed for and accepted jobs at St. Andrew’s and moved from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Middletown, Delaware, in the span of just a few months. Eight years later, we—and our two little boys—are packing up for new adventures, and leaving behind a community of friends, a landscape of memories, and “the best students in the entire world” (a direct quote from Will, who teaches in the English Department, and I most definitely agree with him). I don’t know who my replacement will be, but I do know this magazine is in fantastic hands under new managing editor AK White (see her editor’s letter on page 2). Here are a few things I’ve learned along the way.

by LIZ TORREY

1. Don’t apologize for a mistake unless it’s actually your fault. If something went wrong and it is your fault, own it, apologize for it, learn from it, and have a little self-compassion, for Pete’s sake. Maybe you made the mistake because you were working too fast. Maybe you made the mistake because your kid kept you up the entire night prior and there isn’t enough coffee in the world to make you focus. Maybe you made the mistake for no reason other than you are a human being.

2. Embrace the mistakes. I’ve made so many mistakes during my eight years here that they have become my boon companion. If I were a chef, mistakes would be my knife, and my hands would be calloused, covered in scars, and somewhat inured to the small, everyday risks of my profession. The more mistakes you make, the less you live in fear of making them. The less you live in fear, the more creative you can be.

3. If you’re making decisions from a place of fear, they’re probably not the right decisions. On the other hand, if there’s a little voice in your head saying, “This might be a bad idea,” then it’s generally a good idea to listen to that voice.

4. In 2016, I sat in on a student workshop led by visiting photographer Myra Greene, and one of the things I learned in that fascinating hour was that social media filters tend to lighten everyone’s skin, especially the skin of people of color. Here’s a good life rule: don’t lighten someone’s skin, unless they explicitly ask you to do so.

5. Trust is the foundation on which all other good things are built.

6. “You can’t make everybody happy. You’re not pizza.” This statement is printed on the pizza boxes of Middletown’s DiNapoli Pizzeria (a Torrey family favorite), and gosh, it’s so true. I don’t think I’ve ever created, shared, posted, or published something on behalf of the school that didn’t rub at least ONE person in the St. Andrew’s family the wrong way, even if it made the other 5,000+ SAS family members overjoyed. And that’s okay. Because …

7. … I have come to treasure constructive criticism. I always learn more, and improve more, from negative feedback, and I find that such feedback is almost always an open door to an enlightening conversation. Unless, of course, you’re just being mean.

8. The kindness St. Andreans show to one another has amazed me for eight straight years. Students walk around this campus living lives and expressing identities with a freedom of which I never even dared to dream of at my large, rough-and-tumble, late-90s public high school. I don’t mean to say it’s easy to be a teenager at St. Andrew’s, or it’s easy to go to boarding school, because it’s not—it’s an extraordinarily brave thing to do. It’s just that people take care of each other here. I always used to roll my eyes at those “Be Kind” bumper stickers (my Silent Generation dad would say they’re “hippy-dippy nonsense”), but honestly, kindness is a gamechanger. Kindness is revolutionary. J

50 YEARS OF COEDUCATION AT ST. ANDREW’S

In September 1973, the first 26 girls to walk the halls of St. Andrew’s School made their mark. Their footprints cut the first path which, 50 years later, still guides and informs the hundreds of bold and smart female students who have come through the doors the original 26 opened. The legacy of that first class remains, and we want to celebrate it.

In the coming school year, we will honor the voices of the women of St. Andrew’s—the “first girls,” faculty, and staff who transformed our school and carried their passions out into the greater world.

This historic storytelling project seeks to celebrate and amplify the voices of all who fought to make coeducation at St. Andrew’s a reality: the first female students and their male counterparts; faculty members in the 1970s; and those who make up the school of today—the faculty, students, and staff on campus who continue to shape the legacy of St. Andrew’s. Every voice matters.

For more information on how you can join us in commemorating 50 years of coeducation, please visit:

This is your story. Together, let’s make sure it gets told.