Thacher Magazine: Fall 2019

The Magazine of The Thacher School • Fall 2018

THACHER

The Future Issue Meet Head of School Blossom Beatty Pidduck CdeP 1992 How tomorrow is taking shape on campus today Nine alums share their forward-looking work

CONTENTS 12

12 • Armchair Wandering

Cam Spaulding CdeP 1992 writes about what our future leaders gain from a long, slow walk through the High Sierra.

14 • The Familiar Future

As Thacher enters the next era, we find ourselves once again launching into new territory and navigating by familiar stars.

14

ON & OFF CAMPUS

ALUMNI & COMMUNITY NEWS

01 • View From Olympus

30 • Gatherings

Our new head of school shares her thoughts about the future and its possibilities.

Coverage of Reunion 2018 and travel to Asia by Thacher administrators.

04 • The Pergola

34 • Class Notes, etc.

An assemblage of noteworthy School and community intelligence.

Alumni news, milestones, and news from faculty, staff, and friends.

43 • In Memoriam

14 FRONT COVER Thacher’s ninth (and first alumna) head, Blossom Beatty Pidduck CdeP 1992.

Photo: Pamela Springsteen

45 • The Best We Can Do A scholorship to honor the memory of Paul Atwater Connolly CdeP 2009.

VIEW FROM OLYMPUS…

“What If?” and “Why Not!” Heeding the Wisdom of Our Founder as We Begin the Next Chapter

FUTURE, PRESENT, PAST.

As Thacher’s new, alumna head of school, my work lives in all three dimensions at once—a nexus that feels like just the right place to be as Thacher begins its next chapter. This magazine is devoted to exploring our future, but what you read about here, like all the work of the School, is deeply connected to what has defined us for the last 129 years and who we are today.

When I reflect on the path ahead, I can’t help but consider how comfortable our founder, Sherman Day Thacher, seems to have been with the idea of possibility. Horses, ranch life, liberal arts education, and recess baseball in the rugged western foothills of Ojai? “Why not?,” he said. Mr. Thacher was explicit in the later years of his career in his belief that part of the job of an educator is to fight our propensity for thinking our way is the only way. We should, he wrote, “stop occasionally and consider whether some radically different way may not produce better results.”

That spirit of adventurous curiosity, of independence, of “what if?”— rooted in a foundation of clear and transcendent values—has emboldened our School, time and again, to evolve. And it defines the work ahead.

This issue highlights a number of initiatives that are key to shaping the Thacher of tomorrow, including a curriculum revision that emphasizes growth through inquiry, a reimagining of our commitment to diversity and inclusion, and the expansion of our concept of leadership.

Accompanying these exciting programmatic developments are two major facilities projects—a new dining hall for the school and a creativity and technology center that will provide us with a canvas of sorts for fulfilling many of our curricular goals. And these are just a few of the initiatives we’ve undertaken as we embrace Mr. Thacher’s charge by challenging the belief that there’s one way to do things. This work requires that we open ourselves to the power of possibility.

But the future and its possibilities are daunting topics in the year 2019. Our world is changing even faster than we can conceive. Each day brings with it threats of what will be lost in the days, weeks, years ahead, and how unrecognizable our lives are becoming from what they were before. We work towards greater diversity, yet we see increasing division.

The world’s impending crises are many, and while we know innovation, technology, and change are part of the solution, it’s impossible not to see them also as part of the threat. Uncertainty is the reality in which we live, and change is our constant.

To thrive in this world, we must be flexible, resilient, committed to growth, and deeply adept at communicating, connecting, and working with those around us—especially those whose experiences and perspectives are unlike our own.

And we are witnessing, in real time, that institutions and individuals

who are unwilling to engage with that uncertainty, who are unwilling to hear perspectives and truths that challenge their own, who are unwilling to reach out beyond their own spheres, to connect with a complex and changing world, are at risk of losing their center, their purpose, their values, and their place.

It’s for exactly those reasons that I have never been more certain about the power and necessity of an education like the one we are creating at this school in this moment.

Consider what we know about Thacher.

This is a school that has long known relationships are the key, not just to enduring learning, but to doing the good in this world that our shared values compel us to do. And we’ve long taken the somewhat unusual The Thacher School 1

UP FRONT...

WE HUMANS ARE WIRED to think about the future. Prospection—or future-oriented cognition—is critical to our ability to fend for ourselves and our families, and it is the basis of institutional strategic planning.

Too often, however, the future progress we imagine is marked by novelty, as if radical innovation is the only way forward. So, I appreciated a recent New York Times op-ed for the cautionary wisdom it offered the futureoriented institution: “We are told that innovation is the most important force in our economy, the one thing we must get right or be left behind....

This mind-set equates innovation exclusively with invention and implies that if you just buy the new thing, voilà! You have innovated!?” Jon Sax, the author of that piece, goes on to make the case that the best prospection is “a continuing process of gradual improvement and assessment” and often a blend of what has worked in the past with innovations that address emergent needs. That can mean working with ideas and tools that already exist or “even returning to methods that worked in the past.” We are fortunate to have a lot of those time-tested tools at Thacher, which means our forward thinking is sometimes a matter of eschewing the newfangled and simply refraining from fixing what ain’t broke. Still, there is plenty of work to be done and plenty of progress to be made.

I think you’ll find that spirit thoughtful prospection being put into practice in the pages of this issue. We have a new head of school bringing fresh perspectives, but also a commitment to honoring what has always made Thacher work. We are moving many new strategic initiatives into the early stages of implementation, each one a blend of long-held commitments with new ideas and applications. And our alumni are at work in the world, facing the challenges of today and tomorrow with skills and knowledge gleaned from their pasts. You’ll find all that and more on the pages ahead. I hope you enjoy reading.

— Christopher J. Land, Editor

VIEW FROM OLYMPUS… experiences and sometimes conflicting points of view. To push ourselves stance that trust must be the starting point of our community, of our conand take risks. To learn to wrestle with the real-world hard questions, the nection with one another, rather than the endpoint. murky issues, the problems that require more than one answer. We have This is a school where learning and teaching have never been limited to the classroom or the textbook. To be a Toad is to set out on the often steep the opportunity to defy the Thacher bubble and to acknowledge that the challenges in the world around us are Thacher’s challenges. and rocky path of real growth, knowing that failure is part of the journey.

The day has come and gone when we had the luxury of believing there Thacher is a school that, in the 40 years since it went co-ed, has conwas a finite set of information and understanding that young people had tinuously forged a path towards ever greater diversity and inclusivity. to have, and a single set of co-curricular experiences required to be wellThis is a school that has, at key moments in its history, chosen to rounded individuals, prepared for college and beyond. We know too much educate students differently, to respond to the challenges of the moment about the expanse and complexity of the world to settle for a single way of with innovation rooted in a commitment to our mission of training young seeing things. That uncertainty and ambiguity brings with it tremendous people in the art of living for their own greatest good and that of their opportunity. At Thacher, it is the opportunity to expand our liberal arts fellow citizens. tradition to include doing, experiencing, practicing, failing, engaging, You have to be thinking differently to end up with a required riding program and two week-long backpacking trips each year, a judicial council “living for our own greatest good and that of our fellow citizens,” as our whose majority is students elected by their peers, unproctored exams, Sat- mission states. It’s our chance to bring the Thacher spirit of adventurous curiosity, real work, independence, and shared values to the core of urday nights spent playing Connect Four and eating cookies at the head of the academic experience. And it’s led us to plans for a transformative school’s house. These are not the hallmarks of the typical American high new learning facility (Thacher’s first major academic building project in school education. almost 40 years), a move beyond the Advanced Placement program, new But they are, I believe, exactly what the world, and young people espeapproaches to faculty professional development as well as assessment and cially, need more of. We have the opportunity in this next chapter for feedback. Our faculty are alive with the energy of possibility.

Thacher to double-down on the values and commitments that define us— We have never sought to be nor thought of ourselves as the typical, to truly walk the Thacher talk. To dig into the hard and sometimes messy elite boarding school defined by its privilege. This next chapter is our work of building community and connection among people with diverse

“It’s our chance to bring the Thacher spirit of adventurous curiosity, real work, independence, and shared values to the core of the academic experience.”

2 fall 2018

THACHER

The Magazine of The Thacher School Volume 12, Issue 2 Fall 2018 EDITOR Christopher J. Land ASSISTANT EDITOR Lynn Jae CLASS NOTES EDITOR Aaron Boydston ARCHIVIST Bonnie LaForge DESIGN Charles Hess, design director Lisa Lewis, designer ILLUSTRATIONS Greg Clarke PHOTOGRAPHY Eric Hiner, Christopher Land, Brian Pidduck CdeP 1992, Cam Spaulding CdeP 1992, Pamela Springsteen, Carin Yates HEAD OF SCHOOL Blossom Beatty Pidduck CdeP 1992 DIRECTOR OF ENROLLMENT AND PLANNING William P. McMahon

“To thrive in this world, we must be flexible, resilient, committed to growth, and deeply adept at communicating, connenting, and working with those around us.” chance to prove that true, to meet uncertainty not by removing ourselves from the complexity of our world, but by bringing to it the power of relationship and trust, of risk and failure, of leadership and service, of curiosity and innovation, of thinking and doing differently.

The initiatives you’ll read about in these pages bring that vision to the core of teaching and learning at Thacher. We are orienting our courses, content, assessments, challenges, learning experiences, leadership program, and community development not simply around the known, but also around the unknown. It is in the tension between what has been and what will be, how things have been done and how they could be done, what we know and what we have yet to understand or imagine, that possibility thrives.

Here’s to the future-Thacher style.

Blossom Beatty Pidduck CdeP 1992 Head of School

DIRECTOR OF INSTITUTIONAL ADVANCEMENT Jeffery D. Berndt

Thacher is published twice a year by The Thacher School, and is sent free of charge to alumni, parents, and friends of the School. Every effort is made to ensure that contents are accurate and complete. If there is an omission or an error, please accept our apologies and notify us at the address below.

Copyright © 2019 The Thacher School Third class postage is paid at the Oxnard Post Office.

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The Thacher School 3

THE PERGOLA… THE LARAMIE PROJECT

In recognition of the 20th anniversary of the murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, the Thacher Masquers mounted a sensitive and powerful performance of The Laramie Project.

4 FALL 2018

WELCOMING BLOSSOM ON OCTOBER 5, THE THACHER COMMUNITY officially welcomed Blossom Beatty Pidduck CdeP 1992 as Thacher’s ninth head of school. The Thacher Board of Trustees, faculty, staff, students, and a few guests attended the evening, which featured memories, a view into the future, and a food truck picnic. Leading the welcoming committee were Thacher Board Chair Cabot Brown CdeP 1979 and Blossom’s teachers, mentors, and dear friends, Phyllis and David Johnston. When it was her turn to speak, Blossom promised a future founded on the familiar: “We have the opportunity in this next chapter for Thacher,” she continued, “to double down on the values and commitments that define us, to truly walk the Thacher talk.”

During her talk, Phyllis Johnston (with husband, David) showed a photo of herself with Blossom as a Thacher student.

FALL EXTRADAY TRIPS There are many ways to explain the “why?” behind taking the whole school camping two weeks a year (and why we encourage lots of smaller, often impromptu trips in between). This fall, Brian Pidduck CdeP 1992, director of Thacher’s Outdoor and Camping Program, summed it up this way: “It’s the opportunity to be with friends, new and old, to laugh at silly stories, to share the challenges of a long day on the trail, to marvel at the how and why of juniper growing on an isolated ledge high up a canyon wall, and to delight in the pleasure of a bowl of instant ramen that was prepared by a companion.”

Our Fall EDTs lit out to the usual array of destinations, from kayaking the waters off Catalina Island to High Sierra passes.

FALL FAMILY WEEKEND

Among the many highlights of the weekend were the Performing Arts Showcase and the Riding Exhibition.

Sunday morning of Fall Family Weekend, early risers enjoyed rocket launches from the Gymkhana Field, hosted by Tom Hale CdeP 1986 and his family. (Photo: Paul Bressie CdeP 1986)

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THE PERGOLA…

OUTSIDE OUTLOOKS VISITING SCHOLARS, ARTISTS, AND EXPERTS SPARK NEW IDEAS AND INSPIRATION.

DR. DAVID BRAILER, father of Preston ’19 and the country’s first “Health Information Technology Czar,” delivered an all-school presentation, Health Care’s Double McTwist, that likened our country’s ethical and financial challenges of healthcare delivery to the difficulty of Sean White’s iconic snowboard maneuver. Dr. Brailer followed up with a breakout session in the Thacher Room and visits to Mr. Popa’s economics classes.

THE WARP TRIO, a classical/jazz/experimental/improvisational group (with four members) performed an enthralling concert, mixing everything from Duke Ellington to Jimi Hendrix to Bach to Take Me Out to the Ballgame! It was an inspiring night for the students. In addition to performing internationally, the group teaches master classes to all levels of music students. The freshman music classes learned about improvisation, listening, and the narrative of imagination that goes into a musical piece.

6 FALL 2018

ZACHARY WOOD, author of Uncensored: My Life and Uncomfortable Conversations at the Intersection of Black and White America, shared his views on uncomfortable conversations in a Sunday evening lecture. His talk focused on the importance of engaging with disparate voices, in an attempt to understand all points of view, to make informed decisions. Mr. Wood continued the conversation with students in the Thacher Room, and the next day in classes—providing opportunities for self-reflection.

MARIA HERNANDEZ, a math teacher and advocate for using mathematical modeling problems to engage students in hands-on problemsolving, taught five classes and presented a master class for math and science teachers during her three-day visit. Henry Wadsworth, math department chair, said that the visit was designed to support the school-wide initiative to expand inquiry-based learning opportunities.

His department is compiling a repository of problems and projects for use in the classroom, and Ms. Hernandez made several contributions to that resource.

A NEW DINING HALL TAKES SHAPE

ACTIVATING LEARNING

As the new dining hall’s steel frame took shape, board members signed one of the steel posts that had been decorated by senior Yao Yin for the occasion. The project, to be named the Joy Sawyer-Mulligan and Michael Mulligan Dining Hall, offers the opportunity for interested donors to recognize and celebrate all that Michael and Joy did for Thacher. Please contact the Alumni & Development Office if you would like to make a gift.

Left: Photo of sunset seen through the structural beams of the new dining hall (Credit: Eric Hiner). Top right: Doc Vyhnal’s chemistry students conduct a spectroscopy lab. Bottom: One day this fall the freshman met in the gymnasium for “Motion in One Dimension,” a lively combined math/science exercise that was part of a re-engineered ninth-grade curriculum.

The Thacher School 7

THE PERGOLA…

SCOREBOARDS: FALL 2018 Boys’ Cross Country While this appeared to be a rebuilding year (five of its seven top runners graduated last year and Head Coach Fred Coleman took a medical leave), the boys’ cross country team surprised everyone by finishing third in the southern section and fifth overall in the state. “A truly remarkable result,” said Tyler Popa, the new head coach. “At the end of the day, running is about finding how far you can push yourself both mentally and physically. Our team was committed to improvement and we saw the fruits of that labor at the end of the season. We owe much of our credit to our fearless leader, Fred Coleman, who, by example, has showed us what it means to fight for the chance to continue running for health and wellness.”

Most Valuable Player: Ford Shaper ’19 Most Improved Player: Teddy Rosenbaum ’21 and Johnny Bennett ’22 Most Inspirational: Colin Kirkpatrick ’19

Girls’ Cross Country Under the leadership of captains Lily Harding ’19 and Caroline DelVecchio ’19, the team finished second in the league; fifth in CIF Southern Sections; and 14th in State Division V. Coach DelVecchio wrote, “From my perspective, this team was among the greatest I have ever coached due to the incredible leadership of the captains and the dedication of every runner to give 100 percent. I have never worked with so many positive, uplifting, and committed athletes.” During pre-season the team set their two biggest goals: one, to have a great sense of camaraderie among all team members

8 FALL 2017

and two, to make it to State. They accomplished both, and the girls agreed that this was their happiest, most enjoyable season. All the girls ran personal records over the course of the season.

Most Valuable Player: Barkley Claire Bennett ’20 Most Improved Beginner: Sophie Ann Moe Bekins ’21 Most Improved Overall: Karina Lynn Anderson ’21

Volleyball The volleyball team, led by captains Jessica Donohue ’19 and Lulu Patterson ’19, finished the year ranked fourth in Division 9 with a 5-5 league record and 7-5 overall. In their second matchup against Bishop Diego, the Toads came from behind to win in four sets in front of a large, loud home crowd. While, it didn’t result in a win, Coach Iona Popa CdeP 2010 described the final game of the season as notable: “A hard-fought match at home against Cate in our last game was a season highlight.” She pointed out the play of three girls: Chrissy St George ’20 making the big kill; Libby Galgon ’19 diving for the point-saving dig; Jess Donohue ’19 with the timely block. Five players will be graduating this year, but they have laid the groundwork for next year’s team.

overtime game (Thacher 22—Villanova 20) in his 13 years with the team as a “nail-biter.” Remarkably, at halftime the score was 0-0. Under the leadership of quarterback Mike Sanderson ’20, the Toads scored twice early in the second half with a pass to RB/CB Tyler Berndt ’20 and a 13-yard run

by QB Mike Sanderson ’20. By the end of the game, Villanova had tied the score, and the game went into overtime. One more touchdown on a desperate, high-flying pitch to senior RB/OLB JJ Mazzola, who stretched the ball over the goal line for the touchdown, and a two-point conversion put the Toads ahead and despite making one final touchdown, the Wildcats were unable to catch up.

Most Valuable Player: Jackson Hollins ’20 Most Improved Player: JJ Mazzola ’19 Most Inspirational: Alika Williams ’19

Girls’ Varsity Tennis

Football

After graduating seven seniors last year, expectations for this season were cautious. Reality, however, exceeded predictions. The team’s overall record was 9-3 with a loss in the first round of the CIF Division 2 playoffs to Santa Barbara High School. They had many satisfying wins, including avenging an early season loss to Foothill Tech, when the Toads beat the Dragons at home at the end of the season.

Jacqueline Kong ‘20 won her match against their number two player to seal the 10-8 victory. Garnering All-League honors were Piper Stacy ‘19 and Margaret Phipps ‘19 in doubles and Jacqueline Kong and Natalie Cheng ‘22 in singles.

The girls fought hard all season and competed at every turn.

The Thacher football team went 3-4 on the season, with Coach Snyder stepping into the head coach role while Coach Hooper is on sabbatical. Coach Snyder described the first

Most Valuable Player: Jacqueline Kong ’20 Most Improved Player: Dechan Lama ’21 Most Valuable Teammate: Tea Wallmark ’20

Most Valuable Player: Chrissy St George ’20, Libby Galgon ’19 Most Improved Player: Chloe Cussen ’21 Best Teammate: Jessica Donohue ’19, Abbey Alvarado ’20

NUMERACY

No, that’s not Brian on the David S. Lavender Track, but he did take this photo.

BLOSSOM AND BRIAN ARE IN A FOOT RACE. At the starting line, both set out at the same time, each at a constant positive rate.

Ever respectful of authority, Brian lets the head of school take the lead. The layout of the race is a straight track, out-and-back. Blossom wishes to gauge her speed to Brian’s so that, after making the U-turn at the far end of the race and facing the start-finish line, she maximizes the amount of time she is looking at Brian.

How fast should she run?

Send your responses to thachermagazine@ thacher.org.

Winner of Last Issue’s Puzzle Puzzlemeister Kurt Meyer had an easy time adjudicating the winner from the previous puzzle. The only correct answer was submitted

by David Babbott, former staff member and Thacher parent three times over (David CdeP 2001, John CdeP 2003, and Ben CdeP 2005).

His solution: There were 60 pairs of orange shoes on the porch before Michael “helpfully” started rearranging them in groups of three.

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THE PERGOLA… BLURB & SQUIB BOOKS Lynn White CdeP 1959, professor emeritus and senior research scholar at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School, recently published Rural Roots of Reform before China’s Conservative Change (Routledge). “The book,” writes Lynn, “is dedicated to my students and teachers, including those whom I remember at Thacher.”

Thomas Cole CdeP 1987, who, for many years has brought his expertise in sustainable agriculture and food security to Sub-Saharan Africa, has co-authored the first comprehensive account of all known aloe species in Uganda, and the first based on extensive fieldwork. Aloe aficionados will be especially interested in the debut of a new subspecies, A. labworana subsp. Longifolia.

FILMS “A balm of empathy and kindness in divisive times” is how Entertainment Weekly described the latest film from Morgan Neville CdeP 1985. After winning an Oscar in 2014 for best documentary with Twenty Feet From Stardom, Morgan is back with Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, which explores the life and legacy of Fred Rogers, the children’s television host.

Annie Nyborg CdeP 2000, sustainability director at Peak Design, produced a short film with Ben Moon called Grizzly Country. It’s a profile of famed eco-warrior Doug Peacock, who also happens to be the father of Annie’s Thacher classmate Laurel Peacock. The film premiered at the Banff Film Festival this fall and will be screened at Wild & Scenic Film Fest in January before a public release.

FOOD Matt Brewer CdeP 2001 has been collecting rave reviews for Che Fico, a new San Francisco restaurant that offers its own fresh take on Italian food. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, it lives up to its hype, and Bon Appétit has named it one of the top 10 new American restaurants of 2018.

INDUCTION In October, Brooke Wharton CdeP 2007 was inducted into the National Cowgirl Museum Hall of Fame as she was awarded the 2018 Mitzi Lucas Riley Award, which recognizes young adults who promote Western heritage in the community through education and volunteerism.

Brooke was cited for her work as a horse breeder and equestrian endurance racer.

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Brooke Wharton (right) and one of the 30 ponies she rode somewhere along the 600 miles of the Mongol Derby. Above: the dining room at Che Fico.

FROM THE ARCHIVES 125… 100… 50… 25… 10... YEARS AGO AT THACHER

TWIN PEEKS

A Backward Glance Through the Pages of CdeP Publications 125 years 1893 In June of 1893, Mr. Thacher went East to hire a teacher, Edward Appleton, and to attend his 10th reunion at Yale. After returning, Mr. Thacher writes “I am busy, as ever. I think I don’t know how to rest and shall die of old age in about five years.” Like all headmasters he had perpetual responsibilities and endless details to handle. Sherman Thacher and his school, p. 95.

100 years 1918 “In the spring of 1918, Mr. W. L. Thacher, harkening to the voice of Uncle Sam, started his first War Garden in back of his cottage. Under his watchful care the vegetables sprang from that rocky little patch of ground, and with them sprang the idea of the present War Garden. … On October 15, of 1918, the work was begun … In the first 50 days over 571 people worked in the garden, successfully growing 18 different kinds of vegetables … At the end of the year we can certainly feel that the War Garden was a distinct success, and that it will be one in the future.” (El Archivero, 1919) 75 years 1943 “Fall term dance is great success Amid a wildlife setting, the first dance of the new year was held on last Saturday evening, November 13. More girls than ever before attending with most of them coming from Santa Barbara. The Indoor Committee … converted the Parlor into a veritable forest with all the animals from the Museum hung around the walls. Many antique guns and knives were also used in the decorating. Everyone agreed that the decorations were wonderful and the dance was a huge success.” (The Thacher Notes, November 20, 1943) 50 years 1968 The school now has a “compact new computer that uses Focal, a new language that a student can program after only a few hours of instruction. It also can be programmed to Fortran for those more advanced. Thacher is well equipped to introduce the world of wires and circuitry that makes machines work for man.” (Thacher magazine, Fall 1968) 25 years 1993 The votes are now in: the faculty have agreed to move ahead with a pilot program of “Senior Exhibitions” this spring. The goal is for 12th graders to demonstrate true mastery of an academic area of interest to him or her. As proposed, these exhibitions … would represent a culmination of a student’s academic work at Thacher.... For this spring, a few seniors interested in undertaking such an Exhibition will make their proposals, be assigned project advisors from the faculty and get cranking.” (The Thacher School Parents’ Post, October/November, 1993) 10 years 2008 In the middle of October, the School gathered to honor and pay respect to one of Thacher’s great faculty members, Marvin H. Shagam, celebrating 50 years of teaching at the School. Many tributes were shared including this from David Johnston, Former Faculty: “... the daily breakfast scene, with Marvin eating healthily, dispensing copies of the NYT to all, and overseeing exchanges on every political and economic topic under the sun. What a way for all of us to start the day!” (Thacher Magazine, Fall 2008)

Mom Stays in the Picture: Blossom’s mother, Belinha Beatty (top) pays a visit to campus during a Thacher family weekend back in Blossom’s student days. Today she is Nana and plays an essential role in the head of school household, from Open House photo booth to carpool.

5 years 2013 Cam Schryver and Sticks take the title: EXCA World Champions (again!)

“It was absolutely incredible to see Mr. Schryver compete at Worlds. I had seen a few videos of him in competition before, but seeing him ride like that in person was a completely different experience.

There were a few other riders that looked like real competitors, but for the most part, Mr. Schryver blew everyone out of the water. It was really inspiring to see what he has been teaching us every day being put into action in competition.” (Lachlan Nutting CdeP 2014 Headline News, 11/19/2013)

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ARMCHAIR WANDERING…

Back(packing) to the Future A three-week trip in the High Sierra allows students to discover that there is more to the future than advancements in technology.

By Cam Spaulding CdeP 1992 IT’S SUNRISE ON A BLUEBIRD morning in the middle of June. For most of the state of California it is summer, but in the high country of the Sierra Nevada it is still most assuredly spring. Cornices continue to guard the alpine passes and corn lilies like jade torches emerge from the dead mat of last year’s grass at the creek’s edge. Out on the border between the Golden Trout Wilderness and Sequoia National Park, a small group of curious travelers are sluggishly shaking off the frosty night.

These nine students from five different high schools, along with their three instructors, are in the midst of a three-week odyssey into the heart of the burgeoning mountain summer as part of the Muir Wise Summer Leadership Program. Their quest: to let curiosity and patient observation be their guide as they make their slow and steady way through this vast natural preserve. Their motto: Don’t go far; go deep.

As on an expeditionary team, each student is uniquely responsible for a single aspect of the group’s inquiry with an assigned role that acts as a lens through which to plumb the wild depths. There is the Poet, the Historian, the Philosopher, the Artist, the Astronomer, the Naturalist, the Tracker, the Navigator/Medic, and the Skeptic, and each student carries a Kindle loaded with texts unique to his or her role. With ample time to read, write, and draw each day, the students become teachers to each other and this vast wilderness becomes a dynamic classroom where everyone learns from nature’s subtle and incessant wisdom. In between two full weeks of walking and learning, the students participate in a 48-hour solo, FALL2018 2012 1200fall

where many of them have their most profound and personal experiences.

How is something so seemingly retrograde—walking in the wilderness, studying the world beyond human culture—actually essential to our future, both as individuals and as a species? Any careful study of the world around us reveals a depth of interconnection that begins on a molecular level and extends out to the edges of the phenomenal universe.

Somewhere along that continuum we reside, but our cultural habit is to see that universe as “other” and to separate ourselves from it. With that primary division as a premise—thinking of humans as separate from nature—we tend to create more and more systems of difference and thus alienate ourselves from each other

and from the essential nature of the universe.

When we immerse ourselves in nature we begin to understand better her language, which everywhere tells us a story of unity and continuity. Like learning any other language, with more time spent listening and observing, our comprehension becomes more nuanced and subtle. Three weeks is a great starting point, but most Muir Wise students come to the end of their experience wishing for more.

Nothing could better express the profound influence of a few thoughtful weeks in the wild than these excerpts from student letters, written at the end of their course to express gratitude to whomever made their experience possible.

Above: Taking in the view above Big Whitney Meadow in the Golden Trout Wilderness, looking west into Sequoia National Park. Upper right: Students pause during an ascent of the infamous “Willow Chute” in the Kern River Canyon. Lower right: Notes from a lesson on botanical illustration and identification. (Photos: Cam Spaulding CdeP 1992)

“These past three weeks have been some of the most amazing I’ve ever experienced. I have learned so much: basic skills such as how to identify plants and animals and read maps, but also I’ve learned a lot about myself, and gained a perspective I’ve never considered on personal matters and the world. Learning to track animal prints has taught me how to identify animals in the area and maybe how they were moving, but also how to be observant, how to understand stories about what that animal had been doing—a window into its life. This concept of understanding an animal’s story has also taught me to be more empathetic, to understand others and their stories. This is just one example of how Muir Wise turned knowledge in the wilderness into wisdom that can be applied to more than just animals.” —Luca Pieretti ’20

“This was a new experience for me. I got to formulate my own thoughts and opinions without interference from my friends and family, and best of all, I got to do that in the vast freedom of the Golden Trout Wilderness. Everywhere I looked, I saw something new and intriguing.

Beauty surrounded me completely, as well as liberation from the pressures of society. Nothing weighed me down here, and having that for three whole weeks has been one of the best experiences of my life. I have learned so much from both the instructors and the other students, about the wild and about humankind.

Muir Wise has bestowed upon me a new sense of curiosity, a deeper sense of self, and a more open mind. There’s no greater gift than the outdoors.” —Emily, Midland Student

The Thacher School 13

The Familiar Challenge of the Future AS THACHER ENTERS ITS NEXT era, we find ourselves once again launching into new territory, navigating by familiar stars. We embark on this journey guided by strategic planning rooted in Thacher’s traditions, and led by a new head of school, the first woman in our history to hold this position. She has invited us to consider our founder’s openness to trying new things. And she has urged us to hold true to the values that have always set Thacher apart. In the following pages you will learn a little more about our new head and her family. You will read about some of the exciting ways we have begun to implement our latest round of strategic planning. And you’ll meet nine alums who are facing the future in a variety of inspiring and important ways.

This is an exciting time for Thacher as we continue to improve upon the ways we prepare each generation for the future that awaits. Just as it has for the past 130 years, the sky remains our limit.

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The Thacher School 01

FROM HEAD PREFECT TO HEAD OF SCHOOL Blossom’s Long (And Somewhat Unsurprising) Road to Olympus

By Bo Manson

“Change is on the horizon. And with that change comes a natural uncertainty as each of us ponders the question: What will define Thacher’s next era?”

-Blossom Beatty Pidduck The Thacher I experience today is, in many ways, relatively unchanged from the small, eccentric boarding school—the one with camping and horses—that I crossed the country to teach at more than a quarter of a century ago.

Today, we are still committed to bringing the outdoors into our learning and to our fourlegged adjunct faculty. We still inhabit this astonishing beautiful corner of the Ojai Valley.

All the same, we also live in an era of rapid and unavoidable change. Both within Perimeter Road and beyond our School gates, we recognize opportunities to embrace collaborative education, environmental sustainability, and social justice, to name just a few challenges ahead.

Today’s challenges and opportunities are not, however, the topic with which I will begin.

Instead, I will backtrack 26 years and start with something I wrote as a young(er) Thacher faculty member and dormitory head: “In the classroom, dormitory, on stage and mountain trails, Blossom has lived every aspect of her Thacher life according to high and exacting standards. On occasion, her commitment to these values has led her to make difficult, challenging decisions, some even unpopular with her peers. Yet, Blossom possesses the courage to withstand peer pressure and the temptation of immediate rewards. Hers is an unpretentious courage that makes for true individuality.”

In this excerpt from my June 1992 advisor letter, I was attempting to describe the maturity and integrity I’d witnessed in my 17-year-old head prefect during the year we shared working together in Casa—qualities I continue to admire in my now more experienced but still everinspiring new head of school.

I wrote that letter as Blossom Beatty was graduating from Thacher: a cum laude scholar, star of multiple Thacher drama productions, captain of a scrappy JV volleyball team, and Casa dormitory prefect. She was heading to 16 fall 2018

developed a program of interdisciplinary faculty Amherst College and then on to Harvard. I remember feeling that I was saying farewell, not cohorts to support curriculum innovation outside of the traditional academic department. only to a remarkably talented student, but to a Through all of Blossom,s work flows her trusted colleague and a valued friend. deep understanding of and love for Thacher During Blossom’s senior year, she and I and its historical values, while she simultaneshared real and meaningful work: the health ously advances our community’s embrace of and welfare of the girls of the Casa dorm. inclusivity and sustainability. Is it any wonder Together we organized activities, fostered comthat an exhaustive national search led us to this munity, upheld dorm standards, and supported innovative and compassionate educator? For as individual girls in need. In my December 1991 long as I have known her, Blossom has worked advisor letter, I described Blossom’s leaderto support the greatest good. “To live and learn ship as “affecting all levels of our dormitory’s in a community where you are continually challife. As a valued colleague to the dorm’s staff, a lenged toward growth,” Blossom has written, role model for her fellow prefects, a sensitive “where you are known by all, accountable to all, counselor to the younger girls, and a steadfast friend, Blossom’s compassionate instruction has and guided by shared, enduring values, that is the Thacher way and a powerful preparation for touched all those who live and work with her.” living a life of positive impact and well-being.”

As a Thacher student, Blossom enriched Change is, no doubt, here. Perhaps because every classroom she entered, challenging her Blossom has served in so many different capaciclassmates with her insights and curiosity. “No ties with students, faculty, and staff at Thacher, one at Thacher learns more readily than Blossom,” I wrote to her parents. “The irony, however, she counters the uncertainty one might feel with hope. “I know what we’re capable of,” she is that no one teaches more naturally either. says. “Where others might see threats to the Whether in the classroom, on stage, on the athstatus quo, I see the opportunity to embrace letic court, or in the dormitory, she inspires by word and example, both her fellow students and Thacher’s full potential. I see Thacher at the forefront of a powerful shift in adolescent education, her teachers.” the benchmark school for a new standard. I Today, Blossom Beatty Pidduck takes the see the faculty, staff, students, parents, alums, reins of The Thacher School with 20 years of and friends of the School working together to teaching experience, a talented and supportredefine excellence in secondary schools on ive husband in Brian Pidduck, and two active Thacher’s terms.”

10-year-old daughters, Addie and Daisy. During Thacher has always done things differently. her Thacher tenure, Blossom has held a variety We couldn’t have found our way to a program of administrative positions, including English that requires freshmen to ride and care for a Department chair, dean of faculty, director of horse, leaves doors unlocked, and anchors each studies and assistant head of school. She has school year with week-long wilderness trips brought vision and enthusiasm to the challenge without considering radically different ways to of shaping the future of teaching and learning, educate young people. Blossom embraces the and has been a strong champion of our plans opportunities change offers: “With staggering to more deliberately align our academics with levels of anxiety and depression among teenagThacher’s historical spirit of curiosity, ingenuers, with curiosity, creativity, authentic purpose, ity, and initiative. Under her leadership we have

and the benefits of failure being sacrificed to test prep and straight, inflated As,” she suggests, “Thacher’s capacity to forge a different path has never been more essential.”

Just as Thacher is poised to leverage its many strengths to lead in this new era, so too is Blossom poised to lead Thacher at this important juncture. Whether partnering with teachers in emotional intelligence research, fostering the creation of an inquiry-based elective program, or bringing together varied constituencies to generate a vision for the future of teaching and learning, Blossom has dedicated herself to turning the challenges of an uncertain landscape into significant opportunities for the School.

With unapologetic optimism, she has committed her life to working with teenagers and the people who believe, as she does, in the transformative power of education.

Why does Blossom believe in the power of Thacher to change the course of its students’ lives? Because it changed hers. “Casa de Piedra is the very foundation of who I am. Horses and EDTs aren’t quaint marketing tools to me; their lessons have shaped my life. When I communicate the vision for a Thacher yet to come, I do so with the power of deep personal commitment to the Thacher of yesterday and a clear vision of how to bring those values into the future.”

As our new head, Blossom speaks often about

the importance of trust as the foundation for all our relationships. Whether meeting with the members of a class or a dorm, speaking with the faculty, or addressing a School Assembly, she often reminds us that “Thacher has long put relationships at the center of education.”

As a teenager, Blossom embraced trust and responsibility in equal measure, forging deep and long-lasting relationships with Thacher faculty, staff, and students. “When I arrived at Thacher, the thing that was most different from the world I’d grown up in was the evidence of trust. There were the obvious signs like unlocked doors, dorms run by students, unproctored exams, clear boundaries and high expectations. But for me the most powerful manifestation of trust was in the relationships I saw between students and adults in this community. These weren’t relationships motivated by what might be gained. These weren’t relationships based on social hierarchies.

These were relationships based on respect, common values, and a shared sense of responsibility for one another and the community.”

Blossom’s experience as a student was not unique or coincidental; it reflected the educational philosophies Sherman Day Thacher brought to his his school. And now, research in education, social psychology, and neuroscience confirms what our founder already knew, that meaningful, long-term learning and growth is

most likely to occur in the context of authentic, trusting relationships. “The relationships I had at Thacher transformed me,” she believes, “particularly my relationships with adults who not only saw me for who I was and for who I could be, but also urged me to truly see myself, and, ultimately, to trust myself.”

With Blossom’s leadership, we look to our future with a vision that combines two parallel goals: the reimagining of our academic program—moving away from AP’s, expanding project-based learning, promoting collaboration and innovation—and our commitment to fostering a community that welcomes and supports students bringing a diversity of perspectives. These two profoundly important goals are inextricably linked by their need for and celebration of trusting relationships.

Change is clearly upon us, and we cannot assuage the uncertainty that change inspires by attempting to replicate the present. The health and success of the School and the generations of students yet to arrive at our gates require a head of school prepared to define a new era while protecting the values, commitments, and ethos that have made Thacher an exceptional school for well over a century. The student I first met three decades ago possesses the intellect, insight, integrity, and experience required to lead us into that complex and rewarding future.

The Thacher School 17

ON BELAY Brian Pidduck CdeP 1992 Answers Our Questions About Himself and What It Means to Be the Head of School’s Partner There’s no rule requiring the head of a boarding school to have a spouse, but where that is the case, the spouse is invariably picking up slack, especially when there are children involved. Brian Pidduck and Blossom Beatty were CdeP classmates, but they did not fall for one another until after they both returned to work at Thacher. Since then, they have developed a partnership that bridges the personal and the professional. With that in mind, we wanted to ask Brian what got him here and what Blossom’s new assignment means to him and their family.

How did you find your way to Thacher as a student?

I didn’t have to go far. I was born and raised in Ventura County—seventh generation agricultural family, actually three families: the Pinkertons, Pidducks, and Teagues. So I have deep roots and connections in this area. These families have had many ties to Thacher over the years so it wasn’t a stretch for me to end up as a student here.

Describe your Thacher years.

The activities at Thacher that were the most affecting to me as a student were learning to rock climb, kayak, and backcountry ski from Chuck Warren, and to work as a prefect in a dormitory with a faculty member (Larry Fillipone, my senior year, sophomore boys' dorm). My most influential teachers were Phyllis Johnston (to whom I am indebted in many ways), Peter Robinson, Bonnie Robinson, Chuck Warren, Bo Manson, and Marcia Edwards. I was profoundly influenced by them (and I mean that in the most sincere and meaningful way). I looked up to them, and still look up to them, as models and guides of how to think, how to work, how to live, and how to embrace different forms of challenge.

What led you back to Thacher?

I didn’t set out to return. After Thacher I attended Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, where I majored in geology. During my first college summer, I was fortunate enough to be taken on as an apprentice with Exum Mountain Guides, one of the oldest and most respected guiding outfits in the country. During college, I went full-time with Exum, where I 18 fall 2018

was the youngest guide they had, by as much as a decade. To this day, I have no idea how or why they trusted me to join them, but I was ecstatic to be working with—and on off-days climbing with—legends I had been reading about in climbing magazines and the American Alpine Club Journal. It was humbling, inspiring, and a time of great learning for me. As I worked my way up the ranks, I found myself given opportunities to grow and take on challenges I never expected, such as guiding the Grand Traverse— an enchained climb of all the major peaks in the Tetons. Since then it has become a classic mountaineering challenge that people hire guides to attempt, but as far as I knew, I was the first person to guide it. I loved my time in Wyoming and saw myself making a life out there, but I never lost my strong connection to this part of California. The Tetons had begun to feel like home, but our corner of California was really the place I loved—the landscape, the natural environment, and these agricultural communities set between the mountains and the ocean.

The decision to come home was a tough one.

For a few years I guided with Exum in the summers and served as director of the camping and climbing programs at Thacher during the school year. I was realizing, however, that I couldn’t do it all to my satisfaction and I was more and more interested in teaching in the classroom. I eventually decided that I would have to commit either to the guiding life or to teaching. Both were calling to me, but the fact that I had begun dating an old high school classmate of mine definitely helped focus my thinking!

How has your role changed now that you are married to the head of school?

In some ways it’s too early in the process to say. For more than 20 years I’ve directed the Outdoor and Camping Programs and balanced that with teaching several sections of Environmental Science. But Blossom and I knew that if she were to become head of school, the demands of that job would require some adjustments on the home front. So, I have reduced my teaching load to make myself more available to our 10-year-old girls, Addie and Daisy. I do miss the additional classroom time, where I learn and grow so much, but my work with the Outdoor Program, which I also love, remains unchanged.

This arrangement is all still very new. In our time and the cycle of the year we are working to understand the best way to fill our roles and find a balance that makes sense.

As we’ve begun to live into these roles, we’ve developed a new appreciation for the significant yet often unheralded contributions Joy SawyerMulligan made to the head of school role. It was so easy to overlook the many ways she influenced our community—Open House being just one aspect of that work. But the grace with which she fit her talents and passions into a role that supported Michael and the community as a whole has inspired me and Blossom as we negotiate our new roles and what we can bring to them.

I’m not Joy and I’m not stepping into her role or position. I’m doing something that is different. Blossom is not Joy either. I’m the male spouse of the female head of school and I’m finding out what that role will be. I’m coming at this as the head of the Outdoor Program and

Brian and Blossom take a turn in the photo booth at Open House.

teacher of environmental science. That’s what I fall back on when I think of my role and it plays to my strengths. Now there remains to be seen how I’ll be able to serve the community and support Blossom under these new circumstances, but that is the work—the opportunity—ahead of me.

As director of the Camping and Outdoor Programs, you have unrivaled access to the new head of school. How will you use it?

Let me start by saying that back when Blossom was still working at Viewpoint and I would be preparing Thacher’s Outdoor Program for the start of the school year, we joked that she was the assistant to the camping director. In reality, her input and support of the program has always been incredibly valuable to me and to the School.

From the moment I began working at Thacher, Blossom has been on of my best sounding boards when it comes to the Camping Program.

She was a B-camper at Thacher and loves camping. A lot of the improvements we’ve seen in the Camping Program over the years have originated in conversations between the two of us. For example, when Blossom was director of studies

we developed a curriculum for Extra-Day Trips.

We’ve also formalized the B-camper program and we’ve made great strides in our risk management procedures. Each of these efforts was informed and improved through my conversations with Blossom.

How has the transition been for your girls?

Addie and Daisy love Thacher. They just love being here. They love the students. Their close friend Taylor Carney is here. It’s so fun to see them playing afternoons and weekends, rambling around the campus, going to the project studio in the library, stalking and naming every campus cat they can find. They love their new home, which they have settled into more quickly than Blossom and I have. We still see it as Joy and Michael’s home, or Mr. Wyman’s home, since it was his house when we were students here. But the sense of that place is changing for us as we catch up with the girls.

They are also trying to figure out what it means for their mother to be head of school.

Until recently, Blossom and I had a more even share of parental roles, but there are more times now when it is me because of the demands on Blossom. When the girls leave the house, they are

always sure to hug and give Blossom a kiss. If I’m standing there they will just walk right past me.

I’m the guy that makes them breakfast, packs their lunches, and takes them to school. And I roughhouse and play with them, but the question I can always expect is, “Where’s Mom?” I can tease them about it, and I’m there, but she is still the important one in their lives. I love that.

Before you go, tell us something we don’t already know about the head of school?

She is by far the most perceptive person I have ever met. Scary perceptive. She will meet with a student or a faculty member and know more about what they are feeling, what they think, what they need than they know themselves. And she can do this relatively quickly. It’s a superpower and she kind of knows she has it, but she does it without really thinking. It’s an uncanny perceptiveness and emotional intelligence that I find a little scary as her spouse.

There are no secrets.

Another thing most people don’t know is that Blossom has her own bowling ball… with her name on it. She’s had it since college and she’s a good bowler. Take her bowling and you are going to have a good time.

The Thacher School 19

HOW TOMORROW IS TAKING SHAPE AT THACHER TODAY As our world changes, Thacher must continually seek new ways of meeting our mission. And as the pace of this change accelerates, we increasingly seek ways to build flexibility and resilience—a growth mindset, you might say— into Thacher’s institutional persona. The mission remains the same; the way we pursue it evolves. The pages that follow include a sampling, presented in no particular order, of some of the notable changes we are making to our programs and our campus. You can expect to hear more about each of these efforts in the coming months and years, but consider this a sneak peek at Thacher’s future as it begins to take shape on campus.

AN ACADEMIC PROGRAM DESIGNED TO KEEP PACE WITH CHANGE THE WORLD OF EDUCATION has seen a number of exciting and innovative ideas taking hold in recent years. Today, Thacher has the opportunity to test out some of those new educational practices and to implement them into a forward-thinking curriculum. Thacher’s ongoing Curriculum Initiative, begun in 2017, is a comprehensive collaboration between the faculty and the administration to advance our courses and practices. The goal is a curriculum rooted in Thacher traditions and values that better develops the knowledge and skills students need to address the demands of a complex and rapidly changing world. As part of this work, our academic departments are refining their curricula, articulating core competencies, and mapping out new courses. While we recognize the value of the rigor of the Advanced Placement program, we (along with many other independent schools) have concluded that we can only implement the sorts of enriching academic experiences that we are eager to explore by moving beyond the AP and the demands placed upon the academic calendar by its intensely content-based approach. As we look beyond the APs, we are focused on project- and problem-based learning that places students at the center of their education.

A major theme of these approaches is active learning with real-world

applications. Take, for example, Tommy Hattori's sophomore math students using the Glowforge laser cutter to design and build 3D structures in order to learn how to calculate surface area and volume. Think of Seth Boyd’s English II students photocopying, blacking out, and cutting and pasting passages from Frankenstein to create “Frankenpoems” that illustrate themes of the novel. Or picture Peter Sawyer’s freshman physics students launching miniature catapults behind the Humanities Building to help them grasp the principles of projectile motion.

Another theme has been to develop new ways of bringing Thacher to the world and of bringing the world to Thacher. Under the auspices of The Marvin Shagam Program for Ethics and Global Citizenship, Thacher has, in recent years, sponsored immersive educational travel opportunities (to Bolivia, Cambodia, China, Costa Rica, and Senegal) designed to develop leadership habits, intercultural awareness, and a spirit of intensive exploration. In addition to travel, the program brings speakers to campus and supports curricular initiatives.

These are just a few of the ways our faculty is working to keep our curriculum as active, rigorous, and vigorous as it can be.

Students in a physics class assemble catapults they will use to study the principles of projectile motion.

20 fall 2018

FACULTY OFFICES CLASSROOMS

SCIENCE LAB

DRAWING STUDIO

ART GALLERY AND PIN-UP FLEXIBLE HUB SPACES CERAMICS STUDIO (DOWSTAIRS) TERRACED LECTURE HALL

PAINTING STUDIO

LOWER LEVEL INCLUDES: LECTURE HALL MAKER STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHY/DIGITAL MEDIA STUDIO ROBOTICS/ELECTRONICS STUDIO

GREATEST GOOD LEADERSHIP: TRAINING STUDENTS TO BE BETTER LEADERS AND CITIZENS THACHER HAS ALWAYS developed capable leaders and engaged citizens, but we are moving now to make this work a more explicit part of our program, from admission to graduation. The Greatest Good Leadership Program will infuse Thacher’s values and leadership principles into all dimensions of our program, ensuring opportunities for students to have the coaching, assessments, and opportunities for reflection that are critical to developing as effective leaders. While faculty and administrators work to flesh out the ways that leadership training will become a more explicit part of the Thacher experience, the Muir Wise program at Golden Trout Camp already extends this work into the High Sierra summer by creating opportunities for Thacher students and students from other schools to advance their skills. (See page 12 for more about Muir Wise.)

RESPONSIVE DESIGN BRICK-AND-MORTAR STYLE NEW APPROACHES TO TEACHING and learning call for new kinds of spaces. Moreover, these spaces must be flexible enough to respond and evolve as our needs change in ways we cannot always foresee. Taking inspiration from Stanford’s Design School and engaging the input of thought leaders such as Harvard’s Frank Locker, Thacher has envisioned a new academic building to replace the Anson S. Thacher Humanities Building. The planned facility will support active learning across the disciplines. Real-world problems don’t organize themselves according to academic silos and neither will this building. Instead, it will facilitate creativity and experimentation and offer the versatility to accommodate changing needs in the future. Groundbreaking is scheduled for summer 2019 and completion in 2021.

The Thacher School 21

HOW TOMORROW IS TAKING SHAPE AT THACHER TODAY Building Cultural Competencies: Embracing the Work of Inclusion and Equity

“We want to make sure that no community member is leaving a part of their identity at the door, that they feel they can bring their whole self to the table and all of us can understand that that’s actually what makes a community vibrant and inclusive.”

Matt Balano, Director of Diversity and Inclusion THACHER HAS COMMITTED ITSELF in recent decades to increasing the diversity of our student body and faculty, and we continue to make great strides in that direction.

Our faculty is increasingly representative of our student body and this year the majority (52 percent) of our freshman class self-identify as students of color. However, increased representation on campus is only part of the equation. We must also renew efforts toward equity and inclusion to ensure that all who join our community feel fully welcome and at home here and are provided an environment where all can blossom to their full potential. To guide that work, in the fall of 2017 the School brought on Matt Balano as director of diversity and inclusion. Since his arrival, Matt has led these efforts and has used his many connections to bring consultants, speakers, and workshops to campus. In February the School will conduct the NAIS22 fall 2018

sponsored climate survey, the Assessment of Inclusivity and Multiculturalism (AIM).

Newly created student and parent affinity groups now provide forums for constructive conversation. As part of our Curriculum Initiative, the sophomore humanities teachers have developed a culturally responsive curriculum that will serve as a model for other courses. Along with this work, Mr. Balano has been supporting the work of AWARE, a recently formed anti-racist group of white adults on campus working to strengthen their cultural competencies, as well as reflect on what it means to be authentically allied with people of color. There is much work to do and some of it is uncomfortable, but the gains of recent years have helped advance the sometimes difficult conversations that are helping our community move towards becoming more inclusive and equitable.

RESPONSIBLE STEWARDSHIP OF SCARCE RESOURCES LEARNING IN AND FROM the outdoors and developing a deep reverence for the Earth has always been central to the Thacher experience, and in recent years these commitments have been amplified by major investments in facilities projects to reduce the School’s carbon footprint. We have reduced our water usage by nearly half. Thanks to Ojai's dependably blue skies, our 2.5-acre solar array gathers more than 90 percent of the electricity we use from the sun—a 35 percent reduction of our overall carbon footprint. Meanwhile, student-led animal husbandry programs help us minimize waste and better understand the food production cycle. Think of chickens and hogs—fed by students with kitchen scraps that would otherwise go to waste—that provide eggs we eat at breakfast or the main course at an annual pig roast. Think of bees that help pollinate our citrus orchards and chaparral while also producing rich local honey. Think of a fleet of electric bikes, charged by the sun, that students can check out for rides into town. Think of locally sourced produce that minimizes food miles while ensuring fresh, organic meals in our dining hall. The future of our students—and of our planet—depends on programs such as these that are playing a bigger role in student life than ever before.

Thacher's new dining hall .

A Revitalized Community Hub THE NEW DINING HALL taking shape in the heart of campus will provide an inviting and inspiring gathering place for our community. The new facility will comfortably seat our entire community, improve efficiency, and minimize waste, supporting our sustainability goals. Its acoustics will facilitate conversation, taking the din out of Formal Dinner. The new kitchen and servery will increase our ability to provide thoughtfully sourced food that meets the increasing variety of dietary needs. To be named in honor of Joy Sawyer-Mulligan and Michael Mulligan, this building will serve as a vessel for the strong sense of community that those two worked so diligently to strengthen during their years at Thacher.

A Peerless Peer Group: Finding and Attracting Best-Fit Students IN A VERY LITERAL WAY, our Admission Office creates the future of Thacher each year as it seeks out and recruits next year’s new arrivals. This is critical work, given our understanding that a strong, diverse, and supportive peer group is one of the most powerful educational tools Thacher possesses. As Thacher has become more selective in recent years, we’ve been able to leverage this selectivity. There are many academically talented applicants out there, but we are able to focus our efforts on the ones of high character and emotional intelligence. We are able to filter for those students bring-

ing diverse perspectives, those who are enthusiastic about trying new things and, and those willing to challenge themselves and their friends to do and become the best they can be. As we look to the future, our success in creating diverse and cohesive cohorts depends on robust financial resources that allow us to welcome bestfit students regardless of their abilities to pay. Along the way, the Next Peak Capital Campaign has made a material difference by increasing the amount of aid we grant each year, providing the Admission Office a valuable tool as it selectively composes each incoming class.

12%

44%

30%

ADMISSION RATE

STUDENTS OF COLOR

STUDENTS ON AID

(79% YIELD)

(AND RISING)

The Thacher School 23

FACING THE FUTURE Nine Thacher Graduates Share Their Thoughts on the Rewards and Challenges of Forward-Looking Work In the fall, we reached out to our alums and asked them to nominate fellow Toads who are engaged in meaningful future-oriented work. We winnowed those suggestions into what we thought was a representative and ultimately inspiring sampling of the ways our graduates are meeting the challenges of tomorrow today.

THE CURATOR

THE STRATEGIC INNOVATOR

Building cultural bridges between past and future.

Richard Andrews CdeP 1967 Seattle, Washington

Protecting our information infrastructure from future threats.

Brian Pierce CdeP 1973 Arlington, Virginia

WHEN WE LOOK AT THE PAST, we see art as an essential part of the history of humankind. The cultural history of our time is emerging constantly. For 40-plus years, the most fulfilling aspect of my job as an administrator, museum director, or advisor/board member for arts organizations, has been working closely with artists as they refine ideas into works of art, exhibitions, or long-term public projects. Helping these artworks be realized and enter the public realm is the essence of my interests and my career. It is a privilege to help artists bridge the art of the past and the future. Two current examples are James Turrell’s Roden Crater Project and the W.S. Merwin Conservancy. Roden Crater is a monumental work of art in the Arizona desert for the contemplation of light and a naked eye observatory to experience the sun, planets, and stars in a dark sky environment. Under construction by Turrell for three decades, the completed Roden Crater project will receive visitors for centuries to come.

Each space in and on the crater frames light in a different way for your perception. It is a profound and moving experience. While Roden Crater is not open to the public yet, part of my role for many years as board president allowed me to be present with first-time visitors during those special moments. As an advisor to the Merwin Conservancy on Maui, I am helping a new organization fulfill the dream of esteemed poet W.S. Merwin to preserve his home and an extraordinary palm forest as the locus for a future residency program for artists, writers, and scientists.

These types of projects are many years in the making and must last many years into the future. The greatest challenge is making the place, the experience, exactly as the artist envisions it and then finding the support and framework to sustain that vision into the future. It is no easier to look ahead 10 years in art than science. Art will surely change in ways we can’t imagine, but the need to support the creation of new art will endure.

I AM THE DIRECTOR of the Information Innovation Office (I2O) at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Virginia. For 60 years, DARPA’s mission has been to prevent strategic surprise in the context of U.S. national security. DARPA figured out pretty quickly that it had to create surprise in order to prevent it. Since modern society depends on information and information depends on information systems, timely, insightful, reliable, and relevant information is essential for national security. To ensure information advantage for the U.S. and its allies, I2O sponsors research in three areas: 1) symbiosis between humans and artificial intelligence—I2O envisions a future in which machines will become partners in problem solving; 2) analytics—we are developing analytical tools and technologies that transform the information in online environments into an understanding of the world that can be used to address national security challenges; 3) cybersecurity— I2O seeks to deter threats by developing technologies that address them from various angles.

Our focuses are resilience—harden systems against cyber attacks, or enable rapid recovery from attacks; situational awareness—detect, characterize, and attribute cyber attacks; and response—accurate, timely, effective, and appropriately scaled cyber responses. Realizing the full potential of our research can take some time. For example, “Personalized Assistant that Learns” was completed over a decade ago, but it wasn’t until more recently that the AI technologies developed by this program became foundational to Siri and similar products. The most fulfilling aspects of my work are, performing public service by developing revolutionary technologies for U.S. national security, working with the professionals in the Department of Defense, and working with talented DARPA colleagues to develop breakthrough technologies that greatly exceed the current edge of the art. The individuals who join DARPA come from companies and universities, as well as the government. The biggest challenge I face is recruiting talented individuals to keep DARPA’s edge sharp. While the revolutionary ideas will change over the next 10 years, DARPA’s mission to create strategic surprise through the development of breakthrough technologies will continue.

24 fall 2018

THE TRANSLATIONAL SCIENTIST

Harnessing the power of the human genome to develop treatments for diseases.

Chris Austin CdeP 1978: Potomac, Maryland I AM THE DIRECTOR of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), part of the National Institute of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Health and Human Service. NIH is the nation’s medical research agency—making important discoveries that improve health and save lives. Our mission is to transform the way treatments and cures for diseases are developed and disseminated, to get more treatments to more patients more quickly. There could not possibly be a more important or fulfilling job description. The results of our work are tangible: 10 years ago, I spoke to a mother whose son had been diagnosed with a rare disease with a life expectancy of less than two years. She simultaneously pleaded and challenged me to develop a treatment in two years, instead of the expected 20. We brought all the technological wizardry we had to bear on the problem, and, in part due to our efforts, her son is alive and thriving. Today, we face a scientific, medical, organizational, and ultimately moral issue: convincing scientists, doctors, policymakers, and the public that there is a major problem in treatment development, then getting entrenched systems to change so we can solve that problem. I trace the advent of translational science to genomics and the Human Genome Project, and for me genomics started at Thacher. In my senior year, Francis Crick (the co-discoverer of the double helical structure of DNA) gave a lecture. I had the opportunity to talk with him at the reception after this lecture, and that discussion led me to a career in genetics, first at Harvard, then with a pharmaceutical company, finally at the NIH. Here, I had the once-in-scientific-history opportunity to design and implement the strategy to translate the Genome Project into improvements in human health.

Technology is one of the main drivers, particularly in engineering and informatics, but also in biology, medicine, and ethics. I believe this new field of translational science will grow enormously, and I tell students that this is the best field in biomedicine to get into. The opportunities, needs, and possibilities for making the lives of their fellow human beings better, are enormous.

The Thacher School 25

FACING THE FUTURE

THE CLEAN, LOW-CARBON ENERGY ADVOCATE Leading the transition to a sustainable future.

Eric Heitz CdeP 1981 Mill Valley, California

I CO-FOUNDED THE ENERGY FOUNDATION, a nonprofit strategic intermediary for philanthropies seeking to spur massive global investments in clean energy. Our mission is to promote the transition to a sustainable energy future by advancing low-carbon technologies, especially efficiency and renewable energy. Today, we have 110 employees in the U.S. and China. I see our work as aligning profit incentives with public benefits through innovative state and national policies. We have a realistic vision for a clean energy future: a prosperous and healthy low-carbon economy. The negative health impacts from carbon-emitting energy production are immense, and the economic promise of clean technologies is huge and largely untapped. I was recently in Texas, which is a bastion of the fossil fuel energy economy, where I visited enormous fields of wind turbines. Each one of these is helping to replace fossil fuel sources, creating jobs, and generating tax revenue for local schools. We have the technology we need, but incumbent energy industries still own the politics and impede progress. What many people don’t realize is that wind and solar energy are the least expensive sources today. Their price drops in the last few years are amazing. The biggest challenge we face is political. As we work to make grants that will have the largest impact (last year we issued grants worth about $120 million to 600 groups in the U.S. and China), we follow a three point approach: know the technologies and the policies; understand the political environment; and, most importantly, join the conversation with strategic communications to drive political changes. We need a new narrative on clean energy. Within the next five years, I expect that we will have achieved the necessary (mostly state) political victories and entered a massive deployment mode, as clean energy production becomes the new norm. This will be good, not only for the health of the planet but for the substantial economic development it will bring. The U.S. is well positioned to be the leader in low carbon emissions, and we are on a solid trajectory, but we still have a lot of work to do.

Full speed ahead!

26 fall 2018

THE SCIENCE TEACHER

Equipping students with knowledge and the skills to make change.

Kelley Collier Janes CdeP 1998 Austin, Texas

I AM A PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY TEACHER at Headwaters School in Austin, Texas. I see my work as an attempt to save the world through showing up in a classroom. I love being around teenagers; I love my opportunity to expand their awareness of scientific concepts as well as issues of social and environmental justice. The challenges that fuel my future-oriented work fall in three big places. One: I have no idea where education is going! When I started teaching 13 years ago, I was overwhelmed by preparing students for a future I couldn’t imagine. My colleagues and I figured that if we interlaced our lessons with skills designed to nurture self-generated learning, environmental stewardship, healthy habits, and self-expression, maybe we could prepare them for the unknown. Two: I find the future more frightening than I previously did. I am now more curious about how to give them practical tools for change-making. I see fear creating a false security and building walls between people and progress.

Humans seek comfort from answers to big questions that tell us “everything will be OK.” I strive to empower them with truth, while increasing their capacity for hope, while inspiring them to see physics as a home for their future work (I sweeten the deal there with 20 bucks if they major in physics in college). Three: Feeling like I don’t live up to my own standards.

I know that my students deserve the very best, yet I believe I am giving them a fraction of that. Almost every teacher I have talked with feels the same way. I think back to the mastery of teaching I received at Thacher and wonder if those greats felt like I feel. Did Cecilia Ortiz, Gallia Vickery, Bo Manson, Chuck Warren, and Jake Jacobsen ever feel the way I do? All this not-yet-living-up-to-my-own-standards sure keeps me in the game, though. “Till the best we can do is all done.” Sheesh—when will that be?

THE LAND STEWARD

When ranching practices of the past mesh with the science of sustainability.

Katie Isaacson CdeP 1999 Santa Barbara County, California

I LIVE ON MY FAMILY’S LAND, El Chorro Ranch. My husband, Will, and I are raising our children in my childhood home, a century-old redwood bunkhouse that used to house the ranch workers. Will and I recently took over running the herd of beef cattle that my parents ran for over 30 years on our land. Raising cattle on our scale would not be enough to provide for our family, so I also grow cooking and carving pumpkins next door on Rancho San Julian, teach classes, and host gatherings open to the public. Many of our neighbors are also raising cattle and crops, and people are eager to help and collaborate across fence lines. I think of our rural neighborhood as an example of true community. I find myself learning a lot from others who have been in the industry for a long time. Many elements of ranching are out of our control; our water supply is limited, and I don’t foresee an increase in supply. Learning how to continue when the conditions are hotter and drier every year is scary. Yet it is also an exciting time for ranching as the concept of regenerative agriculture surfaces. Ten years ago, grazing was seen in a negative light. But, the ranching, farming, and scientific communities have found common ground in relation to soil health and climate change. The possibility of mitigating climate change with responsibly managed grazing brings hope, and there is a lot of traction and research behind this concept. Ranching is an incredible amount of work. We spend a lot of our time fixing old water lines. Yet I am thankful every day that I get to spend my time in such a quiet, beautiful place; that my children get to grow up surrounded by oaks, open space, and with animals. They are already so aware of the cyclical nature of things—they have seen cows give birth, they see farm fields change with the seasons. It’s incredible to me that at 2 and 5 years old, they are already beginning to recognize how dependent we are on the soil, and how it is essential to be good stewards of the land. They take pride in meaningful work, like planting in our garden, pulling weeds in the pumpkin patch, and feeding animals every day. There is a reverence for food, both plant and animal, that I see developing in them as growing people. I want them to understand that it is a privilege to live like we do, and it comes with huge responsibility and stewardship duties.

The Thacher School 27

FACING THE FUTURE

THE URBAN PLANNER

THE DISEASE KILLER

AFTER MY UNDERGRADUATE WORK AT UC BERKELEY and a master’s in public policy and urban planning from the Harvard Kennedy School, I served as the director of transportation and sustainability for two consecutive mayors in Nashville, Tennessee. I left the mayor’s office this summer for my current role as executive director of mobility for Vanderbilt University. My role is to help the university imagine the future of mobility and how infrastructure and policy can create a more sustainable and healthier transportation system, and in turn, contribute to solving global warming.

On a local level, I manage physical infrastructure changes every day—redesigning sidewalks, installing bike lanes, creating pedestrian greenways.

Twenty-five percent of Vanderbilt’s acreage is currently used for parking.

This land, valued at $1.3 billion, could be used for green space, dorms, or academic buildings. We are developing a comprehensive strategy to reduce the number of people who drive alone to campus by nearly 25 percent by 2025 to re-purpose that parking acreage for other uses. Vanderbilt will transform its campus over the next six years to be more pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly, energy-independent, and carbon neutral. It’s exciting to think these infrastructure changes will be a catalyst for broader changes in Nashville. If we are successful, it will be a model for other cities and universities. Cities like Nashville are going to play a major role in solving the climate crisis. Statistics on urbanization are staggering. By 2050, the global urban population will grow from 50 to 66 percent, creating serious challenges with air pollution, water quality, traffic congestion, and affordable housing. Transportation emissions are usually 35‒40 percent of a city’s greenhouse gas emissions and reducing transportation emissions down to zero in the near future is going to be extremely difficult, but it is possible and we must act quickly. Plans for how we move around future cities are happening right now and it’s exciting to be a part of that change. I find transportation and urban planning issues endlessly fascinating and I hope my work will impact the world that my daughters grow up in. I am grateful for my time at Thacher for providing me the confidence and foundation to meet these challenges head on.

I WORK FOR THE AFRICAN LEADERS MALARIA ALLIANCE (ALMA), a coalition of 49 heads of state and government working to eliminate malaria in Africa by 2030. As ALMA’s End Malaria Council advisor, I help countries convene stakeholders from the public and private sectors to advocate for and mobilize resources to eliminate malaria. For some countries, we’re focused on eliminating the parasite by 2020‒2021. For others, we are working to sustain the fight for the next decade. I feel grateful for the opportunity to work on one of the most pressing health issues around the world. The United States eliminated malaria in the early 1950s. African countries have made significant strides against malaria since 2000, but malaria remains a leading cause of death in many countries, especially among children. In 2017, more than 200 million Africans got malaria (92 percent of global cases) and 403,000 died (93 percent of global deaths).

The effects of malaria extend beyond health; it is a drag on GDP, employee productivity, family economic stability, educational attainment, and government budgets. There is also an increasing risk of insecticide and drug resistance and the cost of next generation commodities is substantially more expensive. Thus, it is critical we invest to fight malaria now to save the most lives, improve social and economic well-being, and get the highest return on investment—as high as $36 for every $1 invested. Recently, I went to the Kingdom of Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland) to work with the Ministries of Health and Finance to establish a national malaria fund. Eswatini is very close to eliminating malaria, but doing so requires funding for ongoing treatment and surveillance to ensure the disease is defeated and does not return. I drafted regulations establishing the fund, which will engage leaders across different sectors to take ownership of eliminating malaria. I look forward to replicating this approach with other countries and in partnership with development partners, such as the World Bank, World Health Organization, African Union, and lead investors in the fight, like the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Driving health and sustainability via transportation infrastructure.

Erin Hafkenschiel CdeP 2001 Nashville, Tennessee

28 fall 2018

Harnessing data, diplomacy, and determination to eradicate malaria in Africa.

Stephen Rooke CdeP 2004 New York and Cape Town

THE SEISMOLOGIST

Racing earthquakes to deliver warning.

Sarina Patel CdeP 2010 Berkeley, California

I AM A PhD STUDENT working with the Berkeley Seismology Lab (BSL), within the Earth and Planetary Science Department at UC Berkeley. The BSL is one of several institutions cooperatively building an Earthquake Early Warning network for the U.S. Pacific Coast. I got my start in this field in 2013, when I studied abroad in Christchurch, New Zealand, where, two years after devastating earthquakes, they were still clearing the city of rubble. I had never seen such disaster in a developed place before, and I knew then that I wanted to help. At Berkeley I work alongside researchers who are building a complex algorithm that uses data from hundreds of seismic monitoring stations to rapidly determine that an earthquake is in progress, its location, and its magnitude. Early warning is made possible by advancements in communication technology, which allows the network to send alerts faster than the shaking from an earthquake can travel—the farther from the epicenter, the more warning we can give. Even a few seconds’ warning can make big strides in mitigating the damage from an earthquake. It’s enough to duck-cover-and-hold-on, slow trains so they don’t derail, and automatically shut off water mains to protect urban water supply. My niche is working with a phone app, MyShake, which applies a machine-learning algorithm to the accelerometer in smartphones to detect earthquakes. When a phone at rest detects an earthquake-like signal, it sends us the data, allowing us to forwardalert other users where the shaking hasn’t yet reached. The app has huge potential in countries that cannot afford to establish a formal seismic network. In the U.S., we are also candidates for delivering official alerts to the public. As smartphones and communication infrastructure become increasingly ubiquitous and robust worldwide, the reach of our potential impact continues to expand. With the field of machine learning rapidly developing, there’s no telling what tools we might be able to leverage in the future to make early warning faster and more accurate. The fact is we don’t know when the next “big one” will be. But with fast and accurate early warning, we will still have a sporting chance at keeping ourselves and our communities safe.

The Thacher School 29

GATHERINGS…

If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Tokyo Blossom and Team Wrap Six-City Asian Tour IN EARLY NOVEMBER, HEAD OF SCHOOL Blossom Beatty Pidduck CdeP 1992, accompanied by Brian Pidduck CdeP 1992, director of the Outdoor and Camping Program and Blossom’s husband, Director of Enrollment and Planning Bill McMahon, and Director of Advancement Jeff Berndt, made a whirlwind tour of six Asian cities: Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong. In addition to granting an opportunity for Blossom, some of our senior administrators, and our friends in Asia to get to know one another, the trip also supported the ongoing work of recruiting talented students from all quarters. At each stop they held admission receptions that were well attended thanks to Thacher’s popularity in these cities. The travelers also enjoyed family

dinners and events with Thacher parents current and past, as well as alumni. “I’m always impressed by the warmth and loyalty of our parents and alumni when they visit us on campus,” said Blossom, “but to be greeted with such hospitality halfway around the world was a powerful and uplifting reminder of the broad impact our little school makes in the lives of our students and their families.”

This trip would not have been possible without the thoughtful planning and generosity of the many Thacher families who call these cities home.

In December, Blossom visited New York and San Francisco; she will travel to Seattle in the spring.

Shanghai Photo Op: (l to r) David Chao CdeP 1984; Jeff Berndt; Bill McMahon; Brian Pidduck; Blossom Beatty Pidduck; Florence Willey P ‘19, ‘20; and Haisong Tang P ‘19, ‘20.

30 FALL 2018

Campus Welcomes Home Its Own Reunion Weekend, June 2018 ON JUNE 8, MORE THAN 500 GUESTS CONVERGED on Casa de Piedra, ready to enjoy a full weekend of Reunion festivities and to reunite with former classmates and teachers in the Ojai Valley. Classic Ojai weather—sunny and warm, blue skies all around—and green hillsides speckled with post-fire regrowth (laurel sumac, blue dicks, coastal lotus, wild cucumber) greeted our alumni from the class years ending in 3 and 8, along with the many partners and children who joined the fun.

Friday afternoon saw guests registering and settling in, with some taking advantage of horseback riding sessions, tours of the School led by students, open access to the Library Archives, and a 50th Year Celebration Luncheon for CdeP 1968 in the Library Courtyard. In the evening, mingling on the Pergola was followed by class barbecues (hosted at various faculty homes and on the Pergola, depending on class year), which offered a chance for alumni to reconnect and catch up. Some also attended the Boot Hill Legacy Society Cocktail Hour at the head of school’s home, a chance to show gratitude for and celebrate those alums who have agreed to leave a legacy gift to Thacher and, in so doing, support the long-term health of the School. Afterward, guests reconvened on the twinkle-lighted Pergola for an amazing spread of desserts and a toast of gratitude to Michael and Joy for their 30+ years of selfless service to the School. Later in the evening, interested guests also got the chance to tour the newlyrenovated, now state-of-the-art Thacher Observatory and to hear about the impressive student work happening there.

Saturday included trap shooting, more horseback riding sessions, screenings of special Thacher films, a co-ed alumni soccer game, and a slate of seminars on a variety of topics.

The weekend also included a lineup of seminars. “Stories from my Father” recognized the 40th anniversary of Thacher becoming co-ed and featured Thacher women who grew up hearing stories from men in their families about a certain all-boys’ school they later attended themselves.

That evening, guests dressed up for cocktails and class photos on the Upper Field, followed by the Alumni Banquet beneath the traditional big white tent. Things kicked off with the singing of Domine and remarks from Michael K. Mulligan. Emcee duties were handled by Nick Thacher CdeP 1963 and class toasts were delivered by each of the following individuals: Mac Jordan CdeP 1938, Sam Wright CdeP 1948, Lee Follett CdeP 1953, Tony Thacher CdeP 1958, Steve Griggs CdeP 1963, Dyke Messler CdeP 1968, Walter Rieman CdeP 1973, Michael Brown CdeP 1978, Bruce Somers CdeP 1983, Jamie Araujo CdeP 1988, Jean Richards Damon CdeP 1993, Caroline Ferris White CdeP 1998, Owili Eison CdeP 2003, Lucy Phillips CdeP 2008, and Shelby Luce CdeP 2013. Dinner closed with a raucous rendition of The Banquet Song and was followed by music and dancing on Upper Field.

SUNDAY Sunday proved to be another beautiful day at Casa de Piedra. In the Dining Hall, a delicious brunch was once again on offer and out at the Outdoor Chapel, that favorite spot overlooking the Ojai Valley, many attended the annual Memorial Service, this year led by CdeP 1968. Amid the sounds of the nearby barns and the smell of the sagebrush, main alumni remarks were delivered by Michael Torre CdeP 1968, along with other thoughtful readings and music.

The Thacher School 01

GATHERINGS…

Class Photos

Reunion 2018

CdeP 1938

32 FALL 2017

CdeP 1953

CdeP 1958

CdeP 1963

CdeP 1968

CdeP 1978

CdeP 1983

CdeP 1988

CdeP 1993

CdeP 1998

CdeP 2003

CdeP 2008

CdeP 2013 The Thacher School 33

CLASS NOTES…

* 1942

1948

1950

34 FALL 2018

INDICATES REUNION YEAR

^

CORRESPONDING PHOTO ABOVE

PETER ARNOLD says, “In the alumni notes over these past 76 years, I have watched those of ours, of the Class of 1942, go from the bottom right (the most recent class), creep ever upwards and to the left from the youngest and eventually winding up the very first in line, the oldest. They have chronicled our careers, weddings, births, retirements, and finally the inevitable obits. Today, as the only remaining member of the class of ’42, I am not quite ready to submit my obit, just to say I am still going—health not what I’d like it to be, but good enough that I can get about. I read a lot, I write some, and even look forward to at least one day of duck hunting in the next few months. More than that a body could not ask, could it?”

SAM WRIGHT shares, “Five members of the class of ’48 returned for our 70th reunion in June: JOHN BISSELL, PETER DUNNE, SANDY WALKER, ELLIOT HAYNE and Judy, and myself and Terry (Terry and I subsequently celebrated our 67th wedding anniversary in September). I heard from both SID LIEBES and CHRIS BOYLE who were, unfortunately, unable to be there. The imminence of the Mulligans’ departure at the end of the month seemed to permeate the weekend. Friday night, the Mulligans again, graciously, hosted the older reunioning classes at their home and the five of us—plus wives as noted, along with Peter Dunne’s son, PETER ’81—enjoyed a wonderful evening. Saturday morning—scheduled to deliver our class toast that evening at the Banquet—I woke with a case of laryngitis, severe to the point where I was nearly mute. John Bissell was kind enough to deliver my remarks instead and from all accounts my speech seems to have definitely been improved by his delivery. I had a nice note from Michael thanking John and me for that. John’s and my toast concluded with a quotation from Meister Eckhart, the 14th century mystic and Catholic priest who said, when speaking about meaningful prayer: ‘If the only prayer you can ever say in your entire life is “thank you,” that is enough;’ and this was our toast and prayer for the Mulligans. John Bissell and I, talking about the weekend, agreed that five years was too long a time to renew the friendships we had made at Thacher and concluded we would return in 2019 for a mini off-year reunion and would promote that to our classmates. Thacher changes, always for the better, and is still the wonderful place we knew 70 years ago.”

JOHN CLISE is “still kicking around and having a great time.

Just completing our first full year of living in a 28-home senior co-housing development—Quimper Village in Port Townsend, Wash.—in which my wife, Pam, and I played major roles starting, from the concept through to completion. Hope to make a Thacher reunion one of these days.”

1950

1951

*1954

*1959

1960 1962

GWIN DICK WHITNEY recounts, “My past: graduated Stanford and Navy OCS; EX and navigator USS Moctobi ATF105; treasure dove with Mel Fisher Nuestra Señora de Atocha; director and chairman of board, National Association of Brick Distributors; founded, operated, and sold brick and associated construction products company. Currently, I’m a Florida resident spending four months of summer in Duluth, Minn. I continue to play golf, kayak, bike, scuba dive, and enjoy life with wife Marjorie (married 64 years in December 2018).”

J. BROOKS CRAWFORD writes, “Since I would have been the only member of my class to attend my 65th reunion, I skipped and instead attended the 65th reunion of the class of 1953, my brother’s class. I enjoyed spending time with my many good friends from that class and others. It was an especially momentous occasion because it was the final year of the great tenure of Michael and Joy Mulligan. I did not recognize many of the new buildings but did recognize the old gymkhana field and the old riding trails. The faculty, students, environment, and setting are fantastic.”

^

BILL McNABB was inducted into the Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Association Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Paso Robles on October 5, 2018. “I have long been famous at Thacher for the photo of me picking up an orange at a gymkhana. Horses have played an important role throughout my life, beginning with learning to ride as a 5-year-old in San Mateo to my years at Thacher, where I not only competed in gymkhana, but as an A camper, I regularly rode my horse Sage into the Sespe and vicinity with classmates.” See blogs.thacher.org/classnotes for more LYNN WHITE published a book, Rural Roots of Reform before China’s Conservative Change. “The book is dedicated to my students and teachers, including those whom I remember at Thacher. The argument is that China’s ‘rise’ began in local polities during the early 1970s when new agronomy and the cultural revolution allowed rural leaders to control more resources. That era’s localization of power created input shortages for state institutions, leading to inflation and an end of planning for most commodities in the mid-1980s. After 1990, the Party recentralized—and now, Zhongguo (the central state) is more Zhong (centralized) than ever before.”

CHAS BONNER reports, “I finally closed my business this year, realizing no one wants to hire a 76-year-old dud. Now we will start doing the things for which we moved to Idaho 20 years ago—the great outdoors.”

Art is happening in the class of 1962! ED LEWIS reports, “I am pretty involved in the art world here in Marin, as I have

Bill McNabb ’54 with granddaughter horsewomen, Jordan Ballenger and Mackenzie McNabb, at Hall of Fame ceremony; Don Porter’s ’62 “radical wabi sabi” sculpture; George Pfeiffer ’66 in Livingston, Mont., in June 2018; CdeP 1967 Harvey Kaslow, Deneys Purcell, and Bob Kendig at the McGee Pass in the Eastern Sierra; Scott MacGregor ’67 attended Andy Kille’s life celebration in the Bay Area; “We make pretty good ice cream!” says Don Dennis ’74; Robert Rex ’74 in the rain on day four of a seven-day fundraising ride.

MILESTONES MARRIAGES & ENGAGEMENTS

been V.P. of the board of trustees of the Marin Art & Garden Center for forever (well, actually only six years, but it seems forever) and we at Keegan & Coppin have managed the Novato Art Center at Hamilton Field for now almost 20 years.” MICHAEL MILLIGAN disclosed that “Jeanne E—of ‘Mud Lush’ fame—has been constructing large, and very heavy, ceramic pieces destined for Hawaii next year.” DON PORTER (photo) has been showing his work in Los Angeles galleries and at the Palm Springs Art Museum. “My ‘radical wabi sabi’ temporary sculptures exist just long enough to photograph before they disintegrate.”

1963

1965

1966 1967

LARRY LISLE announces, “My seventh granddaughter was born on July 27, 2018, in Blacksburg, Va.: Elizabeth Brantley Lisle. Son, Lee, is a PhD candidate at Virginia Tech. Oldest granddaughter, Anna Barrett, started college at Belhaven University in Jackson, Miss., majoring in dance. Lora Jane and I are living in Hillsborough, N.C., and enjoy visiting our children and grandchildren (Outer Banks and Blacksburg) frequently. Don’t get to New Orleans much to see our third daughter, however.”ERIC SWEET reports, “My wife and I fled from the chaos in Brazil and emigrated to Portugal. We are in the city of Oporto. Only one of my children still lives with us, our 9-year-old daughter Lara, who is studying at the Deutsche Schule (German School), not far from our apartment. We have not gone to work yet, because our medical diplomas have yet to be evaluated. The bureaucracy involved in moving to Portugal is stupefying. Other than the fact that we are not working, we are very satisfied to be here.”

RUTH HUYLER GLASS updates, “I retired July 1, and Wayne and I are now in Jackson Hole until January. In future years, we plan to split time between the ranch and Lake Tahoe. Those who worry I will be bored in retirement don’t really know me...

Please let me know if you are in either area. We’ve got room and time.”

^ ^

GEORGE PFEIFFER

SONDRA OXLEY ’09 married Denys Haro on May 12, 2017, at Arrowhead Golf Course in Littleton, Colo., with many Thacher alums—relatives and friends—in attendance. “It was a dream come true to marry my best friend under the beautiful Colorado skies with many friends and family to share in the celebration! After Thacher alums—young and old—took pictures, there was a circle that formed as many started to sing the banquet song…

May old Casa Piedra not fade from our hearts!” (photo 1) 1

2

BIRTHS 3

says “I’m still riding lots of horses.”

JAKE FOSTER ’99 and Lea welcomed baby boy Jackson on August 22, 2018. (photo 3) KELSEY McCARTY McRICHARDS ’99 and Andrew welcomed their second daughter, Charlotte, in August 2018. “We joined the ‘two under 2’ club and big sister Elodie already loves her.”

HARVEY KASLOW , DENEYS PURCELL, and BOB KENDIG summitted the McGee Pass in the Eastern Sierra in August 2018. SCOTT MacGREGOR shares, “My highlight this summer was to fly from Idaho to the Bay Area to play music with my classmates RICHARD LYONS and REID DENNIS at ANDY KILLE’S life celebration. Andy was an amazing man!”

^

4

Read and submit class notes online at blogs.thacher.org/classnotes

EUNICE RUIZ ’10 and KYLE GRIFFITH ’11 married on June 30, 2018, at the Outdoor Chapel. “We fell in love while at Thacher and felt it was only right to say our vows where it all began. Thank you to our families and the Thacher community for making it all possible.”

Toads in attendance: HAZEL RUIZ ’05, LAUREL POOLMAN ’10, TOM WILKINSON ’10, KELLY SCHULTZ ’10, SARINA PATEL ’10, PAIGE GRIBB ’10, LAURA BENARD ’10, CHRISTOPHER COLSON ’11, and RICHY YUN ’11. (photo 2)

ERICA REYNOLDS DESJARDINS ’01 and Emile welcomed baby girl Elise Aurora Desjardins in Los Angeles on September 6, 2018.

“We are so in love with our little angel. The photo is right after her first bath!” (photo 4) The Thacher School 31

CLASS NOTES…

1968

KEN JACOBS shares, “After our 50th reunion, our classmate GEORGE BROWN joined the ‘Thacher wilderness helicopter evacuation club,’ like Mully and Kevin Berigan. He has news articles about it—he was lying on the ground three days and two nights before being found, near death—so he can best tell the story.”

1975

^

BRAD MacNEIL says it was “Fabulous being at Casa Piedra for our 50th reunion in June and seeing my ‘old’ classmates! Still busy at the Pasadena Museum of History. Welcome any visits

by Toads who happen to be in the area.”

1971

*1974

KRISTIAN MEISLING writes, “As an outgrowth of my role as adjunct professor at Stanford, Ginger von Wening and I went to Scandinavia this summer, where I presented the results of a research study recently published in a Geological Society of London special publication on Arctic tectonics in Stockholm.

We travel a lot and hike and ski regularly in the eastern Sierra and Taos, N.M. We also continue to play jazz together, and my evil twin plays country music (with a recording session coming up). My grandson just turned 3, and we were in Tucson for his big birthday.”

BRYAN BECKHAM reports, “Louise and I have moved full time to the quaint coastal town of Cayucos but still commute to Paso Robles (30 minutes) for work. Looking forward to our 45th in June of 2019... put it on the calendar to be in Ojai.

ANNIE BECKHAM ’14 graduated last June from Colorado State and has now started her graduate work at Texas A&M University concentrating on equine reproduction.”

DON DENNIS (photo) shares, “My wife Emma is a dairy farmer, and we live on a small island on the west coast of Scotland. Three years ago, we began a new business—to make ice cream, and also to bottle the milk from the farm. We use glass bottles which are (mostly) returned to us for re-use, and we use old-fashioned temperature protocols for pasteurizing the milk. A Thacher alumna stopped by Gigha 16 months ago, and couldn’t believe how good our milk tasted. We’re selling it in small shops across Scotland now. We also make pretty good ice cream...!”

^

ROBERT REX details, “The last two years, I participated and rode every mile of the Pablove Pediatric Cancer Fundraiser. The event starts north of San Francisco and ends in Hollywood— 540 miles in seven days with 340 in the first four. At 62, it’s reasonably grueling… I was on the bike 9.5 hours on day three.

Our four-man Peloton Magazine team raised over $100,000 for pediatric cancer research. A good chance I’ll try again next year, if we can raise even more money… the cause is worth it.”

36 FALL 2018

JOHN GATES updates, “Due to some ongoing health issues, I am leaving my high-altitude home in Colorado and moving to sea level on Orcas Island in Washington. We have a wonderful guest cottage so anyone who wants to visit is welcome.”

1976

1977

1978

1981

NOAH RIFKIN says, “So I accompanied my far better half on a business trip to Seattle at the beginning of the summer. I remembered that JOHN GATES and Julia Wrapp had recently moved to Orcas Island. Roberta and I flew out on Kenmore Air to see them as they ever so graciously allowed us to do so on short notice. Magnificent part of the world! We had a great time with all of it. I even got to co-pilot the plane on the way back to Seattle too!”

DON OSBORNE “Had a great visit with new Director of Alumni Relations CAROLYN REED KIRKPATRICK ’86 at October’s Alumni Council meeting. Carolyn is the daughter of Thacher physics teacher Don Reed. While a student, I learned valuable riding lessons from Carolyn. I had been struggling with my horse as a new rider, getting more frustrated and handling the horse roughly. I discovered how to be patient and gentle with my horse by watching her—at around 3 years old—nudge her horse forward with a slight tap of her heels on the top of the fender of the saddle.”

ANDREW HOLMAN says, “It’s fantastic to be working with so many Thacher alums to develop the new medical field of immuno-autonomics—especially our new Inmedix V.P. of corporate development, STUART HWANG, PhD ’78. I could not be more appreciative of their support and confidence to help Inmedix, Inc., and subsidiary Inmedix UK Ltd., make a difference for patients with autoimmune diseases and cancer.”

^

RAUL VILLA shares, “I thoroughly enjoyed a midsummer trip to the Bay Area where I hung out with several CdeP 1978 classmates: WILL WYMAN, DAN MILLER, ALAN SU, STEVE BENIOFF. I also relished the opportunity to hit the road in NorCal with REZA ZAFARI and MICHAEL BROWN in an inaugural pilgrimage of the Society of Bufo Alvarius. The Society of B.A. welcomes initiates from any and all classes.”

PETER DUNNE shares, “I got to hang out with fellow CdeP 1981 members MARIANA SCHWARTZ, MARCI DABBS, DIANNA MARGULEAS DAR, OWEN BLY, and ALEX CALHOUN while listening to our classmate GLEN GOLD read from his new book in the same room that has seen the likes of Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, Paul Krassner, Timothy Leary, and Jack Kerouac. Pretty cool.”

Noah ’75 and Roberta Rifkin, and Julia Wrapp and John Gates ’75 on a San Juan Island of Washington state; Reza Zafari ’78 and Michael Brown ’78 in Northern California with their “Society of Bufo Alvarius” T-shirts; Glen Gold ’81 published his memoir I Will Be Complete; John Herzog moved to Mammoth Lakes, California; L to R back: Elizabeth Chui Gould ’83, Peter Gould, Mack Polhemus ’83, Rachel Green, Lorne Green ’83, Sue Marguleas, Anthony Marguleas ’83, Molly Perry ’85, Derick Perry ’83, Bruce Somers ’83; L to R sitting: Joel Chance ’83, Bobby Kahn ’83, Mimi Kahn, Louise Branch Charbonneau ’83, Caroline Somers; Sam Butler ’16, Cam Twichell ’17, Tiffany Butler ’17, Sophie Twichell ’85, Jon Twichell ’83, and Bob Butler ’88 in Montréal; J.P. Manoux ’87, Tom Hale ’86, Sarah O’Brien ’86, and Valerie (behind Sarah) at a benefit concert.

MILESTONES BIRTHS

^

GLEN GOLD announces, “Knopf published my memoir I Will Be Complete. There’s a Thacher component. Thacher has saved a lot of kids; it saved me. Here’s the hype I should be ashamed of, but secretly embrace: www.glendavidgold.com. Find it at your newly-revitalized local independent bookstore.” CAROL McCONNELL writes, “Thank you to new Head of School BLOSSOM BEATTY PIDDUCK ‘92, for distributing information about the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) initial steps to open 1.6 million acres of California public lands in six counties to fracking and conventional oil drilling— including land adjacent to The Thacher School. Keeping alumni informed about this kind of information is essential.”

1982

MIKE VOEVODSKY, reporting in for the class, has the following update. “TOM SAIDY—still in DC, Saids says his girls are now in high school and dealing with all those joys. A new Lab puppy is soon to join the family; Labrador of course. Tom, put your good shoes out of reach. MARIAN ‘MUFFET’ HUNTINGTON—she’s recently been nominated to Marin’s Hall of Fame for her work with children living in poverty. Her son Robert is at school in San Luis Obispo at Cal Poly—did you remember that MARK CAMERON lives there? He’s still involved in the fire department, so in the event Robert starts a fire (college students), Mark can help. She also reports ‘my dear classmate LAURENCE WOLLAK’ has translated her book into French and Spanish. For the record, Muffet, we all claim Laurence, but nice try. Cameron—as you may not know, Mark retired from the fire department this year; is he old enough to retire? Turns out he enjoyed retirement so much, he is back to volunteering at the, wait for it, yes, fire department. BRIAN KASDAY—living in Las Vegas, says he’s ‘running a marketing agency with my wife, Laura. Our non-working lives are consumed with competitive tennis—my four younger children all play at a high level (Blake made it into the top 10 nationally for boys 16’s). My hobby for the last 15 years has been gourmet cooking—this month a lot of attention has been focused on perfecting thin crust pizza. I haven’t seen any Thacher alum for quite some time but you’re always welcome to visit while in Vegas—and grab a slice :-).’ From DOUG FRANCIS: ‘Gina and I are just trying to get second daughter through junior year/ soccer/college choice, while my oldest is a sophomore at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. I’m still running an event-driven hedge fund for GMO in Boston, golfing as often as possible but not getting any better, and looking forward to the flakes flying so the ski season can start in earnest.’ Continuing the ski theme, JOHN HERZOG reports: ‘I’ve always wanted to live in a ski town, so I moved to Mammoth Lakes at the beginning of the summer. I like it so much I’ve decided to stay the winter. The goal: ski as many days as years I’ve been alive. It’s good to have goals. If you are in the area, hit me up!’ DREW HORTON might be onto something on a second career, with this update: ‘I am

STEPHANIE HUBBARD McGIRT ’02 and Geoff welcomed their third baby, Zara Abigail, on July 14, 2018. “Her older sisters, Lara and Sara, are totally in love with her.” (photo 5)

5

ARIELLE FLAM MITTON ’03 and Andrew welcomed baby Sutton to the world. “Big brothers are so happy to have a sister finally!” (photo 6) ELIZABETH JACKSON SMEARMAN ’04 and family welcomed Leah Ruth Smearman on May 1, 2018. (photo 7)

6

LAUREL BACK KENT ’07 and Ryan welcomed their second child, Alina Kathleen Kent, on July 31, 2018. She joins big brother Oliver (2 ½). (photo 8)

7

CASSANDRA DISNER CHOTIPAIRAT ’12 and Sirimas were blessed to welcome baby Tristan on September 13, 2018. (photo 9)

8 9

^

The Thacher School 33

CLASS NOTES…

enjoying my fourth wine harvest as a research winemaker/ enology specialist for the University of Minnesota’s Grape Breeding & Enology Project. This is my nineteenth wine harvest and eighth year in Minnesota and I am still in love with the Midwest and my wonderful Midwest wife, Sherryl.’ Finally, JILL STEVENSON—last I heard from Jill was in May; she said ‘I am sitting inside enjoying a cup of coffee as the rain falls in Boise; there has been so much rain, I’m contemplating building an ark!’ Jill, very ambitious, but a tad dramatic since the average rainfall is Boise is only 12 inches—U.S. Average is 39 inches. Curious about Jill’s statement, I looked up the rainfall in Boise for May, and it isn’t reported; conspicuously unreported since 2016. Hmmm…”

1983

ABBY DEES shares, “It was great to see so many of you at reunion! It’s been a tough year for Traci and me health-wise, but we are doing great now, and are clearer than ever on the importance of taking loving care of these bodies each day. I’m a part-time lawyer and part-time radio show host on KPFK in Los Angeles—but I’m still trying to figure out what I want to do when I grow up. Otherwise, I’m writing, playing guitar, singing, biking, or letting my partner drag us on trips to difficult-toevacuate-from places. Or napping.”

1986

CAROLYN REED KIRKPATRICK shares, “After bouncing around for the last few years, Doug and I are putting down some roots in Ojai. I just took on the director of alumni relations position at Thacher, and am looking forward to hanging out with fellow Toads! Our younger son, Colin, is a senior at Thacher, and our older son, Liam, started at Dartmouth in September after taking a gap year.”

1987

^

^

ERIC GROSS notes, “My family and I spent July in Vancouver and Alberta, Canada. We played tourists while my son played lacrosse. Win-win!”

TONY THATCHER says, “Greetings from Bozeman, Mont.! It’s been a busy year for me as I start to ramp up a new business building and repairing guitars, mandolins, and ukes: Mountain Whimsy Guitars. I’m still making maps and doing GIS analysis, mostly associated with rivers and streams. During a fabulous early fall camping and climbing trip through Colorado, my wife and I had a chance to hang out with MORGAN SMITH in Telluride for a quick afternoon visit. Sorry we missed SARAH ‘86! Best to all!

38 FALL 2018

DAISY MOORE JULIAN shares, “I started graduate school at the University of Southern California’s Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work and am loving the program, even if I am twice as old as most of my classmates. It’s been a year and a half since I got married to Joshua Julian (thanks to an introduction by MIRIAM DeQUADROS ’88) and our blended family of three teenagers and four cats has adjusted pretty well. My son is in the midst of college applications and both girls started high school this year.”

SOPHIA BROWN TWICHELL notes, “We and the Butlers had dinner in Montréal as the kids headed back to school—Sam at Concordia, Tiffany and Cam at McGill.”

CHRISTINA CHIU ALFANDARY is “super excited to have my daughter, Lia, become a freshman Toad this year at Thacher.

Such an exciting time with BLOSSOM BEATTY PIDDUCK ’92 as the new head of school. Also enjoyed a great dinner in New York City with SOPHIE BROWN TWICHELL this summer.”

^

THOMAS COLE says, “Great to have a strong Thacher showing at the Music in the Garden benefit to support African Women Rising—the NGO founded by Linda Cole and me, which helps to empower women affected by war in SubSaharan Africa. The evening was headlined by RAUL PACHECO ’86 and Ozomatli.”

JEN CRITTENDEN notes, “I continue to enjoy the privilege of working with J.P. MANOUX, AKA Congressman Clarke, on VEEP.”

ANTHONY MARGULEAS hosted a gathering for Los Angeles area classmates at a wonderful end-of-summer party. Anthony broke out the pizza oven and a good time was had by all.

1985

^

SARAH O’BRIEN writes, “RAUL PACHECO and his band Ozomatli gave an amazing benefit concert for TOM COLE ’87 and his wife Linda’s nonprofit organization, African Women Rising, in September. It was great to see TOM HALE, who flew down from San Francisco along with J.P. MANOUX ’87 and his wife, Valerie, who came from Los Angeles. Aaron and I loved seeing other Santa Barbara Toads supporting the event.”

1988

^

CINDY CASTAÑEDA reports, “PATRICK CHU, CHRISTINE JOHNSON and I spent Labor Day weekend together in Albuquerque, where Patrick lives. We had a great weekend together hiking, visiting Bandelier National Monument, and enjoying delicious New Mexican cuisine!”

^

VICTOR WYKOFF updates, “After five years in Cupertino, the Wykoff-Piñón family has settled into Silicon Valley life. I celebrated my two-year anniversary as chief data scientist at SAP Ariba this September. I still enjoy camping and sports, but now I’m the coach! I coach Little League baseball in the spring and AYSO soccer in the fall. My goal is for the players to want to play again next year! I look forward to running in the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Run in October with my two favorite running-mates, Patrick (10) and Thomas (7).”

L to R: Raul Pacheco ’86, Sarah O’Brien ’86, Gabriella Klein ’90, Tom Cole ’87, J.P. Manoux ’87, Scott Vincent ’88, Yvette Jockin (former faculty member) Bottom: Tom Hale ’86; CdeP 1988 Patrick Chu, Christine Johnson, and Cindy Castañeda in Albuquerque, N.M.; Victor Wykoff ’88 with his two favorite running mates after the San Francisco Bridge to Bridge race; Katie Kirkmire Vining ’94 with her nephew, JJ Mazzola ‘19, and her family; Mandy Sonenshine Wynn ’96 and Jennifer Kritz ’94, with their kids, in New England; Justin Stephens ’94 with Tony Hernandez ’93 who unwittingly visited Justin’s winery; Running for public office was the most engaging experience ever for Aloyse Blair Brown ’96; Elodie McRichards (20 months), Kelsey McCarty McRichards ’99, Charlotte McRichards (2 months), Sarah Bruss Gabrielson ’99, Ezra Gabrielson (10). Missing from photo, Sarah’s other son Neil (12)

*1989 1990

*1994

DAWN MURRAY writes, “I was able to attend the retirement gala for the Mulligans at Thacher and see the beautiful land again. With the fires getting so close, it was amazing to see the green popping up all around. I dropped off my son at Cate as a freshman this fall—and continue to drop and pick him up daily as he is a day student. He is loving it and I will be a Toad on the sidelines cheering on both sides…”

*1999

LUKE BLACK writes, “In late August, my family and I (wife, Katia, and daughter, Amina) relocated from New York to Portland, Ore. I continue to work for the United Nations Development Program as an advisor on climate change and environmental finance issues. So far, we are enjoying life in the beautiful Pacific Northwest! I am elated to be near fellow Toads and classmates such as JIM LABBE, ANDY SHAKMAN, and PETER BRAY. I hope that my return to living on the West Coast will allow me to visit CdeP more often!”

^

^

JUSTIN STEPHENS shares, “Kids are doing well—all over the place with school and after-school activities. We’re relishing their age where they still want to be around us... TONY HERNANDEZ ’93 was visiting Napa earlier this year with a friend. Coincidentally, his buddy brought him to Hunnicutt without knowing it was ours or that we were in the wine business. It was great to catch up. He hasn’t changed—looks the same and still funny as hell! Looking forward to our 25th (oh, sweet Jesus) next June and hopefully seeing many other ’94s. Until then, be well.”

^

JAKE FOSTER shares, “Looking back to when ‘Derf,’ Fred Colman, told me that the world needs ditch diggers too, sophomore year I think it was; I see the merit in that, yet not the inspiration. Here it is 2018 and I am the owner of a ground up energy services company, Basin Fluids LLC, started June 2016. My beautiful wife, Leah, and I have a baby boy, Jackson, born August 22, 2018. Life is good. Working hard to make it even better. Looking forward to my 20-year class reunion, summer 2019.”

^

KELSEY McCARTY McRICHARDS announces, “We joined the ‘two under 2’ club this past August with the birth of our daughter, Charlotte. Big sister Elodie already loves her. Still living in Boston and enjoying the best of New England fall weather, including a visit to SARAH BRUSS GABRIELSON in Maine. I had the chance to meet up with my fellow classmate while vacationing in Portland."

^

KATIE KIRKMIRE VINING says, “It has been such a pleasure to be able to maintain a close connection with Thacher as I have watched my nephew, JJ MAZZOLA ’19 (Chris and Rich’s son), grow from a freshman to a senior as a Thacher student. It is always so fun to attend his sports games and cheer on the Toads. Super grateful to be part of this community.”

JENNIFER KRITZ says, “Lucky me! I was able to spend some time with my Thacher ‘little sister,’ MANDY SONENSHINE WYNN ’96, and family, when they were visiting New England! I can’t wait to see more Toads at our 25th reunion—yikes—in June.”

1996

election day... there were many victories. 22,045 people voted for me, and 237 people believed in me enough to contribute to my campaign—including many Thacher alumni. My heart is full of gratitude.”

2000

^

ELLA GOODBROD MOENCH had “small family adventures this summer with my boys: bike camping, California travel, river time, and mountain hikes... loving sharing the outdoors with people who are just getting started. Big summer bonus: seeing JULIETTE McCULLOUGH and her little dude Crawford! Now back to school and fully immersed in the drama and life of seventh graders as we learn a new science curriculum and go to one-to-one laptops!”

PETER HARTNACK announces, “I have just begun my first year as principal of River School in Napa, Calif. If you are up in Wine Country, stop by to say hello!”

^

SARAH MORROW updates, “I moved from San Francisco to Ojai for a change of pace and scenery and I am loving life here. I adopted a puppy and it’s such a treat to take Tintin up to Thacher... he loves watching soccer games and is mesmerized by the horses. I work in travel so I’m often away exploring the globe but please let me know If you find yourself in Ojai, I love Toad visitors!”

ALOYSE BLAIR BROWN reports, “I am the first woman to run for Hamilton County mayor in Tennessee and am told that my campaign had profound impact on people’s perceptions of local politics, what politicians look like, and who they are. I won the Democratic primary in May with 70 percent of the vote, but lost the general election. While I didn’t win on

The Thacher School 39 35

CLASS NOTES… Ella Goodbrod Moench ’00 on a small adventure with her kids; Sarah Morrow ’00 and Logan Morrow ’06 at Thacher; Annie Nyborg ’00 working on her film Grizzly Country; Robert DeWitt Jr. ’09 in the Marines.

2000

^

ANNIE NYBORG writes, “As sustainability director at Peak Design, I recently produced a short film with Ben Moon called Grizzly Country about Doug Peacock (father of former Thacher classmate, LAUREL PEACOCK). The film will be premiering at Banff Film Festival this fall and also screened at Wild & Scenic Film Fest in January before a public release. The film has been a passion project undoubtedly stemming from the love of the wild instilled in me during my time at Thacher.”

CLAY PELL notes, “I am currently on active duty with the U.S. Coast Guard in Washington, D.C.”

2001

*2004

MATT BREWER’S San Francisco restaurant, Che Fico, made Bon Appétit’s top 10 new American restaurants, with The New York Times, The Washington Post, and San Francisco Chronicle all raving in print. Journalist Anderson Cooper reported, “Best food I’ve had in a long time.”

ELIZABETH JACKSON SMEARMAN announces, “My family welcomed Leah Ruth Smearman in May and we are enjoying our new home near Greenville, S.C.!”

WARD SORRICK updates, “I am currently producing video content for financial services company, Square, Inc., in San Francisco. My newest spots will be available online in October.

I also just finished a personal, creative project. It’s a short film I produced called Mirrors, which follows a contemporary ballet dancer who spirals out of control during a career-defining performance. I even called in fellow Toad, Liam Driscoll ’13, to serve as second assistant director on the film. He crushed it!

Feel free to contact me if you’d like to see it.”

2007

*2009

ANNA TEAGUE updates, “I just finished my PhD in clinical psychology in June. I’m now embarking on a two-year fellowship in neuropsychology at the University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville, where I work primarily with patients with epilepsy, traumatic brain injury, early-onset neurodegenerative diseases, and those seeking lung, kidney, or liver transplants. Let me know if you’re in the area (I’m in the Thacher directory). I’d love to catch up with any Thacher alums!”

^

ROBERT DEWITT JR. has been training extensively in the Marines and will be deployed next year.

WILL SHENTON shares, “I’ve been loving my new job at The Richmond Neighborhood Center, a San Francisco nonprofit providing free and low-cost after-school programs, food pantries, home-delivered groceries for seniors, and neighborhood events. I am a founding member of the San Francisco chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. I’ve

40 FALL 2018

been proud to see it grow to more than 1,000 local members, win two ballot measure campaigns (with two more and a supervisor candidate on the ballot this November), aid our homeless neighbors, support striking workers, and fight against police brutality—among numerous other campaigns.”

JOE TOBIN III moved to Beijing in August. “I will spend the next year studying at Tsinghua University as part of the Schwarzman Scholars Program. Should you find yourself in Beijing, please reach out!”

2011

2012

JACK SLIGH reports, “I recently moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in composing music for film and video games— happy to be back in the California sun! In the meantime, I’m teaching computer courses for K-6 every day and spending waaaay too much time at Disneyland. Seven times since moving here two months ago... oy vey.”

ANDREW ATWONG shares, “In July, CHARLIE EVANS flew across the country to visit me and run the San Francisco Half Marathon—his first attempt at the distance. Charlie held a great pace and beat his goal time at the finish line. After the race, we watched a Giants game at AT&T Park, during which Charlie taught me how to watch and appreciate baseball.”

CASSANDRA DISNER CHOTIPAIRAT writes, “Since getting married in 2017 while living in Hawaii, we’ve moved to California and were blessed to welcome baby Tristan in September.”

HOW TO SUBMIT DIGITAL PHOTOS: • Shoot using your camera’s best photo setting.

• Files should be 200k or larger.

• Save photos as JPEG files.

• Identify every person in the photo, state time and place, and suggest a caption.

We can accept good old-fashioned prints as well.

Unfortunately, we cannot accept photocopies or images from magazines or newspapers.

TWO WAYS TO SUBMIT PHOTOS: 1. Email digital files as attachments to alumni@thacher.org.

2. Mail prints or digital discs to: The Thacher School Alumni Office 5025 Thacher Road, Ojai, CA 93023

FACULTY, STAFF & FRIENDS…

NEW FACES Thacher welcomed a large contingent of new full-time faculty members to the School. Science and math teacher Owen Coyle discovered Thacher through his wife, Ellie Wilkinson CdeP 2008. They came to Ojai from Seattle, where he taught at a K-8 school. Owen is teaching math, physics, and computer sciences and coached cross country. Courtney Cronin joined the College Counseling team as a sabbatical replacement for Kara Hooper. She earned a master’s in independent school leadership from Columbia in 2018 and is passionate about helping students unearth their interests. Juliet Henderson came to Ojai with her wife, Stephanie Thomas (who is acting as a student advisor), and their daughters, Lola ’22 and Lucy. The family spent three summers in Mexico, as Juliet earned her master’s in Spanish language teaching. Melanie León, who has joined the Admission Office after many years of teaching and recruiting outstanding students in the Los Angeles area, is advising senior girls and coaching JV girls’ soccer in the winter. She loves to hike with her husband, Dietrich (see below) and surf, swim, ski, and enjoy the outdoors. PhD candidate, Ali Rahman is the second Fisher Fellow to join the Thacher faculty. He has spent the past seven years teaching in various contexts around the world and

is teaching upper level English and history courses here. Dietrich Schuhl (married to Melanie León) was happy to move from Harvard-Westlake and the city life in Studio City to the rustic environs of Ojai. He teaches AP Environmental Science, and AP Biology and is sharing his love of the outdoors with the students. Henry Wadsworth is our new math department chair.

Henry earned his MS in educational administration from California State University, Northridge, after receiving a BS in mathematics and a teaching certificate from East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania. He is working with the math faculty to establish a project-based curriculum. Henry and his wife, Justine, and toddler daughter, Adelaide, are enjoying life surrounded by the Topa Topas. Christina Yuan’s move to Thacher brings her home after five years spent teaching Chinese on the East Coast. She has an MA from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in East Clockwise from upper left: Owen Asian studies, as well as an MA in Chinese stud- Coyle, Courtney Cronin, ies from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Juliet Henderson, Ali Rahman, Christina is teaching Chinese language courses Melanie León and Dietrich Schuhl, Henry Wadswoth, Christina Yuan. and assistant coaching girls’ basketball.

The Thacher School 37

FACULTY, STAFF & FRIENDS…

Toad travelers stop at Lake Titicaca for a spell.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES: WELCOME AND FAREWELL

We welcome new trustees (lr) , Leesa Romo (Abigail ’19), Laura Van Winkle James CdeP 1993, Christina Chiu Alfandary CdeP 1985, and Martin Romo.

This year, the Thacher board said “goodbye” and “thank you” to five dedicated members and welcomed new trustees (see photo). Cindy Castañeda CdeP 1988 joined the board in 2009. During her time on the board, Cindy’s influence was felt across the campus as she served on several committees: program, personnel, finance, governance, building and grounds, and this past year as secretary of the executive committee. Her service on the head of school succession committee has shaped the direction of the school for years to come. Jeff Lee CdeP 1996 joined the board in 2015 as the Alumni Association president and held that position for the duration of his board tenure. He helped turn the group into an alumni-centered advisory committee. He also served on the governance, program, investment, and development committees. Ted Williams, father of Teddy CdeP 2016, joined the board in 2013. He served on the finance committee for five years and became chair his last year. Prior to that, he joined the executive committee as treasurer for a year. Ted did a remarkable job at coming up with clear, direct, approaches to finance and investment and making the area of finance approachable for many. During his tenure, he also served on the program, personnel, and development committees. John and Holly Hancock served as Parent Association chairs for the 2017-2018 school year. Parents of Willa CdeP ’18 and Henry CdeP ’18, the couple was deeply committed to the student experience. The Hancocks were advocates for diversity in the Thacher faculty and student body. The Board of Directors is integral to the success of Thacher, and the entire community wishes to express our deep appreciation for the countless hours these volunteers have devoted to Casa de Piedra.

CONTINUING EDUCATION Humanities teachers Whitney Livermore and Iona Popa both attended diversity-focused conferences this year. In December, they attended the People of Color Conference in Anaheim, California, and as a follow-up established 42 FALL 2018

The Hooper family in Bhutan

the AWARE group (Alliance of White Anti-Racism Educators) here on campus.

Whitney spent a week a the Equity As Excellence Conference in San Francisco, and Ms. Popa attended the White Privilege Conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Tommy Hattori, who teaches math and science, has begun working on a master’s in education with an emphasis on Independent School Leadership through the University of Hawaii, Manoa. Jon Swift, who teaches physics among other subjects, took a weeklong summer workshop on instructional approaches to dynamics, electricity, and magnetism.

The Pidduck family is back on campus after their sabbatical and the Hooper family has taken to the road. After kicking off their sabbatical with an incredible trip to Bhutan and Thailand in July, the Hooper family has settled into life in Austin, Texas. Kara has spent time volunteering for Breakthrough Collaborative Central Texas, mentoring a first-generation college bound student in the college process. She also volunteers regularly at Bookspring, an organization that focuses on increasing childhood literacy in Austin. Jeff spent the fall embedded with several high school football programs in the Austin area, reconnecting with his Friday Night Lights roots. Both of them have also found time to enjoy Austin’s live music scene and great food. The Hooper boys have launched an enterprising business charging the ubiquitous scooters that line the city streets. They do also manage to find time to attend school.

Molly Perry CdeP 1985 (accompanied by Maddy Moore ’19) represented Thacher at the Independent School Gender Project conference at Hotchkiss School. Molly also attended the National Capstone Consortium Summer Summit at Endicott College and a conference for the Mastery Transcript Consortium in Palo Alto. She and Seth Boyd, chair of the English Department, attended a workshop at Harvard on instructional rounds, a classroom observation protocol intended to improve teaching and learning.

FACULTY TRAVEL Eight rising juniors traveled to Bolivia with Thacher faculty couple Bob and Lucia St. George and two Where There Be Dragons guides in the summer of 2018. Studies in Bolivia focused on climate change, sustainability, Bolivian culture, and Spanish language. The group experienced both rural and urban life during their two homestays. A four-day hike through the Andes Mountains to a 17,000-foot peak was one of the most memorable experiences for the group.

This past summer, Dr. Sarah DelVecchio and former Chinese teacher Eric Shi led their third trip to China.

Since Chinese history is included in the curriculum for all students, China is a favorite destination for international study trips. In their travels, 15 students learned about China’s government, society, and economy. The homestay portion of the trip provided one-on-one cultural exchanges and the students enjoyed spending time with local kids in Shanghai.

PAST FACULTY Michael K. Mulligan, our former head of school, received well-deserved honors from The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS) in the form of the 2018 RuzMichael K. Mulligan icka Compass Premier Leadership Award (see page 48). The award recognizes extraordinary contributions to the excellence, advancement, and success of boarding schools.

Christina Mazzola, a former Thacher faculty member and mother of JJ ’19, gave the talk at the Sunday morning Chapel Service during Fall Family Weekend.

She shared stories from her 20 years here as a teacher, administrator, and parent.

The Thacher School 43

IN MEMORIAM… ROBERT W. THOMAS JR. CdeP 1940 Robert “Bob” Thomas was born to Robert and Rose Thomas in Ray, Arizona, and passed away September 7, 2018. He is survived by his wife, Marion, three children, four grandchildren, and three greatgrandchildren.

His senior year at Thacher, Bob served as chairman of the school. His classmates recall his indisputable ability in impromptu dramatics and his “cynical but impersonal wit.” After Thacher, Bob attended Pomona College in Claremont, California, where he met Marion Rifenbark, whom he married September 7, 1943. Shortly after graduating from college, Bob attended Officer Training School and then was shipped overseas. During the war he was awarded the Bronze Star for “Heroic Achievement” and the Silver Star Medal for “Gallantry in Action.” After the war, Bob worked for Standard Oil Company, retiring as the vice president of public affairs in 1985.

In his retirement, Bob found a new love in the art of cross stitching. His works have been published in a calendar as well as art displays. Bob enjoyed golf and tennis and was an active member of Broadmoor Country Club and Seattle Tennis Club. He was active in the community as a member of several organizations: the Rainier Club, 101 Club, Rotary, and the Episcopal Church.

Both lovers of art and culture, Bob and Marion traveled and cruised around the world well into their 90s.

Bob will be remembered as a man who would spot a piano and sit down and delight an audience by playing boogie woogie. He was a true gentleman who lived his life fully.

STEPHEN C. MORRISON CdeP 1941 Stephen Cambron Morrison, age 94, died peacefully Friday, January 19, 2018, in Los Angeles. Steve was born in Pasadena, California, a fifth-generation Californian and the oldest son of Dr. Stanley Morrison CdeP 1909, law professor at Stanford University, and Carroll Morrison. Steve never married and had one brother, Peter Morrison CdeP 1944, who preceded him in death in 1999. His two uncles, a nephew, and a cousin were also Thacher alumni.

While at Thacher, Steve could often be found in the darkroom, as photography was one of his hobbies, and he served on the darkroom committee, and as the photographic editor of The Notes.

Steve received a master’s degree in engineering from Caltech in Pasadena, with a hiatus to serve in World War II. He had a passion for Chinese art, trains, antique guns, and California history and paintings. He loved picnicking in the mountains that surround the Los Angeles basin and on the beach. He cared about his extended family and kept in touch with members across the country. He loved Yosemite and helped to gather

40 FALL 2016 44 2018

family members for spring visits. Steve lived an active, independent life until days before his death. He is survived by his nephews, nieces, great-nephews, and great-nieces. He will be missed.

EUGENE H. DUNN CdeP 1942 Eugene Holcomb Dunn passed away July 28, 2018, in Escondido, California. He is survived by his wife, Audrey Dunn; sister, Virginia Dunn Philhower; daughters, Janet Laurie Dunn Jacques and Nancy Ann Dunn Kelley; Audrey’s four sons; as well as many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

He was predeceased by his former wife, Kathleen “Kay” Jacobs Dunn, and daughter, Carol Jean Dunn.

Gene lived a storied life. He was born in Long Beach, California, and graduated from The Thacher School. His interest in camping drove him to organize the Hairy Hoof Club while at Thacher. He spent treasured summers in Rapid City, South Dakota, riding horses and assisting his beloved grandparents on the 15,000-acre HO Ranch settled by the family.

Gene served in the Army during World War II, graduated from Colorado State College, and returned to Rapid City to manage the ranch. After brief stints in California working with Ralston Purina, he returned to manage the ranch and its sale. Gene went on to establish successful Hertz Rental Car dealerships. Gene and Audrey were married in 1988, moving full time to San Diego County, where he golfed with friends and hosted children and grandchildren.

To those who knew him best, he had a keen wit and a great love for his family and friends. Gene enjoyed great jazz, parties with friends, and adored his wife, Audrey.

WAYNE W. MONTGOMERY JR. CdeP 1944 Wayne Warren Montgomery Jr. passed away on July 11, 2018, in Helena, Montana, from a sudden illness. Wayne was born to Wayne Warren and Eleanor Viola (Delong) Montgomery and grew up on his family’s cattle ranch and orange groves in Simi Valley, California. At Thacher, Wayne was indispensable to the baseball team.

Near the end of World War II, Wayne joined the Merchant Marines, then fought with the Marine Corps in the Korean Conflict, achieved the rank of major, was wounded, and returned highly decorated. Wayne and his first wife, Frieda Annelies Menge, had five children whom they raised in Lakeview, Montana.

Wayne loved politics, which led to campaigns for Montana Congressman and Montana Governor. Eventually, he left ranching and began many years of adventures.

His love for writing led him to earn a journalism degree from the University of Montana in Missoula.

One of his adventures led him to San Francisco, where Wayne met Carol Ann Boertje whom he married in 1985. Wayne and Carol settled in Helena, Montana. Those who knew Wayne knew of his passion for defending the underdog. Wayne’s love for baseball and the L.A. Dodgers took him right up to the end, with a game on television.

Wayne was preceded in death by Annelies and his two sisters, Virginia Reed and Audrey Busse. He is survived by his wife Carol; brother, John Montgomery CdeP 1950; five children, Wayne, Mel, Mary Storey, Julie Jackson, and Lisa Yates CdeP 1982; and 14 grandchildren.

IN MEMORIAM… JAMES HOYT NOYES CdeP 1944 James Hoyt Noyes passed away peacefully at his home in San Francisco, California, on April 18, 2018. Jim grew up riding horses through the plum orchards and vineyards in the Napa Valley. Summers were split between working at the family lumberyard in Napa and leading horse trips on the shores of Lake Tahoe. Outdoor life meant “more to Jim than to anyone else” at Thacher.

He served in the United States Navy, earned a BA in philosophy from Yale, and an MS in political science from UC Berkeley.

Jim also studied philosophy at Allahabad University in India and had the great honor of a private meeting with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

In Washington D.C., Jim met the love of his life, Izabella Mycielska, with whom he had three sons: James CdeP 1975, Nicholas CdeP 1976, and Philip.

Their adventures together took them to Damascus, Syria, where Jim worked for AMIDEAST, and to Sri Lanka for the Asia Foundation. Next, he was appointed deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Near Eastern, African and South Asian Affairs. Upon his return to San Francisco, Jim was named visiting senior fellow at UC Berkeley and later became a research fellow at Stanford University. His book, The Clouded Lens, has been widely cited for its in–depth analysis of U.S. strategic interests in Southwest Asia.

Jim’s keen intellect, dry humor, honor, and kindness will be sorely missed.

He is survived by his wife, Izabella; sons James, Nicholas, and Philip; and two grandchildren.

BRUCE P. DOHRMANN CdeP 1947 Bruce Potter Dorhmann passed away on May 3 at the family home in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico, with his wife, Nínive, by his side.

Bruce will be remembered as an engaged, intelligent, and thoughtful man. He loved music, politics, geography, and read multiple papers daily.

At Thacher, he was considered the “best-informed member of the class on current events and foreign policy.”

This interest never waned; as an adult, he enjoyed discussing world news, offering up little-known facts and citing his references. He loved to travel with Ninive and raised her two children as his own. Bruce was an enthusiastic outdoorsman who enjoyed camping, riding his horse in Golden Gate Park, skiing, and fly fishing.

He was in the class of 1951 at Yale, then joined the Army, and eventually attended the UC Berkeley School of Law. Bruce went on to be a stockbroker with Hambrecht & Quist and a partner at Dakin, Costigan, Welpton (now Moors and Cabot). He was a Bohemian Club member from 1956, a happy,

long-time member of the Seven Trees Camp.

After retiring, he and Nínive moved to their home in Cuernavaca, Mexico.

They were often found playing bridge and dominos, attending musical concerts and lectures, enjoying their church community, or planning their next trip.

Their time together in Mexico marked a very happy period in Bruce’s life.

Bruce is survived by his wife, Nínive Dohrmann, children Richard Clements and Nínive Calegari, three grandchildren, and his brother Eric Dohrmann CdeP 1949.

HENRY T. DONAHOE CdeP 1949 Henry Donahoe died peacefully at home with his wife, Maria, by his side on June 17, 2018.

Henry was the second child of Charles W. Donahoe and Janet Sheahan of Seattle, Washington.

He is predeceased by his brother Charlie W. Donahoe Jr. CdeP 1947.

Henry was a unique individual— a true Renaissance man with a love for history, art, opera (especially the Met), and languages. Henry also loved to travel and enjoyed many trips with his wife.

He delighted in going to plays, dinners, teas, gardens, concerts, parties, and on drives throughout the Eastern states.

While at Thacher, Henry needed little persuasion to take to the hills for a weekend. Prior to working in the banking business, Henry graduated from Princeton University, then enlisted in the Navy. Following active military service, he worked on his family’s ranch in Montana. His love of the outdoors stayed with him, and his comfort with animals always amazed his wife. He was also a great horseman. His character, dignity, and class made him a very interesting and special person. He was a true gentleman.

Henry leaves behind his loving wife of 24 years, Maria; three nieces; and a nephew. He is also survived by two grandnieces, two grandnephews, and his many cousins on both sides of the family, who all loved him. He was proud of his entire family.

J. HOLT ROSE, MD CdeP 1952 Dr. J. Holt Rose, a pioneer of modern radiation therapy, who cared for and cured thousands of cancer patients, died March 5, 2018.

The son of Helen Johnstone Rose and Joseph Rose CdeP 1919, he was a Pasadena native. Fiery horse Gizmo was his steed at Thacher. Dr. Rose earned an AB from Princeton and MD from UC San Francisco then fulfilled his residency at L.A. County Hospital, and a fellowship at UCSF. He served as flight surgeon with a helicopter battalion.

Early on, he married Darlene Strange, with whom he had two children, Walter CdeP 1980 and Louise Rose Curcio CdeP 1982. Janet Dunton Rose was his second wife. Dr. Rose married Halaine (Maccabee) in March 1991.

Philanthropy by Dr. and Mrs. Rose benefitted numerous nonprofits. Travel, flying, sailing, tennis, fly fishing, hiking, poetry, and gardening were favored pursuits.

A founder of Hill Medical Corp., he was on the teaching faculty, and served The Thacher School 45

IN MEMORIAM… as chief of radiation medicine at Huntington Hospital for three decades. His work was published in 1999 in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology and Physics. Rather than retire, Dr. Rose (Emeritus) applied his expertise, consulted, and performed Locum Tenens.

Two funds have been established in his name: Huntington Medical Research Institutes, Dr. J. Holt Rose Honor Fund; American Technician Society, Jacobs Technion Cornell Innovation Institute, Dr. J. Holt Rose Honor Fund.

Dr. Rose is survived by Halaine; his sisters, Catherine and Margaret; his son Walter and daughter Louise; and two grandsons.

JOHN G. HAVERLY CdeP 1956 Dr. John Gordon Haverly, died in his sleep on May 28 surrounded by his wife of 47 years, Delia; children, Diana and Victoria; and grandchildren. John was born in Boston to Dr. Norman and Agnes Haverly and grew up in Long Beach, California. His brother, James, preceded him in death. At The Thacher School he was active in the theater program, and spent long hours at the outdoor theatre practicing and practicing to get the lines and action just right. He continued his education at Yale and then attended the University of Miami where he received his MD. Dr. Haverly became a psychiatrist who cared deeply for his patients.

He settled in New York City where he lived for over 30 years. John was a man of passionate interests: art, travel, flying, scuba diving, fast cars, music, photography and film. He was gracious, generous, a supportive father, a gentleman, and a scholar. While fiercely witty and wickedly funny, he was compassionate to his core.

ANDREW D. FARRAND CdeP 1958 Andy Farrand of Woodland, California, died in a car accident on July 13, 2018. While at Thacher, Andy could often be seen on his 10-speed bicycle or on the tennis courts and everyone knew of his plans to join the U.S. Marine Corps. After an early discharge from the military, Andy graduated from Cal State LA with an MA in U.S. history and then earned his PhD from UC Santa Barbara. He worked as a grant-writer for several colleges over the years, including Harvey Mudd. Andy was predeceased by his sons, Matthew and Andrew; father, Stephen CdeP 1927; uncle Knox CdeP 1923; and brother, Peter CdeP 1953. Andy is survived by his wife, Eleanor; brother, Alex CdeP 1955; granddaughter; and numerous nephews and nieces, including Lisa Farrand CdeP 1982.

46 fall 2018

F. A. WILHELM MYRIN II CdeP 1959 Folke Alarik Wilhelm Myrin II, known to his friends and family as Bill or Willy, died peacefully on July 30, 2017, after a long illness. Willy was born in Philadelphia to Lars and Helen Myrin and spent summers growing up in Little Compton, Rhode Island.

At Thacher, Willy excelled at soccer, tennis, gymkhana and packing, and had a habit of phoning home to North Carolina every week. After graduation, Willy earned a master’s degree in accounting from the University of Rhode Island and was a CPA/PFS. Willy moved to New York City early in his career, where he met and married his wife, Janet Olsen, and worked on Wall Street at Bache & Co. He worked as an accountant until his retirement.

Willy loved everything about Manhattan, but the couple moved to Little Compton full time to raise their children, Alarik and Arden. He loved nothing more than a day floating in the ocean and body-surfing.

A convertible lover, Willy often put the top down on his car and headed off with the radio playing and a soda in his hand. More than anything Willy believed “to thine own self be true.”

Willy is survived by his wife, two children, their spouses and a grandson, as well as his sisters, Elin and Beth. He is predeceased by his siblings Cuthbert and Sally.

STEVEN D. CULBERTSON CdeP 1967 Steven Morningthunder, also known as Steven Culbertson, passed away on Sunday, March 4, 2018, at the family home in Green Valley, Arizona.

He was the first of five children born to Toops and Mary Culbertson.

At Thacher, Steven excelled at math and physics and played chess. He “did nothing halfway.” Steven graduated from Colorado College with a BA in English. After college, he pursued varied interests. He wrote a book detailing the looming threat of diminishing oil supplies and its impact on the American lifestyle. He also took up farming, and growing varieties of grasses that could thrive in the dry climate of the Southwest. In the early 1980s, he traveled to India seeking knowledge of an older civilization. He lived a simple life in Arkansas for a while and eventually settled in Mexico City where he met and married his wife, Aurora. They eventually moved back to Arizona.

Steven’s life was impacted by the onset of mental illness in his late 20s.

After the death of his mother, Steven became his beloved father’s closest companion and caregiver. Together, the two of them traveled to Florida on an annual trek, spent their summers in the family cabin in Pinetop and vacationed with his brother and sister-in-law.

He is predeceased by his wife, mother, and father. He is survived by his siblings, John, Mark, Nancy, and Mary Ellen; and nieces and nephews, all of whom will miss him dearly.

IN MEMORIAM… D. ANDREW KILLE CdeP 1967 The Rev. D. Andrew Kille, writer, teacher, editor, musician, preacher, biblical scholar, and interfaith activist, passed away surrounded by his family on June 30, 2018, after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

The eldest of three children of David and Ruth Kille, he grew up in Ventura before moving to Ojai. He attended Thacher as a day student and he played banjo in various groups.

Andy received an AB from Stanford, where he met Pamela Bjorklund. They were married and had two sons. He continued to the American Baptist Seminary of the West and was ordained in 1975, then served at First Baptist Church of Palo Alto, Memorial Church at Stanford, and Grace Baptist Church in San Jose. In 1997, he received a PhD in psychology and the Bible from the Graduate Theological Union.

He was credited with naming the new field, “psychological biblical criticism.”

He was chair of the psychology and biblical studies unit of the Society of Biblical Studies for several years, and editor of The Bible Workbench (now Reading Between the Lines). Andy created Interfaith Space and was a founding member of the Silicon Valley Interreligious Council.

Andy cherished the outdoors and spent time hiking and backpacking with Pamela throughout the Sierras and Cascades. His last trip was into the Sespe with members of CdeP 1967, celebrating their 50th reunion.

He is survived by his wife, Pamela; sons, Jabin and Russell; one grandson; father, David W. Kille; sisters, Laurel Buhler and Shannon Frew; and nieces and nephew.

FRIENDS OF THE SCHOOL DUDLEY A. RAUCH Dudley Atkins Rauch, past trustee of The Thacher School, died July 26, 2018, at his home in Claremont at the age of 77. He was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, to Alice Atkins and Henry Rauch.

Mr. Rauch went to Duke University, graduating with a degree in mathematics.

From Duke, he attended Harvard Business School. His class at HBS was the first to admit women, and there he met his first wife, Cecilia Bessell, who preceded him in death.

He worked for the Teledyne Corporation, eventually becoming president of the airplane battery division.

Mr. Rauch co-founded Mobile Medical Imaging (MMI), which provided truckmounted imaging equipment to smaller hospitals. As president, Mr. Rauch guided the company through a Nasdaq listing under the name Innoserv Technologies, Inc. Innoserv became the country’s largest servicer of imaging equipment before being sold to G.E.

Mr. Rauch then turned to a life as a private investor, philanthropist, and board member of several institutions, including Thacher. His generous financial support extended to multiple organizations. He loved music in all forms and was an avid attendee of performances at several Los Angeles venues. He was known for his love of family and friends, famous “one-on-one” conversations, incisive problem solving, and a mathematical talent that allowed him to solve complex problems just using his mind and a few scribbles on a yellow lined pad.

He leaves his second wife, Michele Moehring; daughter, Heather Watkins CdeP 1989; three grandchildren; sister, Elizabeth Rainoff; and three nephews.

BETTY SCARSBROOK SAUNDERS Artist Betty S. Saunders died peacefully in her sleep September 23, 2018. She was 94. Betty was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, England, on April 6, 1924.

After graduating from high school, she joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (the WAAFs) arm of the Royal Air Force. Based on bomber squadron airfields, she witnessed firsthand a great deal of the battle of Britain. At war's end, Betty wanted to be a registered nurse but also wanted to see some of the world. So, she set sail for New Zealand and committed to a training period of five years, to pay for her passage. Betty proudly graduated with her New Zealand Registered Nurse Pin. Returning to England for two years, she then emigrated to the U.S. to work in New York at Mount Sinai Hospital. After an eight-year stint at Lantana Hospital in Florida, Betty signed on with Thacher as the registered nurse. Later, Betty attended UC Santa Barbara, obtained a degree in art history, and was awarded the post of art director at Thacher. She remained in this position until her retirement in 1995.

Betty was an active member of the Ojai Studio Artists for many years and her work has sold throughout the United States. She is survived by her brother David of Vancouver, Canada, and many nephews and nieces in the U.S., Canada, and England. She was predeceased, by five days, by her beloved companion of 17 years—her dog, Joy.

ETHEL “SMOKE” TWICHELL Ethel R. Twichell—wife of the fifth Thacher headmaster, David C. Twichell (1963-1968)—died peacefully on August 9, 2018, in Cuttyhunk, Massachusetts.

Smoke was a historian, librarian, gardener, cook, friend, and loving mother. “Smoke was her own person. Quiet, unassuming, non-judgmental, ever flexible, always finding the right way to help out. She, as much as David, was the rock that held the family together and through them the rest of the community for their time at Thacher.”

She is predeceased by her husband of 64 years, David C. Twichell, and her eldest son, Joseph. She is remembered fondly by her remaining children, David Twichell CdeP 1969, Tess Goodwin, Anne Kimball, and Phoebe Twichell Peterson CdeP 1982, and by her 13 grandchildren.

The Thacher School 47

Michael K. Mulligan 2018 Recipient of the Boarding Industry's Highest Achievement Award

Named in honor of the late Steven D. Ruzicka, Executive Director of The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS) from 1995-2007, the prestigious Ruzicka Compass Premier Leadership Award recognizes extraordinary contributions to the excellence, advancement and success of boarding schools. Commented TABS Executive Director Peter Upham, “Now a yearly tradition at TABS, presenting The Ruzicka Compass allows us to honor outstanding leadership and in doing so, to support courage, commitment and innovation, as living values within our community.”

A fitting symbol of Steve Ruzicka’s profound commitment to pilot a true course, the compass revolutionized exploration; without it, many of history’s great voyages might never have taken place. A steadying influence, rich with vision, and always true, even in turbulent times, Ruzicka’s leadership enabled great voyages for so many boarding schools, and for the leaders, educators, students and families who serve and grow in these remarkable communities.

Likewise, Michael Mulligan’s contributions to the boarding school community have demonstrated foresight, courage, and stewardship for the greater whole. Among his many achievements, he was instrumental in creating an independent TABS, and pioneered the first comprehensive study to give greater substance to boarding school marketing. “Steve Ruzicka was guided by a belief that anything is possible. A similarly keen vision, coupled with ingenuity and compassion, motivated so many of Michael Mulligan’s achievements within the boarding school community. The TABS Board is thrilled to recognize his work with the Ruzicka Compass Award,” said Ben Williams, TABS Board Chair.

THE BEST WE CAN DO… THE PAUL ATWATER CONNOLLY CdeP 2009 MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP THIS SCHOLARSHIP IS A MEMORIAL TO PAUL CONNOLLY. IT IS ALSO A

CAR ACCIDENT IN BRITISH COLUMBIA, HIS FAMILY ESTABLISHED THIS

RECOGNITION OF THE THACHER SCHOOL, WHICH MEANT SO MUCH TO

SCHOLARSHIP IN HIS MEMORY. THACHER WAS A VERY SPECIAL PLACE

PAUL. THE SCHOLARSHIP PROVIDES PERPETUAL FINANCIAL SUPPORT

FOR AN ENERGETIC YOUNG MAN FROM MINNESOTA. THIS SCHOLARSHIP

TO STUDENTS WHO, LIKE PAUL, COME TO THE THACHER SCHOOL FROM

WILL ENABLE OTHERS TO LEARN FROM THE THACHER EXPERIENCE AND

OUTSIDE THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA.

BRING THEIR PERSPECTIVES TO THACHER.

PAUL LOVED HIS TIME AT THACHER. THE CAMPUS SUITED HIM PER-

MARTHA AND BRUCE ATWATER ARE PAUL CONNOLLY’S GRANDPAR-

FECTLY; THE ATHLETIC PROGRAM AND COMRADERY ON THE FIELD GAVE

ENTS. PAUL AND HIS GRANDPARENTS SAW EACH OTHER FREQUENTLY AND

HIM GREAT JOY; HE WAS AN ENTHUSIASTIC PARTICIPANT IN CLASS DIS-

HAD A CLOSE RELATIONSHIP. ENHANCING THEIR BOND, PAUL AND HIS

CUSSIONS; AND MOST OF ALL HE LOVED HIS FELLOW STUDENTS.

GRANDFATHER WERE BORN ON THE SAME DAY, 60 YEARS APART. BRUCE

IN THE YEARS AFTER GRADUATING FROM THACHER, PAUL DEVELOPED A SEVERE MENTAL ILLNESS. AFTER PAUL DIED IN FEBRUARY 2017 IN A

ATWATER DISCUSSES PAUL, AND THE PAUL ATWATER CONNOLLY SCHOLARSHIP, BELOW.

… and made friends easily.

A number of classmates from Thacher came to his funeral and the outpouring from his class was touching for us. After his memorial service, we talked to Matt Larson CdeP 2009 and others about how his fellow students saw him. They saw him as an imaginative, bright, visionary kid.

They expected Paul to do amazing things.

WHY WAS THE SCHOLARSHIP ESTABLISHED? The basic impetus came from our daughter Betsy, Paul’s mother. Betsy wanted to create something special in his memory that would honor him and add something to a place that was so important to Paul.

THACHER’S MEANING TO YOUR FAMILY Paul’s older sister, Mary Connolly Conrad CdeP 2007, was two years ahead of Paul at Thacher. Paul and his whole family had gotten glowing reports from Mary. Plus, we had visited Thacher on Grandparents Days and had seen Thacher firsthand. For instance, when we visited classes, the discussions seemed to us similar to a university seminar. After Paul started at Thacher, we had more positive visits and experiences at Thacher.

A UNIQUE PLACE WITH HORSES! One of the unique and powerful parts of the Thacher experience is the Horse Program. Mr. Mulligan, who was head of school when Paul was there, said nothing educates a student better than a horse. A horse doesn’t care how you look, how smart you are, or how popular you are. A horse cares only how you relate to the horse. The parallels to relating to other people are obvious.

Other heads of school didn’t seem to get that.

Mr. Mulligan said when he attended conferences, he was often asked in a disdainful voice, “So, do you still have that Horse Program?” Of course Thacher does!

PAUL AT THACHER Thacher and Paul seemed to be made for each other. He was an outdoors kid and immediately responded to the orientation camping adventure.

He loved the fact that he could shoot trap, which Paul and I had done together in Minnesota. He loved discussions in class. Loved the athletics.

Loved being on the soccer team as the keeper.

Everything about Thacher he loved. He was exactly the kind of friendly, outgoing kid that the School was designed for. He liked the social part

AFTER THACHER Once Paul left Thacher, his mental illness developed and ultimately raged out of control. It was heartbreaking to watch this enormously talented, intelligent, nice boy suffer with insurmountable problems. Unable to complete college, Paul spent a fall in Morocco working in an orphanage for handicapped children. We appreciate his compassion for others; Paul always had a kind word for those less fortunate.

EARMARKED FOR OUT-OF-STATE STUDENTS We have been exposed to lots of different secondary schools through our children and grandchildren. Thacher has a particularly effective approach to teaching its students both academic subjects and the lessons of life. The diversity of students from different backgrounds and states is a vital part of the Thacher experience. Our hope is that this scholarship will help the school and honor Paul.

Paul (right) with his grandfather, Bruce Atwater, and his mother, Betsy. Above: Paul playing goalkeeper at Thacher.

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