The Magazine of The Thacher School • Spring 2019
THACHER Kids These Days The challenges facing today’s adolescents and what adults can do to help.
CONTENTS 12
12 • Armchair Wandering
We hear enough about parents going overboard to smooth the way for their children. What happens when a child puts his mother to the test on an epic mountain bike ride?
14 • Who’s Taking Care of the Kids?
On the one hand we hear daily reports of a generation at risk, made miserable by technology and the pressure to be perfect. On the other, we are told that overparenting may be partially to blame. What’s a parent to do? What do our children really need and how can we help them get it?
14
ON & OFF CAMPUS
ALUMNI & COMMUNITY NEWS
01 • View From Olympus
30 • Gatherings
Our head of school reflects on what it means to step into the arena and risk greatly.
Thacher goes to Hollywood! Also, reports from Winter Alumni Day, and Grandparents and Special Friends Day.
04 • The Pergola As assemblage of noteworthy School and community intelligence.
32 • Class Notes, etc. Alumni news, milestones, and news from faculty, staff, and friends.
38 • In Memoriam 41 • The Best We Can Do FRONT COVER Photographer Tamar Levine asked fac brats Darragh Mahoney and Jack Vyhnal to show her some of their favorite spots on campus. She snapped this shot high above the Gymkhana Field on the way to Banjo Cave.
Jaime Luna CdeP 2005 makes a difference in the lives of students and teachers at a Houston charter school.
VIEW FROM OLYMPUS…
The Power of the Vulnerable And the inherent messiness of daring greatly in a worthy cause. AT THACHER, WE CONCLUDE EACH SCHOOL YEAR WITH THE ALLSchool Banquet, a final chance to come together as a community and reflect on the year gone by. Gathered on the Pergola, we sing Domine, share a meal, listen to readings from a few of our seniors, celebrate the extraordinary achievements of students in and out of the classroom, enjoy some wisdom from our outgoing school chair, and say goodbye to departing faculty. The evening comes to an end with something the program calls “Closing Comment from the Head of School.” When I first read a draft of the program and considered how I might attempt to make meaning of the preceding nine months with a “comment,” I was suddenly filled with compassion for every poor soul who had resorted to maligning Dickens and their audience with a “best of times/ worst of times” commencement speech. Like each school year in my 23 years teaching and working in high schools, this one was unique in the challenges (and glories) it offered our community. We didn’t have fires (for which we are profoundly grateful), but we did experience loss and grief. We wrestled with the reality of change—from a new head of school to gender-neutral bathrooms. National conversations about class, race, gender, sexual identity, and social
Blossom Beatty Pidduck presents an award to Jose Carpio ‘21 at the All-School Banquet.
justice found their way into campus conversations in ways that were sometimes uncomfortable. We asked questions of ourselves and of one another, wondering how to disagree kindly, honorably, truthfully, and fairly, how to be a community unified by transcendent values even as we embrace our differences. We collectively reached for solutions and sometimes found more questions. In short, we were vulnerable. We made space for both clarity and uncertainty. We took on topics and questions without immediate answers. And in closing the school year on that last night together, I chose to comment on what a powerful opportunity that vulnerability affords us as a School. I shared Teddy Roosevelt’s “man in the arena” quotation, a quotation that may be familiar to many of you and has reentered the popular lexicon through the work of researcher Brené Brown in her book Daring Greatly. I asked the students to consider the relationship between vulnerability and power that Roosevelt’s words suggest and that Brown explores in her research. “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” It’s not difficult to hear the parallels in Roosevelt’s words to the world in which we live—a world where so many choose not to enter the arena, not to do the work or to err, but instead to hurl criticisms from the sidelines. To post anonymously. To tear down. To point out how those in the arena, those trying and stumbling, could have done better. There’s no courage there, no daring, and, in the long run, not much power. That truth, however, isn’t always obvious, especially to a teenager in 2019. Current Thacher students were raised on social media—on likes, ubiquitous reviews and comments, curated personas. They’re bombarded with the message that a well-lived life is one of consistent comfort, but The Thacher School 1
VIEW FROM OLYMPUS… that achieving that idealized life requires perfection. They’re coming of age in a world of rankings, where success is defined by access to the best, and access is wildly exclusive. There isn’t much in their world advertising the benefits of Roosevelt’s arena of action. What is the incentive towards vulnerability when effortless achievement appears to be the ideal? How does enthusiastically striving and falling short lead to anything other than shame, when the critics seem to have all the power? There is also the phenomenon of “vehicular parents” we’ve been hearing so much about in the media—be it helicopter, lawnmower, snowplow, or bulldozer. In attempting to clear the path for our children in subtle and overt ways, we parents are signaling to our kids that they are not actually capable of facing the inevitable bumps in the road, that they can’t be trusted with the possibility of “failure.” Is it any wonder that levels of anxiety and depression have skyrocketed among teens of all socioeconomic classes and races? Research has demonstrated a connection between a lack of self-efficacy (the belief in one’s ability to achieve goals) and depression and anxiety among teens. What are these elements of adolescent culture if not the repeated message that these kids are not in the driver’s seat of their lives? They get lots of input on the desired destination for their lives, but often believe they have little control over the means of arriving there. And that externalization of their power, that loss of self-efficacy, is all the more incentive to stay on the sidelines. Why bother to get in the arena and risk failing if you believe it might not make a difference anyway? Thacher has long been an arena for doers, a place where kids are asked—even required—to engage in endeavors where a degree of discomfort is to be expected and perfection is simply not an option. The horse and outdoor programs are, of course, prime examples. Living and working with a diverse-in-every-sense-of-the-word community where you are held to standards of honor, fairness, kindness, and truth in all of your actions is another. We work every day to build a culture that counteracts the inertia of adolescence. We want kids to experience the arena of action—in every aspect of their Thacher lives—so they can practice striving and daring at least as much as the realities of their world push them to practice performance and perfection. We want them to become comfortable with discomfort, to know what it feels like to be vulnerable, because therein lies the power to grow, to become, to live, in Mr. Thacher’s words, “for their own greatest good and that of their fellow citizens.” What these experiences help our students learn is that vulnerability is not the same thing as powerlessness, and sometimes, to claim power over our destinies—individually or collectively—the best first step is to make ourselves vulnerable. This issue of the magazine includes discussions about some of the particular challenges facing high school students these days—at Thacher and elsewhere—and what we’re doing to help students build strong, courageous, healthy, and generous selves, selves that thrive in the arena of life. Whether they are wrestling with expectations around living apart from family in a diverse community, developing healthy ways of living with personal technology, or navigating the mixed messages of the college process, our students face challenges that find a particular form at Thacher, but are connected to realities that exist in our society at large. Our work with these students is to help them discover their own agency 2 SPrING 2019
The dining hall construction site.
and use it in a manner consistent with a commitment to the greater good. And to help them understand that sometimes self-efficacy begins with making yourself open to discomfort, to failure, and to uncertain outcomes. It’s not just our students whom we encourage to take risks and grow. There is a parallel here for the School itself. Though the challenges of today’s world are many, they offer us the opportunity as an institution to continue to dare greatly. As I often say, we’ve never been afraid of doing things differently at Thacher, of risking a little messiness in order to reach a better version of ourselves. Campus this summer has become a metaphor for that commitment. My view from Olympus is dominated by the construction site of the beautiful and functional new dining hall that will become the hub of our community this fall. Meanwhile, the old dining hall has been repurposed as classrooms as we begin work on our new Creativity + Technology Center. This is all a work in progress, work founded on our strategic vision for Thacher and funded by our loyal community in tangible evidence of a collective courage to try something new in order to advance the worthy cause of the Thacher mission. Together we trust that before long the din and mess of construction will give rise to new facilities that fulfil our blueprints and renderings. A similar hope and collective trust is at work as faculty, staff, and students look forward to another year of advancing a project that requires us all to risk the comfort of our present for a better future by climbing into the arena. In the meantime, on some days we will don our hardhats and maneuver through the construction sites, knowing that one day, the new structures we envision will have been realized.
UP FRONT…
THACHER
The Magazine of The Thacher School Volume 13, Issue 1 Spring 2019 EDITOR Christopher J. Land ASSISTANT EDITOR Lynn Frances Jae CLASS NOTES EDITOR Aaron Boydston ARCHIVIST Bonnie LaForge
Stalking the Feral Fac Brat A FEW TIMES A YEAR, I GET A CHANCE TO SHEPHERD A HIRED PHOTOGRAPHER around campus as we work through a list of the shots we need for a particular issue of the magazine, for the website, and for assorted other communications projects. It’s always a bit of a safari and, frankly, one of the best parts of my job—a chance to leave my desk and see the School through the fresh eyes of somebody visiting campus for the first time. Much of the day is scheduled: Visit a science classroom where I’ve had a tip that something might be exploding; get some shots of a recently completed campus project; and then hustle down to Upper Field for the playoff game at 4:00. But I also build in plenty of time between scheduled appointments to catch unscripted moments. For this issue, we were especially interested in capturing the spontaneous, out-of-bounds side of things. We don’t normally spotlight faculty children—fac brats if you prefer the Latin— but our “kids these days” theme seemed to warrant it. After all, who better to illustrate the opportunities that an unscheduled afternoon affords than a pack of unattended offspring whose parents are busy educating other people’s children? Turns out, it doesn’t work like that. Through a complex cooperative network that includes spouses, colleagues, grandparents, and even at times helpful students, Thacher exemplifies that village it takes to raise a child, which means our faculty manages to be on the job 24/7 and still function as capable parents. Like Thacher students, faculty children have their own schedules and places to be, so we worked our shoot around play rehearsals, homework, tennis lessons, and piano. In the end, however, we were not disappointed. Once the kids were released from their obligations, they allowed us to follow them to their favorite campus haunts, propelled on scooters, bikes, and bare feet. You’ll see the photos for yourself later in this issue, compelling reminders of the importance of meeting up with a friend or two and heading out for whatever adventure—even if you have to schedule it. Despite the burdens we adults inadvertantly place upon our children, there is a lot of magic on this campus, and not all of it in the classrooms and dorms. Here’s to the parents, whether they work here or send their children here, who grant their children the gift of time (some of it free) at Casa de Piedra. —Christopher J. Land
DESIGN Charles Hess, design director Lisa Lewis, designer PHOTOGRAPHY Christopher Land, Pamela Springsteen, Gloria Swift, Carin Yates HEAD OF SCHOOL Blossom Beatty Pidduck DIRECTOR OF ENROLLMENT AND PLANNING William P. McMahon DIRECTOR OF INSTITUTIONAL ADVANCEMENT Jeffery D. Berndt
Thacher is published twice a year by The Thacher School, and is sent free of charge to alumni, parents, and friends of the School. Every effort is made to ensure that contents are accurate and complete. If there is an omission or an error, please accept our apologies and notify us at the address below. Copyright © 2019 The Thacher School Third class postage is paid at the Oxnard Post Office. POSTMASTER: Please send form 3579 to the following address. Editor, Thacher Magazine 5025 Thacher Road Ojai, CA 93023 thacher.org thachermagazine@thacher.org 805-640-3201 x264 How to Submit Class Notes Online: blogs.thacher.org/classnotes E-mail: alumni@thacher.org Fax: 805-646-1956 (fax)
Thacher is printed by Ventura Printing using an environmentally friendly waterless printing process, soy-based inks, and recycled paper.
On the way to Banjo Cave. The Thacher School 3
THE PERGOLA… IN THE HEIGHTS A TALENTED CAST of 30 Thacher thespians brought the New York City neighborhood of Washington Heights to the Milligan Center for the winter musical, In the Heights. Senior Alika Ka’imipono Williams played the lead role in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s other award-winning show. The Masquers spent seven weeks together rehearsing nightly after sports and on Saturdays, and according to Alika, “became a family.” Ultimately, the audiences showed their appreciation for all the hard work with standing ovations after each performance. Below: Dr, Benitez (top) delivers a dynamic keynote and (bottom) Ana Urgiles CdeP 2013 and Nu Xiong CdeP 2013 lead a workshop on identity and integration at boarding school.
COURAGE, CONSCIENCE, AND COALITIONS IN JANUARY, THACHER CELEBRATED the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with its first annual youth leadership summit on diversity and inclusion, titled “Courage, Conscience, and Coalition.” Contingents from three Ojai schools and two Northern California schools joined 14 guest speakers and the Thacher community for the two-day conference. The event included inspiring keynote addresses, small breakout discussions, a variety of hour-long workshops, and a rousing concert. Dr. Gaye Theresa Johnson, associate professor of African American studies and Chicana and Chicano Studies at UCLA, gave Sunday’s keynote address. She also led a workshop for adult attendees titled “Race, Space, and Power in Postwar Los Angeles” about the history of black and brown freedom seekers and cultural workers in Los Angeles. Monday morning, Dr. Michael Benitez, dean of diversity and inclusion, and chief diversity officer at the University of Puget Sound, gave the keynote address, sharing several anecdotes about his experience, as a Latino, moving to the Midwest after growing up in New York. His student workshop was called “When Keeping It Real Goes Right: Equity, Diversity, and Student Leadership.” The band Luv Phenomena closed the event with a concert of their songs, written to inspire hearts, minds, spirits, and soul. 4 spring 2019
THE STORIES WE CARRY EMMY AWARD–WINNING WRITER, speaker, activist, and cancer survivor Suleika Jaouad (see page 6) spent the spring trimester on campus as an Anacapa Fellow, co-teaching The Stories We Carry, an English elective for seniors. English teacher Katherine Halsey invited her to Thacher and co-taught the class. “My hope,” said Jaouad, “was to give students a glimpse of what creative writing at a college level or a graduate level would look like and hopefully to interest some of them in pursuing creative writing more seriously in college.” Following a format common in MFA writing programs, Jaouad invited seven published writers to be guest lecturers. Each week was a self-contained unit modeled after some aspect of the guest writer’s work and culminating with a discussion (face to face or via Skype) with the author. Jaouad’s interactions with established writers during her high school and college years were some of her most influential experiences, so she “wanted to create opportunities for students to talk to writers with very different backgrounds, with different kinds of writing, and to actually hear not only what it is that they do, but how it is that they’ve gotten to where they are.” The Anacapa Fellowship also provided time for Jaouad to work on final edits for her memoir, Between Two Kingdoms.
EXPLORING PASSIONS SENIOR EXHIBITIONS WEEKEND is one of the highlights of the school year, not only for the seniors, but for the whole community. During those four days, “the seniors courageously take to the stage to share their knowledge with their teachers, their parents, and their peers,” said Molly Perry, the program coordinator. This is the seniors’ chance to share their passions, and the list of categories and subjects seems to expand each year. Librarian Renee Hawkins categorized the presentations in her TOADTalk: science; social science and psychology; health care; humanities; government and politics (domestic and international); equity and justice; education systems; business and finance; environment and sustainability; and food safety and security. Here is a small sample of the 64 subjects seniors chose to investigate: • • • • • • • • • •
SPRING SING: MADAGASCAR
Senior Jesse VanNewkirk lets it fly in this year’s student-produced musical.
Biomimicry: Natural Blueprints for Innovation that Excites Putting It Off: Into the Mind of a Procrastinator China’s Health Care Crisis Dead White Men: The Literary Canon The Myth of American Meritocracy The Fate of the West: Analysis of Cowboy Culture and Ranching Why Airplane Accidents Happen The Environmental Cost of Eating Meat in the 21st Century Mindfulness as a Key to Realizing Student Success How Korea Produces the Most Depressed Students
English and Latin teacher Iona Popa CdeP 2010 summed it up: “So much about this place is visible in Sr Ex. This is one of the ways in which the amazing educational resources we have manifest.” The Thacher school 5
THE PERGOLA…
OUTSIDE OUTLOOKS VISITING SCHOLARS, ARTISTS, AND EXPERTS SPARK NEW IDEAS AND INSPIRATION
SULEIKA JAOUAD, an Emmy Award–winning writer, speaker, activist, and cancer survivor, spent the spring trimester teaching creative writing to a group of Thacher seniors in a class titled The Stories We Carry. The curriculum, which replicated a creative writing MFA course, included discussions with seven published writers.
JONATHAN RAPPING was this year’s William H. Orrick Lecture Series speaker. The nationally renowned criminal justice innovator and founder and president of Gideon’s Promise gave a talk titled Future Change Agents: Marrying Purposeful Lives With Purposeful Careers, encouraging students to choose paths that make a positive difference.
JANICE ROSARIO, a New York City–based contemporary dance choreographer and instructor, spent three days working with the Thacher Dance Ensemble in master classes and developing a piece that was performed at a Head’s Invite. Rosario sees her work architecturally, “designing spaces with bodies.”
JON BATISTE of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert gave the Thacher Jazz Band members the experience of a lifetime when they performed solos to his accompaniment. Batiste also spoke with the The Stories We Carry class about storytelling in songs and writing for The New York Times.
6 spring 2019
BIG GYMKHANA FAMILY WEEKEND
IMPRESSIVE PERFORMANCES on the Milligan Center stage and the Gymkhana Field (where Lola Henderson-Thomas ‘22 was the only rider to pick up the silver dollar on Saturday) set the tone for a weekend of gathering with family and friends.
SPRING EXTRA-DAY TRIPS LATE SEASON STORMS prompted our campers to prepare for the worst, hope for the best, and, in some cases, modify plans. But in the end, the School notched another memorable week in the wilderness. Traveling by horse, bike, kayak, and foot, our groups explored destinations including Point Reyes, Sequoia National Park, Catalina, and, of course, the Sespe.
The Thacher School 7
THE PERGOLA…
SCOREBOARDS: 2019 HIGHLIGHTS WINTER SPORTS CIF FINALISTS This season, the boys’ varsity soccer team experienced the most success they have had since 2003 by reaching the CIF Finals and earning second place in the CIF Division 7 playoffs. The team finished the season with a 5-2-1 record for league play. First team Frontier League: Julian Amaya ’19, Max Golbère ’19, Patrick Lundgren ’21, Roman Bergeron ’19. Second team: Luke Letscher ’20, Oakley Browning ’22, Satto Lopez ’21. Most Valuable Player: Julian Amaya ’19 Most Improved Player: Omar Khattab ’19 Best Teammate: Julian Amaya ’19 AN UNDEFEATED SEASON The girls’ varsity basketball team had a stellar season, going undefeated in league play (8-0) until losing in the second round of CIF playoffs. A 10-game winning streak included a 39-34 win against Cate and a three-point overtime win against La Reina. Frontier League all-star awards: MVP: Jessica Donohue ‘19. First team: Evan Perry ‘19. Second team: Lulu Patterson ‘19 Honorable Mention: Piper Stacey ‘19 and Jaeda Nevarez ‘19. Coach Livermore was voted coach of the year by the Frontier League. Most Valuable Player: Jessica Donohue ’19 Most Inspirational Player: Lily Harding ’19 Most Improved Players: Jaeda Nevarez ’19 and Abbey Alvarado ’20 FOUR FRONTIER LEAGUE ALL-STARS Coach Carney paid tribute to the fantastic leadership the boys’ varsity basketball team received from the five seniors this season. The Toads experienced a balanced season in league play 4-4 and overall 10-10. There were some true highlights to the season. Skyler’s block on Loma Linda’s best player, who was going in for a dunk, brought the crowd to its feet, as did a 27-point win against Cate. The team made it through the first round of the CIF playoff. Skyler Nova ’20 was named to the All-CIF Division 5A team. Four players received Frontier League recognition. First team: Jesse VanNewkirk ’19. Second team: Skyler Nova and Marcus Balano ’21. Honorable mention: Owen Dexter-Meldrum ’20. Most Valuable Player: Skyler Nova ’21 Hardest Worker: Jason Kim ’19 Best Teammates: Alika Williams ’19 and Jesse VanNewkirk ’19 8 spring 2019
A SPIRITED SEASON The Thacher girls’ varsity soccer team jumped into the season with two early wins, one being against CIF qualifier Dunn. In spite of high spirits and effort, the girls struggled through the league season (1-6), which included games against larger schools St. Bonaventure and Foothill Tech. Ultimately, the three senior captains were awarded all-league recognition: Libby Galgon received second team honors and Lulu Patterson and Sydney Yates received honorable mention.
THROUGH TO THE PLAYOFFS Under the leadership of senior captains Maya Wendel and Grace Zhang, the girls’ varsity lacrosse team advanced into the postseason with a victory against San Marcos to secure the number seven seed in the D2 playoffs. Season highlights included an 11-10 last-second victory over San Marcos at home and a quadruple overtime against D2 defending champions Dos Pueblos. Every attacker scored this season; junior Sydney Rosenbaum led the team with an impressive 55 goals.
Most Valuable Player: Libby Galgon ’19 Most Improved Player: Annika St. George ’20
Most Valuable Def.: Lulu Patterson ’19 Most Valuable Offense: Sydney Rosenbaum ’20 Unsung Hero: Lila Potter ’20 Most Improved Player: Mya Bolden ’20
SPRING SPORTS RUNNING FOR THE GOLD Under strong senior leadership, the track and field team was the Tri Valley League champion and sent 10 athletes to the CIF Prelims. Caroline DelVecchio ’19 was undefeated in the league in both 100m and 300m hurdles starting in 10th grade; holds the 100m hurdles School record; and placed 4th in the 100m and 300m hurdles at CIF finals. Winslow Atkeson ’20 was the 1600m Tri Valley League Champion; won the 1600m at the Southern Section Div 4 League Finals and the Russell Cup. Most Valuable Player: Winslow Atkeson ’20 Thacher Cup Award: Caroline DelVecchio David S. Lavender Improvement Award: Sophie Bekins ’22, Winslow Atkeson Spirit Award: Edward Rosenbaum ’22 and Isabel Hosafros ’19 A SEASON TO CHEER ABOUT The baseball team had an excellent season with only one loss for the year. Extending the success they experienced last year, the Toads beat every team in the league at least once. Frontier League awards: MVP Preston Brailer CF ’19. First team: SS-P JJ Mazzola ’19. Second team: 3B Teddy Mailer ’21 and C Conner Levine ’22. Most Valuable Player: Preston Brailer ’19 Most Inspirational: Dash Martin ’21, Will Callahan ’22 Most Improved Player: Teddy Mailer ’21
STRONG DOUBLES SHOWINGS Highlights of the boys’ varsity tennis season included George ’19 and Charlie’s ’22 defeat of the number two doubles team from Cate for third place in the All-League tournament. Our doubles team of seniors Max Golbére and John Han competed in The Ojai, the national tennis tournament held locally for the past 119 years. Most Valuable Player: Max Golbére ’19 Unsung Hero: Charles Kern ’21 Most Improved Player: William Keeling ’20 CIF All-League First Team: Max Golbére ’19, John Han ’19, Charlie Tracy ’22, George Lawrence ’19 CIF All-League Second Team: Wyatt O’Connell ’22 BETTER EVERY GAME The boys’ varsity lacrosse team played their best lacrosse down the homestretch, finishing the campaign on a four-game winning streak. Their results improved each time they played an opponent for the second time: Cate from a 1-goal win to a 6-goal win, Dos Pueblos went from a 1-goal loss to a 4-goal win; San Marcos went from an 8-goal defeat to a 4-goal defeat; Santa Barbara from a 5-goal win to a 9-goal win. Most Valuable Player: Michael Sanderson ’20 Unsung Hero: Charlie Kleeger ’19 Most Improved Player: Richard Garner ’20 Team Spirit Award: Jackson Hollins ’20
CdeP 2019 ADVANCES TO THE NEXT ROUND Julian Thomas Amaya, Claremont McKenna College Orrian Sylvester Arnold, Northwestern University Roman Antonio Bergeron, Claremont McKenna College Clare Walker Bilek, University of Chicago Preston Rhoa Brailer, University of Pennsylvania Amber Aryn Brown, Sewanee: The University of the South Sean Martin Cahill, Trinity College Anyu Cao, University of Chicago Xavier Perfecto Cardoza, Wesleyan University James Peter Costigan, University of Southern California Emelia Angela Daro, Tufts University Caroline Redfield Delvecchio, Scripps College Jessica Marie Donohue, University of Southern California Georgia Lee Driscoll, Tulane University Trevor Seymour Duggins, Bowdoin College Tess Ivy Eleanor Edwards, University of California, Santa Barbara Ogechukwu Defne Egbo, Barnard College Anna-Liisa Clair Eklund, Georgetown University Libby Dupré Galgon, Colby College Ursula Elizabeth Gately, Georgetown University Evan Robert Glenn, Purdue University Max McKinley Golbère, University of California, Santa Cruz Eli Adam Graff, Swarthmore College Lindsey White Greenhill, Harvard College Thomas Jennings Gwilliam, University of Virginia Janghee John Han, University of California, Los Angeles Lily Winfield Harding, Bates College Samantha May Hollins, The American University of Paris Isabel Ana Hosafros, United States Naval Academy Klara Morrissen Jacobs, Oberlin College of Arts and Sciences Omar Mohab Khattab, Arizona State University Tarek Mohab Khattab, Arizona State University Shin Hyung Jason Kim, University of Southern California (Marshall)
Colin Poole Kirkpatrick, Pomona College Charlie Max Kleeger, University of Michigan Jaeda Klinzing Nevarez, Cuesta College George Cleveland Lawrence, Duke University Julien Andrew Luebbers, Pomona College Stefanie Marie Lueders, University of Wisconsin, Madison Eric Mao, Northwestern University James Joseph Mazzola, Santa Clara University Fiona Carter McLaughlin, Colorado College Madeleine Calais Moore, University of Chicago Dylan Andrew Noell, University of Miami Lulu Clarke Patterson, Harvard College Evan Howse Perry, Pomona College Margaret Chamberlin Phipps, Hamilton College–NY Martin Wesley Porter, University of California, Merced Devon Lyn Roberts, University of Richmond Abigail Miao Romo, Stanford University Alette Nicole Segerstrom, Emerson College John Ford Shaper, Brown University Kyle Warner Smith, University of Colorado at Boulder Jiho Jamie Song, University of Pennsylvania Piper Frances Stacey, Dartmouth College Alice Bi-Er Tang, Scripps College James McGrew Twichell, Brown University Jesse Peter VanNewkirk, Dartmouth College Andrea Ines Viera, Cornell University Brooks Thomas Walker, Santa Clara University Maya Adelle Wendel, Georgetown University Alejandro Jonathan Wilcox, Cornell University Alika Jay Ka'imipono Williams, Occidental College Sydney Lee Yates, Scripps College Yao Yin, Harvard College Grace Jinning Zhang, Columbia University
NUMERACY Here is an intriguing question from geometry that incorporates the three most important figures: square, circle, and equilateral triangle. Th triangle has side length “t” and the square has side length “s.” If one leg of the right triangle ABC is length “a” as shown, find “t” in terms of “a.”
B s a
STUMPED: LAST ISSUE’S PUZZLE
For the first time, there were no submissions to the puzzle from last issue, which you may remember posed a question regarding a hypothetical foot race between Blossom and Brian Pidduck. To be reminded of the puzzle and informed of its correct answer, visit thacher.org/magazine/spring2019.
t C
A
The Thacher School 9
THE PERGOLA… BLURB & SQUIB RECOGNITION Johannes Girardoni CdeP 1985 was selected to receive the 2019 Francis J. Greenburger Award, which “honors established artists whom the art world knows to be of extraordinary merit, but who have not been fully recognized by the public.” Johannes, a sculptor, photographer, and installation artist, also recently completed an art and architecture collaboration with EYRC Architects, Spectral Bridge House, that was featured in Design LA Magazine. Rukmini Callimachi CdeP 1991 earned a 2019 Peabody Award with Caliphate, the narrative podcast series she created and produced with The New York Times. Esquire called the Caliphate the best podcast of the year and it ranked among Apple’s top 10. WIRED magazine called Callimachi “arguably the best reporter on the most important beat in the world.” This year’s Academy Awards brought recognition to two members of the Thacher community. Eric Dachs CdeP 1994 was honored by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science (the group that awards the Oscars) with a Sci-Tech Award for developing the software platform PIX. This global collaboration and asset management technology is used to securely find and share all creative and strategic content and communications. Congratulations are also in order for Peter Farrelly P ’17 and ’18, who co-wrote and directed Green Book, which won the Oscar for best picture.
ALBUM Trinity (Sudweeks) Seely CdeP 1999 released her fourth album, Camp to Camp in December of 2018, the same month she was featured on the cover of Western Horseman magazine. It features more of the musical storytelling that has made her a regular at cowboy gatherings throughout the West.
FILM In April, the Newport Beach Film Festival screened ¡Boza!, a feature length documentary by Sydney Bowie CdeP 2010. The film grew out of a Fulbright grant that allowed Sydney to live in Seville, Spain, and document the lives and stories of three young sub-Saharan immigrants pursuing a better life there. Follow @bozathefilm on social media to learn about upcoming film festival screenings.
10 spring 2019
FROM THE ARCHIVES 125… 100… 50… 25… 10... 5... YEARS AGO AT THACHER
TWIN PEEKS
A Backward Glance Through the Pages of CdeP Publications 126 years 1893 The precursor to The Thacher Notes, Casa Piedra Reata, makes its first appearance in the February 1, 1893, edition of The Ojai. “Its object, as its name implies, is to catch hold of all sorts of items of news and other things of interest to those interested in Casa Piedra Ranch, and present them to its indulgent readers at the bi-weekly ‘roundup’.” “Query: Could there be a better name than Reata for a noose-paper?” 100 years 1919 “And so, because of its many attractions and its wonderful location (Point Mugu Beach), the Duck Club has without a doubt been a remarkable addition to the life of the School. The organization of the club we owe to Mr. WIlliam Thacher more than anyone else. He, with the cooperation of its members, made it what it is, and left it as a lasting monument to the Upper Uppers of 1919… The Upper Uppers went in large bodies nearly every week-end either hunting for ducks in the slough or deep sea fishing in the Pacific.” (El Archivero, 1919) 75 years 1944 “At the crack of dawn on May 1, “39 boys set out for the Sespe Valley with visions of big fish running through their heads.” One of the boys “was showing his companion how to cast a line out onto the water. He cast the line out and just as he was about to hand his companion the rod, he caught a fish of fair size. As he was demonstrating the cast a second time, he promptly hooked another. His would-be pupil, disgusted with his friend’s success, said, ‘If it’s that easy, I can learn myself.’” (The Thacher Notes, May 19, 1944) 50 years 1969 “For the third summer since the acquisition of the Golden Trout Camp in the eastern Sierra Nevada, Thacher alumni will be welcomed with their families for a period of camping and recreation. ... Ike Livermore ‘28 stated that the camp is fulfilling its purpose of furnishing a meaningful program for the School, in addition to giving alumni and friends a place to renew their knowledge of the mountain country.” (The Thacher School Alumni News, Summer 1969) 25 years 1993 “The votes are now in: the faculty have agreed to move ahead with a pilot program of ‘Senior Exhibitions’ this spring. The goal is for 12th graders to demonstrate true mastery of an academic area of interest to him or her. As proposed, these exhibitions … would represent a culmination of a student’s academic work at Thacher.” (The Thacher School Parents’ Post, October/November, 1993) 10 years 2009 “Timeless fashion struts the red carpet at a biennial shindig that is part parody and pure party. For a few hours on Saturday night, the Library Courtyard appeared to have been transformed into a Grand Central Station of time travel, jammed as it was with students decked out to represent each decade from the start of the twentieth century through to the future. UnProm had returned! The brainchild of Thacher faculty emerita Phyllis Johnston, the first UnProm was held in 1993. As the name implies, this is not the typical high school extravaganza ... this gala swaps pomp for irony—no outfit can cost more than $15, and the gaudier, the better—preserving the best parts of prom: a sense of magic, great music, good food, and some moments of nostalgia as the year draws to a close.” (Website news story, May 7, 2009) 5 years 2014 “What do Thacher students do for fun? On the weekends, students take advantage of some unscheduled time to play in a sports game, get ahead on work, take a nap, spend quality time with friends ... Not only that, here are some recent weekend events: Mr. Carney takes two sections of his history class bowling; Dr. Vyhnal chaperones a group of students to an L.A. Kings game; Mr. Pidduck leads a mountain bike ride over the ridge; Mr. McMahon and members of the surf club instruct on a trip for first-timer surfers; and A Toad-Triathalon organized by Simon Novich ‘14 and Lexi Wachtell ‘15.” (Website news story, April 9, 2014)
Buildings Repurposed, Replaced, and Renewed As permanent as our campus landmarks seem, the hundred-year view reminds us of their mutability. Up until this summer, most of us on campus knew the ground floor of the Hills Building as the Dining Hall, but that wasn’t always the case. In the early 1900s it was known as the Parlor (see photos above), and it served as a place to gather the community, often warmed by a fire in the hearth Mr. Thacher built from local sandstone. Today, as we await the new dining hall, the Hills Building is being modified to house the temporary classrooms we’ll need while our new academic building, the Creativity + Technology Center, is being constructed on the site of the Anson Thacher Humanities Building, which was demolished at the beginning of the summer. Once the temporary classrooms are no longer needed, those spaces will be repurposed yet again, most likely returning to their original function as a multi-use gathering place. And so it goes.
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ARMCHAIR WANDERING…
Take Your Mom Bikepacking (And She Might Just Surprise You) By Liam Kirkpatrick CdeP 2017
FOR THE UNINITIATED, BIKEpacking is bike touring’s lightweight backcountry counterpart. By combining ultralight camping strategies with mountain bikes, bikepacking opens up an entirely different way of moving through wild places. I’ve fallen in love with the sport. Since being introduced to bikepacking by a high-school teacher a few years ago, I’ve ridden the epic Colorado Trail, the length of Cuba, and countless shorter trips through the Sespe, Sierra Nevada, and Southern Alps. My hope was that these experiences had prepared me for the ultimate challenge: a bikepacking adventure with my mother and fellow Toad, Carolyn Reed Kirkpatrick CdeP 1986.
MOM BUYS A BIKE (WITHOUT TRAINING WHEELS) Our plan raised eyebrows from the start. For my mom’s 50th birthday, I promised I’d take her on a bikepacking trip. I picked out a 750-mile route across southern British Columbia. She’d never ridden a loaded bike before, and had very little experience on mountain bikes at all. I thought taking my mom on my next one of these rides would be the perfect birthday present for a few reasons. She was my original outdoor mentor, one of the first people who took me into the wilderness and taught me to love adventure. With her and my dad, I learned to ski, hike, and camp. As I’ve grown up, my focus has shifted to biking and climbing, but I continue to build upon the skills
my parents first taught me. I thought sharing one of my new passions with my mom would be the best way to thank her for sharing the outdoors with me. Four months out, I helped my mom buy a mountain bike, and she promptly began hundreds of miles of training. It was only with three weeks to go that I began to address the finer details of the trip. The most difficult thing to figure out was how to carry our gear. I wanted to keep my mom’s bike light because a heavy load on tough trails is incredibly difficult for someone who’s still new to singletrack. However, wet British Columbia weather and long distances meant I’d be carrying more gear than I could fit in my usual setup. I settled on using a custom-fit framebag, a large seatbag, and
“This trip is the best gift I have ever received. Each night I crawled into my sleeping bag overwhelmed with gratitude, even when I was so exhausted and sore I could barely roll over. I was surprised how fast our roles as mother and son faded on the trail. Liam was clearly our trip leader and the bike expert, patiently teaching me new riding and camping skills.” —Carolyn Reed Kirkpatrick CdeP 1986 (AKA “Mom”)
FALL2018 2012 1200FALL
a self-made handlebar rack. I also used my Dueter Race 12 backpack for water, electronics/maps, my puffy jacket, and leftover Tim Horton’s. Backpacks are usually something I steer clear of when biking for weeks on end. However, with a compact and stable bag, I didn’t experience any of the back pain I usually associate with wearing backpacks on long riding days and the bike rode well; I carried my personal gear, the tent, kitchen, four days of food, and the repair kit, but could still shred the descents!
MOM FLIES TO CHILIWACK We flew up to Chiliwack (just outside Vancouver) and assembled our bikes in a motel room. We made a final run to the grocery store, and after weeks of planning, finally set out onto the trail. Only a few miles from the motel, we dove into the rain forest and picked our way slowly through moss-covered trails. By the end of our second day, things weren’t looking great. We spent an entire afternoon pushing our way through alder branches and bear scat on the way up Paleface Pass. Unable to make it over the pass that night, we camped beside the trail. The next morning we resumed our uphill plod, spending an hour dragging the heavy bikes through steep snow (the trail no longer visible) before we reached the crest of the pass. By now it was raining, and the overgrown and snowy trail meant we had to push our bikes for miles on the descent. Honestly, at this point I was worried I might have spoiled my mom on this whole bikepacking thing. But she kept going, and we made it to the town of Hope for burgers that night. Our troubles weren’t over. The next few days out of Hope involved waist-deep stream crossings, traversing steep eroded slopes, and (most terrifying of all) a few miles on the highway shoulder. I had plenty of practice carrying bikes on my shoulders, but mom didn’t. She’s an outdoor woman, though, and without complaint she lifted her bike onto her shoulders and continued to crush the route.
MOM CRUSHES THE MOUNTAINS Soon we had reached a more mellow section of our trip: the Kettle Valley Rail Trail, which (along with another few rail trail
systems) took us most of the way across the province. I loved watching my mom proudly conquer her first 30-mile day, then best it by 10 miles a few days later. Our long hours in the saddle were punctuated with frequent bear and deer sightings. We learned to visit cafés when in towns, and so our lunches were civilized affairs, complete with fresh scones and fruit. The trail took us through the incredible Othello Tunnels and Myra Trestles, remnants of some of the most spectacular railways ever created. As a cyclist, it’s an incredible feeling to gaze up at a steep hillside only to realize someone has tunneled a path through it for you. We enjoyed our visits to tiny British Columbia towns, though our time in them almost completely revolved around food. Once we bought an entire blueberry pie, ate half with our sporks right in front of the bakery, and then stuffed the second half into
my backpack for dinner. The mountains grew bigger as we continued east. We flew up the biggest climb of our trip, the 5,000-foot Grey Creek Pass, in half the time I’d planned. By then, it was more summer than spring, and we only had to pick our way through small patches of snow on the way down. Yellow wildflowers filled valleyfloor meadows. Before we knew it, we were on our final day, rolling into the town of Fernie, almost on the Alberta border. I don’t think this trip could have gone much better. We encountered just enough adversity to call our journey an adventure, but never descended into a full-on suffer-fest. We’d seen hundreds of miles of wilderness totally new to both of us, and had fun all the while. I hope by sharing my passion with my mom, I conveyed to her just how thankful I am for her teaching me to love the outdoors. I owe it all to her! The ThAcher SchooL 13
WHO’S TAKING CARE OF THE KIDS? All around us, experts are sounding their alarms: Adolescents are struggling to cope in a world increasingly shaped by technology and subject to pressures their parents never had to face. And yet, such heightened concern on behalf of the young seems itself to be a contributor to the problem, as overparenting is added to the list of challenges besetting our kids these days. We know that constructive challenges are key to the healthy development of young people, but creating and maintaining the right conditions for this growth is itself an ongoing challenge. Here we explore some of the negative pressures our adolescents face and the ways Thacher seeks the right balance of challenge and support. Last, we offer a glimpse into a world relatively untouched by these concerns, that of the free-ranging folk—past and present—affectionately known on campus as “faculty brats.”
“The arrival of the smartphone
has radically changed every aspect of teenagers’ lives, from the nature of their social interactions to their mental health.”1
“Longitudinal studies on young Americans’ psychological health reveal unprecedented changes.
Young people feel... less in control of their lives than ever before.” 2
1, 4: Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? Jean M. Twenge. Atlantic, September 2017. 2. Kids These Days: Human Capital and the Making of Millennials. Malcolm Harris. Little, Brown, and Company. 2017. 3. The Frenzied College Admission Race is Making Our Children Sick. Suniya S. Luthar. NAIS website. March 2019. 5. How Parents Are Robbing Their Children of Adulthood. Claire Cain Miller and Jonah Engel Bromwich. The New York Times. March 16, 2019.
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“Parents and educators must closely
intensely they prioritize academic and extracurricular excellence— and at what cost to students’ mental health. School communities examine how
need to come together to foster greater connectedness and less rank competitiveness among students.” 3
“There is compelling evidence that the devices we’ve placed in young people’s hands are having profound effects on their lives—and making them
seriously unhappy.”
4
“Snowplow parents have it backward... The point is to prepare the kid for the road, instead of preparing the road for the kid.”5
Why Screens Are Bad For Teens And what our kids need from us instead A Conversation With Christine Carter PhD CdeP 1990 and Blossom Beatty Pidduck CdeP 1992 Thacher’s Head of School Blossom Beatty Pidduck and Christine Carter frequently compare notes on the latest research on the topic of helping young people manage the challenges adolescents face on their ways to becoming happy, healthy, independent, contributing adults. Christine is a sociologist and Senior Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, where she draws on
scientific research to help people lead their most courageous, joyful, meaningful, and authentic lives. Her next book, The New Adolescence: Raising Happy and Successful Teens in an Age of Anxiety and Distraction, is due in February. Nowhere do Blossom’s and Christine’s areas of expertise overlap more than on the topic of the things today’s adolescents need from adults in their lives.
“THE NUMBER OF TEENS WHO GET TOGETHER WITH FRIENDS IS HALF WHAT IT WAS 15 YEARS AGO.”
BBP: You recently published an article on the risks of too much screen time for teens. I appreciated it because it ended up being not just about screen time, but also about some of the seemingly unrelated challenges adolescents face today, many of which relate to and are complicated by the ubiquity of electronic devices in their lives.
alone more, often spending this time viewing content that makes them believe others are having more fun than they are. Research psychologist and demographer Jean Twenge has documented that the number of teens who get together with friends is half what it was 15 years ago. And the rate of decline has gotten steeper in recent years.
CC: Yes, in that piece I focused on three risks. The first risk is that more screen time means more time alone. The paradox here is that even though our teens may be connected to hundreds of peers through instant messaging, social media, and video chat, more of them feel left out and lonely than ever before. A recent study found that 48 percent more girls and 27 percent more boys felt left out in 2015 compared to 2010. We can speculate about how this happens, but a lot of it boils down to the fear of missing out, which has become its own hashtag: #FOMO. As young people selectively post the best moments of their lives on Snapchat and Instagram, it’s easy for the followers of their feeds to conclude that everyone else is having the time of their lives while I lurk alone on my phone. Compounding the issue is that all the time spent on the phone tracking the amazing experience their peers are having is time they are not having meaningful experiences of their own. Adolescents feel lonely because they actually are
BBP: When you put it that way, boarding school seems like the perfect antidote. Our very premise means our students are spending time with their friends, working, playing, eating, and living together. On top of that, we are very purposeful in thinking about how we organize the ways we spend our time together at Thacher. Weekend FOMO just doesn’t mean much here because the kids are with their friends at whatever weekend activities are taking place—a coffeehouse, or at my house on Saturday night for Open House, making quesadillas, playing board games, and dancing or watching movies. We even unplug completely twice a year for week-long camping trips. Our intent has never been to orchestrate the kind of digital detox some people are calling for these days—we get so much more out of it than that. Time out from screens is more of a positive side effect of camping that ends up being one of the many benefits. But when you think of camping this way—as a string of days spent together in
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At a time when electronic devices are contributing to declines in face-to-face interactions between teenagers, living, working, and playing with 250 of your best friends offers a salutory alternative.
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Why Screens Are Bad For Teens
the outdoors, making new friendships and deepening others, without the distractions of technology—it sounds like a prescription for the ills we are talking about. The fact that we’ve been doing it for more than 100 years doesn’t change that. CC: Does any of that find its way back to regular life on campus? BBP: Our students have been insistent that we limit the use of cell phones in public places and of course the adults have eagerly supported this. As a result, the students have helped us write the policies in our student handbook and they are the ones who help ensure that we all live up to our community expectations. Now, the adults and the students don’t always agree on the extent of these limits, but this is a matter of degrees and an ongoing topic of fruitful discussion on campus as we work together to decide what sort of a community we want to be. And I don’t mean to suggest that our students don’t also struggle with social media, comparing their lives with friends who stayed at home for high school, missing home in various ways. But I do think our students enjoy some advantages that their counterparts elsewhere do not. CC: You’ve just touched on the second of three significant ways that screens threaten the well-being of our children. There is a tight connection between social media and materialism. We see this threat borne out 18 spring 2019
in data showing that students entering college today are more likely than ever before to place a high value on wealth and to place less importance on pursuing education as an end in itself. The same students are also less likely to think about or be involved in social issues and more oriented toward material consumption. And heavier users of social media are even more likely to place a high importance on material things like fancy cars and vacation homes. BBP: Not only that, but your article cited research showing that the more materialistic people are, the more unhappy, depressed, and anxious they tend to be. CC: Yes, materialism, despite its surface attractions, is ultimately unfulfilling. Kids who lose sight of a meaningful set of values, or never develop them in the first place, can end up feeling empty inside. What can be fulfilling, on the other hand, are so many of the things I saw my daughter doing at Thacher: caring for a horse, working hard to overcome an academic challenge or develop a new skill, being a part of a community that values what you bring and also holds you to a high standard—especially when that community is based on fundamental values like honor, fairness, kindness, and truth. You don’t need to go to Thacher to develop a meaningful set of values, but it’s as good a place to do that as any I’ve seen, though I admit to being a little biased.
Thacher students find that “real-life social connections” come in different forms, including adult to student, peer to peer, and human to animal.
“THE BEST PREDICTOR OF HAPPINESS IS HAVING A WIDE AND DEEP NETWORK OF REAL-LIFE SOCIAL CONNECTIONS.” BBP: Let’s talk about the third risk posed by screens. CC: It’s insecurity and comparison. There is no way to be on social media without facing the temptation to compare yourself unfavorably to others. We see our friends on fabulous vacations, taking “wealthies” (selfies that display their wealth), eating amazing meals, looking unbelievable in new outfits, showing off new toys, smiling at parties we were not invited to, not to mention the fakery possible with Photoshop. Whose life could possibly stand up to such comparisons? And since social awareness is heightened during and immediately following puberty, teenagers are especially prone to making comparisons about status. Feeling a low or threatened social status is a core cause of depression, so again you can see how screens and social media in particular factor into some of the challenges young people can face. BBP: What does the science tell us about how to counteract these forces?
and family whom we interact with face-to-face. Understanding the risks of screen time is important, but the key is what you can offer in its place. The way you support adolescents is by creating rich opportunities for interactions with peers and adults, affording them opportunities to take on responsibilities and forge connections and begin to understand who they are and what they value. Let’s not forget, however, that adolescence has always been a turbulent time. It’s just that today we are seeing new factors add to the challenge and we are all working toward understanding these and what they mean for ourselves and the young people we are educating. BBP: Of course the point here isn’t to do away with screens altogether or make them out to be evil. That’s not happening and it’s not even a good idea given all that they do for us academically and otherwise. But it is very valuable for us to understand where the threats are and what the antidotes are as we work together as families and schools to create healthy ways of harnessing the power of our devices. And learning when to leave them behind.
CC: The best predictor of happiness is having a wide and deep network of real-life social connections. Not social media connections, nothing you can measure in likes and followers—those things do not predict happiness. What does predict happiness is feeling like we are a part of something larger than ourselves, feeling deeply embedded in a community of friends The Thacher school 19
Making Sure The Kids Are Alright How Thacher educates and supports students IF YOU WERE SETTING OUT TO DEVISE THE IDEAL ENVIRONMENT for adolescents in the hope of offering an antidote to the more pernicious side effects of digital culture, you might end up with something that looked a lot like boarding school, epecially one that prizes outdoor experiences and face-to-face community over screen presence. But, given the many pressures young people experience today, there is more to supporting our students than that. Here are some of the ways we do it.
IT BEGINS WITH THE STUDENTS WE ADMIT
DORM PROGRAMMING GUIDES FRESHMEN
WE ACTIVELY CREATE COMMUNITY TOGETHER
OUR SUPPORT of students starts with the community we create for them. Before each new class arrives on campus, our admission team has been at work hand selecting a peer cohort of talented young people eager to throw themselves into all Thacher has to offer, support one another, work closely with adults, take risks, occasionally fail, and try again. It,s not just who we admit, but also how many; our commitment to limiting the size of our School means each student will be known, valued, supported, and held accountable.
WE WELCOME EACH NEW CLASS of freshmen with a highly developed sequence of programs and experiences designed to give them what they need to thrive and grow at Thacher. • Freshman skills programming helps our newest students make the transition to living away from home, doing laundry, time management, self care. • Every dorm holds sessions offering age-appropriate exposure to mindfulness, emotional well-being, healthy sleep habits, and stress management. • Prefect groups, led by seniors, provide a smaller unit of support and camaraderie within the dorm.
THE VALUES and expectations of our community are communicated via formal programming that constantly evolves to meet changing needs. Here are a few examples: • We build two-hour blocks of community sessions into every week. Topics include health and wellness; diversity, inclusion, and equity; as well as other important issues as they arise. • Student and family affinity groups help ensure that all feel welcomed here and thus strengthen overall community cohesion and health. • Human Relationships & Sexuality offers a trimester of curriculum for sophomores and grade-specific programming for other classes. • Students meet opportunities and encouragement to grow in leadership and service. • Students help define norms relating to the use of mobile devices so we remain a face-to-face community.
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GIVEN THE STRESSORS THAT MANY THACHER STUDENTS FEEL FOR A HOST of reasons, we work to provide resources and information so students can engage in self-efficacy and self-advocacy. We help each student gain an understanding of when to seek out additional support, develop healthy habits of sleeping and eating, and learn to engage as they truly feel. These are all key components to success at Thacher and anywhere. We continue to assess and enrich the resources we provide to help students grow in health, mindfulness, and cultural competency. Our goal is to help Thacher students take advantage of the strategies that will benefit them the most
and to give them the understanding that what works best is always evolving and changing as they grow and learn about themselves. Even with these resources available to help students maintain a happy, healthy balance, some will experience difficult times. For students experiencing an emotional health crisis, Thacher has clear protocols in place and a significant support system at hand. Sabina McMahon, Assistant Head of School for Student Life
OUTDOOR EXPERIENCES DEVELOP MIND, BODY, AND SPIRIT
OUR SCHEDULE AND SERVICES SUPPORT WELLNESS
WE MAKE ROOM FOR SPONTANEITY AND CREATIVITY
EMBEDDED IN OUR CAMPING and Horse Programs are values that have long been at the core of the Thacher philosophy, values that are borne out by recent research into how to raise healthy, happy adults: • Nature is good for you. • Challenge is good for you. • Failure is good for you. • Caring for others is good for you. • Being capable and self-reliant is good for you. • Setting aside your own comfort to help others is good for you. • Being held accountable is good for you.
WE HAVE ENGINEERED our schedule and services to prioritize wellness, including healthy eating, sleeping, and exercise: • Counselors are on call for appointments and walk-in visits (for which the School offers financial support). • A nutritionist is available with guidance on healthy eating. • Regular sessions of yoga, meditation, and mindfulness practice are offered. • Religious groups include the Christian Fellowship Club and Jewish Student Union. • We introduce students to wellness and mindfulness apps.
IN THE MIDST OF a full schedule, we invite unscheduled moments of discovery and play: • A fleet of e-bikes is available for joy rides or trips into the town of Ojai. • Students are encouraged to hike and ride on miles of trails and to organize pickup games. • Our Project Studio offers space, tools, and materials for personal and group creative projects.
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Making Sure The Kids Are Alright Thirty-five years of saying “yes” A lot can change in three and a half decades at a school, but what doesn’t change is the powerful impact of teachers who genuinely enjoy their students and understand how to connect with them. KURT AND ALICE MEYER had their first exposure to Thacher in the spring of 1977, when they accompanied about 35 girls from the Emma Willard School in Troy, New York, to Thacher, which was then an all-boys school. It was part of an exchange program that amounted to Thacher’s first experimentation with co-education. By 1984, Thacher had embraced co-education and the Meyers had crossed the country with their two young sons to join the faculty. Since then, they have deepened their understanding of what adolescents need from the adults charged with educating them. On the cusp of retirement, Alice and Kurt accepted the invitation of Board Chair Cabot Brown CdeP 1978 to have a final conversation with the board. The following is a brief excerpt of that conversation. Have students changed over the years and what are the constants? ALICE: I think social media is an area of change. It doesn’t really impact me because the kids don’t interact with me on social media. No, I don't think students have changed all that much. I do love the aspect of Thacher that emphasizes relationships because I think that's really the strength of the school. KURT: It is certainly true that at the core of the classroom experience lies the student-faculty relationship. What seems to hold that relationship together so strongly is the quality of mutual respect. In these last years of my work here, I’ve felt that more certainly and tried to live by that and leverage it more strongly, because in such a relationship there's the greatest sense of partnership and achievement. Mutual respect creates a sense that the students and I are learning together and there is nothing adversarial. Just nothing adversarial. It's the teacher and the student in a partnership working on the material at hand, and it’s a great feeling. How have academic demands on students changed over the years? KURT: I think we are making the right kind of new demands on kids, and those can be hard… Some students say they much prefer having a paper assigned than a project. Projects take time, they take a different kind of initiative, a different kind of engagement. Kids can look at that kind of work, which I would say is an authentic kind of learning, and call it hard, call it more demanding. So I think in this transition that we’re about right now, we may find that kids are saying, “this is hard for me.” This is tough work. It’s not just doing 10 math problems out of textbook every night. So the demands have certainly changed. ALICE: I would agree. I don’t know what is harder or less hard. I feel as though the goal when I'm in a class is engagement and the movement 22 SPRING 2019
away from pure content, “can you give it back to me?” to “can you use this content to do something interesting and apply it?” is more of a challenge for a teacher. It’s way easier just to tell kids what they need to know and have them spit it back. So it’s much more challenging as a teacher, but I think there’s much more learning that sticks. How do you relate to the Thacher students? ALICE: You all know that I was a dorm head for most of my actual official Thacher time from 2,000 until two years ago. And I really do miss it. Because when you’re living among the kids you’re sharing the ups and downs, you’re watching them grow over that time—which you do in your classes as well—but when you’re living with them, it’s pretty intense. It’s such a positive feeling; you just know them in lots of different ways and Sabina and I joke that we sometimes value the most difficult moments, because those are the relationship-building experiences and you come out the other side with that much more trust and that much more depth. So, when you have a role such as we all do, where we’re meeting kids in many different venues every day, we just have a deeper relationship than I remember having in high school with my teachers, even though I certainly respected them and liked them in class. But here I’d have kids come into the house and they’d see me in my bathrobe pottering around the kitchen and, you know, they were just our kids and we knew them really well. KURT: I think often you see a guardedness at Thacher, particularly in the freshman year, but through their time here students find out there’s a different way to be a student. I think that comes back to the relationship and mutual respect that I was talking about before. That isn’t true of every student. But there’s a group of kids who come in having learned one way to engage in school, and I think that Thacher is very good at changing that for the better. What advice would you offer a new faculty member today? ALICE: Always say “yes.” The most interesting things that we’ve gotten involved in are things that come in the doors surprisingly. I just think always say “yes.” I’ve watched Kurt do this all of his career and it’s made it a rich career and I’ve tried to model what he’s done. KURT: I hadn’t actually thought of that but that’s true and maybe another way to say that is that we talked about the School as a home, we talked about the School as community, and so it’s important for people to understand that it’s not a job. It is a home. And it’s a community. And the adults here need to feel that and live that. And then it’s easy to say “yes.”
Kurt and Alice Meyer (top) enjoy a rare quiet moment together to take in the view during their final year at Thacher. At the spring board meeting (bottom left) they shared some impressions of their many years at Thacher, including Kurt’s memories of the early days of computers at CdeP.
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Making Sure The Kids Are Alright Pursuing the Outcomes that Matter Three perspectives on college counseling at Thacher
Recent college admission scandals have highlighted what many have long believed: Our nation’s college admission process is warped—if not broken—and it places unhealthy pressures upon students, their families, and their schools. How does a highly selective college preparatory school reconcile the needs of young people and the expectations of parents with the measures of success that seem to dominate the college admissions game? At Thacher, we do it by focusing squarely on the well-being of our students and matching them with schools that fit their strengths and opportunities for growth. To give you a better idea of how that works, here are three perspectives on the college search and application process at Thacher.
THE DIRECTOR Maria Morales-Kent P ’12, ’13 has been Thacher’s director of college counseling since 1997. Her years of experience in selective admission and counseling include the founding of ACCIS-a national, professional organization for independent school counselors-and advisory work for the National Merit Foundation as well as the Advisory Councils for Colorado College and the University of Chicago. College admission used to be a happy milestone of adolescence, defined by joy and hopes about the future. Today, it is too often filled with anxiety about gaining access to selective colleges so as to measure up to social, community, and parental expectations. Many refer to the process as broken; it has certainly lost track of whose well-being should be at its core—our students. Here’s a situation we see more often than we would like to admit: A senior receives a letter of admission from one of the colleges to which they applied. Excited and relieved by the happy news, they call home. And the response is, “That’s great, but when do we hear from [insert name of ‘reach’ school]?” The message that comes across is clear: What matters most is not how excited a student may be about a given school; what matters is how high up the rankings the school sits. Of course, it isn't just families that fall prey to this behavior. Too often, despite sincere efforts to get on board with what is best for our students, some of us unwittingly reinforce the all-too-common view that at the end of the day it’s not about fit, it’s about prestige. Teachers, friends, even their peers can have similar responses. I see my role and the role of all Thacher community members as helping students find a home at the best school(s) for them… and encouraging their parents to support this. In the end, it turns out that many of our kids at24 spring 2019
tend those highly ranked schools, but rankings aren't what we look at. Our goals in Thacher's College Counseling Office are to provide students with accurate and honest information about the college admission landscape, to encourage a healthy perspective and authenticity at every turn, and to celebrate every offer of admission that comes their way. Most importantly, there is no judgment here, just affirmation for successfully taking on and walking through a complicated and often daunting process as adolescents. So, we expose the US News rankings for what it is: a system that assesses colleges based on metrics focused on public recognition rather than education and student health and wellness. We help students understand the truth and motivation behind selective admissions. We work to help them see that they and their success are not defined by admission to college but by their own sense of self. And we stress to parents and community members that students are not just listening to what they say; they are looking at what they do and how they, themselves, approach this process.
THE STUDENT TJ Gwilliam CdeP 2019 comes by his insights into the college process in two ways. As a recent graduate of Thacher, he spent the last few years navigating the college process with the help of Thacher’s College Counseling Office. And, for his Senior Exhibition, he pursued a year-long research project aimed at understanding the impact of US News rankings on our colleges. It is an incredibly difficult time to be a high school senior and this year’s admission scandal only made that more obvious. I found the college process especially tough because of the inequities I was seeing as I researched my senior exhibition. There are so many kinds of privilege— whether it is what high school you attend, where your parents went to college if they did go, extra time concessions for testing, and costly college admission consultants. I found all of that very disheartening. I’m a huge believer in meritocracy and I found myself wondering whether I would be taking a spot in college that should really go to somebody with fewer opportunities. I worked hard and got good grades, but I’m going to the University of Virginia, which is where my parents went and where my sister goes. I have to wonder what influence that had on my admission. I think Thacher does a great job with the process. From the beginning, they really encourage us to think about fit rather than rankings, and I felt like most of my peers had a good sense of where they ought to go. But the College Office has to manage parents’ expectations and their role in the process as well. In my case, I feel very fortunate to have had the resources
The college counseling team works thoughtfully to make their office not only a place of purpose, but also one of refuge and comfort. Maria’s English retriever, Obi-Wan, offers the sort of unconditional affection that is the perfect tonic for what can be a stressful college application process. Other perks of the place include coffee, tea, conversation, and candy.
Thacher offers along with understanding and supportive parents. But I think our society has a lot of work to do before all students get a fair shot at college.
THE PARENT Gretl Galgon P ’18, ’19, ’21 is the mother of four girls, three of whom are Toads. Edel, now at Dartmouth, graduated in 2018, Libby graduated in 2019 and is bound for Colby College in the fall, and Daisy will be a sophomore at Thacher next year. Her fourth daughter, Maria, is in eighth grade at home in Seattle, Washington. Thacher’s College Counseling Office is an evolved, empathetic, creative, and compassionate group of human beings with years of experience guiding seniors and parents so that we listen to our kids, not our own drums. This team cared about maintaining a healthy, whole-life perspective through this arduous and time-consuming endeavor. As a mom of four really different young women, I had to do what I call “The Surrender.” That meant relinquishing my lifetime of absurd biases to allow this professional team to navigate all of us with an authentic integrity. Dare I suggest that it was a very disciplined effort for me to ‘butt outski’ and just let these incredible and sweet personalities work their wonders with all of the seniors.
As parents, we just have to get out of their way. You can’t spare them the drill of figuring it out. It’s not a linear process. I had to keep chanting, “I am not the applicant. This is not about me. I am the Uber driver for this process, and I will ask questions.” Maria [Morales-Kent] really gets working with parents’ fears, knows how to nip them in the bud. All of them, but particularly Maria, are very powerful listeners. They were able to read and mirror and authenticate who each of my daughters was and could be regardless of which colleges they were interested in applying to. Theirs is not a one-size-fits-all approach, which was evident in the very different approaches they took with my two daughters who have completed the process with them. They did not take any shortcuts. They take an authentic, individual approach, getting to know the whole family. They get the context that this is a very vulnerable place to put a child, and they are highly skilled clinicians. This group understands that the learning comes from the rejections, the risk taking and the unknowns, the vulnerability to lay it all out there, and the surprises. In the end, it really didn’t matter to me which college my children went to, because I trusted their process so much. Working with this team, for our family, is the prize and the privilege of Thacher.
The Thacher School 25
Blessed Among the Stables
To be a faculty brat at Thacher From the perspective of one who only works here, the idea of growing up at Thacher brings to mind the poem Fern Hill, Dylan Thomas’s elegy to a childhood spent “green and carefree, famous among the barns.” Casa de Piedra, says faculty brat Carolyn Reed Kirkpatrick CdeP 1986, “was not a normal neighborhood.” While it is fallacy to suppose that there is any such thing as a normal neighborhood, we can agree that some neighborhoods are less normal than others, and that the Thacher campus is arguably among the least
normal of all. Here then, in an attempt to capture just a little of that blessed abnormality, are the reminiscences of a few alums from across the eras who spent some of their green and carefree years as fac brats, reveling in the benefits of a relatively free-range childhood long before re-wilding was a trending topic on parenting blogs. Alongside their words are photos of current faculty children keeping the traditions alive in their own ways. —Christopher Land
L-R: Nicholas Thacher
Tony Thacher CdeP 1958
CdeP 1963, Brooke
I can second what probably every one of the kids who ever grew up at The Thacher School has already told you. It was a magical place—a blend of structural and natural nooks and crannies with almost no intrusions from the adult and the outside worlds. Nostalgia makes “carefree” too pale a word to describe it. If I have to single out just one of those locales, I’ll opt for the reservoir. It was a sturdy square concrete structure at the top of the campus where we could swim in a rich biota of algae, leaves, small dead mammals, and whatever oops moments happened to the younger kids. You could learn to dive off the diving board, play tag in and out of the water, wear all the skin off your toes on the cement, and get sunburned. I never got sick nor had an ear infection that I recall, although when jumping in, a lot of that primal soup went up my nose over the years.
Halsey CdeP 1962, Woody Halsey CdeP 1965, Nelson Chase CdeP 1966, John Huyler CdeP 1963, and Ruth Huyler.
Ruth Huyler Glass CdeP 1965 The Rough House was our primary playground, with rarely an adult in sight. I believe I was 8 when Erno Bonebakker CdeP 1960 taught me how to do the Great Grand Swing. For those not familiar with the plunge, it was very much a leap of faith. One had to scoot out to the very end of a small balcony and be handed the giant hawser that hung from the middle of the Rough House. Clutching the support post on the balcony that reached to the ceiling, one had to reach out as far as possible above the knot, from which the rope looped downward a significant distance. Letting go and leaping into the air while jimmying one’s hands up the rope, it took a couple of seconds before one’s little legs snagged the knot and the force of the fall took the slack out of the rope and flew the passenger up to the balcony on the other side of the building. Only once did I miss the knot and find myself dragging through the six inches or so of sawdust that lined the full floor. What safety precautions … ? The rule was that there must always be three of us were we venturing forth: one to stay with whomever was injured and one to go for help. My best friends, Woody Halsey and Nelson Chase, and I played for hours on the trails. We belonged to an unforgettable organization called Fort Washington, organized by Captain Generals Brooke Halsey and Nicholas Thacher and including Stephen Griggs, my brother John Huyler, Woody, Nelson, and me....We were trained at a very early age to watch out for snakes, problems on the trail, and each other. One memorable Christmas our mothers purchased sweatshirts and caps and affixed FW “logos.” I still have mine.
“What safety precautions?”
Stephen Griggs CdeP 1963 Of the forts we built I think my favorite was Fort Molehill, which we dug in the dry creek bed below the old Music Box and above Middle School dorm. We could crawl in and hide and, like most 8-year-olds, we barely noticed that we later wandered home wearing a few extra pounds of dirt and mud. 26 spring 2019
Kendell Berndt scoots by during a School barbecue.
Darragh Mahoney and Jack Vyhnal at the ultimate fac brat hideout: Banjo Cave.
Kate Twichell Mason CdeP 1986 With all the structure and security we now have in our lives I think what I now cherish the most about growing up at Thacher was the opportunity to roam freely over the entire campus…. I looked forward to picking a fresh orange from the orange orchard on our walk (or rather run) from the dining room to the bus stop in the morning…. I loved exploring the trails behind our house on foot or by horse. The hay barn provided a great place for hide and seek or just to hang out on the bales of hay or climb up the mountain of hay cubes…. As an adult I now realize how special and lucky I was to have Thacher as my backyard.
Rower Hattori gets some play time on a Thacher classroom whiteboard.
“I looked forward to picking a fresh orange.” The Thacher school 27
Blessed Among the Stables Tyler Manson CdeP 2001 Growing up at Thacher allowed certain freedoms rarely found in the world today. It was (and is) a magical world of its own. I felt a real sense of adventure most days, and for good reason. While many of my friends from town would be playing baseball or taking piano lessons, I’d be searching for caves in the rambling hills, scrambling up rock faces with Chuck Warren, and spending what felt like entire days eating tangerines on the hill above Maintenance. I remember scavenging for clay pigeons on the hills surrounding the shooting range—searching for those orange disks that had miraculously remained intact despite the gun club’s best attempt. I can vividly remember the feeling of trapped heat, high in the hayloft we’d climb. The wobbly stacks of hay felt like skyscrapers at the time, and with the confidence of youth we’d leap onto the piles of alfalfa cubes, far below, to break our fall.
“Growing up at Thacher fostered a feeling of independence, a deep curious nature, and an adventurous spirit that carries into everything I do today.”
Ansel Swift enjoys a visit with the chickens.
Taylor Carney launches a perfect skipper at the Barranca (left) and Caroline Bastian (above) gets a push on the swing set from Daisy Pidduck. 28 spring 2019
Allison Reed CdeP 1989 We would pretend that we had to forage for all our food on campus—oranges, loquats, guavas, sour grass, kumquats you name it! There was so much fruit to choose from. ... So much fun riding with the girls after school, especially bareback around the old reservoir. We accidentally locked Suzie Bird CdeP 1992 in one of the lockers in the gym. ... We had to go to Mount Olympus to get keys to let her out. ... Amy Bird CdeP 1990 and I had a lemonade stand in front of her house, on the way to the Gymkhana Field. We took IOUs and put invoices in the students’ mailboxes. It wasn’t a very good business decision, but lots of fun. The signs we made also scared all the horses on the way to the Gymkhana Field. I loved to catch lizards. I accidentally left a bucket of lizards in the Clarke’s house and they all got out. One day I also accidentally caught a scorpion. That one hurt.
“I loved to catch lizards.”
“It was a magical place....with almost no intrusions from the adult and the outside worlds.” Accomplished lizard hunter Annika Swift stalks bluebellies in the Outdoor Theatre (top) and shares evidence of her eventual success.
Becca Ellen Clark CdeP 1989 My favorite memories include Thanksgiving celebrations and decorating vegetables, the Christmas party, riding bikes, swimming at the pool, playing at the Barranca after a storm, throwing rotten oranges at each other on the way home from the school bus, floating boats at the stream in the science building, having the time of our lives with the Reeds, Wales, Warrens, Johnstons, Birds, Twichells, Klauslers, Fosters, Thachers, and Jed Wyman. We had some devastating loss too. The Thacher school 29
GATHERINGS…
Winter Alumni Day Even with lots of physical changes, the consensus is that “the vibe remains” “AS I RAISE MY CHILDREN I find that the values of the School are exactly aligned with our family values and perhaps it makes me appreciate the School even more than just having been a part of the student body.” — K AT I E V I N I N G C d e P 19 9 4
For many alumni, return visits to Thacher for Alumni Day, a reunion, or an impromptu visit engender a new appreciation for the School and what it has added to their lives. This year, 151 alumni returned to Thacher for Alumni Day in January. The day was filled with horseback riding, alumni vs. student sports competitions, board games, trapshooting, delicious meals, and of course, time with friends. Horseback riding was one of the most popular activities with 70 people participating. “Despite the rain and soggy ground, alumni riding
Top: Boys’ varsity soccer players (orange) played against alumni (green) and riders kept the barns busy. Bottom: The victorious alumni basketball team; Derf catching up with a couple of his runners.
30 spring 2019
was a great success. How fun to have our alumni come back to recapture their youth! It was great to have many introduce their spouses and children to this unique Thacher experience, as well,” said Richard Winters, director of the Horse Program. Alumni bested the students in both soccer (4-3) and basketball (60-55)—though the varsity coaches played on the alumni teams, so does that even count? And 17 people took the opportunity to trapshoot, some for the first time. In fact, this was the first time for the female high scorer, Julia Hale ’21. Peter Kong CdeP 1985 was the male high scorer, shooting an almost perfect 24/25. Most attendees had their first glimpse of the new dining hall this weekend, and many noted the new construction as the biggest change on campus. Still, attendees agreed that “the vibe remains,” as Jonathan Blinderman CdeP 1983 so aptly put it.
Grandparents & Special Friends Days Grandparents and friends join Thacher traditions HOW DO YOU HOST 150 GRANDPARENTS and special friends on a hilly, 427-acre campus? With lots of golf carts, guides, and assistance. No problem—20 volunteers helped out for Grandparents and Special Friends Days in April. During the two activity-filled days, guests spent time with their students, got a feel for the Thacher experience, and enjoyed familiar and new traditions. One of the highlights of the event was the new Tribute Wall: photos and fun facts about grandparents posted in the Commons. What a varied group of visitors we had! A grandmother with 2,023 Instagram followers, a Fulbright Scholar, a former Cincinnati Reds pitcher, and a descendent of a female pirate were just a few. The Afternoon Tea in the Pidducks’ garden was another new event. The day garnered loads of comments about how lovely the Thacher campus is in the spring. After the tea, Blossom shared the podium with a panel of School administrators and three students for a question and answer session about the curriculum. Even with the addition of new events, there was no shortage of old favorites: enlightening class visits, delicious meals, a dessert extravaganza, a performing arts sampler, sports games, and, of course, gymkhana races. Special thanks go to the following volunteers who gave tirelessly of their time to make the event a success: Grandparent Chairs Bobby and Harriet Perry (Derick CdeP 1983, Jordan CdeP 2017, Evan ’19), Grandparents Days co-chair Victoria Eaton (Andrew CdeP 2017, Elliot ’21), and Grandparents Days co-chair Erin Roberts (Devon ’19, Kennedy ’21).
ALUMS IN HOLLYWOOD Award-winning composer welcomes the Thacher community to his studio
ON A RAINY THURSDAY EVENING in January, 70 guests, alums from CdeP 1967 to 2017, parents, and grandparents attended Thacher in Hollywood. The networking event hosted by the Thacher Alumni Council in conjunction with Annica and James Newton Howard CdeP 1969 was held in his studio. James is a composer, conductor, and music producer who has scored more than 100 films and has received a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, and eight Academy Award nominations. The evening included a studio tour and panel discussion with industry professionals. Thacher’s director of alumni relations, Carolyn Kirkpatrick CdeP 1986, commented that “this was a great opportunity, particularly for our young alums, to network within the Thacher community.” Attendees heard from a panel of industry experts from the Thacher community: Thomas Beatty CdeP 1999, writer, producer, and currently the head of the creative strategy and research team at Universal Pictures; Jennifer Crittenden CdeP 1988, an award-winning writer for many television programs including VEEP; and Noah Wyle CdeP 1989, an Emmy and Golden Globe nominee for his work on the NBC drama ER. Drawing on her well-honed skills as a critically acclaimed documentary filmmaker, the moderator, Dawn Porter, mother of Eli Graff ’19 and Will Graff ’22, led an engaging discussion. The panelists were funny and entertaining while sharing about the challenges of their professions. The Thacher School 01 31
CLASS NOTES…
* 1946
1948
32 SPRING 2019
INDICATES REUNION YEAR
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CORRESPONDING PHOTO ABOVE
NICHOLAS CUNNINGHAM writes, “Greetings from this very proud Thacher alumnus! Why? Continued excellence of Thacher, 73 years later; high rate of scholarship assisted admissions; high rate of non-white admissions; continued appreciation of the horse as faculty; selection of a graduate, ex-faculty, and female as principal; and obviously forward looking mission! Pride is sinful; with respect to Thacher, I’m a proud sinner!” SAM WRIGHT sends updates of his class: “A nice note from CHARLTON LEWIS says he was happy to read our class notes in the latest Thacher magazine about our 70th reunion—it was a little too far for him. Charlton and Roxane are living in a community in Redding, Connecticut, outside of Stamford, conveniently located, he says, about an hour from New York. He was sorry to not see our class picture and DERICK PERRY ’83 assures me the School is looking for it. It was taken on Friday night at the Mulligans. Charlton is having a few knee problems and says, ‘I couldn’t get on a horse now if my life depended on it.’ BUD LESTER and Pat have sold their home in Pasadena and are now living at the Villa Gardens. Pat says that Bud is not well, and they are enjoying their new home. SID LIEBES also tells me that he and Linda will be selling their home in Atherton—a classic 1925 Atherton summer cottage—and moving to the Sequoias-Portola Valley community in several months. Thinking of CHRIS BOYLE, I was reflecting on the fact that he and I share our dual Thacher-Amherst alumni relationship with our now head of school, BLOSSOM PIDDUCK. What is a long-standing tradition for Bay Area alumni, The San Francisco Do Nothing Except Have Christmas Lunch Club (SFDNEHCLC) met again on December 11 at the Pacific Union Club, courtesy of ELLIOT HAYNE. The luncheon included MARK HAYNE ’86, BROOKS CRAWFORD ’51, CABOT BROWN ’79, KIRK KIRKHAM ’50, JIM ACQUISTAPACE ’61; and CdeP 1948 PETER DUNNE, SANDY WALKER, Elliot, and me. Sandy is still plying his architectural practice in San Francisco, after some 62 years. Cabot kindly brought us up to date on the ‘state of the School’ along with news of the Mulligans who sound far from retired. We certainly wish them well. JOHN BISSELL and I have talked about the possibility of a class of ’48, non-official 71st reunion in Ojai and at the School in June. Any takers? Please let me know.”
*1954 1958 1962
1963
1968
1970
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WILLIAM McNABB says, “Looking forward to seeing everyone at Thacher. I treasure my time there.”
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JIM LEVY shares, “I have two books coming out in May 2019. Seen from a Distance is a book of poetry about art, love, sex, poetry, animals, and death. Those were the Days is a memoir co-authored with my partner, Phaedra Greenwood, about life and love in northern New Mexico in the 1970s.”
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DON PORTER writes, “In January, I had an opportunity to catch up with CHARLIE STORKE and his wife, Nancy Faville, at the prestigious Palm Springs Kennel Club All-Breed Dog Show in Indio, south of Palm Springs. I drove down with ROGER IGNON and Jackie to witness the dedication Charlie and Nancy have for their Rhodesian Ridgebacks, one of which, ‘Luc,’ dragged me to exactly where he wanted to go. Powerful and persistent! I think Charlie asked me if I had medical insurance. Charlie reported, ‘Today was a great success with one of our youngest champions winning Best in Specialty Show, and his littermate sister garnering Winner’s Bitch for some championship points.’” See blogs.thacher.org/ classnotes for more info. STEVE GRIGGS reports, “I now have six grandchildren, three boys and three girls. A seventh is due in August and there will be no prior notice to see which gender breaks the tie in its favor. Trish and I continue to live and thrive in Connecticut where we play and teach the winter sport of Platform Tennis (also known as paddle tennis). In March, I won my fourth age group APTA national championship. In the summer, we move to Mt. Riga in the southern Berkshire hills to enjoy life in the cabin that I built in the '70s.”
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TRAV NEWTON and DAN McGILVRAY rode the Huntington Trail last January on Alumni Day. “We went through rain squalls, snow on the ridge, and a rainbow over the valley. In memory of nurse Betty Saunders, we ask classmates who took photos of ’68 who visited her at her home last June to please send images to us, with your memories, as we hope to compile an album. EDGARDO CATALAN writes that she was ‘a very dear friend,’ and that he will have an exhibit of his recent paintings in Valparaiso in July.” NED CAHILL and Carol are continuing their respective orthopedic and pediatric practices while taking more time off. “We have been Blessed with our four children, their spouses, and five grandchildren. Much of our travel focuses on visiting family although we did venture to Bangkok last November.” JOHN WRIGHT writes, “My passion for languages—first sparked when I moved to Switzerland in
Bill McNabb ’54 and his Thacher horse, Sage; Jim Levy ’58 with his family on the bank of the Rio Grande in northern New Mexico circa 1977; Charlie Storke ’62 breeds Rhodesian Ridgebacks; Trav Newton ’68 and Dan McGilvray ’68 rode the Huntington Trail on Alumni Day; Bill Rubenstein ’74 resting with a cheetah; Josh Rosenblatt ’76 at his daughter’s wedding; Clint Wilson ’83 and Yi spend their winters in Florida
MILESTONES MARRIAGES & ENGAGEMENTS
2005—continues to grow; and since retiring I have more time to study, though the days go by amazingly quickly. Lately I’ve been referring again to the Latin dictionary that I used while at Thacher. That it has survived 50 years and is still on my bookshelf is something of a wonder to me. Speaking of 50 years, I join Newlin in urging all CdeP 1970 to join us next year in Ojai for our 50th reunion, June 12-14. In the meantime, if you’re in Zurich, contact me.”
*1974
RANDOLPH HEAD updates, “After working on it for nearly 20 years, my new research monograph on the history of archives and the growth of the state in Europe from 1400 to 1700 is finally sitting in front of me as proofs. The book will be out by late summer, and will doubtless have an enormous audience in the low to mid 100s! I have a feeling that this, my fourth book, is probably my last one.” BILL RUBENSTEIN writes, “Last Christmas, I spent two weeks in South Africa working with lions, leopards, and especially cheetahs at one of the country’s few ethical conservation and breeding centers. If there’s anything more wonderful than getting a morning kiss on the face by a 150-pound leopard, it’s spending the night sleeping between two purring adult cheetahs. Even better is knowing that Jasmine, bred in our program, has been released into the protected wild and has made the transition successfully. Thacher animal lovers interested in helping preserve a magnificent species should contact Ashia Cheetah Conservation, Paarl, and Cheetah Experience, Bloemfontein (South Africa).”
MAGGIE AMMONS ’10 and Andrew Spickert were married on October 13, 2018, in Basalt, Colo. “Many Toads were in attendance including Mrs. Vick and The Mullys. Since then, Andrew and I have sealed our partnership by finishing a series of ski mountaineering races as a team.” (photo 1) Photo by Randy + Ashley Studios 1
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1976
BARRY KAYE was honored by the California News Publishers Association for sports feature writing. “My article about an injured high school football player first appeared in the Mount Shasta Herald.” JOSH ROSENBLATT reports, “Kate and I are about to become ‘empty nesters’ again. Our younger daughter Ali—back from Guatemala last September with her husband Jhonattan—have been living with us and are moving into their first house in Springfield this weekend. Our older daughter Sarah and her husband Joe still love living in Jackson Heights, Queens, and working in Manhattan. Kate manages an upscale fair-trade gift store in Amherst and I still work from home for IBM. If you are in or near Western Massachusetts, please look us up.”
BIRTHS 2
3
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4
5
Read and submit class notes online at blogs.thacher.org/classnotes
AVERY HELLMAN ’11 married Andrew Allen-Fahlander on April 13, 2019, at Five Springs Farm in Petaluma, Calif. The ceremony was officiated by Katherine Halsey! (photo 2)
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ELIZA GREGORY ’99 and RYAN ’98 welcomed a daughter on February 12, 2019—Tenney Allete Sohn Meyer. “She joins big sister Ainsley (7) who has been a big help so far. Can’t wait to see you all in June!” (photo 3) CLAIRE MILLIGAN ’02 and Jessica were excited to welcome their second child, Carl Mario Milligan, on February 6, 2019. “Older sister Dahlia (2.5) is loving ‘taking care’ of him and imagining life with a permanent playmate.” (photo 4) GRAHAM DOUDS ’04 and his wife, Katherine, had their first child on March 17, 2019. “Our daughter, Magdalena Dlaka Douds, is happy, healthy, and excited about her first trip to Thacher this June for her dad’s 15-year reunion.” (photo 5) KAY BRADFORD COLLIER ’05 welcomed William Bradford Collier, born September 16, 2018. “He has a full head of hair and loves smiling.” (photo 6) The ThacheR School 33
CLASS NOTES…
1977
1981
1983
*1984 1985
34 SPRING 2019
TIM BOWMAN shares that “BILL ARNOLD ’77 is coming up for a visit. Sadly, it’s because a dear friend of ours passed. But hoping I might get him out on a bike. Last time we almost had team heart attacks! We’re still the only Thacher Boys to complete a transcontinental tour whilst in school!” JOHN RUBENSTEIN shares, “My father, Edward Rubenstein MD, passed away at age 94. Three of his sons, WILLIAM ’74, JAMES ’80, and me, went to Thacher. My father is survived by his wife Nancy, his sons, and grandchildren.” CAROL McCONNELL says, “I just re-connected with DIANA LEWIS CALLAHAN ’84. I have such fond memories of Diana when she was a freshman and I was a senior prefect in Casa dorm (circa 1980-81). O-so-many years ago, but the memories are like it all happened yesterday. Congrats to Diana and her husband, LIAM CALLAHAN ’84, on their amazing dairy products company, Bellwether Farms— yummy stuff!”
1986
1988
*1989
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CLINT WILSON explains, “I haven’t submitted much here over the years because I was waiting until I actually did something worthwhile—LOL—and that took some time! But over the winter I wrote a book on investing—mostly for my young adult kids—but some of you might find it useful too, if you’re into stocks. Not bad for an English major who now spends his Canadian winters in Florida, but who has to write books because lying out on the beach for more than 10 minutes at a time isn’t really an option for this fair-skinned boy, eh?!” PETER THACHER notes, “Great to catch up with LAUNCE GAMBLE while visiting his daughter JANE ’18 who’s here at Savannah College of Art and Design.” JOHANNES GIRARDONI was selected to receive the 2019 Francis J. Greenburger Award, an award “that honors established artists whom the artworld knows to be of extraordinary merit, but who have not been fully recognized by the public.” ERIC GROSS says, “I’m excited to become a Thacher parent as my son, Javier, will be a freshman this fall. He’s looking forward to everything he’s seen and heard, but mostly he wants to play lacrosse for the Toads. My daughter is currently a sophomore at RLS. She plays on the varsity girls' lacrosse team on the same field we visited back when there were very few teams in California.”
AMI BECKER ARONSON shares, “No better way to enter this decade than going back to graduate school at THNK. org in Amsterdam. I am studying global creative leadership focusing on feminine design strategy from the lens of both philanthropy and private sector. If anyone wants to ideate, dream, debate, or exchange ideas, let me know. I am prototyping the concept now but feel called to embrace the beginner’s mind.” LAURA McHALE announces, “After four long years, I am finishing my doctorate in leadership psychology—graduating in June. And after many years in banking, I am thrilled to be hanging up my shingle as a consulting psychologist and executive coach.” ANDREW BEEBE says, “I am disappointed not to be able to make the reunion this year. Instead, here’s the quick summary of recent events. I live in Burlingame with my wife, Jessica, and three kids: Jackson (15), and twins Georgia and Ella (11). After 20 years of starting companies, first in the internet realm, and most recently in renewable energy, I’m now a venture capitalist at Obvious Ventures in San Francisco. I miss Ojai and Thacher dearly. Please drop me a note if you’re coming through town.” JEFF MENASHE writes, “My guide, Willie Benegas, and I were the first team to summit Mount Vinson, Antarctica, on January 1, 2019. This is my third summit of the ‘Seven Summits.’”
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*1994
1995
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JOVI YOUNG GERACI updates, “My family and I are spending a second semester in Bangalore, India, one of my favorite places in the entire world. Robert and I are collaborating on our current research, which involves social media, sarees, community, and Indian identity; and we’re meeting and interviewing some absolutely fascinating people doing incredible work. It’ll be a book someday, so stay tuned for that. Miss you!”
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SEUMAS SARGENT is “back in Berlin after a phenomenal, whirlwind tour of California (first time in over a decade), where I was lucky enough to hook up with a few CdeP grads making the world a better place. Wrapped a Benelux feature last year called De Dirigent (The Conductor)—a true story about the world’s first female orchestra conductor, Antonia Brico. Shopping a Netflix versus HBO sci-fi pilot this summer called Dry Shores, and celebrating the birth of our daughter! Keep dancing, stay hungry. X”
Jeff Menashe ’89 and his guide atop Mount Vinson in Antarctica; Jovi Young Geraci ’94 and her kids, Zion (15) and Liel (13), at Humayun’s Tomb in New Delhi; Seumas Sargent ’95 home in Berlin with his daughter; Amy Purdie White ’97 training for a bicycle race; Morgan Brown ’06, Lisa Dadian ’06, Daniel Vega ’06, and Lucy Herr ’06 in the Cayman Islands; Thanksgiving in New York City, L to R: Ben Eastburn ’11, Trevor Mulchay ’11, Casey’s boyfriend, and Casey Mulchay ’13; Kipper Berven ’15 boxing for UC Berkeley
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AMY PURDIE WHITE reports, “My husband, Richard, and I are continuing to live and travel in our motorcoach while working remote jobs. All of my free time has been consumed by training to compete in the Tour Divide this summer—a 2,700-mile predominantly off-road bicycle race from Banff, Canada, to the Mexico border that follows the Continental Divide. Coincidentally, the husband of RIKA HOWE TOLL ’94—who was my freshman year prefect—will also be riding. You can follow us at www.trackleaders.com once the race begins on June 14.” ALEXANDRA HERBERT VAN HELDEN writes, “After the birth of our second child last year—Maya (11 mos.) and Peter (2.75 yrs.)—I left my job in health care to become an executive coach. I currently work with managers and executives, from startups to large corporations, to improve individual and team performance. My husband and I still live in San Francisco and try to spend as much of our free time exploring the outdoors as the winter rain will allow.”
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CASEY MULCHAY writes, “Currently, I work part time as a teacher in a child care center and am a full-time graduate student at Suffolk University in Boston. I will be finishing my first of two years in the master's in mental health counseling program. Next year, I’ll add on an internship of working throughout Boston Public Schools counseling students. I’m currently living right outside the city with my boyfriend, and we are always up for getting together with any CdeP alum visiting Boston!”
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KIPPER BERVEN’s been wrapping up his junior year as president of UC Berkeley’s boxing team. “In a few weeks, our team will go compete at Nationals in Reno!”
ALISON FLYNN announces, “As of January 2019, I’ve embarked on a new career as a software engineer. While I’ve loved the entrepreneur life for six years as a comic and game shop owner, there’s something to be said for stability and enterprise-level resources. I’m still happily ensconced in the craft beer capital of the world, and will gladly buy a pint for anyone who visits San Diego!”
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DANIEL VEGA writes, “Morgan Brown ’06, Lucy Herr ’06, my wife Lauren Vega, and I took a trip down to the Cayman Islands to visit Lisa Dadian ’06. We had a great time catching up while relaxing on the beach. Some highlights include brunching and a boat party on Grand Cayman, and a Lisaled island tour—in addition to a Prince Charles sighting on Little Cayman. We might have to make it an annual trip!” MAGGIE AMMONS announces, “After marrying Andrew Spickert, we have, since then, sealed our partnership by finishing a series of ski mountaineering races as a team. Our biggest two were the Power of Four—25 miles with 12,000 vertical feet of climbing—and the Elk Mountain Grand Traverse—40 miles with 6,000 vertical feet of climbing. And finally, in 2018, with a collaborator, we founded a multimedia performance company called The Observer Collective. We are thrilled to report that we have just received our second grant to produce our next immersive multimedia dance work that will premiere in November 2019.”
HOW TO SUBMIT DIGITAL PHOTOS: • Shoot using your camera’s best photo setting. • Files should be 200k or larger. • Save photos as JPEG files. • Identify every person in the photo, state time and place, and suggest a caption. We can accept good old-fashioned prints as well. Unfortunately, we cannot accept photocopies or images from magazines or newspapers. TWO WAYS TO SUBMIT PHOTOS: 1. Email digital files as attachments to alumni@thacher.org. 2. Mail prints or digital discs to: The Thacher School Alumni Office 5025 Thacher Road, Ojai, CA 93023
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FACULTY, STAFF & FRIENDS…
DEPARTURES For 35 years, Kurt Meyer has shared his head-hands-and-heart brand of the Socratic method with students and colleagues in every area of school life. Math teacher has been his constant role, but never sufficient. Over the years he’s coached track and basketball, led horse-packing trips, transversed the Sierra more times than John Muir, built homes with students for Habitat for Humanity, served as director of studies, dean of faculty, director of technology, sustainability coordinator, Math and Arts Department Chair, and advisor to the Environmental Action Committee. He brought the internet to campus, started and led the Teach the Teachers summer program, founded and led our computer science program, designed our first electronic grade and comment system. The list (which includes serving for many years as puzzle master for Thacher magazine) goes on. He is a thinker, but also a doer. Head and hands. He knows as he said at Sunday night’s Vespers—that if you build it, they will come—whether that be internet cables or pig pens. Ideas become realities in his hands, by his hands. And yet, it’s the last of the triad of his gifts, the heart, that makes us all wonder how we will possibly get by without him. Mr. Meyer doesn’t just think and do—he feels. He truly loves this work, finds joy in each day and shares it. We can feel how much he cares. When he is working with you on a math problem, a song for a coffeehouse, a new chicken coop, you believe there is nothing he’d rather be doing, because there isn’t. He holds us in that glorious triangle of head, hands, and heart—thinking, doing, and feeling with us. And, in all truth we cannot imagine being without his influence. Since 1992, Mike Swan has been a pillar of the Thacher Horse Program. Working mostly behind the scenes and often round the clock, Mike’s impact has been felt far beyond his work teaching horsemanship to generations of Toads. With his attuned eye, deep caring, and broad expertise, he has devoted himself body and soul to the Horse Program and to doing what it takes to keep more than 100 mounts healthy and rider-ready. When asked about Mr. Swan, one student simply said, “He’s a superhero.” A superhuman for certain. In retiring, Mr. Swan hopes to spend more time with Mrs. Swan, their children and 36 SPRING 2019
their grandson. What is certain is how much we will miss spending time with him. There is simply no replacing Mr. Swan. We can only be grateful that we’ve known a man of his caliber, that we’ve had the opportunity to learn from him, that we’ve been witness to true humility, commitment, and love. Alice Meyer is retiring after 20 years of serving ably in a wide variety of roles at Thacher, including dorm head, AP Psychology teacher, director of the Senior Exhibitions Program, college counselor, and, most recently, director of studies. In the latter role, Mrs. Meyer has brought to bear her resourcefulness, attention to detail, and relentless pursuit of improvement—both personal and institutional. Exemplifying the level of commitment and competency she brings to any task, she studied the systems, collaborated with her peers, planned strategically, solved a constant stream of problems, and made possible the most significant shift in our curriculum in several generations—the move away from the AP. Peter Sawyer came to Thacher as a science teacher in 2005. For the past 14 years, along with his teaching and camping responsibilities, Peter has been a key member of the Horse Program faculty. He’s also been a steadfast community member, always ready and willing to go above and beyond regular duties that have included membership in the Sustainability Council, WASC Committee, Curriculum Development Committee, and Independents Committee. He will be retiring to “explore hobbies that I didn’t know that I would be interested in.” In her 17 years at Thacher, Kara Hooper has taught English, coached soccer and lacrosse, and helped many a Toad successfully navigate the college application process. Just back from accompanying Jeff and the boys on sabbatical, Kara leaving the College Counsel-
Kurt giving out academic awards; Kurt and Alice speaking at Senior Vespers; and Mike Swan in his element.
Campaign Director Sandi White, who has been a big part of the success of the Next Peak Capital Campaign, has taken a position at Villanova Prep, here in Ojai, where she will be their new director of development. Now that his two years at Thacher are up, our first Fisher Fellow, Edgar Arceo, will be moving on to another fellowship, Penn Fellow at Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts. He will teach Spanish and simultaneously enroll at The University of Pennsylvania to work on a master’s in education.
ing Office to offer guidance to first-generation college-bound students in the Ojai Valley, important and rewarding work that she pursued in Texas during the past year.
SABBATICAL After a short stint teaching Spanish at Thacher in the 1980s, Karleanne Rogers joined the Alumni and Development Office in 2008 as director of major gifts and planned giving. Among her many contributions has been her work to grow the ranks of the Boot Hill Society. Patty Atkinson came to Thacher nine years ago after retiring from teaching in the Ojai public schools. She has been the academic support coordinator and the services for students with disabilities coordinator. She is retiring again, and said, “This time I think retirement will stick!” Cal Jensen CdeP 2006 has been Thacher’s performing arts technical director since 2013. In addition to providing sound and lights for innumerable Milligan Center events, he has trained and inspired student tech crews, served as Los Padres dorm head, advised the Indoor Committee, coached baseball and soccer, and helped out in the Admission Office. He is headed to Los Angeles, excited for the next adventure. Whitney Livermore CdeP 2004 has spent the past five years deeply immersed in the life of the School. Among her many contributions, she taught history and coached girls’ varsity basketball, developing a team that was undefeated in league play this year, earning her the honor of Coach of the Year from her fellow Frontier League coaches. Whitney is heading to The Branson School in Northern California to teach under Chris Mazzola, former Thacher faculty member and mother of JJ CdeP 2019.
With the Hoopers back from their sabbatical year, it’s now the Vyhnals’ turn. Chris, Theresa, and family are off to Montesarchio in Southern Italy. Doc V will be joining a research team nearby that utilizes chemistry and materials science principles to characterize and describe the production methods of ancient Roman pigments, ceramics, frescoes, and metallic artifacts. His goal is to use this work to develop a new, interdisciplinary course at Thacher that marries chemistry, art, and archeology.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Ever cultivating a growth mind-set for themselves and for their students, Thacher faculty have taken advantage of many professional development opportunities this year. In early February, Jason Carney, Courtney Cronin, Aaron Snyder, Tim Sullivan, and Chris Vyhnal joined Blossom Beatty Pidduck CdeP 1992 and 4,500 other educators at the NAIS Conference titled Reimagining Independent Schools: Tearing Down Walls, Building Capacity, and Designing Our Future, in Long Beach, California. Four diversityrelated conferences were on the agenda in the past few months: Whitney Livermore attended the White Privilege Conference; Sabina McMahon, Molly Perry, and Juliet Henderson traveled to Phoenix for the Independent School Gender Project Conference; Françoise Kasimirowski-Garcia attended NAIS’ People of Color Conference with Lucia and Bob St. George; Matt Belano organized the Beyond Diversity 101: Inclusive Communities and Equity Leadership conference in Santa Barbara, which Ann Merlini attended. Ms. Henderson also attended the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages’ 2019 Annual Convention and World Languages Expo. In support of our initiative to define mastery in Thacher’s courses, Aaron Snyder attended the Mastery Transcript Consortium’s Site Directors Conference. Jake Jacobsen traveled to Atlanta for the Global Education Benchmark Group Conference. And, Science Department Chair Dr. Chris Vyhnal gave a talk for the American Chemical Society on his 2018 Mayhem class and plans to expand that curriculum. The Thacher School 37
IN MEMORIAM… WILLIAM HARTMAN WOODIN III CdeP 1943 Born William Woodin III to William Woodin II and Carolyn Hyde, his introduction to the Sonoran Desert came at age 4, when the family moved to Tucson from New York City. William’s fascination with snakes and lifelong love of the desert and its wildlife began at age 4, when he captured a snake that gave birth to 52 offspring, and culminated with Woodin’s tenure as executive director of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum from 1954 to 1971. His classmates noted his love for snakes in El Archivero, “his bedroom is rather like a snake-cage, for rumor has it that Bill cannot sleep unless three snakes are wriggling within reach.” After graduating from Thacher, William earned a bachelor’s in zoology at the University of Arizona and a master’s in zoology at U.C., Berkeley. In 1950, he identified a kingsnake species which was named after him: Lampropeltis pyromelana woodini. In a Saturday Evening Post article, he was called one of “the most promising young naturalists in the United States.” In 1971, he left to concentrate on another lifelong passion: collecting and writing about small arms ammunition used by the U.S. military. He published the final volume of a three-volume set in 2015. William was predeceased by his wife, Ann, and is survived by his four sons, Peter CdeP 1966, Hugh, John, and Michael; his eight grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.
WILLIAM THEODORE HAMMOND CdeP 1944 William “Bill” Hammond died peacefully on November 13, 2018, at his home in Ojai, California, with his daughter Tucker Adams by his side, knowing the deep love of his family and cared for by his dedicated caregivers. He was born in Los Angeles on June 15, 1926, the second child of Harvey (Wallis) and Paul Bovard Hammond. While at Thacher, he was known for “attempting to convince the unenlightened of the wonders of Los Angeles.” Bill joined the Navy at 17 and served on the USS Iowa, then attended Claremont Men’s (McKenna) College, where he met Nancy Lee Marston, whom he married in 1950. He spent his career working in the family oil and gas business. Bill’s passions and interests were wide ranging: his faith, the Episcopal Church, philanthropy, photography, classic cars, geography, boating, adventure travel, hardware stores, and especially his friends. Bill will be remembered for so many things, but his beautiful smile and funloving nature, as well as his irrepressible curiosity and love of a good story, will always be with us. He was preceded in death by his beloved Nancy and is survived by his brother, Charles CdeP 1941; daughter, Tucker; sons, Paul, and John; seven grandchildren including, Wallis E. Adams CdeP 2000; and seven great-grandchildren.
GEORGE F. FRENCH CdeP 1946 George Franklin French passed away peacefully on November 5, 2018, in Oakland, California. George enthusiastically pursued many interests while at Thacher—chief among them were chess, mechanical devices, soccer, tennis, and hiking. After attending Thacher, he was in the class of 1950 at Princeton University. While at Princeton, George completed an epic solo transcontinental bicycle ride in 28 days. During
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the Korean War, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Language School in Monterey, Calif., and graduated first in his class in Russian. While at Thacher, he had also exhibited skills in foreign languages, receiving commendations in French and German. After his discharge, George formed Franklin Research as an inventor of mechanical systems. George was an accomplished long distance runner, completing many marathons including The New York Marathon several times. He remained proficient in Russian interpreting and translating, and was a master chess player. George is survived by his brother, Pieter Myers; and his children, Lisa, Nicholas, George, and John.
ELMER JAMES WHITE JR. CdeP 1951 Elmer James “Jim” White Jr. passed away February 4, 2019, in Scottsdale, Arizona. Jim was born in Seattle and lived in the house his father and grandfather had built in Laurelhurst. Sports were a big part of his life at Thacher: He was basketball captain, a two-year letterman in tennis and soccer, and lettered in baseball. Tennis ultimately became a lifelong passion. Jim majored in engineering at the University of Washington and earned an MS in Civil Engineering from MIT. He served in the U.S. Air Force and married Margaret (Marge) Karkow after his discharge. Jim and Marge raised their two sons, John and Walter, in Connecticut. For 25 years, he traveled around the world working on buildings including the World Trade Center, Bank of China in Hong Kong, and Meadowlands Stadium. After a long illness, Marge passed away in 1995. In 2015, he married Colleen Johnson, with whom he shared a love of Rotary, traveling, football, books, and family and friends. For 22 years after his engineering career, Jim ran the family business, Mobile Crane Company, until he retired in 2015. Jim was an active a member of several clubs: Seattle Yacht Club, University Sunrise Rotary, Seattle Tennis Club, University of Washington Tyee, and the United States Power Squadron. Jim is survived by his wife, Colleen; sons, Walter and John; brother, Nikolas; two stepchildren, and six grandchildren, and extended family. He was preceded in death by his first wife, Marge.
DANIEL K. SOOY CdeP 1953 Daniel K. Sooy CdeP passed away April 10, 2018. Daniel’s classmates had lots to say about him in El Archivero: “On the athletic field, ‘Soo’ has been an important cog in soccer, basketball, track, and swimming, which he captained for several years. Beyond athletics, he was an admired thespian: He stole the show as the villain in The Man in the Bowler Hat.” From Thacher, Daniel matriculated to Pomona College.
ANTHONY GRIFFIN CdeP 1954 Tony Griffin, a San Francisco attorney and accomplished amateur actor and raconteur, died peacefully December 15, 2018, in Inverness, California, after a lengthy illness, surrounded by his family. He was born in San Francisco in 1936 to Everett Griffin and Jean Gregory Griffin, and was a fourth generation San Franciscan. In El Archivero, his classmates wrote, “he is one of the School’s leaders, and … his free moments are few and far between.” In fact, his list of leadership roles is impressive: Letterman’s Club (president), Student Council, School Prefect, EI Archivero Board (editor), Notes Board, Masquers (president), Museum Board (president), Indoor Committee (chairman), along with
IN MEMORIAM… membership in several sports teams and performing arts ensembles. After Thacher, Tony graduated from U.C. Berkeley and its law school. Following his admission to the California Bar, Tony specialized in litigation as a partner at St. Clair Zappettini McFetridge and Griffin. A leader who held the respect and love of his many friends and family, he served as president of the Bohemian Club in 2005-07, led its Shoestring Camp, and was commodore of the Inverness Yacht Club. Tony and his wife, Jennifer, were married for 60 years, living a wonderful and full life with their many friends, who will always remember him and his humor with great affection. In addition to Jennifer, Tony is survived by their four children—Everett CdeP 1978, Sydney, Hillary, and Ashley—and six grandchildren; siblings Andrew Griffin, Sarah Banker, Cyrus Griffin and their children. His brother David Griffin predeceased him.
ALBERT W. SMITH CdeP 1954 Albert William Smith, a resident of Santa Cruz, California, and Lake Tahoe, California, passed away on September 4, 2018, in Truckee, California. Born to Albert Edward Smith and Mary Schaw Smith on October 10, 1936, Albert was one of two children. He attended Thacher for one year in 1951, and after high school, attended U.C. Berkeley, graduating in 1958. With a large stature (6’ 5”) and abounding curiosity and intellect, Al tended to create an indelible impression. Driven by his desire to see the underdog win, and because he enjoyed the creative ideas and camaraderie afforded by many talented entrepreneurs, he invested independently in small companies. He was well versed in California history and art; he loved genealogy, music, and the highways and backroads of California. Albert is survived by his wife, Louisa Baumann Smith; four children from his first marriage, Kristin Minges, Elisa Smith, Hilary Smith, and Timothy Smith; his sister, Ann Soske; six grandchildren, including Lily ’19 and Will Harding ’20; one great-grandson; three step-children; and four stepgrandchildren.
TIMOTHY T. A. SODD CdeP 1955 On December 31, 2017, Timothy Turner Anderson Sodd passed away. According to El Archivero, Tim was an outstanding player on the second soccer team; was invincible when riding Shadow; was a holy terror with a tennis racket in his hand; and was a peerless horse inspector. Tim was a U.S. Navy veteran. He is survived by his wife, Mary Elizabeth Sodd; children, Margaret Ann Oakes, Mark Timothy Sodd, Steven Christopher Sodd; siblings, Judy Hemann, Paula Kenny, Paul D. Turner, John Turner, James Turner, Virginia Turner, and Mary Wash; three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
N. ANTHONY DANN CdeP 1957 Anthony “Tony” Dann passed away January 29, 2019. Tony’s love for his horse and camping at Thacher carried over into his later life. While he worked as an investment advisor, Tony and his wife, Denise, devoted much of their lives to training horses. They were accomplished endurance riders and used their place in Valley Springs, California, and later near Boise, Idaho, as a base for endurance rides and competitions throughout the western United States. Seven of
Tony’s class of ’57 classmates spent a wonderful 60th Reunion weekend with him in June 2017. In addition to the regular Reunion festivities and with encouragement from Cam Schryver, Tony and Richard Grant set out on an unforgettable Saturday afternoon trail ride astride Sheriff and Jose. The destination was the falls at the upper end of the Horn Canyon. The creek was flowing, the bays, sycamores, and alders were in full foliage, and the mimulus, sage, and salvias were in flower. Ever the horseman, Tony’s Saturday afternoon ride concluded with a lap around the gymkhana field. Tony is survived by Denise and their two adult children.
JOHN HEARD CdeP 1959 John Heard passed away November 8, 2018, in Miami, Florida, surrounded by his loving family. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on August 17, 1941, John’s love for Thacher never waned. In 1995 he wrote, “Of course, the best part of Thacher was my class. I was really lucky. It was a really super bunch of people who really cared about each other. God we had some great times—in the dorm, on sports trips, on camping trips, just hanging out on Sunday afternoons over graham crackers and milk, having dessert and coffee, and listening to one of the great authors…” In El Archivero, his classmates wrote, “None can top his riding ability; he holds two state championship titles and was high-point in the ’58 Yale-Thacher gymkhana. After Thacher, John went on to Stanford and then a 40-year career in international development with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Peace Corps, and the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF). He and Anne were also co-presidents of Friendship Force, a nonprofit organization focused on promoting understanding, cultural education, and citizen diplomacy across more than 60 countries. John met his wife, Anne, in 1959 and they had two sons, David CdeP 1979 and Theodore CdeP 1983. Thirty-six years after they met, he wrote of Anne, “I am the luckiest guy in the world, and I know it.” After 58 years of marriage their love for each other remained true.
PRENTISS ARNOLD MOORE CdeP 1963 Prentiss “Arnie” Moore CdeP 1963 passed away on March 3, 2019. Some words of remembrance from Nick Thacher CdeP 1963: Arnie ... was an extremely large guy who made it through his freshman year and then was asked to leave (for academic reasons, I always supposed). He was a charming, lovely guy—salt of the earth, as they say. My father was quoted in El Archivero as having said in some study hall announcement reporting the news that Arnie had been accidentally dislodged from his horse, “When Arnie falls, Arnie falls hard, and great is the fall thereof.” He was one of the four original Honeytones and made his living teaching in the public school system and as a popular and successful studio musician, playing backup guitar in various ensembles behind the stars of yesteryear. He absolutely loved Thacher, in spite of his extremely meteoric career and was one of the most reliable classmates in terms of attendance at reunions and School functions.
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IN MEMORIAM… ALLEN OLIVER DRAGGE JR. CdeP 1966 Allen Dragge passed suddenly and unexpectedly during a diving trip in Indonesia on September 22, 2018. He died in a place called Misool Ecological Resort, a world renowned underwater sanctuary that he had a hand in creating and promoting. He died doing what he loved most, in a place he loved most, in the company of the woman he loved most. After graduating from Thacher, Allen eventually established himself as one of the world’s foremost stained glass experts. His restoration genius was acknowledged worldwide and works included the windows of Grace Cathedral and suspended domes of the Olympic Club and Palace Hotel. He founded Reflection Studios, which became equally famous for creating new windows in a variety of styles using his innovative techniques. During the last 10 years of his life, he became part of a Buddhist group, including and inspired by Jack Kornfield. Philanthropic efforts included the “Change The World” project and the A.O. Dragge Foundation, dedicated to combating “first world problems in third world countries” and is still very active, particularly in Myanmar. Allen is survived by son, Aaron Oliver Dragge; daughter, Courtney Dragge Shrunk; brothers, Peter Brooks Dragge CdeP 1969 and Bruce Smith Dragge CdeP 1971; and sister, Suzanne Elizabeth Icaza.
JONATHAN D. WALTON CdeP 1971 Jonathan Walton passed away on October 18, 2018, after a brief illness. Jonathan was a pioneer and an internationally recognized leader in the study of plant-pathogen interactions. Jonathan began his career at MSU in 1987, when he joined the MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory and the Plant Biology Department as an assistant professor, later becoming a professor. During his career, he received several awards and held a number of leadership positions in his field: in 2003, he was awarded the MSU Distinguished Faculty Award. From 2003 to 2005, he served as president of the International Society for Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions and from 2007 to 2010, was the editor-in-chief for the society’s journal Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions. In 2007, Jonathan was named the MSU assistant director for the Great Lakes Bioenergy Center and, in 2011, its MSU director. In 2008, Jonathan became a fellow of the American Phytopathological Society and, in 2012, he was elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He recently completed a book on the molecular biology of poisonous mushrooms, The Cyclic Peptide Toxins of Amanita and Other Poisonous Mushrooms. During the past three years, he was instrumental in developing the Molecular Plant Science Graduate Program at MSU and he became its inaugural director. Just before his death, Jonathan expressed how fortunate he was to work with all his colleagues. He will be dearly missed.
FRIENDS OF THE SCHOOL MARTHA W. HAMMER (FORMER TRUSTEE) Martha W. Hammer passed away on the fourth of July of 2018 in Los Angeles following a long fight against cancer. She died as she lived, with courage and determination and ready for what lay beyond. Born in 1945 in New York to G. Harvey Wehmeier and Margaret Grant Wehmeier, Marti was raised in Lafayette, California. She met her husband, Steve, a Pomona College student, when she visited Scripps College as a high school senior. She received her undergraduate degree from
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Scripps College, then an MA from UCLA, and a law degree from Loyola Law School, passed the California Bar, and joined the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. She later headed the Labor and Employment practice of the L.A. office of Skaden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. Martha had a strong commitment to higher education: she was a life trustee and former chairman of board of Scripps College, a board member at Thacher, and president and CEO of the Independent Colleges of Southern California. Marti leaves behind her husband, Steven; their children, Kirsten Hammer Dueck, Braden H. Hammer, and Michael L. Hammer CdeP 2001; a grandson; and many more loving family members and longtime friends.
JOHN D. MAGUIRE (FORMER TRUSTEE) Longtime Claremont Graduate University president, civil rights activist, and champion for racial equality, John David Maguire, died October 26, 2018, after suffering a massive stroke. Born in 1932 in Montgomery, Alabama, to John Henry and Clyde “Merrill” Maguire, John married Lillian “Billie” Louise Parrish in August 1953 after graduating magna cum laude from Washington and Lee University. During his collegiate years, John was an active leader in the community, overcoming the struggles of a racially divided South. Later, John studied at University of Edinburgh, Scotland, under a Fulbright Scholarship, then graduated summa cum laude from Yale University Divinity School. He completed his PhD at Yale before engaging in postdoctoral research. One of the original Freedom Riders, John enjoyed a 17-year friendship with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Following Dr. King’s death, John served as life director of the MLK Center for Social Change. John was predeceased by his sister, Merrill Skaggs, and survived by his wife, Lillian; daughters, Catherine Maguire, Mary Maguire, and Anne (Maguire) Turner CdeP 1987; four grandchildren; and his sister, Martha Worsley.
CORA MAE SCHRYVER On March 30, hundreds gathered under a large tent on the Gymkhana Overlook to celebrate the exceptional life of Cora Mae Schryver, who passed away in December 2018 at the age of 13. Cora was the beloved daughter of Cam and Lori Schryver, who led Thacher’s Horse Program from 1992 to 2017. During the first 12 years of Cora’s life, she lived on campus and was a fixture at the barns and Gymkhana Field, where she served as an unofficial member of the horse faculty and an inspiration to generations of freshman riders. Cora’s high energy, dedication, and athleticism served her as well on horseback as off. During her Ojai years she excelled at gymnastics and track. After the family moved to Antelope, Oregon, she devoted herself to gymkhana, 4-H, track, football, and CrossFit, shod in her signature Converse All Stars whenever possible. As Jake Jacobsen put it at Cora’s celebration: “When she spoke to you, visited you, played with you...she created a spark of beauty, goodness, good humor, and love in our hearts that made our petty concerns evaporate for a while. How does a young child—even one as beautiful and naturally talented as Cora—summon her best self so frequently?” Cora is survived by her parents and her siblings, Carol, Conner CdeP 2005, and Zane CdeP 2013. A memorial scholarship has been established in her name at the Monica Ros School.
THE BEST WE CAN DO… WHAT STUDENTS NEED VARY WIDELY FROM SCHOOL TO SCHOOL, IN ITCAN FOR THE LONG TERM COMMUNITY TO COMMUNITY. JAIME LUNA CdeP 2005 WORKS TO MAKE SURE LOW-INCOME STUDENTS GET THE BEST POSSIBLE TEACHING ALONG WITH THE KINDS OF BASIC SUPPORT THEY NEED TO BENEFIT FROM IT.
Jaime (above) back in the day as school chair and (below) on the job in Houston.
WHAT KIND OF WORK DO YOU DO? I work in teacher development at Promise Community School, a small public charter school serving a low-income community in Houston. We’re unique in that we recognize that the challenges our families face go beyond education. In addition to schooling, our organization provides other services to our communities including legal aid, health care, and in some cases ESL classes for adults. My primary role is to support the success of our faculty, but I also get to work directly with students in the third through eighth grades. WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO THIS ROLE? After Thacher, I attended the University of Notre Dame, where I was unclear about what I wanted “to be” when I left school. For a while, law school seemed to be in my future, but when I truly reflected on the work I wanted to do, being a lawyer didn’t really excite me. In my senior year I started working with high school students and volunteering at an after-school program for younger kids. Helping them with homework, talking about their futures, and providing a mirror for them was something that made me feel good about my time, and I felt like I needed to do more to work with younger students. Ultimately, I joined Teach For America after university and was placed in Houston to teach third graders in a bilingual classroom.
WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT OR FULFILLING ABOUT YOUR WORK? I feel best when I know I can change the way a teacher may approach his or her classroom. Is the teacher willing to take risks and involve students in asking questions and extended dialogue? Can they change the way they are measuring learning from a multiple-choice test to something that would require students to write out their answers and defend an argument? For teachers to ultimately get to this point, they need to feel supported and encouraged to try things that are oftentimes not done in public school settings. If I can help a teacher grow and improve, I know I am doing good work. But I never forget that it is the impact on students that is the true measure of my impact. My third year teaching I had a student (let’s call her Jo) who kept showing up late and wasn’t finishing her assignments for my fifth-grade math class. I was frustrated because I didn’t know what to do to help and she was withdrawn in class. I don’t remember exactly what I said to her, but I was constantly following up with her to make sure everything was OK outside of school and to see how I could help. Recently, she emailed me to tell me she was enrolling in college and that she still remembered when she was going through a hard time as a fifth grader. This story is not the narrative of most of my work, but it was warming to hear from Jo and realize that I had made a small impression on her. WHAT TO YOU THINK YOUR STUDENTS NEED FROM THE ADULTS IN THEIR LIVES? The third- to eighth-grade students I work with need adults to listen to them and need to be allowed to be kids and make mistakes. A lot of students I interact with talk about how they feel like they need to be perfect. They are constantly bombarded with images on TV or through social media telling them what it means to be cool at their age. I’m often glad I didn’t have a smartphone at their age, because I don’t think I would have been able to handle some of the pressure. This issue is compounded in the community my school serves, where young students of color are often called “young men and women.” As a result
of this “adultification,” minor transgressions can be seen as malicious and intentional where they may simply be due to immaturity. The result is often harsher discipline, which in turn can reinforce negative stereotypes and self-image. This can be incredibly harmful to these kids because they get the message that they have to act more adult-like rather than being granted the room to ask questions and make mistakes. The students I work with are incredibly intelligent, kind, and curious. I try to remind teachers of this so they can ensure that every student gets a quality education without being made to fear adults. There is a larger systemic issue here facing students that is tied to race and class and isn’t just about the adults in their lives. Ultimately it is something we all have to think about. WHAT SHOULD OUR READERS KNOW ABOUT THE CHALLENGES OF THE WORK YOU DO? I often get asked which single piece of legislation or move from our nation’s capital would “fix” public education. This sort of question is incredibly frustrating because it goes along with a mind-set that we can fix things if we simply innovate or put money behind a particular issue. Like most systems in our country, public education is tied to things that involve race and class. Whether we’re talking about education, health care, or banking, we know our country has a history of making sure that certain types of people have better access to the best services. I’m not exactly sure how to “fix” our education system, but when I go to work, I’m always thinking of what I can do to make sure students where I work receive the best education possible.
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One Photo: of the fundamental paradoxes facing adults raising children is that sometimes the most important thing we can do for them is to encourage them to go off on their own.