Spring-Summer 2005

The

Thacher News Spring Summer

2005

Jesse W. Kahle 1907-2005 Commencement Festivities Inaugural Orrick Lecture Series Ranch Values

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iÜÃ Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII, Number 1

Contents

Editor Jane D. McCarthy

From the Head of School

Design Timothy R. Ditch and Jane D. McCarthy

3 Litany at Year’s End

Contributors David V. Babbott, Elizabeth Bowman, Amy W. Elmore, Camilla Evans-Hensey, Gregory T. Haggard, John S. “Jack” Huyler, Christopher J. Land, Phoebe F. Larson, Richard J. Mazzola, Alisa D. McCoy, Kurt R. Meyer, Joy Sawyer-Mulligan, James B. Swinerton CdeP 1967, and Peggy Whyte Photography David V. Babbott, Eric M. Elias ’06, Darrell L. Jones, Elizabeth Reynolds Mahoney CdeP 1988, J. Bert Mahoney, Jane D. McCarthy, Joy Sawyer-Mulligan, and Cheryl Winters Cover Photo Jesse Kahle and Jack Huyler share a light moment at the 1996 Reunion. Photo by John G. Haverly MD CdeP 1956 Inside Cover Photo Golden Trout Camp this spring. Photo by Dennis Hill

Campus Activities 5 Commencement 2005 8 Awards 9 Senior Exhibitions and Colleges 10 Gymkhana Weekend 12 Judge Orrick Lecture Series 13 Snippets of News, Numeracy Puzzle 14 Winter and Spring Sports 16 New Faculty

23 William M. McNabb CdeP 1954 Multiple Facets of Life with Horses 24 Pono von Holt CdeP 1966 Sabrina K. White CdeP 1995 Na Paniolo o Hawai’i 25 Standish “Sam” K. Penton CdeP 1976 A Therapeutic Lifestyle 26 Alexander H. N. Koo CdeP 1982 Appreciating Lessons Learned from Jesse 27 Elizabeth F. Schilling CdeP 1983 Devoted to Doctoring Horses 28 Melissa Meeker Harnet CdeP 1984 Patience and Respect for Equine Partners

The Thacher News magazine is published twice a year by The Thacher School, and is sent free of charge to alumni, parents, and friends of the School. In preparing this ­report, every effort was made to ensure that it is accurate and complete. If there is an omission or an error in spelling, please accept our apologies and notify the Head of School’s Office at The Thacher School, 5025 Thacher Road, Ojai, California 93023-9001, call (805) 646-4377, or email ­jmccarthy@thacher.org.

43 Remembering Thacher: Bequests

Third Class postage is paid at the Oxnard Post Office.

Ranch Values

32 Reunion Chapel Service Nathaniel R. Bissell CdeP 1980 Invaluable Skills: Hallmarks of a Thacher Education

POSTMASTER: Please send form 3579 to the preceding address.

19 Historical Society: Class of 1932

33 Class Notes

20 Jesse Kahle, 1907-2005

38 Bookshelf Willard Wyman’s High Country

NAIS MEMBER

C Printed by Ventura Printing with soy-based inks on recycled paper.

17 New Trustees

Giving to Thacher 18 Annual Fund Update 39 “Enjoy Your Building!”

21 Poignant Memories: Directors of the Horse Program Remember Jesse Kahle 22 J. Peter Baumgartner CdeP 1951 Two Classmates Celebrate Graduation with a Notable Horseback Ride

29 Christopher W. Labbe CdeP 1997 Horses Are Some of the Best Teachers

Alumni News 30 Reunion Weekend

40 Obituaries 42 Fall/Winter Calendar

Head

From the Head of School

Litany at Year’s End “What I Love about Thacher”

by Michael K. Mulligan

I love getting on my horse, Cowboy, and winding about on the steep and overgrown trails.

I love having a horse that will try to go up, down, or around anything that we together think is reasonable. He and I consult. We usually agree. (I don’t love the ticks up there, but I sure don’t hate them. I just pull them off, wherever they start to settle. I chuck them back into the brush. They don’t whine like mosquitoes. They don’t even really bite until they burrow. I think: There are so many worse things in life than having to flick ticks.) I love that Cowboy knows he does not want to fall off a cliff. He did that once. He reared up and over and fell about 25 feet down a ravine on the Red Reef Trail. He was sick, I think, from drinking too much cold water at the Lady Bug Spring. I had to cut a new trail to get him out.

He got all poked up and scratched. He did not like that very much. But now, he has no interest in taking even one wrong step on a sketchy trail.

I love riding into a camp on a cold evening. I love watching the steam coming off my horse. I love that he is so alert. I love that if we have to, he will turn around and go back out and leave the comfort of his remuda. Out to get water or haul firewood—he will do it with such a quick step and light touch. This is not the horse that Michael Mulligan riding Cowboy and leading Ace is bored with the routine of slouching about onight, I’m about to share some things I the barns or taking yet another jog out to the love about Thacher, about the environment fields. we are blessed to live and grow in, and Head of School Michael K. Mulligan gave the I love seeing the full moon as it rises on a clear following talk at the All-School Banquet—the about you students. night over the Topa Topa Bluffs. This moon final time each year that the whole Thacher I love the mornings when the sun burns clears my head; it embraces me and chases community is together. through the coastal fog that shrouds us in a headaches away. Like Emerson, I feel its trancoat of clammy darkness. scendent pull. These are not nights when you students should be studying under a fluoresI love hearing the ubiquitous California quail cent light. These are nights when we should be call to each other as they skitter and dart across riding ridge-tops and galloping down into the paths from bush to bush. shadows of the brush. These are nights when we should join the coyotes and howl, when I love sauntering up to the Outdoor Chapel we should trail the coastal deer on their silent under the pretense of finding a place to write, and secret paths, when we should catch the and instead settling back into bliss.

California Bruin scarfing our avocadoes in his guiltless pleasure.

I love watching the turkey buzzards glide effortlessly on the zephyrs rising off the valley And what do I love about you Thacher stufloor. Do they ever need to flap their wings? dents?

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I love being at the end of the Friendship Barn at feeding time and watching the horses crane their heads out of their slots, a perfect equine line-up. They seem to be asking, “Where are you, my friend?”

I love it when you work hard. And I love it when you feel good about your work—because you have learned, because you have stretched, because by virtue of these, you are bigger and broader.

Spring / Summer 2005

I love your unbridled laughter; it is laughter sign my name under his or hers. I remember that says the cares of adulthood have not cor- each senior’s first day here—when you came nered and checked you. in the gate, parked your car, and trooped up to register on our lawn. Most of you were I love hearing your sounds of play: the re- ashen. When I shook your hand, your palm sounding thumping of balls and music heavy was sweaty. It was only your brothers and sison the bass when the seniors run around in ters and seniors who ate the donut holes. the gym after check-in; the echoing thwack of the diving board and the cheering and jeering I also love thinking about your first horse ride when you have plunged head over heels or here. Most of you hung wordlessly on the vice-versa into the pool. arena fence. Perspiration beaded at your temples, as the flies darted around your eyes and I love sliding my hands over the rich wood ears. Your parents stood off to the side, their of your desks, and bureaus, and coffee tables stomachs twisting with the knowledge that it that you have built in the shop. I love that you was almost time to hug you goodbye. Most of have taken the care to make such lasting and you looked right by them as you eyed the horse useful treasures. that you were about to mount and your new classmates—at once wary and hopeful.

I love absorbing the confidence of those of you who dance and sing. You cloak yourselves “Where is my place here?” you must have been in beauty and excellence. Your performances thinking. improve our days.

Some freshmen and sophomores, and even a I love your artwork: so varied, so spiky, so few juniors, are still wondering this now. calming, so edgy. It is a testament to your boundless creative spirit and the caring instruc- Where is my place? tion of your teachers. Your art is freedom and discipline at once, the paradox of creation I love the answer to this question: Any of you itself. can find your place. The choice to have a place is entirely yours. You build your place by givI love the dignity of you who debate. The ing. You need not be selected to give. You do formal dress and address; the carefully and not need anyone to give you a position or a politely tracked arguments and points, the title to make it official. moment where just the right word is not there, or the right one is and you are surprised to The world does not open for us when we have found it. And I love that moment when merely take. It opens for us when we give. you know your logic is inexorable and you are about to pounce on a point, but rarely on And your capacity to give is infinite. It is just a your opponent. decision you have to make if you want to reap the benefits of truly calling wherever you are I love hearing the bat crack and seeing the ball home. You simply need to answer the quessail. Or watching you rocket one into a net tions: How can I help? How are my particular corner to win an overtime game. talents best used? Then just go do it.

Or when you cry because you lost. Not that you are embarrassed, but because you cared, because you worked hard, because you’d given your best, because you’d emptied your bucket and realized that this particular one can never be filled again.

You have heard me say before that this world is in need of honest and hard-working men and women, of peacemakers, problem solvers, creative thinkers—those who will take new looks at old problems. It is a world where kindness is in short supply, a world crying for those who will be committed to doing right even when it I love watching you help each other: urging is not comfortable, even when it is scary. And, each other on at gymkhana, or around the happily, it is a world in which individuals altrack, as you jump in for your next shift or ways have and always will be able to make a turn at bat. You are often selfless in your ap- difference. preciation of each other—a great gift you bring to each other.

Now, promise me, seniors, that you will be determined to make this positive difference.

I love it most especially when those of you Promise me, underclassmen, that you will pracwith age and experience or judgment look after tice making these choices here as you continue those without these strengths: when you look through your time at Thacher. after the one who needs your help, who is not brimming with confidence, who is still finding To you all, but to you seniors, especially: I her or his way, you are finding your best self. love that what you learned here can and will And you are helping them find theirs. sustain you, that honesty, ultimately, is its own reward. That fairness is the only way we can I love signing Thacher diplomas. I love think- hope to establish equity in this world. That ing of each individual senior right before I kindness, balanced by truth, heals all wounds.

The Thacher News

Your memories of this School can heal you when you are suffering. When things get tough, when you feel alone or lost, remember your time at Thacher, when you could step out your door and smell orange blossoms, catch the sweet scent of sage (or even a whiff of manure and dust), when you could hear the whinny of your horse, feel the embrace and hear the kind words of a friend, know the love and care of teachers who are devoted to your growth.

Cherish these feelings but don’t rest on them.

Rather, take your gifts of love and peace and spread them to those in need. There are so many opportunities awaiting you. e

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arrived in mid-July with a great outcome: 55% achieved a score of 4 or 5 out of 5, thereby earning advanced placement status for college.

Vespers

Commencement 2005 Seniors Ellen Adams and T.J. Bermant process for Commencement

Abundant Spring Celebrations The school year began drawing to a close in mid-April when the senior class presented their Senior Exhibitions, oral presentations of their year-long study of a subject of personal interest. Spanning from creative to technical, scientific to literary, this year’s topics ranged from Mob Mentality to Laughter, from Witchcraft to American Foreign Policy, and from Pirates to Quantum Computers.

Spring Extra-Day Trips Immediately following these presentations, the entire Community left on Spring Extra-Day Trips to far-flung sites ranging from kayaking the Sea of Cortez to exploring “ghost towns” in Utah; from sailing Lake Oroville to hiking through the thickly forested Big Sur area; from clearing overgrown chaparral on California’s Channel Islands to horsepacking in the Sespe.

Director of Camping Brian Pidduck CdeP 1992 assembled photos and music for a special slide show of great outdoor moments that served as a good study break during finals.

Alex Herr ’05 sings to his horse, Spear, during his Extra-Day Trip

One day after hiking boots, backpacks, and Sierra cups had been stored, over 70 grand­ parents descended on campus to accompany their progeny to Formal Dinner, a dessert reception at the Mulligans’ home featuring an historical talk about Ojai from our own Jack Huyler, and the following day, classes, Assembly, and afternoon activities including horseback riding and athletic events.

Unprom Early in May, Thacher’s Indoor Committee produced the Bi-­Annual Unprom, this year entitled “Construction Function.” Juniors and seniors escorted their assigned freshman and sophomore dates to the Forest Cooke Lawn for photos in front of the twinkly-light bedecked backhoe. Dresses fashioned out of yel- Sophomores Anna Reeser and Charlotte low construction tape Hunt display their and set off with tool finery at the Unprom belts and steel-toed boots won envying glances, while plaid shirts, overalls, painters caps or hard hats, and work gloves were the rage for the fellows; and the tab for each outfit was less than five twospots. In full view of the half-built Student Union building and Performing Arts Center, the students, faculty, and assorted Fac Brats cut the rug to salsa, swing, rap, and oldies until the wee hours of the night.

Two weeks later, 129 students took Advanced Placement exams in 16 disciplines. Results

The seniors chose Middle School Dorm Head and English teacher Derick Perry CdeP 1983 to speak at the Vespers service in the Outdoor Chapel one week before graduation. The concept for his message, entitled “This Place, This Time, This Moment,” emerged from the talk Dr. Ned Cahill CdeP 1970 gave during Gymkhana Weekend. Ned spoke of how instantaneous communication can actually take us away from the places, the times, and the moments that create meaning for our lives, and then asked us to consider if we are connected. While reflecting on Ned’s comments, Derick thought of a related question: “What makes us who we are?” and reflected that that which connects us creates who we are.

Derick mentioned that Sherman Day Thacher’s “emphasis on personal growth, self-reliance, and integrity—balanced by the development of concern for others and a responsible life in this setting—inspires us to ‘avoid lives of quiet desperation’ and to advance confidently in the direction of our dreams and to endeavor to live the life we imagine.” And, even though new buildings, fields, and corrals will change the School’s landscape and different students and faculty will call this home, “This is Thacher… [it is] always the same and never the same.”

Derick went on to show how time here creates connections, and how often is heard the refrain from returning alumni, “ ‘This was one of the best times of my life,’ because they remember connections to the time spent together here…They return to share ‘the paradise within thee,’ ” as John Milton wrote in Paradise Lost, “which has been built upon the lessons learned at Thacher.”

As to this moment, Derick reflected on the joy and courage that Stevie Wonder displays from playing, singing, and writing songs even though he’s blind. Derick then mentioned that President Dwight Eisenh o w e r h i g h - English teacher Derick Perry lighted these CdeP 1983 delivers the two qualities in Vespers message a graduation speech 50 years ago: “He told the graduates…to embrace joy and courage. Joy, that which makes for a happy life is obviously personal, but it is critical. And he “described honesty and integrity as manifestations of Spring / Summer 2005

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courage—the honesty to look closely at ourselves and what we do, the resolution to face those broader matters that seem to be simply wrong, and the courage to confront them.”

To complete his message, Derick alluded to Walt Whitman’s poem “Song of Myself” in suggesting that, as this year’s seniors go into the world to continue creating who they are, they remember that those who love them are never far away, and they will continue to support and to nourish them in many ways in subsequent years.

The All-School Banquet Following a busy week of studying, taking final exams, turning in projects, discarding a year’s worth of rubble while packing up dorm rooms, the entire Community gathered under the pepper trees on The Pergola for the All-School Banquet. This is the one time during the school year when awards are given for outstanding academics, the arts, athletics, and equine achievements; a complete list of awards appears on page 8. As the freshman class cleared the tables and distributed the last of the notes to upperclass members, commendations for each department were announced by various faculty members, followed by induction of the newest students into the Cum Laude Society, the high-school level section of the college-level Phi Beta Kappa honor society. Election to this Society is for those who have undertaken a rigorous course load and maintained the very highest level of academic achievement and integrity throughout their tenure at Thacher.

Cum Laude Society From the Class of 2005 (Elected their Junior Year) Maxwell Stewart Anderson Chandler Grace Pease From the Class of 2005 (Elected their Senior Year) Ellen Susan Adams Ben Daniel Castanon Sarah Irene Chamberlain Josephine Erica Chow Sarah Elizabeth Eckhardt Arthur Kazuhei Kaneko Ned Jordan Fosse Lederer Belsasar Echauri Lepe Erika Kay Satterwhite Julia Kaitlin Walter From the Class of 2006 (Elected their Junior Year) Lauren Marie Church Lucy Moffitt Herr Kaja Rondlh Johnson Alyssa Jane Tennant

The Thacher News

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School Chair Jaime Luna shared his advice to the younger classes—make the most of their time at Thacher—and thanked his classmates and the faculty for their efforts, friendship, and support in creating a great year. Mr. Mulligan welcomed back the students School Chair Jaime Luna from School Year Abroad and bid bon voyage to the nine sophomores who will spend part or all of their junior year abroad. He thanked and bid adieu to the faculty members who are either going on sabbatical (Roger and Marsha Klausler will travel to Washington where he will research the Islamic era of Spanish history) or embarking on new challenges. For the second year [so it seems to have become a tradition], Mr. Michael Mulligan asked each class president to give a short toast to celebrate the year. From humorous to serious, these students reflected on the special place and people that make Thacher a unique Community.

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second was from John’s astonishingly active, immensely wise 90-year-old friend, Grace Lee Boggs, who recently wrote: “We are at one of the great turning points in human history when the survival of our planet—what Hölderlin called ‘the grave and suffering Earth’—and the restoration of our trust in one another require a great sea change in our ecological, economic, political, and spiritual values.”

Dr. Maguire spoke of three values that are desperately needed at this turning point in human hist o r y. “ I n a world at the crossroads, we need, as never before, imagination, pluck, and resiliency; we need to live more simply so Dr. John Maguire that others may simply live; and we ultimately have only what we give away.” He received a standing ovation for his poignant remarks.

Presidents of the Parents’ Association, Jan and Jon Pease, were recognized for graciously volunteering to serve on the Board, reliably recruiting parents to proctor tests, and serving as parent liaisons to the Board of Trustees.

To conclude the presentations, El Archivero supervisor Bert Mahoney brought the four yearbook editors (seniors Juliana Ma, JoJo Chow, Keely Walsh, and Justine Robinette) to the podium to read the dedication to Jesse Kahle, to describe the construction-oriented themed yearbook (replete with blue prints and elevation drawings throughout), and to receive the much deserved gratitude of the Community for chronicling this year so completely and beautifully. After the Banquet ended, members of the Advanced Acting class warmed up the Outdoor Theatre and the crowd by presenting “Ernie’s Illucinations” and “Subterranean Homesick Blues” before the graduating class performed their rendition of the traditional Jan and Jon Pease “Senior Night Live.”

Joy Sawyer-Mulligan, President of Thacher’s Cum Laude Society, announced the newest members of this honor society so that the parSenior Banquet ents could applaud their accomplishments.

The underclassmen left campus early Friday so that the School’s attention could turn to the The major awards were presented by various graduating seniors. faculty members. Athletic Director Rich Mazzola presented Friday evening’s Senior Banquet featured Dr. The Elizabeth John Maguire, former Thacher Trustee and Helms Adams President Emeritus of Claremont University P e r p e t u a l Consortium and Graduate University. He es- Sportsmantablished a context in the form of two quota- ship Award tions for the three challenges that he offered to two hardnot only to the graduating seniors, but to all working but who attended the Senior Banquet. The first fun-loving, was Camus: “There is in this world beauty and fiery competithere are the wretched of the Earth, the humili- tors who cap- Athletic Director Rich Mazzola ated. We must strive—hard as it is—not to be tained varsity with Rebecca Horton and unfaithful either to the one or the other.” The volleyball, la- Emma Werlin

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The newest members of Thacher’s Alumni Association rejoice at the end of Commencement

crosse, basketball, and soccer teams: Rebecca Horton and Emma Werlin. He then awarded the Thacher Lettermen’s Club Perpetual Trophy to two three-sport athletes who served as captains on multiple teams and approached their athletic pursuits wholeheartedly: Jaime Luna and Conner Schryver. Community Service Director Molly Twichell Perry CdeP 1985 presented The Newton K. Chase Community Service Award to two students who encouraged dedication of their peers in their community service work, pursued their own venues of service, strived to improve the quality of the program, and showed that individuals can make a difference and that the power of our collective efforts can far surpass our greatest expectations: Max Anderson and Eleni Towns. Michael Mulligan presented the School Chair Award to Jaime Luna who truly captured the spirit of this School: smart yet unpretentious, kind and thoughtful, selfless

Tutt Bowl winners Jaime Luna and Bel Lepe share the podium with Head Michael Mulligan

in his behavior, a devoted and able athlete, a respected guide to younger students, and a thoughtful advisor to faculty. The Charles L. Tutt Silver Bowl is awarded each year by vote of the faculty to those student(s) who display integrity and responsibility, fortitude in the face of adversity, and consideration for others.

This year it was given to two young men: one a top-flight scholar and outstanding runner who bolstered student morale and stood for the School’s principles of kindness and generosity of spirit, Bel Lepe; and the other a quiet but inspirational leader with a selfless spirit who Marguerite Kissel and Barrett Brown arrive for urges us to look after those who are otherwise Commencement voiceless, Jaime Luna.

Commencement Exercises

The final award of the evening was The Thacher Cup, given to that senior who, in the judgment of the faculty, best demonstrated those qualities the School holds as central: academic excellence, extracurricular achievement, moral leadership, and concern for others.

Rena Karefa-­Johnson Rena Karefa-Johnson holds The Thacher Cup received this award.

The seniors then accompanied their guests to a smaller tent, where Preston Smith’s band played a variety of musical styles for dancing.

Early the next morning, a string quartet played Renaissance music while guests arrived and settled in under the Big Top tent. Cameras clicked, video cameras whirred, and cheers of joy erupted as the juniors swept the aisle clear for the arrival of their older schoolmates. The faculty arrived to a thunderous applause for the comprehensive education they’ve given these students during the last several years.

In Thacher tradition, the Head of School called each senior to the podium as a faculty member read a tribute that highlighted the unique gifts and lasting impressions that each graduate made during his or her tenure at Thacher. Between grins, chuckles, tears, and a few chagrins, 61 graduates became the newest alumni at Thacher’s 116th Commencement Service. e Spring / Summer 2005

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Awards The Charles L. Tutt Silver Bowl for Integrity and Responsibility Bel Lepe ’05 Jaime Luna ’05 The Thacher Cup Rena Karefa-Johnson ’05 School Chair Award Jaime Luna ’05 Thacher Lettermen’s Club Perpetual Trophy Jaime Luna ’05 Conner Schryver ’05 Elizabeth Helms Adams Perpetual Sportsmanship Award Rebeccah Horton ’05 Emma Werlin ’05 Newton K. Chase Community Service Award Max Anderson ’05 Eleni Towns ’05 The Edward R. Spaulding Tennis Cup Ryan Smith ’06 The Charles Pratt Trapshoot Plate Gabe Yette ’05 Jesse Kahle Horsecamper Award Will Oxley ’05 Best Camper Award Sander Duncan ’05 Will Oxley ’05 The George Beckwith Gymkhana Trophy Martha Gregory ’06 Will Oxley ’05

The Golden Carabiner Award Justin Ouyang ’05 Nick Wiltsie ’06

The Marvin H. Shagam Award Rachel Munzig ’06 The Jack Boyd English Award Ellen Adams ’05 Kaitlin Walter ’05 The William Bishop Nixon Poetry Prize Rebekah McFarland ’05 The Nash Robbins Short Story Award Ellen Adams ’05 The Morgan Ward Prize for Mathematics Ned Lederer ’05 The Language Prize Ellen Adams ’05 The Physics Prize (Special Commendation—Sophomore) Alex Min ’07 The Chemistry Prize (Special Commendation—Junior) Dallas Swift ’06 The Biology Prize (Special Commendation—Senior) Arthur Kaneko ’05 The Environmental Science Prize Rachel Munzig ’06 The Psychology Prize Ned Lederer ’05 The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Award Dallas Swift ’06

Herbert C. Moffitt Memorial Trophy Saddle Conor Farese ’06

The Darrah Corbet, Jr., Studio Prize Cindy Sorrick ’05 Rhode Island School of Design Award Juliana Ma ’05 The Agnes M. Lord Music Award T.J. Bermant ’05 The Marcus Hele Dall Photography Award Max Anderson ’05 Anne Strachan ’05 The Harry Llewellyn Bixby Dramatic Cup Ben Babbott ’05 Kaitlin Walter ’05 Caitlin Wyman ’06 The Class of 2000 Dance Award Madeleine Ignon ’05 Eleni Towns ’05

The Munro-Palmer Public Speaking and Debate Award Sam Felton ’05

Top Wrangler Buckle Will Oxley ’05 The Vaquero Cup Nick Hubbard ’07

The Thacher News

The History Prize Sarah Chamberlain ’05

The Eric Bechtel Dachs Prize for Technical Theatre Brendan Keane ’05 Kirsty Mark ’05

The Bissell Gymkhana Trophy Audra Horton ’08

The Hollister Wheaton Trapshoot Award Ben Carter CdeP 1974 and his son, Brian ’05

Liz Mahoney CdeP 1988 and Erika Satterwhite ’05

Seniors Austin Pollet, Barrett Brown, and Charlie Bennett

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Senior Exhibitions, Colleges Senior Ellen Adams Max Anderson Peter Arnold Ben Babbott Lauren Bangasser Zach Behar Charlie Bennett T.J. Bermant Mary Bloom Megan Boswell Kay Bradford Barrett Brown Edward Cahill Brian Carter Montana Caset Ben Castanon Sarah Chamberlain Josephine Chow Ryan Church Davie Connick Sander Duncan Sarah Eckhardt Sam Felton Dana Gal Zack Grossman Alex Herr Becky Horton Lindsay Hunt Maddie Ignon Arthur Kaneko Rena Karefa-Johnson Brendan Keane Calvin Kim Marguerite Kissel Ned Lederer Bel Lepe Parker Lohman Emily Love-Platt Jaime Luna Juliana Ma Kirsty Mark Rebekah McFarland Cindy Mendoza Toby Nathan Justin Ouyang Will Oxley Chandler Pease Austin Pollet Justine Robinett Hazel Ruiz Erika Satterwhite Conner Schryver Cindy Sorrick Annie Strachan Eleni Towns Keely Walsh Kaitlin Walter Emma Werlin Willy Wilder Gabe Yette Michael Yun

Senior Exhibition Topic The Art of Frida Kahlo Fashion Photography Sustainable Development Oil Consumption and the Automobile Beef Production and the Environment Charles Bukowski Game Theory Bush Oil Policy Harlem Renaissance Addiction Native American Casinos Cultures in Conflict Vigilantism Bio Diesel A History of Social Problems in Argentina Black Nationalists and the Black Panther Party The Poet in Wartime Footbinding and Corsets Cryptography Mariology Assisted Reproductive Technology Bipolar Disorder Family Medical Malpractice Human Development in China Deadheads Sexuality through Western History Incarceration The Options for Displaced Children in America Islam and Violence Mob Mentality Speaker Design The Suez Canal Crisis Ojai Insects Laughter The Perfect Race Crime and Truth The Zapatista Movement The Brown Berets Cosmetic Surgery Witchcraft Black Holes Religion and Warfare American Foreign Policy Quantum Computers Evolution of Horse Training Marketing and Psychology Cancer Comebacks!

Art Forgery Poisons Media and United States Foreign Policy Title IX Genetically Engineered Crops f/64 Malcolm X Dressage Religious, Political, and Social Ideology in Disney Movies War Coverage by the Media Architecture Pirates Ethno-musicology and Singing

School Attending Columbia University New York University Embry-Riddle University Amherst College Colby College Rhode Island School of Design George Washington University Hobart & William Smith College Kenyon College University of Southern California Colorado College Bowdoin College Middlebury College UC Davis Mt. Holyoke College Wesleyan University UC Berkeley Tufts University Dartmouth College University of Colorado, Boulder Dartmouth College Tufts University University of Denver Wesleyan University Tufts University University of Colorado, Boulder Davidson College Dartmouth College Connecticut College Stanford University Yale University Montana State University University of Chicago Scripps College Stanford University Stanford University Austin College Emerson College University of Notre Dame Vassar College Colorado State University, Fort Collins University of Chicago Mt. St. Mary’s College Boston University Middlebury College Colorado State University, Fort Collins Duke University Pepperdine University University of Chicago Bucknell University Georgetown University Whittier College Colorado College Lewis & Clark College George Washington University Mt. Holyoke Emory University George Washington University Bowdoin College Colorado College USC (Marshall Business School)

Spring / Summer 2005

Campus Activities This spring’s Big Gymkhana Weekend honors the memory of one of The Thacher School’s best friends and teachers who passed away early in April; Jesse Walter Kahle died at the age of 97. Jesse arrived on campus April 1, 1948, and

Gymkhana Weekend

served as the School’s Director of the Horse Program until his retirement in 1972. Even then, he continued working with both equine and human pupils by offering his expertise in a wise, authoritative, and compassionate manner.

Using his strength and his gentleness and rarely speaking a word more than needed or uttering an expletive that would surely have passed another’s lips, he lived a spiritual, tranquil life with his beloved wife of 74 years, Clarice, in the Ojai Valley that they loved so much.

The more than six decades of Thacher students and Ojai residents whose lives Jesse touched will never forget his sparkling, intense, blue eyes; his consistency, integrity, and honest work ethic; and his quick wit, love of ice cream, and skill at playing dominoes. Jesse’s stamp on this School, the Horse Program, and the lives of all who knew him is his lingering legacy that will never be lost or forgotten. How enriched are our lives for having known this gentle man.

Will Oxley ’05 and Martha Gregory ’06, captains of the Green Team, prepare for Gymkhana’s Grand Entry

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s this spring’s Board of Trustee Meeting concluded, Thacher shifted gears for Big Gymkhana Weekend. Riders competed in English and Trail Riding Events on Friday afternoon, while athletes hit the tennis courts, lacrosse field, and baseball diamond and pulled out victories in two thirds of the contests. Students and their families dined on The Pergola

before heading to the Brody Gallery to view student artwork and, later, to watch a Cabaret in the Outdoor Theatre. Coffee and dessert back on The Pergola completed the day’s ­activities.

Young siblings spent Saturday morning peering in various nooks and crannies for clues in a Scavenger Hunt designed

by Rob and Mary Morrow (parents of Logan ’06). Others toured campus and learned about the local rock formations from resident geologist and Development Officer Scott Smith. By late morning, the entire community gathered at the Gymkhana Field to watch rock climbers mount Jameson Rock and the Grand Entry in which the teams enGymkhana’s opening procession through the Washington Poles tered the field from three loca-

10 The Thacher News

tions. The crowd stood silently as Jack Huyler led Jesse Kahle’s horse—bearing Jesse’s saddle, boots, and hat—through the Washington Poles in memory of our recently departed former Horse Program Director who would have been attending his 58th Gymkhana this year.

In one of the tightest races in years—with teams and top-10 riders standings shifting every week—any of the teams could have won this year’s Big Gymkhana. All three teams came into the final competition with respectable scores: Green with 5351 points, Blue with 4883, and Orange with 4713. Riding at break-neck speeds (several records were broken), a few jostles out of saddles (no one seriously hurt), and plenty of smiles, the riders and their equine partners thundered through, around, or over poles, cavalettis, and keyholes.

“This was a very strong gymkhana season with fast times and good riding,” Horse Director Cam Schryver reported. “Sophomore

Sophie LaRocque broke the Washington Poles rec­ord that Mike Isaac CdeP 1994 had held for 13 years; and a few moments later, classmate Brooke Wharton broke Sophie’s record.

Brooke also broke the Birangle record which Will Oxley ’05 had set earlier in the season.”

The keyhole record was nearly broken, almost everyone stayed mounted in the Rescue Race, and ringspearing included numerous competitors who skewered lots of rings at a gallop.

Five riders joined the ranks of the Silver Dollar Pick-Up Club: freshmen Brannon Cavalier, Thomas Waltcher, Holden Miller, and William Hockey, and junior Robert Kamuyu. The Club now has 340 members. And, finally, the Livermore clan won the Pack Race, yet again.

After the last thundering hoof quieted and the final diamond-hitch knot was tied, the Green Team remained on top of the points pile.

Awards were distributed in the Gymnasium while young’uns experimented at the Family Craft Table, folks purchased Thacher gear from the Country Store, wild bidding notched up the Silent Auction items, and all were plied with a barbecue dinner. Local horseman and auctioneer Ted Robinson whipped the crowd into a Cam Schryver presents frenzy for perennial awards at the Auction favorites including a Gourmet Lunch at The Pines; the World’s Best Brownies; quilts made by students; a stay at a Lake Tahoe vacation home; and a Golden Retriever puppy. The drawing for a Southern California Spring Break Week went to Music Director Greg Haggard and his family; while Drama teacher Sandy Jensen and his family will enjoy a Northern California vacation package. The annual Prius drawing (subsidized

by Thacher’s Board) brought the Haggard family more good vibes as they now tootle around in their environmentally friendly vehicle. When the final gavel pounded, this year’s

Auction had netted over $110,000, another new record.

For those who still hadn’t experienced enough activity, the Mulligans hosted a multi-generational Open House, complete with homemade cookies, foos ball, pingpong, and various other shoeless activities.

Ned Cahill MD CdeP 1970—father of Kim CdeP 1999, Kevin CdeP 2001, Blue Team member Christopher CdeP Brigid McCarthy ’07 riding her braided-tail steed, Dot 2003, and Edward CdeP 2005—shared his views on “Spiritual Trails” at Sunday morning’s Chapel Service.

While riding trails above Thacher as a student and hiking trails throughout the subsequent 35 years, Ned formulated a “Modified Triangle Theory” in which “the first side is physical being (health, strength, skill, and endurance); the second side is mental capacity (intellect, gift for language, knowledge, and problemsolving ability); and the third is spirituality.

The area within the triangle represents the whole person.

Those people we define as great display genius knowledge, diligence, charity, friendship, and concern and selfsacrifice for others. Those people Ned Cahill MD CdeP 1970 who make the spoke of “spiritual trails” world a better place, who are ‘great,’ simply have the largest area within their triangle...”

spiritual side which becomes increasingly more critical in life as physical and mental capacity diminish with time. He also suggested that the spiritual side could actually bend outward— “like an ice cream cone,” with the rounded ice cream being the spiritual side—and what a better place the world would be with that extra effort.

Following the service, parents and students hit the Trap Range and tennis courts. Two scores of shooters took aim at clay discs in friendly competition between teams of students and parents. At day’s end, the best shots were declared to be Ben CdeP 1974 and senior Brian Carter. Over a dozen students and parents battled on the tennis courts; the eventual winners of this round robin play were, once again, a team of Babbotts. Families enjoyed lunch together before students bade their parents farewell and returned to their studies. e

Dr. Cahill explained how Thacher, obviously, promotes personal evolution to expand the area of each individual’s triangle; he encour- Nick Hubbard ’07 proudly displays the rings he aged those listening to diligently expand the speared

Top Ten Riders

Top Ten Freshmen

Team Standings

Audra Horton ’08 on Bonita Lauren Chase ’06 on Maddi Bob Kamuyu ’06 on Charlie Martha Gregory ’06 on Jim Olivia Jacobsen ’07 on Cascaid Sophie LaRocque ’07 on Altivo Annie Mulligan ’08 on Sparky Brooke Wharton ’07 on Hot Shot Brannon Cavalier ’08 on Rio Holden Miller ’08 on George

Audra Horton ’08 on Bonita Annie Mulligan ’08 on Sparky Brannon Cavalier ’08 on Rio Holden Miller ’08 on George Douglas Land ’08 on Iceman Annie Sawyer ’08 on Topeka Thomas Waltcher ’08 on Little Twist Bruno Ferrari ’08 on Sal Lindsay Oliver ’08 on 85 Will Hockey ’08 on Paddy

Green: 7560 Captains: Martha Gregory ’06 and Will Oxley ’05

Blue: 6778 Captains: Hazel Ruiz ’05 and Kelly Singco ’06

Orange: 6650 Captains: Peter Arnold ’05 and Nick Hubbard ’07

Spring / Summer 2005 11

Lecture

Campus Activities

Judge Orrick Lecture Series Mock Trial Is Inaugural Event

T

William H. Orrick, Jr. CdeP 1932

he entire student body and faculty judged the case of a teenage party turned tragedy in a mock trail designed to educate students about the American legal system, jurisprudence, and the work of attorneys and judges.

This was the first in a series of thematic lectures that former US District Judge William H. Orrick, Jr. CdeP 1932 dreamed of in order to augment the education that Thacher students receive. Bill hoped that through heightened awareness of political, social, and economic issues that students would be inspired to serve their communities and make a difference in the world. He and his wife Suzanne gave money to the School to support a lecture series every school year, each based on a particular theme.

To honor his memory and career, the first William H. Orrick, Jr. Lecture focused on law.

Thanks to the efforts of Thacher parents Kathy and Judge Brian Back, nine Southern California attorneys and judges worked with students as they played roles in this mock case based on the jurists’ courtroom experiences.

“On trial” were several The Back clan: Heather ’07 who teenagers and portrayed the judge, and her the parents parents, Kathy and Brian of one who hosted an ill-fated party that included drinking, drug use, injuries, and death; they faced charges of contributing to the delinquency and endangering the health of minors, furnishing a person under the age of 21 with an alcoholic beverage, furnishing controlled substances, and murder.

After presentation of the case and witnesses’ testimony, the students and faculty broke into small groups and deliberated as jurors; a jurist joined each group to weigh the evidence, determine guilt for the charges, and reach a verdict. For closure Junior Rachel Munzig states of the evening, her case everyone re-

12 The Thacher News

by Jane D. McCarthy

grouped and a “foreperson” from each group read the verdict. The verdicts varied in culpability, a lesson in itself in that reasonable minds can formulate different conclusions based on the same evidence. And, students came away with a deeper appreciation that they can be held responsible for the consequences of their actions. Finally, everyone ate Eskimo Pies, a favorite treat of Judge Orrick’s and a nice dessert for this thought-provoking evening.

Bill’s granddaughter Whitney Livermore CdeP 2004 sugJunior Drew Smith makes gested that lectures a point as one of the be oriented around defense attorneys one central theme in order to offer students information about issues not necessarily covered in Thacher’s traditional curriculum. The smaller breakout groups encouraged students to think and become more engaged in the topic. “It is a way of forcing them to look into a topic they may not understand or know much about, and then help them delve into the issue,” Whitney wrote in the Lecture Series proposal. “Judge Orrick was a firm believer in ‘keeping the curtains open’ and always trying new things.” Students helped plan and present this evening’s activities so that they felt incorporated in the process.

Potential topics for future presentations include community service and the social injustice of uneven wealth distribution worldwide.

Bill Orrick matriculated from Thacher to Yale where he graduated in 1937; he then studied law at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law. Except for a four-year stint in the US Army, Bill had a private law practice until 1961, when he was appointed Assistant US Attorney General for the Civil Division, followed by Deputy US Undersecretary of State for Administration, and Assistant US Attorney General for the Anti­trust Division. He then returned to private practice in 1965 until he was nominated by then President Richard M. Nixon to fill a seat vacated by William T. Sweigert on the US District Court, Northern District of California or Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, a position he held until his death on August 14, 2003. e

Tidbits

Campus Activities

Snippets of News Numeracy Stumper

Dackory Hill ’06, Alex Marlantes ’06, and Logan Morrow ’06 tend a Katrina fund-raiser snack bar at a Saturday game

As a reminder, last magazine’s puzzler was:

Historically, the Thacher community unites in remarkable ways to support those devastated by tragedy including the Ojai floods of 1969 and 2004-05, various forest fires, and last year’s tsunami victims in Southeast Asia.

The flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina left Thacher students and faculty wondering what they could do to help others. They gathered at the Outdoor Chapel on September 12 to remember victims of 9/11 and of Hurricane Katrina. Various students and faculty offered possible aid initiatives from fund-raising snack bars at athletic games and competitive fund-raising among dormitories, to sending medical, school, and food supplies to distribution outlets. Head of School Michael Mulligan contacted The Association of Boarding Schools and the National Association of Independent Schools to propose housing and education on campus for displaced school-aged victims. Some students wrote letters of support

Ben Krokower CdeP 1993 is the Grand Prize winner this time as he was the first to submit the correct answer (and there were many).

The gates that remain open actually have an elegant property; namely, they are all squares.

That is, the gates that will be left open will be: 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81, and 100.

The squares are the only numbers, which have an odd number of distinct factors or divisors. Well done, Ben. Honorable mentions for correct answers go to Eric Anderson CdeP 1988, Carmaig de Forest CdeP 1975, Paul Bressie CdeP 1986, Joe Glasgow CdeP 1946, Dean “Kip” Witter III CdeP 1964, and Mark Petschek CdeP 1977.

There is a peculiar, unnamed member of Thacher’s Outdoor Committee who, when checking stalls in the morning, likes to play tricks on his buddies in the riding program.

There are 100 riders currently in the program. This odd individual goes back and forth along the 100 stalls and opens and closes the stall gates. (The stall gates are all initially closed.) On his first pass, using the number one, he opens every stall that is a multiple of one—which is every stall. On his second pass he changes the state of every gate that is a multiple of two; on his third pass he does so again for every gate that is a multiple of three.

This continues until he has made 100 passes.

At the end of this process, explain which gates The New Puzzle are open and which horses will be heading This issue’s installment for the Numeracy colover The Ridge to Pattons’ Cabin! umn is contributed by Paul Bressie CdeP 1986, who, as a student, was a perpetual winner of the “Weekly Mindwinder” contests that were conducted at that time.

by Jane D. McCarthy

to those who had lost their family, friends, and homes during the floods; twenty students plan to spend their Thanksgiving break in Baton Rouge to help those in need; and others hope to sponsor a family in the home-rebuilding process. Thacher continues its tradition of helping others beyond CdeP’s gates.

The recruiting season is in full swing; the Admission officers traveled east to Boston, New York City, Connecticut, and New Jersey in September. In October, the sites include Chicago, Denver, Northern California, and the Navajo Nation in Window Rock, AZ. The final trips this fall will be to the Pacific Northwest (­Portland and Seattle) and the Southwest (Arizona and Texas). At present, the Thacher student body represents twenty-five states and nine countries, but it may become even more geographically diversified with these far-flung tours. e

Euclid and the Clueless Mailman A mailman is politely chatting with Mr. Euclid. During the conversation, the mailman asks Euclid the age of his three daughters. Mr. Euclid, a lover of math, replies, “the product of their ages is equal to 36 and the sum of their ages is equal to the number of the house next door.” To which the mailman replies, “But I missed one clue!” Mr. Euclid replies, “You are right! I forgot to tell you that the oldest one has freckles.”

How old are Mr. Euclid’s daughters?

Send your solution to Kurt Meyer in the Thacher Math Department via e-mail at kmeyer@thacher.org, or via US mail at the School address. Good luck!

Spring / Summer 2005 13

Campus Activities Condor League championship; that’s no small thing, as no Condor League boys’ soccer team has, in its 47-year history, managed five running. During CIF playoffs, the team won its first round game on home turf against Rosamond, 2-1, then lost in the desert at Mojave. “These seniors have known only one Condor League defeat in their three years of varsity soccer,” said Coach Coleman. Most Improved Players were Conner Schryver ’05, Bob Kamuyu ’06, and Redgie Collins ’07. Austin Pollet ’05 earned the Most Inspirational Player award, while Ben Babbott was considered Best Sportsman. The squad’s Most Valuable Player was Jaime Luna, who was also elected to All-CIF First Team. Additionally, seniors Ed Cahill and Davie Connick earned All-CIF 2nd and 3rd Team spots.

Sports

by Joy Sawyer-Mulligan and Jane D. McCarthy

Winter Sports Varsity Girls’ Soccer Captains: Lauren Bangasser ’05 and Emma Werlin ’05 Coaches: Toby Elmore and Kara Hooper

A 2-2 tie against Viewpoint began the season, followed by a 3-0 win over Dunn, and then tying with Laguna twice In the space of three days—00 at home and a 4-4 thriller on their turf, where Thacher came from behind twice. They avenged early season losses to Villanova and Cate by beating the former 2-0 and by tying the latter at home at one each.

Emma Werlin and Logan Morrow ’06 (who also won All-CIF 2nd Team honors) won Most Inspirational honors, Martha Gregory took MVP kudos, and Katie Romanov ’07 was voted Most Improved.

JV Girls’ Soccer Captains: Emily Love-Platt ’05 and Kaja Johnson ’06 Coach: Megan Henry

One highlight of the season (behind a victory against Happy Valley) was the squad’s second game against Villanova, where Sarah Brown-Campello ’08 (later named MVP) nailed a penalty kick; although the Toads ultimately lost to the Wildcats, it wasn’t without spirited effort. According to Coach Henry, in the game at Cate on their home field, the defense team of Emily Love-Platt ’05, Alessandra Waste ’08, and Annie Mulligan ’08 did everything they could to keep the steamrolling Rams from scoring. Kaja Johnson ’06 was voted Most Inspirational; Annie Strachan ’05 earned Most Improved honors.

Varsity Boys’ Soccer Captains: Ben Babbott ’05 and Jaime Luna ’05 Coach: Fred Coleman

With eight seniors, this squad enjoyed seasoned leadership that, mixed with physical and mental toughness, made for an historic fifth consecutive 14 The Thacher News

JV Boys’ Soccer Coach: Eric McCarren

Straight from the coach’s bullhorn: “The talent of this great team came from players of every class, freshmen to seniors. Junior Cal Jensen was voted team MVP and played center midfield all season contributing mightily to our 7-1 record. After losing their first game to a strong Carpinteria team, they regrouped in January and didn’t stop playing soccer despite the heavy rains and allowed their opponents to score only three goals on their outstanding defense led by Billy Irwin ’06.” Mark Wolcott ’07 was voted Most Improved Player.

JV Girls’ Basketball Captains: Belle Bueti ’06 and Jenny Morrill ’06 Coach: Eliza Gregory CdeP 1999 and Kurt Meyer

“We had an outstanding season,” beamed Coach Gregory (herself a varsity hoopster captain during her years at Thacher). New to some were hills, line sprints, crunches, and push-ups—but they all jumped into the action and wound up with a very creditable 5-2 season record in the Condor League. “In my book, everyone was an MVP,” said the coach.

Varsity Boys’ Basketball Coaches: Jason Carney and Ted Holden

“They battled hard every time they headed out onto the court, proving their true Thacher spirit,” reported Coach Carney. Chris Thomas ’08 led in scoring and steals; Chris Gordon ’07 led in free-throw percentage; Max Barbakow ’07 was “an absolute hustle machine, an incredible spark plug out there.” Earning the admiration of his teammates by their voting him Most Improved Player was Andrew Fair ’06.

Third Team Boys’ Soccer Captains: Peter Arnold ’05 and Zack Grossman ’05 Coach: Kevin Buddhu

Comprised of students from all four classes, this team’s season record was 2-2. Coach Buddhu noted, “Peter Arnold ably captained the field from his slot in goal. His play there was inspirational, as he protected Thacher’s turf in every game.” No surprise Peter earned Most Valuable Player; Calvin Kim ’05 won Most Improved.

Varsity Girls’ Basketball Captains: Becky Horton ’05 and Erica Puccetti ’06 Coach: Derick Perry CdeP 1983

This squad was “well-glued together from the start, a bond formed with a sense of warmth, of camaraderie, of fun that inspired both them and me for the whole season,” commented Coach Perry. To whit: they won the Sportsmanship Award at the Fillmore Tournament, just after the start of the season. Further, “They refused to believe that they were anything other than defenders of the Condor League Championship.” That belief, combined with determination and increasing skill throughout the winter, secured them exactly that prize—the third consecutive League title. Earning Most Improved was Sarah Eckhardt ’05, while Most Inspirational Player honors were shared by Rena Karefa-Johnson ’05 and Becky Horton ’05; Becky was also named Most Valuable Player.

JV Boys’ Basketball Captains: Max Anderson ’05 and Toby Nathan ’05 Coach: Ben Farrell

“The season started slowly, with three early losses, the most disheartening being our fall to Cate,” Coach Farrell reported. “But the boys refused to remain discouraged, determined instead to improve steadily throughout the season, pulling off a string of five wins in six games. The remainder of the season was spent building to our final game at home against Cate. It was truly a team victory, with 16 guys on the bench cheering their teammates on throughout the game to its winning (for us) conclusion. I can’t imagine a better way to end our winter.” Max Anderson ’05 and Marc Fuller ’06 won MVP, while Toby Nathan earned the Charlie Hustle Award. Most Improved Player went to David Phuasirirak ’07.

Equestrian Team The first of this semester’s events coincided with the first major winter storm, necessitating an 11th-hour venue switch when Thacher hosted three other teams, two from east coast schools. Fortunately, given the extra hauling and handling forced by the deluge, Thacher alums happened to be back in force for Winter Reunion, and all pitched in to get horses and gear to and from campus. Thacher wound up Reserve Champion, with eight riders qualifying for the Nationals in Maryland during April: Deirdre Herbert ’06, Adri Ryberg ’06, Kelly Singco ’06, Keely Walsh ’05, Alex Dotson ’07, Leslie Sligh ’07, Lesley Sun ’07, and Sarah Winters.

Spring Sports Baseball Captains: Barrett Brown ’05 and Gabe Yette ’05 Coaches: Richard Mazzola, Ben Farrell, and Robert Torres

Mistakenly dubbed a rebuilding year, returning players brought their personal—and team—game to a higher level, and some new talent made outstanding contributions to a very successful spring that ended in a Condor League title. Beyond great defensive moves, the real strength of this squad was in hitting; an unprecedented five players ended the season with a batting average at or above .400: Jeff Harthorn ’06 (.462), Cal Jensen ’06 (.459), Dave Kepner ’07 (.425), Gabe Yette ’05(.421), and Quinn Hacker ’07(.400).

Varsity Girls’ Lacrosse Captains: Becky Horton ’05 and Emma Werlin ’05 Coach: Emily McCarren and Peter Robinson

This team wowed (and sometimes steamrolled) their opponents to an 8-3 record and the Condor League Championship title. Highlights included the Western States Tournament in Palo Alto, where they succumbed in the semi-finals to Seattle’s Mercer High School and a game against UCSB’s A team (ranked #1 in the country for college club teams and coached

by Diana Garcia CdeP 1995), where Coach Etchell reports, “Our much younger Toads did a fantastic job against the college kids and gave them a run for their money! “ Kaggie Orrick ’06 was the high scorer for the season; MIP was Lucy Bosche ’07, while MVP honors went to seniors Becky Horton and goalie Rena Karefa-Johnson.

here was even closer—in fact, it was a carbon copy of last year’s grudge match. In regulation time, the two teams were tied at 10, but this year the Toads scored the big goal to come away with the victory and the Condor League Championship. Success continued at the California Club Lacrosse State Tourney with an exciting win over Palo Alto in semi-finals. The streak finally ended in the Championship round against a very strong St. Margaret’s team. Seniors Conner Schryver and Davie Connick earned MVP honors; Billy Irwin was named MIP. Additionally, US Lacrosse honored two team members with prestigious awards: Toby Elmore was named Assistant Coach of the Year for the Greater LA area, and Conner won that rare accolade of All-American.

from Harvard-Westlake. Ryan and Austin also played in the Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament; despite a challenging first-round draw, they won the match (though lost in the next). MIP was Max Anderson ’05.

JV Boys’ Lacrosse

Track & Field

Captains: Ian Boneysteele ’06 and Dallas Swift ’06 Coaches: Bo Manson and Tyler Manson CdeP 2001

Captains: Mary Bloom ’05 and Bel Lepe ’05 Coaches: Derick Perry CdeP 1983, Kurt Meyer, ­Theana Hancock, and Dan Henry

According to Coach Bo Manson, “It’s all about participation, a full team effort,” of every player competing in every game that produced an impressive 5-1 record for the season. “That’s why we don’t single out individual players for end-of-season awards,” he adds. “Time on the field—in practice or in competition—is full of learning and trying, of working hard and feeling the reward of it.”

Freshman Boys’ Lacrosse Captains: Jack Eastburn ’08 and William Peterson ’08 Coach: Michael Mulligan

“The Freshman Lacrosse team was a dedicated and fun-loving group whose skills and stick work improved every moment,” according to Coach Mulligan. They laced into Midland School in the home opener and beat them 11-1, only to lose to a beefedup Midland squad the following weekend on their home ground. Still, they gleefully anticipated beating the Boys on the Mesa.

Varsity Boys’ Tennis Captains: Toby Nathan ’05 and Austin Pollet ’05 Coaches: Chris Mazzola and Stacy Margolin Potter

JV Girls’ Lacrosse Captains: Molly Katz ’07 and Kensey Pease ’07 Coaches: Kara Hooper and Phoebe Larsen

A thrilling 8-7 win over Midland propelled this team into a season of growth and discovery. Amber Lakin ’08, game newcomer, stood stalwart in goal and emerged as quite a force, saving an average two of every three shots to the net, including 18 saves in a heartbreaking loss to Cate. Kathryn Padgett did more than her share of scooping up groundballs on the fly (notched a record at 40), and successfully combined with Audra Horton ’08 (9 goals scored) at the midfield. MIP was Erin Haswell ’07.

Varsity Boys’ Lacrosse Captains: Ed Cahill ’05, Alex Herr ’05, Jaime Luna ’05, and Conner Schryver ’05 Coaches: Cam Spaulding CdeP 1992 and Toby Elmore

Highlights came against Cate: There, this team jumped to an early lead, fended off a late surge by the Rams, and emerged victorious at 9-8; the rematch

This was the best season in several years; the team came in second in the Condor League and beat some tough non-League opponents: Nordhoff and San Marcos High. Starting the spring ranked #9 in CIF, the team held onto that number right up until the play-offs in May. Singles #1 player and MVP Ryan Smith ’06 along with Simon Wu ’07 at #2 won against two of the League’s top singles players.

Ryan and Austin Pollet ’05 (later named Most Inspirational) teamed up to play doubles in the Condor League Championships, where they walked off the court as winners. From there, it was on to the sectional tournament in Santa Barbara, where they won their first match before falling to a top-ranked team

JV Boys’ Tennis Coach: Eric McCarren

Several matches against Cate’s JV and Ojai Valley School’s Varsity squad made up most of the Thacher JV’s season play. “We all worked to make the season productive and to focus on the goals of participation, sportsmanship, fun, and fair play,” said Coach McCarren, adding, “Senior T.J. Bermant provided a fine model of positiveness and motivation.”

Utilizing the stunning, resilient new David S. Lavender Track, the girls fought hard to secure second place in the Condor League; the small boys’ contingent took sixth. Bel and Mary shared the Track Cup (the Most Valuable award), while Eliza Cope ’07 sprinted away with the David S. Lavender Most Improved Runner award. “For many of the kids, this was the first time they had ever truly tested their physical limits,” said Coach Perry. “As a result, the team had some wonderful and instructive experiences to build upon next year.”

Kayaking Coach Spencer Stevens led a trio of students—Drew Smith ’06, Hannah Rich ’07, and Della Taylor ’07— through conditioning, paddling, and basic maneuvers in the Thacher pool before heading seaward for fun in the surf or to beckoning rivers.

Dance Thacher’s ever-flexible Dance Director Gallia Vickery once again extended the notion of inventive choreography in three pieces—“Boogie Free,” “Subtle Influences” (to contemporary Bulgarian vocal music) and “Diamond Bond”—embraced 20’s jazz style and an updated variation on it, as well as canon and floor patterns.

Advanced Rock Climbing From Climbing Instructor Brian Pidduck CdeP 1992: “Justin Ouyang ’05 and Nick Wiltsie ’06 formed a partnership in great ascents, where they refined their leading skills and developed their ability to take on climbs of greater technical difficulty in nearby Wheeler Gorge and at the Owens River Gorge near Bishop. They took on vertical-to-overhanging ‘endurance’ climbs such as Nirvana, Arbitrot, and Trouble with Tribbles, and worked out the sequential moves on the notoriously difficult Mind Meld Arete of the Dilithium Crystal.” Justin and Nick were rewarded for their efforts by receiving the Golden Carabiner Award at the All-School Banquet.

Yoga Elizabeth Cleveland again coached both beginners and more experienced enthusiasts in the fine points of yoga, encouraging students to use both the relaxing and the strenuous elements to find better balance and health in their daily lives; they also visited a chiropractor, an acupuncturist and a massage therapist to learn about those aspects of health maintenance.

Spring / Summer 2005 15

Faculty

Campus Activities

New Faculty

Enthusiastic Teachers Join Thacher’s Ranks

Andrea Breau comes to us from diagonally across the US. A native of Maine, Andrea earned her BA in Women’s Studies from Colby College in 2003 and has worked since her graduation in the non-profit world on both women’s rights and environmental issues.

Currently in training to become a certified crisis counselor at the Coalition to End Family Violence in Oxnard, she hopes to apply to graduate school in clinical psychology. Here at Thacher, Andrea works in the Development Office, helps to ride herd on the ninth grade boys in the Lower School dormitory, and will assist in coaching the girls’ JV soccer team this winter.

Yan Gongming joins Thacher’s faculty this year as our teacher of Chinese. He has taught at the School Year Abroad program in Beijing for the past three years, and coordinated activities to help American students learn the language and experience Chinese culture.

Prior to SYA, Yan taught Chinese to students from the United States who enrolled in UC Berkeley’s Inter-University Program (IUP) at Tsinghua University. He holds a bachelor’s in history from Peking University. Yan lives in Los Padres and advises sophomore boys. He also advises the Chinese Club and contributes to the Community his considerable skill in nature photography.

Amy W. Elmore has changed positions in the Development Office: last year she served as a research specialist and coached kayaking; this year she is the Director of Annual Giving and Constituent Relations. In this capacity, Amy oversees annual fundraising including the Auction, managing Annual Fund volunteers, and writing solicitation letters and thank-you notes. Amy also develops fundraising media including the Annual Report, Campaign newsletters and video, and fundraising letters. Amy holds a bachelor’s degree in biology with a minor in political science from Trinity University (Texas), and a master’s degree in non-profit management from Seattle University. She advises senior girls this year.

She and her husband, Toby, who teaches history at Thacher, have a dog named Roxy.

Christopher J. Land is Thacher’s new Director of Communications. Most recently, Chris worked as the Director of Operations and Academic Affairs for The Connecting Link, a division of Education Management Corporation, that serves the professional development needs of Kindergarten through 12th grade teachers. Chris has also worked for UNext, an on-line education company, the Illinois chapter of the Nature Conservancy; and Merchandise Mart Properties, a real estate management company. He holds a doctorate and a master’s degree from Northwestern, and a bachelor’s degree from Kenyon College, all in English.

Chris and his wife, Eleanor, live in Ojai with their family: Alexandra (17), Douglas who is a sophomore this fall, Carson (10), and Beatrice (7).

16 The Thacher News

by Jane D. McCarthy

Peter E. Sawyer joins Thacher’s Science Department this fall and teaches AP Biology, Honors Biology, and Physics. He has taught AP Biology, Physics, and Integrated Science at Dixon High School since 1989, where he also coached swimming and track. He holds a bachelor of science degree in Biology of Natural Resources from the University of California at Berkeley and a master’s in Ecology from the University of California at Davis. Peter and his wife, Donna Jones, have two daughters: Annie, who is a sophomore this fall, and Kristin (12).

He lives on The Hill and advises upperclass boys in Upper School. He is coaching girls’ JV tennis this fall, and will coach soccer or track later in the year.

Aaron C. Snyder comes to Thacher from Cushing Academy, where he taught English, coached basketball and tennis, and served as a Dorm Parent. At Thacher, he teaches English and Latin.

Aaron was brought up in Charlestown and Milton, Massachusetts; he attended the Groton School, where he graduated magna cum laude; played football, basketball, and baseball; and won the school’s Classics Prize. He matriculated to Princeton where he majored in English. He is working on a master’s degree from Middlebury’s Bread Loaf School of English. He lives in the Upper School, advises upperclass boys, and is coaching football this fall; in the winter, he will coach basketball. e

Trustees Campus Activities

New Trustees

Talented, Dedicated Additions to the Board

T

his year’s Parents’ Asso­ ciation co-presidents are Mary and Daniel Gregory CdeP 1969. Dan is the Home Editor for Sunset magazine.

He serves on Thacher’s Architectural Committee. Dan earned his BA in English and History of Art from Yale, and later a PhD in Architecture from UC Berkeley.

He taught Architectural History at CarnegieMellon University in Pittsburgh, PA, for a year before returning to San Francisco with Mary and starting work at Sunset. Dan serves on the Advisory Board for the Environmental Design Archives at UC Berkeley, and on the Planning Committee for the Pacific Coast Builders Conference. Mary received her bachelors degree in English from Princeton University (1975), and since then has served many roles (board, staff, consultant, volunteer) in non-profit organizations mainly in the Bay Area, but including ones in Princeton, New Jersey; London, England and Pittsburgh, PA. Since 1998, she has worked in the field of philanthropy at Pacific Foundation Services, providing management and grantmaking services to a number of family foundations. She currently serves on the Advisory Boards of the Fort Mason Foundation and the Foundation Center’s Western Region. She is also the founder of Mary’s List, a web-based matching service for non-profit organizations seeking consultants, at www.maryslist.net. They live in San Francisco and have two daughters: Eliza CdeP 1999 (a Princeton graduate, who, last year taught English at Thacher and now is in Tanzania) and senior Martha. Dan and Mary will serve on Thacher’s Development, Program, and Buildings and Grounds Committees.

Joining the Board this fall is Kathryn “Katie” A. Hall, mother of junior Elizabeth Knutsen, Bill (13), John (10), and Joanna (9). Her husband, Tom Knutsen, is self-employed; they live in San Francisco. Katie serves as Co-Chairman, Co-Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Investment Officer of Offit Hall Capital Management LLC, and is a member of the firm’s Investment Committee. Prior to this position, she was President, Managing Member, and a Managing Director of Laurel Management Company and a member of the Laurel Investment Committee. She is also a Trustee for Princeton University, a member of the Board of Directors of Princeton University Investment Company (“PRINCO”), the Stanford Management Company, which oversees Stanford endowments, and a Director of the American Century Mountain View Funds.

She also serves as Trustee and as Chair of the Investment Committees and on the Board of the UCSF Foundation; she recently completed her term on the Board of the San Francisco Day School. Katie graduated cum laude from Princeton University in 1980 with a bachelor’s in economics. She earned her MBA at Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1984. For Thacher’s Board, Katie will serve on the Investment, Finance, and Program Committees.

by Jane D. McCarthy

New to Thacher’s Board this year is James P. Richardson CdeP 1969, the owner of White Richardson, LLP, a small, urban public accounting firm based in Richmond, CA, that emphasizes nonprofit auditing and consulting. Prior to White Richardson, James was the co-owner of another small accounting firm with a similar focus. He matriculated from Thacher to Stanford, where he attained his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science in 1976; he earned his MBA, with an emphasis in finance, from Cleveland State in 1985.

He is a Certified Public Accountant for the states of California and Ohio; he is a member of various accounting associations including the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the National Association of Black Accountants, Inc., and the California and Ohio Societies of Certified Public Accountants. He is a member of the alumni associations of his alma maters and Past President of the Garden Valley Neighborhood House. James and his wife of 24 years, Karen, live in Richmond; they have two sons: Byron (15) and Alexander (12). He will serve on the Audit, Program, and Finance Committees. In his spare time, James enjoys playing golf, and, two years ago, he earned his Black Belt in karate. e

Michael Mulligan and the Board of Trustees at their autumn meeting Spring / Summer 2005 17

Giving to Thacher

Fund Annual Fund Update

by Amy W. Elmore

E

very year The Thacher School asks parents, alumni, grandparents, and friends to give to the Annual Fund to help close the gap between tuition and the actual costs of educating each student. Raising this $1.7 million dollars each year requires the help of many dedicated volunteers: auction committee members, class representatives, fund chairs, and many more.

We are deeply grateful for all of these individuals’ support.

We are thrilled that the 2005-06 Annual Fund will have the leadership of these seven dedicated volunteers.

Reza Zafari CdeP 1978

Alumni Association President

“I think it is essential to give back to Thacher, however you can,” Reza remarked. As Reza moves into his third and final year as Alumni President, he continues to give his time to Thacher by attending Gatherings and Trustee Meetings, calling alumni, and writing letters.

When he is not dedicating his time to Thacher, he is managing a Merrill Lynch office and spending time with his wife Malea and daughter Emma (both ­pictured above).

Ronald and Barbara Pease Grandparents’ Fund Co-Chairs Grandparents of Chandler CdeP 2005, Kensey ’07, and Jensen ’09

Ron and Barbara have spent their whole lives in the Ventura County area, and while they had heard of Thacher years ago, they knew very little about the School until their granddaughter Chandler CdeP 2005 was applying.

“Chandler looked around at several schools in the area, but had her heart set on Thacher and none of us have been disappointed with her choice,” said Barbara. In fact, Chandler’s other sisters, Kensey ’07 and Jensen ’09, have since enrolled, and Barbara and Ron couldn’t be more pleased. Barbara explained, “We are helping with the Grandparents’ Fund this year because we really think that Thacher has given our granddaughters a wonderful start in life.”

18 The Thacher News

Ted and Becky Swift Parents’ Fund Co-Chairs Parents of Dallas ’06

When Ted and Becky were asked why they were willing to co-chair the Parents’ Fund for a second year, Becky replied, “I think it’s a great opportunity to give back to a school that’s given so much to our son.” As volunteers for both The Campaign for Thacher and Parents’ Fund, the Swifts are acutely aware of Thacher’s needs. Ted explained, “while the Annual Fund helps students today, the Campaign is building a better Thacher for future students.”

Steve and Brent Kanaly Past Parents’ and Friends’ Co-Chairs Parents of Quinn CdeP 1996 and Evan CdeP 1999

Steve and Brent have volunteered in many capacities over the years; their positions have included Parents’ Association Co-Chairs, Parents’ Fund Volunteers, Parents’ Auction Chair, Gun Club sponsor, and now, as Past Parents’ and Friends’ Fund Co-Chairs. What keeps them donating their time to Thacher? Brent explains, “Thacher was great for our girls.

They developed deep friendships, and really benefited from the strong mission of the School and the solid morals it instills in students.”

History

Ranch Values

Historical Society

The Remarkable Class of 1932: Their Stamp on the School Shall Endure

by James B. Swinerton CdeP 1967

W

hen I attended the class of 1967 reunion in 2002, the first toast of the all-school banquet was given by the four attending members of the class of 1932: their seventieth!

Instead of reminiscing, they simply sang, in excellent harmony, The Banquet Song, “The Stamp of a Man,” without batting a PC eye.

They didn’t need to: the credentials of Bill Orrick, CdeP 1932, made any PC quibbles mute.

As a Federal District Judge, his decades-long efforts protecting the rights of the dispossessed in the United States is legion.

because their parents couldn’t afford to drive, but because, in part, they could, and more importantly, they preferred to. In comparison to this technology riddled world, the young men of the thirties probably got to know the world by getting to know their interior selves much more intimately than we have during the past half century. From this self-knowledge grew a quiet confidence and subsequent leadership skills that served them well during the second World War and beyond.

I replied with “Happy Caniculares, Judge.”

“Happy what?” he replied.

I explained to him that the term “dog days” came from the Latin word “Caniculares” which referred to the conjunction between the Canis Major constellation and the sun during the days of late summer heat. Judge Orrick, who remained an active and respected jurist until he died, found it hard to believe that he didn’t know the term. I said I would forward him confirmation. That afternoon I called his secretary to see if I could e-mail an article about “Caniculares” Thacher alumni I’ve known from that period A Chance Encounter with a to the Judge. She said I could try e-mailing it to combined their experiences into unique traits. Member of the Class of 1932 For example, instead of being driven at the start Early one August several years ago, I saw her although she wasn’t familiar with how to of the school year in gas-guzzling SUVs, many Bill Orrick at lunch and he greeted me with use e-mail and added that the Judge didn’t use students rode horseback long distances across “Happy, er…well, happy whatever we should e-mail. It was my turn to find something hard to believe. e California to come to school. They did so not be celebrating.”

Back Row: Philip “Filch” Lansdale Pillsbury, Mr. Edward J. O’Connell, William “Bill” Kaufman Cole, Eliot “Blan” McClelland Blanchard, Robert “Bob” Searle Chafee, James “Jim” Coffin Greene, Mr. Alfred Norris, Howard “Tweedle” Stiles Gates, Sidney “Sid” Locock Lasell, Jr., Folger “Fog” Johnson, Jr., Mr. Forest H. Cooke, Eldridge “Eldy” Lyon Lasell. Front Row: John “Doc” Gardner Rogers, LeRoy “Roy” McKim Makepeace, John “Sloc” Jermain Slocum, George “Cher” Sealy Livermore, John “Pi” Galt Piper, William “Wilmer” Horsley Orrick, Jr., Robert “Menu” William Mennel, George “Geordie” Andrew Dudgeon Kerr, and Robert “Wook” Montague Cooke. Not Pictured: Frederic M. Ayres, Ralph J. Chandler, Jr., George P. Greenhalgh, Howard E. Huntington, Samuel A. “Pete” Pond, Edward S. Washburn.

Spring / Summer 2005 19

Jesse Kahle U

pon the announcement of Jesse Kahle’s death early in April, thousands of e-mails recounted memories of this “salt-of-the-earth, real live cowboy” whose life and ways touched nearly six decades of Thacher students and Ojai residents. Many recalled his sparkling, intense, blue eyes that always held a twinkle; his strong, but gentle hands; his kind, compassionate, and calm, but authoritative and wise manner; his aura of tranquility, inner peace, and thoughtful guidance; his consistency, integrity, and work ethic; his quick wit and measured comments that express more in a few words than many say in paragraphs.

pel to remember this straight-forward, honest, God-fearing man. Sandwiched between readings of Psalms 121 and 23 (some of his favorite passages, especially during his last days), traditional gospel tunes, and Jesse’s empty-saddled horse led across the chapel, many spoke of his impact on their lives and lessons learned while riding horses, playing dominos, working alongside, or sharing a meal with Jesse. Lasting nearly two hours, the service is too long to print here; request a copy of the transcript by writing to Barely a week after Jesse’s passing, hun- jmccarthy@thacher.org. dreds of Ojai residents, Thacher Community members, and Kahle family folk This spring’s Big Gymkhana Weekend gathered at the Outdoor Memorial Cha- was dedicated to Jesse. Folks from across 20 The Thacher News

the nation came to witness The Empty Saddle heralding the beginning of the event: Jack Huyler led Jesse’s horse through the Washington Poles while the three teams silently recalled their lessons learned from this grand cowboy.

Jesse’s stamp on the School and students’ lives is indelible. Through his thoughtful instruction and guidance, thousands of students—many of whom had never ridden before—learned to ride and love it. Some were so inspired that they chose an equine career or avocation. The memories of this gentle man and the ranch values by which he lived are his lasting legacy.

Memories

Ranch Values

Poignant Memories

Directors of the Horse Program Remember Jesse Kahle

Jack Huyler, Faculty Emeritus (1949-82)

“Jesse arrived here on April Fool’s Day, and the kids he worked with that spring chipped in to buy him a Heiser saddle inscribed with his initials.

His great appeal was that he was a real cowboy, and he always had been. He could do almost anything and do it well. Even at 6 feet, 2 inches, he could shoe horses; he knew how to break colts; he taught kids how to teach their horses tricks. I worked with him for 25 years and never spent a boring moment with him or one that I wished were different. He was a very wise man, yet he’d never been anywhere; I don’t know how he came to have so much common sense. His niece said it best: ‘He lived what he believed.’ ”

presented a calm and confidence that put to ease both man and beast. His words and his actions were chosen in manner and effect; deliberate and designed for the moment, for the task or for the goal in mind. He exemplified ‘honor and fairness and kindness and truth’ and most of all friendship and respect. Thacher was more than a place of work to Jesse, it was home, it is where his heart is. I am honored to have learned from Jesse, to have worked with him and to be considered his friend.”

Cam Schryver, Director of the Horse Program (1991-present)

“Because Jesse grew up at the tail end of the horseback age—when a lot of work was done using horses rather than relying on electricity or engines—he developed an inventive, practical side. It didn’t take too much Bruce Oxley CdeP 1954, to be good enough for him; he could make Former Director of the just about anything and he was bemused with Horse Program (1976others who had troubles with more technical 78, 1984-91) things. He was our link to the past and gave us an historical perspective. I met Jesse in the “Jesse loved horses, and he spring of 1991 during the most exhaustive loved working with them to set of job interviews with administrators and develop their full potential. teachers, coaches and students several times I think he felt the same way about people, especially kids. Over his 57 years over. My wife, Lori, and I had an interview associated with Thacher, Jesse was a teacher with him. He walked in the room, sat down, and an inspiration and above all, a good friend and asked us some very serious and pointed to well over twelve hundred students. Jesse felt questions about our religion and about our that by setting an example by the way he lived thoughts on morality. He had a very piercing and the way he worked, he could influence the set of blue eyes, and when he was serious, you lives of his students in a positive way, and there could really feel those eyes. I realized that that is no doubt that he was successful. I’d like to interview would determine whether we got the quote former Headmaster Newton Chase given job because he wanted to preserve and protect at Jesse’s retirement in 1972: ‘The Lord did well a program that he believed in very deeply. when he sent Jesse to Thacher, and we should Those blue eyes are looking down here pretty constantly now, and my goal is to preserve this all be grateful.’ ” Program in a way that Jesse would like.”

Walt Foster CdeP 1973, Former Director of the Horse Program (1978‑82) “His way with horses was not what made Jesse remarkable, but it is only a part of the man who fit photo by Lindsey Ross so comfortably in a mix of his grounded world of horses and kids in a blended environment of academia and educated greenhorns. Authenticity was his greatest virtue. His sure and uncomplicated way

Mike Swan, Assistant Director of the Horse Program (1992-present)

it right—regardless of how gentle the horse or pony seemed—in order to avoid an accident. I remember another time during commencement when Jesse was disappointed that he couldn’t remember every graduate’s name. He told me if he knew the horse that belonged to each student, then he could recall the graduate’s name. I don’t doubt it. It was really important to him to be involved; he cared deeply about the students.”

Elizabeth Russell ­Mahoney CdeP 1988, Director of English ­Riding (1999-present) “Jesse was extremely helpful in working with young or soured horses in a very low-key manner that was non-threatening and made the work fun. He helped me tame the first filly I ever bought. As he watched her running and bucking around the ring, he commented, in his usual abbreviated fashion, ‘Nice mount.’ I try to model my English riding teaching after his because he was so effective and explicit in giving pointers in very few words.”

Richard Winters, Horse Department Fellow (2003-present) “I knew Jesse the least of any of the folks here, but I was struck by how well he worked with both horses and people; he was a great role model for young people. Some who trade or deal with horses earn bad reputations as being unscrupulous. Jesse was above reproach; he was a man of his word. I’ll never forget seeing him about two months before he died, in his wheelchair, in the middle of the jumping arena giving a lesson to several ladies. He was a horseman to the very end.” e

“Soon after I came here, I was hooking up the Schryvers’ pony cart so that the little kids could have a ride. Jesse came by and noticed that I hadn’t harnessed it correctly; even though it was a really hot afternoon, he took the time to show me how to do it properly and to explain how important it was to do Spring / Summer 2005 21

Ranch Values

J. Peter Baumgartner CdeP 1951 Two Classmates Celebrate Graduation with a Notable Horseback Ride

which was a classified missile research center and closed to the public. Moreover there was the problem of feed and water for the horses (which ruled out the west side of the San Joaquin Valley). I would have to find a different trail.

happened. Six days into the journey, Ally pasha became lame in one of his forelegs. We put the pack, now considerably lightened by consumption of much of its contents, on Ken’s Arabian.

After a week on the trail carrying the light pack, Ally Pasha recovered and Ken was able to finish the journey on his own horse. Jesse’s I had about given up when I mentioned the idea diplomatic and wise advice had helped insure to Jesse. He was full of enthusiasm and said against catastrophe. that if I wanted to do it he would help me with the planning including finding an acceptable On June 9, 1951, the day after graduation, route. The next day he found me at the barns Jesse and my Dad saw us off as we rode down returning from an afternoon ride. Hanging out Thacher Road for the last time. Jesse was of his back pocket was a well-used AAA map full of good wishes and encouragement, as of California. He unfolded it and there in pen- always. I will always remember that tall, spare cil was a proposed route, free of major high- man with the big smile and the Western drawl ways, and limited to county roads and public standing in the dusty road near the stable shop trails. With only minor deviations, it was the waving goodbye and wishing us luck on our route that Ken and I took. adventure. I don’t think any of us who knew him will ever forget his sage advice full of comMy father was then Vice Presi- mon sense and encouragement. I will always be dent of the California Cattle- very grateful for the good luck and pleasure of men’s Association. Relying on having known him. e his knowledge of California ollowing our graduation in ranches and their owners and June 1951, Ken Scott CdeP Jesse’s map, we were able to 1951 and I rode horseback compile a list of ranches over home to my family’s ranch near which we wanted to travel. We Hollister. Without Jesse Kahle’s wrote letters and received perencouragement, advice, and help mission from the owners. Not we would not have made the jouronly were the ranchers agreeney. Here is the story: able to our proposed “trespass,” most of them extended One of my Dad’s closest friends, Dean Ather- invitations to stay at their ranch houses and ton “Appy” Eyre CdeP 1914, owned a ranch offered shelter and feed for our horses. near ours a few miles from Hollister. At dinner during Christmas vacation in 1950 he asked Throughout that spring of me if I had ever considered riding home from 1951 Jesse urged us on with the Ojai. I hadn’t. He then launched into a the planning for the trip: remarketing campaign for such an adventure fining the route, making lists based on his own experience from nearly 40 of supplies, and so forth. years earlier.

He was skeptical about Ken Scott’s small Arabian horse’s Upon my return to the Ojai, I talked to Ken ability to make such a long about the proposed ride, and he was character- trip carrying Ken. Ken, proud istically enthusiastic. One large problem had to of his horse, Ally Pasha, was be solved before we could proceed. Times had sure he could make the trip changed since Thacher boys had ridden horse- as well as any other horse. As back to the Bay Area. The last trip was made usual Jesse came to the resin the 1930’s. Since World War II, highway cue with a good suggestion. traffic had greatly increased along many of the We needed a pack horse anyroutes they had taken. It wouldn’t be much fun way. So at Jesse’s suggestion I (or safe) to ride along busy talked my Dad into bringing Highway 101 or 99. Riding a Morgan saddle horse named J. Peter Baumgartner and Ken Scott, both CdeP 1951, stand near along the Santa Barbara Big Red from the ranch that the Bitter Water Store (about 15 miles east of King City, CA). They County coast was we would use as a pack horse were within 60 miles of their destination of Hollister, CA. They left blocked by Vanden- unless or until Ken’s Arabian The Thacher School on June 7, 1951; this photo was taken circa berg Air Force Base, gave out. That is exactly what June 21, 1951

F

22 The Thacher News

Ranch Values

William M. McNabb, Jr. CdeP 1954 Multiple Facets of Life with Horses

almost never foaled during the day. During the day there were mares to breed, horses to train, veterinary appointments, irrigation and all the things that need attention on 147 acres.

I

was one of those Thacher kids who was bitten by the horse bug, and Jesse Kahle had a lot to do with that. When I left Thacher in 1954, I went to Cal Poly at San Dimas to study Animal Husbandry. I wound up switching to English, but both majors influenced the rest of my life.

My career began with horses, first just a few that we bought and showed locally in the Sacramento area. Two years later, we bought a 147-acre ranch near Sacramento and expanded into a Quarter Horse breeding, showing, and, later, racing operation. We built a large barn with an indoor arena, hired Bobby Ingersoll, who was a versatile young trainer, and began showing horses all over the US in cutting, reined cow horse, trail, pleasure, and conformation events. We won many grand championships, and at one point, we had as many American Quarter Horse Champions as any breeder in the nation.

I had bought out a Quarter Horse breeder who wanted to retire and that increased our broodmare band to 32. We stood between three and seven stallions every year. In fact I bred a mare for Jesse one year, gratis, to one of our AQHA Champions. He was completely thrilled and very proud of his foal. Breeding season was the busiest time of year and exhausting. I was up all night foaling mares. For some reason, they

returned to the US, I started my current business, transformational business consulting. I use many things in my consulting practice that I learned raising and riding horses. Above all, horses taught me patience. They taught me to Life on the ranch was great, but between breed- stop trying to fix the outward manifestation ing season and traveling with six to ten horses of something and look inward for what was year-round, it eventually became more work causing it. I learned to ride the horse in the dithan I wanted. I sold the ranch, but kept a few rection he was going rather than bending him horses to show and breed. I was on the board to my will. I learned that work had to be fun of directors of the Pacific Coast Quarter Horse for the horses or they won’t do it well—just as Association and saw an opportunity to make it has to be fun for my clients. a difference for Quarter Horse breeders and owners on the West Coast. I went to work for Jesse Kahle had a great influence on me. At the organization, first as their lone employee Thacher, I was a hot-headed kid, insistent on with a part-time secretary. Over the first five doing things my way, which wasn’t always the years it grew from 600 members to more than easiest route. Jesse was a model man for me.

3500 members, a staff of ten and a monthly He was calm and quiet and he listened. When magazine that was often over 100 pages and I was in trouble, he always gave me sound, rivaled The American Quarter practical advice in very few words. Sometimes Horse Association’s Journal. it was nothing more than, “Well, you probThe AQHA tried to hire me, ably won’t do that again.” He never raised but I didn’t want to live in his voice, but you could always tell when you Texas, nor raise my children displeased him. And when he saw that you recin the hotbed of prejudice that ognized the error of your ways, he would say Texas was then. something like, “Okay, now let’s forget about it and get on with what we were doing.”

I now have two granddaughters, who both show in three- When I arrived at Thacher, Jesse’s dad, Old Mr. day events. The older one, Kahle, was there. He was 83 and was a big help Jordan, 16, is bent on being raking up around the barns. Jesse used to say on the US Olympic Equestrian that he appreciated all the help his dad was, but Team. Her step-mother trains he didn’t have a lick of sense about horses. That her and her sister, Mackenzie, as well as other became startlingly evident when Old Mr. Kahle children and grown-ups at their stable in Gran- decided to help me and Ric Laurence train his ite Bay, California. Their father showed horses mare, Mariah, to pull a cart. We used my harwhen he was their age, so the legacy of horses ness and the school’s cart. Old Mr. Kahle gave and showing continues in our family. us instructions which didn’t make sense to me, but I figured he knew more about this than I Horses continued to figure in my life when, did. The result was a terrible wreck that left Ric after seven years, I left the association and with several lumps on his head, Mariah dripping started a business as a freelance writer and sweat from every pore in her body, the school photographer principally around horses—rac- cart in splinters and without a left wheel, and ing, show, and breeding operations—Quarter my harness looking like it had been ripped apart Horses, Thoroughbreds, Paints, and Appaloo- by two Bengal tigers. Old Mr. Kahle surveyed sas—and published the Paint Horse Journal the scene and with complete understatement and The California Reined Cow Horse Snaffle said, “Guess she just ain’t a cart horse, sonny.”

Bit Futurity program.

While I agreed with Jesse, at that point, that his father didn’t have a lick of horse sense, in My business moved away from horses, and I the end the old man was right. Mariah never began doing commercial and sports photogra- became a cart horse. phy. My wife, Joanne, and I moved to France in 1983. We planned to stay a year, but life in To paraphrase Sherman Day Paris and on the Côte d’Azur was too allur- Thacher, there was someing; we stayed five years. I continued doing thing about Jesse Kahle freelance writing and photography, mostly that was good for the about music festivals, travel, and the Monte inside of a boy (girl).

Carlo Open Tennis Tournament. When we What a man! e Spring / Summer 2005 23

Ranch Values

Pono von Holt CdeP 1966 and Sabrina K. White CdeP 1995 Na Paniolo o Hawai’i*

H

ave you ever known someone who always has exactly what you need to fix just about anything, especially pertaining to horses? I am surrounded by those people out here on our cattle ranch located on the Big Island of Hawaii. However, no one comes close to Jesse Kahle and the “Mary Poppins” trunk of his tiny car. Whether your bit wasn’t quite right for your horse, you needed an extra saddle blanket, your curb strap had just broken, or your cinch had just lost its latigo leather, Jesse Kahle had it ALL in his trunk, which if my memory is correct, was only about two-and-a-half feet wide by two-and-a-half feet deep. At one point, I swear I watched him pull out an entire saddle.

He was amazingly patient with any one of us who needed his assistance.

in 1981, was once part of a ranch founded in 1928 by Pono’s father, Ronald K. von Holt (CdeP 1912) and one of his friends by the name of Atherton Richards. We run about 6,000 mother cows, and all of their offspring are shipped live to the West Coast and are then trucked to various states. At this point, we are pasturing or feeding about 3,000 to 4,000 calves in California, Oregon, Idaho, Washington, Colorado, Kansas, and all the way down to Texas.

members Jesse’s smiles and hearing his words of encouragement, “Hey, you two look like you are getting along.” His wisdom and mentoring gave me the confidence to start my first ranch colt the next summer back home, and has served me well in starting and training many ranch work horses the last 35 years.

What has been very heartening when returning to Thacher for various occasions is that Jesse would always remember me, my horse Guapo, and the experiences we all shared many years ago. e

Each of us on the ranch has a “string” of about three or four horses, and it is up to us to shape them into the trusty working animals that we need them to be. Along with my Thacher experience, which greatly improved my confidence on a horse, I had Pono to watch and take notes from; he also has fond memories of Mr. Kahle, and this is one of them: In the fall of 1962, I was introduced to The Thacher School, Jesse Kahle, and Guapo all in the same day. As a barefoot ranch kid from Hawaii, Thacher quickly taught me to keep my shoes on, and Jesse taught me about life’s challenges, when, after saddling up Guapo and hearing a few words of caution, I found a friend who had a lot of go and no stop. Jesse shared his horse sense, reining techniques, and his quiet confidence with me, and we found that Guapo really could stop, developing into a competitive Gymkhana horse.

After graduating in 1995, I headed off to Colorado to get an Animal Science Industry degree and have been back here working for my stepdad, Pono von Holt (CdeP 1966), on our family cattle ranch for four years now, learning the ropes of a family business. Our cow/calf Four years of horse camping and riding the operation, Ponoholo hills of Ojai Valley on an active friend were Ranch, incorporated certainly good for a young teenager who re- *The Cowboys of Hawaii 24 The Thacher News

Ranch Values

Standish “Sam” K. Penton, Jr. CdeP 1976 A Therapeutic Lifestyle

H

unting for fossils with some boarding students from the Webb School got me thinking about attending boarding school.

Although I considered Webb, Thacher, and Cate, Thacher was my preference because of the Outdoor and Camping Program, its proximity to Los Padres National Forest including the Sespe, the opportunity to ride horses, and the facilities (such as they were; no comparison to what they are now, of course!).

I took advantage of all that Thacher offered.

Probably the biggest challenge for this city boy, however, was being responsible for my horse, an old plug named Dyke. I’d turn him out during lacrosse season, but otherwise I rode.

We competed in gymkhana events, but my favorite part of riding was exploring trails in the mountains and the Sespe, packing trips, and sleeping on my saddle. Hal Johnson was the Director of the Horse Program, but Jesse Kahle spent plenty of time working with us. He was a whiz, especially at packing, and worked well with our horses and us; he was always kind, considerate, and even in temperament. From him, we learned the importance of building and maintaining a personal philosophy of high ethics, camaraderie, and hard work, the same principles that my wife Christine and I share, and the foundation of our business and life at Normandy Farm and Stables.

Following Thacher, I attended USC for two years before transferring to the University of Denver to major in Hospitality, a field I’d been interested in since the summer after my sophomore year at Thacher when I attended a Hotel Management course at Cornell University. After graduating in 1981, I returned to Southern California and worked at various hotels before landing a job as general manager of the Pritikin Institute in Santa Monica. Some mutual friends introduced me to Christine who also worked in the guest service industry; she, her mother, and sister rode and showed horses all their lives, so I got back into riding. After we married, we lived in Burbank, very close to the Equestrian Center where we rode. We endured the earthquakes, floods, and riots that are part of Southern California living, but grew tired of this stylish but stressful lifestyle, especially when we realized that our three-year-old son spent more time in day care than with us.

We dreamed of finding some property in Colorado, where we could build a large house with a walk-out basement to raise McKenzie and horses.

About the same time, we visited friends in England who raised Grand Prix horses and enjoyed the back-to-the-basics, work-to-live lifestyle that gave them great satisfaction. Serendipitously, our realtor called upon our return and mentioned Normandy Farm, a four-acre parcel twenty minutes from downtown Denver, built in the early 1900s to house the Tivoli Brewing Company Draft horses. Later champion Shetland Miniatures horses were raised there, and race horses were housed in feed-lot stables until the mid-seventies when it became a family-stable facility. Even though it was dilapidated and in dire need of repairs, we fell in love with it and its business potential We spent five years refurbishing the two houses and barn, cleaning up the property, hauling around hoses, and slogging through snow to feed the farm animals. We drafted a business plan for a multi-faceted equine center where we could create a sense of community that had existed when the Littleton Depot was a gathering spot for telegraph men to gossip. We floated our idea to the local government who initially said, “not in this county”; they had in mind another housing subdivision, similar to the adjacent properties, rather than a commercial entity. Undaunted, we returned to the plan-

ning, zoning, and architectural review boards until we were granted approval for a 32,000square-foot equestrian complex (one of the largest building projects in Jefferson County in the last decade) that includes an indoor heated barn, lighted arena, and indoor boarding facilities for 50 horses, to complement the existing outdoor arena and the eight-horse school barn.

Currently, our three local trainers offer lessons to help clients improve their equestrian skills in English equitation, Hunter/Jumper, Dressage, and Cross Country. Each year, we sponsor several riding competitions, judged by recognized trainers and judges. Local veterinarians use our facilities to give clinics on the best possible all-around care for horses; we do not tolerate horses being neglected. I remember Jesse Kahle or Jack Huyler calling my name at a Thacher Assembly, saying that I was excused to go take care of my horse; we share that philosophy.

Those who don’t take their horse-care responsibility seriously or don’t share the values we strive for at Normandy should seek another stable. It seems to work; we consistently have at least 90% occupancy.

Since we have limited space and we’re in a residential area, we try to make good use of our facilities and offer a wide variety of programs. The configurations of our two arenas are constantly changed to accommodate jumping and flat work. We offer various camps that introduce children as young as three to farm animals including chickens, goats, and cows.

Seven years ago, we partnered with a local physical therapist to create a non-profit program that uses horses as a treatment modality for her work with brain-damaged children and adults. We routinely give agricultural tours to children and senior groups, and our facilities can be rented for large social and business gatherings. Some of our programs aren’t profitable; they fall in the feel-good category. We enjoy sharing this wonderful facility with others, including the two children we adopted from Russia who otherwise would not have this opportunity. Our sons prefer the farm animals to riding; our five-year-old daughter, however, competes in vaulting. One of her tricks is doing a backward flip while riding a draft horse. Maybe she’ll follow my path and attend Thacher. It would be a blessing to share that part of my life with her. e

Spring / Summer 2005 25

Ranch Values

Alexander H.N. Koo CdeP 1982 Appreciating Lessons Learned from Jesse

F

irst, I want to express my great sadness for the passing of Jesse Kahle. As I was in the Class of 1982, Jesse had technically retired when I first came to Thacher. Of course, his presence in the Horse Program throughout my four very equine-oriented years at Thacher was eminent. Instead of just being a teacher, Jesse was my mentor. He inspired and set examples for me while he spent every hour training young horses and correcting problematic horses. I, too, became passionate about working with horses, young or old, unbroken or trained. Jesse’s advice on horse training yielded results right away, yet it would take weeks to understand, months to practice, years to master, and a lifetime to appreciate. I still proudly and fondly recall convincing Jesse, long after he had ceased camping, to join John Palmieri, Gayle Hershberg, Rene Ancinas, and me, all avid horsepersons and campers, in going on a horse camping trip in the Sespe.

I returned to Asia some fifteen years ago to join a family business in chemical manufacturing.

While continuing to own and ride horses as a hobby, five years ago, a new business life centered on horses emerged.

From a very humble beginning of a business partner delivering the first pair of horseshoes on a bicycle, the com26 The Thacher News

pany in which I am the managing partner has grown tremendously into a truly multi-national company. Now spanning the Asia-Pacific region with offices and operations in Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and other Southeast Asian countries, the Tallahesse group of companies (www.tallahesse.com) has become a major player in the equine industry supplying products of literally every description. Buoyed by my US connection, Tallahesse represents leaders such as Farnam Companies, Anderson Hay & Grain, and A L Gilbert, landing the company accounts in prestigious establishments from the Hong Kong Jockey Club to the Flemington Racecourse, the home of the Melbourne Cup. In the three years that we entered the Australian market, our retail arm, J C Milton & Company (www.jcmilton.com), has become the largest retailer of horseshoes and farrier supplies nationally. And all this can be traced to my first day at Thacher getting fitted with a saddle, only to mount the saddle backwards!

The difficulties encountered in the horse-supply business are common to all businesses: operationally, we face issues of staff motivation, buy-ins, and commitment, to name a few.

Without a doubt, the background in working with horses has provided me with tremendous insight into execution, tactics, and methodology. As every Thacher student learns, it is impossible for us to overpower a 1000-lb beast. It is through patience, communication, partnership and mutual understanding, that the horse and rider

can become one. Likewise in business, we cannot make things happen by brute force, but with all the similar qualities, people within the company can achieve alignment; and as one, the company can achieve goals, no matter how audacious they may be.

Please let me know if you would like additional information on my company’s activities. I’d be more than happy to share. e

Ranch Values

Elizabeth F. Schilling CdeP 1983 Devoted to Doctoring Horses

brought the colt along to become a confidant riding horse. Jess didn’t put 85 pounds of gear, gadgets, and gimmicks on the colt, yet that horse was fit, supple, quiet, and went wherever he was asked. He didn’t seem to have 18 different brushes, four types of shampoo, and a dozen conditioner bottles, but his coat shone more that I have ever seen on any show horse. I learned from Jesse that there is more than one way to achieve a given goal, and that often with horses, the horse will show you that way, if you just listen. The right way is not necessarily the most complex. It was never a question of force. Discussion and convincing, sometimes, but never force.

I

arrived as a new sophomore, a know-it-all, there’s-only-oneway-to-do-it-and-that’s-thePony-Club-way Dressage Queen in training, with my big ex-racehorse and way more tack than could be necessary. I imagine that if Jesse were directly responsible for me, he would have very quietly deflated my ego by several degrees, although he would have done it without sacrificing one iota of confidence. Instead, he never challenged my ideas nor humiliated me publicly, but quietly taught by example, and I gradually learned what a truly amazing horseman and human being he was.

The funny thing is, I don’t have any specific memories of riding with Jesse nor any specific words of wisdom carved in my mind.

My memories of Jesse are a montage of images of him quietly working his colt, in the background yet with an aura around him that highlights him like a spotlight in each memory.

In each frame I see him with this gorgeous black colt, a horse that most people would blow their budgets on, yet few would manage to work him to reach his potential. Jess never seemed to fuss, pull, or force that colt in any way. The horse seemed to just know what Jess wanted. When Jesse’s hands touched him, (and this sounds like the most cliched thing I have ever said) they seemed almost to commune and to have a common will. I watched as he quietly

I did manage to go on, after sampling several undergraduate institutions (UC Santa Barbara, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Université de Bordeaux, and, finally, Wesleyan University in 1988), I graduated from veterinary school at UC Davis in 1992. I was lucky enough to land a job in the fall of my first year in the Large Animal ICU, then Large Animal Isolation unit and Large Animal Surgery, and worked in all three departments as I completed school. I went on to two internships at different surgical hospitals, and have had my own ambulatory (house call) practice since 1997. I have a general practice, with emphasis on emergency medicine. I completed a course in veterinary acupuncture and am currently working towards a fellowship through the Academy of Veterinary Dentistry.

Challenges occur daily, as do the rewards of knowing that I can make a difference in these horses’ lives. Acupuncture has been a great addition to my practice. It’s been a little slow to catch on, which really surprised me here in SoCal—the land of plastic surgery, conspicuous consumption, and instant gratification.

One barrel racer was very happy, though. Her horse had been running third and fourth for several weekends, and after one treatment had the fastest time at the Denver Rodeo that weekend! Most of the horses seem to enjoy the treatments, which are, for the most part, addressing musculoskeletal issues, with the occasional interesting internal medicine case.

Quarter Horses, two Paints, one Miniature (who came to me by way of Valerie Sinclair, mom of Cameron Duke CdeP 1983) and a grey Arab rescue who is staying here until she finds a permanent home. My time with them consists of feeding and visiting. My competitive days, both on horseback and on mountain bikes, seem to have been back burnered until…retirement?

Today, working in an area where not every horse (or owner) has been polished by a professional trainer, I look often to Jess as an example when dealing with a nervous or frightened patient. He was a wonderful teacher, especially in approaching a horse with common sense and gentleness. I don’t always achieve the same level of calm and ease, but I sure don’t lose my cool as often as I might. When I do feel completely exasperated, now my approach is to walk back to the truck, usually to get a sedative (for the horse), and to wonder how in the heck he did it so easily. Even when I do manage to get results, and the owners are impressed with me because “nobody else ever managed to get his paste worming/vaccination/teeth floating done,” I feel a bit like an imposter because they’ve never seen someone so truly gifted as Jesse. e

Unfortunatley, my caseload currently precludes me from having much in the way of a personal life or time to ride more than once in a while.

I currently have seven horses in the yard: three Spring / Summer 2005 27

Ranch Values

Melissa Meeker Harnett CdeP 1984 Patience and Respect for Equine Partners

A

thoroughbred trained for the racetrack, named Desi, which my uncle had given to me because he was not registerable and thus unable to race. Desi was a chestnut, but his dam and supposed sire were not. The genetic code deemed that the two parents should not have been able to produce a chestnut, which led to the inevitable conclusion that Desi’s dam had actually been bred to the other stallion on the property. Because of the confusion, the Jockey Club refused to register him, he became ineligible to race, and I was the proud recipient of a very lively and unschooled thoroughbred. If it had not been for Jesse’s help and advice, as well as that from other members of Thacher’s Horse Department, I do not know if I would have survived my time on Desi. But, with such help, Desi and I slowly became a team.

By the end of my freshman year, we were able to participate in all the gymkhana events with flair and finesse. I recall one particularly difficult achievement was the requirement that I mount Desi from the ground, unaided, and without a saddle, in order to achieve my bareback rider status. This task was a little more difficult for me than the other students, as Desi was about a hand taller than the other horses and thus presented quite an obstacle onto which I needed to leap. Plus, he did not yet have the training to stand still during my multiple attempts when I could not quite get my leg high enough to clear his back. Jesse had the patience to work with me and Desi, coaching me in how to swing up onto the horse and to get Desi to stand still with patience.

If it had not been for those hours of advice, I might never have achieved bareback rider status. Thankfully, because of such time and help, I eventually went on to earn the level of “horseman” at Thacher, an award I am proud of even to this day. Desi and I eventually went on to compete in the United States Young Rider Championships in dressage, in which we won the bronze medal.

lthough I grew up primarily in a major metropolis, I was fortunate to spend my summers on my grandparents’ ranch in Oklahoma. It was on that 360 acre farm that I learned to ride a horse. In the early morning hours, before it became too hot, I would walk out into the pasture and throw a rope around the neck of my appaloosa pony, Candy. She and I would then torment the cows in the pasture, pretending that we were on an old western roundup. As I grew older, I eventually progressed to my barrel horse, King, on whom I won the title of Rodeo Queen for the Shawnee Oklahoma Wild West Days.

One of the greatest parts of my early riding years was the invaluable input I received from the older cowboys who frequented the rodeo circuit, the auctions, the feed store, or the vet’s barn. From them, I learned about horsemanship in a way that one just cannot learn from anyone else. When I came to Thacher, I thus felt instantly at home when I met Jesse Kahle.

He was of the style of the seasoned cowboys I knew from my youth—one of those who had the special insight into horses that allowed Many years later, at the class of 1984’s tenthem to coax even the most ornery bronco into year Reunion, I was touched when a classmate being a willing partner. described me as being the quintessence of what Thacher strives to produce in one of I was fortunate to have its Toads—having achieved success in both had someone like the professional and equestrian worlds. I Jesse at Thacher. I am currently a litigator at a prestigious Los arrived with a young Angeles law firm, which is well known for 28 The Thacher News

having represented the Goldman family in the O.J. Simpson civil trial. At Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp, I have spent the last two years working in part on the Internet music downloading cases, such as RIAA vs.

Napster. I also have been happily married for thirteen years and am the proud mother of three children: Madison (seven years old), Delaney (four years old), and our new addition Kai (three months old). Despite these commitments, I have been fortunate enough to pursue my passion for horses. My husband, Eric, and I bought a five-acre ranch in Agua Dulce, California, called Voyager Farm. On our ranch, we have raised German Warmblood horses. One of our stallions, Donnerwelt, a Hanoverian we imported from Germany as a three-month-old, became the number one Hanoverian in the US at the Prix St. Georges level in dressage. On another Hanoverian stallion, Domingo, I competed at the Grand Prix level of dressage and was long listed for the 1996 Olympics. I am one of the few riders who have earned all three United States Dressage Association medals—Gold, Silver, and Bronze—which signify achievement at all levels of dressage.

In May of this year, I was honored by being awarded a license from the United States Equestrian Federation to judge dressage at recognized shows. This achievement is the culmination of two years of effort on my part during which I was required to apprentice judge, attend seminars, pass written and oral exams, and earn the recommendation and support of multiple senior judges in the sport. I am very excited to have earned this license. As a judge, I hope to pass on to others the values and knowledge that I have learned over the years, including that which I learned from Jesse Kahle. No matter what discipline in which one competes, the true secret to horsemanship is to have patience and respect for your equine partner. I believe that was the underlying theme to everything Jesse did.

I also plan to continue to compete in dressage. I currently am training my 18.2 hand Wesfalian gelding, Vavoom, to compete at the international levels of dressage. My daughters also show interest in equestrian activities. Madison begs to ride her pony, Sparky, everyday after she comes home from school.

Delaney is learning to ride on the lead line.

Who knows, someday they may be fortunate enough to ride at Thacher and benefit from the wisdom of someone like Jesse. e

Ranch Values

Christopher W. Labbe CdeP 1997 Horses Are Some of the Best Teachers

my last class of the day, I hurried to the barns, saddled a horse, and rode with one of my best friends, Sam Swan. Rain or shine in the cow arena, we rode what we roped or roped what we rode. We are still good friends today; I often dream that one of us will own a roping arena so we can pursue this hobby further.

Sam’s father, Mike Swan, was an inspiration to me as well. I learned that hard work and determination could get you anything you want.

His talent with horses was awesome, and his method of translation was key in teaching kids about horses.

W

hen starting at Thacher, I had very little aspiration to work with, or even be around, the equine. I had goals of varsity basketball and soccer and enjoying my new sunny surroundings, not cattle, horses, and manure. But the horses and faculty in Thacher’s Horse Department started my love for horses and offered me much more than an oasis from studies and troublesome classmates. My horses were friends and mentors that taught me life’s lessons of patience and timing, which transfer well to our personal and business lives.

Horses weren’t the only teachers in the Horse Department. I remember Jesse Kahle arriving at the Gymkhana Field in a two-person buggy, pulled by a spirited small black pony that offered Jesse many obstacles; however, Jesse was calm, patient, and honest with that pony.

Every day that pony pranced to the Gymkhana Field, but returned to the barns, head down but with trust in its eyes. I am assuming that pony learned that the wrong thing was difficult and the right thing was easy, just what the Dorrance brothers—whom I met while at Thacher—were reknowned for telling people.

Applying this to all aspects of life has offered me the fortitude to deal with problems.

My greatest memories of Thacher happened between three and six every afternoon. After

In December 1997 with a long rope tied on my saddle, I arrived at the Rhodes Ranch in Tuscarora. I started 10 to 12 horses a month, which entailed long days filled with plenty of mistakes and frustrations. I soon realized that the more I learned, the more I didn’t know and that if something is not working, change is necessary. I competed in my first reined cowhorse show in Elko, Nevada, during this stint; my interest and fascination for the Reined Cowhorse began.

When I left for college at Montana State University in the fall of 1998 I had a pickup The Swan family also gave me introductions truck, horse trailer, bedroll, and the first horse to other people in the horse world that would I had ever bought—named Freckles—who prove to become some of my good friends. Bill had the Rhodes brand on her left hip. While Dorrance, Gary Gonsalves, the Nuebert family, working toward my BS in Animal Science, Bob Keegan, all of whom are great horsemen I day-worked for area ranches and started and have taught me more than colts and spent the summers working at the I could have imagined.

Rhodes Ranch, Padlock Ranch, and MSU Towne Farm.

The fall after I graduated from Thacher I worked for cutting I continued to show and train my colts for the horse trainer Gary Gonsalves reined cowhorse events throughout the west, and traveled to cuttings all and I have worked for trainers and ranchers in over the west coast. My most California, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, Wyomemorable experience was ming, Idaho, and Montana. I showed horses probably the most embarrass- in county fairs all the way up to the National ing: somehow I rode a brown Reined Cowhorse Snaffle Bit Futurity. My Pacific Coast Gelding Stakes proudest accomplishment, however, was when finals winner down the stairs I won the Montana Reined Cowhorse Futurity of the spectator’s section into on a three-year-old called DR Freckles Gin Sen the arena. Gary’s expert horsemanship had that I trained off the Rhodes Ranch. I called made this gelding gentle, quiet, and willing, him Ginseng, and he was an awesome fence and this paid off, especially on that trek! Gary horse, continually scoring in the 70s. was sympathetic, but I’ve never lived down that stunt.

My current employer is the Montana Stockgrowers Association and the Montana Grain While at Gary’s, I itched to go back to cow- Growers Association; I run a risk management boying, like I had done during my high-school education program entitled Montana Marketsummers on the Southeast Oregon ranch of Manager. Working within agriculture helping my Uncle Hoyt Wilson (father of Hoyt Wilson ranchers and farmers become prosperous and CdeP 1988, Alexa Wilson Maley CdeP 1990, successful is very gratifying. Horses are still and Kali Wilson CdeP 1985). My friend, Bill a very important part of my life. I try to ride Dorrance, invited me to work for the Dor- every night and help my friends and neighrance Ranch in Salinas, California; this was bors with gathering, branding, or breeding as a great opportunity to learn from the master needed. My dream is to have a ranch with my himself. When talking to Bill on the phone wife Tiffanie and raise registered Angus and one night I had mentioned to him that I had reined cowhorse prospects, while we both pura job offer on the Rhodes Ranch in northern sue our careers in Agribusiness. While horses Nevada starting colts. Bill told me that his may not be my livelihood, they will always be offer with him no longer stood. He said that in my life. Horses are great the horses on the desert would teach me more teachers; as long as I conthan he ever could. Bill has since passed on, tinue to be a student, and I’m still sad that I didn’t get to work I will be at the front with him, but I am grateful for the path he of the class ready to directed me to take. learn. e Spring / Summer 2005 29

Reunion Weekend 2OO5 T

hacher welcomed back to campus over 300 alumni and their families for a fun-filled weekend in early June. Enjoying unlimited opportunities to reconnect with classmates and faculty, alumni from classes ending in “0” and “5” spent the weekend of June 3-5 horseback riding, trapshooting, playing soccer, hiking, swimming, attending presentations by Michael Mulligan, Jack Huyler, the Admission and Development Offices, as well as learning more about the history of the School by visiting Thacher’s Archives. A highlight was the tour of the two newest buildings on campus currently under construction: the Thacher Commons and the performing arts building. On Friday and Saturday nights, alumni, their families, and friends filled themselves with gourmet meals while listening to music provided by Cyrus Clark, Preston Smith, and Mary Anne and Ames Anderson CdeP 1970. For those who could not make the festivities this year, we look forward to seeing you here in five years time, if not before! e

30 The Thacher News

Spring / Summer 2005 31

Chapel

Reunion Weekend

Reunion Chapel Service

Invaluable Skills: Hallmarks of a Thacher Education by Nathaniel R. Bisson CdeP 1980

I

t has been humbling to walk around campus this weekend, seeing the changes in progress, and recognizing that the School—as it should—is always looking forward, while we’re here mostly to look Nathaniel Bisson CdeP 1980 back. It’s also humbling to imagine how much more accomplished and sophisticated this century’s Thacher grads must be—turning in papers electronically, being one click away from the outside world, and taking courses like “Robotics,” in which, quoting from the School’s website, “Students use Mindstorm robotic materials…to create autonomous robotic vehicles” while incorporating theories of “artificial intelligence and animal behavior.” We thought we were at the vanguard when we learned how to run the projectors for Saturday night movies in the old Lamb Auditorium.

To be fair, my classmates and I were well prepared for the world we found when we graduated in 1980—thanks in many cases to the same teachers who shape today’s Toads. We also discovered along the way that we had acquired the invaluable skill that’s a hallmark of a Thacher education—and a liberal education: we had actually learned how to learn.

Afternoon riding, camping trips, sports, roommates, study groups, mealtimes, assemblies, dances, advisor dinners. They’re familiar elements of life at Thacher outside the classroom.

But to a new student, particularly someone to whom school had always been just a classroom, they loomed like a series of intimidating—and relentless—opportunities for social embarrassment. Some dove in, and some held back to take measure. Before long, though, the first tentative bonds were established: music was shared, seats were saved, horses were fed.

And then, magically, school became something else altogether.

Friendships are usually difficult to describe. It’s much easier to recount the moments when they first took root—occasions as simple as a long bus ride from Lone Pine riddled with fits of silly laughter. We may not realize it when we’re here, but life at a place like Thacher is absurdly

32 The Thacher News

rich with moments like that. But to say that the snow during an ill-fated Yosemite trip; and the opportunities to connect are plentiful doesn’t mysterious Fred Lamb, shuttling us from an mean that they’re always successful.

LA movie marathon to his Hollywood Hills home, while describing how his house became Take our approach as freshmen to “connect- embroiled in the Charles Manson affair on ing” with girls. My class knew one year of a fateful night in the late sixties. I live in LA Thacher before coeducation. But we did have and still can’t pass Benedict Canyon without one or two arranged dances when girls were thinking of it. bused in from schools outside the valley. Our plan as freshmen went something like this: On While friendships with teachers seemed the the Saturday afternoon of the dance, we’d drift most exotic at the time, the dynamic at the over to the upper tennis courts to suddenly School made all manner of connections sometake up the game, and then, as the bus pulled how inevitable. Connecting wasn’t always up to the Middle School, we would saunter easy, and things could get messy, but it was nonchalantly by to greet them, and invite them always possible—and that knowledge alone to come have a look at the stables and our sent us out into the world ready to embrace it magnificent horses. Of course, it never oc- wherever we found familiar things, like honor, curred to us that we should actually shower fairness, kindness, or truth. between the stable tour and the dance.

I mentioned that we weren’t terribly tech savvy Fast forward one year, and the pioneering back in the late seventies. Rob Tyler, my roomThacher girls were busy embarrassing us in mate during my Junior year, would disagree. I the classroom and on the tennis court, all while didn’t know him too well before we decided to rolling their eyes at our clueless boys’ school room together. He excelled in things that vexed ways. We quickly learned that we would only me, like physics and math. I hoped on the one earn their respect—and their friendship—if hand that rooming with him might help me. we could meet their substance with some of But I was also worried that he was maybe too our own. No more posturing, and a lot more smart, in that nerdy science-guy kind of way. showering, was the new ethos. This honest ap- I got really concerned when he showed up for proach stuck, and has stood a lot of us in good school in 1978 with a few boxes from Radio stead ever since, in relationships with loved Shack—and not much else—and promptly ones, with bosses, even with our mothers. spread the contents over every available surface of our room.

While many of us at age thirteen could envision both girlfriends and girls-as-friends, I don’t Rob spent the next several days building what think any of us arrived at school expecting to was known as a Tandy 2000, one of the first of end up with friends who were also…teachers. what we now know as PCs. My curiosity was The divide just seemed too wide. But as we got piqued—was this thing capable of doing hometo know them as campers, coaches, and confi- work? It turned out that he really just wanted to dantes, and they began to tease out the unique program it to play chess better than any other strands of our personalities, we started to see machine he had yet found. And he succeeded. glimpses of what we might become, if we were Pretty soon chess players from all over campus lucky. And the divide began to shrink… were dropping by to challenge the Tandy 2000, and Rob would smile and take wagers. Rob’s What we had in abundance at Thacher were genius and passion for engineering had someteachers exploding out of the classroom, ring- how made geeky “cool,” and woven our class ing with an authenticity that was too potent to together in an unpredictably new pattern. resist, or forget, even years later.

Rob Tyler was the first of the class of 1980 I have quite a few mental snapshots of teach- to die. Then we lost Robert Foss, and Craig ers in and outside their classrooms. There was Best. They, along with all the other classmates Geoff Block, our amazing music director, try- mentioned here today, are missed. The missing ing to keep up a game face as we gave a merci- is somehow okay, because it reminds us of the fully abbreviated choral recital in a deserted connections that we had here, in this beautiful Marin County mall; Jeff Reichel, a French place. And it reminds us of the time when we teacher and gourmet chef de cuisine, cheerfully first learned what it was to make friends, and cooking in shorts and lederhosen in knee-deep then took that gift into the world. e

Alumni News

1940 At the annual Senior Olympics in Tucson, John Alford and his partner won the gold in the 8084-year-old category in doubles tennis, although some players had a bit of trouble keeping score and hearing the calls across the net.

Class Notes

1947

 Dee and Rod

Carpenter celebrate the Fourth of July in New Hampshire with granddaughter ­Abigail Parrott

In July, John Alford, his wife Diane, daughter, and granddaughter were photographed in their SCUBA gear 60 feet under the surface in the waters off Rangaroa, Society Islands. “It could not be better!”

1944  In the last edition of The Thacher News,

Emma Willard Exchange student from 1974-75 Elizabeth Hydes reported that she had a terrific visit with Kellam deForest and his wife Peggy, along with Jan and Reilly Pollard CdeP 1976 last summer in Santa Barbara, but her photo commemorating the event didn’t appear. At long last, here it is. Pictured, from left to right, are Kellam deForest, Liz Westbrook E/T exchange 74-75, Reilly Pollard CdeP 1976, Jan Pollard, and Peggy deForest.

1952 According to Clarence Kent, “The grapes are in!

Too late for Wombat XXXXX for 2007. Hope I’ll be ready for 2012!”

John Van Nortwick is glad to have son, John, back from New Zealand so he can manage their real estate company in Albuquerque, in addition to two new offices in El Paso and Las Cruces.

Good thing John has a brand new titanium right knee so he can look after all of those business concerns.

1953 From Class Rep. Joe DiGiorgio: “It’s great to be in touch with some of you; I plan in the next months to talk with everyone. We’ve always been recognized as a close-knit class, and I think we proved that when we reunited for our 50th in Ojai. Here are some bits and pieces about some of us.

by Jane D. McCarthy

“Tracy and Charlie Stephenson are back from their annual trip to the islands—British, not Hawaiian—where they visited Sally and Winslow Robinson on their farm in Hampshire. The foursome attended The Tempest in the Globe Theatre, spent one full day at Wilton House where Eisenhower and the other commanders planned D-Day, one full day at Oxford and the Ashmolean Museum, and ended by having a lunch with produce completely from the Robinson farm: cheeses, eggs, asparagus—everything. My mouth waters.

“Bill Crawford treated the Stephensons and Lyn and Lee Follett to an amazing show of tricks, games, and dances he has taught his ‘dawgs.’ Bill gives Guide Dogs for the Blind a good deal of his time and talent.

“Reyn and Pete Voevodsky visited the Bishops for Reyn’s 50th; was it as fun as ours?

“I see John Carver and Follett for lunch periodically, and I can report that we all look just great!

As I write this, I’m packing because Adelle and I are going up to yet another island, Whidbey in the San Juans, where we have fixed up a house for the next part of our lives.

“I’m already thinking about our 55th in 2008— and hope you are, as well.”

1954 Ric Laurence and Bill Crawford attended the 60th reunion of their liberation from Santo Thomas prison in Manila this past February. There were about 90 ex-POWS and several of our liberators in attendance. They enjoyed visiting with some old friends, and sharing stories.

“Colleen and Tom Lombard moved to Phoenix to be near their new [born 10/07/04] grandson, Jordan (middle name Allen after Tom’s dad, whom we all loved—remember the fun times in Fillmore?).

Spring / Summer 2005 33

1958 Lawry Chickering has been very busy working on the role that citizens play in solving major challenges that government alone cannot solve. This idea came out of his work founding and directing Educate Girls Globally (EGG), a non-profit organization that promotes girls’ education in developing countries by reforming government schools; check out their website at ­www.educategirls.org. Great work, Lawry!

1959 As Acting President of the French Association CSS Alabama, Christopher Henze is busy organizing what will probably be the last dive (at least until a new generation with new technology) to the wreck of the notorious Confederate raider sunk by the USS Kearsarge off Cherbourg, France, in 1864. Cherbourg is now officially designated as the only Civil War battle site outside the US. He’s happy to share information on the Alabama and their archeological project with interested Casa de Piedrans; just contact Chris at chenze@member. afsa.org.

1962 On behalf of the Class of 1962, thanks to Bud Newell CdeP 1942 for this update: “Listen up!

One of your classmates, Rich Look, put on one of the great performances of the year this spring at a well-known New Orleans nightspot, ‘The Chat Noir.’ He was sensational! His rendition of Elvis doing ‘Hound Dog’ in Japanese (he speaks the language fluently) brought the house down!

It reminded me of Bobby Short at The Carlyle in New York many years ago…only Bobby couldn’t speak Japanese! If you ever get a chance to catch his act, jump on a bus or plane and go. You won’t be sorry!”

1967 Cameron Weaver retired last June after 20 years teaching in the middle school. Now he’s busy building a new house (read, doing the work himself), Timber Framed, with some help from friends. Take a look at his progress at www.flickr. com/photos/weaverpix.

1968 Greg Bard, Brad Macneil and Don McGilvray got together for dinner at Trav Newton’s Santa Barbara studio in June.

1973 Lots of news from Robert Berend. On December 5, Robert married Lisa Akerman in LA. Good thing Lisa is a nurse; on March 11, Robert had a kidney transplant (due to inherited degenerative kidney disease) and his bride quickly nursed him back to health!

34 The Thacher News

1975

1979  Diane Froley and

Carmaig de Forest happily announce the arrival of their son, Froley Dominic de Forest; he arrived on February 2, 2005.

Noah Rifkin’s new title is legislative director for CUBRC, a Buffalo-based government contractor.

He focuses on using technology and data organization in health and science to improve medical systems and emergency response. He works with universities (CUBRC is affiliated with the Buffalo campus of the State University of New York) and states to persuade Congress to earmark funds for projects ranging from brain injury research to implementing technology that will help emergencyresponse personnel better triage accidents. Most recently, Noah was the director of homeland-security programs at General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems in Buffalo, and before that, he worked at the Transportation Department in Washington during the Clinton administration.

1976  Josh Rosen-

blatt started his new career in Independent School Development last October at the Bement School in Deerfield, MA. In August, he became the new Associate Director of Annual Giving at The Williston Northampton School in Easthampton, where he and his family live. “It’ll be a big step up, a much shorter commute, and I’ll be with my daughter Ali, who starts there as a sophomore in the fall.” Pictured here are Josh and Kate’s daughters, Sarah and Ali, taken at Sarah’s graduation from Emma Willard this summer.

John Wagner reports that when he asked his oldest son Tom, an eighth grader, if he wanted to go to Thacher, Tom replied, “I want to do better than you, Dad.” Hmmm. Maybe he needs some coaching on correct answers.

1978 Leading the cheering section as Will Winter Oxley received his Thacher diploma in the spring were his proud parents David CdeP 1979 and Marganne Winter Oxley. He is the first Thacher graduate whose father and mother are Thacher graduates! This fall, their daughter Sondra is a Thacher student.

The most exciting experience for Paul Manning this past year was taking part in the Bermuda Race Week in April, representing the local San Francisco fleet in the annual International One Design Regatta. It turned out to be five days of sailboat racing in paradise in which Paul placed third out of 14 in hot competition. His fine showing was likely due to his great shore crew: wife Leslie and their two daughters. Sarah, the oldest, loves horses. Could it be that another generation of Mannings is headed for Thacher?

1982 Sarah Bennett Alley lives in the mountains outside Salt Lake City with her husband and daughter.

She’s become a “full-time trails-and-open-space advocate.”

John Herzog will be climbing Cotopaxi, the world’s second highest active volcano, in June 2006 to raise money for youth drug treatment.

All alumni are invited to join him. Reserve your spot by calling John at 805-451-5828.

1983 Nicolas Watson Charbonneau turned one in March just after his parents, Kevin and Louise Branch Charbonneau, moved into their new Los Angeles home.

Brian Smallwood married Patti Hart on May 5, 2005. Brian is stepdad to Patti’s 11-year-old son, Battle Kenney.

1987 “Greetings from P-town!” Zoe Edelen writes.

“Life is busy here with three boys: Gus is 6; Eliot is 3; and Keola Quinn is two months old!” She works for Portland State University as an Extended Studies teacher and loves the flexibility of working from home. Van (husband) is busy with tracking salmon for Pacific States Marine Fisheries. They planned to take some camping trips over the summer.

Linda and Tom Cole could easily relate to the beginning-of-school hubbub at Thacher since they are both enrolled in a one-year master’s program in Humanitarian Assistance at Tufts. Last year Tom “spent time in El Salvador, Uganda, Mozambique, and Malawi, the African locales on assignment for Save the Children assessing food security programs…We went as a family to Tanzania and Zanzibar for three-plus months in the beginning of spring as well.” Busy but very meaningful times for the Coles!

1988 Dana and Hoyt Wilson welcomed daughter Kate Murdoch Wilson on August 2, 2004.

1989 As of September 1, Valerie Thresher can be found at the University of Washington, Seattle, where she’ll pursue a post-JD degree, a master’s in Taxation, after spending one year clerking for the First District Judge in Helena, MT, and five years in a law firm in Helena.

On August 23, 2005, Shell Duncan Grimes, her husband Brian, and son (3) Duncan, welcomed the newest member of their family: Gage Pearson Grimes, who weighed in at 7 pounds, 13 ounces.

They all live in Pacific Palisades and would welcome all Thacher visitors!

1990 Unfortunately, Alexa Wilson Maley couldn’t attend Reunion as she was saving money for a trip to Kauai, Hawaii, for the wedding of Anne Knudsen and Steve Temme in August.

1992  Anne Berube

Gard says, “We are quickly getting adjusted to life with two boys under three years old. Cooper Hoalii was born May 4, 2005, and is doing great!” Beyond that, Anne reports that Lupe Nickell joined the Gards in “Lake Arrowhead in August for a little R&R and is doing great herself!”

Blossom (Beatty) and Brian Pidduck are training very seriously for the Santa Barbara Multiple Sclerosis Bike Tour in mid-October. Their 100mile loop on the Century Ride will take them from Santa Barbara through Ojai and Ventura, then back to Santa Barbara.  On October 22, Lisa

Wantuck and Brian Emme said their “I do’s” at St. Paul Catholic Church in Burlington, IA; a reception followed at the Burlington Golf Club. After their honeymoon, they will reside in Virginia Beach, VA.

1991 Mary Elizabeth Stevenson became Mrs. Jamie DeYoung, marrying on August 13 at the mountain village of Highlands in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina.  Although she’s no longer doing anything

equine-related, Eva Balas Games has a new title and full-time job: Mom. On February 17, she gave birth to identical twin boys: Trevor (6 lbs, 9 oz.) and Wyatt (6 lbs., 5 oz.), pictured here at their christening on April 17. Although Eva and her husband, Brandon, are slightly sleep-deprived and still can’t quite tell the boys apart, the Games family is doing very well.

ABC’s new drama Commander in Chief prompted the Boston Herald to ask the political consultant based in Boston, Jennifer Kritz (a graduate of Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government), to comment on the possibility of the first female president of the United States. She writes, “Let’s not forget that women around the country prove themselves as thoughtful, competent leaders every day, as business leaders, mayors, secretaries of state, governors, and senators.” Take a look at the September 27, 2005, Boston Herald to see her take on this issue.

According to Margrit Lent CdeP 1997, Mina and Todd Wigert celebrated the birth of their daughter Cassidy Elizabeth this summer. Margrit has spent time riding at Laura Brinton’s place, an especially enjoyable experience since she hasn’t had a chance to ride much over the past few years. Laura is currently teaching some vet tech classes. Many of Laura’s Thacher classmates have visited when in the area.

1995 DJ Sigband had a pretty good excuse for missing Reunion: he’s been in El Salvador working at the American Chamber of Commerce in San Salvador, with a grant from USAID, for the implementation and education of trade policy in Central America.

Earlier this year, he worked the wine harvest for Ferngrove Vineyard in Western Australia for two months, then crewed a couple of American sailboats which needed help to traverse the Panama Canal, of which DJ says, “What an engineering marvel it is!” This fall he plans to attend UCSD in pursuit of a master’s in International Relations of Latin America.

1993  Jayson and Kerryn Sanan Griffin welcomed their beautiful baby daughter, Isabella Rose, into the world on February 26, 2005. “She is an absolute delight and is turning out to be quite an actress!”

1994

Ben Freeman, Jennie, and Sage (2) left the Island School and the Bahamas after five years. Ben attends Columbia Teacher’s College, Klingenstein Center, in New York City while Jennie looks after Sage. As of August 12, Charles Vaughan Freeman, whom they call “Chip,” joined the Freeman household.

After two years in upstate New York, Skye Rohde now calls Los Angeles home. She’s currently working as a producer at the NPR Show “Day to Day” and freelancing on the side. “All is well and I’m so very happy to be back on the west coast again!”

Mary Everett is playing her final year of semipro soccer for the Mile High Mustangs of the W-League. The team is very good this year but she is “having a hard time keeping up with the youngins. For the first time I’m actually feeling like it might be time to hang it up.” Good timing, as she started physical therapy school in the fall at Northwestern. She made the move from Denver to Chicago in mid-August. And the other big news is that Mary recently became engaged to her boyfriend of two-and-a-half years, Jeff. Wedding bells will likely ring in the summer of 2007.  Her parents’ backyard in Pacific Palisades was the site of the nuptials for Elizabeth Hieronymus and Zack Story in May 2005.

The proud papa of Wolfie Weber reports that Wolfie is putting his Thacher work in English to good use as the West Coast editor of Wine and Spirits; he has returned to life on the West Coast, San Francisco to be exact. His first assignment?

A trip back to Verona.

1996 According to Michele Weber Hunt, “Our daughter, Rachel Sarah, was born on July 7, 2005. I’m taking a break from teaching to stay home with her while Brian works at a law firm in Dallas.

We’re still not getting much sleep but couldn’t be happier.”

1997 Daniel Lancefield just finished his first year of medical school at UCSF. After Hallie Gordon finished her master’s degree in playwriting, she spent the summer in Ojai and Los Angeles. In September, she moved to London to work in the theatre. If any of you have any friends or family in Jolly Ol’ England, drop her an e-mail: halliegordon@yahoo.com.

Spring / Summer 2005 35

As of New Year’s 2005, Margrit Lent is engaged to Scott Parker. Classmates met him during her five-year Reunion in 2002. Coincidentally, Amanda Hartnack, who lived only a few blocks away from Margrit, also announced her engagement in January. Amanda is currently completing required classes for application to vet school.

Margrit was able to get together with Amanda for dinner occasionally before moving closer to Boulder, where she is attending law school at CU.

1998 Eric Morrill has turned international. He’s been living in Oslo for the last nine months while substitute teaching (in Norwegian, 12-14 year olds) and taking a pair of courses in contemporary Art History and Theory. The two previous years he lived in France, in Paris and Nimes, where he studied Photography and Art Theory, and finished a program that made him a professional artist photographer. Check out his website: www.

EricMorrill.com. This summer, he planned to be in San Francisco with his girlfriend, Raphaelle, before moving with her to Berlin in October. He’ll have three months to find a job so he can get the visa necessary to stay! “Please contact me if you want to come and see Berlin; you’re all invited!”

1999  After helping to

 In the pastoral hills and valleys just north of

Yellowstone in Montana, Chris Labbe married Tiffanie Huson the day after this year’s commencement. Marvin Shagam, Michael Mulligan, and various Thacher alumni were on hand for the festivities. Chris and Tiffanie moved to Salem, OR, where Chris is working on his MBA at Willamette Atkinson.

Betsy Greenway married Brian Carney from Richmond, VA, on May 14 in The Bahamas.

They moved to Charlottsville, VA, where Brian is attending Darden Business School at the University of Virginia. Exciting times!

Amy Purdie co-founded Luminous Construction, which specializes in building environmentally friendly homes in Bozeman, MT. Cherilyn Marie Smith of Ann Arbor/Plymouth, MI, became Mrs. Cameron Boswell on May 22 in the foothills of the Sierra mountains in California next to the Kaweah River. They honeymooned in Costa Rica for 11 days before attending receptions at both of their parents’ homes. Now Cam is working on a master’s degree in Transpersonal Psychology with a concentration in Ecopsychology, while Cherilyn is studying Art Therapy and Transpersonal Counseling Psychology, both through Naropa University. They plan to move to a bigger house in Nederland (up in the mountains outside of Boulder) and also take a road trip to Tucson for a reunion with Up With People.

build two houses in New York and Idaho, cycling nine weeks, and traversing 4,000 miles throughout the US, Erin Hoppin rode into Seattle’s Space Needle Park last summer to complete the 2004 Habitat Bicycle Challenge.

In September, Erin began working as a legal assistant at Davis, Polk, & Wardwell in Brooklyn.

 A notice from Columbia

University announced that the degree of Bachelor of Arts and Science in Art History with an Italian concentration was conferred in May to Elizabeth Sanseau. On July 1, she began work in the Patron’s office of the Vatican Museum.

Bravo!

2002 According to David Moore CdeP 2004, his brother Danny Moore finished a full-length adaptation of Hamlet that was performed later in Santa Barbara in May. Check out the details at www.moonhamlet.com.

Robert Bray is interning at Disneyland engineering and then moving to New Mexico to intern with Intel.

2003

2000 Anne Nyborg enjoys New York City. She lives with friends in the East Village and works at a nonprofit, The Municipal Art Society.

Peter Hartnack just returned from a second year of guiding fly-fishing trips up in Alaska. Now he’s back in California searching for more steady employment. He’s sad to have missed the Reunion.

2001 Peter Frykman has been rowing at Stanford for the past four years, slowly progressing with skill, until this year when his boat of four won Stanford’s first-ever national championship in rowing. And, he was accepted to Stanford’s master’s program in Mechanical Engineering. As he wrote to Michael Mulligan, “Both of these accomplishments tested the limits of my abilities. I really thank my years at Thacher for instilling a desire to push myself in different aspects of my life.

Every year it becomes more clear just how extraordinarily Thacher has prepared me for hard work and success.”

Michael Hammer spent spring term 2005 at the Catholic University in Santiago, Chile. This fall, he returned to Bowdoin College for his senior year.

36 The Thacher News

Erica Reynolds is living in Paris this year and working in advertising as the International Coordinator for the Nestle Control team at Publicis Worldwide. She will, however, be back for the Thacher Reunion!!

 Mel Morris, Mary White, Melissa Vickery,

Jacey Roche, and Dawn Cleveland enjoy each other’s company.

2004 After a 39-day jaunt around New England, David Moore spent seven months working on his orange farm. This spring, he hitchhiked up to Walla Walla to visit Matt Stenovec and ended up getting a ride on the way back with a former Cate student named Barnaby and crashed at his house in Portland. Since he gets lonely sometimes, David’s going to UCSC next year.

According to his proud mother Cheryl, Stephen Rooke is happy at Rice and just received a $2000 prize awarded to a freshman who has demonstrated leadership. He was thrilled to be honored by the students and faculty with this award.

Bravo, Stephen! Not surprising, really…

News of Faculty and Friends Roger and Marsha Klausler headed off on sabbatical in the great Northwest. Living near Seattle, Roger is researching the Islamic era of Spanish history. We wish them well in their time away and know that they will come back rejuvenated and offer to us, once again, the best kind of teaching at Thacher.

Renee Nuñez, who taught AP Art History during 2004-05 school year, is pursuing her dream of doing museum work.

After spending a year teaching English and photography, coaching, riding, camping, and helping the freshman boys navigate their way through their first year here, Eliza Gregory CdeP 1999 is now working with refugees in Tanzania.

Kevin Buddhu returned to Camarillo High School, where had taken a one-year leave of absence to teach at Thacher. Before he returned to that job, however, he continued pursuing a master’s degree through Middlebury’s Breadloaf program. The student surfers and bicycle riders miss the treks that Kevin organized, where they shared their athletic passions together. We’ll also miss Kevin’s wife, Margo, and their two sons: Spencer and Will.

Wei-Ying Lin came to Thacher to teach Chinese while Ms. Li worked on her doctorate at UCLA. We were almost successful in keeping Wei-Ying here for another year, but she returned to her home in Taiwan to re-establish family ties and to take some time off before pursuing graduate work. We thank her for sharing her skills with us, for helping us to achieve a broader global perspective, and for sharing her example of courage in coming to a culture very different from her own—both as a student and a teacher.

After three years of outstanding teaching of chemistry and biology; leading wild, wet, and adventurous trips; and coaching football, JV lacrosse, and kayaking, Spencer Stevens left Thacher to continue his stellar career by teaching at San Francisco’s Bay School. We wish him well in his new position at a day school in its second year.

We also wish him the best of luck in his new married life when he weds Jamie Michele Laguette.

Another change of status—although we’ll continue seeing him on campus daily—is for Bert Mahoney. This summer, he tacked up his own shingle for creating publications, brochures, websites, and all other forms of media pieces. His living legacy at Thacher will be the redesign of our website that went live this summer, along with a new high watermark for the caliber and eye candy now a part of each year’s El Archivero.

And, finally, Sara Sackner, who has been an inspiring, creative, and diligent Director of Annual Giving and Constituent Relations, opted to pursue her passion: documentary film making. Her current project focuses on the arts in education; once it’s a wrap, maybe Sara will screen her movie in Thacher’s New Performing Arts Center. Sara has brought our Annual Fund to new heights by energizing our alumni. She made it clear to all that excellence has a cost, and that the generosity of alumni and parents helps create excellence at Thacher.

 And, on June 14, Cora

Mae arrived to round out the Schryver clan. Weighing in at 6 lbs., 8 oz., her most remarkable features are the typical Schryver nose and dark hair.

From beyond Thacher’s gates: Former physics teacher and track coach Pierre Yoo and his wife Linda gleefully welcomed 7 lb., 15 oz. Audrey Gayun Yoo to their family on March 28.  Sondy and Bill Rexford

joyfully announce the arrival of Henry Pratt Rexford on Wednesday, June 8 in Sisters, OR. All 8 lbs.,1 oz. and 21 inches of this bouncing baby boy (and his Mom) are doing great!

John Lin shared an sfgate.com article written about a fellow who is “on the fast track to becoming one of the new painting stars emerging from the Bay Area Figurative Group in the late 1950s.” It’s none other than Thacher’s former painter, Henry “Hank” Villierme. His work was exhibited in the Thomas Reynolds gallery this spring in San Francisco. e

The Thacher Family

SAFARI Kenya, Summer of 2006 Join Jake Jacobsen for an unforgettable wildlife safari in Kenya: E-mail Jake at jjacobsen@thacher.org Spring / Summer 2005 37

Bookshelf Bookshelf

Willard G. “Bill” Wyman High Country

by David P. Livermore CdeP 1973

University of Oklahoma Press, September 2005

E

ight years in the making, Bill Wyman’s first novel has arrived. For Thacher alums—and anyone who loves horses, mules, romance, camping, and the Mountain West—High Country has been well worth the wait. In this action-packed story, Bill masterfully tells of Ty Hardin, son of a Bitteroot Valley rancher, who leaves the farm during the Depression for a packer’s life in Montana’s Swan Range. Ty learns the ropes from a Fenton Pardee, a veteran guide, who also becomes his mentor and close friend. Tending to dudes and hunters, crossing snowbound passes, fording swollen rivers, encounters with bogs and bears, mule wrecks of epic proportions—and coming of age in town—High Country captures the fears, dreams, and fantasies of all of us who’ve lead a string in tight places and lived for life on the trail.

natural beauty, which is hard to put down. I honestly didn’t want this book to end—and I’m not quite sure why. On one hand it is unique simply because it focuses on the packing industry and its culture—topics which, as literature, haven’t been seen much on the printed page.

On the other hand, more than just a first in its genre (does another packer’s adventure novel even exist?), High Country is also a profound description of the people and landscapes all of us as westerners love— high-country landscapes, before coffee table books, when wilderness was something to be experienced fist hand. And for me at least, High Country offered even more—a psychological vantage point from which to see the great panorama of the Mountain West itself; a place from which (to borrow a wonderful phrase from Wallace Stegner’s Wilderness Letter), I was able to “look as deeply into myself as anywhere I know.”

High Country is wild and wooly to be sure, but as you might expect from Bill, it is also subtly textured and as ambitious as the highest Sierra pass. Leaving the Swan Range and Montana, Ty sees action in World War II, is wounded and returns to a series of personal tragedies, which seem to dwarf even his most arduous backcountry experiences. Always, there are the mountains where Ty feels most at home.

Untouched scenery, spectacular mountain camps, hair-raising trails, the horses, hitches, and mules that are the touchstones of the packing trade—all are beautifully described by Bill and become a refuge for Ty as he escapes the confusion and unpredictably of civilized life In sum, over the years, the number of books in in town. the Boswell Library on the “Thacher Authors Shelf” will certainly grow, but I’m sure High Towards the end of the book, hoping for a new Country will be remembered as one of the start, Ty leaves Montana to try his hand at best. Though Bill may have left Thacher, High packing in the Southern Sierra: “five hundred Country makes it clear Thacher has never left miles of rock put up right and a high country Bill. This is a book you’ll want to throw in so brilliant it brings light into night.” He learns your saddlebags—and talk about around the his way on and off trail from and a burro- campfire. Like Extra-Day Trips in the Sespe, packing Basque sheepherder—and also from, warm memories of High Country will last long in a poignient salute to early Sierra history, into the night—until we all pack in where the the famed mountaineer Norman Clyde. Here waters begin and cross The Great Divide. e too Bill’s writing shines with the brilliance and subtlety of alpenglow—capturing the soul of the Sierra range and the hearts of all who love its beauty. The finale of the book even takes place on the Whitney Trail crossing over from Crabtree Meadows to Lone Pine. Such sacred Dave Livermore CdeP 1973 worked as a ground for so many Thacher grads! How can wrangler, packer, and guide in Colorado and we resist?

Wyoming from 1972-1980. He currently is Utah State Director for The Nature ConserIndeed, High Country is a tale of riveting ad- vancy, and lives with his wife Rebecca and venture, romantic love, profound sadness and their daughter Jenn in Salt Lake City.

38 The Thacher News

Commons Giving to Thacher

“Enjoy Your Building!”

Thacher Commons Dedicated during Fall Trustee Weekend by Joy Sawyer-Mulligan

With its vaulted ceilings, abundant natural light, and commanding views of the Ojai Valley, the 9,000 square-foot Commons boasts a floor plan that includes a café and enormous “living room” space to the right of the broad hallway, as well as a games room, kitchen, student store, mailbox area, and ample bathroom facilities to serve both the center of campus and the adjoining Performing The north side of the Commons Arts Center. reflects the Ojai Valley At the southwestern corner is The Thacher Room, a space that includes a 24-foot-long conference table designed and crafted here on campus by faculty artisans Bo Manson and John Bueti, as well as comfortable couches and chairs surrounding a floor-to-ceiling fireplace made of rock recycled from the original fireplace in the Alumni Room.

John Carver CdeP 1953 with his wife Sue and surrounded by seniors at the dedication ceremony

H

ead of School Michael K. Mulligan called it “the fulfillment of a vision long held.”

Students are calling it “unbelievable.”

Whatever words you might choose, there’s no mincing the reality: The Thacher Commons is one gorgeous building.

At Assembly on October 7, after more than a year away, the School came home to the Pergola that links the Hills Dining Room with the new Thacher Commons. There, under pepper trees that have sheltered the community for over a hundred years, the leadership donors— John Carver CdeP 1953 and his wife, Sue— as well as the building’s architect, Barton The entry and main hallway of the Thacher Commons

Phelps, won cheers and a standing ovation from the students, faculty, staff, trustees, and other friends of the School overflowing the terraced lawns and stone walls.

Said Mr. Phelps, “Our goal in designing these buildings [the Performing Arts Center, as well as the Commons] was to work with nature, to admit the mountains into the space, and to animate the buildings with the beauty of the landscape. I am here to give you back this space, which you have loaned to us for over a year.” To this, Mr. Carver, waving his Thacher Toad hat, added only a simple exhortation: “Enjoy your building!”

The bronze plaque to the right of the entry reads: The Thacher Commons is dedicated to The Thacher School Family—past, present, and future—who collectively constitute our School’s legacy, which has been, and forever more will be, passed on from generation to generation.

The Thacher School pays tribute to Sue and John Carver CdeP 1953. Their leadership gift helped make this building possible and honors the faculty and students of the Class of 1953.

Dedicated October 7, 2005 e

Taking it as an invitation, the exuberant throng grabbed celebratory cake, then swarmed through the double doors and into the light, airy hallways and rooms that will become central gathering spots for all members of CdeP. What the visionaries and worker bees had promised from the start is true; this building will delight the senses, hearts, and minds in modern yet rustic Thacher style for generations of Toads. By week’s end, with furniture and game tables in place, Toads made full use of John and Sue Carver stand beside the bronze the building’s amenities. plaque near the entrance of the Commons Spring / Summer 2005 39

Obituaries Alumni News

Losses to the Community Alumni and Friends Who Will Be Sorely Missed

Kenneth O. Rhodes CdeP 1930 died of natural causes at his Pasadena home on August 23, 2005. A celebration service is planned for Saturday, October 8, 2005 at 12:30 at All Saints Church in Pasadena.

Ken was the third of four sons who grew up in Pasadena; he attended Polytechnic School until he entered Thacher in 1926. He served as a Prefect for three years and as manager of Dramatics and El Archivero; he became an “A” Camper, an Honor Man, and was a member of the Committee of Ten, the Outdoor Committee, Bit and Spur, Glee Club, and the Orchestra. In his Oral History from 1988, Ken recalled that his relationship with Sherman Day Thacher was “very close. Although he was an authoritative figure at School and while I admired and respected him tremendously, I was always in some awe of him.” And in another passage, he mentioned that he “loved the out-of-door experience in an isolated area...it had an impact on my life and my family’s life because I have always enjoyed high adventure...which really started with Thacher.”

In time, Ken and his wife, Betty, trekked through the Himalayas three times and visited every continent including Antarctica, which they reached on a Russian ice-breaker when they were in their eighties. photo by Ted Rhodes CdeP 1965

Ken matriculated from Thacher to Stanford, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in History in 1934 and then earned his law degree from Harvard in 1937. After passing the California bar exam, Ken joined the law firm of Williamson, Sargent & Hoge and focused on probate matters. During World War II, he served as a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy. In 1948, he established his own private practice until 1979 when he became a partner in the Pasadena law firm of Taylor, Kupfer, Summers & Rhodes.

At the age of 35, Ken made a commitment to give one-third of his day to pro bono work for the community, a devotion that benefited many individuals and communities throughout his life. A great friend of Thacher’s and Ken’s, John Maguire (President Emeritus, Claremont University Consortium & Graduate University) commented that Ken “watched fellow lawyers get caught up in the excitement of postwar Los Angeles, in the drive to make personal fortunes...[His] antidote was to devote a huge amount of his time to volunteer work...He was a most generous-hearted man. And, he never gave a public speech without one or two side-splittingly funny jokes.”

Because of his willingness to tackle controversial problems openly and fairly, Ken often served as president of the boards of the organizations and educational institutions that he joined. He was elected to Thacher’s Board in 1974, served as Secretary from 1975 until 1980, then vice president in 1981, and was elected president of the Board in December 40 The Thacher News

1981. He also served as President of the Board of Trustees for Scripps College (1968-1981) and of the Claremont University Center and Graduate School (now known as Claremont University Consortium & Graduate University), which later awarded him an honorary degree. In 1984, he received the Distinguished Service Award in Trusteeship of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. Beyond academics, Ken served as a trustee of the Los Angeles County Bar Foundation, a past president of the Chancery Club and the Valley Hunt Club, and chairman of such organizations as Family Service of Los Angeles, Hathaway Home for Children, the Caltech Y, and the Legal Aid Foundation.

Although Ken grew up in Pasadena, where his future wife, Elizabeth “Betty” Fleming had lived since she was 14, they didn’t meet until both families vacationed in Victoria, British Columbia, when both Ken and Betty were in college. They married in 1938 and bought a Pasadena home overlooking the Arroyo and the Rose Bowl, where they raised four children-Richard CdeP 1959, Margaret, Tom, and Ted CdeP 1965--all of whom survive him. Ken was preceded in death by his wife of 62 years who died in 2000, and his brothers: Foster CdeP 1925, Robert CdeP 1929, and David CdeP 1933. He is also survived by seven grandchildren, three of whom attended Thacher: Christopher CdeP 1995, Tristan CdeP 1997, and Julien, CdeP 2002.

When giving speeches, Ken often quoted a Japanese haiku composed by a Japanese friend of his, as he did in his 1983 speech to graduating Thacher seniors: “I am 90 years old. I have been climbing a beautiful mountain all my life. I am still climbing,” a lasting image for us to fondly remember this kind, gentle man.

Eric Stanleigh Warner CdeP 1930 died September 4, 2005.

Eric spent his early childhood in the East Bay before arriving at Thacher, where he helped several teams to victory. “Ric” was the star outfielder of the baseball team, sometimes pitcher, and unfaltering lead-off man; on the soccer team, he excelled as half-back; he was the best shot of the School as an upperclassman; and he earned “A” Camper status in his junior year.

He was an Honor Man, served on the Gun Board, Committee of Ten, Outdoor Committee, and Pack and Saddle.

Eric matriculated to Yale, where he rowed with the varsity crew and graduated with a degree in chemical engineering. He returned to California, married Margaret Bacon, from New Britain, CT, and took a position with Standard Oil of California (now Chevron), first as an engineer in refinery design, then as the head of that department, and finally as Chairman of the Board of Engineers until his retirement at

by Jane D. McCarthy

age 60. While based in Standard Oil’s San Francisco headquarters, he worked overseas extensively, a favorite pastime he continued once he retired.

Eric and Peggy purchased a used Snipe sailboat, refurbished it, and began sailing races in the Bay. An early member of the Richmond Yacht Club, he berthed boats in the harbor as an active member for more than 40 years. Over a five-year period after World War II, he built a Windward class boat in his backyard, a boat that he could race yet it accommodated his family. For many years a successful and highly competitive racing captain, he intensified his racing after retirement, in the Triton-class boat, and then an Islander 36. After winning the I-36 championship in several consecutive years, he retired from racing at age 75, though he continued to sail recreationally.

Eric was preceded in death by his wife and a granddaughter. He is survived by his daughters, Margaret Warner Traina of Worcester, MA and Patricia Warner Spear of Berkeley, CA, their spouses, five grandchildren, and 13 great-grandchildren. According to his daughter Patricia, Eric “valued his time at Thacher very highly and really liked the 75th reunion cap, which he wore in the last few months whenever we went out for a drive.”

George Sealey Livermore CdeP 1932—architect, civic leader, and member of a prominent California pioneer family— died of natural causes at his home on March 3, 2005 at the age of 90, just 15 days shy of his 91st birthday. “He just went full steam right up to the end,” said his son Richard, as evidenced by George’s dancing at Cotillion in December and skiing in Idaho in January.

While at Thacher, George (aka “Cher”) was one of the leading horsemen, as horseman on the Second Gymkhana Team for two years and captain of the First Team during his senior year. He was an “A” Camper for two years and a member of the Bit and Spur for three years, serving as Secretary his senior year. He also found time to play leading roles in School plays, including Kate in The Taming of the Shrew and Malvolio in Twelfth Night.

George matriculated from Thacher to Stanford where he received a bachelor’s degree in 1936; he earned a second degree in architecture from Yale in 1940. He served as an Army officer on New Caledonia Island in the South Pacific during World War II. George was married to the former Janet Clifton between 1944 and 1970. He is survived by three sons: Richard CdeP 1964, Thomas, and William; three brothers Norman and Putnam of Marin County, and John of Reno; and five grandchildren. His daughter,

Elizabeth Livermore Domergue, died in 1999. A memorial service was held on March 18 at Grace Cathedral Episcopal Church in San Francisco.

Frank Perry Hooper, Jr. CdeP 1935 died June 3, 2005 at Indian River Memorial Hospital in Vero Beach, his home for 35 years.

Frank was born in San Francisco and was raised in Woodside. He received a bachelor’s degree in 1939 from Stanford. He served in the Air Force during World War II and was involved in the liberation of Dachau. He trained for duty in the Korean War in the event of a Soviet incursion there. He retired from the military in 1972. He was a member of the Retired Officers Association, Sons of the American Revolution, and Ducks Unlimited.

Frank’s survivors include daughters Joy and Linda; sons Frank III CdeP 1969 and Andrew; and three grandchildren. His cousin, John Hooper CdeP 1934, shared the news of Frank’s passing with us.

Allan C. Kempe, Jr. CdeP 1946 died February 19, 2005, according to his wife. He attended Thacher for his first two years of high school, and then attended Chadwick Seaside School before enlisting in Ventura County’s aviation cadet training program from which he was commissioned a second lieutenant. In November 1944, he reported to the Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, LA; he retired from the Air force as a Lieutenant Colonel. Allan and his wife lived in Hurtz, TX. Frederick Brown Wells III, CdeP 1946 died peacefully at his home in Wayzata, MN, on July 19, 2005, after a long struggle with cancer; a celebration of his life was held on August 13.

During his three years at Thacher, Fred was one of the most respected and well liked of his class. “He represents the Thacher spirit in almost every way,” cited the 1946 El ­Archivero, “and as Chairman of the School, his steady leadership and unobtrusive generosity have been invaluable throughout the year.

Moose loves the outdoors and divides his time on his famous mare, Soma, between frequent camping trips and gymkhana, of which he is captain. He is a good shot and a member of the gun board. Freddie is also a lover of music and besides being president of the band, he sings a good tenor in both the Glee Club and Los Trobadores.” He matriculated to Yale, where he earned a bachelor’s degree and later earned a masters degree in Far East Asian History from the University of Minnesota in 1980.

Fred joined the family grain merchandising business, Peavey Company in 1951 and held a variety of positions, culminating as Vice President of International Operations and as member of the Board of Directors. When Peavey merged with ConAgra Foods, Inc., in 1982, he served on its Board of Directors until 1997. He also owned and operated the Asian Fine Arts Gallery in downtown Minneapolis from 1981 until 1996. He devoted much of his time to the Wells Family Foundation Trust and various non-profit organizations in both Minnesota (including the Minneapolis Museum of Art) and Florida (where he supported ecological research and conservation), along with serving on Thacher’s Board from 1988-97. Thacher drew upon his extensive knowledge of the economies and cultures of the Far East to champion the study of the Chinese

language here in the mid-’90s. He also created the Wells Family Scholarship at Thacher, which is used primarily to recruit talented minority students. He founded the Fort Snelling Tennis & Learning Center for disadvantaged youth in 2002. The following year, the U.S. Tennis Association named him one of five national “unsung heroes” and he was also inducted into the USTA/Northern Section’s Hall of Fame in recognition of his contributions to the sport. Fred enjoyed playing squash and classical guitar, fishing, and sailing with his wife Ellen in the Florida Keys.

Fred is survived by his wife; his son, Tom; his daughters, Wendy Dawson Wells and Lee Booth Wells; three grandchildren; and five cousins: Frank T. Heffelfinger II, T. Truxton Morrison CdeP 1956, Sherman Ewing, Jr. CdeP 1944, Frank “Pete” Heffelfinger, Jr. CdeP 1942, and Stephen C. Morrison CdeP 1941. Other cousins who predeceased Fred are Peter Morrison CdeP 1944, Frank Heffelfinger Ewing CdeP 1951, and James S. Morrison CdeP 1938. Memorials may be sent to the Fred Wells Education Center, in care of Fort Snelling Tennis & Learning Center, 100 Federal Drive, St. Paul., MN 55111.

William C. “Bill” Gow CdeP 1948 died unexpectedly in his sleep on January 6, 2005, at his home in Key Largo, FL. Earlier that day, he and his wife had won a bridge tournament as well as a two-day golf tournament that concluded that day.

He went out a winner!

Bill’s Thacher classmates remembered him as the consummate competitor and participant: a four-year student at Thacher, his senior year he was on all five varsity athletic teams, captained the soccer team, served on the student council and as a prefect, sang in the glee club, and was a “C” Camper and a member of Pack and Saddle. He was also known for his dancing: “his flat feet made an impression on every dance-hall from Fresno to San Diego,” reported the 1948 El Archivero.

After his freshman year at Yale, Bill volunteered for the Air Force and saw combat duty as a fighter pilot during the Korean War. He subsequently graduated from Stanford and went on to develop, and sell, one of the country’s largest mortgage loan brokerage firms.

Bill is survived by his wife Joanne; four children: William, Melinda, Margaret, and Marcie, and seventeen grandchildren.

Brandon Darris Mungai Phillips CdeP 1993 died January 7, 2005; our thanks to George Pfau CdeP 1942 for informing us. Brandon attended schools in Berkeley and San Francisco before coming to Thacher.

While here, Brandon stood out as being an “acutely sensitive and caring human being,” according to College Counselor John Friborg. “There are few more eloquent, balanced, and thoughtful students when it comes to open discussions about racial, ethnic, or gender issues.” He ran cross-country here, and was elected co-captain of the team; he also excelled in

horsemanship. He matriculated to UC Berkeley and later studied at the University of New Orleans. He became an investment assistant and worked for Wells Fargo and briefly for Bank of the West; he was interested in becoming an investment.

Brandon met Tracy Mangles while at school in New Orleans in 1996; their daughter Leila was born in 2002. According to the program at Brandon’s memorial service, “he was best known for his wit, his intellect, his charm, and his gentle loving way.

Those closest to him were honored by his selflessness and loyalty.”

He is survived by his grandparents; his mother, Njambi Mungai; his daughter Leila Marisol, and her mother, Tracy; his brother, Darroll; his sisters, Skye and Stevie; and numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Memorial gifts to benefit Leila Phillips may be made through American Fund Account #73111839, c/o Njambi Mungai, 4100 Redwood Road #405, Oakland CA 94619.

Friends of Thacher Charles C. Gates, father of John CdeP 1975 and grandfather of Emmo ’08, died August 28 at his home in Denver, CO. He expanded and diversified the family-owned Gates Rubber Company and served as chairman of the Gates Family Foundation, which has donated more than $147 million since its creation in 1946.

Margaret Appenzeller Huyler was born on April 23, 1919, in Korea, where her parents and grandparents were educational missionaries. She graduated in a high school class of 5 and went from there to Cal Berkeley, where she became one of the two women who led women’s activities on campus. She was also elected Princess of the Big C Sirkus.

Margaret first came to the Huylers’ Bear Paw Ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in August, 1938. There she and Jack fell in love. They remained transparently and proudly in love for 67 years. Margaret is succeeded by three sons (John Huyler, Jr. CdeP 1963, Stephen Porter Huyler CdeP 1969, and Gary Wayne Glass), three daughters (Ruth Huyler Glass CdeP 1965H, DeAnne Butterfield Huyler, and Helene Wheeler Huyler), and by three granddaughters (Hillary Brooks Glass, Allison Huyler Glass CdeP 1993, and Jesse Colleen Huyler).

Margaret was deeply involved with Ojai Presbyterian Church, her book club, PEO, and in the many activities of The Thacher School: she rode with generations of Thacher students, camped with them, entertained them in her home. She was for many years a trustee of Ewha Woman’s University in Seoul, Korea, the world’s largest women’s university. She served a year on a Ventura County Grand Jury.

Margaret faced her final struggle against Parkinson’s Disease with characteristic strength, courage, grace, and good humor. She died peacefully surrounded by her family on September 11, 2005.

A memorial service for Margaret Huyler will be held in the Outdoor Chapel of The Thacher School on Saturday, December 10, at 11:00. Refreshments will follow. e Spring / Summer 2005 41

Calendar

Thacher Gatherings and Events

Fall 2005 / Winter 2006 Monday, October 17 Boston Gathering Tuesday, October 18 New York Gathering Wednesday, October 19 Washington, DC, Gathering Thursday, October 20 Chicago Gathering Friday-Sunday, October 28-30 Family Weekend Wednesday, November 2 Portland Gathering Thursday, November 3 Seattle Gathering Monday, November 7 San Francisco Gathering Saturday, January 7 Winter Alumni Day Friday-Saturday, January 27-28 Winter Board of Trustees Meeting Tuesday-Wednesday, April 18-19 Grandparents’ Days Thursday-Saturday, April 20-22 Senior Exhibitions

Remembering Thacher:

Bequests W

hen John Baum graduated from Thacher in 1965, he dreamed of becoming a pilot and traveling the world.

He achieved this dream by learning to fly one year after he left Thacher and later becoming an airline pilot with United Airlines.

He now flies 777s to Europe and travels with his wife Mindy to the farthest reaches of the Earth. John credits Thacher with a great deal of his current success: “The excellence of the School experience and the values instilled continue to guide me.”

John’s connection to Thacher has shaped his approach to philanthropy. He and Mindy have long placed education at the top of their philanthropic interests. However, Thacher was not specifically included in their plans until recently. The Baums began giving to the Alumni Fund in the late 1980s, but it was not until the late 1990s that they considered putting Thacher in their will.

John says, “A visit to the School, and conversations with some of my fellow classmates, convinced us that Thacher had the leadership and direction to utilize gifts in a most effective manner.” Soon thereafter, John and Mindy made Thacher the “primary focus” of their estate plan.

“

A visit to the School,

and conversations with some of my fellow classmates, convinced us that Thacher had the leadership and direction to utilize gifts in a

”

most effective manner.

While there are a variety of ways to structure a planned gift, most people, including John and Mindy, simply make outright or percentage distributions from their wills or living trusts—the most straightforward way to make a testamentary gift. John and Mindy have included a number of individuals and other charities in their plan.

John and Mindy continue to give annually to the Alumni Fund, and they have supported The Campaign for Thacher. “During the development of our estate plan, we had some very powerful discussions about the legacy we wish to leave,” John notes. “These discussions encouraged us to become more involved with Thacher during our lifetimes.” For the Baums, this has translated into increased current involvement with Thacher. They know that the School needs their support now as well as in the years to come.

If you would like more information on wills, estate plans, or other planned giving vehicles, please contact David V. Babbott, Director of Planned Giving and Special Gifts, at (805) 640-3201 ext. 242, or e-mail dvbabbott@thacher.org

Mindy and John Baum CdeP 1965 at the ruins of Ephesus during a recent vacation in Turkey

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