2013
Rite of Passage with Adam Mackinnon
In This Issue Ninth Grade Speeches Alums Return to Work at Summit Summer Our Summit Authors
Message from the Head of School
At Summit, we help students grow in their ability to meet challenges, take risks and transform not only their own lives but the lives of others. These truths fill the pages of this issue of Echoes. Eight Summit alums reflect on their 9th grade speeches, revealing the roots of their research and celebrating the reach of that quintessential Summit experience into their lives—and, in some cases, into their livelihoods. Five Summit authors trace the roots of their writing to their special teachers and studies at Summit. In every story—and in each voice—we witness the unleashing of potential.
At Summit, we help students grow in their ability to meet challenges, take risks and transform not only their own lives but the lives of others.
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While each story is as unique as the alum who shares it, these stories have something in common: Summit cultivates the discipline and inspires the curiosity in students to create without a template, to search out reliable resources, to think critically and to take meaningful action without a script. For 80 years, Summit’s teachers have been guided by this simple belief: Knowledge that is earned is the most enduring.
As you peruse the rich and textured stories of our alums, you can discern a lexicon in their descriptions of their Summit experiences. Particular words and ideas flow throughout this issue, reflecting a continuity of values and competencies across generations. The following words and phrases resonate throughout these pages in stories as varied as Adam Mackinnon’s journey from Summit to Sapelo Island and Elizabeth Kerr Wild’s travels from Winston-Salem to New York City:
Our alumni and our current students share the deep roots and far reach of the enduring values of Summit School. These are expressed through the core competencies we develop in each student. Summit graduates are
Quiet perseverance Spirit of inquiry
Operating from an ethical compass, guided by character, confidence and competence
Liberating
Curious. . .
Voice Intelligence
Exhibiting intellectual curiosity, including critical and creative thinking with a commitment to lifelong learning
Ambition
Accepting. . .
Accomplishment Thesis
Demonstrating global awareness, embracing diversity and working collaboratively within and beyond the school community
Think for yourself
Socially Responsible. . .
Stamina
Committing to civic responsibility, service and stewardship—both locally and globally
Creativity
Discipline Enthusiasm Culture of learning Introspection
Prepared. . . Having acquired a strong academic, athletic, artistic, and technological foundation Honorable. . .
Founding Head of School Louise Futrell famously said, “I had a dream school in mind. . .where everybody could be a somebody.” 80 years later, our students and alumni embody the realization of that dream.
Confidence Inspired Purpose Passion
Michael Ebeling
Freedom
Head of School
Self-starter
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Table of Contents 2012-2013 Summit Echoes
5 1 4 5 7 8 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18-24 25-28 30 On The Cover Adam Mackinnon ‘86 with fellow Biologists tagging North Atlantic whales along the East Coast.
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Michael Ebeling Message from the Head of School Ross Osborn Builds Tables for Summit Alums Return to Work at Summit Summer Mac Hollan Rides to End Hunger The Ninth Grade Speech is a rite of passage for Summit students Elizabeth Kerr Wild 1984 Stan Green 1985 Charlie Lovett 1977 David Cayer 1969 Adam Mackinnon 1986 Tom Williams 1970 Rebecca Owen Fallon 1994 Our Summit Authors Class Notes Colleges Attended by Summit Alums
Summit School Echoes is published annually for parents, alumni and friends by Summit School • 2100 Reynolda Road, Winston-Salem, NC 27106 • 336.722.2777 • www.summitschool.com
Editor
Mary Horan Design
Writer
Mary Giunca
One Hero Creative, Inc.
The School admits students of any race, religion, color, and national or ethnic origin. Summit provides a challenging curriculum within a caring environment to help students develop their full potential.
Ross Osborn Builds Tables for Summit 2011 The task of fitting six pieces of lumber into a perfect hexagon might have been a typical math problem for former Summit student, Ross Osborn ‘11, and his favorite teacher, Martha Albertson.
splinter or get eaten by bugs. It also lasts longer than conventional wood and is quite heavy. Assembling and moving the tables into place required eight people. Osborn’s mother, Nancy, who is a Garden Guardian at Summit, suggested that if he raised enough money, he should consider building planters out of the Evergrain material. Osborn built three sets of planters that he placed at campus entrances.
Instead, Osborn, who is a junior at Reynolds High School, found himself pondering that problem last fall when he worked with duWayne Amen, Summit’s director of facilities, to construct four picnic tables for his Eagle Scout project.
In order to raise money for the project, Osborn hired a local band, Below the Line, to play on the Summit patio the Sunday before school began. He invited friends, classmates and family to attend and donate money.
“I wanted to give back to Summit,” he said. “I really liked going there.” Osborn, who is a member of Centenary United Methodist Church Troop 920, attended Summit from Senior Kindergarten through the Ninth Grade. He knew that Amen was a former Boy Scout who was good with his hands and had worked with a number of scouts on projects. Amen and Osborn met last spring and discussed replacing the old wood picnic tables with something that was both green in color and environmentally friendly. They searched local lumber companies for a suitable material for picnic tables, and finally found Evergrain, a recycled plastic product, at Smith Lumber Co. in Lexington. Evergrain cuts like wood and looks like wood, but won’t
Photography by: Martin Tucker
He raised about $3,400, which covered the cost of the band, as well as refreshments, materials, and an extra carpenter, Jimmy Reece, to supervise the project.
Work on the tables began in October. They were finished and moved into place in November. Osborn said that he couldn’t have completed the project without Mr. Amen and Mr. Reece. Both Amen and Reece helped with the planning of the project and were there every day to help. “Hopefully the tables will last a long time and be there so that people can lunch and work outside on nice days,” Osborn said.
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Alums return to work at Summit Summer We’re always happy to see familiar faces on campus. It’s even more gratifying when alums come back to lend a hand. Last summer, we welcomed back a number of alums who worked with us at various summer camps.
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Photography by: Sarah Dalrymple
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Mac Hollan Rides to End Hunger 1993 The group will leave home on June 17 and plans to finish the ride in about six-and-a-half weeks. All of the money raised will go to the Sandpoint Backpack Program. Hollan and his friends will cover all of their traveling costs. Among the more unusual items they will carry with them are bear repellant and air horns. The trip will take them into areas with large populations of brown, black and, for the last 100 miles, polar bears. Hollan’s goal is to raise the $25,000 it would take to pay for the coming school year’s backpack program, and begin to build an endowment so that the program can continue.
While working toward his K-8 teacher certification, Mac Hollan ’93 has seen the effects of the Great Recession on his students in Sandpoint, Idaho. One day Hollan was talking to another teacher about a student who continually came to school hungry. The teacher told him about the Sandpoint Backpack Program, which provides 175 area students with backpacks full of nutritious food for the weekend. “I knew this cause was the one for me,” he said. Hollan got to work and organized a Point to Bay charity bicycle event this summer that will take him and two friends on a 2,750-mile bike tour, from Sandpoint, Idaho to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.
This is the second long distance charity bicycle tour Hollan has organized. During the summer of 2005, A Ride for the Kids raised more than $50,000 for The Brenner Children’s Hospital in Winston-Salem. For more information on the ride, go to www.pointtobay.com.
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The Ninth Grade speech is a rite of passage for Summit students. Every year since the early 1960s, students have mounted the stage, spoken for six to eight minutes about their fall term paper topic and then gratefully accepted the applause, and relief, that follows. The speech was the brainchild of Marya Bednerik, who began her teaching career at Summit in the spring of 1957. In Onward & Upward, A History of Summit School, author Charlie Lovett told how the speech tradition began.
Bednerik left Summit during the 1961 to 1962 school year to earn her master’s degree. She was assigned to teach public speaking to freshmen as part of her degree requirements, and when she returned to Summit, she initiated “Senior Talks,” an early version of the speech. In the beginning, Summit students were encouraged to focus their term papers and speeches on a topic of special interest to them. Today speeches are organized around a thesis statement, which requires students to continued on next page
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take a position related to a topic and defend it, said Pat Capps, Summit’s dean of Ninth Grade and curriculum coordinator. Topics in recent years have included organic vs. natural foods, hydrogen as a new power source, the return of the train and the impact of North Carolina agriculture. “Helping students find their voices is an effort that begins in Kindergarten with show and tell exercises and culminates in the Ninth Grade speech,” said Julie Giljames, Summit’s Ninth Grade English teacher. Students used to use slides in their speeches. Today they use PowerPoint. In the course of preparing their speeches, students learn to organize their thoughts and speak effectively in public. “One of the most rewarding parts of my job,” Giljames said, “is having the shy students get up and nail that speech and overcome that fear.”
Photography by: Martin Tucker
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Elizabeth Kerr Wild 1984 Wild wasn’t thinking about a future career when she gave her speech, but she was inspired by the fact that Matisse found something he liked doing that he was able to devote his life to. When she looked at colleges, she followed her heart to the Rhode Island School of Design, where she earned her bachelor of fine arts degree. After graduation, she landed her first job at Tommy Hilfiger, which she describes as a hotbed of creativity. Her first year there, she did a fish print with cutouts that were inspired by Matisse. The print was made into a swimsuit and shirt. After five years at the company, she moved to Ralph Lauren, where she was director of children’s and boys clothing. “It was a wonderful place to work,” she said. “Ralph wanted sumptuous fabrics and really special things. He supported the artist. There was a lot of freedom.”
When she was growing up in Winston-Salem, Elizabeth Kerr Wild ’84 often admired the colors in the Henri Matisse poster that her mother had in the hallway. A visit to the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. deepened Kerr’s love for Matisse and her interest in the creative process. She discovered the collages Matisse had created by cutting colored paper into shapes as he sat in his wheelchair, too old and sick to paint. “I found that an artist’s work isn’t defined by one period of time, one painting that you see in a museum,” she said. “But by the breadth of work over a lifetime. I saw his early figurative paintings lead to the work he did on his deathbed. The creativity never stopped. That was inspiring to me.” Wild enjoyed learning about Matisse’s life and work for her speech. Choosing an artist also offered an advantage to the nervous Ninth Grader: she could show slides of his work. “I’m sure I was relieved when it was over. I know I was nervous,” she said. “I think the Summit community was very supportive. I felt as prepared as I was going to be.”
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One of Wild’s favorite projects involved putting a screen print of her parents’ dog, Jim Dandy, on a boys T-shirt. The shirt sold out and Jim Dandy, a mutt, became a star around Winston-Salem when her parents walked him around their neighborhood. Wild and her husband, Matthew, left New York City in 2011, and returned to Winston-Salem with their two children, who are both at Summit. Madeline is in Second Grade and Thomas is a Junior Kindergartner. “To this day, I still love Matisse,” she said. “I bought a Matisse print and put it on my daughter’s wall when she was a baby.” She has already worked with her daughter on how to tie her interests to school projects. Last year Madeline did a First Grade project on Lady Bird Johnson, who shares her interest in flowers. When it comes time for her children to give their speeches, Wild knows what she will tell them: “Have fun. That’s the whole point. If you’ve studied, if you’ve done your research, if you pick a topic you love,” she said, “the speech will write itself.”
Stan Green 1985 “I read every book, every scientific report on acid rain, except for a couple I couldn’t get my hands on,” he said. “I developed an unusual expertise for a 15-year-old.” He remembers being terrified the day of his speech, but friends told him that he did not appear nervous at all. “It was as if I had an internal filter that kept all my nervousness inside and did not let it interfere with how I communicated my story,” he said. Green went on to graduate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he majored in philosophy and English. When he began thinking about his future, he harkened back to his early interest in the environment. After his wife, Jennifer Cleland Green ‘81 finished law school, Green became interested in the burgeoning field of environmental law. He earned a JD and master’s degree in environmental law from Vermont Law School.
As a boy, Stan Green ’85 loved spending time outdoors with his grandfather. They hunted, canoed, rode horses and worked in a large garden. “I was interested in how we interact with our environment,” he said. Green landed at Summit School as a Seventh Grader, around the time he read an article in National Geographic magazine about the problems caused by acid rain in upstate New York. Emissions from factories in the Rust Belt were sending sulphur dioxide into the air, which returned to earth as acid rain that was destroying fish and other forms of life in the Finger Lakes. The solution was to dump limestone from planes into the lakes to restore their pH levels. The effect only lasted a few years, because acid rain continued to fall, repeating the cycle. “I thought, ‘What a strange cycle,’” Green said. “I decided I’d like to learn all there is to know about this.” And naturally, he decided to do his Ninth Grade speech on the topic. He haunted the Wake Forest University library and talked to science professors at a number of universities.
He and his wife returned to Winston-Salem, where they had both grown up, and Green joined the environmental practice group at Womble, Carlyle, Sandridge & Rice. In 2009, ten years and four sons later (Stan ‘10, Jack ‘13, David ‘15 and Alex ‘18) he became a partner and owner in Strauch, Fitzgerald & Green P.C. in Winston-Salem, which specializes in civil litigation, including environmental. “One of the most challenging aspects of environmental law, is that you’re dealing in an area that has a lot of polarity built into it,” he said. “It takes an open mind not to have a knee jerk reaction to things. What’s going on is neither good nor bad. It’s about what choices we make as a society about environmental issues.” Whether he’s standing in front of a jury to defend a company that made a chemical or helping someone who has been harmed by a chemical, Green said that he often looks back to that day at Summit when he gave his speech. “Whenever I’m in court and I’ve got a big argument to make, I’m reminded that the nervousness I feel on the inside doesn’t have to come out,” he said. “I think one of the reasons I have the ability to do that is because of the speech.”
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Charlie Lovett 1977 When Charlie Lovett ’77 told his English teacher, Bill Carr, that he wanted to do his Ninth Grade paper and speech about the history of the Olympic Marathon, Carr told him that he doubted Lovett could find enough material. Lovett ignored the advice, received an A on his paper and 20 years later wrote a 150-page book, Olympic Marathon: A Centennial History of the Games’ Most Storied Race. He dedicated the book to Carr. In preparing for his speech and paper, Lovett discovered the joys of research, a skill he has used in his career as a writer and as Summit’s writer-in-residence since 2002. (See p. 18 for a story about Lovett’s latest book.) “I’ve written a lot of books that are research-oriented,” he said. “There’s not a day that goes by that I’m not doing research on something I’m interested in.” Summit also helped Lovett discover his passion for long distance running. He got his start here in junior high. “There was a requirement at that time that you had to participate in a sport,” he said. “Track was a sport from which you could not be cut.” Back in the 1970s, runners were rare in Winston-Salem, and when Lovett announced that he intended to run a marathon some day, one of his classmates made fun of him. Lovett quietly persevered. He was undefeated in his first year of running at Summit. In 1977, he ran in the ROTC Road Race, which was sponsored by Wake Forest. There were 100 people in that race, which covered seven miles. He fulfilled his ambition to run a marathon his senior year in high school, when he finished 44th out of 1,200 runners in the Philadelphia Marathon. He stopped running as an adult. Then, a few years ago, his daughter Jordan, now 25, who ran track at Summit, mentioned to her mother that she thought they should run the Walt Disney Half Marathon. Lovett found himself volunteering to run with them.
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He has learned not to compare his running abilities in middle age to that of his teenage years, but he still feels his old connection to the sport. “It’s the easiest way to exercise,” he said. “When I started running again, I got in shape quickly.” Lovett has found that the discipline and confidence he developed as a runner to be helpful during his career as a writer, which requires stamina of a different sort. “People have said of me, if there’s something I want to do, I just go out and do it,” he said. He has written 14 books, including fiction and nonfiction. He has also written 20 plays for Summit students that have gone on to be performed by students around the world. “Almost every time I step up on stage in the auditorium,” he said, “I harken back to the fact that I’ve been standing here in this spot giving speeches since I was 14.”
David Cayer 1969 Judge David Cayer ’69 was a political junkie from an early age. He served as president of his Sixth Grade class and vice president of his Seventh Grade class. So when he got to Ninth Grade, he looked to politics for his speech topic. Cayer talked about the benefits of consolidating local governments, which was a new idea in the late 1960s. “I don’t recall being nervous about the speech,” he said. “I remember people in my class telling me afterwards, ‘Oh, you’re going to run for office or be a politician.’” For Cayer, that prediction came true. He served six years as a North Carolina Superior Court judge and ten years as a North Carolina District Court judge. He has been out of elected office since 2009, when he was appointed a Magistrate judge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. Cayer remembers putting together his speech on note cards and crafting his arguments. Today his favorite part of being a judge is taking apart complex legal questions and dealing with so many different situations. “It’s a reward to have a job, where at the end of the day, you feel like you’ve done the right thing,” he said. Although he doesn’t miss having to raise money for elections, he does miss meeting people and attending events involved in running for office. Judges often end up giving impromptu civics lessons to voters, he said. “A lot of people think politics is really seamy and crooked,” he said, “but I tell people, politics opens doors.” Cayer entered Summit in Junior Kindergarten and he credits the school with pushing him to do his best. He characterizes himself as an underachiever until he hit junior high and found his passion for politics. “If you have interests, people can help you,” he said. “If you don’t know what you’re interested in, people can’t help you.”
The same year that Cayer gave his speech, the school had a mock presidential election. Before the mock assembly voted, a student spoke on behalf of each candidate. Cayer, who was a Republican and Nixon supporter, volunteered to speak for Nixon. He went to local party headquarters and brought back large posters of Nixon and Agnew, which he hung over the stage in Summit’s auditorium. Bill Carr, who was in charge of running the mock election, made Cayer take all but one poster down because the Wallace and Humphrey contingents had only small signs. Nixon won the election, which Cayer said probably had more to do with the candidate’s favor among Summit parents than Cayer’s speech in Nixon’s favor. Cayer said that he appreciated Carr’s guidance in the election, and in other school matters. “He really pushed you to be your best, sometimes more at that age than you wanted to be pushed,” he said. “He could take you down a notch and get your attention when you needed it. Looking back on that, I appreciate it.”
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Adam Mackinnon 1986 His office is on Sapelo Island, in Georgia, which has a connection to the Reynolds family. Richard Reynolds acquired the early 19th century mansion on the island in 1934. He allowed the University of Georgia to use the house for marine research. After Reynolds’ death in 1964, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources acquired the house and much of the island, and continues to conduct research there. Visitors can stay overnight at Reynolds House, as the mansion is called, and explore the island. The natural beauty of the island attracts people from all over the country, Mackinnon said. He enjoys talking to groups, but public speaking hasn’t always been so easy. Adam Mackinnon ’86 was studying business at the University of Florida when he began to examine the course he had mapped for his future. As a Ninth Grader at Summit, MacKinnon, a self-professed “field guide geek,” had given his speech on John James Audubon, the 19th century naturalist who made a name for himself studying and illustrating birds. “I said, ‘What are you doing in business school? You did your Ninth Grade speech on James Audubon. All the stuff you chose to read was environmental. You didn’t choose a marketing book. You chose field guides,’” he said. That moment of introspection led Mackinnon to change his major to marine biology. For the past 17 years, he has worked as a biologist for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. Mackinnon studies sea turtles, right whales, manatees, dolphins and shorebirds. In a typical day on the job, he tracks manatees, watches sea turtles nest and tranquilizes dolphins in order to examine them for toxins. In the winter, he and other biologists go out in Navy SEAL boats to put transmitter buoys on some of the 400 North Atlantic right whales that are left along the East Coast. They often have to cut ropes off of the whales, which spend their summers around Cape Cod, and can get tangled up in fishing gear there. The right whales come to the coast of Georgia to reproduce. “I know so many people who are miserable during the week,” Mackinnon said. “They get happier on Saturday, but on Sunday, they dread going back to work. I can’t wait to go back to work.”
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On the day that Mackinnon gave his speech, he remembers being so nervous, his knees were shaking. He comforted himself with the idea that people would be looking at the slides of Audubon’s work and not him.
“What are you doing in business school? You did your Ninth Grade speech on James Audubon... You didn’t choose a marketing book. You chose field guides.”
“It was something you don’t look forward to,” he said, “but afterwards there’s a sense of accomplishment.” Summit made the intimidating prospect of giving a speech easier by allowing students to channel their interests, he said. “There was a culture of learning there,” he said, “and of school being important. That momentum carried me all through my education.”
And there was another lifelong benefit to his Summit experience that he has carried with him. “Every speech after that Ninth Grade speech was a breeze compared to how nervous I was that day,” he said.
Tom Williams 1970 He landed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate school of business as a marketing major eight years after his Summit speech. His theater background was not well known among his business school classmates, who thought of Williams as low-key, and even passive. As part of the requirements for earning his masters in business administration, Williams was required to give a 20-minute presentation which analyzed the structure of Southwest Airlines. On the day of his speech, he suspected that his professors and classmates were not expecting much. “I remember having flashbacks to my Summit monologue and speech as I drilled down on the eyes of the professors and students listening to me and clearly stated my case,” he said. “Afterwards, one student said, ‘Well, you hit that one out of the park!’”
Before he gave his Ninth Grade speech, Tom Williams, ’70 was faced with an even more formidable public speaking task. He played the part of the devil in the Summit production of The Devil and Daniel Webster, in which a farmer sells his soul to the devil and later wants out of the agreement. Webster pleads the farmer’s case to a jury of damned souls. Of course, Webster wins, but not before the devil is called to recite a 60-second monologue.
Williams would go on to New York City to work in the financial world for many years. Before returning to WinstonSalem a few years ago to act as caregiver to his parents, Williams also owned and managed two restaurants in the Washington, D.C. area. The restaurants were among the first to push fresh, local food under the patented concept of Mindful Dining. Throughout his career, Williams has found the art of public speaking useful, particularly in motivating employees. “Every journey starts with a critical first step that leads to the next step,” he said. “Summit was the first step of my educational journey that ended up providing me quite a lot.”
“Getting through that without a safety net,” Williams said, “made speaking from notecards for the speech a few months later much less stressful.” Williams’ topic for his speech was, “What’s in a name?” He discussed the origins of common last names. After leaving Summit, Williams went on to graduate from Duke University with a degree in economics and psychology. He let his interests in theater slide during his college years.
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Rebecca Owen Fallon 1994 As the child of two psychologists, Rebecca Owen Fallon ’94 couldn’t help being interested in the mind and how it works. For her speech, she researched eating disorders and body image issues. It was interesting for her to learn about the prevalence of eating disorders and how society and cultural norms often perpetuate body image issues. “I was definitely scared,” she said, in looking back to the day she gave her speech, “but I liked it once I was up there.” That was Fallon’s first experience with public speaking. These days, as curriculum development manager for Medtronic, a medical device manufacturer, public speaking is an enjoyable part of her job. She plans national educational events for physicians and nurses and is in charge of selecting speakers, a task that can be challenging. “I think a good speaker is not afraid to pause,” she said. “People are terrified of pausing so they talk way too fast.”
Summit authors are an eclectic bunch. They have been lawyers, governor’s aides, neurosurgeons and book sellers. Before they wrote books, they wrote greeting cards, plays, diaries and emails – all of which helped them develop their voices as writers.
Good speakers take into account their audience and spend time preparing their presentations, a challenge that Summit teachers made sure that students met for their Ninth Grade speeches, she said.
Some, like Charlie Lovett ‘77, the author of 14 books, have long thought of themselves as writers and are published in several genres. For others, like Dr. Eben Alexander ‘69, the writing of a book represents a decisive turn in the road.
One of the Summit teachers that Fallon remembers most fondly is Elizabeth Peters Aldridge. She was popular with students for her enthusiasm, intelligence and her willingness to help.
Summit authors have written about life with a son who has Asperger’s syndrome, as well as their near-death experience. They have tackled contemporary romance and a literary mystery. One author has even crafted a thriller, which is partly set in Winston-Salem.
The research that Fallon did for her speech increased her interest in psychology, beyond what she knew from her parents. She went on to earn her master’s degree in clinical and health psychology from the University of Florida. Summit not only set Fallon on a path that would serve her well in her pursuit of higher education, but also in a job where she has to be a self-starter. Her company is based in Minnesota, her boss is in California and she lives in Davidson, N.C. “There was a higher level of expectation,” she said. “I became more disciplined. The teachers planted that seed that you’re going to have to get the job done. That was very helpful.”
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O UR S UMMI T A U T H O R S
They remember their Summit English teachers with special fondness and count the research skills they honed at Summit as critical to their success as writers. And many, like Anne Browning Walker ‘97, remember Summit as the place they started to think of themselves as writers. “The things we did in school were able to capture my imagination,” Walker said. “We read amazing books every year that captured my imagination and made me want to keep reading.” Now, as adults, Summit alumni are writing the kinds of books that make us all want to keep reading.
Charlie Lovett
Charlie Lovett ’77 has been writing books for 20 years and loving them as a reader, bookseller and collector for most of his life. He credits Summit for giving him his identity as a writer. Lovett is not only an alumnus, he has been the school’s writer-in-residence since 2002. Lovett’s early education at Summit developed his taste for good literature and taught him how to write a proper sentence. But he had a moment of insight in 2000 when he was walking back from the Church of St. Julian in Norwich, England, where he was doing research for a book on pilgrimages.
“I tried to write it so if you don’t know anything about rare books, you’ll learn a lot.”
“The canon I was with asked me what I wanted to be in ten years,” said Lovett. “I told him ‘No longer self-conscious about calling myself a writer.’” Despite having written seven books at the time, Lovett didn’t think of writing as his profession. He came back home and soon found himself writing a play for Summit Third Graders. When the Upper School students expressed their desire for a Charlie Lovett play, he convinced head of school Sandra Adams to make him the school’s first writer-in-residence. “I had the experience of watching the audience’s reaction to my words and seeing how they reached people,” he said. “Summit gave me a great boost of confidence.” Eleven years later, the plays Lovett has written for Summit have gone on to be
produced by student theater groups around the world, and he is grateful to be paid to do something that he loves. For his 14th book, Lovett returned to a long time avocation – antiquarian book collecting. He was co-owner of Lovett & Lovett Booksellers, an independent bookstore from 1985 to 1992. The Bookman’s Tale: A Novel of Obsession will be published in May by Viking Press. The novel has also been sold in eight foreign markets. The story revolves around an American antiquarian book collector who goes to England to escape his grief after his wife’s death. “I tried to write it so if you don’t know anything about rare books, you’ll learn a lot,” he said. “I wanted readers to follow the hero as he discovers the world of rare books.” In the novel, the main character finds what appears to be one of the great literary artifacts of all time. His quest to find out the truth about the book leads him into a world of lies, murder, and forgery. The novel is set in three time periods, including a historic thread that runs from a London tavern in 1592 to an Oxfordshire country house in 1879. Lovett drew on subjects that he knows well. His protagonist, Peter, lives in the same village in the Cotswolds where Lovett and his wife, Janice, own a cottage. “One of the reasons the novel works is because I was writing about things I cared passionately about,” he said, “ things that are deeply ingrained in me–Shakespeare, English literature, rare books, and the English countryside.”
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Eben Alexander
During his years at Summit, Dr. Eben “Alex” Alexander ’69 knew exactly where he was going in life. He immersed himself in the school’s science courses and determined he would follow his father into the field of neurosurgery. “I was so interested in science and in taking science forward,” he said. “I pictured myself writing scientific articles and doing research.”
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doctors considered ending treatment. During that time, Alexander, who had never been able to reconcile his knowledge of science with a belief in heaven, God or the soul, had a near-death experience.
He went on to graduate from Duke Medical School and achieve his dream of becoming a neurosurgeon. He has taught at Harvard and other universities.
He saw a woman who told him, “You are loved and cherished, dearly, forever. You have nothing to fear. There is nothing you can do wrong,” he said.
In 2008, life, as Alexander
The woman served as Alexander’s guide on a journey that forced him to rethink his most deeply held beliefs.
knew it, changed.
“There is a God. There is a heaven. Our souls are eternal,” he said, summarizing the lessons of his experience.
He was in private practice in Lynchburg, Va. when he contracted meningitis. The disease entered his brain and put him into a coma. He was unconscious for seven days and
He came out of the coma and on the advice of his son, wrote down everything he remembered before he read anything about others’ near-death experiences.
Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife, which was published last year, is his account of his experiences. The book was the subject of a Newsweek cover story and a follow-up article that dealt with the reaction to the book. Many people have been fascinated by Alexander’s account and have supported his views. Many scientists, doctors and skeptics have criticized his book, and said that what happened was scientifically and medically impossible. There are, however, a growing number of scientists who realize the profound nature of his journey and what it reveals about the nature of consciousness and reality, he said. Alexander has founded Eternea, an organization dedicated to continued research into near-death experiences and the many questions that arose from his experiences. He does not, by any means claim to be the first person to advance the ideas in his book, but something about his
book has galvanized public attention. Alexander feels a responsibility to follow the new path he has found himself on, even as he rethinks everything he believed about the nature of existence and the role of science. In many ways, he is continuing the spirit of inquiry that he enjoyed as a student at Summit, where teachers encouraged his interest in science and his career ambitions. “Bill Carr was a science teacher who was a delight. His labs were inspirational. He was a real character,” he said. “He was so animated and he had a very active inner child.” His Summit education has also helped him deal with both his life-changing odyssey while in the coma, and his critics. “Summit gave me a very strong sense that you don’t simply follow someone else’s thinking,” he said, “and think that’s good enough. Think for yourself, if you want to get closer to the truth.”
Anne Browning Walker Summit School was not only the place where Anne Browning Walker ’97 started to think of herself as a writer, it was also where she had her first literary crush– on A Tale of Two Cities protagonist, Sydney Carton. Walker entered Summit in the Third Grade and made an easy adjustment to the creative culture there. “I remember my love of writing was encouraged by a number of teachers,” she said. “Mrs. Capps taught writing and English. She encouraged a lot of imagination in Fourth Grade, even while we still had to learn spelling and grammar. “Gary Baird was the embodiment of the free spirit of Summit. He made reading the textbook a theatrical performance. It was easy to be excited about learning around him.”
Walker’s mother, Lyn Browning, a Summit teacher, died when Walker was in the Eighth Grade. Her mother’s friends, and fellow teachers, provided a support system for Walker. The Booby Trap, Walker’s first novel, is a contemporary romance that centers around a spunky heroine named Bambi Benson, who works in a seedy bar while secretly earning a Harvard PhD. She begins dating Trip Whitley, a local celebrity who intends to shock his society friends by dating a woman he thinks is a bimbo. “A lot of people really like the main character,” she said. “They like how sassy and spunky and smart she is. I think there are a lot of woman out there like that.” It took Walker a while to settle on writing as her chosen career. Summit also introduced her to world cultures, and she continued on next page
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Anne Browning Walker
CONTINUED
Anne Browning Walker continued
figured politics might be a better avenue to earning a living. She received a bachelor’s degree in political science from Duke University and a master’s degree in international affairs from George Washington University. She was an aide to Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, where she worked with state legislators, researched bills and wrote briefs. She followed her husband, Justin Walker, to Washington, D.C. in 2009. While she was looking for a job, she began writing fiction and took a class in “How to Write a Novel in 90 Days.” The class introduced her to contemporary romance writing and she felt she had found the perfect subject matter. She spent most of 2010 writing The Booby Trap. A string of contacts led her to a new publisher who was looking for novels and liked her book.
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“A lot of people really like the main character. They like how sassy and spunky and smart she is. I think there are a lot of woman out there like that.” Walker still does some technical writing to pay the bills, and she is working on a second novel. That book will be another romance where two old flames unite for a cross country road trip. She and her husband went to Montana for vacation last summer, where she accomplished most of the writing on the book. She enjoys the turns her career has taken so far, and credits Summit with showing her how to keep life interesting.“I think they made me feel like learning was always going to be something fun to do,” she said. “That helped me both as a writer and in life. Tackling new tasks has always been fun for me because they made it fun to figure things out.”
Nilla Dudley Childs
Nilla Dudley Childs ’73 has kept journals since the age of nine. She wrote term papers about Faulkner while at Emory University and focused on nature writing and folklore for her master’s thesis at Utah State University. In the 1990s, she wrote educational tours for the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, then greeting cards as a creative product editor for Hallmark Cards in Kansas City. When she took a break from professional writing to return home to Winston-Salem, her communications turned to personal emails, as she sought solutions to her older son Daniel’s puzzling condition, finally diagnosed at age 23 as Asperger’s syndrome. “Family and friends, including those who loved Daniel very much, could not understand what was going on with him,” she said. “Logical explanations weren’t working. I had to turn to story to make sense.”
Years later, Childs used her emails and diaries to craft the 100 anecdotes which make up her book, Puzzled: 100 Pieces of Autism. “When I read one of these stories to my writing group, everyone was in tears,” she said. “That’s when I first realized there may be some purpose to my writing.” Childs said that she struggled to understand how a boy who was clearly intelligent had trouble mastering basic life skills, and could not finish traditional college. Her own childhood had been very different. Childs left public school and came to Summit in Seventh Grade. Summit was a liberating experience. “It might have been the first time I was exposed to such an atmosphere of creativity,” she said. continued on next page
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Danny Ferguson
Nilla Dudley Childs continued
She remembers Martha Albertson, who used her sense of humor to turn math classes into a fun, even “sparkling” experience. She remembers Carolyn Wall, a history teacher who illustrated current events by celebrating the end of the Vietnam War, where her own husband was actively serving.
“Logical explanations weren’t working. I had to turn to story to make sense.” “What I’m remembering is who the teachers were as people,” she said, “rather than what the curriculum was.” When she and her husband, Steve, had children of their own, they enrolled Daniel, and his younger brother, David, at Summit. Childs said Daniel’s Junior Kindergarten teacher, Deanna Moss, was particularly understanding of Daniel’s anxieties. “She had to peel him out of my arms every day. She was so calm. She’d say, ‘Come on Daniel, let’s get interested in this,” Childs said. “The following year, Julia Sneden recognized Daniel’s quick wit in her Kindergarten class. Summit was a great experience for both our boys. I would choose it for them all over again.” Without the early preparation in public speaking provided by her Ninth Grade speech (on bicycling, one of Daniel’s favorite activities!), Childs said she’s not sure she would have been as comfortable standing in front of groups and talking about her book. “I’m definitely going to keep writing,” she said. “I don’t know what the medium will be. Maybe I’ll be able to share the stories of some of the fascinating people I’ve met during the past year of book tours and talks.”
Danny Ferguson ‘59 spent only his First Grade year at Summit, but the school year 1950-51 was a formative one, with many fond memories for a future fiction writer. “I remember learning to read. I remember the books we used, with Puff and Spot,” he said. “I think Summit gave me a good background even at that young age.” Ferguson has spent 40 years as a criminal and defense lawyer in Winston-Salem. He used the time he was sitting around in court to write two thrillers, Vow of Vengeance and The Titanic Atonement, both of which draw heavily on North Carolina locations for their plots. The Titanic Atonement, which was published last year, tells the story of Gunny Vernon, whose grandson inherits a fortune from a pirate who claims to have sunk the Titanic. The pirate’s will sets out conditions that Vernon and his family must comply with in order to receive the fortune. The action moves from Venice, Rome and Bermuda to Ocracoke, Bath, Greenville and Winston-Salem. In the
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process of dodging terrorists and other assorted bad guys, Vernon ends up solving the mystery of what happened to local boy, Z. Smith Reynolds, who was shot under mysterious circumstances at Reynolda House in 1932. “I needed a mansion in the story. I had originally used Biltmore,” Ferguson said. “I started thinking, ‘Why am I using Biltmore when I’ve got Reynolda almost in sight of where I live?’” Ferguson enjoys the research involved in his writing. He has long been fascinated with Blackbeard. In his first novel, he invents a descendant of the notorious pirate to wreak revenge in his ancestor’s name. For The Titanic Atonement, Ferguson read every book and saw every movie that he could on the subject of the famous ship. He incorporated true events of the ship’s voyage to give his novel an authentic flavor. “I try to have an underlying historical event, solve a mystery and have a court trial,” he said. Even a simple evening out resulted in his learning about some local lore he used in a book. Ferguson and his wife were having dinner at the Vineyard, a restaurant that used to be in Reynolda Village. Ferguson started talking to a waiter about the underground tunnels at Reynolda House that were part of the heating system. The waiter took him downstairs to the restaurant’s wine cellar and showed him the tunnels there, which were the start of the heating system, which ran under the entire estate. The tunnels turned up in a scene in The Titanic Atonement, where they were used as a secret hideaway. And would he ever consider setting a scene for one of his novels at Summit? Ferguson wouldn’t rule that out. “You really need to write about what you already know,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to write a book where nuclear physics is the underlying basis.”
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CLASS NOTES
In Memoriam Ann Bennett Willis ‘37 November 10, 2012 •••
Hazel Newman Nading ‘39 March 1, 2013 •••
Anne Kesler Shields ‘47
1944 Robert W. Grubbs writes, “I still go to work every day at my business, Bob Grubbs Carpet Designers. I’m proud that both of my children, Rob ‘75 and Catherine Grubbs Laws ‘72, both attended Summit and two grandchildren, Sarah ‘14 and Ellie Grubbs ‘16 currently attend Summit.”
October 6, 2012 •••
Barbara Shore Hudgens ‘52 September 20, 2012 •••
Edwin Holt Williamson III ‘68 July 7, 2012 •••
1949 Pat Perry Moser sent us an e-mail and said, “all of us in the class of ‘49 are going to be 79 or even 80...I can’t believe it. Sadly, I have never kept up with many classmates since I never came back to live in W-S. But, I am very interested in learning about us, and hope many will respond.” Pat has lived in Chestertown on the Eastern Shore of Maryland since 1972. She has two sons, both in their 50’s and each with two children, and they live near her...seven miles for one and 29 miles for the other. And everybody is employed except the youngest grandson, an engineering major at Univ. Delaware. She continues, “I am blessed.”
Peter Dalton Fox ‘72 August 7, 2012
1951
•••
Karen Ammons Howell ‘74 March 4, 2013 •••
Kirk Walter Harris ‘01 September 23, 2012
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Arthur (Al) Selby was featured in an article in the Charlotte Observer celebrating his 68 years of service to Boy Scouts. He spent 32 years with Troop 158 at Third Presbyterian Church in Charlotte and has served the Scouts in numerous capacities. “I got my Eagle Award when I was 16,” he said. “I stayed with the program and its troop until I graduated at Central in 1954. Then I went to college at Chapel Hill and joined the troop over there, became assistant scoutmaster. That’s pretty unusual, most people go to college and forget about scouting.” Al has attended two World Jamborees (once as Scoutmaster to Japan), seven National Jamborees, 10 Summer Camps (as Scoutmaster), and 21 Wood Badge Courses (twice as Scoutmaster). He is currently working with the
Council Endowment Committee, and the Eagle Scout Banquet Committee. Al writes, “Once an Eagle, always an Eagle!”
1987
1963 After being classmates 35 years ago, Donna Hailey Craige married David Craige ‘63. Donna writes, “we are as happy now as we were at Summit.”
1967 Barbour Strickland was recently awarded the Order of the Longleaf Pine for his service and contributions to the arts, both locally and statewide. He resides in Greenville, NC.
1968 Greta Gray co-hosts a class reunion with Dorothy Douglas Westmoreland ‘68, LuAnne Chadwick Wood ‘68, and Anne Gorrell ‘68 every other year at her home. This has been a highlight for the group, and they have even connected with old Summiteers who did not graduate with them. Greta continues to enjoy Winston-Salem and works as an independent interior designer (www.grayandassociatesdesign.net). Her work takes her throughout the eastern seaboard.
1980 Kara Quadland Helms and Bradley Helms ’79 report that their daughter, Madeline Helms ’10, will be attending the University of Alabama in the fall of 2013.
1983 Valerie Coplon Balestrieri is an R.N., living in Raleigh. Her husband Patrick is legal counsel with the North Carolina Medical Board. The couple have two children, Ian and Alex.
1984 Joanie Lacy Preyer is married to John Preyer and lives in Chapel Hill. They have two children: Lacy, 7, and Pike, 4.
Joe Koufman and wife Michelle pictured with their daughter and son, on their second birthday in April 2012. Joe has been serving for the last five years as SVP, Business Development and Marketing, for Engauge, a full-service marketing agency with a digital core, in Atlanta. Hunter Peterson married Sarah Stork on Jekyll Island on June 2, 2012. Summit graduates Frank Gristina ‘87, Jason Peterson ‘90 and John Porter ‘87 served as groomsmen. Hunter was promoted to partner in January 2012 at his firm, Trinity Hunt Partners, a Dallas based private equity fund that invests in healthcare businesses. He spends late July in the mountains of western NC and occasionally visits with Chris Jones ’87 and Wesley Davis ’87. They always speak fondly of their days at Summit and of Bill Carr.
1988 Peter Milner is in his third session as the North Carolina Senate Chaplain. He was appointed by Rep. Phil Berger in 2011. He writes, “I love my job. I have two children, Josie and Silas. My wife, Anna, is a graduate from Westminster Schools in Atlanta, Ga., Clemson and Wake Forest. We are happily married and live in Raleigh, N.C.”
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1989
1994
Shakira Hand Humble coaches girls tennis & JV basketball at Salisbury Academy, where her 5-year-old daughter, Lanie, recently started Pre-K. She is an active member of the Elizabeth Maxwell Steele Chapter of DAR.
Congratulations to Mary Craig Wilson Tennille who was chosen by the Triad Business Journal to be in their 40 Leaders Under Forty program.
Worth Mitchell tells us “in keeping in line with faith and accountability, I am semi-retired and walked away from my companies in construction and development and founded Fast Cars & Country Stars in 2007 and Three Juiced Bootleggers in 2010. Both donate a large percentage of profit to charity. Fast Cars & Country Stars is a company that puts on and sponsors concerts and other charity events with a lot of my celebrity friends and some of the biggest names in Hollywood, Nashville and NASCAR. Three Juiced Bootleggers (www. threejuicedbootleggers.com) is a southern apparel, giftwares, grilling sauces/ marinades & seasonings company and a moonshine distilling & manufacturing company with 5 varieties. All Three Juiced Bootleggers products are available online and in local ABC stores, grocery & specialty stores and restaurants. I still do custom projects in construction and development and I am involved with numerous charity organizations. I recently got engaged to Tina Dunlap of eastern North Carolina in 2010.”
1995 Oliver Cross and his wife, Mary Ann, welcomed their first child, Dorothy Ann “Dottie” Cross, into the world on August 2, 2012.
1997
1990 David Martin, Valerie and son, Cedar, born September 2011. On June 30, 2012, Sean M. Kelley married Bridget B. Salley in Richmond, Va. Christopher Kelley ’99 and William Bell ’97 served as groomsmen. The couple reside in Richmond, Va., where Sean works as an investment banker with BB&T Capital Markets. Hayley McDowell Flanagan married Sean Flanagan on January 22, 2011. The couple had a son, Neil Williams Flanagan, August 3, 2012.
1999 1993 Daniel C. Gunter III was selected by the N.C. State University Alumni Association as its Outstanding Young Alumnus of 2011. The award recognizes an N.C. State alum younger than 42 who has made outstanding contributions to the university, profession and the community.
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George Memory and Jen Spillman were married on Saturday, May 19, 2012 in the Chapel at Centenary United Methodist Church in Winston-Salem. George is a stockbroker at Stephens Inc. in Winston-Salem. Duncan Memory ‘87 was the best man, and Alexa Memory Bazley ‘90 was the program attendant. Among the guests were Stefanie Cox ‘99 and Robbie Cox ‘97. Several Summit friends assisted with the wedding: Allison Fitzgerald Green ‘87 made the groom’s cake; Ryan Hsu ‘01 and his band, Fruit Smoothie Trio, provided music at the reception; the wedding director was former
assistant teacher Carol Leinbach; and the wedding planner was School Support Assistant Jan Shepherd.
2010
Rachel Joyce Neely Johnson and Mark Johnson welcomed Madeleine Abigail on January 24, 2013.
Evanne Timberlake was Captain of the Reynolds Varsity Field Hockey team. The team won their conference and did not allow a single goal during conference play. For the second year in a row, the team was also the runner-up in the State 4A Championship. Evanne scored 30 goals this season, setting a record for most goals scored in a single season. She learned how to play field hockey at Summit with Coach Lynne Roosa.
2002 Jordan Flowers lives in Atlanta, where she serves as the Donor Relations Manager for Open Hand. She received her MA in Arts Administration from SCAD in early 2012. She enjoys volunteering for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and serving as an advisor for a local chapter of her sorority, Alpha Delta Pi. Josh Miller writes, “this past year was a busy one for me. I bought a home and got married. On May 19, my wife, Anabel, and I will celebrate our one-year anniversary. Also, I am pursuing a career in law enforcement with the City of Winston-Salem.”
2003
Betsy Neill broke the school single season scoring record in girls varsity soccer at St. Andrew’s School in Delaware. During her team’s victory over Worcester Prep (Oct. 4th), she scored three goals. After the game, Head Coach Seraphine Hamilton presented Betsy with flowers, balloons and a game ball in a special ceremony in front of parents and fans. Betsy heaped all praise and thanks on her teammates.
2011 Justin Lang won the 2012 Forsyth County Junior Invitational Golf Tournament.
Joey Vrsecky works for Green Cycle Design where he is the Manager/Director of Design for the exterior styling of electric vehicles. In 2012, he started his own business, Creative Consultant, to help design students develop portfolios.
2012
2007
Harrison Disher was on a Reynolds High School 200-free relay team (including Stan Green ‘10) that went all the way to 4-A States and broke a standing 6-year record at Reynolds twice in one week. The relay team finished 12th in the State.
Christina Tyler is in Certaldo Alto, Italy, a small medieval town between Firenze and Siena. For three months, she is studying advanced jewelry under Marissa Saneholtz and enameling under Linda Darty. She writes, “there are 22 students here--it’s mostly an art program, but this semester the majority of students are non-art majors. I chose the program specifically because of the teachers (and because I wanted to study abroad, of course!) and I received a scholarship from the people of Certaldo because of my interest in the culture in relation to children. I’ve been researching Reggio Emilia, an Italian teaching technique, for a couple of years and incorporating it into my own teaching curriculum.”
2009
Matthew Regan is a sophomore at Reagan high school and new to their swim team. He writes that he was more nervous trying out for the swim team than he was for his Ninth Grade speech! His team set all three relay school records and were conference champs in the 200 medley relay and the 400 free relay. They finished the season 7th in the state for the 200 medley relay and tenth in the 200 free and 400 free relays. Matthew also swam the 100 butterfly, which he won at the conference meet (54.44), and finished third in the region (53.17). He advanced to states “with one goal in the 100 fly, make top eight. I got really lucky because the event was not as fast as I thought it would be and I got eight in prelims, making the A-final. The finals session at states was a really cool experience and it was really amazing walking out for the A-final. I went a 52.65 in the finals, getting eighth place.”
Jordan Hicks was the 2012 class valedictorian at Magnet Academy for Cultural Arts in Lebeau, LA.
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Stay Connected to Summit at www.summitschool.com Where you can: • Log on to the Alumni Portal, a password protected space that allow you to read Class Notes and find email addresses for classmates
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We want to hear from you and so do your classmates. Send information about job updates, weddings, births, high school and college graduations, honors, and activities, and new addresses. We also love receiving photos. Please note that we can use only high resolution digital photos in publications. Email information to alums@summitmail.org Or, fill out the form below and send it to: Sarah Dalrymple, Assistant Director of School Support Summit School 2100 Reynolda Road. Winston-Salem, NC 27106 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
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Class of 2009 Grace Babcock
Wake Forest University
Dana Barnhill
Salem College
Kirstin Brown
UNC-Greensboro
Lasley Cash Caroline Ciener
Furman University University of Alabama
Austin Conger
Sewanee University
Evan Cortessis
High Point University
Imran Cronk Patrick Dillon
University of Pennsylvania Radford University
Carolyn Ebeling
UNC-Chapel Hill
Mariah Edwards
Appalachian State University
Gray Eller Sam Falken Jordan Hicks Catherine Hinshaw
Elon University Virginia Tech Louisiana State University Furman University
Trent Holmes
UNC-Chapel Hill
Hannah Lonsinger
UNC-Greensboro
Bethany Mann
Meredith College
John Mann Jack McCall Hayley Moyer Mary Thompson Phillips
Carnegie Mellon University Furman University Lenoir-Rhyne University Clemson University
Leslie Rainey
Wake Forest University
Evan Sohmer
UNC-Chapel Hill
Lauren Spencer
Furman University
Lizzie White
NC State University
Zach Wiesler
High Point University
Annie Wittenberg
UNC-Greensboro
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