Cyrus
a magazine for alumni and friends of
The Blake School
Sure Shot
Thea Traff ʼ09 gets the picture
D.C. Marvels Bears in the nation’s capital Point of Pride Thor Falk ʼ78 boosts LGBTQ+ visibility
Cyrus
a magazine for alumni and friends of The Blake School
Editor
Kristin Stouffer
Managing Editor
Tracy Grimm
Graphic Designer
Cate Hubbard
Thanks to the many Blake community members who have contributed to this publication.
Mission
Blake engages students with a dynamic, academically challenging education in a diverse and supportive community committed to pluralism and a common set of values. Students pursue an integrated program of academic, artistic and athletic activities, preparing for college, lifelong learning and purposeful lives as community and global citizens.
Values
Curiousity
Kindness
Inclusivity
Resilience
Commitment to Pluralism
A vibrant learning environment springs from a diverse school community. For this reason, Blake seeks and values students, families and employees with a wide range of backgrounds, identities and life experiences. Individually and collectively, we strive for understanding across differences in an inclusive environment where everyone can belong, contribute and thrive.
Why Cyrus?
Cyrus Northrop played a formative role in one of Blake’s founding institutions. In 1915, Northrop Collegiate School was named in his honor to recognize Dr. Northrop’s achievements as a nationally regarded educator and as president of the University of Minnesota. His legacy of educational excellence continues at Blake today.
cyrus@blakeschool.org
Vision 2030: Educating for the Future
In this letter, I often comment on feature articles in Cyrus. As always, this issue’s cover story, photo feature, Q&A and Voices essay are inspiring and engaging. I encourage you to spend time with them. I’d also like to call attention, however, to a section of the magazine I don’t typically highlight in this letter. It’s called In Brief.
By capturing highlights from around the school, In Brief offers an inside look at the Blake of today. It features class projects, school programs and community partnerships that together create the Blake educational experience. In doing so, these pages illustrate how our strategic plans come to life.
A year after the unification of our Lower School and the opening of our Early Learning Center, we are in an optimal position to plan and educate for the future.
Vision 2030: A Strategic Framework for Blake will be our roadmap. You can read about the plan’s priorities—including student well-being and mental health, computational and design thinking, environmental literacy, faculty professional development, community building and green facilities improvements at Northrop, just to name a few—at blake.mn/vision2030.
Put simply, Vision 2030 is the foundation for what you’ll see in future editions of In Brief. I’m thrilled to embark on this next chapter of Blake’s history with you.
Anne E. Stavney, Ph.D. Head of School
Photo: Tamika Garscia
OF AN ARTIST
Thea Traff ʼ09 has earned acclaim for her photographic portraits of celebrities and world leaders. Artistically, she’s less focused on fame than feelings.
6
On a visit to the nation’s capital, eighth graders experience growth as students and as citizens.
Thor Falk ʼ78 launched the Winter Park Pride Project to increase LGBTQ+ visibility and a sense of welcome in his community.
IN BRIEF
ARTS HIGHLIGHT
PITCH PERFECT PERFORMANCES
Blake’s youngest students shined in their performances at the inaugural Early Learning Center Spring Sing. Each grade—pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and first grade— gave a concert for family and friends that included playing instruments, dancing, speaking and, of course, plenty of singing.
FACES ON CAMPUS
OTIS ENVIRONMENTAL
AUTHOR OPENS A WORLD OF WONDERS
Philip Otis Environmental
Author Aimee Nezhukumatathil spent a weeklong residency at Blake sharing her love of fireflies and the many other plants and animals she’s written about in her bestselling book World of Wonders. Students from pre-kindergarten to twelfth grade met with Nezhukumatathil during assemblies and classroom
visits where they discussed art, science and writing.
“I loved that I could be the guest in their space and see how students are reacting to
my book and what kinds of questions they have for me as a writer,” Nezhukumatathil says. At Wonderfair, an open-tothe-public event featuring interactive stations for visitors to explore an array of plants, animals and art in nature, guests listened to a conversation with Nezhukumatathil and Brains On! science podcast host Molly Bloom ’01. Guests could also enjoy an art exhibit featuring the work of World of Wonders illustrator Fumi Nakamura as well as nature-inspired submissions created by Blake community members. Throughout her visit, Nezhukumatathil emphasized the importance of having a sense of wonder: “Don’t let anybody take away your curiosity or wonder—don’t let anyone dim your shine.” And she encouraged students to follow their passions: “It will pay dividends if you choose to do what you love. Remember all the things you had access to and find a way to carry that on through your college years. Don’t let that spirit of curiosity end with Blake’s graduation.”
SERVICE
SECOND GRADERS SEND LETTERS OF LOVE
Second graders harnessed their creative talents to support Letters for Love, an organization that provides emotional support to children battling cancer and other serious illnesses through
handmade cards. The students selected the nonprofit as their service learning classroom project and collaborated across grades to amplify their impact. The Upper School Letters of Love Club met with the second graders to talk about the organization and make bracelets. The second graders also made pop-up cards and videos to invite other Upper Elementary classrooms to join them in making cards.
ACADEMIC HIGHLIGHT ENGINEERING STUDENTS BUILD A MEMORABLE LEGACY DAY
This Legacy Day, nine Upper School students undertook the task of designing a hands-on service project that 1,400 students, from pre-kindergarten to twelfth grade, could complete in 40 minutes while meeting the needs of a partner organization and staying within a budget. Delivering on this challenge, Jeff Trinh’s Engineering 2 class designed, prepared and led two efforts in support of Appetite for Change, a nonprofit that uses food as a tool to build health, wealth and social change in North
ACADEMIC HIGHLIGHT ARTS HIGHLIGHT COMMITMENT TO PLURALISM COMMUNITY FACES ON CAMPUS SERVICE
Minneapolis. In Engineering 2, students build skills in design, communication and planning within the field of engineering. Second semester is built around a four-month project, which students select from a range of options, with the goal of enacting environmental change. For their Legacy Day project, students designed planter
COMMUNITY
boxes for half the Legacy groups to construct, while the other half made newspaper pots and planted seedlings for tomato, kale, collards, peppers, herbs, onions and strawberries. The pots were given out at a distribution event that Blake alumni and families have been volunteering at for several years.
SOLAR ECLIPSE STOLE OUR HEARTS
ARTS HIGHLIGHT MANGA ARTIST SHARES PASSION FOR CULTURAL EXCHANGE
Kofi Bazzell-Smith travels the country teaching about Manga (comics or graphic novels originating from Japan), Japanese language and cultural exchange. As an artist, he merges African-American culture and stories with a Manga aesthetic to tell stories in fresh and exciting ways. Students felt this excitement when BazzellSmith spent two weeks at Blake as a 2023-24 McGuire Visiting Artist. Jackie Quinn’s fourth and fifth grade visual art students, Seexeng Lee’s eighth grade visual art students and Bill Colburn’s Upper School Drawing 1 and 2 students had the opportunity to draw with and get to know Bazzell-Smith, who is also a
professional boxer and has studied both art and sport in Japan. His residency culminated in a Martha Bennett Gallery exhibit showcasing his work and student work produced during his time on campus.
While Blake was well outside the path of totality during the North American solar eclipse in April, that didn’t stop the community from celebrating. Students and teachers alike took the opportunity to “dress like space,” donning spacesuits and celestial-themed outfits. Several classes grabbed their protective glasses and tried to catch a partial glimpse of the eclipse. As fifth grade teacher Kamie Page perfectly summed it up, “We looked, and while sad that the eclipse eluded us behind the clouds, we had fun being scientists in action!”
SCIENCE STUDENTS GROW A HEALTHY LUNCH
Those dining at Blake this spring enjoyed lettuce, spinach, basil and cilantro grown by eighth grade science students in hydroponic gardens. The chefs at Blake incorporated the harvest into the fresh lunches they prepare every school day. (See graphic on page 5 to learn more.)
COMMUNITY
SLOW TURTLE, FAST FRIEND
Just when you thought kindergarten recess couldn’t get more exciting, students discovered a tiny baby turtle making its way to the parking lot. To protect their new friend, teacher librarian Kali Olson transferred it to an empty book bin for the
duration of recess—and for her next storytime. Students observed the baby turtle— naming it Shelley Shadow and sharing a spare strawberry from their daily snack—before releasing it in a nearby wetland. “Everyone loved the turtle and wanted to keep it forever,” Ms. Olson says.
ARTS HIGHLIGHT
ENSEMBLES HIT HIGH NOTE AT STATE CONVENTION
The Upper School a cappella choir and chamber orchestra showcased their musical partnership at the 2024 Minnesota Music Educators Association Midwinter
Convention, the state’s largest gathering of music educators. Being selected to perform at the annual event is the highest honor a school music group can achieve. Inspired by previous collaborations between their ensembles, Choral Director Natalia Romero Arbeláez and Instrumental Music Director Brian Lukkasson submitted recordings of their group and described their proposed concert if selected: a student-led performance exploring themes of growth, journey and transformation. “We were intentional about creating an experience for our students where the lines of ensembles are blurred and the focus is on the community that is made through music,” the directors say. “[Our students] are hard-working, curious, funny and supportive of each other as musicians and humans. They go beyond the notes and rhythms to critically examine the context, background and musical challenges in every piece of music they study. We were both excited to stand with our students and to share the music we get to make every day with the Blake community, our colleagues and beyond.”
CHANGEMAKERS AMONG US
Kindergartners in Julien LeGuen-Schmidt’s class integrated lessons from their study on changemakers with
their writer’s workshop unit on letter writing. Noticing trash on their playground, the students thought of a way to resolve the issue. They got to work writing letters to Early Learning Center Director Toya West asking for trash cans to be placed on the playground. They hand delivered their requests to Ms. West who acted on their suggestion.
FAIR EXCHANGE
Bustling business broke out in the Pillsbury Conference Room as sixth graders took part in a class simulation of a wheat marketplace and discovered firsthand the laws of supply and demand. The exercise was designed to build students’ foundation of economic knowledge in a larger unit investigating the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
ACADEMIC HIGHLIGHT
ACADEMIC HIGHLIGHT
AWARDS
ELC EARNS NATIONAL RECOGNITION FOR SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
The Early Learning Center (ELC) recently celebrated its first anniversary, and the Blake community isn’t alone in its appreciation of the childcentered, sustainability-focused space. The American Society for Interior Design (ASID) presented a national merit award for interior design focused on sustainability to HGA for the firm’s work on the ELC. In addition, Finance & Commerce named the region’s best construction projects over the past year, and Blake’s ELC and Lower School campus
renovation, also designed by HGA, was selected as a 2023 Top Project. Among finished projects from Minnesota builders, an independent panel
LUNCH NUM(MY)BERS
selected 54 honorees based on degree of difficulty, creativity in design, innovative construction techniques, cooperation among contractors and management, and sustainability efforts. The 39,500-square-foot ELC includes a mass timber frame, geothermal heating and cooling and other sustainable features.
What does it take to feed 1,330 hungry students, all their teachers and scores of staff members? The chefs of Taher, Blake's food service provider, break it down with these fan-favorite foods facts:
LUNCHES PREPARED AND SERVED YEARLY
277,100
800 handmade each month COOKIES
35,000 baked yearly
700 pounds in one day
550 pounds in one day
2,200 tortillas in one day
250 pounds cut every day
18,000 pounds served yearly
75 pounds consumed every month
Thea Traff ʼ09 has earned acclaim for her photographic portraits of celebrities, from actors Claire Danes and Ewan McGregor to President Joe Biden and the Rolling Stones. Artistically, however, she’s less focused on fame than she is on feelings.
THEA TRAFF ’09
PORTRAITS OF AN ARTIST
By Joel Hoekstra
Illustrated by Owen Davey—Folio Art
Thea Traff arranges the studio like she always does. Two support beams are wrestled into place, a plain paper backdrop unfurled. On either side are foam boards—one white, one black. Atop a light stand, Traff mounts a crate-sized Fresnel spotlight whose lens gives her portraits a signature style akin to Old Hollywood.
A fellow photographer has rented Traff the use of his shared studio space in Bushwick, a gritty-but-gentrifying neighborhood in Brooklyn. Today, she’s shooting an actress in need of publicity images. But the actress and her stylist are running late.
Traff checks her iPhone. There are Instagram notifications, some texts and an email from the New York Times with an assignment offer: Is she free on Thursday to shoot the Rolling Stones concert in New Jersey?
Scroll through Traff’s Instagram account and you’ll see dozens of the black-andwhite portraits she has taken
for the New Yorker, Time, the New York Times and other wellknown publications. Her recent shoots include Tony and Oscar winning actors and Pulitzer Prize winning authors. But Traff seems both unfazed by her proximity to celebrities and unaware of her own rising fame.
“Recently, I said to Thea, ‘Isn’t it amazing to think you’re one of the top editorial photographers in the country?’”
Coralie Kraft, a photo editor at the New York Times Magazine, recalls. “She acted like I was crazy. I don’t think she realizes how successful she is.”
The actress and stylist have arrived. Traff asks the subject, dressed in an oversized black suit, to move a bit, and the actress readily twirls as the photographer fusses with the Fresnel and snaps several test images. From experience, she knows these “test” images, taken with her Canon EOS R-5 when the subject isn’t posing, can yield the most authentic emotions and expressions.
Satisfied with the setup, Traff fully engages. The lens bobs and weaves as the actress
pouts and preens. Traff grabs an old office chair from a corner and rolls around her subject, shutter firing. Removing a clasp from her hair, she’s loosening up—and quietly signaling her subject to do the same. Stripping off her boots, she drops to the floor to get a fresh angle. “One of the problems with being 6 feet tall means I’m never at eye level with my subjects,” she says.
Half an hour into the shoot, Traff sets down the camera and reaches for her MacBook. She clicks a file with dozens of images pulled from the internet: kids making faces, women striking poses, men glancing over their shoulders. “What do you think about trying something like this?” she says to the actress, pointing to an image or two.
PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORIES
Traff grew up in Wayzata and got her first camera in elementary school. Encouraged by her shutterbug father, she found she liked photography. In middle school, a snapshot of a swing in the Traffs’ backyard won her a prize in a local
photography competition. At 16, she attended a summer photography program at Parsons School of Design in New York. “I was so introverted and shy,” she recalls. “It felt like photography was where I could develop a voice, an outlet to express myself.”
At Colgate University, she double majored in philosophy and studio art, completing a senior project focused on landscapes. “I was too intimidated to approach people,” she recalls. When humans did appear in her photography, they were often faceless or disembodied: backs of heads, outstretched hands, crossed legs.
During her senior year, Traff landed a monthlong internship at the New Yorker, shadowing the magazine’s photo editors. “I didn’t even know what a photo editor was,” she says. “By the end, though, I was convinced it was the best job in the entire world: getting to read early drafts of the magazine, doing research and searching out the best available photographs related to a subject.” With graduation
“I WAS SO INTROVERTED AND SHY. IT FELT LIKE PHOTOGRAPHY WAS WHERE I COULD DEVELOP A VOICE, AN OUTLET TO EXPRESS MYSELF.”
looming, she emailed her contacts at the magazine incessantly, asking if there were any openings in the photo editing department. “Suddenly, there was a job,” she recalls. “Whether it was a position that came open or was created because I kept asking them—I don’t know.”
CAREER DEVELOPMENT
She spent just over five years at the magazine, first on the digital side and then on the print publication. The job involved sifting through wire photography sites to find an arresting image to go with an online post or coordinating and directing shoots with photographers and subjects on locations around the world. The New Yorker also provided access to the archives of Richard Avedon, and Traff found herself marveling at his portraits—often black and whites against blank backdrops. “It felt like the most incredible education in photography,” she says. Seeing her selections published alongside New Yorker articles was exhilarating. “It
could have been any other photo, but I was the one who chose it and put it out in the world,” she says. “It made me feel so powerful.”
In 2018, Traff moved to Time, commissioning portraits and often directing cover shoots. But her passion for
editing was starting to ebb. “I would get work back from a photographer and sometimes feel like it could have been so much better,” she says. She felt like the images didn’t capture much emotion and that the photographers relied too heavily on the available light,
which was often overly bright or weak or came from the wrong direction. “It was a bit presumptuous—I knew nothing about strobes or cameras—but I began to wonder if I could do the work myself,” she says. In the world of photography, switching from editing to shooting is rare. (She likens it to a coach deciding instead to play for the team.) But the more she considered being behind the lens, the more it intrigued her. “It would’ve made a lot more sense to transition slowly,” she says. “But I thought, ‘If I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna do it 100 percent.’” She moved to Los Angeles and gave notice at Time. Traff’s move to LA coincided with the pandemic, and the city felt weirdly solitary. Craving human interaction and pushing herself to develop skills, she logged onto a casting auditions website and offered to do free headshots. “I wanted to work with actors because I wanted people who were expressive,” she says. Hundreds of people responded. Traff set up a backdrop in her backyard
Thea Traff ʼ09
“ I T COULD HAVE BEEN ANY OTHER PHOTO, BUT I WAS THE ONE WHO CHOSE IT AND PUT IT OUT IN THE WORLD,” SHE SAYS. “IT MADE ME FEEL SO POWERFUL.”
SHARPER IMAGE
What makes Thea Traff’s photography so compelling? Three experts offer their views.
Thea’s Elevator Series was an "aha moment" for me. Of course! An elevator is a perfect definition of art: a pause between one place and another, a moment between one experience and the next, a slice of time between the past and the future. Most of us have been in an elevator. We get into this tiny box with total strangers, no one talks to anyone, and you try not to look at anything. These photos show the silence, the universal feeling of being alone and in community all at once.
BILL COLBURN ʼ88, Upper School visual arts
It might seem benign at first, just a photo of two hands. But Thea’s ability to take something or someone, who has been photographed a million times over, and make us feel like we’re seeing it for the first time, is one of the reasons she’s such a great photographer. These two hands, their position, grasping at the sky, and the lighting, almost directly overhead, accentuates every wrinkle and joint, making them look like an abstract sculpture.
PETER FISHER, photographer
This portrait of Alexandra Daddario encapsulates all my favorite modes of Thea’s work. The pose is unexpected. The actor appears pensive and serious. But she also has a commanding presence—a signature element that Thea manages to infuse into every portrait. Her subjects hold their own, elevated by Thea’s impeccable lighting.
ALLIE MONCK, associate photo editor, The New Yorker
and started snapping. “It was the widest range of characters you can imagine,” she recalls. For inspiration, she pulled favorite images she’d come across in her years as an editor and tacked them to the walls of her apartment. Sometimes she showed the images to actors and asked them to take inspiration from the poses.
“Some photographers fear if they use reference, their work will be deemed as copying,” Traff says. “But photo editors use reference images all the time as a way to communicate what they want. I’ve found using reference images gives the subject a sense of direction and puts them at ease. And what’s created is something entirely different from the initial reference.”
COMPOSED COMPOSITION
The pulse of a playlist and the Fresnel’s incessant flash have infused the Bushwick studio with a dance floor vibe. The actress has donned a black bra and trousers. She adds a pair of shimmering elbow-length gloves to the ensemble. At
“IT WAS A BIT PRESUMPTUOUS—I KNEW NOTHING ABOUT STROBES OR CAMERAS—BUT I BEGAN TO WONDER IF I COULD DO THE WORK MYSELF.”
Traff’s request, she frames her face with her hands.
It’s all going well until the stylist introduces an apple into the scene—an allusion to the temptation of Eve. People eating apples is an overused trope in photography, and Traff instinctively knows this. Still, she keeps snapping away. “If I know it’s not working and I just stop shooting, it can kill the mood,” she later remarks. “People’s comfort levels drop.”
“Thea is exceptionally calm and levelheaded,” says Allie Monck, an associate photo editor at the New Yorker who has worked with Traff. “No matter who she’s photographing, whether the president or actors or singers or writers, she manages to capture their presence. People seem really grounded in her images.”
Such results are all the more remarkable given the constraints Traff often faces. Tapped at the last minute to shoot Joe Biden at the White House for an article in the New Yorker, she found herself with just 10 minutes of time and was prohibited from using a flash,
even though the president was backlit by blinding sunshine streaming through the windows of the Oval Office. When she arrives at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium to shoot the Stones (she does accept the Times’ assignment), she discovers the photographers’ pit is well below the stage and all her peers have step stools.
Nonetheless, one of her shots of Mick Jagger strutting on stage is published alongside the Times’ review the next day. But Traff feels more satisfied with several other images published by the paper, depicting Stones’ fans tailgating before the concert. “It was really fun to go up to people, tell them what I was doing and who I was doing it for and take their portraits,” she says. “Just having an excuse to talk to strangers felt so good, so empowering.”
The Fresnel is taken off its light stand. The Canon is back in its case. Hugs given and thank yous swapped, the actress and the stylist have departed. Days later, Traff will sift through more than 1,600 shots and choose
a handful to edit: one is the actress untangling a lock of hair, snapped at an unguarded moment; another is a blackgloved hand, splayed fingers straining skyward.
Clearly exhausted by the three-hour shoot, Traff flops into a chair. Her voice quivers a bit, hinting at the emotional toll the work can take on her.
“No matter what the shoot is, in the first 20 minutes I get really anxious that it’s not working. It feels like a lot of pressure,” she confesses. She’s cognizant of the minutes ticking by, keyed in to the slightest discomfort. “It’s hard for me to be in control of a subject’s time, dictating what they’re doing and how they’re moving. It’s a constant balance of wanting to make them comfortable and wanting to push them. I’m trying to push both of us out of our comfort zones—in order to make something interesting.”
Joel Hoekstra is a Twin Cities writer and editor.
AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
ON THE ANNUAL CLASSWIDE VISIT TO WASHINGTON, D.C., BLAKE’S EIGHTH GRADERS MAKE NATURAL CONNECTIONS TO THEIR SOCIAL STUDIES CURRICULUM—AND EXPERIENCE GROWTH AS BOTH STUDENTS AND CITIZENS.
Photos by Murphy Byrne
(Photo 1) In the National Museum of African American History and Culture students discussed the American story and what it means to be an American today. In the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, they considered individual responsibilities in times of crisis. (Photo 2) Students explored another Smithsonian museum of their choice, including the Natural History Museum. (Photo 3) At the World War II Memorial, students watched a V-E Day commemorative celebration.
(Photo 4) Over dinner, D.C.-based Blake alumni spoke about their experiences in the government, military and private sectors. Speakers included Erica Gray ʼ03, Gilly Kagin-Marlowe ʼ03, Ryan Kagin ʼ03, Harsha Kodali ʼ04, Doug Melamed ʼ63 and Sam Michel ʼ10.
(Photo 5) Both Minnesota’s U.S. senators welcomed Blake to the Senate Hart Office Building. Social studies teacher and trip coordinator Raina Green shared that Senator Tina Smith, a former Blake parent, “charmed the audience with her warm, affable demeanor and her deep care for issues that matter to many of our students such as climate change and social justice.” (Photo 6) Students stand at the foot of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. (Photo 7) On a visit to the Black Lives Matter Plaza teachers guided a discussion on what restrictions, if any, are reasonable on freedom of speech. (Photo 8) During the trip, students were asked to think about the role memorials play in shaping public memory.
(Photos 9 and 12) Students reflected on several war memorials, including the Vietnam and Korean memorials. (Photo 10) At the Jefferson Memorial, they enjoyed inscriptions of the third president’s famous works then discussed his nuances, a continuation of the context-building they studied in class. (Photo 11) Most Minnesota representatives were back in their home state when Blake visited Capitol Hill, but the group heard from Representative Tom Emmer’s chief of staff and two other staffers. Representative Dean Phillips ʼ87 remained in town to talk with his fellow Bears and brought them onto the floor of the House.
(Photo 13) Students connected their classroom studies to policy work happening on Capitol Hill. (Photos 14 and 16) Marcia McNutt ʼ70, president of the National Academy of Sciences, talked about her path to the country’s most prominent science policy position. Students were awed by McNutt and the architectural beauty of the building where she works. (Photo 15) A nighttime visit to the White House.
PRIDE OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Falk had lived in Winter Park, Florida, just outside Orlando, since college and questioned why the city never acknowledged LGBTQ+ people in the community. In 2020, he started a nonprofit to help the city’s residents and businesses more intentionally express their pride and support for LGBTQ+ community members and visitors while also raising funds for LGBTQ+ youth programs.
Question: What led you to found the Winter Park Pride Project?
Answer: My niece lives outside of Boston in Hingham, Massachusetts, and she sent me an article about a local group that had started a campaign to fly 1,000 Pride flags during Pride month, and they used their leftover funds to buy more inclusive books for their library. Over a weekly coffee with local LGBTQ+ and ally business owners, I brought up the Hingham Pride Project and joked, “I wonder if that would fly here.” I didn’t know how the community would react, but I thought the only way to find out was to try it. I reached out to the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce president, who loved the idea. She presented it to her board,
and they decided to back me 100 percent. So I formed a nonprofit, which I had never done before.
Q: What has been the community response?
A: The majority of people in Winter Park embrace this. The businesses embrace it. The people who live here embrace it, and we see a lot of flags flying. But there are some who are devoutly opposed to what our organization is doing, and they periodically show up at city commission meetings to express their point of view.
Q: Have current events changed your approach or priorities for the project?
A: We are not a political organization. There are organizations that do a wonderful job lobbying and fighting for the LGBTQ+ community. We’re about visibility, so we stick with asking people to fly a flag to show that everyone’s welcome in their neighborhood. We stay
“GIVEN THE WAY OUR SOCIETY WORKS, CERTAIN GROUPS NEED TO FEEL INVITED. THEY CAN’T JUST FEEL TOLERATED; THEY NEED TO FEEL INVITED AND CELEBRATED.”
on the positive side of things; nobody is shamed for not doing it. It’s all about taking positive measures, increasing our visibility and participating in community events.
Q: Beyond the flag campaign, what other initiatives has your nonprofit undertaken?
A: We have two initiatives. Each month, a local business sponsors OUT on the Avenues by hosting a happy hour. The business invites their customers to attend, and we invite our network to learn about this business that is open to everyone. The program gives us exposure to their customers, and they learn more about what we do.
Pursue Your Dreams is geared toward LGBTQ+ students and youth, offering financial support to help them achieve something they’d like to pursue. For example, if someone has a dream to become a photographer and needs a camera, it could be used for that. We recently gave two grants to students at Orange
Technical College (OTC), which has a campus in Winter Park. The school trains people for jobs on the frontlines of most industries, many in health care, and most of their students are coming from a place of great need. I think our focus moving forward will be to support more OTC students.
Q: In 2022, the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce named you the Community Organization of the Year and in 2023 you were a Winter Park Magazine “Influential.”
What do these recognitions mean to you?
A: I didn’t do any of this to be recognized, but there were hundreds of people at each awards dinner, giving us a lot of exposure. Ultimately you just want to be ubiquitous, where everybody just accepts that you’re there, and I feel like this recognition moved us in that direction.
Q: What’s been the biggest surprise for you in launching and running the project?
A: When I started the Winter Park Pride Project I was also in the process of selling my house. (I’m a licensed realtor.) I was holding an open house, and a couple came to look at it. They lingered for a long time, and, once there was no one else there, they came up to me and said, “We’re not really looking at your house, but we saw your flag outside and wanted to tell you we just rented the house across the street from you because we knew this was a neighborhood where we could feel safe.” They weren’t LGBTQ+; they were a biracial couple who had not felt safe in other neighborhoods. That was an aha moment. I hadn’t thought about what impact we could have on other groups that are marginalized or that do not necessarily feel welcome without an invitation. Given the way our society works, certain groups need to feel invited. They can’t just feel tolerated; they need to feel invited and celebrated.
Do you know Blake alumni doing interesting work? Let us know at cyrus@blakeschool.org.
IN PRINT& PRODUCTION
CAROLYN LIGHT bELL ’60
The Joshua Poems
(Kelsay Books)
Carolyn Light Bell brings suicide out of the hidden shadows, illuminating how to speak to the bereaved, how to emerge from the hollow fears of emptiness and into the courage of understanding. This collection includes poems written throughout her son Joshua’s life and in the three years following his death, as she and her family learn to cope with the support of professionals, friends and activity. Her poems are filled with suffering borne of loss; yet, she documents with humor and grace her ideas on how to continue operating with hope, compassion and love.
JONATHAN EbEL ’88
From Dust They Came: Government Camps and the Religion of Reform in New Deal California
(NYU Press)
From Dust They Came is the untold story of the religious dynamics in and around migratory farm labor camps in agricultural California established and operated by the Resettlement Administration and the Farm Security Administration. Jonathan Ebel makes the case that the camps served as mission sites for the conversion of migrants to more modern ways of living and believing. By looking at the camps as missionary spaces, he shows that this New Deal program was animated both by humanitarian concern and by the belief that these poor, white migrants and their religious practices were unfit for life in a modernized, secular world.
DAN
SLATER ’96
The Incorruptibles: A True Story of Kingpins, Crime Busters and the Birth of the American Underworld
(Little, Brown and Company)
In the early 1900s, New York City was a vortex of vice and corruption. When the notorious murder of a gambler attracted global attention, a coterie of affluent German-Jewish uptowners decided to take matters into their own hands. Worried about the anti-immigration lobby and the uncertain future of Jewish Americans, they marshalled a strictly off-the-books vice squad, waging war on the sin they saw as threatening the future of their community. Drawn from never-before-seen sources, Dan Slater tells an epic and often brutal saga of crime and redemption, exhuming a buried history that shaped our modern world.
JULIA
Information Crisis: How a Better Understanding of Science Can Help Us Face the Greatest Problems of Our Time
(Hill Press)
In Information Crisis, Julia Soplop presents a series of engaging case studies that demonstrates how players across society employ common, easily identifiable tactics of distorting scientific information to manipulate us for power and profit. She also crafts a compelling case that building stronger science and media literacy can empower us to improve our lives both personally and collectively.
Alumni are encouraged to inform Blake of their publications, recordings, films, etc., and, when possible, to send copies of books and articles. Contact us at cyrus@blakeschool.org.
Judy Bradford McConnell ʼ52
The Night Owl Sings: And Other Stories of Old Age (Boyle and Dalton)
Judy McConnell’s protagonists, all of them old, bust the stereotype of old age as a reductive experience.
Laura Gabbert ʼ85
The Power of Film (Turner Classic Movies)
This six-part television series brings to life over 50 years of teachings, insights and epiphanies from legendary UCLA film professor Howard Suber.
James Tucker ʼ88
The Paris Escape (Lake Union)
An heiress, her escort and a young orphan must stick together during the tumultuous beginnings of World War II to fight for the life they’re building.
Poppy Harlow ʼ01
The Color of Love (Viking Books for Young Readers)
As Grace and her classmates share what love looks like to them, they learn it comes in many forms.
Eli Makovetsky ʼ15
Time Capsule Season 1: The Silver Chain (Diversity Hire Ltd and CYSA Productions)
This eight-episode “true nocrime” documentary podcast delves into the secret world of partner-swapping suburbanites in 1970s Minnesota.
Michael Bazzett
Upper School English
If Today Were Tomorrow: Poems (Milkweed Editions)
This bilingual collection of poems, rooted in K’iche’ Maya culture, illustrates all the ways meaning manifests within our world and how best to behold it.
CONNORS SOPLOP ’00
CLASS NOTES
Class notes and photos received after June 2024 will appear in the next issue of Cyrus. Notes are provided by alumni or their friends and family, and some have been edited for length and style.
REUNION
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Robert Litfin and his wife, Carol, are “surviving and thriving in the heart of Silicon Valley.” In 1949, Robert entered Stanford University, where he earned his B.S. in mechanical engineering. He was a U.S. Navy fighter pilot on the USS Hornet (CVA-12) aircraft carrier in 1957. He earned an MBA from Stanford in 1959, supported by a GI Bill, scholarship and working wife. Robert writes, “Aiming for a 10-year extension on my warranty, maybe more as Blake grads advance life sciences.”
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Judy Bradford McConnell (In Print and Production)
Don Nightingale and Dave Riddiford enjoyed lunch together in late February in Boca Grande, Florida, where Dave spends the winter. The two keep in communication with Gene Yeates, who lives in New Hampshire. Don shares, “Dave, Gene, Mark Ueland (unfortunately no longer with us) and I carpooled from the Cedar/ Calhoun lakes of Minneapolis daily to the Blake campus in Hopkins, so we have many happy memories of our Blake years together.”
Steve Olmsted writes, “Mary and I continue to enjoy life at Ecumen Lakeshore in Duluth. We enjoy our lake view and look forward to the resumption of the shipping season so we can watch the boats again. We are aging well!”
REUNION
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Russ Cowles and his wife, Linda, celebrated their third anniversary and are living in a new house in Naples, Florida. He writes, “I’m trying to do as little as possible but fail, as my to-do list grows with a myriad of little jobs, as any of you who are still homeowners understand. I love reading science articles: cosmology, physics, AI, quantum entanglement—I never ‘got’ calculus, you lucky dogs who went on to have careers in math. I enjoy sci-fi, spy, undercover and black ops films as well as Breaking Bad and Ozark. [Linda and I] enjoy our time together discussing how to save the world. We are often on opposite sides of the fence politically because of the huge difference between our social and economic backgrounds. She comes from a family that in its early days mined coal in eastern Kentucky—very family oriented. Her father retired from a military career with Navy
submarines, then the USAF and then ran a paint store. I loved him; he died way too soon. Linda put herself through college by finding work and became a tax accountant for a local firm here in Florida. She became self-supporting until her marriages. Her son is a good kid but struggling to find a passion for his spirit to settle on. Gratefully Linda and I share a spiritual nature, which provides more topics to discuss about how to be better humans in our community and in our families. You know where I came from, driven to Blake in a chauffeured limo when I missed the bus. So her perspective on what’s happening often challenges mine, which always turns out to be a gift for me.”
John Peterson writes, “My father was one of the successful immigrants one reads about, immigrating to the U.S. from the Caribbean island of Saba in his late teens, settling in Providence, Rhode Island, and working as a carpenter. He soon decided that he wanted more in life, so he entered high school and earned a scholarship to Brown. He studied bacteriology and spent the First World War training doctors. At war’s end, he entered banking, working in Brussels for two years
before returning to New York, where he was eventually picked up by Cargill. He retired from there as the first non-family member of the board of directors and chair. He moved to Switzerland for five years to start up Tradax, a company formed to handle Cargill’s foreign interests. I was living in the U.K. when he and my mother passed, and I returned to the U.S. to be with my sister. At the first Christmas after [my sister] passed, my wife, clever woman she is, said, ‘Let’s get out of here, visit the islands and check out your father’s roots,’ as he never talked about his time there. We visited Saba, met folks who knew his mother and came away with some knowledge. We fell in love with the neighboring island of Sint Maarten and a few years later bought two lots. In the late ’90s, we moved into Hope Cottage, a lovely home with a pool on a hill overlooking the Atlantic and the neighboring island, St. Barts. We visit our home in paradise twice a year for eight weeks. Once at the beginning of summer, as Mrs. P doesn’t like Minnesota’s mosquitos, and again just before the holidays to warm our bones in preparation for our winter months. Hey, I like our snow. We do rent our house, and if you are interested, email me at
john.g.peterson@att.net. Be sure to ask for our 10 percent discount for fellow Blake grads.”
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Sandy Ellsworth Gridley attended Harvard University, where she majored in logic. When her children finished high school, she got a job as a programmer and moved to Florida in 1981. She bought houses as an investment and shares that she now has “a very enjoyable retirement as a real estate investor. People are moving here from all over. I have no complaints!”
REUNION
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Gail Pliam DavidTellis’s article Past as Prologue, Dickens v. Dickens in Chancery is published in the September 2024 issue of the Dickens Quarterly.
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Carolyn Light Bell is a photographer, writer and educator. Her published works include Delivery, a collection of poetry; I Heard a Fish Cry and Love’s Little Triumphs, collections of short stories; Eleanor and the Little Turtle and Lala and Her Friends, bilingual children’s books. She was the chief editor of Pieces of Work,
36 Sermons, Conversations, Stories and Mystical Musings by Rabbi Sim Glaser and the editor of A Collection of Meditations. Her latest collection, The Joshua Poems, includes poems she has written since her son Josh Bell’s ʼ94 death. (Also see In Print and Production)
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Rick Gilmore is president and CEO of GIC Group, which specializes in financial services, carbon services, market consulting and food safety advisement. He is working remotely on trusteeships, a grant with Lincoln University for a new emission reduction futures contract for hemp (Commodity Plus Carbon or CPC), other CPC contracts soon to be listed on commodity exchanges and a NGO-Global Food Safety Forum with his office in Beijing. He is emeritus chair of the Harold Rosenthal Fellowship in International Relations.
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Jeff Lewin writes, “In April my granddaughters Elena and Sofia, their father (my elder son, Eric), his wife, Kotryna, and their other grandfather, Nidas, spent a week celebrating their five birthdays in Nice, France. In May, my younger son, Peter, and
I completed a seven-day, 100-mile (2,300-foot cumulative ascent, 2,100-foot cumulative descent) walk across the Pyrenees from St. Jean Pied-de-Port, France, to Logrono, Rioja, Spain. Natural beauty, tapas, wine and fellow travelers were all spectacular.”
An interview with Ken Willcox about his Navy experiences in the Vietnam War was recorded by the Daughters of the American Revolution. His oral history has been accepted into the Library of Congress’ Veterans History Project, which collects, preserves and makes accessible the firsthand recollections of U.S. military veterans who served in conflicts and peacekeeping missions. 65
Charlie Baxter is one of 19 new members inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters (AAAL) in May. The AAAL is a 300-member honor society of the country’s leading architects, artists, composers and writers. New members are elected by their peers for life. His comic novel Blood Test will be released in November.
John Bean and his wife, Babette, live in Florida. They traveled
to Evanston, Illinois, for their grandson Cole’s graduation from Northwestern University (Babette’s alma mater). In July they took a cruise to Italy, Sicily, Montenegro and Croatia. In October they will attend their niece’s wedding in Asheville, North Carolina. John writes about his latest avocations: “I tried out for the Naples Philharmonic Chorus and made it! Although I have been singing most of my life, including professionally, I hadn’t done any choral work since glee club at Blake. Going from individuality and learning music by ear to extremely precise choral singing and sight reading has been a major adjustment. Plus, I’ve never sung with a professional orchestra before. Although semi-terrified, mostly, I am having a wonderful time. I have been playing bocce for almost two years. Our team has been steadily improving. We’ve
Marriages
Tiffany Ossanna McVeety ’89 and Donn-Allan Titus June 1, 2024
Michael Melamed ’09 and Jane Oliverius June 24, 2023
Peter Engel ’14 and Margot Graham ’14 September 3, 2023
JEFF LEWIN ’63 AND HIS SON PETER REWARD THEMSELVES AT THE END OF A SEVENDAY WALK ACROSS THE PYRENEES. AND JEFF’S GRANDDAUGHTERS ELENA AND SOFIA CELEbRATE THEIR bIRTHDAY WITH FRENCH TREATS.
PAM FORMAN REITMAN’S ’65 FORTHCOMING NOVEL WILL bE PUbLISHED IN SPRING 2025.
RICK GILMORE ’61 IS PRESIDENT AND CEO OF GIC GROUP.
MARCIA MCNUTT ’70 WELCOMED bLAKE EIGHTH GRADERS TO THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF
MEMbERS OF THE bLAKE CLASS OF 1971 GATHERED IN MINNEAPOLIS IN FALL 2023. PICTURED (STANDING, L TO R) STEVE KELLEY, DICK PERKINS, KELLEY LINDQUIST, AUSTIN INDRITZ, JOHN bROOKS, STEVE GEIGER, PETER STALLAND, (KNEELING, L TO R) PAT OCKEN, DAN KELLY AND JIM CLIFFORD.
PICTURED, L TO R, bEN SHERMAN ’71, RED SMITH ’71 WITH WIFE CAROL, MEG MCNUTT MEYERS ’74, TOM MEYERS ’71 AND JIM MACGREGOR ’71 WITH WIFE JANET AT THE HENRY COWELL REDWOODS STATE PARK NEAR APTOS, CALIFORNIA
risen from somewhat under pond scum level to somewhat inept to actually contending. I was thrust into serving as perpetual captain. My team consisted of strangers initially, but all have become good friends. One more item of interest: I am the oldest old fart on the team. Gadzooks! I am attempting to play more golf, although my dropped feet and neuropathy will probably keep me off the PGA Tour. To say the least, I have some really screwy shots from time to time.”
Pam Forman Reitman’s novel Charlotte Salomon Paints Her Life has been accepted for publication in spring 2025 by Sibylline Press. The story is inspired by the life and work of a young German-Jewish art student at the Berlin Fine Arts Academy during Hitler’s rise to power.
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Marcia McNutt, president of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, reports, “I was thrilled to welcome 140 smart and enthusiastic Blake eighth grade students to the National Academy of Sciences for a tour during their trip to our nation’s capital. The students seemed to be enjoying the trip and asked great questions.
I foresee some future science leaders emerging from this class!”
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In fall 2023, members of the Blake class of 1971 gathered in Minneapolis, with classmate Steve Geiger traveling the farthest from Bend, Oregon. Austin Indritz writes, “It was great to be together, and a frequent topic was the gratitude we had for our excellent Blake teachers.”
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Chic Dunne is teaching international relations at George Washington University after a diplomatic and human rights career. He is also writing on Middle East issues for the Arab Center in Washington, D.C. and renovating a house in Harpswell, Maine. He welcomes visitors and contact from former classmates, especially former speech and debate teammates.
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Megan Murray is Blake’s Outstanding Alumna 2024. She is a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a named professor at Harvard Medical School. As the Ronda Stryker and William Johnston Professor of
Global Health and Social Medicine (GHSM), she directs the school’s research collaborative. Megan will be honored and speak at Breakfast at Blake in September.
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Amy Johnson is happy and healthy and still living in Iowa. She writes, “By day, I work for Iowa PBS and the Cedar Rapids Free Health Clinic. In my free time, I love to travel, spend time with family and cheer on the Iowa Hawkeyes. All the best to the class of 1980!”
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Deirdre Bell retired from the Navy in 2020 and recently quit her full-time job to work as needed as an anesthesiologist where she lives on the Kitsap Peninsula in Washington state. She writes, “I’m planning several trips as I ease into being retired and enjoying more out of life.”
Scott Forbes spearheaded Blake Service Day at the Food Bank of the Rockies in Denver. “In all, we had a half-dozen volunteers show up, and it was entirely fun and fulfilling. The experience of meeting these other Blakies and doing some really worthwhile work carried me all weekend long. Upon the
completion of our three-hour shift, which flew by like a study hall, everyone enthusiastically committed to the next Blake Service Day and assured me that we’ll have a bigger team next time.”
REUNION
84
Kelly Adams Kelly writes, “Brian and I have relocated to the Lowcountry of South Carolina in a town called Bluffton. I am enjoying the retired life and my new addiction to pickleball.”
David Mortenson, chair of M.A. Mortenson Co., was honored as Minneapolis/ St. Paul Business Journal’s 2024 Executive of the Year with Mortenson CEO Dan Johnson.
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In May, Laura Andrews Alberton was selected to serve on the board of the Arthroscopy Association of North America. She shares, “I am looking forward to assisting in steering such a great association. I’ve been honored to serve as president of the Forum, a women’s orthopedic surgery group focused on sports, for a two-year term. We focus on supporting women in practice, as well as encouraging women to choose
SCIENCES DURING THE CLASS’S TRIP TO WASHINGTON D.C. PICTURED, MARCIA AND THE CLASS OF 2028 AT THE EINSTEIN STATUE IN FRONT OF THE ACADEMY.
PICTURED, L TO R, CHAUCER SILVERSON ’79, RUFUS WINTON ’78, ALEX JOHNSTON ’80 AND JANET KANE ’79 AT ENCAMPMENT, LAKE SUPERIOR IN MAY 2023
EIGHT 1979 ALUMNI AND THEIR FAMILIES GATHERED AT MARK SCHULZE’S HOME IN EDINA FOR A PRE-WEDDING EVENT. JERRY bREN’S DAUGHTER JENNY AND TOM HATCH’S SON RYAN ARE GETTING MARRIED IN SEPTEMbER. PICTURED (STANDING, L TO R) DEREK MALMQUIST, MARK, bUZZ PIERCE, DOUG SCHMITT, DAVID UPIN, DAVE CRAWFORD, (SEATED, L TO R) JERRY AND TOM.
bEARS IN THE DENVER AREA DRESSED FOR SUCCESS DURING THEIR VOLUNTEER SHIFT AT THE FOOD bANK OF THE ROCKIES ON bLAKE ALUMNI SERVICE DAY. PICTURED, L TO R, AMY HEAD, JILLIAN AVERY ’08, JAMIE DONALDSON ’08, ANNE MACOMbER ’90 AND EVENT LEADER SCOTT FORbES ’82.
orthopedics sports medicine as a career path. [I continue] to have my sports practice in San Diego at Scripps Clinic. We are blessed to have both children home for the summer before they start graduate school. I look forward to trying to get back to Minneapolis to see friends and maybe a Vikings game.”
Laura Gabbert (See In Print and Production).
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Michael Blum earned the Abbott World Marathon Majors Six Star Medal when he completed the Tokyo Marathon in March. The Six Star Medal honors runners who complete the six Major marathons: Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York
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After more than 18 years in Washington, D.C., Wendy Helgemo has been named tribal liaison for the Minnesota Department of Management and Budget.
D. Jackson and Zach Gorman ʼ06 hosted a party at the Real Estate Standards Organization conference in Birmingham, Alabama, announcing their companies’ partnership. Zach is co-founder
of Real Reports, which delivers an AI “Carfax for homes,” and D. is vice president of strategic partnerships for Ocusell, which provides an AI-driven integrated listing solution.
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Jon Ebel (See In Print and Production)
Katie Lipkin Kinnaman reports, “After 20+ years in public education as a teacher, instructional coach and school principal, I am embracing lifelong learning and starting a full-time Ph.D. program in education policy at George Washington University. My husband and I are leaving Dallas after seven years to head to D.C.—making this our seventh state (or district) of residency during our 31 years of marriage. We are also setting up an ‘outpost’ in Charlotte, North Carolina, to be close to our first grandchild (a boy!) arriving in September. And, we will still hit the road frequently to visit our other daughters in the NYC area and San Jose, California.”
James Tucker (See In Print and Production)
REUNION
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Tiffany Ossanna McVeety married Donn-Allan Titus at the Eagle Mountain Golf Club in Fountain Hills, Arizona, in June. Monsignor Christopher Washington of the Holy See, who has served in the Vatican’s diplomatic service since 2015, served as officiant. Donn-Allan is a retired U.S. diplomat and lawyer, who worked with Monsignor Washington when they served as deputy head of mission-Bolivia for the U.S. and the Apostolic Nunciature respectively. Tiffany and Donn-Allan met at the People’s Open-TPC Scottsdale in 2019 and have been traveling the world (and taking golf lessons) ever since. Tiffany will take the Titus name and her new email address is tiffanytiresatitus@gmail.com.
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Sandra MacMillan and her sportfishing crew, Team Sandman, won the 2024 championship title during the 13th annual Jimmy Johnson’s Quest for the Ring Championship Fishing Week, an event that brings together fishing enthusiasts from across the nation for five days of sportfishing. Team Sandman, led by Sandra and Captain John Louis Dudas, also took the title in 2018 and 2020.
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Mayank Keshaviah shares that he and Albert Hanser connected in Boston. He writes, “Despite the years of not being in close touch, Albert and I had a long and meaningful conversation. I shared with him a number of impactful and challenging events that have occurred in my life over the last year or so. The first was a difficult decision to divorce my wife of over 10 years. [Months later] in June, while undergoing a routine dental cleaning, the hygienist discovered a growth inside my right cheek [that was later] diagnosed as a secretory carcinoma. As a lifelong vegetarian who hadn’t had an alcoholic drink since 2008, and who never smoked, I was reeling from this gut punch. I couldn’t believe it. I was angry and sad and scared. One of my first thoughts was the horror of potentially leaving my 6-year-old son without a father. In December, I underwent my first surgery [but] the results showed there was still evidence of cancer, so the surgeon recommended another surgery. The post-op report revealed "no evidence of cancer" in the extracted tissue. When the surgeon told me that, I literally cried tears of joy in his office. I once again had the gift of
health. Despite all these challenges, I feel the last year has been a period of positive growth and change. I’ve become more present; I’ve learned to slow down and take life one day at a time; I’ve found joy in the ‘small things’; and I’ve become more patient, forgiving and empathetic. I’ve also realized that everyone is going through something, so sharing our stories and being vulnerable builds a deeper connection with our fellow humans. As a person who had previously been very private, especially about airing ‘dirty laundry,’ and who had worried a lot about what others thought of me, I have done a 180 and have gained an openness that has been extremely liberating. I truly feel more joy in my life each day, and I try my best to share that positivity with those around me. I want to thank Albert for being such a good listener and friend when I shared all of this with him in person. Here’s hoping I finally make it to a class reunion sometime down the road. I look forward to it.”
REUNION
Andrew Borene was selected as a non-resident fellow to the Irregular Warfare Initiative,
a joint production of Princeton University’s Empirical Studies of Conflict Project and the Modern War Institute at West Point.
T. J. Gordon writes, “The year started off on a sad note with the passing of my father, Jonathan R. Gordon. He was the loving husband of my mother, Jane Geltman Gordon ʼ68, loving father to me, Katie Gordon Liegel ʼ97 and Elizabeth Gordon ʼ00, loving grandfather to Olivia and Jack Gordon and Maddie ʼ34 and Elodie ʼ36 Liegel, and bonus father to Rob Shiller ʼ89 and Betsy Shiller Hara ʼ92. On a more uplifting note, my daughter, Olivia, 17, graduated from Highland Park (Illinois) High School in May and will attend Vanderbilt University. My son, Jack, 15, just finished his sophomore year at the same high school and is busy with DECA (where he qualified for internationals) and varsity tennis. My wife, Terri, and I will be celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary this August. I remain a partner at the global law firm Sidley Austin LLP, about to start my 24th year there. I am looking forward to my 30th Blake reunion. Hard to believe it has been that long.”
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Alene Grossman Sussman, executive director of the Minnesota Jewish Community Foundation and senior director of Minneapolis Jewish Federation Charitable Gift Planning, was recognized as one of the 2024 honorees of the Minneapolis/ St. Paul Business Journal’s Women in Business Awards, which recognizes top executives, nonprofit leaders, entrepreneurs and business owners in the Twin Cities.
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Dan Slater released the book The Incorruptibles: A True Story of Kingpins, Crime Busters and the Birth of the American Underworld. He shares, “The research and writing of this non-fiction tale, which is set in the Lower East Side underworld of pre-WWI Manhattan, has kept me busy for the better part of seven years and embraces many passions: NYC history, organized crime and the world of my ancestors. The New York Times included The Incorruptibles on its summer reading list, and Amazon selected it as a best book of July. The audio book is wonderfully narrated, though it won’t include the 60-plus previously unpublished photos
featured in the hardcover. That said, if you do check out The Incorruptibles, in any format, I’d be delighted to know what you think.” (Also see In Print and Production)
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Kelly Corcoran Smith was named the second recipient of Blake’s Mary MacPhail Taylor Class Rep Award. Recipients of this award are recognized for going above and beyond the responsibilities of a class rep volunteer.
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Eric Dayton is partnering with former Google product manager and MainStreet co-founder Dan Lindquist on a new venture, Cold. The startup aims to help businesses automate their sustainability reports to ensure they’re meeting environmental compliance targets.
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Julia Connors Soplop released her new book, Information Crisis: How a Better Understanding of Science Can Help Us Face the Greatest Problems of Our Time, in April. She shares, “Really, this book is for everyone. Building a more functional, scientifically literate society will require
REUNION
ZACH GORMAN ’06 (AT LEFT) AND D. JACKSON ’87 HOSTED A PARTY AT THE REAL ESTATE STANDARDS ORGANIZATION CONFERENCE TO ANNOUNCE THEIR COMPANIES’ PARTNERSHIP.
KELLY ADAMS KELLY ’84 AND HER HUSbAND, bRIAN, ARE ENJOYING RETIRED LIFE.
bILL OGDEN ’82 WAS IN MINNESOTA FOR A WORK EVENT AT CAMP WARREN. bEFORE LEAVING TOWN HE SURPRISED RObIN TAYLOR HARTWELL ’82 bY STOPPING bY AND TAKING HER OUT TO DINNER.
MICHAEL bLUM ’86 PROUDLY DISPLAYS HIS TOKYO FINISHER MEDAL AND THE AbbOTT SIX STAR MEDAL HE EARNED bY COMPLETING THE CHICAGO, NEW YORK, bOSTON, LONDON, bERLIN AND TOKYO MARATHONS.
In Memoriam
Stephen Adams ’55
former parent former grandparent
March 14, 2024
Henry “Peter” Albrecht ’63
former parent
April 26, 2024
Helen Raynolds Anderson ’40 former parent former grandparent
May 27, 2024
Rodney Anderson former parent former faculty
February 12, 2024
Jeffrey Bingham ’85
June 13, 2024
Mary Boggie former faculty
April 24, 2024
Maxine Touart Bortz ’64
November 22, 2023
Thomas Cagley ’52
June 1, 2024
Ruth Phelps Catlin ’43
January 19, 2024
Horace Chope ’50
August 27, 2023
Daniel Cohen ’54
April 4, 2024
Lauren Colwell ’02
February 28, 2024
KATIE LIPKIN KINNAMAN ’88 AND HER HUSbAND, JOHN, HIT THE ROAD FREQUENTLY TO VISIT THEIR THREE DAUGHTERS, WHO ARE SCATTERED ACROSS THE COUNTRY.
MaryAnn “Gay”
Smith Conklin ’44
March 31, 2024
Patrick “Larry” Connolly III ’60 former parent February 16, 2024
Thomas Deans ’64 former parent March 12, 2024
Barbara deLaittre former parent former grandparent former trustee February 7, 2024
Gary Diamond ’69 former parent April 9, 2024
Gerald Erickson ’55 former parent former grandparent March 9, 2024
E. Peter Gillette Jr. ’52 former parent former grandparent former trustee July 30, 2024
Janice Stephens Hagen ’51 former parent former grandparent
April 4, 2024
Russell Hilliard former faculty
March 1, 2024
Debra Holle ’73
February 12, 2024
ANTHONY JOHNSTON ’91 WAS SURROUNDED bY FRIENDS AT HIS INVESTITURE AS A U.S. CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE IN MISSOULA, MONTANA. PICTURED, STACY GRAY ’90 (AT FAR RIGHT), CATHERINE EHLEN bOOMS (AT FAR LEFT) AND 1991 CLASSMATES JASON PFLAUM, PETER MATHISEN, TYLER PHILLIPS, ANTHONY, JEFF SELL AND ANDREW PFLAUM.
Martha Johnson ’78
February 10, 2024
Carolyn Boos Jones ’83
May 26, 2024
Stephen Krogness ’49 former parent former grandparent
February 1, 2024
Joan Dalrymple Lyman ’47
April 24, 2024
Douglas Mamer ’75
May 18, 2024
Margaret “Peggy” Neff former faculty
June 10, 2024
Thomas O’Reilly former parent former administrator August 9, 2024
Constance Wurtele Packard ’50 former grandparent April 9, 2024
Thomas Pirsch former faculty September 26, 2023
Edward Prohofsky former grandparent former administrator June 24, 2024
Ilona Rouda former parent former faculty April 18, 2024
Janice Rumppe former faculty January 20, 2023
Rizwan Siddiqui current parent January 28, 2024
Nancy Haley Southwick ’49 April 20, 2023
Dana Strong ’68 January 6, 2024
Frank Stuart IV ’76 October 30, 2023
Austin “Pat” Sullivan III ’90 June 28, 2024
Druanne Sweetser former parent former faculty April 3, 2024
Elizabeth “Lib” Cleveland Telford ’49 August 4, 2023
John Thomson ’53 December 31, 2022
Spencer Turner ’58 April 13, 2024
Joanne Witmer Von Blon ’41 former parent former grandparent former trustee May 9, 2024
Nancy Long Winton ’48 March 3, 2024
John Wright ’79 April 18, 2024
John Wynne ’39 December 26, 2023
Please inform the Institutional Advancement Office of Blake community member deaths by calling (952) 988-3440 or by sending an email to cyrus@blakeschool.org.
all of us—regardless of our education or profession—to re-examine how we think about, interact with and communicate science. I look forward to hearing if members of the Blake community find fresh ideas in these pages to apply to their own lives and work.” Julia’s previous book, Equus Rising: How the Horse Shaped U.S. History, won an Independent Book Publisher Award and a Feathered Quill Book Award. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including National Geographic, Summit Daily News and Skiing. She also develops thought leadership for organizations that address issues of scientific and social concern. She lives with her husband and three daughters outside of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (Also see In Print and Production)
Poppy Harlow (See In Print and Production)
Opera soprano Brittany Robinson performed as Sadie Griffith in Terence Blanchard’s Champion at the Metropolitan Opera in spring 2023. The production won a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording, earning Brittany her third Grammy.
02
On June 23, as the Olympic torch made its way across France, Cassidy Blackwell ʼ02 took up the flame in Chamonix, continuing its relay to Paris as an official torchbearer. The director of global community programs at Airbnb, Cassidy was nominated by her employer for the honor. This year’s 11,000 torchbearers were responsible for creating a celebratory atmosphere in local communities and getting France ready to let the games begin. Cassidy shares, “It was the experience of a lifetime to be an official Olympic Torchbearer in Chamonix, France! I was so honored to don the white uniform and to carry the flame, a symbol of peace and unity at a time when we need it the most.” Cassidy is also Blake’s 2024 Young Alumna Award recipient. She will be honored and speak at Breakfast at Blake in October.
03
Tommy Everson ʼ03 started his own residential architecture firm in 2019. He completed his most ambitious project to date, an Orono home that was featured in the 2024 Summer Artisan Home Tour. The house is across from another he designed and showcased in last year’s home
tour. Tommy, who earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degree in architecture from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, says he first became interested in the profession in high school, thanks to studio drawing courses with teacher Bill Colburn ʼ88. Tommy has received accolades for his projects, including first place (in the up to 4,000 square feet category) for the New Model Home and Contemporary Architecture awards and in the 2021 Midwest Home Design awards. For the past four years, he has served on the City of Edina’s Historic Preservation Commission and is currently the vice chair. He lives in Edina with his wife, Megan, and their sons, Henrik (7) and Aksel (4). He is a thirdgeneration Blake alumnus, following in the footsteps of his mother, Rosemary Beckley ʼ69, and grandfather Thomas Beckley ʼ39.
Matt Stearns is a 2024 Blake Athletic Hall of Fame inductee. He fenced for Blake and at Notre Dame, from which he graduated in 2007. He is currently a mortgage executive and the founder of Centerpiece Mortgage, an independent broker in Gilbert, Arizona. New inductees will be honored during a banquet hosted by
Blake’s athletics department as part of Reunion and Homecoming Weekend.
05
Charley Daitch was appointed chief commercial officer of Rowan Digital Infrastructure.
Last year, John West, along with a team of reporters from the Wall Street Journal, won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting with a series of articles about senior executive branch officials trading stocks in companies they regulate. He also published his first book, Lessons and Carols
07
Blake Williams is a 2024 Blake Athletic Hall of Fame inductee. He played basketball and football for Blake and basketball for Dartmouth College in 2007-08. He is now an investment professional at Almanac Realty Investors, part of Neuberger Berman. New inductees will be honored during a banquet hosted by Blake’s athletics department as part of Reunion and Homecoming Weekend.
08
Michael Ankeny competed in January at the World Pro Ski
Tour in Aspen where he came in third on the first day and took first on the second.
Jillian Avery and her husband, Michael, eloped last year and are expecting their first new addition, a baby girl, in August.
REUNION
09
Michael Melamed moved back to Minnesota from Denver in April 2022 and has been working in real estate, managing a portfolio of investment properties he owns and flipping houses on the side. He also works part time doing accounting and finance for his father’s (Bob Melamed ʼ60) real estate management firm in Excelsior. He got married in June in Big Sky, Montana.
12
Andre Hinds, a cyber intelligence manager at Deloitte, was selected as a 2024 Modern-Day Technology Leader by Career Communications Group’s US Black Engineer and Information Technology magazine. Andre, whose numerous achievements stood out among other nominees, was honored at a technology recognition event in February. The Huntsville/Madison County
MAYANK KESHAVIAH (AT LEFT) VISITED bOSTON WHERE HE RECONNECTED WITH FELLOW 1992 CLASSMATE ALbERT HANSER.
ALENE GROSSMAN SUSSMAN ’95 WAS RECOGNIZED AS ONE OF THE 2024 HONOREES OF THE MINNEAPOLIS/ ST. PAUL bUSINESS JOURNAL’S WOMEN IN bUSINESS AWARDS.
CASSIDY bLACKWELL ’02 CARRIED THE OLYMPIC TORCH IN CHAMONIX, FRANCE, AS AN OFFICIAL TORCHbEARER FOR THE 2024 OLYMPICS IN PARIS.
Chamber in Alabama also named him one of the community’s movers and shakers.
REUNION
14
Lydia Sutton is a 2024 Blake Athletic Hall of Fame inductee. She played soccer and lacrosse for Blake and lacrosse at the University of Southern California, where she was a captain her senior season. In 2018, Lydia was the first defender selected in the Women’s Professional Lacrosse League college draft; she played for the Upstate Pride (Albany, New York) from 2018 to 2020. Since 2014, Lydia has served as a part-time lacrosse coach for MN Elite Girls Lacrosse Club Inc. She is also
a human resources operations specialist at Pentair. New inductees will be honored during a banquet hosted by Blake’s athletics department as part of Reunion and Homecoming Weekend.
15
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Eli Makovetsky (See In Print and Production) 2018
Jacob Blum is starting his Ph.D. in biomedical physics at Stanford University. He will be continuing his work in diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging to develop the technology to better diagnose diseases like MS, Alzheimer’s and certain cancers.
Educate, Empower and Equip Students for the Future
Support a strong educational environment that impacts students today, tomorrow and in the future. Make your Blake Fund gift this fall by visiting www.blakeschool.org/give or scanning the QR code to the right.
19
Robbie Grace, a member of Wake Forest University’s track and field team, shattered the school’s indoor long jump record with a 6.22m jump. The previous record, set in 2014, was 6.16m.
Two members of the class of 2019 were selected in this year’s Professional Women’s Hockey League draft. Izzy Daniel, a forward for Cornell University, was picked 18th overall by Toronto in the third round. Madeline Wethington, who played defense for the University of Minnesota, was selected by Ottawa in round seven. In addition, Izzy won the 2024 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, presented annually to the top player in NCAA Division I women’s ice hockey.
21
Fresh off of a 2024 NCAA men’s hockey national championship win with the University of Denver, forward Tristan Broz signed with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He was the Penguins’
second-round (58th overall) pick of the 2021 NHL draft, signing a three-year, entry-level contract. Tristan began his collegiate hockey career at the University of Minnesota (2021-22) then transferred to the University of Denver (2022-24), where he helped his team win its 10th national championship with two overtime goals in the tournament and was named to the All-Tournament Team.
23
Sam Broz, a forward on the Brown University women’s hockey team, was named an Eastern College Athletic Conference Rookie of the Week.
Charlie Egeland qualified to compete at the 2024 US Olympic Trials in June. He made the U.S. National Junior team for the second year in a row and is a member of Yale University’s swim and dive team.
REUNION
TOMMY EVERSON ’03 HAS OWNED HIS RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE FIRM SINCE 2019.
MICHAEL MELAMED ’09 AND JANE OLIVERIUS WERE MARRIED IN bIG SKY, MONTANA, ON JUNE 24, 2023.
PETER ENGEL ’14 AND MARGOT GRAHAM ’14 WERE MARRIED IN SEPTEMbER 2023 AND LIVE IN WASHINGTON, D.C.
VOICES
Unearthing Our Roots, Telling Our Stories
I first became interested in the archival and memory fields when I started exploring more about my Caribbean heritage and the region’s history of indenture. Like many people with a history of being colonized, those of us with indentured ancestry are not able to turn to colonial archival material to properly learn about the history of our people. Colonial archives like those of the British Empire’s are full of records that tell a story of labor exploitation and cruelty instead of anything about the lives and cultures of my ancestors. However, even within my community, the voices and perspectives of straight, cisgender men have historically been the most prominent. Women and queer people, identities I belong to, did not have much of a voice. This led my friends and I to found Ro(u)ted by Our Stories, an Indo-Caribbean oral history project centering the stories of women and other marginalized genders. Through this project I began to engage more with the archival field and after a few years decided to apply to graduate school so I could further learn about archival systems and theory. What I’ve learned in my master’s program has confirmed that most institutional governmental archives are inherently colonial, from the way they are set up to the way governments use them to legitimize their nation-building. Western-centric archival theory is also still struggling to extract itself from colonial and white supremacist views of what is considered a legitimate “record”—namely textual documents.
As I start my doctoral journey, my research will focus on exploring other forms of records in the Caribbean that have not traditionally been recognized by dominant Western archival theory: land, jewelry, songs and food, to name a few. I aim to surface histories of the colonized and provide better context and information for living descendants of indenture hoping to learn more about our roots and better understand our identities.
