Thacher Magazine: Spring 2012

The Magazine of The Thacher School * Spring 

THACHER

Going Global Bursting the myth of the Thacher bubble.

CONTENTS 4

t "SNDIBJS 8BOEFSJOH Seumas Sargent CdeP 1995 pursues a peripatetic career and, along with his family, discovers a new understanding of home.

t (PJOH (MPCBM How does Thacher connect to the world out there? Our panel discusses the digital global economy and its impact on culture, commerce, and human rights. Also, Thacher alumni write in from around the world to share their experiences and observations during a year of profound change.

4QFDJBM *OTFSU Read about Thacher’s latest round of self-assessment and planning in Strategic Plan 2012: The Road to the Future.

ON & OFF CAMPUS

ALUMNI & COMMUNITY NEWS

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Michael Mulligan reflects on adversity and resilience.

t 6Q 'SPOU Looking beyond the bubble.

t 3FBEFST 3FTQPOE We share your letters and e-mails.

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An assemblage of noteworthy School and community intelligence.

Reports from Golden Trout Encampment and Alumni Day 2012.

t $MBTT /PUFT FUD Alumni news, milestones, and reports from faculty, staff, and friends.

t *O .FNPSJBN t ÉĽF #FTU 8F $BO %P Guadalupe N. Nickell CdeP 1992 takes her work to the world.

FRONT COVER The sky is the limit as the Thacher community discovers and develops connections to the world beyond the School gates.

Front and back cover photos: Karen Bellone

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3FNBSLT %FMJWFSFE BU 'BMM 'BNJMZ 8FFLFOE ON THE OCCASION OF THE UPPER SCHOOL centennial celebration, Head of School Michael K. Mulligan addressed the families assembled on the Upper School lawn. He closed his speech with the following story about Nathan Weston Blanchard II. (The complete talk is available at www. thacher.org/magazine/spring2012.)

If Sherman Day Thacher could visit his School today, one thing I am quite sure he would be horrified about is the ubiquity of technology and its invasive presence in the lives of faculty and students....

The access of parents to students and faculty would appall him.

He would also severely miss the ability to write to the colleges, Yale especially, to tell them which students to take. And he would blanch at the diplomacy that is required of teachers and heads today.

Not one to mince his words, in what is now an unthinkable expression of candor, he wrote this to Nathan Weston Blanchard of Santa Paula, about his son Nathan Weston Blanchard II. How times have changed.

What has not changed, however, is that all teens make mistakes.

Some mistakes require a parting of the ways, as was the case with Mr. Blanchard. And this latest point is to say that in case you had not noticed, there is no such thing as a perfect person, a perfect School, or needless to say, a perfect teenager. Mr. Thacher knew this and we know it today. This is my short way of saying that while I hope your children can avoid Mr. Blanchard’s

perfidy, I can guarantee at some point your son or daughter will likely bring you to your knees, or at least close to it. Thacher is not all orange blossoms, pink sunsets, and fruit smoothies.

Horses buck. Los Padres trails are precipitous. Football and lacrosse players lay each other out. Soccer balls and heads (often with other heads) collide. Rock walls are hard and landings tough. Ankles are twisted; legs are broken. Gravity is always pulling.

A’s are earned the hard way. Work is plentiful and sometimes unrelenting. Disappointments happen. Kids get cut from some teams and some productions. Some seniors are prefects; others are not.

And unlike Mr. Thacher’s days, not everyone can go to Yale. (Current acceptance rates of 6 to 7 percent!)

And, of course, you will learn that even your son or daughter can do dumb things—and these things will get addressed while they are here at Thacher. Embrace the experience and know that, as educators and as a community, we’ve had some practice in this area. It’s far better for your children to learn the important lessons now—rather than in college, the workplace, or in marriage. I talk about the importance of failure. Parents always nod their heads and say, yes, of course. But we all know that we mean, yes—for someone else’s kid. “Dear Lord, please, just not my son or daughter.�

We understand.

But life has a way of delivering up to our children and to us exactly what they and we need, and Thacher is particularly good at this kind of delivery.

Pain accompanies growth. The pain is the expression of shedding one self for a new and expanded one—like the little nautilus moving into the next, more capacious chamber. (The reference here for the uninitiated is to Mr. Thacher’s favorite poem, The Chambered Nautilus by Oliver Wendell Holmes, which he read, and we continue to read, at the beginning of every school year.)

Failure, pain, and suffering, while never to be sought, are part of the program for all of us, your children included.

My advice to all of you tonight: Enjoy the Thacher ride, all of it, even the tough parts.

We want your children to learn to persist in the face of adversity.

To work hard. To develop resilience, grit. To stay curious. These are qualities for the long haul—as are honor, fairness, kindness, and truth, the constant constellation by which we set our moral compass.

Speaking of resilience and grit, I return to Nathan Blanchard CdeP 1891.

Nathan Blanchard is expelled from Thacher. His father takes him back at the Santa Paula Ranch and sets him to shoveling manure for > CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

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61 '30/5y "SPVOE UIF 8PSME JO 8BZT HANG AROUND CAMPUS ENOUGH and you’ll hear somebody mention the Thacher bubble. The implication, of course, is that our gated campus is insular, sheltered from the real world. There is certainly some truth to that. Places of learning and study do well to manage distractions; ivory towers are fortified for a reason. Yet, the notion of the bubble hints at risks inherent in too successfully walling out distraction. Not only is this isolation ultimately illusory, but it can miss the point. After all, we gather our students here to educate them about the world out there, to prepare them to take their places in it, and eventually to lead it. So, the paradox is one of creating a safe and secure learning environment that affords ample opportunities to learn about and engage with the “real” world.

So, how does Thacher create connections to the world out there? How do we resist insularity and isolation? We do it in 80 ways and then some.

We do it by deliberately shaping a campus community—students and faculty—who represent more than half of the states and a dozen countries.

We do it through far-flung alumni doing good work in the world, all over the world, alumni who often return to campus and share their knowledge and experiences. And of course we do it in the classroom, where gifted and

committed faculty members bring the world to our students every day. As you’ll read in the Strategic Plan 2017: The Road to the Future (bound into this issue), we also do it with careful deliberation and full recognition that as the world changes, so must Thacher.

To create this issue, we invited contributors from the four corners of the Earth (and were overwhelmed at the response!). Our requests yielded a bumper crop of fascinating submissions from near and far— and some from right on campus. Given the surplus, we’ve had to resort more than usual to linking our printed content to the magazine’s web page: www.thacher.org/magazine. In many ways this is fitting; it’s no secret that the Internet and other advancements in communications technology have been powerful engines in flattening the world and creating unprecedented linkages that transcend borders and cultures.

Thus, while exploring some of these connections, we also depended on digital technology to help us gather and share our findings. Once again, the media recapitulate the message as global shifts—often from analog to digital—link us in new ways across a seemingly ever-shrinking world.

— Christopher J. Land, Editor

3&"%&34 3&410/%y CONCERNING CASA It was with great disappointment that I opened the new issue of Thacher Magazine and saw the rendering of what is to become of the Casa de Piedra dormitory. I have watched over the years as the campus I knew as a student has changed and grown to meet the evolving needs of the community, and while I have mixed feelings about some of the results, I have always appreciated the need for the School to move forward and not be shackled by its past. However, to see one of the last remaining of Austen Pierpont’s singular collection of work for the School altered in such a manner leaves me feeling that something fundamental has been lost. The entombment of Casa’s simple forms and unpretentious functionalism in such an encrustation of historicist bric-a-brac shows a deep lack of respect for this elegant example of California Caption tktktktk modernism. I never lived in the dorm and have no particular emotional attachment to it, but I have always respected its clear order and the relaxed sophistication of the way it is perched on the rolling lawn. If it can no longer serve the needs of the School, then so be it, but to learn so little from its excellent example is truly regrettable.

Michael Blatt CdeP 1977 Editor’s Response: Assistant Head of School Peter Robinson, a member of the Architectural Review Committee and Thacher’s resident art historian, responded to Michael with a thoughtful explanation of the new project that concluded:   

I would like to think that in replacing Pierpont’s original structure, we have taken much that was there, made accommodation to what was needed and was not there, and created a building that both proclaims its difference but, in its position and its essential shape, asserts its connection. It is, I think, a bolder building, less simple but no less elegant in its attempt both to enclose the space and to open the rooms through decking and clerestories to views of the outside world.

Mr. Robinson’s full commentary on the new Casa design can be read online at www.thacher.org/magazine/spring2012.

The letter (depicted in facsimile on page 1) from Mr. Thacher to Nathan Blanchard Esq. (pictured below) was presented to the Thacher Archives by Nathan Blanchard III CdeP 1927 (center left), who described this record of his father’s expulsion from Thacher as “hilarious.”

> CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

fertilizer in the orchards. (As Dave Barry would say, “I am not making this up.”) The year is 1891. Fed up with farmwork, Nathan runs away and joins the US Army. The Arizona Territory is terrorized by Apaches breaking out of the incarceration of their reservations.

From his time at Thacher, Blanchard knows how to ride and is assigned to the 7th Cavalry—yes, of Custer fame and Wounded Knee infamy. They are Indian haters. He witnesses and opposes three troopers who attempt to assault an Indian girl. He takes them on and in the ensuing brawl, he fells all three troopers with the butt of his Springfield rifle. He slings them into a wagon, drives hard and fast, and delivers them to the commandant who, in turn, shuns Blanchard and looks the other way.

Blanchard is harassed by troopers. The commandant assigns Blanchard to the outback telegraph corps: a death sentence— a 100-percent casualty rate at the hands of renegade Apaches.

Out in the mountains, alone, he is approached by an Apache band on horseback.

They smash his heliograph, and Blanchard figures he is done for. They speak Mexican Spanish and so can Blanchard. They know of him: Here is the one white man they know of as a hero—who is legendary because he saved the life of an Apache girl. They honor him— and let him go unharmed.

He is transferred to the Presidio. He is called an “Indian lover” and is ganged up on.

He is assaulted in a barroom fight. Cornered, he fights back and is assisted by another hated minority in San Francisco in 1892—the Irish.

From the Blanchard Family Papers: “Ten soldiers rushed him. Father was very adept at breaking off the neck of a whiskey bottle. The Irish in the bar joined up with father. The fight ended with eight soldiers going to the hospital and two others escaping

via a back window. I might say that father was never bothered again. If Sherman Day Thacher had known this story, he would have been mighty proud of Pa.” The boy who is expelled from Thacher for being a liar and a cheat grows up to stand up to an age of hate and racism. He stands up for the underdog, saves a girl’s life, and is roundly castigated for the duration of his term in the Army. He later tells his son that his last three years in the Army were made “living hell” by the bigoted troopers who expressed the wicked ignorance that Indians were subhuman.

Nathan Blanchard would have no part of this.

Mr. Thacher eventually did become proud of Nathan Blanchard, this man who became a profile in courage. SDT accepted Nathan’s son into his School. And that son sent his son to Thacher. And that son sent his son to Thacher. And that son sent his son to Thacher. And that man’s son is now a freshman at Thacher. Five generations.

Failure is all about perspective. Who knows how important it was for Nathan Blanchard to have to leave Thacher and make his way in the world?

Who knows how this trail we are on resolves itself?

We are wise, therefore, to embrace adversity.

It is part of life and it is here for us to learn.

Never give up. No matter how bad the trail ahead looks.

Do the right thing, especially when no one is looking, or you are standing alone confronting evil. That is true courage.

Life has a way of coming around to those who can stick with it and stay true.

Here is the thing: The liar and cheat became a fine man, a successful rancher, and a community leader. He also had the wisdom of enrolling his son at Thacher. And—as much as with all of you parents who have made this same commitment, for one child, or two, or even three—that speaks for itself.

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The Magazine of The Thacher School Volume 6, Issue 1 Spring 2012 EDITOR Christopher J. Land ASSOCIATE EDITOR Jane D. McCarthy ALUMNI EDITOR Suzie Nixon Bohnett CLASS NOTES EDITOR Aaron Boydston ARCHIVIST Bonnie LaForge DESIGN Charles Hess, design director Lisa Lewis, designer PHOTOGRAPHY AND ILLUSTRATION Karen Bellone, Christopher Land, Caitlin Jean Peterson, Brian Pidduck CdeP 1992, Joy Sawyer-Mulligan, Cam Spaulding CdeP 1992 HEAD OF SCHOOL Michael K. Mulligan DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT Brandon C. Doyle DIRECTOR OF ADMISSION William P. McMahon Thacher is published twice a year by The Thacher School, and is sent free of charge to alumni, parents, and friends of the School. Every effort is made to ensure that contents are accurate and complete. If there is an omission or an error, please accept our apologies and notify us at the address below.

Copyright © 2012 The Thacher School Third-class postage is paid at the Oxnard Post Office.

POSTMASTER: Please send form 3579 to the following address.

Editor, Thacher Magazine 5025 Thacher Road Ojai, CA 93032 www.thacher.org thachermagazine@thacher.org 805-640-3201 x264 Send Class Notes to: alumni@thacher.org 805-646-1956 (fax)

Thacher is printed by V3 in Oxnard, California, using an environmentally friendly waterless printing process, soy-based inks, and recycled paper.

Michael K. Mulligan, Head of School

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THE PERGOLA…

ADMISSION FLEXES GLOBAL REACH

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TOAD MUSIC FEST: REPRISE THIS JANUARY’S second annual Toad Music Fest featured nearly five-dozen acts, comprising students, faculty, alumni, parents, and combinations thereof, who shared their singing, playing instruments, and even poetryreading skills.

Above: Anouk Ackerman ‘12 with James Newton Howard CdeP 1969, accompanied by Reed Gulick-Stutz ‘14 on guitar.

Right: Neal Howe CdeP 1969.

T’S BEEN ANOTHER BANNER year for Admission, with applications up more than 30 percent, acceptance rate down to 13 percent (from last year’s record 17), and yield rate up a point to 82 percent.

Contributing to those statistics was strong interest in Thacher from out of state and abroad. Thanks to the steady efforts of a globetrotting Admission staff, this year’s applicants hailed from 28 states and 24 different countries: Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, England, Germany, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Nigeria, Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam.

Next year’s freshman class will have strong international representation, with three each coming from China and Japan, two from Saudi Arabia, and one from Korea.

THACHER MASQUERS PRESENT!

It took roughly one-third of the student body to pull off this year’s winter musical, Curtains, a lively, play-withina-play whodunnit.

BIG GYMKHANA FAMILY WEEKEND

WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT ISLAM

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ONATHAN “JACK” A. C. BROWN CdeP 1996 returned to campus in the spring as an Anacapa Scholar. Jack, assistant professor of Islamic studies and Muslim Christian understanding at Georgetown University, visited classes and delivered a head’s invitational lecture after Formal Dinner one night.

His topic, How to Talk about Islam and Muslims, was carefully pitched to his Thacher audience. “It had to aim higher than a normal public talk,” notes Jack. The speech addressed the theme of how we speak about any construct as massive and complex as a world religion, and any group of people as gigantic and diverse as the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims.

Read his reflections on the exprience at www.thacher.org/magazine/spring2012.

Apollo Kaneko ‘15; Wesley LIang ‘15 and Stuart Brown ‘15, running the ribbon race; Helen Brown ‘12 was the day’s top point winner.

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THE PERGOLA… ST. PETERSBURG ADVENTURE

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The Thacher History Department and spouses (top) in front of the Winter Palace (The Hermitage Museum) in St. Petersburg, Russia: (L to R) Greg DelVecchio, Peter Robinson, Jason Carney, Megan Carney, Sarah DelVecchio, Dana Vancisin, Lucia St. George, Bob St. George. Matryoshka dolls (above) at souvenir market outside the Cathedral on Spilt Blood. (Group photo: Megan Carney. All others: Dana Vancisin.)

HANKS TO THE GENEROSITY OF Marvin Shagam, who since 1998 has been donating frequent flyer miles to an academic department each year to take a trip abroad, members of the History Department traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia, over spring break.

Thacher also helped subsidize food and lodging. Our lucky group consisted of Peter Robinson, who teaches AP Art History in addition to being Assistant Head of School; Sarah DelVecchio and her husband Greg; Jason and Megan Carney; Bob St. George and his wife Lucia; and Dana Vancisin.

None of the history teachers had been to Russia, and having grown up during the Cold War, we were eager to see the place that had been home to the animated Russian spies Natasha and Boris Badenov, who thrilled us each Saturday morning in our tender years. To make the most of our week, Peter Robinson carefully crafted a rich itinerary: a night at the opera, the ballet, a sleigh ride through a former tsar’s snow-covered forest, visits to museums, including the Hermitage and Catherine the Great’s summer palace, and an evening at the circus to experience the legendary dancing bears.

One night we crushed into the subway and rode out of the city center to a hockey stadium to watch the local St. Petersburg team smash their opponent. From the plebeian to the sublime, we spent two full days trailing Mr. Robinson through the Hermitage, which, under Catherine II’s reign in the mid 18th century, prized the largest art collection of any ruler. It was outside the Hermitage that the 1905 massacre occurred when the tsar’s solders fired on the crowd of hungry protesters.

Anticipating protests against Putin’s re-election, we saw plenty of police in the square but not a single demonstrator. Perhaps the snow kept them away, or as our guide noted, most were unconcerned.

In the museum, Mr. Robinson energetically explained to us the meaning of various art pieces, from the Renaissance to Cubism. This essentially turned out to be a two-day, eight-hour art history lesson with the world’s greatest masterpieces as examples! We visited the Museum of Political History, which was housed in the mansion of a former famous ballet dancer (not “belly dancer,” as some of us heard our Russian guide inform us) and where Lenin delivered a fiery speech to the Bolsheviks from the balcony window. Here we saw artifacts from the rule of 19th-Century tsars through the last tsar, Nicholas, communist rulers Lenin, Stalin, and the reform era of the 1990s. Much of the museum information was in Russian, rather than English, and we chuckled over the whitewashing of Stalin’s gulags, which featured a diorama of men warmly dressed and relaxing around a wood-burning stove, listening to a phonograph. Another museum featured the personal collection of Peter the Great’s natural wonders, such as teeth he extracted himself from “volunteers,” jars of conjoined twins and other abnormalities. This was not for the faint of heart, and after viewing a few dozen jars we headed for the exit. Peter the Great (1672‒1725), built St. Petersburg with serf labor (which also sponsored Catherine’s art collection). Russia abolished slavery in 1861, four years before the adoption of the 13th Amendment.

Scenes of the former Soviet Russia impressed us: the former KGB building, where our guide

cheekily informed us that you could see Siberia from the top floor, massive concrete housing units sprawling in the suburbs, and the lack of automobiles or parking lots throughout the city. The grey industrial housing complexes that ringed the outskirts of the inner city made for a fascinating contrast with the pastel colored baroque mansions of the 18th and 19th centuries that dominate the city center.

The food surprised us: we expected pickled herring and cabbage and instead devoured pastries, rich potato pancakes, blinis with cream and mushrooms, award-winning borscht, and various forms of stroganoff. We made a few mistakes: horseradish vodka and a steamed wild grass appetizer among them. American cuisine seems not to have had an impact on the opened and reformed Russian economy, but the American entertainment industry certainly has: from the pop music heard in the taxis to the nightclub’s ecstatic frenzy over Joan Jett’s I Love Rock and Roll (the History Department extended its research into the nightlife of Russian citizenry). In addition to the obvious personal benefits of a trip such as this, our students stand to gain was well. By visiting important historic

sites, taking in the city and its museums, and absorbing some Russian culture, we can’t help but enrich and make more vivid the lessons of the Russian Revolution and the Cold War we share with Thacher students back in our classrooms.

As a final salute to Russia, the History Department headed out on a four-mile run through St. Petersburg.

We ran through time: past Catherine’s palace marking the height of Absolutism, past the onion-domed colorful Church of Spilled Blood where Tsar Alexander II was murdered by anarchists seeking to overthrow the monarchy, and past the mansion where Lenin declared Russia a communist state. In the distance we could see the hills where Nazi soldiers hunkered down during their unsuccessful siege on the city during WWII. An extraordinary experience for all of us, our department is thankful to Mr. Shagam and the School for supporting this educational adventure!

— Sarah DelVecchio L to R: The Church of Spilled Blood; the Jordan Staircase inside the Winter Palace; the chapel at Catherine’s Summer Palace, Pushkin.

OUR FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS SEVERAL THACHER JUNIORS are expanding their horizons and solidifying their language skills as participants in School Year Abroad (SYA). Gracie Farese describes SYA Italy: “Imagine inserting yourself into the home of an Italian family, attending school in an apartment with 17th-century frescos on its walls, the sometimes panicked and yet liberating feeling that goes along with traveling independently, and the irrational elation of realizing you’re actually learning a new language.” Jacob Nelson recalls that his host mother called him “raro” back in September because he was uncomfortable speaking Spanish Nan and friend at and hid in his room. Now, more confident in his language skills, he the Peace Village. teases his “host sister for having four special guy friends that she invites over on rotating weekends and holidays” and talks with his host father about the injustices of Spanish politics. During the fall, Nan Macmillan was with SYA in Vietnam and worked at an Agent Orange Peace Village. This safe house serves children and young adults with various disabilities (physical, mental, or both) caused by Agent Orange herbicides sprayed during the Vietnam War. She wrote of this experience: “Peace is not found in the frowns. It is not found in the rusty railings, in the chipped paint, in the broken window panes.... Peace does not come from the hot tears or the shoves or the whines. It is found in the afternoon sun on the yellow walls, in the red-and-blue play structure, in the crayons meeting the white paper, making a shape that only that child knows the meaning of. It lies in the hugs, the kisses, the high fives, and the piggyback rides. Peace is found in the smiles.”

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THE PERGOLA…

FALL SPORTS

BOYS’ CROSS COUNTRY Condor League Champions; 9th place, CIF Southern Section, Division V Captains: Andrew Atwong ‘12, Ian Bearden ‘12 Highlights: Despite losing three of the top four runners from last season, the quality of the team did not waver.

These runners rattled off a string of regular season successes: 4th place at the Brentwood Invitiational, where sophomore Simon Novich won the race, two Condor League victories, a 10th place in the Division V heat at Mt. SAC, and ultimately a 5th straight Condor League championship. In the Southern Section Finals, the team ran 1:19 faster than last year’s team, finishing 9th in the Southern Section.

GIRLS’ CROSS COUNTRY Condor League Champions; 4th Place, California State Championships, Division V Captains: Melanie Reimer ‘13, Jasmynn Roman ‘13 Highlights: Early season success pointed to the strength of this team, with a 2nd place finish at Brentwood Invitiational; co-captain Reimer won the race, while teammate Julianna Childs ‘13 finished 2nd. Next, the squad reeled off three Condor League victories and finished 4th overall for Division V at Mt SAC, capturing their second straight Condor League title in the process. At the Southern Section Prelims, the girls finished 2nd overall and then notched a 2nd place finish in the Southern Section Championships.

FInally, at the finals, the team finished 4th overall in Division V. Perhaps the most impressive in all this? All top seven runners will return for next season.

DANCE Seniors: Tabitha Sullivan-Wallace, Eva Batalla-Mann, Cassie Disner, Jade Lopes, Bea Taylor Highlights: Fifteen upperclassmen and six freshmen participated in fall dance, taking classes in ballet, modern, and occasionally jazz.

JV FOOTBALL Record: 0-2-1 Highlights: This young team was led by a group of sophomore boys who love playing football. The team gained much experience over the course of the season, and overcame a 6-22 halftime deficit to tie Dunn 22-22 in the final minute on the road.

ROCK CLIMBING Seniors: Jesse Gates, Katie Yu Highlights: This group began the term bouldering out at the Gymkhana Field and learning the critical knots, along with belay technique on the lawn in front of Camp Supply.

Soon they were exploring some fantastic spots on campus: Y-Crack, Banjo Cave, Batman’s Boulder, Brooke’s Boulder, Double Overhang, and the perennial test piece, the Jameson Plaque Route. While many of this year’s climbers spent hours working on this problem, Alex Duncan ‘13 and Jack Weil ‘13 completed it. In fact, Jack succeeded on Jameson Boulder for the first time on Fall Family Weekend in front of a dozen or so parents. On Wednesday afternoons, the group ventured to the nearby crags of Foothill Crag, Sespe Wall, and Potrero John Slab. While the objective on these journeys was to put skills to the test on certain climbs, just as often climbers found themselves enjoying the simplicity and beauty of their surroundings.

VARSITY FOOTBALL Record: 5-5 (3-0 league) Captain: Marshall Gifford ‘12 Highlights: After beginning the season with several challenging teams, the squad rallied and won several late season games, including a 42-28 victory over Cate on Family Weekend to solidify the Condor League and a 1st round playoff win against Rolling Hills Prep. Commented Coach Jeff Hooper, “The team improved immensely, as much as any I can remember. We enjoyed great senior leadership from all six seniors.”   

GIRLS’ VARSITY TENNIS Record: 10-3 (4-0 league) Captains: Lauren Butler ‘12, Katherine Krey ‘12 Highlights: This season’s team beat Cate for the first time in over 20 years and also had quality wins over Laguna Blanca twice, finishing undefeated in the Condor League. The girls qualified for CIF as league champions and played their first

round at home, beating Big Bear by a convincing margin of 16-2 before falling to Cerritos in 3rd round play.

GIRLS’ JV TENNIS Record: 4-4 Captains: Christina Eilar ‘12, Lucy Han ‘12, Paule Voevodsky ‘12 Highlights: The girls lived by the motto “JV tennis isn’t a sport; it’s a lifestyle.” And with that, 17 sophomores, juniors and seniors made their way to the lower courts each day with their rackets and smiles. The team enjoyed great success, beating Cate twice and showing some outstanding individual progress over the season.

VARSITY VOLLEYBALL Record: 12-6 (5-3 league) Captains: Sarah Hancock ‘12, Emma Patterson ‘12, Paige Bowie ‘12 Highlights: Led by a group of veteran seniors, this team played steadily all season, but the highlight had to be the victory over Cate in the final game at home. This buoyed the team into the first round of the CIF playoffs, where they bowed to Colony High School.

JV VOLLEYBALL Record: 12-4 (11-1 league) Captains: Alice Hyde ‘12, Susannah Renfrew ‘14 Highlights: This was an impressive year for the JV squad, as it posted best ever league and overall win-loss records.

This success included a comeback victory over rival Cate in their gym, recovering from an 8-13 deficit to win 15-13 in the deciding 3rd set, and another come-from-behind, 3-set victory over perennial Condor League powerhouse Laguna Blanca. The team beat them for the first time in at least a decade at their gym on their Parents’ Weekend.

WINTER SPORTS

BOYS’ VARSITY BASKETBALL Record: 13-7 (10-0 league) Captain: Lucas Currie ‘12 Highlights: The gym-shaking first ever victory over Besant Hill early in the season was a portent of things to come for this team, which finished the season unbeaten in league play (first time since 2007) and captured the Condor League title for the first time since 2008. After securing a spot in the CIF playoffs, the team bowed to a competitive Yeshiva Academy in the first round.

GIRLS’ VARSITY BASKETBALL Record: 12-8 (5-0 league) Captains: Lauren Butler ‘12 Highlights: Defense was the theme for this group, which never gave up more than 50 points in a game over the course of the season (for the first time since 2001). The squad rattled off six wins to finish the regular season and earned another Condor League championship. The girls carried that momentum into the playoffs, where they earned a first round CIF victory on the road over Temecula Prep before losing in the second round to Village Christian.

court for a game, it was go time; the most memorable victory of the season came in a come-from-behind win over Malibu High School.

BOYS’ FRESHMAN BASKETBALL BOYS’ JV BASKETBALL Record: 4-6 (4-2, league) Captains: Jackson Howard ’12, Calum McGuckin ‘13 Highlights: Improvement was the name of the game for this group, which began the season posting 18 points in game one, and then 8 the second; from there it was 30 points a game and more until the last whistle blew. An overtime win over Cate at home was most memorable.

GIRLS’ JV BASKETBALL Record: 3-6 (1-3 league) Captains: Bridget Park ’12, Ana Urgiles ’13 Highlights: “Shades Friday” and practices in costume defined the JV team this year, but when these girls hit the

Record: 4-5 Highlights: This season featured many back-and-forth games, including heartbreaking losses to Hueneme and Thacher JV. The boys beat Buena High School on the road and played a thriller against a competitive Villanova squad that included two varsity-level players.

BOYS’ VARSITY SOCCER Record: 12-4-1 (6-2, league) Captains: Patrick Coughran ’12, Fidel Lopez ‘12 Highlights: Over the course of the season this team was ranked anywhere from third to sixth in the Southern Section and finished 2nd in the Condor League behind Cate.

The team went deep into the playoffs, beating California School of Math and Science 1-0 in the first round and a very physical Serra High team in the 2nd round before falling to University Prep 1-0. All-CIF 1st team accolades went to co-captain Patrick Coughran ’12 and Bradley Callander ‘13; 2nd team honors to JJ Ntshaykolo ’13; and 3rd team honors to Willie Halsted ’13. Finally, Coach Fred Coleman is stepping down as the head coach after 35 seasons of coaching Thacher soccer; in his final appearance in front of the School with the season wrap up, he gave his first-ever Coach’s Award to a senior “whose selfless dedication to the team over thoughts of personal gain and generous attitude and devotion was his greatest contribution to the team. He is the consummate team player.” The honoree: Ian Bearden ‘12.

GIRLS’ VARSITY SOCCER Record: 1-10-1 (0-5-1 league) Captains: Sarah Cresto ’12, Sarah Hancock ‘12 Highlights: Despite some tough losses, this team notched an exciting come-from-behind tie against Dunn and remained competitive in every game.

BOYS’ JV SOCCER Record: 6-4-2 (3-4-2, league) Captains: Charlie Evans ’12, Tae-Jung Kim ‘11 Highlights: With some inexperienced players, this team grew by leaps and bounds over the course of the season.

This growth was punctuated by three victories at the end of the season, which included two shutouts. The best team performance came at home against Cate—without their starting goalkeeper, the team came together and defeated Cate 2-1, avenging an earlier season 0-1 loss.

GIRLS’ JV SOCCER Record: 3-4-2 (3-2-2, league) Captain: Cassie Disner ‘12 Highlights: Great moments of the season included two wins over Cate and some hard-fought battles against Midland, Oak Grove, and OVS. Throughout it all, the girls approached the sport with an eagerness to learn, an impressive amount of determination, and an unwavering positive spirit.

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THE PERGOLA… FROM THE ARCHIVES TWIN PEEKS

100... 50... 25.... YEARS AGO AT THACHER A Backward Glance Through the Pages of CdeP Publications

100 1911-1912: Though Thacher is located in the remote Ojai Valley, it attracts teachers who have gained degrees from worldwide universities; faculty members include Avard Langley Dodge, who got his AB at Acadia University in Canada; Morgan Barnes, who attended the University of Berlin in Germany; and Mrs. Walter St. Clair Lord, who earned her musical training in England.

75 1936-1937: Of the 67 boys attending Thacher, just three hail from outside of the United States, all CdeP 1937: George Bennett from Santa Marta, Colombia, and Douglas Hagar and Robert Strub, both from Vancouver, BC, Canada.

50 1961-1962: Hans Christer Lindgren spends a year at Thacher as part of the American Foreign Exchange Service; he is lauded for his soccer abilities and his language instruction (“has taught horse Tex Swedish”) in El Archivero.

Lindgren also writes an article in The Notes and comments, “I feel like a Thacher boy as much as anybody else and enjoy sitting in front of the section fires as much as anybody.” The School hosts two teachers as a part of an exchange: Mr. Jean Schlemmer, a French teacher, arrives from Montreux, Switzerland, for the year; Mr. Alastair MacKenzie, from St. Paul’s School, London, switches locales with Mr. Richard Burhoe.

25 1986-1987: Thacher joins the English Speaking Exchange Union, which “provides a year abroad at a school in England or the United States,” and the first student from England arrived at Casa de Piedra: Gareth John. The Notes reports that Thacher seniors Jen Crittendon, Ted Labbe, KT Parsons and James Smith are applying to ESU for the following year.

10 2001-2002: Juniors Viviana Hernandez, Arielle Flam, Shayla Cook, and Melissa Vickery spend a year in Spain; Julia Erdman spends a year in France; and Amy Vanderloop and Dawn Cleveland go to China as a part of the School Year Abroad Program.

Presiding over the Dining Hall from 1914 to 1960, Lee Quong (and many of his staff) brought elements of their Chinese culture to campus. These days, Ismael Martin, who hails from Guadalajara, Mexico, is the executive chef. He and others of the Bon Appétit staff, under the direction of Richard Maxwell, bring a south-of-the-border flavor to the kitchen, though on any given week their menus reflect influences from around the world.

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5 2006-2007: French teacher Katherine Halsey spends her sabbatical year as a volunteer for the nonprofit organization Mothers 2 Mothers in Cape Town, South Africa.

THACHER’S GLOBAL INDEX PERCENTAGE INCREASE IN INTERNATIONAL APPLICANTS DURING THE PAST DECADE

Members of Thacher’s class of 2014 who will study abroad next year

NINE NUMBER OF SENIORS WHO APPLIED THIS YE AR TO COLLEGES OUT SIDE OF THE U.S.

480,000

ESTIMATED FREQUENT FLYER MILES REDEEMED BY MR. SHAGAM TO SEND THE HISTORY DEPARTMENT TO RUSSIA

174 Number of Alumni with primary addresses outside the U.S.

169

(out of 3,635)

Countries visited by the Admission Office during the past year

Japan, Korea, China, Saudi Arabia

NUMERACY: TIME ZONES

1

WE ARE ACCUSTOMED TO TIME ZONES AROUND THE

world advancing by one full hour as we travel from zone to zone.

This, however, is not always the case. During recent travels, Alice and I missed a highly anticipated wine tour at a very prominent winery because, unbeknownst to us, the clocks had shifted exactly one-half hour. Where were we? Where else in the world are there time zones that don’t fit the hour-by-hour pattern?

2

YOU ARE IN THE US. YOU ARE STANDING IN A PHONE

booth in a town in a state that borders the Atlantic Ocean. You call your friend, who is also in the US, in a phone booth in a state that borders the Pacific Ocean. Simultaneously, you and your friend consult your watches (iPhones?) and find it is exactly the same time of day for you both. Explain! (There are no tricks here; this is a “real life” situation.)

Send your answer to Kurt Meyer via e-mail (kmeyer@thacher.org), or via U.S. Mail.

SOLUTION TO THE PUZZLE FROM THE FALL 2011 ISSUE

On the occasion of his 88th birthday, Marvin Shagam was inundated with international postcards (including one bearing his own likeness).

Dean “Kip” Witter CdeP 1964, who had the correct answer for the Spring 2011 puzzler, was back for the Fall 2011 issue to correctly deduce that the “Four Horsemen” share the center of the square arena as their destination and arrive having traveled a length-of-arc equal to the side of the arena. This exquisite result is, evidently, independent of the speed of the horses, as long as the four speeds are equal.

ARMCHAIR WANDERING…

Heimat

When home might be wherever your temperamental ’67 Citroën Ami 6 decides to stop.

By Seumas Sargent CdeP 1995

I

LEFT BOSTON UNDER THE AUSPICES OF A UNIVERSITY

exchange program—a last-resort decision after months of unsuccessful breakups in a relationship rife with jealousy and disaster.

My first application went to Rhodes University in Johannesburg because I thought the name held clout, some sort of fictional prestige for future résumés and because my neighbor across the hall had me hooked on deep roots polyrhythms, which I figured one could magically absorb simply by setting foot on the African continent. The school received a bomb threat and the trip was canceled.

Second choice: Parma, Italy. I sent in the paperwork. A last-minute panic set in and I confessed to the program director that a genetically inherited fear of landlocked towns and cured meats held me immobile and if there was anywhere else in the world that would consent to my scholarship I’d return to Alma Mater a man of vast erudition and infinite gratitude. One seat in the Netherlands was still available.

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I had never been to Europe. I didn’t even know where Amsterdam was. Between infancy and age 11, my father would drive us back and forth between California and New England to accommodate an overlapping love of East Coast family and Pacific salt water. I’d sleep under the camper shell of our ’54 Ford while he’d roll through the desert on one of our seven-day races to the other side. Born peripatetics. Troubadours en route to everywhere with Dylan on the dial. Now I was setting forth on my own trans-Atlantic trajectory, replete with youth and a hunger for the unknown.

A smattering of art history references, garnered from high school and university electives, was all I had to gain any esteem as an American tourist. I packed a suitcase and a frayed copy of Henderson the Rain King and got on the plane. I was leaving. Boston could have its sluggish Green Line, its collegiate binges and gung-ho Division One simulacra without me. I’d wave farewell from the other side of the ocean.

MOLESKINE ENTRY astounded by the architecture. sunken dollhouses. streets of red brick. the air smells of weed and water and apple pie. i mispronounce everything. i understand almost nothing. not just the language, but how i even got here. my roommate is Lithuanian and we look over a canal lined with houseboats, coots nesting in abandoned tire buoys. i need a bicycle. these days are golden. i am alive!

I’d been in Amsterdam for two months. The cliché raging bacchanal, teeming with narcotics and alluring women behind windows, was not my story. I spent most of my time at cafés scribbling volumes of unintelligible thought, shadowboxing Hemingway and his Spanish musings. One afternoon I ran naked through the streets with an Israeli Army deserter in a deluge that nearly sent the city even farther below sea level. We bought beignets at 3 am from the night-shift baker and considered this circadian irregularity enough to warrant some great European transformation.

Then it happened. An open door, a purple tulip, love’s full-on sucker punch. It was the last thing I wanted or was looking for; a phenomenon I believed nonexistent until the deer in the headlights was me, dumbstruck and waiting for the moment my next move is proven too late. Donning a bindi and bangles after a yearlong solo trip through India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, she was—and still is—the Danish goddess daughter of a longboardsurfing polyglot mechanic who restores old timer Citroëns on a plot of squatted land shared with the Hells Angels Amsterdam. In front of her stands a confused kid from an insular Boston suburb with a student loan job stuffing envelopes, drop-jawed, and now madly in love.

This was 14 years ago to the day of this writing. At the kitchen table in Berlin, I laugh at the not-so-quiet recollection of these moments as our little boy crashes his mock mop-handle fire truck into the side of my knee.

For the better part of a decade, we have been on the road opening shows with a theater production called Blue Man Group. What began in New York took us to Berlin, Toronto, back to Amsterdam (where our son, Rowen, was born), Stuttgart, Basel, Zürich, Stockholm, Vienna, and occasionally back to Boston. Somewhere along the line we spent a few unemployed months in Indonesia, learning Bahasa, playing gamelan, sleeping without diapers. We live in these cities while on the road. Our home becomes the people we work with, lit by an infectious energy each brings to the international ensemble. Now our lives are spent traversing an ever widening constellation of intercontinental family and friends. Mormor lives in Copenhagen, Oma and Opa live in Amsterdam, and the finest of kin throughout the Boston sprawl. The absurd costs of travel are offset by our embrace, knowing it is for this moment we have saved.

Rowen leans towards me in the darkness of a Berlin cinema. He is now 4. It’s his second day at kita and a hundred or so kids have all walked here together. Mama speaks Dutch, Papa speaks English, his teacher and the school children speak German. He whispers, “Papa? Why are all the kids in the film speaking German?” I look at him. “What do you mean, Rowen?” His inquisitive eyes flash back to the screen. “Papa, they’re in Sweden!” Then I catch it, too. A double-tailed blue banner with yellow cross, tethered above a cottage visible in the grain and dust of an old film

reel. A year and a half has gone by since we left Stockholm. We were there for only two months, but he remembers the famous Vasa ship, the municipal playgrounds with hockey rinks and half pipes and open BBQ pits where kids can warm their lunches. He, too, has spent his young life on the road. In every new kitchen his mama reassembles the collage of photos taken from previous destinations, each shot a gratifying reminder that we have the gift of casting our own histories.

Heimat. Home. Today it is Berlin. This summer it’s Boston and a bit of New York. Then onward to wherever the road takes us. In the clutch of Wanderlust. Where will we be? Facebook. Skype. Gmail. Shut down. Fly to.

We are a family with international roots, thrust over the globe by a profession that hardly allows us to plant them anywhere for too long. In fact, we like it this way. There’s a thrill in the unknown that’s so often nerve-racking and stressful and all at once glorious. We are, as Ferlinghetti wrote, staring into the great gramophone of puzzling existence.

Left: Overlooking Virginia while touring the southern U.S.—4,000 miles in less than two weeks. Top: Vienna Christmas, 2010. Opera singing in our backyard. Above: Berlin by bike.

T O U R S , F R A N C E . 19 9 9 . our ’67 Citroen Ami 6 convulses violently. unable to drive like this. made it from Amsterdam but had a few close calls on the Péage. now we’re stuck standstill on a city square. Arina’s on pay phone, collect call home in tears. her father gives instructions. she relays them to me. older men encircle the vehicle. part admiration for the lemon, part mockery towards the American Francophile who gallivants in a French classic with Dutch plates but doesn’t speak a word beyond croissant. i smile quietly as they gesticulate, waiting for orders. she hangs up the phone. i remove our bags from the car, unhinge the back bench, loosen the floor plate and suck gasoline through a clogged rubber tube. something viscid dislodges.

Arina’s in the driver’s seat. the car has no key. push the button. pull the lever. Ami rumbles to a start. la côte Atlantique is seven hours south west.

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Bursting the Myth of the Bubble Despite Thacher’s strong sense of rootedness in the Ojai Valley, the Thacher community is anything but insular.

Photos by Karen Bellone

THACHER’S MISSION speaks of preparing students for life in a “diverse and changing world.”

Likewise, Strategic Plan 2017: The Road to the Future, which has been bound into this magazine, calls Thacher to produce graduates “who demonstrate awareness, sensitivity, global citizenship, and savvy across national and cultural boundaries.” But what can our students learn of the world in all its complex diversity and need, perched as we are on the edge of an idyllic valley in Southern California? We acknowledge this paradox every time we mention the “Thacher bubble.” Or do we rush to judgment? Today, as faculty and administrators—Strategic Plan in hand—explore new ways of preparing students for a changed and changing global landscape, we devote the following pages to the thoughts and observations of alumni who have journeyed from Thacher to the far corners of the Earth. In between, you’ll find a series of photographic portraits, a small sampling to illustrate some of the international richness of our campus community.    

Roundtable: Balancing Interests

and Rights In the Global Digital Economy RECENT INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES afford us innumerable examples of the evolving effects of the Internet on global commerce, policy, and culture. Mobile devices and social networking sites destabilize dictators. Internet users ask, “Who owns my data?” Legislators propose controversial bills to help govern cyberspace. And digital content creators—whether independent recording artists or major Hollywood studios—struggle to chart new territory as old models of distribution and monetization give way to new ones. In all of these examples, the Internet has become the focus of many often-competing interests and ideas. What are the forces at work here? Where is it going? What goods—both economic and social—are being pursued? To help frame and answer these questions, we assembled a panel of Thacher community members who confront these issues in their livelihoods. In the spirit of virtual connectedness, we decided to conduct the conversation via conference call. The conversation was launched with an example about the way copyrighted materials may be used in a Thacher classroom, and then ranged broadly from copyrights to human rights, and from Lady Gaga to Charles Dickens. The hour-long conversation was too much to print here in its entirety, so, in keeping with our analog-to-digital theme, we invite you to read the first portion of the discussion here and find the rest of it online (www.thacher.org/magazine/spring2012), where you can also listen to a recording of the call and find links to related resources.

Don [moderator]: Let’s start with a fairly concrete example. Pretend that I am a member of the Thacher community. Let’s say, for example, I’m a faculty member and I am teaching a class and I want to show an excerpt from a commercial film because it’s germane to the topic. In my enthusiasm, I wind up showing the entire film. This is a commercial film that turns out to be available on YouTube, but I have no rights to the content nor have I received permission to display the film. How I should operate within this context?

Drew: The typical content consumer doesn’t give a lot of thought to the economy going all the way down to the actual creator, the person who’s coming up with the idea, and all of the people who are responsible for bringing that original idea to market.

I think that there are obviously a lot of moral issues at play, and ethical issues. I think a lot of it has to do with education. In the music space we’ve been running these kinds of services now going headto-head with piracy for 12 years. It’s been a total losing battle so far, although I think we’re starting to turn the corner. A lot of it has been based on putting out a better service—a service that’s better for free, and by educating the consumer, which we’ve spent millions and millions of dollars on.

Don: Dave, I want to ask you the same question regarding this case study and I wanna ask you from two perspectives: your role as a lawyer and your role as a past Thacher parent.

Dave: Well, what your hypothetical provokes in me is a thought about the legal concept of fair use, which under the statute and under the laws of the United States and their analogs in the rest of the world, is basically a balancing test as to whether the copyright owner has been abused   

in this situation. Presumably, the copyright owner here being a motionpicture producer.

It sounds from the factual situation that you’ve presented that there’s probably no admission charge and that there’s an educational context to it. All of which is good in terms of permitting the fair use.

On the other hand, you’re not talking about using a few excerpts from the film. You’re talking about exhibiting the entire film, which then poses the question of are you displacing some sort of commercial activity. I think pre-Internet that was probably a commercial business in distributing films to educational institutions, which for some modest fee, got the right to exhibit them. So in your hypothetical, that fee— modest as it might—be is completely eliminated. I think modern commerce on the Internet presents lots of sometimes difficult decisions to decide under that fair-use standard.

And it rings particular bells with me because I would point out that the dollars I used to pay their Thacher tuition all came from, if you will, an industry dependent on the sale of copyrighted materials. In my case, the music business, not film. So there’s a whole, longstanding economy in copyright, books, music, and film that gets completely undercut by a free habit.

Arthur: I was of the generation who started out using Napster and then saw all the others—Kazaa and BitTorrent and all that. I saw the evolution of that and the cultural evolution of that as well. I think it would be a little amiss to suggest that we, as in the young folks, got our cultural cues about piracy through adult role models. It’s actually more about what we see on the Internet, what we see in popular culture in our peers.

Don: Yeah, so my peers are doing it, I hear about it,I read about it. There are websites devoted to doing it better.

Arthur: Absolutely. So I think yes, it’s sad, but it’s not actually consequential to the extent that perhaps you’re suggesting it is.

Dave: The extraordinary thing about it, of course, is how instantaneous it all is. For example, I went to college when the Beatles were coming out. OK, you walk to a store and buy an LP. You wait for the day that it’s official and all that stuff.

Now there’s no need to wait for anything. It’s impulse buying or impulse viewing or whatever 24/7, which by itself is, I suppose, quite positive. Instant knowledge of sports scores, instant knowledge of this and that, but there are across the Internet all sorts of business models that become road kill in that world...new business models succeed old business models.

Jong: I think you’re making a really great point. I was a board member of MTV Japan. That was kind of a weird experience because even while Napster was going really, really strong several years ago, people were still lining up and buying music on CDs in Japan. Piracy really wasn’t as big a deal. ...So, I think it is cultural, but on a more practical business perspective, I’m a little torn. There are lessons that I’ve been learning from the businesses that we’re involved in—for example, online video games—that teach me some different lessons. One is that value manages to find a way to get compensated.

So in the case of video games in China, one of the most popular online video games 10 years ago, Counter Strike, was a retail packaged game that was published by an American company and it was, unfortunately for that company, the victim of rampant counterfeiting.

Nexon, a company that we have a small stake in, actually partnered with that same company and launched an online free-to-play massive multi-player version called Counter Strike Online that has tens of millions of players playing in China and tens of millions more playing throughout Asia on a very profitable basis for everybody involved because the technology adapted. It’s very hard to counterfeit that because the servers are now managed by the creator, if you will.

In the same sense, in the case of a school setting, my company is really big on open-source software. That model turns the full question on its head, saying the actual code itself isn’t truly where the value is and that there are other benefits to the community, if you will.

Sometimes I almost think, sitting here in Hong Kong, that there’s too much of an emphasis or concern about copyright above other things and other intellectual property and other rights, that sometimes maybe the balance has shifted too much towards worrying about the copyright in the United States or in American school campuses.

Dave: Did the original company behind Counter Strike participate economically in the online roll out?

Jong: Absolutely. That’s one of the really important takeaways for me in terms of the lessons. Nexon is a big company that has a lot of money

Roundtable Participants DON OSBORNE CdeP 1976, discussion moderator, is a graduate school admissions coach specializing in medical, dental, law, MBA, and other graduate programs. He has worked with many Thacher graduates.

His company’s website is www.inquarta.com.

DREW DENBO CdeP 1991, senior vice president of business development for the music sharing platform MOG, has been hooked on recorded and live music ever since his first concert with The Church and Peter Murphy at the Orpheum in San Francisco. Drew came to MOG via Rhapsody, where he worked on music licensing and distribution.

ARTHUR KANEKO CdeP 2005 is an associate at DCM, a global technology venture capital fund based in Silicon Valley, Tokyo, and Beijing. Prior to joining DCM, Arthur was product manager at Togetherville Inc., a social networking service for kids and their families. Arthur also has experience at NYK Logistics, a liner and logistics company, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think-tank based in Washington D.C. JONG LEE CdeP 1986 has spent over 15 years working in principal investment, executive management, investment banking, and corporate law in the United States, Japan, South Korea, and greater China in technology, media, traditional industries, and real estate. As managing director of RGL Holdings, he leads his firm’s private equity and venture group and co-manages its real-estate portfolio.

DAVE JOHNSON, father of Will CdeP 2003 and Tom CdeP 2007, has spent his entire career working in the recorded music and music publishing businesses as a lawyer and executive. He has been the general counsel of Sony Music and Warner Music and the chairman and CEO of Warner Chappell Music Publishing. He is currently CEO-designate of EMI Music Publishing.

EBELE OKOBI is director of Yahoo!’s Business & Human Rights Program, where she leads Yahoo!’s efforts to identify innovative technological solutions to human-rights challenges. Before joining Yahoo!, Ebele worked as a corporate securities and mergers and acquisitions attorney. She is married to Rich Harris III, admission officer at Thacher.

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WORLDLY WISE: FACES OF THACHER Facing page, clockwise from top left: Raised in Monterrey, Mexico, Spanish teacher Cecilia Ortiz de Howard uses her international perspective to teach cultural awareness in and out of the classroom. “If we understand our neighbors,” she says, “we will understand ourselves better.” Theo Richardson-Omamo ‘13 now calls home Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, but thanks to parents who work with international aid organizations, he’s also lived in Holland, Italy, and Uganda, among other places. Thacher’s Executive Chef Ismael Martin may hail from Guadalajara, Mexico, but his menus draw on culinary traditions from around the world. When he’s not in Ojai, Michael Xu ‘12 is usually in Beijing, China, where his parents are from.

Dave: It’s almost as though the recorded content becomes an advertisement for an opportunity to have a live experience with the content creator and that really develops the tribe and a much greater intimacy between the fan and the artist.

Jong: Absolutely. I think Napster and downloading and the BitTorrent revolution have unfortunately impacted the middleman, but in terms of the creator, the big creators are making more money than ever by adapting to that digital reality by being more analog, going to the live concerts, licensing their names, and being in the movies or taking advantage of their fame in a different way.

Dave: I can’t resist an ancient historical example. Charles Dickens sometime in the 19th Century, comes to America as an amazingly popular novelist and realizes that he’s got enormous fans and makes some money with public readings, but he realizes every American purchaser has purchased a pirated copy of his book.

He wrote a book about that trip and, basically, he was completely furious that he wasn’t making any book royalties in America. Although admittedly, like Lady Gaga, he was making some money in the then third world for public performance.

Don: Ebele, what has come up for you in this?

Ebele: So my focus is very much on the part that was just mentioned, which is about when sometimes there’s human rights that can be tram  

pled on when we focus on copyright. That’s not to say that copyrights are not valid or that copyrights are not an issue, but since I spend a lot of my time looking at countries outside of the U.S., often copyright is used to suppress different forms of speech.

For example, there’s a site called Chilling Effects that collects basically copyright requests from governments around the world that could have an impact on free expression. What you’ll see is that there are a number of governments or people around the world who invoke copyrights as a mechanism for either suppressing speech that they don’t agree with or as a mechanism for making sure that issues that they are uncomfortable with as either ruling parties or particularly in authoritarian or oppressive regimes, they use that as a way to stifle that kind of speech or expression.

So this may be less of an issue in the U.S. There are all sorts of outlets for different types of disputes, but I think in countries where there are fewer outlets and particularly in countries where a lot of the mainstream media outlets are controlled by the state.

We see the Internet evolving as a platform for different kinds of expression. Since the Internet can’t be as controlled as mainstream forms of media are, copyright becomes the tool by which those regimes attempt to suppress speech.

Jong: I think in the context of human rights and oppression by people with power, if you will, one of the takeaways I thought was amazing in terms of what’s going on in the Jasmine revolution, which apparently is still ongoing, as well as the unrest in China, is how much it’s driven by real-time communications using forms of media that are just much harder to regulate and to suppress using things like copyright because it’s just too slow.

Like SMS. These little snippets where you throw things out and as soon as someone gets it, they forward it to a bunch of other people and it’s gone viral, but with human beings as routers as opposed to Cisco.

Before the dictator or the party can activate the troops or shut down anything short of the entire cell phone network, which is what was happening in a lot of the Mideastern countries, the word is out.

Ebele: I think a number of platforms are being used in unexpected ways.

Yahoo! has a product called Flickr that was created as a way for people to share images. Typically, images are pictures that you’ve taken yourself.

When Flickr was conceived, it was sort of a fan site for photographers. You would imagine people would be sharing pictures of—I don’t know—mountain streams or scenes or geography or really touching, compelling photography.

Did the creators of Flickr know that it was going to be used in Iran during the green revolution because the traditional forms of media or news had been kicked out and shut down and so people were using Flickr to get news out about what was going on? I don’t think that that was necessarily an anticipated use.

To read the rest of the conversation, go to www.thacher.org/magazine/spring2012

PORTRAITS BY KAREN BELLONE

and has a vested interest in not being sued in a juridical system like America’s, and they’re going to do the job right and they’re going to respect the law because they have money and they have money to lose.

The American company, I believe it was Valve, is a big, successful company; they’re big enough to sue somebody else, to sue Nexon. They both have money, so they entered into a deal. They did a revenue share, minimum guarantee, et cetera, et cetera and I think they’re both very happy with the outcome.

That’s a great example where money is involved. But if you have a bit of the rent-seeking economics 101 potential and if you’re in—I don’t know— Cambodia and everyone’s copying Lady Gaga songs, they wouldn’t have any money to sue for a recovery. But if Lady Gaga were to play in Phnom Penh and the price is right, everyone would know Lady Gaga and she would make, relatively speaking, a ton of money at a concert.

You see that here. A Lady Gaga concert, she’s had to put on how many extra shows because everyone has to go see Lady Gaga. I’m willing to bet that a fair number of those fans are gonna show up and go crazy because their friend sent them a BitTorrent. Somehow, they got their hands on something. So for her, just like Microsoft and Microsoft Office in China, it was a controlled piracy or they found ways to monetize it and they’re doing OK.

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Living in Afghanistan

By Erin Blankenship CdeP 2000

I

T’S “DUSTINGOFF” SEASON again in Kabul, which is funny, really. Most of the year here could be called “dusting-off” season. Fruit carts, street-side bookstands, secondhand clothing, and smuggled knick-knacks laid out on scarves for passers-by—everything swatted with rags sending up never-ending clouds of dirt. But for me this time of year marks the transition from days so cold that street kids warm their hands in car exhausts, to days when amputees and widows become road hazards in their rush to “dust off” cars using rags at least as dirty as they are.

It also means that spring fighting season is here, with the frequency and intensity of attacks surging around the country as the mountain passes start to open up. Everyone expects the attacks to get worse the closer we move towards 2014, but it’s hard to know anything for sure in Afghanistan. Kabul, with its targetrich environment, and consistency of attacks presents a distorted version of country-wide security dynamics. But for those of us monitoring the violence trends on the ground, things

don’t look great. Beyond the current context of the tragic executions in the south, lately I have been concerned about the numbers of “creative” IEDs found stored around the country, a trend from the Iraq War adapted to the Afghan context. Insurgent use of IEDs already counts for more than 80 percent of civilian casualties; you have to wonder how much more people here can possibly take and still find a way to shape a peaceful outcome.

The best part of dusting-off season? Kandahari pomegranates. I challenge anyone to find better anywhere in the world. Several hundred years of their praise can be found in ancient empires’ records and explorers’ journals.

There are a lot of ways to “be” in Afghanistan, especially at the tail end of a complicated decade of war—well, three decades really.

Eighteen months ago I left my wandering up the African continent for Afghanistan to work for an Afghan NGO. Initially, I worked for a project demobilizing and reintegrating armed fighters, but since then the work has become more varied. The organization itself specializes

in conflict resolution and peacebuilding, doing both training and research. Training-wise we generally work at the community and subnational levels in conflict resolution, mediation, good governance, and informal-formal justice; while on the research side we mostly focus on peacebuilding, security, and conflict analysis with an emphasis on localized conflict. I spend most of my time working on strategic-security issues and insurgent dynamics.

Living here can be hard on your body and sanity...the pollution is literally choking; the restricted physical movement and constant reminders of women’s presumed inferiority are insistently frustrating; and I guess the ever-present threat of attacks and kidnappings can leave its mark. Even subconsciously I am always listening for something to go off. But when you want to be here, you find a way. I play soccer with the Special Forces and politicalmilitary affairs teams of a dozen countries (as the only competitive female player around I get into a lot of games). Soon I expect to start helping out the Afghan women’s under-18

Lessons of a Nomad

I

By Christopher J. Carpenter CdeP 1958

SUPPOSE I WAS DESTINED for this nomadic existence ever since I was born in San Francisco some 72 years ago. After growing up in China and France, my years at Thacher were perhaps the only time of my life when my California roots, were able to take a tenuous hold. These are still the strongest roots I have and they have served me well.

Following Thacher, I spent four years at Amherst College (BA political science), two years at UC Berkeley (MA political science–Asian studies), and then three years on the aircraft carrier Coral Sea. There was never any doubt in my mind that my life would have a strong international component to it. But exactly what that component would be was still not clear even 10 years after graduating from Thacher.

That is, until one day when I applied for a short-term appointment with the United Nations refugee program (UNHCR). This was at a time when one of the great migration flows in recent memory was taking place—an influx in 1970 of some 11 million Bengali refugees into India caused by the breakup of East and West Pakistan. This experience introduced me to the life of a UN civil servant, which I led until the day I retired in 2000.

During my 30-year career with the United Nations, a succession of three- to five-year assignments took me to Zaire, with one of the more corrupt governments I ever worked with; to Malaysia, to coordinate international assistance to the tens of thousands of Vietnamese refugees flee  

ing their homeland by boat in 1975; to China, to assist in the settlement of some 170,000 Sino-Vietnamese refugees who were expelled from North Vietnam in the early 1980s (and where later I was to witness the horrific events on Tiananmen Square); to Japan, reluctant host to several thousand Vietnamese refugees picked up by Japanese ships in the South China Sea; to Vietnam, where, with the tide of public opinion turning against them, 120,000 Vietnamese boat people; to Russia, scene of one of the ugliest and most needless conflicts in recent years, the war in Chechnya, which displaced some 180,000 refugees; and, finally, to Geneva, headquar-

national team (for now, sports for women are only allowed at the national level). This winter delivered the most snow in 15 years, so I went skiing in the Hazarajat, skins on the skis to trek up the slopes before sliding back down.

Luckily, the snow was deep enough that we did not have to worry about landmines; and at -26º farenheit snipers were also unlikely.

It’s hard to explain this place in a way that fits the desire for a simple narrative. But imagine the Middle Ages in terms of infrastructure, concepts of territory and power, and isolation from the rest of the world (coupled with a less than 30 percent literacy rate). Layer that thick with long-remembered tribal and cultural histories and antagonisms; pockets of markedly sophisticated understanding and manipulation of leverage and resources; flashy cars, mobile phones, modern weaponry, and vibrant trans-

national criminal networks. Toss in some incredibly smart and committed people fighting to promote sustainable peace for a war-weary populace and to keep the country from consuming itself. All of this is stuck in the larger context of one of the oldest geostrategic battlefields in history, sold as a war of extreme religious and cultural ideology, which is further distorted by the convergence of powerful warlords, unscrupulous political expediency, and an insurgency with more than a few legitimate grievances. For me, it is equal parts challenging, depressing, infuriating, and intriguing.

Conflict zones are my niche, intellectually and because I’m an absolute adrenaline junkie.

I love it. I can’t imagine doing anything else where I would have the chance to experience the nexus of conflict-security-terrorism and broader strategic stability like this. In Af-

ters of the UN’s refugee program, where I retired and bought a home.

After 30 years of working with the United Nations, this much-maligned organization that often seems to be sinking under the weight of its bureaucracy, I am more convinced than ever that there is a vital role in the world today for multilateralism. Many of the world’s problems, including refugee and migration problems, cannot be solved by one country alone— or even a group of countries. The United Nations clearly has its failings.

And if member states do not agree on much-needed reforms, the UN will not play the vital role that today’s globalized world calls for nor will it fulfill the expectations that gave rise to its creation in 1945.

I can think of no better career. Working in a multicultural environment in different parts of the world, on humanitarian issues that touch the lives of people, is as profound an education as anything I can imagine.

Following my retirement, I discovered I had no desire to spend the rest of my life gazing at alpine meadows. Perhaps this is a normal outcome of a peripatetic life—one has a vague desire to settle down but there is no place you can call your own. Home is everywhere but nowhere. Even California, where 50 years ago I thought I had established those tenuous roots, no longer feels like home. And so I decided to keep moving. I set up a non-profit organization that finances small-scale infrastructure projects for ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands of Vietnam and the con-

ghanistan I get to work on the ground with all primary actors without being controlled by any of them. The mountains are harsh but beautiful; the people are as generous and proud as they are ruthless when crossed. It is a demanding context of nuanced intricacies—scarred, broken, and embattled in almost every sense of those words. But there is nowhere else like it. And what we learn here, and don’t, will impact every other future intervention for peace and security. When asked why I choose this life, I answer that I’m trying to figure out how to support peaceful stability in environments where conflict and violence are the reality, and to minimalize the casualties: to humans, to principles, and otherwise. If I had to guess, war zones are where I will be found for a long time to come (except for FIFA World Cup years).

Now, about those pomegranates.

struction of schools in remote rural areas of North Korea. Twice a year I go to these two countries, working with local authorities and the local populations to design projects (irrigation, bridges, schools, drinking water) that can be of immediate benefit to the entire community.

It is not easy to find the necessary funding, but the project benefits are concrete and visible. For me, the satisfaction is immense. To be able to work, for instance, in North Korea and demonstrate that not all foreigners—and in particular, not all Americans—are evil is particularly gratifying. I hope to continue doing this as long as possible. (See http://www. microprojects-vietnam.org.)

Between visits to Vietnam and North Korea, I spend my time in Geneva and in Japan with my girlfriend who teaches ballet and contemporary dance in Tokyo. Though our work is totally different, and her command of English basic, our interests are very similar and we enjoy each other’s company a great deal.

What did Thacher teach me? More than anything else, Thacher taught me to have an open mind. To be curious. To ask questions. To discard stereotypes. To be open to new ideas. To listen. To respect the views of others.

These qualities have stood me in good stead as I have traveled the world, starting with that dusty road leading from the Ojai Valley.

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WORLDLY WISE: FACES OF THACHER Facing page, clockwise from top left: English teacher Sil Sohn brings to Thacher a lifelong familiarity with international community: She was born in South Korea, lived in Bangladesh, and attended Woodstock School, an international boarding school in the foothills of the Himalayas. Although she calls Massachusetts home, Nan MacMillan ‘13 lived in Vietnam with School Year Abroad for half of her junior year. Eric Shi, who teaches Mandarin Chinese at Thacher, is from northeast China and spent six years in Iowa en route to Ojai. Although she looks forward to settling down in one place (she can’t say which at this point), Jin Ah Jung ‘13 is at home in the world, having lived in Ivory Coast, Senegal, and, currently, Durban, South Africa. Below: (L to R) Henrique Guerra, John Lewis, and Marvin Shagam.

From Casa de Piedra to Rio de Janeiro

I

N SEPTEMBER 1986, Henrique Cordeiro Guerra first arrived at Thacher from Rio de Janeiro, to start as a sophomore member of the Class of 1989. A young man from a distant land, for whom English was a second language, and with no family nearby, he began to craft the underpinnings on which his future life’s success would be built. Looking back those 25-plus years, Henrique attributes most of what he has achieved in life to the formation of his educational curiosity and his Thacher associations, particularly with and through Marvin Shagam.

After graduating from Thacher and then Georgetown University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in business administration, with a double major in finance and international business, and a minor in economics, Henrique began his business career at Credit Suisse in New York City, where he was immersed in investment banking in emerging markets. He returned to Brazil in 1999 to begin the business career in which he has become an increasingly important and recognized player in a country deemed to be among the four leading future economic world powers—along with Russia, India, and China.

In 2003, Henrique helped start Aliansce, a shopping mall company, together with General Growth Properties, Inc. (one of the principal REITs from the U.S.) and a close friend and well-established local developer.

Aliansce is currently operating 24 malls while building four more throughout Brazil.

My wife, Jane, and I had the pleasure of visiting the flagship mall in Rio while we were staying with Henrique for a week last Thanksgiving. Never have we seen such an upscale, lively, fully rented, sparkling clean mall. He takes great pride in the fact that he is able to bring about change and improvement to the quality of life of those communities surrounding these new malls.

While we were with Henrique for the whole Thanksgiving week, so, too, was Marvin Shagam. We were comfortably housed in Henrique’s rooftop condominium, and Marvin was a floor below in Henrique’s mother’s residence. What a Thacher week we had! For me, spending a week with Marvin over 50 years after I first met him (when he arrived at Thacher at the start of my senior year) was an incredible experience, in which Jane shared equally. We will never forget it, nor question his impact on so many Thacher students over all these intervening years. One of those was Henrique!

Henrique states that “many friends and teachers were important in   

shaping my experience; however, the knowledge, wisdom, and guidance I received from Marvin, who remains a close friend, and who was my advisor, dorm head, and teacher, have been a source of strength for me over all these years. Every year I try to get together with him, either in California or Brazil, but regardless of the place, the moments I cherish most are those when we can have a nice quiet time to talk.”

And, because of his deep and strong feelings toward Thacher, Henrique has hosted many of Thacher’s teachers, current and past, for a four- or five-day visit. Marvin supplies the air miles (because of his frequent travels to Brazil and Thailand, he has an ample supply) and Henrique hosts.

His guests are put up in hotels; their touring is organized and underwritten by their host; a reception to present them to his friends in Rio is held each time, and, in general, a terrific time is had by all. As Henrique says, “Despite the geographic distance between Ojai and Rio, Thacher still has great influence in my daily life. The opportunity of hosting faculty members during the past few years has allowed me to remain in closer touch with the School. It is an opportunity to give a local’s perspective on various aspects of life in a foreign country.” These ties to Thacher will only strengthen this year as Henrique begins his first term as a new School trustee.

As Jane and I reflect back on our week with Henrique and Marvin, it is so clear what the Thacher experience can and does mean for most alumni. It was enlightening to Jane to see why I have such a lifelong depth of attachment to the School—it is embodied in what Marvin gives and what Henrique has gained. We spent a lot of time touring the city, learning about its historic problems with crime, which are now being addressed head-on, as the city works to clean up in anticipation of the World Cup in 2014 and the Summer Olympics in 2016. Henrique is known everywhere we went—in restaurants, his club, hotels—and obviously highly respected.

When one looks to Brazil’s future, one can’t help but wonder if we were, for that week, in the presence of a future leader of the country? Henrique didn’t say “no” when we asked him about his desire for public service, nor did he say “yes.” In any case, wherever he goes in life, and whatever he ends up doing, he will always harken back to his days at Thacher where, in the presence of great teachers and friends, he got the ethical and moral underpinnings that serve as his compass in life today.

PORTRAITS BY KAREN BELLONE

By John Lewis CdeP 1959

Lebanese Summer

By Claire Ferguson CdeP 2008

“Y

OU KNOW, THIS IS LIKE OUR BERLIN WALL.” My boss rushed out of our office and swept past the interns’ desks, tossing the comment over her shoulder, directed at no one. She was a woman in her mid-40s with a severe blonde bob and a penchant for dramatic statements. But for whatever reason, this one snagged—a sentence caught like a bur in my skirt hem. It followed me around the rest of the day and poked at me.

It was January 2011, and I had just begun work at the Middle East Institute, a small, specialized think tank in Washington, D.C., close to Georgetown, where I was a sophomore. This was not my first foray into the world of unpaid college internships. But given the fact that, while reputable, the institute was still a not-for-profit with too few full-time staff, I expected to be more in the thick of things than setting out and then storing away chairs for conferences.

And I expected to be in the thick of work I found interesting, work I thought I had prepared for after two years of intensive Arabic, a summer spent in Egypt, and various college classes on the Middle East.

That month, the “Jasmine Revolution” blossomed red into the “Arab Spring.” We all sat stunned as popular protests burst through the seemingly unyielding chokehold on democratic dissent in Arab country after Arab country.

There were periods during which “normal” work at the think tank disappeared. There were huddled sessions around Al Jazeera news reports and speeches from heads of state. Interns and full employees alike wrenched ourselves away to quickly put on an event and then rush back upstairs. We ate lunch in front of screens, monitoring Twitter, Facebook, live BBC feeds, and the best of the (copious) blogs on the Middle East, security, democracy, and human rights.

It was a thrilling moment in D.C.; everyone working in relevant fields seemed to be coasting on a high of adrenaline, excitement, fear. It was hard to tell what exactly the heady cocktail consisted of. Many made grand and optimistic predictions for the future; more warned about the potential for economic and diplomatic catastrophe. Everyone stressed that we were living, in real time, one of those moments upon which history hinges, that spectacular and irreversible shifts were occurring under our feet.

I remained a respectfully silent witness, certainly swept up in the drama, but aware that my inexperience demanded awe and attention and not much comment. Yet I always felt I was missing context. The events felt significant, but I had no way to judge how significant.

To read the rest of the story, go to www.thacher.org/magazine/spring2012

A View of Pyonyang from New York

By Soo Hyun “Sam” Rhee CdeP 2009

I

N LATE DECEMBER LAST YEAR, North Korea announced the death of its enigmatic leader Kim Jong-il. The news immediately reached my college campus in New York City, which was otherwise in the mood of quiet desperation that usually accompanies exam week. The “death of a dictator” can be (and in some circles, has been) construed as something of a positive chapter for North Korea, a nation plagued by autocratic rule and poverty; perhaps the fall of a powerful dictator would cripple North Korea’s administration and usher in an era of reform.

Dampening such optimism was the historical fact of the North Korean regime’s remarkable resilience, which had warded off pressures both internal and external.

Whatever the projections, the overwhelming mood was one of uncertainty and unease. In addressing the power vacuum created by the death of Kim Jong-il, several commentators have, much to the terror of South Korean citizens, pointed to the history of power transitions marked by the successor’s need to assert authority and “flex” his muscles. Such behavior would further aggravate the already strained stability maintained by Seoul and Pyong  

yang. That Kim Jong-un, long known as Kim Jong-il’s favored son, was declared North Korea’s new leader seemed to only raise more questions about the nature and direction of his leadership. The immediate fall in Asian stock markets following these developments seemed to tell me: “Everybody is worried and you should be, too.”

Of course, any developments in third-world nations suffering from dysfunctional governments and destitute living conditions warrant attention for humanitarian reasons. Yet the death of Kim Jong-il (literally) hit a little too close to home. It was impossible to ignore the worried discussions taking place among my Korean friends on campus. I found myself calling home more often than usual. Despite having academic interest in democratic reform and the rise and fall of dictators, the only question I really wanted answered from my parents back in Korea was whether “everything was going to be OK.” Much to my relief, my family assured me that I would not have to worry about the resumption of the Korean War or anything of that sort.

To read the rest of the story, go to www.thacher.org/magazine/spring2012

A Letter from the Bush

By Kaggie Orrick CdeP 2006

M

Y JOB OUT HERE in South Africa tain in a helicopter with no doors! I’ve already is absolutely amazing. I’ve been found a few species of amphibians and small here for a year and a half already mammals that had never been seen on the and I can’t believe how quickly the time has mountain before. flown. I came out after I graduated from Colby On the reserve it’s a bit different. I am College in May 2010 and haven’t regretted a a qualified field guide and take volunteers moment since. I am a staff member/researcher on drives to focus on large mammals— with a company called GVI (www.gvi.co.uk), “charismatic megafauna,” as I like to say. We which has different types of volunteer prohave two lions and one cheetah that have been grams all over the world. I divide my time implanted with tracking devices and we take between large carnivore research and general data on them twice a day. The cheetah we track game management on Karongwe Game Reon foot to pinpoint his exact location. This part serve in the Limpopo Province as well as being of my job is extremely adrenaline filled; I’ve in charge of a biodiversity study on a geograph- helped sedate rhinos, seen a lone lioness hunt a ically isolated mountain called Mariepskop in giraffe, and woken up to hyenas in our kitchen! the Drakensberg. Personally, I think I get the Basically, no day is normal out here. best of both worlds; I do small mammal, repThe days are long; 5:00 to 21:00 is typical. tile, and amphibian research on the mountain You’re always on call, even if it’s your day off, as well as research the “big five” (lion, leopard, with no air conditioning or electricity to speak rhino, elephant, and Cape buffalo), among of. You adjust faster than you would think, other animals, on our reserve. though. I went home in December and threw On Mariepskop I’ve been working very out half of my room because most of what I closely with the University of Pretoria, helpused to find so essential in my life now seems ing them with their master’s project. I even excessive. My days off consist of camping in got to ride in a SA Air Force helicopter to asKruger National Park, which is only an hour sist with ant transects on inaccessible areas of from base, to see even more animals. I literally the mountain. Nothing gets your heart racing eat, breathe, and sleep my job. Though I guess I more than flying over a 2,000-meter mounwouldn’t have it any other way!

Even now it stuns me when bits and pieces of knowledge associated with Thacher pop up into my life. To be fair, I don’t think I should be that surprised anymore. The very idea of me living a life in Africa began on a long, hot drive back from a Spring EDT in Zion National Park with Mr. Carney. While everyone else slept, he and I had a long conversation about climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and my passion for Africa. It was the first time anyone had said to me, “Well, why don’t you do it?,” rather than believing it was just a 15-year-old’s extravagant dream. And I don’t think I can remember a bigger revelation that a non-family-member saw potential in me than when Mr. Perry said to me senior year, “Kags, you are going to do great things with your life.” (Yes, Perry, you did say that once!) It still strikes such a chord with me that it’s the moment I look back on every time I feel like I should give up or quit. But those are only two moments of millions. I think about Thacher a lot; both the good and the bad (though there isn’t much of the latter!). And I think of those who influenced me, made me stronger, taught me, supported me, coached me, reprimanded me, and in general all those who guided me to become the person I am today.

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GATHERINGS…

SUMMERTIME ADVENTURES AT GOLDEN TROUT ENCAMPMENT

S

UMMER IS ONCE AGAIN UPON US and, as you read this, a crew of Thacher students and alumni are busy sweeping out the cabin corners and setting up tents for yet another magical season at Golden Trout Camp. The summer of 2011 was a fantastic one, and here are a few highlights, on both the work and play sides, that we hope will help entice you to quit putting off those plans to someday come and visit and book a week with us.

The heavy winter snows had just barely receded when we got the camp up and running in June of 2011, and that saturated ground was to erupt, again and again, with an astounding array of alpine flowers as the summer progressed. Our main project for the summer, made possible by a small group of generous alumni, was to rebuild the ceiling in the main cabin and, in the process, replace the propane-burning lamps that had long illuminated the room with solar-powered LED lights. Two days of dusty, dirty demolition by a hearty crew of Thacher students was enough to clear the room of its sagging former ceiling, and what was revealed was the open room that the cabin’s builder must have experienced back at the turn of the last century when Golden Trout Camp was not yet a camp, but Anton’s Mt. Whitney Store. We packed in the new pine ceiling and spent a few weeks preparing and staining the wood, and, over the course of a dedicated “maintenance week,” we had the new ceiling installed and the warm low-wattage LEDs in place. A room that was once illuminated at the expense of gallons of propane each week was now brightened by a mere 30 watts of renewable power.   

Photos from top: Main Cabin; Golden Trout 2011 summer staff and alumni with family and friends; tent camping at GTC.

With the main lodge now ready, the first of three alumni weeks ensued, and we enjoyed the company of dozens of Thacher families and their friends. The days were filled with both adventure and learning as peaks and delicious porcini mushrooms were bagged. With naturalists to guide alums in foraging, fishing, and sheep-finding, the days were well spent adventuring to every corner of the Cottonwood

Lakes Basin and its lush meadows, meandering creeks, and 16 alpine lakes. Notable ascents of Mt. Langley (14,042) were made by Cameron Weaver CdeP 1969, despite suffering from Parkinson’s Disease, as well as by Eugene Kirkham’s (CdeP 1963) stepson, Liam, our youngest successful summiteer at 9 years old.

We are looking forward to yet another fantastic summer in 2012, and to the Class of ’91 coming to join us at the camp in 2013! We hope that you too will come and enjoy this unique outpost of rustic civility, of education and adventure, where the friendships and experiences gained can last a lifetime.

Morgan Krey, Iona Hughan, and Albert Perez, (top) all CdeP 2010, leave the barns for a reuinon ride. Bottom row, left to right: David Oxley CdeP 1979, Bruce Oxley CdeP 1954, and mother/wife Carol Oxley; first swing at Thacher; Sondra Oxley CdeP 2009 shows her stuff with the support of trap-shooting coach and Thacher dad, Steve Kanaly.

LEAVE THE WINTER BLUES BEHIND RETURN TO CAMPUS FOR WINTER ALUMNI DAY, close your eyes, and be transported back a year or two or decades, simply by breathing in deeply: the scent of sage in the hills and of sweat in the huddle, of oranges coming to full fruit, of saddle leather, of trail dust, of steak on the barbecue.

What’s not to love about coming back to School for Alumni Day in January? Not a thing, we think most of the 200 or so grads and guests would say. Even if you don’t feel like dancing (intermediate ballet), hiking, trapshooting (Newlin Hastings CdeP 1970 taking top score 21/25), riding, or playing soccer (women alums tying varsity 2-2; Boys’ Varsity emerging victorious 8-2) or basketball (alums besting Boys’ Varsity 48-45), you can always just stretch out in the sunshine or toss a football around the Upper Field, put your little one on the swings (the first introduction to CdeP is critical), find great company of every age all over the place, including after dinner in the Head’s Home backyard or at the kitchen counter in the later hours of Open House (where chocolate chip cookies still magically appear on cooling MANY THANKS TO OUR HOSTS FOR THEIR ROLES IN ORGANIZING AND racks every 12 minutes or so).

MAKING THEIR HOMES AVAILABLE FOR COMMUNITY GATHERINGS ACROSS Also part of the Saturday schedule was an THE COUNTRY AND AROUND THE WORLD THIS SCHOOL YEAR informal discussion in the Mullys’ living room among the seniors and alumni on the topic of college and grad school. Panelists were Tim Reed, Lauren Bosche, Georgi de Rham, Joel MAC BELL (father of JOE BELL CdeP ‘12) mission receptions in Hong Kong, Beijing, Tokyo, Reimer, and Morgan Krey (all CdeP 2010), for hosting our Boston-area gathering in and Shanghai in October. and Graham Douds, Whitney Livermore, September.

KELLI AND HUGH BOSS (parents of MACKENand Bianca Kissel Russell (from CdeP 2004).

NANCY AND DAN YIH (parents of STEVEN ZIE CdeP 2011 and BRIGGS ’15) for hosting our And new this year: late-morning roundtable CdeP 2010, CHRISTOPHER ‘12, BENJAMIN ’15) Santa Barbara gathering in November. dialogues led by current United Cultures of for hosting an Admission event last September Thacher members, alumni, and faculty, with in Greenwich, Connecticut.

CINDY CASTAÑEDA CdeP 1988 for hosting doors open to all. Topics included freedom a reception in Dallas in January. of expression, sexual orientation, ethnic and HEIDI CdeP 1986 and JOHANNES CdeP 1985 socioeconomic diversity, gender equality, and Girardoni (parents of JULIA ‘15) for hosting our ROB LANDSNESS CdeP 1998 for hosting environmental sustainability.

Los Angeles-area gathering in September. a wine-tasting party in San Francisco in March.

The Alumni Office sends gratitude for an excellent day to the Student-Alumni Committee, DAVID CHAO CdeP 1984 (father of DAVID ‘14), KATIE HALL (past trustee and mother of the Bon Appétit crew, the Gun Club, the (tireHELEN DU and TONY CHANG (parents of JON ELIZABETH CdeP 2007 and JOANNA KNUTSEN less) Buildings and Grounds Department, Unit‘14), ALICE CHEN and ERIC XU (parents of MI‘14) for hosting a phonathon for alumni in April.

CHAEL ‘12), and AGNES CHAN and TSUTOMU ed Cultures of Thacher, the Horse Department KANEKO (parents of ARTHUR CdeP 2005, ALEX REZA ZAFARI CdeP 1978 for hosting a and their legion of student helpers, the varsity CdeP 2008, and APOLLO ‘15) for hosting Adphonathon for alumni in Los Angeles in May. soccer and basketball teams and their coaches, and everyone who joined the festivities.

THANKS TO OUR HOSTS!

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CLASS NOTES…

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SEE OUR NEW CLASS NOTES WEBSITE AT blogs.thacher.org/classnotes BRUCE KENDRICK writes, “In September, Ellen and I traveled from Dover to Quebec by way of Iceland and Greenland.

Spectacular passage through the narrow, glacier-lined, Prince Christian Sound on the southern tip of Greenland. Visited Qaqortoq, Greenland, where Lindbergh stayed in 1931 while mapping routes for Pan Am and where we saw a seal being butchered for the local meat market.”

through her we remain in contact with this glorious young man who we so wish was still with us in more than spirit.

Eleanor and I wish everyone who reads this the best of everything.” JOHN SANGER notes, “Randi and I sailed the coastal waters of Chile over Christmas 2010 and New Year’s—for a month. Spent much of the summer, once again, exploring the coast of British Columbia.” BILL W. WHEELER IV writes, “This is my ‘art blog’ for anyone interested in painting, something I have been doing for fun over the last few years: www. wwwheeler.blogspot.com. Also included are a few photos of our place in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.”

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TONY ARNOLD shares, “At this writing, there are entirely too many balls in my air, including printing and marketing my retitled new book, Spent Shells: My Hunting Days and Habitats, emptying our home of 30 years, remodeling it, and selling it and other properties to finance moving into a retirement community—and figuring out how to send a picture with this communication.”

STEW A. RING reports from his home on the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii, that he regrets that he will not be able to make this year’s class Reunion. At the time of Reunion Weekend, he will be visiting his daughter, Katherine, in Zambia, where she is teaching English and art to underprivileged and orphaned African youngsters. At home, Stew has been a very busy pro bono community activist dedicated to preserving and protecting the quality of life for Oahu’s North Shore residents.

So far, he has been successful in fighting developers who seek to convert the beachfront lands and gradual ocean slopes into a resort community. Recently, he joined his sister in Mobile, Ala., where she was invited by the Secretary of the Navy to christen the new LCS Coronado. After the christening, Stew spent some time in the family home in Coronado; the same home in which he lived when he attended Thacher!

ALLAN H. GALLAWAY notes, “I am commuting to my trawler in Aruba and plan on cruising the Caribbean for a couple more years.”

ANDY FARRAND reports, “Eleanor and I continue to watch our granddaughter, Isabelle, grow into a very bright and academically gifted young lady of 11 years. She is a delight in all ways and lives with her mother in Davis, Calif., not far from us in Woodland, so we see her a great deal. We also acquired another child. This time a four-footed one who, at 6 months, weighs about 90 pounds and, the breeder says, should grow to be about 160-170 pounds. She’s an English Mastiff and takes enormous delight in tearing our house to pieces and pulling at the jowls of her two Bull Mastiff playmates, one 90 pounds and the other 80. They are all cream puffs and a delight to have around. One of the Bull Mastiffs, Zoe, was given to my youngest son three weeks before he died, and so,

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RICHARD S. WALDEN reports, “As most in agriculture know, farmers are doing well in this stressed economy. Daughter, Deborah, is working in our business and son, Rich, returned to work in the business in January 2012. Deb’s 4- and 7-year-old sons (our grandsons) are growing up fast. Both love to ride our Arabian horses.”

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HANS C. LINDGREN’s new life, as retired from regular work, is being with his grandkids. Hans notes, “The grandchildren range from 1 year to 9 and one more is coming soon. So we will get some relief participating at the Reunion in June.

See you there!”

TED B. RHODES has been recovering slowly with a badly broken right arm from an accident that occurred in early March. According to Ted, a car “plowed” into him while he was on his mountain bike, waiting to make a left turn. The rest of him is fine other than a few scrapes and bruises. “Take care and carpe diem.”

TRAV NEWTON JR. reports, “I have been a consultant for an exhibition on Van Gogh at the Cleveland Museum of Art for the past four years, and am now happy to be back in Santa Barbara, where I have a painting conservation studio.”

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STEVE P. HUYLER just celebrated his 40th year of travel and field research in India. This past January, he led a professional tour entitled Sacred South India. Classmate GREG SMITH and his wife, Shelley, joined Steve. They shared many good adventures together such as riding bicycle rickshaws in the temple city of Madurai. It was such a great experience that Steve realized how much he would enjoy other classmates joining him in the future. STU R. WORK writes, “After living and working in the Washington, D.C., area since college, I have returned to California with my wife to take up a new job. I am the head of St. Matthew’s Parish School, a terrific Episcopal elementary school in Pacific Palisades. It is great to be back in Southern California,

Photos (L to R): Ruth and Tony Arnold ’46; Hans Lindgren ’62 with his grandchildren; Greg Smith ’69, Shelley Smith, and Steve Huyler ’69 in Madurai; Lance Ignon ‘74 with classmates Peter Stoneham and Toby Odell

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MARRIAGES

CORRESPONDING PHOTO ABOVE

although, with temperatures on the East Coast having been in the upper 70s, I am wondering if there has been some kind of strange weather warp.”

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STEVE W. SCOTT announces, “Oh my goodness! Lynne and I are going to be grandparents! Daughter, Stephanie, is due in September. Yikes... must be time to retire!”

BRYAN N. BECKHAM and daughter ANNIE BECKHAM ‘14 attended Road to the Horse International, in Tennessee, over her spring break. Competition was between the United States, Canada, and Australia for colt starting of 2-year-old geldings.

Two days of training were followed by obstacles on the last day. Thacher’s own Richard Winters, artist-in-residence in the Horse Department, supplied the commentary. Lots of learning experiences! Australia won by a small point advantage. Next year it will be in Lexington, Ky. “Anyone want to join us? My best to all the class of 1974.” LANCE H. IGNON shares, “My family and I will be moving to New York this summer. I will miss my home state of California, but I look forward to meeting up with some of my old Thacher pals in New York. I will be working there for my current employer, Sitrick and Co., a crisis management and communications firm.” JEFFREY L. KIMBALL reports, “My new film, The Central Park Effect, will be shown on HBO as part of their Summer Documentary Series.

The film reveals New York City’s iconic park as a nature sanctuary for both birds and humans. The antecedents for this film go back to my Thacher days, where I first began studying nature in the Sespe mountains.”

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JOSH C. ROSENBLATT and Kate are having a big year. Their eldest, Sarah, graduates from Columbia in May with a master’s in historic preservation, and their other daughter, Ali, graduates from Sarah Lawrence College two days later. They will celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary in late June, which will be followed by Sarah being married on August 4.

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SALLY WHITEHILL ’98 married Mark Gordon on December 18, 2011. Sally writes, “ALISSA TAFTI ’98 flew in from Bologna to attend and CHARLEY MEDIGOVICH ’98 was there in spirit!”

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CLARISSA CALDWELL ’01 married Tim Foster on October 1, 2011. (photo 2) KATHERINE FONTAINE FRYKMAN ’04 was married to Olin Douglas Browne Jr. on January 7, 2012, at the Christ Memorial Chapel in Hobe Sound, Fla. Toads in attendance included PETER FRYKMAN ’01, CLAIRE FRYKMAN ’10, and MARK FRYKMAN ’07. (photo 3)

BIRTHS BETH ROBERTS FARLEY ’84 and Jim welcome their fourth child into their family. “We feel very blessed.” (photo 1)

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ANDY J. HOLMAN reports, “What a shock... returning last summer to Boston after leaving my son’s college in Cleveland, I decided to stop off in Troy, N.Y., for the first time in 35 years. A banner read, ‘Class Reunion,’ including the Class of 1976—the seniors I knew when my fellow Toads and I invaded Emma Willard as juniors. I was accepted as an honorary member of their clan and all remembered Thacher fondly.

But the real surprise wasn’t mine. It was due a young EW student who ushered around the alums and gave me directions. Despite my assurances, she couldn’t conceive how I could have ever attended her school. Then, it made sense... reconstructive surgery and very poorly done at that!”

LAURA WENTWORTH ’93 married Cris Streeter on September 17, 2011, with a wedding celebration at the Legion of Honor museum in San Francisco, with many Toads in attendance! (photo 1)

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NATASHA LONG LEYDECKER ’91 and MARK LEYDECKER ’79 are thrilled to announce the arrival of Elena Dare Leydecker and Finlay Lombard Leydecker, born November 21 in Aspen, Colo. They join big sister Alexandra, and big brothers Derek and CARSON LEYDECKER ’13. (photo 2) LLOYD A. SACKS ’95 and his wife, Merav Menachem, announce the birth of their twins: Ori, a boy, and Romi, a girl. They were born one minute apart on January 12, 2012. (photo 3) KATHRYN COX BONNEY ’96 and her husband, Steven, wish to announce the birth of their daughter, Vivian Jean Bonney, born April 19, 2011, in the water at home in Sacramento, Calif. (photo 4) BRITTANY SANDERS ’96 and Robert are so happy to present their daughter, Adélaïde Lee Polidori, born in Sun Valley, Idaho, on February 24, 2012, weighing 7 pounds, 14 ounces.

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CLASS NOTES…

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ALAN C. SU shares, “KURT HUEBNER invited KEN PARIS and me to a buffet dinner at The Bohemian Club in San Francisco.

It was ‘new members play night.’ To our surprise, CHUCK HENDERSON ‘76 emceed the show and we heard CABOT BROWN ‘79 sing in the chorus.”

DAVID HEARD writes, “Juliet and I are moving to New York City after three years in Miami. I’ll be heading up the consumer business for growth economies (52 countries around the world) for Chartis Insurance, the property and casualty division of AIG. Both our kids are at the University of Miami, and Andre is aiming to be a Peace Corps volunteer in sub-Saharan Africa after he graduates in May.”

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KEN A. CHANCE notes, “Fellow Toads! Just a quick hello from Washington, D.C. Still working as the Army International Affairs Chief at the Pentagon. Sadly, I couldn’t make our 30year reunion but I am always up for connecting with anyone who is passing through our nation’s capital. Wishing you all the very best!”

graduate program in public history going. Last summer, I co-led a study abroad program for UNC in Kenya, where I first went in 1986 as an AFS student thanks to Cricket Twichell. It was amazing to be back, more than 20 years later, watching my own group of students experience the country as I had done. We’re settling into southwestern Virginia, where my wife, Shelley, is working as a senior graphic designer (also for Virginia Tech) and daughter, Genevieve, is a thriving 3-yearold. All the best to the Toads.”

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RENE ANCINAS received his UBA at University of Washington in 2009 and now, following in the footsteps of his great-uncle GERRETT EDDY ’34, Rene is president and CEO of Port Blakely Tree Farms in Seattle, Wash. DOUGLAS G. HOLT says, “Class Reps from ’83, BRUCE SOMERS, KATIE BALLOU CALHOUN, MICHAEL KONG, LAURA JOHNSON, DERICK PERRY, and myself look forward to our class reunion in 2013. So CdeP 1983 classmates plan ahead, we all look forward to seeing the class at Lower School in 2013.”

BETH ROBERTS FARLEY writes, “In August 2011, we welcomed a fourth child into our family. It’s very strange to have our oldest graduating from high school this June while the youngest is in diapers. Having a baby at my age has had its share of challenges, but we feel very blessed. Our 10-year-old daughter is following in my footsteps and loving her natural horsemanship (Parelli) lessons. I continue part-time web design in my ‘spare’ time, and I love keeping up with fellow Toads on Facebook! Hope I’ll be able to attend the 2014 Reunion weekend and see people in person!”

THATCHER G. BROWN notes, “I recently relocated to Genoa, Italy, with my family. Enjoying the new surroundings after three years in Dubai. Ciao!”

DAVID CLINE shares, “I moved on from UNC-Chapel Hill and started a new position as assistant professor of public history in the History Department at Virginia Tech this fall. I’m teaching my specialties—public history, oral history, and 20th-century social movement history—and writing my second book (on AfricanAmerican veterans of the Korean War) while trying to get a new

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BOB T. BUTLER reports, “I cannot believe it has been almost 25 years. We are excited that our son, Samuel, will attend Thacher in the fall of 2012 as a freshman. He is so pumped up... though he’ll be trading the hockey skates for cowboy boots. I am hoping to visit the West Coast often over the coming years. Can’t wait to reconnect with everyone.”

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LAWRENCE B. HOLLINS notes, “Recently, this Hollins family got a little bit bigger with the addition of Iris Hollins, who just turned 1 on February 28. Her brother, Thomas, adores her as do her parents, Lawrence and Ina.” MAGGIE RENIERS writes, “Things are going great here, in Ecuador, at the hotel. I had a cousin compliment me recently about how cool it is that we are rated #1 in the whole country. I laughed and corrected her that we are only the highest-rated hotel in our town—out of 13 hotels. But when I checked it was true. Out of 361 hotels in Ecuador, we are actually rated #1, based on past-guest reviews on Tripadvisor.com. I was amazed and happy and, when I shared it with the staff, they couldn’t believe it. Everyone was all smiles. I came into this job not knowing what the heck I was doing but I feel like I have accomplished something these past 18 months.

It’s exciting! If anyone has the chance to come down and visit, please do. Ecuador is a truly amazing place.”

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MARY H. EVERETT CONARROE shares, “I finally made it back to California! My husband, Jeff Conarroe, was hired as an assistant men’s basketball coach at Cal State University Bakersfield in April. After four years in Atlanta, two in Chicago, and four in Denver, I am back and very excited to be near family and nice weather. I am a physical therapist in an independent/assisted living facility, helping seniors maintain maximum independence and an improved quality of life. I love working with old people! Our son Caleb will be 2 in March.”

KENYON PHILLIPS’ parents, Linda and Ron Phillips, had a Thacher class of ’94 parents reunion in early April, at the Las Vegas home of Claire and Kurli Kurlinski (JOSH KURLINSKI, RYAN KURLINSKI ’97, SETH KURLINSKI ’00) with Jim and Pam Campe (ZETH CAMPE ’90, CARSON CAMPE), Merilee and Bruce Bennett (BRIAN BENNETT), Jay and Mindy Johnson (BRET JOHNSON, TYLER JOHNSON ‘98) and, honorary members of the group, Cricket and Terry Twichell (JON

(L to R): Classmates Ken Paris ‘78, Kurt Huebner, and Alan Su at The Bohemian Club; Ken Chance ‘81; Lawrence Hollins ‘92 with Iris; Jeff Conarroe and Mary H. Everett Conarroe ’94 with son, Caleb; Justin Stephens ‘94 and Seana with children, Preston (left) and Parker (right); Coventry Burke Berg ’99 with her husband and son; George Myers, Caitlin Caldwell ‘99, Tim Foster, and Clarissa Caldwell ’01 in Crested Butte, Colo.; ‘99-ers: (front) Erin Hoppin Lee, Shannon Hastings Baker, Jamil Abou-Samra, (middle) Claire Kendrick, Sarah Bruss Gabrielson, Shauna Nyborg, Erin Campbell, (back) Sarah Sawyer, Evan Kanaly Herberts, Katie Isaacson.

MILESTONES BIRTHS CONTINUED

TWICHELL ’83, SOPHIA BROWN TWICHELL ’85, MOLLY PERRY ’85, CATHERINE TWICHELL MASON ’86). JUSTIN H. STEPHENS reports, “Things are going well here. The winery completed its first harvest very successfully. Our custom crush clients seem to be quite happy with their new home and we certainly are as well! Seana and I are expecting number three at the end of May, which will be a welcome but enormous change to our family dynamic. Preston is one and Parker is three. We still see ALEX SLAWSON ‘95 and Kirsten quite a bit. They are doing great.”

COVENTRY BURKE BERG ’99 and her husband, Davis Berg, welcomed their son, Spencer Ayres Berg, into their lives in December 2011. (photo 5)

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LAUREN McCLOSKEY ELSTON ’99 shares, “London was born February 5, 2012, and is an incredibly happy and loving baby. And Palmer, now 2 1/2, is so enjoying her role as a big sister. Needless to say, Ryan and I feel very blessed.”

LLOYD A. SACKS announces, “Our twins, a boy and girl, were born a minute apart on January 12, 2012. Ori means ‘my light’ and Romi means ‘my heights, lofty, exalted’ (and is also a derivative of Roma, the Eternal City). Ori came in at 6 pounds, 10 ounces, and 20 inches and Romi was 6 pounds, 6 ounces, and 19 inches. (Strong like her mother, she has already surpassed her brother’s weight.) The twins and Merav, who carried them beautifully and impressively one day shy of fullterm, are doing very well. It’s been quite the adventure thus far and no doubt will continue to be... double the pleasure!”

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COVENTRY BURKE BERG and her husband, Davis Berg, welcomed their son, Spencer Ayres Berg, in December. They have recently moved from Washington, D.C., to Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. CAITLIN CALDWELL , still resides in Driggs, Idaho, and runs Curves for Women. She met her fiancé on top of Teton Pass in the middle of a backcountry rescue mission last year! She and George Myers will be tying the knot at The Chapel of Transfiguration in Moose, Wyo., this summer. CLAIRE KENDRICK shares, “I was lucky enough to be among the several class of ‘99ers celebrating the joyous wedding of ERIN HOPPIN and Ken Lee this past January. (As you can see from the picture, we clearly take ourselves very seriously!) The traditional Korean tea ceremony was beautiful, the bride and groom’s swing dance was fabulous, and the whole event was just tons of fun. It was great to catch up with old friends and to officially welcome Ken into the Thacher fold! Class of ‘99 represents!”

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RICHARD H. PARKS III’s documentary Music Man Murray premiered on TV and online in April. The film follows Murray Gershenz, 88, on his quest to sell the hundreds of thousands of records in his Los Angeles store. On Record Store Day, April 21, the film debuted on the Documentary Channel and streamed online at NPR’s All Songs Considered site for a week. You can look at more at www.musicmanmurraymovie. com. TREVOR C. McPROUD announces, “My fiancée, Anne Dahlie, and I are planning our wedding for this coming August. We will be getting married on the family farm in Nevada City, Calif.”

ELIZA N. GREGORY ’99 and RYAN M. MEYER ’98 introduce Ainsley Evelyn Meyer, born on March 8, 2012, weighing 8 pounds and measuring 21 inches.

“We are doing great!” (photo 6)

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LUCINDA BROWN REVELL ’00 and her husband, Geoff, announce the birth of their new baby, Eleanor Cecilia Revell, born on January 22, 2012, in Bangkok, weighing 3.3 kilograms. (photo 7)

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LAUREN CERRÉ MANSON ’01 and TYLER MANSON ’01, share, “We are beyond thrilled to announce the arrival of our son, Finn Cerré Manson. Born on February 24, 2012, at 5:13 a.m., Finn was 8 pounds, 10 ounces, and 21.25 inches of love.” (photo 8)

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Fresh servings of class notes all year long!

Class notes happen year round, so why wait for the magazine?

We’ve recently launched an improved class notes site to make it easier and more enjoyable to share news with the Thacher community. r #SPXTF OPUFT GPS BOZ DMBTT r 4FBSDI OPUFT BOE MFBWF comments for others r &BTJMZ TVCNJU ZPVS OPUFT (including photos) Find a link at www.thacher.org/alumni or point your browser to blogs.thacher.org/classnotes    

CLASS NOTES…

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BRYCE P. ANDREWS recently spoke with Yellowstone Public Radio and reflected on his work as manager of the Dry Cottonwood Creek Ranch, one of the country’s largest superfund mining-restoration sites that combines ranching and conservation. (Go to the online class notes to listen to the broadcast and you’ll hear some familiar Thacher themes.) Bryce will shift gears this spring and begin work at the B Bar Ranch. Established in 1906, B Bar Ranch combines wilderness and sustainable agriculture by raising and working Suffolk Punch draft horses, managing a herd of Ancient White Park cattle, and operating a high-altitude organic garden and greenhouse that features heirloom varieties of vegetables and herbs.

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WILL STRACHAN is a sophomore at Colorado College and on his way to fluency in Mandarin after an intensive summer of study at Middlebury. He loves the block system, which gives him four days of “guilt-free” time out after each course, and opportunities to explore the West and go rock climbing and hiking.

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GEORGI de RHAM’s mother, Amy, reports, “We had five Thacher grads, EMILY COMBS, SARAE SNYDER, BRIANNA BOHNETT, LAUREN BOSCHE, Georgi, and one brave Cornell girl, for Thanksgiving weekend at our home in Bristol, R.I.!

It was a great reunion for all—and the parents survived the whirlwind with pleasure. Jerry and I were so pleased they could meet at our home from their respective colleges on the East Coast. Georgi sends her best—and we are glad to report she loves Cornell and is, of course, riding!” REMY FISHER shares, “Three months in Africa and climbing Kilimanjaro: an experience only a Thacher education could make me want to do and feel prepared to do. One of the hardest but most rewarding mental and physical challenges I have faced.” We learned that PAIGE GRIBB was among the top students honored at Bowdoin College in October. She distinguished herself by excellence in scholarship with a GPA ranking in the top 20 percent of her class, thereby being named a Sarah and James Bowdoin Scholar. Good job, Paige!

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IAN STRACHAN works for Lindblad Expeditions/National Geographic as a boatswain and has also acquired a USCG license for a 100-ton vessel. He has had incredible opportunities and wildlife encounters working in Costa Rica, Panama, Baja, and, in the summertime, Alaska. He was also able to take a trip as a passenger/guest from Tierra del Fuego to Dakar, Senegal, for his month off, which was “spectacular.” Now he is running the Zodiacs, which gives him more time with the naturalists, as well as the guests.

ANNIE STRACHAN, a recipient of a teacher-of-the-year award, continues to teach English in Ho Chi Minh City to a wide age spectrum... 4 years old through adult. She has managed a few exciting excursions exploring Vietnam with her mama and Thailand and Laos with a friend. She also experienced a trip to Borneo, Malaysia, with friends, where

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she climbed Mt. Kinabalu. WILL F. WILDER

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reports, “I

joined the U.S. Marine Corps in June 2011, and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in August. I am currently stationed at Marine Corps Base Quantico, training to become an infantry off i cer.”

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KATIE V. ROMANOV won the title of America’s Next Eco-Star in a contest sponsored by SmartPower and the U.S. Department of Energy. “We have found the future of energy and environmental activism—and her name is Katelyn Romanov,” said Brian F. Keane, SmartPower president. To read more, go to the online class notes.

HOW TO SUBMIT DIGITAL PHOTOS: t Shoot using your camera’s best photo setting. t Files should be 200k or larger. t Save photos as JPEG files. t Identify every person in the photo, state time and place, and suggest a caption.

We can accept good, old-fashioned prints as well.

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

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

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

PHOTO/ILLUSTRATION CREDIT HERE

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Photos (L to R): Will Wilder ‘05 in the U.S. Marine Corps; Katie Romanov ’07 accepting an award for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon. (Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon); CdeP 2010 group during Thanksgiving weekend at Georgi de Rham’s home; Remy Fisher ’10 at the top of Mount Kilimanjaro; Michael Mulligan, Trevor Mulchay ‘11, Steffi Star ‘11, Joy Sawyer-Mulligan, Leeah Stickelmaier ‘11, and David Andrade ’11 reconnecting at Harvard Square in Boston

FACULTY, STAFF & FRIENDS…

PHOTO/ILLUSTRATION CREDIT HERE

Dennis Shives (left) with the Desk of the Mountain Dreamer, which he created with John Bueti. At the All-School Banquet, Michael Mulligan thanks Mary Loney for her work at Thacher.

FACULTY AND STAFF ROUND-UP BO and JULIE MANSON became grandparents for the first time on February 24, when TYLER and LAUREN CERRÉ MANSON (both CdeP 2001) welcomed Finn into the family (see Milestones page 31).

Spanish teacher MOLLY PERRY is on sabbatical this year and spent three weeks at the African Leadership Academy in January, observing classes and their leadership program. In May, she traveled to Northern Spain with her parents, CRICKET and TERRY TWICHELL, where Molly and Cricket walked 115 kilometers of the Camino de Santiago from the Portuguese border to Santiago de Compostela. Molly is also delving into her creative side by working with JOHN BUETI in the wood shop and painting landscapes under the tutelage of Allie Bueti.

During Spring Break, a group of history teachers, some with their spouses (JASON and MEGAN CARNEY, SARAH and GREG DEL VECCHIO, BOB and LUCIA ST. GEORGE, PETER ROBINSON, and DANA VANCISIN), spent a week in St. Petersberg, Russia. Read more about it on page 6. Also traveling far away this spring was Spanish teacher CECILIA ORTIZ, who rendezvoused with her sister to hike to Machu Picchu, walk the Inca trail to the Hanging Bridge, observe condors flying in Peru’s Colca Canyon, and visit the highest lake in South America (Lake Titicaca). And, finally, ALICE and KURT MEYER returned to the African Leadership Academy (ALA) in South Africa and reconnected with their former advisees and further studied ALA’s leadership program.

Librarian JENNIFER FINLEY announced her engagement to Gerrard McGill; they have not set a date. The couple met last summer in the coastal town of Peniscula, Spain, when Jennifer visited the home of Thacher student AMANDA BROWN CdeP 2010. After five years of study, Assistant Librarian/Archivist BONNIE LaFORGE completed her master of library and informational science degree through San Jose State University this spring. She specialized in school libraries and archives.

After three years as library assistant and 13 years as academic secretary and assistant to the dean of students and assistant head of school, MARY LONEY will leave Thacher this summer to help care for her father in Grove City, Pennsylvania. She leaves with a heavy heart, of course, but hopes to see any Thacher folks who may pass through Pittsburgh (just one hour south of Grove City). She can always be reached at mary.loney@gmail.com.

Former Thacher biology teacher SPENCER STEVENS returned to campus to share information about a summer Spanish immersion program in the Canary Islands he has started along with a teacher from Cate. Spencer is also working as a private tutor for high-school students from the Santa Barbara area, where he currently resides.

History teacher JASON CARNEY will “retire” from dorm head duty as he takes over the department chair position this fall. ANN MERLINI will be the new dorm head for junior girls in the Middle School dorm, once they return from the Courts while Casa is being rebuilt.

In the woodshop, craftsmen John Bueti and Ojai resident and friend of Thacher Dennis Shives created a unique desk of white maple and recycled redwood and entitled “Desk of the Mountain Dreamer.”

ROGER KLAUSLER BUGS OUT Spanish teacher, testing guru, Board assistant secretary, and calendar coordinator Roger Klausler will retire this June, ending his 37-year tenure at Thacher. He and Linda will live in Thousand Oaks, where she is operating room manager for Thousand Oaks Surgical Hospital, when they are not traveling, volunteering, and tutoring.

Roger began his career at Thacher in 1975. He came to Thacher a veteran of the Vietnam War and of the classroom where he’d taught Spanish and French to community college students. Roger and his wife, Marsha, arrived with their daughter, Aimée, and welcomed son MICHAEL CdeP 1997 a few years later.

Roger has worn many hats during his time at Thacher. In addition to teaching Spanish to generations of Toads, he’s served as the director of the Dining Room, head of the Indoor Committee and Judicial Council, chair of the Language Department, and assistant secretary for the Board of Trustees. He sat on the Admission Committee, the Buildings and Grounds Committee, the Senior Exhibition Committee, and the Senior Profile Committee.

Roger also served as the administrative director of Summer Science Program from 1982 to 1999.

His essential service to the community expanded further in the later years of his tenure as he headed up the Calendar Committee, ran outside testing programs such as APs and SATs for the     

FACULTY, STAFF & FRIENDS… Upper left: At the All-School Banquet, Michael Mulligan recognizes Roger Klausler’s contributions to the School. Below: Toby Rosenblatt CdeP 1956 is all smiles as his prefectee John Lewis CdeP 1959 thanks him for his service to the Thacher board during a Diamond Hitch barbecue.

school community, served as immigration certification officer for international students, and advisor to a revitalized Thacher Notes. There are very few aspects of Thacher life which Roger has not influenced and guided throughout his time at the ranch.

Deeply grateful for the love and support of the extended Thacher family in the difficult days after the loss of his daughter, Aimée, who passed away shortly after a horseback riding accident on campus, and his wife, Marsha, who valiantly battled cancer, Roger is struck as he prepares to exit the stone gates by how entwined his family’s lives have been with the School, its faculty and staff, and decades of students.

We won’t at first have a real sense of just what we’re losing with Roger’s departure; it takes a while to get to the bottom of holes this big. All the same we send him off with love and best wishes for an inspiring and relaxing retirement.

And, yes, the ‘67 Beetle still runs great.

BOARD TURNOVER REFLECTS GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES Stepping down after nine years of dedicated service to the School as trustees are SUSAN BECHTEL (mother of BRENDAN CdeP 1999, DARREN CdeP 2000, and KATHERINE CdeP 2003), TOBY ROSENBLATT CdeP 1956, MONIQUE DeVANE (mother of Liam ’13 and Owen ’15), EMILY WILLIAMSON HANCOCK CdeP 1983 (mother of CHARLES CdeP 2011, Sarah ‘12, and Ellie ’13), and BILL OBERNDORF (father of PETER CdeP 2004 and WILL CdeP 2008). Their efforts on behalf of the School have set a new high-water mark and their wise counsel and input at Board meetings will be greatly missed. This June also marks the end of a threeyear term for JENNIFER KRITZ CdeP 1994 as Alumni Association president.

During her tenure, alumni participation in Annual Fund giving increased from 44 percent to 55 percent, a remarkable achievement for Thacher and among the highest for independent boarding schools in the nation. And finally, ANNICA and JAMES NEWTON HOWARD CdeP 1969 (parents of Anouk Ackerman ’12, Jackson ’12, and Hayden Howard ‘16) complete their year as presidents of the Parents Association this summer. Thacher is especially appreciative of their efforts to welcome parents on campus, host events, and inspire advanced musical opportunities, instruction, and performance.

Thacher welcomes a new class of Trustees, who will begin their three-year terms this summer. ERIN E. ARCHER CdeP 1996, who earned a BA in biology and an MBA in finance at the University of Chicago, currently works as an executive director at Goldman Sachs in London. Working and living with his bride, Helen, in Australia is BRENDAN P. BECHTEL CdeP 1999. He serves as a principal vice president of the Bechtel Group, Inc., and the project manager of the Queensland Curtis Liquified Natural Gas project. He earned a BA in geography   

from Middlebury College before earning an MBA and a master’s in construction engineering and management at Stanford University. HENRIQUE C. CORDEIRO GUERRA CdeP 1989 currently works as executive officer and director of investor relations for Aliansce Shopping Centers and Veritcal SA in Rio de Janeiro. He earned a degree in business administration, economics, and finance from Georgetown University in 1994. And one more international Trustee is LISA M. KIRKLAND (mother of EMILY CdeP 2009, Will ’12, and Laura ’15) who is owner of Sonar Design, LLC, a real estate design and development company, focused on both residential and commercial properties. Although she is based in London, the family home is in San Francisco. She earned a BA in economics and French literature at UC Berkeley.

Beginning this summer, BRYAN N. BECKHAM CdeP 1974 (father of Annie ’14) will serve as Thacher’s Alumni Association president. A graduate of Santa Clara University in 1978 where he majored in history, Bryan joined NEWLIN HASTINGS CdeP 1970 as a partner in Hastings Enterprises in 1990; their firm merged in 2007 with Pacifica Commercial, which focuses on real estate brokerage, commercial property management, development, and recently began a winery division. This summer PATRICIA and NEAL HOWE CdeP 1969 (parents of Brisha ’13) begin their year as presidents of the Parents Association. Neal is a graduate of Lake Forest College and Pat earned a bachelor’s at Downstate Medical Center and a masters at Cal State LA. They both work for the State of California, Department of Health Services with Neal as the chief of privacy and codes, and Pat as a nurse consultant for the Indian Health Program.

IN MEMORIAM… REEVES MORRISSON CdeP 1931 Reeves Morrisson, husband of the late Martha (Boyle) Morrisson whom he loved very much, will no longer be embarking on his yearly adventures across land and sea. Last June, Reeves drove from his home in Connecticut to Thacher for his 80th-year reunion.

His visit was so remarkable that a video was made of his time on campus, recollecting his earlier years. You can view it online at www.thacher.org/magazine.

JOHN B. LYTTLE CdeP 1942 John Burleson Lyttle passed away on November 6, 2011, at home in Pauma Valley, Calif. He was 88.

John, and his two brothers, HERB CdeP 1940 and RICK CdeP 1945, were raised in the Ojai Valley at the Rancho dos Rios. John attended The Ojai Valley School and Thacher as a day student. He rode his horse, Electron, to and from school almost every day and was captain of the gymkhana team. He also participated in other sports.

After graduating from Thacher in 1942, John enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, serving extensively in the Pacific Theater of World War II. His service culminated with the Battle of Iwo Jima where, after experiencing 28 days of fighting, he was severely wounded while attempting to evacuate two of his fellow marines. For his brave service in the war, John was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart.

After attending University of California, Davis, where he studied agriculture, John married Suzanne “Sug” Younkin and they eventually moved to Orange County, Calif., where he began a long and successful career as a homebuilder. Throughout his retirement, John made frequent trips to the Eastern Sierra to enjoy his passion for fly-fishing. He also wrote and published a memoir about his early life and experience in the war. The book, If I Should Die Before I Wake: One Marine’s Experience on Iwo Jima, has been archived in the Thacher library.

John is survived by his wife, Sug; brothers, Herb and Rick; daughters, Bridget, Abigail, and Josephine; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

Grandson TREVOR McPROUD CdeP 2000 writes: Even at a very young age, I had a sense of how important Thacher was in my grandfather’s life. When I was 9, he brought me along to a Golden Trout Camp summer reunion. It was there, sitting around the campfire, high in the Sierra, listening to even more people express their pride and passion for Thacher, that I realized what a truly special place it must be, and that I wanted to be a part of it. I can’t thank my grandfather enough for opening the world of Thacher to me.

MANER L. THORPE CdeP 1947 Maner L. Thorpe passed away in Santa Barbara on February 19, 2012, at the age of 81 from complications of diabetes, in the presence of his loving family.

He was devoted to his wife and descendants, and to his children’s and grandchildren’s education. He will always be remembered for his eccentric humor, his encyclopedic knowledge of cultural and historical minutiae, his command of the English language and knowledge of many foreign languages, and his

painting of the historic Thacher “Middle Barn” that hangs in the School’s library.

Maner was born in Los Angeles on May 2, 1930, and spent his childhood between Los Angeles and the family ranch in Santa Paula. He attended Los Angeles public schools, spent a year at The Thacher School, and graduated from Los Angeles High. After attending Stanford University and The Citadel in Charleston, S.C., he joined the Air Force in 1950 and was stationed in Japan during the Korean War. While there, he was introduced to Michi Matsushita and they were married October 9, 1953.

Maner and Michi moved to Berkeley, Calif., where they began a family and Maner began a career as an academic. His work brought him and his family to Massachusetts, Tokyo, North Korea, New York, New Jersey, and, finally, back to California, where Maner taught at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and finished his PhD in Linguistics at the University of Southern California in 1983.

In his later life, he pursued his interests in automobiles, genealogy, and Mongolia and Central Asia. A trip to Mongolia in 1999 was a highlight of his life. He is survived by his wife Michi, his son Geoffrey, his daughter Frances, and grandchildren.

ROBERT B. GREEN CdeP 1949 Robert B. “Bob” Green, of Napa, died March 31, 2010, at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.

Mr. Green was a third-generation Californian and a member of the Bixby family of Long Beach. He was born on August 5, 1931 in Berkeley. He spent a year at The Thacher School and graduated from Berkeley High, followed by earning a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University’s School of Hotel & Restaurant Management. He served in the Army during the Korean War, assigned to managing the Officers Club at the Presidio in San Francisco. After the war, Bob moved to Lahaina, Maui, where he owned a restaurant, Chicken Go Go, and became a charter member of the Lahaina Yacht Club.

Bob moved to Napa in 1975 to pursue a career with local radio station KVON. He was always a tireless volunteer in his communities. He volunteered as both an announcer and spotter for Napa High School’s football team in the late 1980s. He served on the board of the Boys & Girls Club of Napa Valley for over 25 years and was a 52-year member of the Lions Club.

Mr. Green was preceded in death by his wife of 35 years, Marilyn. He is survived by daughters Terry Tobey, Kathryn Wilder, Peg Pierce, son Robert B. Green Jr., and six grandchildren.

CARLOS LAZARTE CdeP 1960 Carlos Lazarte passed away on January 14, 2012, due to pneumonia.

Carlos came to Thacher as an American Foreign Student from Peru in the fall of 1959. He was a strong proponent of the principles of the AFS foreign exchange program and his own “Good Neighbor Policy.” He enjoyed sharing his love for Latin music by playing his Peruvian tunes loud and often and would frequently venture away from Thacher to talk about Peru at ladies’ clubs and to go to AFS meetings and dances. Amongst his Thacher activities, Carlos was on the Los Vaqueros Gymkhana Team and did especially well on the varsity soccer team.

BOB GARDNER CdeP 1960 shares: Carlos will be remembered for his energy,    

IN MEMORIAM… his infectious laugh, his soccer playing, and his way with women. He was truly likeable and fun to be around. Everyone loved him. Carlos was a loyal member of the class of 1960 and attended most of the major Thacher reunions, including the 50th, where we enjoyed catching up and trading stories. Many classmates had the good fortune to visit the Lazartes in Peru and were treated royally. He was a consummate host and loved entertaining. Carlos, we will all miss you. Rest in peace.

FREDERIC J. HAMMOND CdeP 1963 Frederic “Ric” Hammond passed away on March 17, 2012.

Ric came to Thacher in 1959 with an interest in electronics, especially radio, and acquired the nickname, “ClunkWit” because of electronic bulletins he received that were addressed to “CW Hammond.” His classmates joked that his native language was the codes used in ham radio communications. Also an outdoorsman, El Archivero notes, “Ric has been known to roam as far north as Mammoth Lakes and as far south as Burroughs’ Electrodata Division. He also takes to the sea if the water is not above surfboard depth.”

In athletics, Ric was a talented baseball player who brought chagrin to many a pitcher and was competitive on the soccer team. He was also, amongst other School activities, an ASL delegate, a Thacher Letterman, and, of course, president of the Radio Club.

STEVE GRIGGS CdeP 1963 shares: Ric was one of the steady guys in our class; reliable as a classmate and a friend. It was great to be able to reconnect with him at reunions over the years and to learn of the successful and fulfilling life he led post-Thacher.

FRIENDS OF THACHER SHARON CRARY GRIFFIN Sharon Crary Griffin died on November 7, 2011. She was the first wife of Thacher Headmaster Emeritus Willard G. Wyman II, mother of three children, including WILL WYMAN CdeP 1978, and grandmother of eight grandchildren including CAITLIN CdeP 2006, CASEY CdeP 2010, and Molly ’12.

BARBARA GRIGGS Barbara Griggs, mother of STEPHEN CdeP 1963, passed away peacefully at the age of 94 on May 5, 2011. As Steve wrote: “She was a vital member of the Thacher community from 1940-1954 alongside her husband, legendary teacher Van Griggs. Her influence on the musical and theatrical aspects at Thacher in those days was profound. Following Van’s death in 1954, she replaced him in the classroom, teaching his French and Spanish sections for the 1954-55 school year. She moved off campus after that, but continued her involvement with the School, particularly after Steve arrived as a smut in 1959. Once again, she helped behind the scenes with Mr. McDougall’s lavish Shakespeare productions and filled in for Mr. Erhardt in the music department when needed. When Steve and NICK THACHER CdeP 1963 formed the Honeytones barbershop quartet (with classmates ARNIE MOORE and FRED KEELER), she became the primary teacher and guide spending hours at the piano trying to wrestle some harmonies out of that dubious foursome.

Even after moving east in the 1960s, Barbara maintained close ties to Thacher and returned for the centennial celebration among many visits. Her ties to the classes of 1944 and 1963 were particularly strong, and she communicated with members of those classes until her final days.”      

ROBERTA DE LUCE HARTNACK Roberta De Luce Hartnack died on November 11, 2011; she was 93. She was the mother of Gretchen Milligan (wife of MARSHALL CdeP 1969) and two sons; grandmother of seven grandchildren, including LUCY MILLIGAN CdeP 2000, CLAIRE MIL LIGAN CdeP 2002, AMANDA HARTNACK CdeP 1998, and PETER HARTNACK CdeP 2000; and five great-grandchildren.

ARTHUR ACHILLE MILLIGAN Arthur Achille “Bud” Milligan, Thacher’s fourth president of the Board of Trustees, and father and grandfather of five Thacher students, passed away on November 3, 2011, in Santa Barbara at the age of 94. Born in Oxnard, Bud was named after his grandfather Achille Levy, who proclaimed that the boy would follow him in the banking business. After graduating from Oxnard High School, he majored in political science at Stanford University, where he met his future bride, Jeanne Welch, whom he married in 1942. After serving on a naval destroyer in the North Atlantic, Bud made good on his grandfather’s prediction, and joined Bank of A. Levy, where he spent his entire career. He followed his uncle, Joe Levy, as president of the Bank in 1954 and, as Ventura County grew rapidly in the post-war era, so did the bank. Bud lived the role of the town banker and served as a leader in numerous volunteer community roles. He was held in high esteem by his peers, who elected him president of the California Bankers Association in 1962 and president of the American Bankers Association in 1975.

Bud was elected to Thacher’s Board of Trustees in 1966 as one of the few non-Thacher graduates; he served as vice president from 1969-1970 until he became president of the Board for a three-year term beginning in 1970. Board discussion during this era focused on the ultimate size of the School (“don’t make it larger, make it better”); construction of the gymnasium, Matilija Dorm, and the Headmaster’s residence; acquisition of Golden Trout Camp; consideration of coeducation school with a trial Emma Willard School exchange of students; and implementation of the Ninth Decade Fund (raising $500K a year for five years) which started an Endowment for the School and resulted in the “burn the mortgage” event on June 13, 1973. Other Boarddirected activities at this time included founding the Boot Hill Association, developing the Friends of Thacher Library, and hiring DAVID G. LAVENDER CdeP 1951 to run the new Development Department. Additional achievments included greater diversity of the student body through the program, “A Better Chance;” dedicating the Jesse Kahle Horse Center; and emphasizing the 12 concepts on which the School was based. Bud thought his role as president of the Board was “basically one of presiding and trying to keep the constructive, self-starting Trustees on their own tracks… and making sure that we used those talents and those energies to best serve The Thacher School.”

On his 65th birthday in 1982, Bud handed the reins of the bank to his two sons, MI CHAEL CdeP 1962 and MARSHALL CdeP 1969. Subsequently, he and Jeanne retired to Santa Barbara to enjoy many healthy years of golf, travel, and frequent visits with their three granddaughters: KIMBERLEY CdeP 1987, LUCY CdeP 2000, and CLAIRE CdeP 2002. Jeanne passed away in 1998.

THE BEST WE CAN DO… GUADALUPE N. NICKELL CdeP 1992 When Thacher graduates go forth to “do the best work in the world that they can,” some take that to mean the whole world. Whether leading a trip to Guatemala for The Nature Conservancy, or raising funds for a global education organization in Europe, Lupe Nickell credits Thacher with opening her eyes to larger possibilities.

…

HOMETOWN: Oakland, California YEARS AT CdeP: 1989‒1992. I entered Thacher as a new sophomore.

AFTER THACHER: Earned an A.B. from Princeton University and spent five years in software and web development. A quarter-life crisis in 2001 inspired my transition to the nonprofit sector, where I’ve been working ever since. Last year I graduated from the Berkeley-Columbia Executive MBA program and joined Room to Read as its senior development director for North America.

In my volunteer life, I serve as a trustee for the Vistamar School in El Segundo, the vice chair of the Development Committee for the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley, and on The Thacher School’s Alumni Council.

WORK IN THE WORLD: I’ve been very fortunate to work in two fields that hold great personal significance for me: education and the environment.

I’ve worked for a national education organization that focuses on domestic issues; a global conservation organization that works both domestically and internationally; and a global education organization that focuses solely on the developing world. This spring I begin a new assignment at Room to Read, where I will serve as acting director of development for our European operations.

Working with Room to Read in Sri Lanka (top), in Zambia (above) and at a school opening ceremony in Sri Lanka’s Mannar District.

THE BEST PART: Working in philanthropy means that I get to work with people at their very best.

During my seven years at The Nature Conservancy, I had the opportunity to lead several multi-generational family trips to some of the Conservancy’s most stunning preserves. Watching an 85-year-old grandmother realize that her 5-year-old grandson inherited her love of birding gives you faith in our world’s future. It is a great honor and a lot of fun to support families in their desire to share and celebrate their philanthropic values.

WHAT THACHER TAUGHT ME ABOUT THE WORLD: Thacher opened my eyes to the world and all of its possibilities. My summer abroad in Spain with the American Field Service (AFS) was my first trip outside of the U.S. I was hooked. The more I learned, the more I realized I did not know.

WHAT I HAD TO LEARN FIRSTHAND: Once you eat an Ojai orange, you’re spoiled for life. No other kind will ever be as good.

FAVORITE PLACE ON CAMPUS: The soccer field at sunset. Preferably after victory.

FAVORITE PLACE IN THE WORLD: Too many to count. But spending a lazy summer evening in Ojai with Anne Berube Gard CdeP 1992 is near the top of the list.

MOST SURPRISING SMALL WORLD STORY: When I joined the Development Committee at Haas last year, we held a celebratory dinner with some of the outgoing volunteers. As I shook hands with outgoing chair Steve Peletz, he looked at me closely and said, “I know you.” Steve proceeded to inform me that he was a member of CdeP 1977 and that he remembered a story I had told about being pulled over by the California Highway Patrol.

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