A magazine published by The Governor’s Academy
ARCHON
The
Spring/Summer 2016
Ariel Portorreal ’16 Light ImPEARed
Our Byfield Days
David Oxton P’03, ’08 PHOTOGRAPHY, COACH
I
was unprepared for the friendliness that greeted me and the discovery of how open and unassuming everyone was when I came to campus 24 years ago as a part-time photography teacher. From the outside, one imagines boarding schools as daunting places with aloof students and stuffy teachers. I was a busy commercial photographer who had never taught. I arrived with reserved expectations. Yet the students were remarkably pleasant. Teachers seemed eager to support me. And staff who worked behind the scenes displayed an impressive amount of care for the school. Clearly, I had arrived at a place that had figured out some important things. An early goal was to help students appreciate the value of storytelling in their artwork. In a world where nearly everyone has a camera, I want my students to learn how to create exceptional images, the kind that tell vivid, memorable stories. Whether they use traditional film cameras or the most advanced digital cameras, students who gain the ability to observe carefully and respond intuitively with their cameras are able to produce the most articulate images. Despite dramatic changes in photography, an outstanding photo still requires the same level of alertness and creativity now as it did when I began teaching. Slowly and steadily, the art program at the Academy became more evenly balanced with our academic and athletic programs. Witnessing this gradual transformation has been immensely gratifying. The arts hold a valuable position in our students’ lives, and our program is considered one of the strongest among independent schools in our region. The awards our students win and the success they achieve after graduation validate the support directed to the arts from every corner of the Govs community. Like many photographers, I tend to think of myself as an observer rather than a participant. My desire to remain on the outside when I first arrived was unsustainable. The community steadily embraced me despite my stubbornness and my remarkably limited understanding of hockey. Some may not have fully grasped what I was all about, why I kept pushing for art to be appreciated more, but I was accepted anyway. Govs is a unique place. It accommodates differences easily. For 24 years, it has accepted and appreciated an apprehensive, moody art teacher who has never stopped insisting that art needs more attention in our community.
what the governor’s fund means for david oxton •
Cutting-edge equipment to meet evolving needs in photography education
•
Funding for fees, activities, and programs to ensure access to a full Governor’s experience for all students
•
Student-driven sustainability initiatives throughout campus
MAKE YOUR GIFT NOW •
Mail your check to The Governor’s Academy, 1 Elm Street, Byfield, MA 01922
• •
Online at www.thegovernorsacademy.org/giving If your company matches charitable contributions, please consider a matching gift.
Thank you for supporting The Governor’s Fund
THE ARCHON SPRING/SUMMER 2016 TRUSTEES OF THE GOVERNOR’S ACADEMY James M. Pierce ’72, P’08 President James L. Rudolph ’68, P’05, ’12 Vice President Francesca DeMeo ’02 Secretary Steven G. Shapiro ’74, P’09 Treasurer William L. Alfond ’67 Byung Soo Baik P’18 Rev. Adrienne Berry-Burton P’96, ’04 William Brine ’80, P’09, ’14 Kathryn A. Burns P’15 Jonathan J. Doyle P’08, ’09 William Dwyer P ’15 Gretchen Scharfe Forsyth ’95 Alumni Council, President Daniel Guyton ’03 Alumni Trustee Stephen G. Kasnet ’62, P’95 Dr. Karen Ruth McAlmon P’13 Paul McKeon P’10 Meredith Lazo McPherron ’85 Thomas M. Mercer Jr. ’61 Felix Motta ’91 Spencer Purinton ’75, P’13, ’14 Dr. Peter H. Quimby ’85, P’14 ex officio Aaron M. Sells ’96 David Splaine P’05, ’08 Jurrien Timmer P’15, ’18 Caroline K. Warren ’99 Mark B. Whiston ALUMNI COUNCIL Gretchen Scharfe Forsyth ’95, President Julie O’Shaughnessy ’05, Vice-President Daniel Guyton ’03, Vice-President Angela Rappoli ’03, Secretary Victoria Allen ’05 Christopher Barrand ’08 Emily Block ’03 Kelly Callahan ’13 James Cavanaugh ’94 Tyler Collins ’03 Nicole Costello ’95 Rob Delena ’87 Daniel DiPietro ’96 Brendan Forrest ’94 Carol Ann Goldberg ’76 David Hanlon ’88 Anthony Hawthorne ’56 Andrew Linn ’79 Emilie MacDonald ’14 Maya Martignetti ’12 Jacqueline Meinhardt ’04 Jennifer Migliore ’10 Jeff Ogden ’76 Jason Rivera ’96 Archie Seale ’93 Moira Talbot ’04 Nicholas Tomaino ’04 Daniel Yeh ’15 Kavy Yesair ’96 Christen D’Orio ’88, Ex-officio
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Message from the Head of School......................... 2 Byfield and Beyond................................................ 3 Philanthropy News............................................... 11 On Campus ........................................................ 12 10 Questions ...................................................... 22 Happy 300th Birthday Mansion House! ............... 24 History of Writing at The Governor’s Academy ..... 26 Why I Write ......................................................... 30 Obituaries ......................................................... 34 Class Notes ......................................................... 41
PUBLISHER
Dr. Peter H. Quimby ’85, P’14, Head of School EDITORS
Caley S. Lynch, Assistant Director of Communications Dr. Peter L. Mason, Director of Marketing & Communications DESIGN
Graphic Details, Inc. ACADEMY ARCHIVIST
Sharon Slater P’16 PHOTOGRAPHY
David Oxton | William Tangora DIRECTOR OF ADVANCEMENT
William Deptula P’17, ’19 DIRECTOR OF PARENT PROGRAMS
Jane C. Piatelli DIRECTOR OF ALUMNI RELATIONS
Amy R. Swiniarski P’17, ’19 The Archon is published two times a year by The Governor’s Academy Byfield, Massachusetts 01922 | 978.465.1763 Letters are welcome from alumni, parents, and friends of the Academy.
HEAD OF SCHOOL MESSAGE THE ARCHON SPRING/SUMMER 2016
Summer is an interesting time
on a boarding school campus. While our dormitories are full to capacity with campers and the voices of young people still fill the air, and our Buildings and Grounds crew is busily attending to the needs of our historic campus, there is a peculiar emptiness on campus whenever our students and faculty members are away. The simple fact is that the Academy is so much more than a collection of buildings in a beautiful setting in Byfield. It is the students and faculty and staff members who arrive each fall to bring Governor William Dummer’s vision to life. For 253 years we have honored the Governor’s legacy by challenging students to achieve their full potential here, and preparing them for success in all areas of their lives after they graduate. As I look back on the year that just ended, I am proud of what our students accomplished. Once again our athletic teams earned the respect of all of their opponents. In the spring season alone we brought home three ISL titles (baseball, softball, and girls lacrosse). This winter our students set another record in the Boston Globe Scholastic Art Awards competition winning more awards than any other school in the Commonwealth. Every bit as accomplished in the classroom, the students who graduated in May earned the right to continue their education at some of the finest colleges and universities in the country. To be sure, our students achieved success in these areas through their own hard work, but they would be the first to tell you that without the care and guidance
2
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
of our faculty, much of this success would not have been possible. It is within the context of reflecting on our students’ accomplishments and the faculty who support them that I think about the progress we have made over the past eighteen months on some of the ambitious goals detailed in the strategic plan. Because relationships between students and faculty members are at the heart of all that we do, our strategic plan calls for adding additional faculty housing units. Having as many faculty members as possible live on campus increases our ability to facilitate the kinds of interactions that create deep and lasting relationships. While we still have progress to make to achieve our goal, I am pleased to report that we have added three additional faculty housing units to campus in the last two years. Thanks to a generous gift to support our efforts, we will begin the permitting process for another two units that we expect will be completed by July 1, 2017. The addition of these units allows us to be more competitive in our hiring, provide more options for our current faculty and their evolving families, and perhaps most importantly, help strengthen the relationships between faculty members and students that is the hallmark of our family like atmosphere. The Seven Essential Skills are at the heart of our strategic plan and our curriculum is already changing as the result of our intentional focus on putting them into practice. In recent years we added several innovative new courses in the sciences, mathematics and humanities, and this past year we added an engineering course that focuses heavily on building foundational skills in the field. Similarly, we added robotics to our afternoon program. These new additions demonstrate our commitment to preparing our students for a rapidly changing world, and to supporting faculty members as they develop new courses not often seen at the high school level. Although these are just a few examples, I think they demonstrate that the Academy is constantly looking to improve, and doing so in a manner that is intentional, deliberate, and consistent with the enduring qualities of our school. I hope you share my feeling of pride in our school and the actions we take to continue to offer a transformational experience for Governor’s students. I look forward to sharing more details and progress with you in the coming months.
BYFIELD & BE YOND ALUMNI DAY OF SERVICE LIVING IN THE SPIRIT OF THE ACADEMY’S MOTTO “NON SIBI SED ALIIS”: NOT FOR SELF BUT FOR OTHERS.
1
In its fourth year, the Alumni Day of Service is an opportunity for alumni of the Academy to participate in a service project that is meaningful to them in their own communities— across the country and the globe. On November 7, alumni from multiple Massachusetts communities and San Francisco participated in this annual service event to “give back.” Projects included: beach and park cleanups, trail maintenance, a community harvest project, and animal shelter work. Start planning now for the next Alumni Service event! To better accommodate your busy schedules, we are expanding next years’ service day to include the entire month of November. Gather with family and friends before Thanksgiving dinner or on any day that works best for you. If you are interested in becoming a group leader in your area, please contact Director of Alumni Relations, Amy Swiniarski, at alumni@govsacademy.org.
2
3
MILESTONE STOP AT THE GROG
5
4
6
7
Young alumni gathered with faculty members at The Grog in Newburyport for this annual “Night before Thanksgiving” event.
1) Peter Dorsey ’69 and Lise Carrigg ’87 2 ) Ariel Shapiro ’09, Steven Shapiro ’74, P’09, Peter Dorsey ’69, P’08, P’14, and Lise Carrigg ’87 3 ) Deke Fyrberg ’97, Jodi Marshall ’97, Eric Bornhofft ’97, Tim Bierly ’05, and friend Jane
5 ) Collin Cook ’07, Emily Kaplan ’07, Keara Thomas ’07, and guest 6 ) Haley Newhall ’13, Karen Gold P’11, ’17, English teacher, and Ashley Thon ’13 7) Mary Morrissey ’10, Michael DiFrancesco ’10, and Michael Morrissey ’10
4 ) Gene Romero’67
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
3
B YFIE L D & B E Y ON D
ALUMNI HOLIDAY GATHERING
1
On December 9, more than 140 alumni, faculty, faculty emeriti, and guests, gathered at the Boston College Club in Boston for the Annual Alumni Holiday Gathering hosted by the Alumni Council. This new venue with sweeping views of Boston Harbor proved to be the perfect place to kick off the holiday season.
2
3
5
4
7
6
1) Decia Splaine ’08, Brooke Duchaney ’08, and Taylor Wailes ’08
5 ) Paul Nardone ’86, P’19, Chris D’Orio ’88, Kip Brown ’87, and Rob DeLena ’87
2 ) Ben Corriveau ’02, Alex Graham ’02, Lynda Fitzgerald P’93, ’00, Dean of Faculty, and Archie Kasnet ’95
6 ) Mark Rinaldi ’06, Emilie Arthur ’06, Lizzy Gutyon ’06, Devyn DiFronzo ’06, Ali Coutreau ’06, Donato Frattaroli ’06,Cam Archibald ’06, and Emme Hughes ’06
3 ) Jeff Kelly ’85 P’17, ’19, Chris Kelly ’03, Carolyn Grimaldi, and Taso Kapernekas ’03
7) Amy Benedict Pratt ’95, Archie Kasnet ’95, Deb Barry ’95, Sheff Faulkner ’95, Ashley Krasinski ’95, Gretchen Forsyth ’95, Nicole Costello ’95, and Elizabeth Byrne ’95
4 ) John Leonard ’03, Shannon Falvey ’03, Brandon Bates ’03, Eden Davies ’03, Cory Demuth ’03, Angela Rappoli ’03, Dan Guyton ’03, Taso Kapernekas ’03, Chris Ebinger ’03, David Connaughton ’03, Kelsey Ricci ’03, Morgan Steir ’03, Chris Kelly ’03, and John Weiss ’03
4
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
BYF IEL D & BE Y O ND
REGIONAL ALUMNI GATHERINGS WASHINGTON, D.C.
1
In early December, the Academy hosted a gathering for Washington DC area alumni and parents at the US Chamber of Commerce. This year, Head of School, Dr. Peter Quimby ’85, P’14, was joined by history teacher, Writing Center Director, and Abraham Lincoln aficionado, Bill Quigley P’04, ’10. Bill was able to convey how our Seven Essential Skills are used daily in the classroom and discussed the inspiration and writing process behind his soon-to-be published work of history, Pure Heart: The Faith of a Father and Son in the War for a More Perfect Union.
2 3
4
5
1) Lew Rumford ’67, Ben Beach ’67, and Andrew Nichols ’67
4 ) Andres Saenz ’14, Zach Larkin ’14, Laurie Quimby P’14, and Katie Quimby ’14
2 ) Milan Gary ’12 and Chris Watson ’08
5 ) Dick Snodon ’61, Bill Quigley P’04, ’10, and Rolf Dammann ’78
3 ) Daria Greayer ’00, Eric Blair ’98, and Zenovia Wright ’99
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
5
B YFIE L D & B E Y ON D
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK
1
2
In February, alumni, parents, and grandparents gathered on the 30th floor of the Thomson Reuters Building in New York City overlooking the New Year’s ball. Head of School, Dr. Quimby, was joined by President of the Board, Jim Pierce ’72, and Academic Dean and English teacher, Elaine White P’16. We would like to extend special thanks to current parent, Gayle Brandli P’16, for making this unique space available to us.
3 4
5
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA Bay Area alumni and friends gathered at the University Club in San Francisco in February to reconnect with each other and special guests, Head of School, Dr. Quimby and Dean of Faculty and English Teacher, Lynda (Bromley) Fitzgerald. During the evening, Peter and Lynda shared personal stories of current and former students who had been positively impacted by their experience as students at the Academy. If you are living in the Bay Area, please be sure we have your current address and email on file. A Bay Area Alumni Network is up and running, led by Courtney Wade ’01 and Robb Morgan ’02. Informal events will be scheduled throughout the year to help you connect with fellow alumni in your area. To learn more or to update your contact information, visit the Alumni page on our website or email Director of Alumni Relations, Amy Swiniarski, at alumni@govsacademy.org.
1) Dane Lee ’01 and Jim Pierce ’72, P’08 2 ) View from the 30th Floor! 3 ) Academic Dean and English teacher, Elaine White P’16, addressing the crowd 4 ) Carol Goldberg ’76 and Jeff Ogden ’76
6
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
6
7
8
5 ) Matt Lee ‘01 and Margo Dhaliwal ‘90, Trustee Emerita
9
‘05, Brad Ferry ‘04, Courtney Wade ‘01, Mike Wade, Jackie Meinhardt ‘04
6 ) Tony Hawthorne ‘56, Tom Woodruff ‘61, and Director of Advancement, Bill Deptula P’17, ‘19
8 ) Special guest Lynda Fitzgerald P’93, ‘00, Andrew Huebner ‘06, and Ali Sylvester
7) Marienna Murch ‘02, Sean Dongre, Rebecca Kelly
9 ) Robb Morgan ‘02 and Bob Wenz ‘51
BYF IEL D & BE Y O ND
BLOCK ’09 DRAFTED IN INAUGURAL UWLX DRAFT Becca Block ’09 was selected fourteenth by the Long Island Sound in the inaugural United Women’s Lacrosse League (UWLX) draft. The 2016 schedule kicked off on May 28 during Final Four weekend in Pennsylvania and the season will run for 10 weeks during the summer and culminate with a championship weekend on July 30. While at Syracuse University, Block was the core of an Orange defense that held its opponents to less than 10 goals in 13 games in her senior season and was named Defender of the Year by both the IWLCA and the Big East. Block is also a member of the U.S. Women’s National Team and serves as an assistant coach at the University of Florida.
Photo Credit: Inside Lacrosse - John Strohsacher
1
NEW KILN CELEBRATED IN KAISER CENTER FOR THE ARTS
On February 29, 2016 the Governor’s community gathered in the Kaiser Center for the Arts to celebrate the donors of a very unique gift: a state-of-the-art gas fired kiln. The new kiln was made possible by lead donor Dottie Bragdon and through additional supporting gifts from Dan Morgan ’67, P’97, ’02, Michael Wong P’04 , and Peter Bragdon, Headmaster Emeritus. The new kiln replaces an older kiln that lacked modern features including accurate temperature regulators and safety features. The new 2 kiln also provided an opportunity to modify the older kiln into a “soda kiln,” providing an additional firing medium for students in the ceramics program.
RED SOX SPRING TRAINING JET BLUE PARK, FORT MEYERS, FLORIDA In March, alumni, past parents, and guests joined President of the Board, Jim Pierce ’72, P’08, and Head of School, Dr. Quimby, for a day at Jet Blue Park to watch the Red Sox take on the St. Louis Cardinals.
1) Students at the kiln dedication 2 ) Peter Bragdon, Dan Morgan ’67, P’97, ’02, Jennifer Wong ’04, Dottie Bragdon, Head of School Dr. Quimby ’85, P’14
3
3 ) L to R: Susan Sperry, Bob Hicks ’57, Kate Henry, John Henry ’56, Carol Beach, Ben Beach ’67, and Jim Pierce ’72, P’08
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
7
B YFIE L D & B E Y ON D
WINTER PARENTS’ WEEKEND
1
The weekend of February 19–20, parents were invited back to campus for Winter Parents Weekend. Parents spent Friday shadowing their student’s classes, enjoying lunch in the Alfond Dining Hall, and participating in grade specific afternoon seminars hosted by the Academic and College Counseling offices. Friday evening, parents gathered for Wine and Cheese at Mansion House then made their way to the Bergmann Theater to enjoy the Winter Dance Performance.
2
3
4
5
6
8
7
1) Parents enjoying class with their students 2 ) Coffee and Conversation with Head of School Peter Quimby ’85, P ’14 3 ) Wine and Cheese Gathering at Mansion House
8
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
4 ) Director of Parent Programs Jane Piatelli, and Robyn Kievit Kirkman P’18 at Mansion House 5 ) Isabella Wood ’19 with mom 6 ) Hand made mugs for sale to support the annual Soup’s On fundraiser
7) Director of Undergraduate Admission for Boston University, John McEachern, and Director of College Counseling, Joe Bobrowskas 8 ) Bob Harrington P’15, ’16, and Molly Harrington ’16
BYF IEL D & BE Y O ND
GRANDPARENTS AND GRANDFRIENDS DAY
1
Nearly 140 grandparents and grandfriends joined their respective students on campus on April 15 for this favorite annual event. Grandparents and grandfriends attended classes with their students, enjoyed lunch in the Alfond Dining Hall, and a special presentation by Head of School, Dr. Quimby. The day concluded with an afternoon tea and tours of the Little Red Schoolhouse.
2 3
4 5
6 7
8
1) Emily Simas ’18 and Joanne Simas GP ’18
5 ) Connie Willis GP ’07, ’10, ’14, ’18, Rebecca Willis ’18, Bill Willis GP ’07, ’10, ’14, ’18
2 ) Richard Johnson GP ’17 and Will Johnson ’17
6 ) Courtney Cashman ’16 and Carol Larkin GP ’16
3 ) Kyra Steck ’18, Dottie Mele, Lawrence Illingworth GP ’18, and Maria Steck P’18
7) Leah Cormier ’17, Yvon Cormier GP ’14, ’17, ’18, and Caleigh Cormier ’18
4 ) Michaells Fana ’17 and Annie Prince-Chez GP ’17
8 ) Sarah Moore ’18 and Hank Moore GP ’16, ’18
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
9
B YFIE L D & B E Y ON D
8TH ANNUAL BOSTON BUSINESS LEADERS LUNCHEON
1
On April 19, over 170 alumni, parents, past parents, trustees, and guests attended the Boston Business Leaders Luncheon held at the Boston Harbor Hotel Wharf Room in Boston. In its eighth year, this luncheon serves to promote the Academy within the Boston business community and provide an opportunity for professional networking. This year’s topic was “The Impact of Social Media on the Business of Sports.” Our panel included: John Blake ’73, Executive Vice President of Communications for the Texas Rangers; Brooke Eaton ’03, Director of Digital Media for the Brooklyn Nets, New York Islanders, and Barclays Center; and Jason Greenberg ’96, Producer at ESPN specializing in live remote production.
2
A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO OUR GENEROUS EVENT SPONSORS: GOLD LEVEL: TD Bank, Boston Private Wealth, and Schwartz Hannum PC SILVER LEVEL: Rudolph Friedmann LLP, Alibrandi Realty Associates, LLC, and the D’Aleio Management Co., LLC
3
5
4
1) Current parent Laura Nardone P’19, and alumni Derric Small ’86, and Kip Brown ’87 among others, enjoy the panel discussion 2 ) Guest speakers Brooke Eaton ’03, Jason Greenberg ’96, and John Blake ’73 3 ) Young alumnae Emilie Arthur ’06, and Ericka Tortorici ’06 catch up with schoolmates
10
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
4 ) Will Bryson ’08, Michael Shakespere ’08, and Peter Bidstrup P ’13, ’15 5 ) Head of School Dr. Peter Quimby ’85, P’14, introduces the panel
PHILANTHROPY BYF IEL D & BE Y O ND
News
SCHUMANN FAMILY PHILANTHROPY CREATES LASTING LEGACY FOR THE ACADEMY’S MATH, SCIENCE, AND ARTS PROGRAMS. The Schumann family’s legacy of philanthropy at the Academy has a long and impressive history spanning nearly 60 years. Through individual and family foundation gifts, the Academy gratefully acknowledges the lasting influences that the Schumann’s generosity has brought to numerous programs and initiatives here in South Byfield. Robert F. Schumann ’40 was a board member at the Academy from 1968 until 1974 and his children, Ford ’66 and David ’74, are both graduates.
In 1971, the Schumann Science Center was created through a gift from the Florence and John Schumann Foundation. The project provided new classroom space dedicated to the school’s expanding science programs at a critical time for the Academy. In the mid-1990s, Robert and his wife Marilyn were lead donors of an expansion to the building that included a 15,000 square foot addition. This created the Schumann Math and Science Center that is a vital part of the Academy’s campus today.
In addition to their other philanthropic commitments, the Schumann’s also supported the William Jacob Beal endowed faculty chair, contributed generously to endowed scholarships, and were loyal supporters of The Governor’s Fund, the Academy’s yearly giving program. Robert passed away in 2011 and Marilyn shortly after in 2012, leaving a generous bequest to the Academy. Today, as advisors to their fathers’ trust, Ford and David are committed to honoring the legacy of their parent’s and grandparent’s philanthropy by directing the bequest to the Academy’s science and arts programs. In creating endowed funds for each of these departments, Mr. and Mrs. Robert F. Schumann’s bequest will enable new course development, program enhancements, and faculty support. As the Academy continues to strengthen its people, programs, and place through fundraising efforts, the Schumann’s many gifts have addressed all three priorities for decades. The vision, generosity, and leadership shown to the Academy by the Schumann family will have an enduring impact on students and faculty for years to come.
The Schumann Math and Science Center
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
11
ON
CAMPUS 103 SCHOLASTIC ART & WRITING AWARDS FOR GOVS! Governor’s arts students earned an incredible 80 Scholastic awards this year. This beats the 67 awards won last year by our art students. With 23 writing awards, the total number of Scholastic Art & Writing awards earned by Govs students this year is a remarkable 103. Students who earned Gold Key awards for their portfolios are: Lily Bailey ’16 for photography, Samara Gallagher ’16 for photography, Ember Hua ’16 for photography, Lukas Stachtiaris ’16 for photography, and Brandon Benson ’16 for ceramics.
Lily Bailey ’16
Samara Gallagher ’16
Ember Hua ’16
Brandon Benson ’16 Lukas Stachtiaris ’16 12
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
ON CAM P US
14 students earned Gold Key awards for their work. The following students won Gold Keys for their photographs: Abigail Pike ’17 (see photograph on page 14), Ember Hua ’16, Kevin Zhou ’17, Lukas Stachtiaris ’16, Maggie Farrell ’17, Merilyn Hinrichs ’17, Will Friend ’18, and Will Johnson ’17. > Continued on Page 14
Maggie Farrell ’17
Ember Hua ’16
Merilyn Hinrichs ’17
Will Friend ’18 Kevin Zhou ’17
Lukas Stachtiaris ’16 Will Johnson ’17
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
13
ON CA MP US
103 SCHOLASTIC ART & WRITING AWARDS FOR GOVS (CONTINUED) Chloe Lee ’16 earned a Gold Key for her architectural piece. The following students earned Gold Key awards for their ceramics pieces: Alex Sterchele ’18, Brandon Benson ’16, Jihyun Kim’17 (see piece below), Kate Nickodemus ’17, and Lily Everett ’17 (see piece below).
Chloe Lee ’16
Student writers from The Governor’s Academy continued to shine this year in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Govs students won a total of 23 writing awards, including three Gold Key Awards, eight Silver Key Awards, and 12 Honorable Mentions. Jade Fiorilla ’17, Sophia Duplin ’16, and Carly Shea ’16 all earned Gold Keys for their personal memoir/essays.
Brandon Benson ’16
Kate Nickodemus ’17 Alex Sterchele ’18
GOVS STUDENTS WIN NATIONAL MEDALS IN ART
1
Three Governor’s students received national medals in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards competition. This is the fifth year in a row that Govs students have earned national medals in art and writing. Lily Everett ’17 won a silver national medal for her ceramics piece “Draining World,” Jihyun Kim ’17 won a silver national medal for her ceramics piece “Inside Out,” and Abbie Pike ’17 won a silver national medal for her photograph “Negative Space.” Govs students have earned a total of 19 national medals in art and two medals in writing since 1999.
2
3
1) Jihyun Kim ‘17, Inside Out
14
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
2) Abbie Pike ‘17, Negative Space
3) Lily Everett ‘17, Draining World
ON CAM P US
GOVS FAMILY WINS “BRICK’S BACKYARD RINKS” CONTEST In February, Governor’s own Bargman family had their backyard rink selected as the winner of NESN’s “Brick’s Backyard Rinks.” Brick’s Backyard Rinks is a segment on NESN (New England Sports Network) where former professional hockey player and sports commentator Andy Brickley holds a contest, then selects his favorite backyard ice hockey rink. The Bargman’s rink was chosen as Brickley’s favorite, and on February 23, NESN camera crews filmed their segment on the Bargman family’s rink. The Bargman’s son plays on Governor’s JV boys’ hockey team, and Coaches Rod McLain and Gary Satow travelled to the Bargman house with their team to skate on the rink for the segment. Brickley filmed an interview with Mr. Bargman in front of the rink, then Brickley and Boston Bruins mascot “Blades” took to the ice with the Govs boys’ hockey team.
GOVS STUDENT WAS FINALIST IN SALEM FILM FESTIVAL This spring, high school students in Massachusetts submitted their five minute documentaries to the Salem Film Festival for the chance to be a finalist and have their film screened at the festival. The five minute films are considered the work of “the best young high school documentarians in Massachusetts,” according to the Salem Film Festival. Govs student Jessie Swindell ’16 submitted her documentary film, “Chasing Sharks” to the festival and it was one of 13 chosen as a finalist. Jessie’s film showed the process of tagging and releasing wild sharks off the coast of Massachusetts with her Marine Science course led by teacher John Pirie. To watch “Chasing Sharks,” visit The Governor’s Academy Vimeo page at: vimeo.com/govsacademy
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
15
ON CA MP US
COMMON BOOK DAY WITH AUTHOR PAUL WATKINS On April 19, Governor’s welcomed author Paul Watkins to campus for this year’s Common Book Day. Watkins spent the day with the community discussing his memoir, Stand Before Your God: An American Schoolboy in England. His memoir recounts his time at Dragon School and Eton in England. Watkins is currently a teacher and writer-in residence at the Peddie School in New Jersey. He formerly taught at the Lawrenceville School. He attended the Dragon School in Oxford, and later attended Eton, then graduated from Yale University. He was a University Fellow at Syracuse University. Watkins also has a series of novels set in Stalinist Russia, which is a detective series.
1
Watkins spent the morning holding two workshops with students and faculty members. He then addressed the entire community of students, faculty, and staff in an all-school convocation, reading a humorous excerpt from his memoir, which had students laughing. Afterwards, he held a book signing over lunch in the Pescosolido Library, where students and faculty asked him questions and could speak with him in a smaller setting. Joining Mr. Watkins at Govs was his wife Catherine Robohm Watkins, an artist whose artwork has been on display in the Remis Lobby for several weeks. The series of paintings entitled, Fever Dream, were inspired by two weeks she spent in India in 2012 and 2015. Mrs. Watkins spoke to classes gathered in the Remis Lobby about her colorful series of work, answering questions from students and talking about her process as an artist. Mrs. Watkins also teaches at the Peddie School.
2
1) Cathy Robohm Watkins and Paul Watkins. 2 ) Paul Watkins signs books and answers questions for students after the workshop 3 ) Cathy Robohm Watkins talks about her paintings with students
16
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
3
ON CAM P US
ANNUAL STRUT 4 STIRLING FASHION SHOW HAS RECORD ATTENDANCE The Governor’s Academy continued its annual tradition of “Strut 4 Stirling” this year, with a packed house, for record attendance! Strut 4 Stirling is an annual fashion show held on campus which was created by Ariel ’16 and Ashley ’15 Portorreal to honor the memory of Govs alumna Stirling Winder ’04. Stirling passed away in 2012 after a courageous battle with Osteosarcoma. Ariel says that he and Ashley were sitting in the dining hall one day and the entire idea developed within an hour. “We knew we wanted to create a fun event in the community so we drafted a list and a fashion show was our best option. Central Catholic High School ran a very successful event called “catwalk for cancer” and I thought that it would be great to do something similar,” he said.
Ariel recalled being moved after hearing Stirling’s story earlier that year, and with the help of Mrs. Howson, he and his sister Ashley created Strut 4 Stirling at Govs. With Ashley having graduated in 2015, and Ariel graduating this year, Kathryn Carder ’17 will organize and run the event next year. Ariel says he was looking for a motivated individual who had interest in the event and the significant meaning behind it. He said Kathryn shadowed him and played a big role in the organization of this year’s event. All profits raised are donated through the Stirling Fund to Osteosarcoma cancer research each year.
Stay stylish this summer while playing croquet, working in the garden, or just relaxing! Govs straw hats (twisted straw with sun block material) $25.00 To place an order, please visit www.thegovernorsacademy.org/govsgear With questions, please call Chris Robinson at 978.499.3203
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
17
ON CA MP US
SENIOR SPRING TERM PROJECT SYMPOSIUM Sammons Corbett ’16 and Carly Shea ’16 paired up for their project. Both students obtained Advanced Open Water Diving Certificates and made a video chronicling the process and their underwater exploration. Sydney MacDonald ’16 set out to learn the anatomy of the hand, how it works, injuries it might sustain, and wrote up personalized treatment plans for specific injuries. Andrei Biswas ‘16 and Misha Tollman ’16 designed and built a remote control airplane.
In May, the annual Senior Spring Term Project Symposium was held. 23 seniors displayed the projects they have been working on for the past six weeks to the Govs community. Senior Spring Term Projects allow motivated seniors to substitute a project that they design in place of the traditional academic or afternoon program during their fourth quarter. They work with an advisor and plan for the symposium at the conclusion of the quarter where they display their final work. Projects this year ranged from painting murals, to learning a language, to open water diving! Sophia Madsen ’16 designed and painted a large mural on the walls of the Nannie B. dorm common room. Nicholas Wipf ’16 learned Chinese to prepare himself to attend university in Shanghai, while Cole Hunter’s ’16 project led him on the quest to learn how to play the piano.
Anastasia Momoh ’16 created a graphic novel from an original story, and Alexandra Griffin ’16 wrote a chapter for her science fiction novel, Invasion. Aidan O’Dea ’16 continued writing and revising his novel, The Orion’s Circuit. Hannah Wagner ’16 wrote a one-act one-woman show about an actress that is constantly typecast.
1
2
3
1) Misha Tollman ’16 and Andrei Biswas ’16 with their remote control airplane 2 ) Seniors show their projects to their classmates 3 ) Anastasia Momoh ’16 explains her graphic novel
18
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
H E T D A E T V E A S MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2016 | 12:00 NOON SHOTGUN START. GOLF CLASSIC – SCHOLARSHIP FUNDRAISER TURNER HILL GOLF CLUB, IPSWICH
“By providing the Office of Admission the flexibility to admit students who are both bright and curious, both talented and adventuresome, both competitive and generous, we are able to create a school that is powerful and unique.” – Mike Kinnealey, Director of Admission
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE EVENT AND SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES visit the Fall Golf Classic page on the website www.thegovernorsacademy.org/Golf or contact Jennifer Kyte in the Office of Advancement at jkyte@govsacademy.org 978.499.3312.
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
19
GO GOVS!
20
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
2015–2016 WINTER ATHLETIC WRAP UP BOYS’ HOCKEY Record: 6-18-2 ISL All-League: Samuel L. Best ‘17, Reid H. Howland ‘16 ISL Honorable Mention: David W. Rosen ‘16 Paul Wasson Award: David W. Rosen ‘16 Most Valuable Player: Samuel L. Best ‘17
GIRLS’ HOCKEY Record: 8-15-0 ISL All- League: Abigail M. Nearis ’16 ISL Honorable Mention: Erin M. Daly ‘17 Player Award: Margaret M. Farrell ‘17 Most Valuable Player: Abigail M. Nearis ’16
INDOOR TRACK (CO-ED) Girls Record: 7-4 Boys Record: 1-9-1 Coaches Award: Lydia N. Fanning ’16, Otto Laakkonen ‘18 Most Valuable Player: Rebecca D. Willis ’18, Alexander S. Berzansky ‘17
BOYS’ BASKETBALL Record: 15-9-0 ISL All- League: Jalyn A. Hinton ‘18, Nicholas O. Osarenren ‘18 Coaches Award: Graham McOsker ‘16 Most Valuable Player: Jalyn A. Hinton ‘18
GIRLS’ BASKETBALL Record: 16-9-0 ISL All-League: Courtney M. Cashman ‘16 ISL Honorable Mention: Aya Nagai ‘16, Kathryn C. Settelmeyer ‘17 Coaches Award: Aya Nagai ‘16 Most Valuable Player: Courtney M. Cashman ‘16
WRESTLING Record: 4-14-0 ISL All-League: Raymond D. Bailey ‘17 Heb Evans Award: Michaells A. Fana ‘17 Most Valuable Player: Raymond D. Bailey ‘17
ALPINE SKI Most Valuable Skier: Charlotte L. Whittier ’19, John C. Fox ‘17
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
21
WITH COURTNEY CASHMAN ’16
Everyone at Govs knows Courtney Cashman. Everyone at Govs knows Courtney Cashman. Not just because she’s a top athlete on every team she plays on, or because she is the second highest all-time leading scorer in Academy history for basketball (girls and boys, she told me!) Faculty, staff, and students alike know Courtney for her positive energy and friendly demeanor. Courtney is goal oriented and determined. Those who know her best, like assistant softball coach Danielle Kingsbury, describe her as a “humble athlete who does not ride her success in any way,” “effortless on the field,” and a “leader by example.” 22
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
Photo: David Oxton
INTERVIEWED BY CALEY S. LYNCH, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS 1 | WHERE ARE YOU FROM? CAN YOU TELL ME A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR FAMILY? HOW YOU GOT TO GOVS? I’m from Danvers. I’m a homebody, and I love spending time with my family. I have two older brothers (23 and 18), who both play college baseball, and I have two younger brothers—14 and 6 years old. My mom is the reason I am who I am. She and my older brothers.
softball last year because we went into the season with some people on the team who had never played softball before. Everyone on campus told us we wouldn’t get very far that year, and I told them “I don’t think so! I’m confident in our team, we can do it.” We ended up going undefeated, so that was my proudest moment- proving everybody wrong. I will always remember that season and its successes.
I played on a travel softball team with Sarah Dupree and Carli Citrano, who 6 | WHAT OTHER ACTIVITIES ARE YOU INVOLVED WITH ON CAMPUS? both went to Govs. When I was in 8th grade, their dads told me that Govs has an amazing softball program and coach and that I should look at it. I I am a Moody proctor, peer advisor; I participate in bee club when I can, kind of did the whole process on my own- my mom told me that if I really and I was a peer tutor last year. wanted it, I would have to go get it. I set up my interview, submitted my application, and came for a tour. This was the only private school I applied 7 | THERE ARE LOTS OF GREAT TRADITIONS THAT STUDENTS LOOK FORWARD TO EACH YEAR ON CAMPUS. WHAT IS ONE THAT YOU to. My mom always had confidence in me to do it. When she opened up my REALLY LOOK FORWARD TO EVERY YEAR? acceptance letter to Govs, she cried. She was so proud of me. Strut 4 Stirling. It’s very meaningful for our softball team because Stirling 2 | TELL ME ABOUT A FACULTY OR STAFF MEMBER WHO HAS MADE Winder ’04 played softball. I think it’s a really great way to honor her and AN IMPACT ON YOU DURING YOUR TIME HERE. to raise money for osteosarcoma. The event is a lot of fun. I modeled all Mr. and Mrs. Kingsbury. They’re basically my mom and dad. They’ve four years. I’m the captain of my softball team this year and I told my team coached me for all these years in softball. I watch the shows Greys Anatomy that everyone had to participate- whether it was modeling, selling tickets and Scandal and so does Mrs. Kingsbury, so I’ve gone over there every or working backstage. It turned out to be an amazing event that honored single Thursday and they get me ice cream every time! I hang out and an amazing person. watch their kids a lot too—they’re like my little brother and sister. They’ve 8 | WHERE ARE YOU ATTENDING COLLEGE? HOW DID THAT COME had such a great impact on me. Both of them are great role models and ABOUT? WHAT WAS THE APPLICATION PROCESS LIKE FOR YOU? I know they will always be there for me, even in the future. I’ll miss them University of Massachusetts, Lowell. I played softball for a national summer a ton. softball team and we traveled around the country for college showcases. I 3 | YOU ARE WELL KNOWN AS A FANTASTIC VOLLEYBALL, got offers from a bunch of different schools. I was committed to UConn for BASKETBALL, AND SOFTBALL PLAYER ON CAMPUS. HOW LONG a while but UMass, Lowell was always in the back of my head. My cousin HAVE YOU BEEN PLAYING THESE SPORTS? HOW DID YOU GET pitched there for baseball, and he was in the pros after college and he INTO THEM? loved it there. I went there one day and I really loved it. I called my mom Every single day my older brothers and I would go out and play baseball or and she was on board with it! My coach for my summer softball team football—and that’s how I was shaped into the athlete that I am now. We coached the Olympics and the coach at UMass Lowell played for him, so were all competitive with each other. that was the connection. She emailed me all the time. I started out playing baseball, not softball. At 13, I got kicked out of A couple of days before signing day, when UConn dropped the ball, I called baseball because it was all boys. I was really upset. I was always on the the coach at UMass, Lowell and told her I wanted to go for the weekend all-star teams and Williamsport team for baseball. It was so hard for me to visit. I committed to her, so I just had to apply to one school—UMass. to give it up. 9 | WHAT WILL YOU MISS THE MOST ABOUT GOVERNOR’S WHEN I was also playing travel softball at the time. I was 4 when I started playing YOU LEAVE AT THE END OF THIS YEAR? tee ball, and 5 when I started basketball. I actually played field hockey Ever since I first came here, it was such an amazing place that I didn’t in middle school, but when I got to Govs, I wanted to play volleyball (as want to leave. I’m going to miss walking down the sidewalks and saying my fall sport) instead, so I picked that up and made the varsity team my hi to everybody. I feel comfortable talking to anybody here—I feel like I’m freshman year. That was one of the best decisions that I made at Govs. friends with everyone. I’ll miss the close knit teams that I was on—they were my family. I’ll also miss the faculty—I’m close with the Kingsburys, all 4 | CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT YOUR ATHLETIC ACCOMPLISHMENTS? of my coaches, Mrs. Howson—just being able to go to their office and vent • Second all-time leading scorer in basketball at the Academy in history. if I had a bad day, or just to ask them how their day was and put a smile on (This includes girls and boys!) their faces. I know I won’t be able to do that in college. • Volleyball: All-league sophomore through senior year, team MVP junior and senior years, and league MVP this year (senior year). 10 | DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU WANT TO STUDY IN COLLEGE? WHERE YOU HOPE TO BE AND WHAT YOU HOPE TO BE • Basketball: All-league all four years, New England All-Star sophomore DOING IN 10 YEARS FROM NOW? through senior year, and team MVP sophomore through senior year. Yes—I want to major in exercise physiology. From there I can go to the • Softball: All-league all four years, team MVP junior year, and league pre-med track, or become an athletic trainer or physical therapist. After my MVP junior year. first year, I can choose the specific track I want to take. 5 | WHAT WAS ONE OF YOUR PROUDEST ATHLETIC ACCOMPLISHMENTS AT GOVERNOR’S?
I also absolutely see myself coaching. Probably at the high school level and if I got really into it, I’d want to coach at a top-notch college.
My proudest athletic accomplishment was winning that championship in
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
23
300 BIRTHDAY
HAPPY
th
!
man s ion h ou se
24
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
W
hile the exact date of its construction is unknown, many sources cite 1716 as the date of the construction of Mansion House by William Dummer. Built on the farmland originally owned by Richard Dummer and later passed down to his son Jeremiah, and Jeremiah’s son, William, the Mansion House has been the residence of the head of school and his family since its renovation in 1898 when Perley Horne and his family occupied the building. It is the oldest building on the original Dummer land. Mansion House was the rural retreat for William and Catherine Dummer, whose primary residence was in Boston. Mansion House was also a center for entertaining by the Dummers. Early documents mention the Massachusetts governor and President of Harvard as among the regular guests at Mansion House. Prior to the establishment of Dummer Academy, a sister of William Dummer, Madame Peirrepont, ran a school for girls (and perhaps also boys) in the Mansion House. This school seems to be the first recorded school in Byfield, but was no longer in operation by the opening of the Dummer School. The Moody family, including headmaster Samuel Moody, his brother Joseph Moody, and Joseph’s wife and children were the next occupants of Mansion House. They were joined by a handful of the early students who boarded at Mansion House. The House became the primary student residence throughout the 19th century until the building, by that point quite run down, was renovated in 1898 for headmaster Perley Horne who wanted Mansion House to be the exclusive residence of the headmaster and his family. Previously, Commons housed the headmaster as well as students. In the 20th century, the Academy has continued to modify the old building to suit the needs of the school, adding an extension to the kitchen on the east along with a southern wing which contains a large sitting room for public entertaining and second floor guest rooms for overnight guests. Even with these changes, the House retains many of its early architectural features and its early furnishings. We wish Mansion House a Happy Birthday and many more years as the centerpiece of the Academy! The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
25
History of Writing at the Academy
hen most of us think of education at the early Dummer Academy, we think of Master Moody instructing his pupils in Greek and Latin. These, however, were not the only subjects taught at the Dummer School. Although known initially as a classical school which prepared young men for Harvard, the Dummer School included writing as part of the curriculum almost from its founding. The Archives’ collection includes a handwritten textbook from 1779 labeled “Dummer School;” this text was used to teach everything from spelling and grammar to stenography and shorthand. While these may not be the subjects that one would include
Above: Student body and faculty
in a modern “writing” course, they reveal an interest and emphasis in the subject dating back to Master Moody’s era. Moody likely employed an assistant to instruct students in writing, as he did for mathematics and French. He had little interest himself in teaching subjects other than Latin or Greek, yet still understood their importance. Several years later, when officials from both the Byfield Parish Church and Harvard University decided control of the school should pass from them to a newly formed board of trustees, they drafted a document of incorporation which formalized the transition. Included in the document was a mandate that the Academy (now called “Dummer Academy”)
must provide “instruction of youth in reading, writing, and in the Latin and Greek languages.” The inclusion of writing as part of the curriculum was formalized from that point onward and became an important part of the Academy’s mission. Despite the fact that writing was being taught since incorporation, Dummer Academy still advertised itself as a Classical School with its primary purpose to teach Greek and Latin. In 1834, the trustees chose to add an English Curriculum, which students could select as an alternative to the Classical Curriculum. The addition of this new course of study reflected a need to attract a wider array of students and an acknowledgment that many youth required a more practical education that went beyond learning Latin and Greek. This was especially true of students who did not plan to further their education at elite institutions like Harvard or Yale. School records do not indicate how many students selected this option during this first year, but we do know that by 1837, 30 of 60 Dummer Academy students were enrolled in the English Curriculum. The administration, while willing to add these new courses, considered them inferior to the classics. In one of the early catalogues, the difference is explained: “Pupils are prepared for College or receive instruction in the common branches of a merely English education.” The condescension implicit in the word “merely” was a reflection of the administration’s opinion regarding the curricular changes. The dismissal of the English Curriculum was apparently not shared by the local community. An article in the Newburyport Herald
1837 catalogue
from 1843 praises the English branches as “finely analytic in character.” This attitude from those outside the school accounts for its popularity and high enrollment at this time. By the second half of the 19th century, when the school experienced its two early trials in the field of coeducation, female students were directed to follow the English Curriculum rather than the Classical Curriculum due to the fewer opportunities available to
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
27
History of Writing at the Academy these young women in the field of higher education. These early female students, ironically, were responsible for the increasing respect bestowed upon the English Curriculum. Several of these young women, whose grades put them at the top of their classes, were chosen to deliver the Valedictory and Salutatory addresses during the Commencement activities. The topics for these addresses ranged from Carrie Knight Ambrose’s speech titles “What Next?” to Susie Blake’s composition on the topic of God in nature. Featuring student writing in a public address, rather than traditional speeches written by others, became the new standard and another indicator of the Academy’s emphasis on good writing. By the start of the 20th century, writing had become an important part of a Dummer Academy education. Daily theme writing was touted in school publications 4 question quiz about
writing
at Govs
1. What was the only father/son pair to teach writing at Govs? (John and Steve Ogden) 2. When did Govs establish its writing center? (2008) 3. Who was the longest tenured writing teacher at the Academy? (Tom Mercer 1930–1969) 4. N ame as many published authors from among the faculty as possible: a. Nehemiah Cleveland b. Jack Ragle c. Mac Muphy d. John Ogden e. Bill Quigley f. Heb Evans
28
Top image: Bylaws
g. Art Sager
Bottom image: 1902 Theme writing booklet
h. Ash Eames
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
Paul Capron (back row, middle) and student body and faculty in 1902 Below: Blue book, early 20th century
as one of its major strengths. Paul Capron, the writing instructor during the early twentieth century, authored his own guide to writing to serve as the major text for this subject. The instructions greatly resemble those given by teachers today. Capron advised students, “what your reader finds at the beginning of any one of these [paragraphs] will color all that follows.” Beyond his organizational advice, Capron wrote, “If your thoughts themselves are wanting in dignity, interest, humor, or whatever else you think makes it worthwhile for you to write them down and for others to read them, no pretense will make up for this lack.” While the exact words may differ, the sentiment shared by Capron in his guide will be familiar to teachers and students of writing today. In addition to teaching writing, Capron was the lead instructor for what was then known as the “Junior School.” As the Academy’s version of an elementary/ middle school, the junior school was designed to prepare students for the more rigorous demands of high school.
Course listings in the catalogues from this era suggest that writing was as important a part of the junior school curriculum as the upper school curriculum. Each moved the subject from its second class status seventy years earlier to one on par with the many other subjects taught at the Academy. Throughout the Twentieth and into the 21st century, the importance of writing as part of a Governor’s Academy education has been continuously reinforced and redefined. From the requirement of daily theme writing in the early 20th century to the requirement of a US History research paper in the late twentieth century, a recognition of the importance of this skill has carried through since the document of incorporation and into the present day. Beginning with basic required courses of English Grammar, Reading, Spelling, and Penmanship in the mid-1800s, to classes in “Commercial English” in the 1920s, to the creative writing workshops that have been taught for over twenty years and are still popular today, the importance of writing as a subject has only increased over the Academy’s history and shows no sign of decline.
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
29
“Why I Write”
O
Introduction by Lori Ferguson
ne would be hard pressed to find stenography and shorthand included in a modern writing curriculum, but together with spelling and grammar, these courses formed the foundation of early studies at the Dummer School, as The Governor’s Academy was known at its founding in 1763. Not surprisingly, the school’s writing instruction has passed through several iterations since then, from grammar and penmanship to “Commercial English” and creative writing. But whatever the focus, the importance of writing as a subject has persisted, as archivist Sharon Slater explains in her essay, “History of Writing at the Academy.” Writing styles can be equally diverse. Journalist, scholar, novelist, poet—there are many types of writers and many ways of expressing thoughts through words. Yet whatever one’s métier, two truths recur. Every writer faces down a demon of some sort when approaching the blank page or empty screen, and each individual is driven to the act for intensely personal reasons.
“Writing…was my passport to the world,” says journalist Mark Starr ’65, who recently retired after 40 years in the news business where he covered everything from police beats and presidential campaigns, to rock and roll and the Boston Red Sox. Boston Globe reporter Perry Eaton ’08, who spends his days unearthing forgotten bits of history and investigating subjects he might otherwise overlook, sees writing as an act of discovery that allows him to “open new doors on old topics.” Colby College Professor G. Calvin Mackenzie ’63, an author with more than 15 books to his credit, writes to “create something that wasn’t there the day before,” yet still views the blank computer screen as his “constant antagonist.” Food & Wine writer Annie Quigley ’10 employs the written word as a way of bringing order to chaos, “wrangling the endless noise of the world into something simple and clean on a page.” And poet Brittany Perham ’99, author of The Curiosities and The Night Could Go in Either Direction, writes to slip the bonds of the everyday world, empowering her alternate ‘superhero mind,’ the one that “isn’t afraid to speak. The one that is capable. The one that is sure. The one that will get things done.” In the pages that follow, each of these five gifted alumni share their reasons for writing and reveal why, ultimately, they can’t imagine doing anything else.
G. Calvin Mckenzie ’63 We asked
five alumni who have made careers of their writing…
“Why do you write?”
30
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
Published Writer and Novelist and Goldfarb Family Distinguished Professor of Government at Colby College The blank computer screen is my constant antagonist. It sits there mocking me every morning. I pray for the phone to ring, the mail to arrive, the furnace to blow up—any relief from the daily skirmish. But then a few words flow, then a few more, then there’s a
Why do I write? It’s my job...sure, that’s part of it. But maybe I chose this job, this career, so that I could write. If that was actually a conscious decision, I don’t remember it. Dave Williams, my beloved teacher at the Academy, wrote a comment on one of my papers more than a half century ago that said, “Nice work. Some day you’re going to be a good writer.”
I keep hoping that day will come. I keep trying. Dave’s words echo in my mind even now, urging me never to surrender to the blank screen. Every day I create something that wasn’t there the day before. An expression for an experience. An explanation for a conundrum. An escape from enigma. I keep at it, seeking to be that good writer whom Dave Williams thought he saw in the dewy mist we call potential. Some day…
Brittany Perham ’99 Poet and Jones Lecturer in Poetry at Stanford University When I’m writing, I’m not thinking about little things like cleaning the bathroom or the fact that there’s no
photo by Lisa Beth Anderson
paragraph, and after a while some pages of manuscript. Relieved, I have lunch. Then I go back and spend the afternoon moving around the words I wrote in the morning. I’ve been doing this for more than 40 years. It never seems to get easier.
milk in the house and I better go buy it. And I’m not thinking about the big things like the fight I had with my beloved, or the election and the real fear I have for this country, or the fact that my poetry might not be helping anything in this world. When I’m writing, all that goes away. Somehow, I slip the mind I inhabit every day. I slip the spin of anxious thinking. When I’m writing, I’m out of my mind. Or it might be more accurate to say that I’m out of one mind and in another, the one that has a certain kind of patience, connectedness, clarity. It is the mind that makes order, that shapes, that distills. The one that remembers language has power. That one that isn’t afraid to speak. The one that is capable. The one that is sure. The one that will get things done. The one that knows. It is the superhero mind.
ever language we use, when we enter the superhero mind, something happens. For me, words happen. My superhero mind can see the story and can tell it. It is in complete control. My superhero mind is, well, a superhero. Of course, this is a kind of illusion, a kind of madness. In a few minutes, I will have to go buy milk. I will remember that I have little control over anything. But it is a necessary and productive illusion, the illusion from which art is made. I, for one, am addicted to it. And I write so I can enter the illusion again, so I can make the superhero appear.
Perry Eaton ’08 Boston Globe Reporter To me, writing can be both a form of entertainment or catharsis, or just an essential way to convey information. When I write for work, sometimes I’m able to uncover forgotten bits of history, or analyze the work of a band that I really enjoy. Other times, I report on things that I might not otherwise look into, and help keep readers up to speed with serious and not-so-serious bits of local culture. I enjoyed writing in my English and History classes at the Academy, and as a student at Governor’s, I began writing on my own, too. I used it as a way to
All of us find our superhero mind in different ways: we enter it when we are most attentive to the thing we love most. When we are most aware and alive in the world, and therefore most human. We’re built for this feeling. We need it. So we have many metaphors to talk about what it feels like when the superhero mind takes over: it is the lightning strike of inspiration, the moment we come in contact with god, the moment we ourselves become god-like. But what-
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
31
classmates. I had still not ventured south of Washington D.C. or west of Pittsburgh. Writing, in my case in the form of journalism, was my passport to the world, though many wouldn’t envy me some of the destinations, and to a world of experience with the same caveat. When I retired after more than 40
recommend music that I was listening to, to my friends. These columns, or “Perry’s Picks,” as I referred to them, came in the form of a collection of amateur blogs, and I was amazed that some of my friends were paying attention.
I’ve since started my own website in college, Allston Pudding, and wrote for different local alternative papers in my community like the now-defunct Boston Phoenix. While I did most of my writing at those places to get free concert tickets and meet some of my favorite musicians, it helped me cut my teeth and eventually move on to The Boston Globe, where I currently write for Boston.com. Now I write because it’s my job, but I am still fascinated when I come across a story that piques my interest. My favorite stories are ones about lost bits of local history that I come across in the Globe archives. I enjoy doing new reporting and bringing to light new information that helps these narratives evolve. Sometimes these stories are meant to stay in the past, but sometimes new reporting can open many new doors on old topics. That’s when writing is the most rewarding to me now.
Annie Quigley ’10 Writer for Food & Wine Magazine It doesn’t matter what you write— notes to yourself, notes to others, to-do lists, memoirs. Writing is a way of making
32
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
sense of the tiny, mundane, glorious details of your world. I like that the act of writing itself is a way of reckoning: Something unformed passes through your brain, through the filters of who you are and how you think; then ripples down the muscles of your arms and streams out from your fingertips in a string of words. It’s a process and a way of processing, of churning something through you and out onto a page. I write because I love the mechanism of writing, and because there is nothing more satisfying than saying exactly what you mean. Someone once said that poetry is “the best words in the best order.” In writing, you can shape and whittle and craft the words on the page until they are just the way you want them. That satisfaction of wrangling the endless noise of the world into something simple and clean on a page—that’s what I love about writing.
Mark Starr ’65
Journalist and Former Newsweek Magazine Senior Editor, Correspondent, and Columnist When I graduated college in 1969, I was far less traveled than my GDA
years chasing stories, with the last three decades spent at Newsweek Magazine, I had traveled to 49 states (alas Alaska) and written from six continents. I covered town meetings in the Bay Area for the San Jose Mercury. I handled the police beat for the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle and doubled as its rockand-roll critic. Thus I covered both the Attica Prison riot and the biggest rock concert in history—750,000 people at the racetrack in Watkins Glen, N.Y. for The Band, the Allman Brothers, and the Grateful Dead. I covered insurance for The Wall Street Journal and disasters for the Chicago Tribune. They used to say whenever I left town, at least 10 people were dead or going to be dead. Those numbers only rose when I reported on revolutions in Nicaragua and El Salvador. Later I was “on the bus” from January to November for a national presidential
campaign, the most stultifying assignment of my career. My great reward for tough duty came in 1992 when Newsweek made me its Olympic correspondent. A year later I became national sports correspondent too. It turns out sports is held in better places than news. I covered 11 Olympics, several World Cups and, in my last 10 years at Newsweek wrote a weekly, online sports column. No column meant more to me than when I told how I had gone to the cemetery to lay a newspaper on my father’s grave, proof positive for a reading generation that his (and my) beloved Red Sox had finally won the World Series.
Governor’s History teacher BILL QUIGLEY will have his first work of history published on November 1, 2016. The work is titled “PURE HEART: The Faith of a Father and Son in the War for a More Perfect Union.”
Pure Heart: The Faith of a Father and Son in the War for a More Perfect Union
As a son fights to save the Union, his father strives to save the divided church he serves William F. Quigley Jr.
I
n the summer of 1862, as Union morale ebbed low with home front division over war costs, coming emancipation, and demoralizing battlefield losses, 24-year-old William White Dorr enlisted as a lieutenant in the 121st Pennsylvania Volunteers, a new Union regiment organizing in Philadelphia. His father, the Reverend Benjamin Dorr, rector of Christ Church, Philadelphia, strived to prevent divisions in his congregation from sundering that Episcopal church historically tied to the nation’s founding. William F. Quigley Jr. presents a narrative that remarkably encapsulates much of the North’s experience of the war. Reverend Benjamin Dorr was one of the most important clergymen of the era, who strived to hold his warring parishioners intact. His efforts paralleled Lincoln’s far greater but comparable challenge to preserve the Union. “The Nation’s Church” was torn apart from within between a faction of Pennsylvania’s leading anti-emancipation Democrats and a faction of the city’s and state’s leading Republicans. Like Lincoln, Dorr invoked a temperate faith apart from the civil religion with which most Americans crusaded against each other. Dorr prayed that war might be avoided. But, when war came, he stood faithfully in support of the Union and of the war as Lincoln waged it, emancipation included, even unto the most grievous of losses. William White Dorr was a young officer in a storied Union infantry regiment whose brave stand at Gettysburg was pivotal in the Union’s preservation. Ten months later, wearing the second bar of an army captain, the rector’s son would lead his company once more into the Wilderness, one of the most brutal and bloody campaigns of the war.
1. Portrait of Capt. William White Dorr, 1863–1864, artist unknown. Courtesy of Charles Edward Dorr, Madison, GA. Photo by Caleb Ashton Dorr. 2. Portrait of the Reverend Benjamin Dorr, c. 1860–1869, artist unknown. Courtesy of Charles Edward Dorr, Madison, GA.
By war’s end, many Philadelphians came to praise the spirit of charity and forgiveness exemplified by Reverend Dorr. He was their shepherd through that political, constitutional, economic, and religious crisis, and to honor his memory they erected stone monuments in “The Nation’s Church” to him and to Captain Dorr, “A Christian and a Patriot, ‘Faithful unto death.’” Clearly and engagingly written, Pure Heart is unique in its narrative synthesis of home front political divisions and frontline infantry experiences. The emotional heart of the story lies in Reverend Dorr’s relationship with his soldier son, poignantly revealed in a recently discovered collection of his son’s wartime letters. William F. Quigley Jr. teaches history at The Governor’s Academy, the nation’s oldest nonsectarian independent boarding school. He and his family make their home in Cape Porpoise, Maine.
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
33
OBITUARIES
o b i t ua r i e s Martha Stalter “Linda” Corbett Martha Stalter “Linda” Corbett died on the morning of December 28, 2015 in Harwich, Mass., after a long battle with Alzheimer’s Disease. She would have turned 75 four days later. The first baby born in Council Grove, Kansas, on Jan. 1 in 1941 (and the first child of Stanley and Ellen Stalter) Linda continued to forge a life of firsts—including being named valedictorian of her class of more than 600 at Topeka High School. After earning both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. Linda moved to New York City to pursue a career in publishing. She was an editorial assistant at Look Magazine and then an assistant editor for McGraw-Hill. After a stint living in New Jersey, where Linda worked as a reporter for the Irvington Herald, the couple moved to Andover, Mass., where they would remain for more than two decades, raising their son, David Corbett ’91 (whom Linda called her “treasure”), and becoming an integral part of the community. Their home on Abbot Street was considered a “port in the storm” for many of David’s friends, who were welcomed warmly by Linda at any time of day or night. That same warmth was evident in her love for second (yet older) “son” Tony Pace, who as a teenager lived part-time with the family, through the A Better Chance program. As far as Linda was concerned, Tony and his then-girlfriend (and eventual wife) Anita, also the product of the ABC
34
program—and, later, their two daughters, Jillian and Jessica— are forever part of the family. While in Andover, Linda served as a reporter, assistant editor, and photographer at the Andover Townsman. Later, when son David attended Governor Dummer Academy in Byfield for secondary school, she accepted a role there as director of publications. Dave and Linda eventually left Andover for Charlestown, Mass., and later settled at their home in Brewster, Mass. Never one to seek the spotlight for herself, Linda worked behind the scenes for many worthy causes throughout her lifetime. These included Hocagee House, a center for at-risk youth in Cranford, N.J.; A Better Chance; Andover American Field Service; the U.S.S. Constitution Museum; Ron Burton Training Village; the Northwestern University Alumni Association; South Church of Andover and several political campaigns. Linda also played a vital and long-term role in helping husband Dave launch and make successful his Boston company, New Directions, Inc. She was an avid reader and bridge player; a Scrabble master and crossword-puzzle whiz. She loved paddle tennis, train travel, and her Andover Soup Group. She was a dog-lover (especially of her first “baby,” the golden retriever Charity) and an enthusiastic dancer. Remarking about life’s absurdities during her father’s own battle with Alzheimer’s, Linda often said, “You have to laugh.” Were she here, she would surely urge her friends and family to remember the good times and the laughter. Linda is survived by her husband, David D. Corbett, of Brewster, Mass.; son David C. Corbett, daughter-in-law Sarah McAdams Corbett, and grandsons Finn and Lucas Corbett, all of Acton, Mass; brother, Steven, of Manhattan, Kansas;
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
and many cousins, brothersand sisters-in-law, nieces and nephews. Her beloved parents, Stanley and Ellen, of Topeka, Kansas, preceded her in death.
boating, fishing, golf, bridge, and especially gardening and the growing of orchids. Mr. Lawrence is survived by his wife of 75 years, Ellen Libby; and two sons, Franklin and William.
Carl Young ’39
Donald Lawrence ’35 Donald Lawrence, 99, of Fort Myers, Florida passed away on September 22, 2015. He was born on August 29, 1916, in West Springfield, Massachusetts. He was employed for 35 years at the Portland Stove Foundry and retired as president in 1970. In 1881, his grandfather, Franklin Muzzy Lawrence, moved from Bangor to Portland and started the Portland Stove Foundry on Fore Street. It operated continuously on Kennebec Street for 99 years with 120 employees. Mr. Lawrence revived the popularity of the Franklin Stove invented by Ben Franklin. Before Back Cove was filled in to make Marginal Way and Route 295, employees used to swim directly from the plant into Back Cove. A spectacular fire demolished the foundry five years after Mr. Lawrence sold to the Fitchburg Foundry. Mr. Lawrence graduated from The Governor’s Academy, Williams College, and Babson Institute. He was a member of the Portland Country Club, director for 12 years of the Portland YMCA, and a director for 12 years on the advisory board of the American Mutual Life Insurance Co. and longstanding member of the Portland Rotary Club. Some of his many hobbies included
Carleton was born on December 16, 1920 and passed away on January 1, 2016. Carleton was a resident of Portland, Maine at the time of his passing. Clark graduated from Brunswick High School class of 1938 attended Governor Dummer Academy for one year and graduated from Bowdoin College class of 1943. Clark earned a Master’s Degree in Forestry from Yale University in 1948. He enlisted as an aviator in the U.S. Navy was trained as a carrier pilot and stationed in San Diego during the war. He was married to Peggy.
Sanford “Sandy” Proctor Young ’40 Sanford Procter Young died on January 28, 2016 in Hendersonville, NC. He is survived by his wife, Joan Philips Weed Young, and his 3 children: son Christopher Childs Young (Patty) of Darien, CT and daughters Constance Young Moore of Wilton, CT and Sandra Young Adams (William) of Denver, CO. Additionally he is survived by five grandchildren. Sandy, as he was best known, was predeceased in 1980 by his first
OBITUARIES
wife, Georgia Childs Young, his college sweetheart at Middlebury. Sandy was born in Boston, the son of Leroy Merrill Young and Evelyn Procter Young. He graduated from Governor Dummer Academy in Byfield, MA, and Middlebury College in Middlebury, VT and did graduate work at Harvard College. Sandy lived in Darien and then Wilton before relocating to Hendersonville, NC in 2002.
William Ashworth ’42
Charles Stevens ’46
We hope to include an obituary for William Ashworth in a future edition of The Archon.
We hope to include an obituary for Charles Stevens in a future edition of The Archon.
During his long business career, Sandy was employed in the chemical, energy and petroleum industries as an executive with ExxonMobil and Caithness Resources, a significant producer of electricity from geothermal energy.
William J. Hale ’45
Sandy’s life-long passion was golf. He joined the Executive Committee of the Connecticut State Golf Association in 1980 and became president in 1997. He was instrumental in restructure of the organization and creation of its Foundation, spearheading the “First Tee” initiative. For his service within the CSGA, he was voted into the CSGA Hall of Fame in 2004. Sandy was active in the United States Golf Association, serving as a Rules official for many USGA, CSGA and NE Golf Association tournaments. Sandy was a long-time member and former director of Wee Burn Country Club in Darien and was a member of the United States Seniors’ Golf Association. He was also an active member of the Noroton Presbyterian Church in Darien, the First Presbyterian Church in Hendersonville, the Rotary Club, and Hendersonville Country Club.
F. Ellsworth Miller ’41 We hope to include an obituary for F. Ellsworth Miller in a future edition of The Archon.
Leland Fredrick “Lee” Wilson ’47
William (James) Hale, 89, passed peacefully at the Port Health Care Center in Newburyport on March 14, 2016. For the past few years, he lived happily at The Newbury Village. Born to Frank TC and Virginia Hale, at the Rowley homestead, on June 1, 1926, he and his loving wife of 63 years, Shirlie L. Hale (Houston), continued to live in Rowley at 103 Glen Street. Bill was predeceased by his wife, best friend, and love, Shirlie L. Hale; and brother, Frank Hale, Jr. He leaves behind, William H. and Debra Hale of Newburyport and Deborah Duclous of Claremont, N.H. Grandchildren and their spouses include, Kelley Dwyer, Scott and April Dwyer, Christopher and Christina Hale, Kevin and Jennilee Hale, Rebecca and Matthew Cook and Edward and Vi Duclous. Bill’s love of life will live on in his nine great-grandchildren, Graciela, Colette, Mateo and Adrian Hale, Coltin Lee Hale, Gavin, Chloe, and Gracey Dwyer and Liam Cook. Bill graduated from Governor Dummer Academy, attended Colby College, and enlisted in the Navy (WWII), where he received the Purple Heart Medal for valor with the seventh fleet, Southwest Pacific (1944). He dedicated his time to his family, his home and enjoying life. He enjoyed golf, skiing, camping, hiking the White Mountains, and walking along the Hampton Beach shoreline and the Marginal Way, Ogunquit, Maine.
Leland Fredrick “Lee” Wilson, age 86, of Hull, MA, passed away on January 30, 2016. He was born to the late Alan and Elizabeth Wilson on March 29, 1929 in Newton, MA. Lee initially grew up in Newton and later moved to Dover, MA. He graduated from Governor Dummer Academy in 1947 and subsequently enrolled at Harvard University where he studied Political Science. During his enrollment at Harvard, Lee left to enlist in the Air Force for four years serving during the Korean War. He returned to Harvard and graduated in 1956. Upon graduation, he went to work for the New England Telephone Company where he spent the next 33 years of his career. At New England Telephone Company, Lee met the late Helen Hutchinson Wilson with whom he enjoyed over 50 years of marriage. Lee raised three children and is survived by Barbara Bearden of Hull, MA, Lee and Ellen Wilson of Jupiter, FL and Elizabeth and Brett Blauner of Valparaiso, Indiana. He is also survived by thirteen grandchildren who he cared for deeply and with affection, they called him Papa. Lee had three sisters Mary, Natalie and Priscilla. Lee lived on the South Shore for many years in Cohasset, Scituate and Hull. He was an avid sportsman and his love for sports was passed on to his children and grandchildren. He was a New England Patriots season ticket holder since the first game enduring the lean years and finally rewarded with multiple Super Bowls, Lee enjoyed the camaraderie of his long term friends at their legendary cookouts whether it was tailgating at a Harvard or Patriots football game. He had a passion for golf and was a long time member of Cohasset Golf Club and cherished his friendships with fellow golf members and staff that were so kind to him. Lee will be missed for his humor, which he kept to the very end.
Reverend Chester R. Ham ’49 Chester R. “Chet” Ham, 85, of Derry, died January 10, 2016, at the Villa Crest Nursing Home in Manchester. Chet was born in Wakefield, Massachusetts, on July 13, 1930, a son of the late Clifford C. and Esther M. (Davenport) Ham. Chet received a bachelor of arts from Colby College in Waterville, Maine, and then a bachelor of divinity from Andover Newton Theological School in Newton, Mass. After marrying, Chet’s first parish assignment was in Columbia, S.D. His follow-on assignments included Blairsburg and Allison, Iowa, and Kansas City, Mo. In 1969, Chet and family settled in Londonderry. During this time, Chet worked for the U.S. Postal Service as a rural mail carrier for 17 years and served on many organizations in the town, including the fire department where he served as chaplain since 2000. Over his 60 years of pastoral service, he served 14 congregations beginning in New Hampshire then to South Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, and then back to New Hampshire where he had served at First Parish Congregational Church in East Derry. In all situations and capacities, Chet enjoyed meeting others; his warm, inviting smile and genuine concern for others were very welcoming. He is survived by his wife of 58 years, Marilyn (Webster) Ham, of Derry; three children, Peter W. Ham and wife Carol of Mansfield, Mass., David A. Ham and wife Christine of Merrimack, and Cynthia A. Strike and husband Tom of Londonderry; eight grandchildren, Jeremy and Ethan Ham, Nathaniel, Catherine, Emily and
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
35
OBITUARIES Meghan Ham, and Joseph and Jeffrey Oriani; one great-granddaughter, Ophelia Evelyn Oriani; two sisters, Dr. Priscilla Alexander of Sacramento, Calif., and Esther Dalrymple of Lansing, Mich.; as well as several nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his brother, Rev. Dr. Clifford Ham, of Pittsburgh, Pa.
Major John J. Mozzicato ’49 John Joseph Mozzicato, 83, of Peoria, AZ, passed away on January 9, 2015. He will be remembered for his gentle nature, humor, but most of all for his love and dedication to his family and friends. Beloved husband of the late Joyce Mozzicato, he is survived by his daughters Linda Bunt (Jim) of Scottsdale, AZ and Diane Mozzicato (Brian Gershon) of Kansas City, MO; his brother James Mozzicato (Burlington, MA); and sisters Marianne Wilcox (Billerica, MA), Sr. Catherine Mozzicato (Belmont, MA) and Nancy Allison (Hebron, CT). Born 1931 in Medford, MA to James and Margaret (Ahern) Mozzicato, he made many places his home including Wichita, KS; Plant City, FL and lastly Peoria, AZ. A retired Major of the USAF and graduate of The Citadel, class of 1954, he served 21 years and was a veteran of the Vietnam War. His second career was with Boeing Military in Wichita, KS. Although he was an avid numismatist, he spent most of his retirement volunteering his time coaching and mentoring kids, with church activities, and supporting political candidates and causes for the betterment of the country he served.
Bill Reid ’49 William F. passed away on Thursday July 30, 2015 at the age of 84. He is survived by his wife Phyllis, daughter Mary Ann, and sons William Jr. and Stanley. He is also survived by brother Robert, grandson William, and other nieces, nephews and cousins.
Frank B. Dow ’53
Reaves Strobel ’56
Frank Beckman Dow, Jr., 80, longtime Newburyport resident, passed February 8, 2016 after a period of declining health. He was the former husband of the late Anne R. Dow and the former husband of Alexzandra Z. Dow.
RAs written by classmates Tom Urmy ’56 and Dave Pennock ’56
Born in Newburyport, September 23, 1935, he was the son of the late Frank B. and Helen M. (Black) Dow. He was a graduate of Governor Dummer Academy in Byfield then went on to graduate from Boston University.
Reaves grew up in Connecticut. After graduating from then Governor Dummer in 1956 he attended Amherst College, from which he graduated in 1961. He was twice married, first to the late Martha Narensky and then to Paula Strobel. Both marriages ended in divorce, although Paula and Reaves were living together at the time of his stroke. They had two sons, Alex and Sam.
Over the years Frank enjoyed choral singing, camping, canoeing, and hiking. He volunteered at Lowell’s Boat Shop in Amesbury and the Custom House Maritime Museum in Newburyport. He is survived by his son, Christopher “Topher” Dow of Sydney, Australia and his wife, Lisa; his daughter, Isabelle Z. Dow of Waltham; his grandchildren, Atticus B. Dow, Gideon B. Dow, and Electra W. Dow, all of Sydney, Australia; Indigo Dow of La Jolla, Calif., and dear friends from near and far. He was predeceased by his daughter, Heather W. Dow of Cambridge, who died in 1993.
Allen Needham ’54 Allen K. Needham of Peabody, Massachusetts, died December 28, 2015, age 81. Allen was formerly of Manchester by the Sea, loving father of Jessica Drinkwater and her husband, Corey of North Kingstown, RI, Sarah Franco of Cranston, RI, and Allen K. Needham III and his wife, Audrey of Berwick, ME, grandfather of Ellie, Clara, Thea, Alex and Natalie and brother of George L. Needham of Boxford.
James Diephuis ’55 James Diephuis, 78, of Lyerly, Georgia, passed away October 21, 2015.
36
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
Reaves Strobel died on April 5, 2016 from complications following a stroke. He had lived in Deep River Connecticut.
After Amherst, Reaves worked in New York for Life Magazine. In the 1970s he and an Amherst friend owned and operated a boatyard in Watch Hill, Rhode Island, where he acquired the nickname “Cap”, which remained with him for the rest of his life. He then returned to publishing, working at My Weekly Reader and later as a mail order consultant. He also operated a small charter sport fishing business. In the 1980s and 90s he and Paula owned The Crosswords Club, which published high quality crossword puzzles for its members. He retired in 1995. Reaves was sui generis. His particular wit and intelligence were unrivaled. He was a skillful woodworker and a masterful trout fisherman. He often said that the sport of fishing lay only in enticing the fish to strike, as opposed to fighting or landing it. After his family, he loved the Mets, fishing, reading, beer, boats, his dogs and his friends, in no particular order at any particular moment. At different points in time he explored the Everglades in a canoe with his dog, set out to hitchhike from Utah to Maine with 25 cents in his pocket and rode in an empty box car across the Great Salt Lake. There were doubtless many other adventures and exploits of which we are not aware. He rarely turned down an interesting opportunity.
Reaves’ life was by no means a fragrant bed of roses. Yet he always maintained his sense of humor, and you could always count on him for a robust response to a good joke. He didn’t make strong friendships easily, but once a relationship was established, it was there for the long term. He remained loyal to all his friends, who came from widely differing walks of life, and all of them will both mourn his passing and celebrate their adventures with him throughout the years.
George Starbuck ’57 George W Starbuck, 77, died November 17, 2015 in Grand Isle, VT surrounded by his family. George was born in Burlington, VT, 1938 — son of George W Starbuck and Rachel Closson. George grew up in Fair Haven/ New Bedford, MA and went to The Governors Academy in Massachusetts. In 1962, George graduated from the University of Vermont. After college, George worked for the State of Vermont Department of Water Resources and Webster Martin. In 1975, he formed Aquatec Inc., an Environmental Testing and Consulting firm where he continued his love for the water, boats and the environment. He is an avid deep-sea fisherman and hunter. Over his lifetime, he served and contributed to numerous boards, trustees, and committees: Village of Essex, Essex Youth Hockey, UVM School of Engineering and Science, Echo-Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Lake Champlain Land Trust, Vermont Land Trust, and Vermont Commons School. He is survived by his wife, Pammella Shorts Starbuck of Manchester CT, wife of 57 years, his sons, George “Bill” W Starbuck IV of Los Angeles, CA, Robert B Starbuck of Amman Jordon,
OBITUARIES
Michael B Starbuck and his wife Susan Starbuck of Grand Isle, VT, Grand children, Corey M Starbuck of NY, NY and Matthew K Starbuck of Burlington, VT; Step-Grandson Joshua D Bigelow of Grand Isle, VT; his Sisters, Roxanna Yarrow of Colchester, CT and Mary Payne of West Haven, CT, and 7 nieces and nephews. George was predeceased by his father Dr. George W Starbuck, 1938 graduate from the University of Vermont Medical School; His birth Mom Rachel Closson and his step-mom Virginia Cassidy Starbuck, niece Kimberly Yarrow Sanborn of CT, and nephew Palmer Payne of CT. The family would like to thank the medical staff from the UVM medical Center ER and ICU for all their care and attention that extended his life and allowed him to make the journey home to Grand Isle to get one last view of the Lake.
Brian Owen Sullivan ’57 Brian Owen Sullivan, retired history teacher at Whittier Vocational Technical High School, died peacefully at Brigham Manor in Newburyport on October 15, 2015 at the age of 75. Born and raised in Newburyport, son of the late George A. and Dorothy (Furbush) Sullivan, he graduated from Governor Dummer Academy in 1957. He went on to receive his Bachelor’s degree from Brown University followed by a Master’s degree from Boston College and an MBA from Babson College. Mr. Sullivan taught history at Newburyport High School and then at Whittier Vocational Technical High School for many years. He was a licensed EMT and rode the ambulance locally. In the 1980s he was a Ranger for the U.S. Park Service on board the U.S.S. Constitution and the Bunker Hill Monument. Most recently he was the Registrar of Voters for the City of Newburyport. He was passionate about politics, and an avid reader and photographer. Mr. Sullivan is survived by his sister and brother-in-law
Margaret and Gerard DeLisle of Newburyport, and brother and sister-in-law Barry and Winni Sullivan of Chicago, IL. He also has four nephews, Stephen DeLisle of Newburyport, George A. Sullivan of Chicago, Christopher DeLisle of Stamford, CT, Lloyd Sullivan of Chicago, and one niece, Elizabeth DeLisle of Amesbury. In addition, he leaves behind five grandnieces and nephews, Maeve, Fiona, Cormac, Gwyneth, and Cian, and many beloved cousins and friends.
Whit Kimball ’57 A lifelong resident of Newburyport, Whitfield Kimball, Jr., died January 4, 2016. He was the son of the late Whitefield F. and Virginia (Healy) Kimball. Whit graduated from Governor Dummer Academy and received his A.B. in History from Dartmouth College in 1963. An athlete from his youth through high school where he played football, basketball, and baseball. In college, he played football and baseball and gained his lifelong friends from his fraternity, Phi Gamma Delta. He was a warm, thoughtful and witty man, who adored his family, friends, and his Newburyport community. He was a lifelong sports fan, especially of Dartmouth football. Whit also enjoyed live music, family genealogy and history — especially that of Newburyport, where he was involved with the Historical Society of Old Newbury and a member of the Sons and Daughters of the First Settlers of Newbury. Whit was the caring husband of the late Mary (Boutwell) Kimball and Marie (Funchion) Kimball. He lovingly fulfilled his paternal roles for daughter Melissa Kimball McCarthy and her husband William (Hingham, MA), stepdaughter Erin Funchion Smallidge (Waterbury, VT), and step-son Gary Funchion (NH). He was the cherished brother of Dr.
Colin Auld Studds ’62
Richard Kimball (Worcester, MA) and devoted grandfather of Matthew and Thomas McCarthy. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him.
Stanley Reed “Duke” Morton Junior ’60 Stanley Reed “Duke” Morton Junio, 74, died peacefully at home on March 18, 2016, of pancreatic cancer. He is survived by his wife, Julia Jenkins Morton, their children Wendy Morton Hudson of Nantucket, MA and Robert Reed Morton of Pleasantville, NY, son-in-law Randy Hudson, daughter-in-law Gwen Morton, grandchildren Evelyn and Owen Hudson, and Amelia and Kate Morton; his beloved twin sister Millinda (Duch) Plym Olson of Vero Beach, FL, and many nieces, nephews, and their children, all of whom he adored. Born March 30, 1941 in Worcester, MA, Stan attended the Bancroft School, graduated from Governor Dummer Academy in Newburyport, MA, and from Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, MI. His professional career as an industrial sales representative began in Detroit, MI, and continued in Cleveland, OH, for R.O. Whitesell & Associates, where his “people skills” and abundant curiosity were the secrets of his success. Stan was valiant in facing his illness, defying the odds and inspiring everyone around him with his fortitude to the end.
George E. McPhail ’62 III George was born on June 28, 1944 and passed away on Monday, February 29, 2016. George was a resident of Huffman, Texas at the time of his passing. He attended Governor Dummer Academy. George honorably served in the U.S. Navy 1961–1970.
Colin A. Studds, of Cohasset, Massachusetts, died March 17, 2016, at the age of 73. He was the son of the late Elbridge Gerry Eastman Studds and Bonnie Studds both of Cohasset. He is survived by his wife of 43 years, Mary Lou Studds, his son Colin Studds and daughter in law Rina Studds of Washington D.C., and his son Tyler Studds of Newton, MA. He was a grandfather to Finn and Sage Studds. He was the brother of Gaynor Stewart of Buffalo, NY and the late U.S. Congressmen Gerry E. Studds and his husband, Dean T. Hara, of Boston, MA.
James Davidson Moss ’64 James Davidson “Dave” Moss passed away December 28, 2015. Dave was born March 21, 1946, to Herbert and Elizabeth Moss in Haverhill, MA, and moved to Durham, N.H., shortly thereafter. He grew up in Durham and attended Governor Dummer Academy and Wesleyan University before being drafted into the Army. He served as a medic in Vietnam where he was awarded an Army Commendation Medal for organizing a community medical program to serve the civilian population and an Air Medal for service as a door gunner on helicopter gunships. Upon his return from Vietnam, he eventually moved to Oregon and continued his education at the University of Oregon. His interest in government led to a career in the political field. He held various positions with the Oregon state legislature, including a stint as Chief of Staff to the Speaker of the House. Later he developed a candidate assistance and training program for Associated Oregon Industries, and served five years as City Councilor in Salem. He was later appointed to the Oregon State Ethics Commission, on which he served as chair.
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
37
OBITUARIES His service to the Salem community included serving as a member and president on numerous boards: among them Gilbert House Children’s Museum, Historic Deepwood Estate, Willamette Valley Hospice, and Capital Community Television. In his retirement Dave worked with a partner to return dilapidated houses to a habitable state. One project is the Pioneer Alley community in South-Central Salem. He participated in the Woodcutter’s Guild and the self-named Walker Associates, a group which collected recyclable litter and established a school scholarship with the proceeds. Dave did extensive research in family genealogy, before many of the records were available online. He loved Oregon and skied Mt. Bachelor in the winter, hiked in the mountains, and rafted the Rogue River. He is survived by his wife, Patricia Graves Moss; daughter, Kathryn Moss Reynolds, of Greenville, S.C.; and sisters, Helen Moss Ogden, of Gorham, ME, and Virginia Moss Guy of Dover, NH He will be missed dearly.
Thomas O’Dea ’65 Thomas Leo O’Dea, 68, passed away on December 28, 2015 in Richmond, VA, due to complications from almost every illness possible. He was surrounded by his family and the caring staff of Henrico Doctors’ Hospital. Tom “The Dollhouse Man” was born on September 16, 1947, in Newburyport, MA, and ultimately landed in Richmond to start publishing rarely-read periodicals. “Tombo” was a supportive and patient dad with a passion for Elmore Leonard, the Boston Red Sox, and miniature houses. He was a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Business School. He spent time in many endeavors including publishing, real estate, football refereeing, and little league coaching. Most recently he was the owner, CEO, CFO, and sole employee of The Dollhouse Shop in the West End
38
of Richmond, which he later sold for a windfall profit and promptly retired to focus on breeding bonsai trees. The only thing greater than “Dumpo’s” passion for tiny dressers and miniature chandeliers was his love for family. He is survived by his wife of 36 years, Bette; brother John; three children, Casey, Brady, and Duggan; four grandchildren, Eda, Wes, Annabelle and Ryan; as well as a host of relatives and friends. Mr. O’Dea donated his body to science in an effort to further understand the DNA structure associated with unrelenting sarcasm.
Philip Finn ’67 (as written by Ben Beach ’67) Philip Theiler Finn ’67 died July 28 at his home in New Castle, N.H., apparently after suffering a heart attack. He was 65. Phil arrived at GDA in 1963 and shared the third floor of Mason Cottage with Andrew Nichols. “Phil was the best roommate anyone could have asked for,” said Andrew. “He became my best friend in the fall of 1963 and remained my best friend throughout the years that followed. He was beloved by my wife and children. We all cherish the moments we shared with him.” Phil was part of pony football’s “Elephant Backfield,” composed of four freshmen whose total weight was under 400 pounds. He soon discovered that his primary athletic talent was running, and “Flash Finn” became a valuable member of the cross country, winter track, and spring track teams. During his first autumn as a harrier, Phil played a major role in helping the team become GDA’s first cross country squad to compile a winning record. As a senior, Phil anchored a strong winter relay team, and at the B.A. A. Games in Boston he made what Coach Bill Sperry described as a “valiant” though unsuccessful effort to reel in Cheshire’s anchor in a race for third place. Phil co-captained the spring track team with Rich Crawford and was
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
a standout in the 880 and 1000. That fall he headed off to Coach Sperry’s alma mater, Gettysburg. After college, Phil landed in the Virgin Islands and worked on a charter yacht. Returning home, he began to work in retail inventory management. More important, in 1974 he married Jane Dalrymple, whom he had met at Gettysburg. His retail career began with Montgomery Ward, and he later worked for Casual Corner, Bradlees, and Martignetti Companies, the leading distributor of wine and spirits in New England. “My brother Carmine and I were always so proud to be represented by him,” Carl Martignetti said at Phil’s funeral. “So often he was the voice of reason in the company.” Phil had always hoped to find his way back to the Portsmouth area, and he steadily moved north from Crofton, MD, to Ridgewood, NJ, to Simsbury, CT, to Hingham, MA, and eventually to New Castle, NH. He and Jane bought and restored the Finn family home. “Phil worked tirelessly inside and out to care for and improve our home,” Jane said. But he was happiest on the water and especially loved sailing on the Piscataqua River and traveling to the Isles of Shoals. Phil is survived by Jane and their sons, Philip and Richard, and one granddaughter.
Robert Kruger ’77 Mr. Robert Kruger, Jr., age 58, of Villa Rica, Georgia passed away peacefully on May 8, 2016 after a brief illness. Bob was born in Albany, New York on May 1, 1958, the oldest son of the late Robert Kruger, Sr. and Margaret Alex Kruger. The family relocated to Cape Elizabeth, Maine in 1968, where Bob distinguished himself as a scholar and athlete, becoming the Cross-Country State Champion of Maine in 1976. Bob graduated from The Governor’s Academy in 1977. He was a 1981 graduate of The United States Military Academy at West Point.
While attending West Point he was a member of the Corps Squad in indoor and outdoor track as well as cross-country. He was commissioned as a 2LT of Infantry in the United States Army on May 27, 1981. Bob served proudly as a platoon leader, executive officer, and supply officer in the 101st Airborne Division. Following the career course at Ft. Benning, GA, Bob served in the 82nd Airborne Division, commanded two companies, and led his men into combat during Operation Just Cause in Panama, as well as Operation Golden Pheasant in Honduras. He also deployed to the Middle East as a member of the Multi-National Peacekeeping Force. Among his many awards and decorations, he was most proud to have earned the Ranger Tab, Master Parachutist badge with combat star, and the Combat Infantryman’s Badge. After attaining the rank of major, Bob left active service and began working for Michelin as the plant engineer in Opelika, AL; however, as world conditions changed, he returned to work for the Department of the Army in the “Battle Lab” at Ft. Benning, GA, where he continued to work until he became ill. Among his wide interests, Bob enjoyed hunting, fishing, target practice, flying model airplanes, history, and service academy football. Bob and his wife, Cindy, attended Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church in Carrollton, Georgia. Bob leaves behind a large and loving family as well as a wide circle of friends, all of whom will miss his gregarious personality and his fierce loyalty. Survivors include his wife, Cindy Hardegree Kruger, daughter, Abigail Kruger of Columbus, Georgia; his goddaughter, Beth Hardegree Shaw, her husband, Major(P) Derrick Shaw, and many other relatives.
OBITUARIES
William Earl Hunter ’78 William Earl Hunter, born April 1, 1960, in Raleigh passed away on Saturday, January 16, 2016 from complications from melanoma. Earl attended Sherwood Bates, Ravenscroft, The Governor’s Academy, and Needham Broughton. Earl was smart, engaging, funny, and witty. He did masterful impressions. Earl was the best athlete in an athletic family. He excelled in football, basketball, gymnastics, track and field, and wrestling. Through middle school he was essentially unstoppable in any sport. Earl could do a standing back flip and would entertain his brothers and friends by walking up and down the steps at the “Big House” on his hands. Once on a bet with his brother Joe he swam three full lengths underwater at the Carolina Country Club pool. He invented dives at the pool that no one could duplicate. He was magnificent. Earl was an excellent student and graduated with honors from Ravenscroft in 1978. He attended Duke his freshman year then transferred to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he received Bachelor of Arts degrees in both Drama and Literature. Earl was a life-long Tarheel fan, particularly in basketball. Earl was a gifted actor and singer. He had starring roles in Jesus Christ Superstar, The Lost Colony, Hair, Unto These Hills, A Christmas Carol, and many Raleigh Little Theater productions. Earl moved to Atlanta to pursue his acting career where he landed roles in theater and several movies, including a part in Natalie Wood’s final film “Brainstorm”. Earl was preceded in death by his parents Dr. Richard “Dick” Samford Hunter and Anne Arendell “Kitty” Hunter. He is survived by his brothers Richard
Samford Hunter, Jr. and wife Jane Messer Hunter, Banks Arendell Hunter and wife Sandlin Gaudette Hunter and Robert Vernon Hunter and wife Eleanor White Hunter all of Raleigh, brother Joseph McCrary Hunter and wife Anne van Roden of Seattle, WA; nephews Richard Hunter, Ben Hunter and Banks Hunter; nieces Diana Hunter and her husband Stefano Fussi, Anne Hunter and Mary Ellen Hunter. Earl cherished his family and loved spending holidays, birthdays and other celebrations with his extended family.
R. Brabrook Walsh ’78 R. Brabrook “Bray” Walsh III, age 56, a resident of Lowell, formerly of Pepperell, MA, passed away unexpectedly on January 14, 2016, at his residence. He was the beloved husband of Darlene (Donovan) Hannigan-Walsh with whom he would have celebrated their sixth year of marriage this coming July 24, 2016. He was born in Lowell, MA, on September 21, 1959, a son of the late Richard Brabrook Jr. Esq. and Patricia (Wyatt) Walsh of Pepperell, MA, who survives him. Bray received his early education in the Pepperell Schools, he was a graduate of Governor Dummer Academy Class of 1978 and a graduate of Syracuse University, Class of 1984 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics/ Minor in History. He also attended the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2004 receiving his Assessor Certification. In his early years, Bray had been employed by the Central Savings Bank of Westford, MA, as an Assistant Manager and had also been the Proprietor of Bray Walsh Landscaping. He had also been an Assessor for the Town of Pepperell
from 2004–2010 and Cemetery Commissioner for the Town of Pepperell from 1998–2002.
Andrew J. Baird ’90
Bray was currently employed by the Proprietors of Lowell Cemetery as their Superintendent, a position he has held since 1996.
He leaves many loved ones behind his parents Archibald and Theresa Baird of Glendale, AZ, a sister Michelle McNeaney of Peoria, AZ, niece Alicia McNeaney of Chicago, IL, and nephew Matthew McNeaney also of Peoria, AZ. Many aunts, uncles, cousins, and close friends in the United States and Canada. Especially Jim Hazelwood, Nick Vachon, Danielle Diaz, and Lauren Spaulding.
Andrew J. Baird passed away on October 5 at the age of 44.
He was a member of the Massachusetts Cemetery Association. He served on the Board of Directors and as their President both in 2007 and 2008. He went on to become a member of the New England Cemetery Association serving on their Board of Directors since 2008 and as their President in 2013 and 2014. He also was their Editor and Official Photographer.
Andrew was born on May 16, 1971 in Worcester, MA. Before moving to Arizona 23 years ago, he lived in Holden, MA. Andy grew up playing pond hockey which he loved. Andy continued playing well into his adult years. He attended Cushing Academy in Ashburnham, MA. Graduated Governor Dummer Academy in Byfield, MA, in 1990. He graduated from ASU with honors in 1997 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Education. He taught Science in middle school for 15 years. Along with his love of teaching he also coached girls softball, boys cross country, and ice hockey. He attended Resurrection Lutheran Church in Scottsdale, AZ.
Bray had been the recipient of the New England Certified Cemetery Professional Award — and in June of 2014, he was presented an award for his service and commitment to the Cemetery Profession by the ICCFA. Bray’s other passion was boating. He had his Master Captain’s License and he spent his happiest time abroad his boat, “Amazing Grace” with his wife, Darlene, his family and many dear friends. He was also an avid Certified Scuba Diver some of his favorite destinations were Cozumel, Mexico and along the New England Coast. When he wasn’t aboard his boat, he enjoyed woodworking, traveling, and spending time with his family. In addition to his wife, Darlene and his mother, Patricia, his survivors include, a sister, Melissa Wyatt Walsh of Pepperell, MA, and her longtime companion, Raymond John Ellis of Billerica, MA; his children, Melanie A. LaValley and her husband, Scott of Merrimac, MA, and John A. Hannigan lll of Lowell, MA; his grandsons, Cameron and Bradley LaValley; his brother-in-law, William R. Donovan of Lowell, MA. He is also survived by many Dear Friends and Colleagues; and his beloved dog, Lucy and his cat, Louis.
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
39
A WORTHY
INVESTMENT PLANNED GIVING AT THE GOVERNOR’S ACADEMY
FREDERIC “RIC” WALDRON ‘53 While visiting Schoolhouse Society member Ric Waldron ’53 in California, Peter Bidstrup asked Ric why he chose to include the Academy in his estate plans. Ric’s response: “The exuberant jump over the wall on graduation day! It was the most important thing for us grads at that moment. Reflection tells me why it was significant.
“No words can wholly describe the influence the Academy has had throughout my life.” Other leaps in life have been made possible by the traditions of the Academy. Everything I have achieved, academically and financially, I owe to GDA. Each step of learning builds upon the previous, but absent the fundamental basis of acquiring knowledge learned at the Academy little would have been achieved. Many graduates leave legacies to colleges, churches, etc. Let us not forget those contributions could not be made without the effect of the Academy in our lives. Think, please, about leaving something to “the Gov.” Any donation, no matter how modest, should be considered.
If you would like to learn more about Planned Giving, please contact RAY GOODMAN, Director of Leadership Giving at 978.499.3196 or by email at rgoodman@govsacademy.org.
Lessons learned early prepare us to be strong, patient travelers along life’s journey. No words can wholly describe the influence the Academy has had throughout my life.”
Ric with Leadership and Planned Gifts Officer Peter Bidstrup P ’13, ’15 near Ric’s home in California
CLASS NOTES 1938 Alan Bullwinkle writes: “I was an exchange student from the U.K., and GDA Class of 1938. I am now ninety-five. My son and daughter are very supportive, but I shall soon have a live-in caregiver, with whom I shall share my life. I continue to enjoy copies of The Archon, and I found the section in the last Archon about the impact of World War II on GDA and its graduates. Of course, I knew Ted Eames very well. I was sad to read that Harold Audet had died. Richard Dane Phippen writes: “I am happy to report that I am still living at Hurdlehill Farm in Wenham, though sadly, I lost my wonderful wife, Snooky, last year after sixty-four years of marriage. Luckily, I have seven children, seventeen grandchildren, and two great grandchildren, many who live in the area. I look forward to celebrating my ninety-eighth birthday this summer.
1943 BEN BREWSTER 88 Warren Avenue Plymouth, MA 02360-2428 benbbrew@comcast.net To all ’43ers: If you do not get some word to me, you will have to read what is up with the Brewsters and nobody else. We spent a couple of weeks in Mexico with our family March and truly enjoyed it. We recommend time with your kids. At last count there were still nineteen of us left. Let’s see if we I can get some comment or word from the other eighteen so we can have good notes in the next Archon. Cheers, Ben.
1944 STEVE KAUFFMAN 3004 Larkspur Run Williamsburg, VA 23185-3765 steve1926@me.com
We would love to hear from you! Please contact Meredith O’Donnell in the Alumni Office: classnotes@govsacademy.org with news and events.
1945 William Furth reports: “Margaret and I spent four weeks, from mid-January to mid-February, in Sarasota and Venice, Florida. The weather was a bit disappointing, somewhat colder than in previous years. We came back to Geneva, Switzerland, where winter does not seem to end this year. We hope to get some warmth over the Easter weekend in Monaco and the French Riviera. On a more serious subject: I read with sadness in the last issue of The Archon that our classmates Bots Young and Arch Kingsley died in March of last year only two days apart. They were close friends and the most admired athletes of our class. They are surely much regretted by the ever smaller group of the ’45 survivors. Reading the interesting article in The Archon on “World War II at Governor Dummer Academy” brought back many memories of those days and made me reflect that ours was the only class that was at GDA during the entire war, from 1941 to 1945.”
1946 BILL SILVER 10 Edgewater Drive, 5G Coral Gables, FL 33133 305-665-5124 Home 786-423-1122 Cell billsilver@comcast.net
We would love to hear from you! Please contact Meredith O’Donnell in the Alumni Office: classnotes@govsacademy.org with news and events.
1947 Daniel Hall writes: “Greatly miss two GDA friends Bill Bailey and Jack Deering, who went on to Colby College with me. Looking forward to seeing my youngest son Ted and his family from Scotland, where he and his wife live and teach at a girl’s school in Edinburgh.”
1948 BOB SKEELE 111 Fenwood Drive Old Saybrook, CT 06475-3030 rbskeele@aol.com Dick Macnair replied to my badgering by sending a great email: “OK, you win; here are a few items. Three years ago I retired from being secretary of the American Begonia Society after serving sixteen years but have remained active in our local Buxton Branch acting as treasurer. Also active in the New England Chapter of the Gesneriad Society and attend national and regional conventions of both societies. Last year our begonia group hosted the convention in Natick, Massachusetts, and wife Wanda and I were in charge of plant sales. We arranged to have several thousand plants on hand over half of which were donated. Luckily there were relatively few left over to keep alive for the next sale. Our vegetable garden in Maine produced a bumper crop of Buttercup squash last year. We planted six hills and got about 130 squash. Most of them we were able to give away but we froze plenty as well. Corn and pole beans also helped fill the freezer. The garden is a part time project because we have to shuttle back and forth between there and Cambridge to care for the Begonias. It is successful because we have a year round hay mulch so there is very little weeding and watering to do. But there are some problems now and then. This year skunks got into the corn patch and ate about half the crop but we still had plenty.” Your scribe thinks the Macnairs, along with Dick Palais and his spouse, should get medals for being the most active and visible ’48 alumni couples. Recently back in Maine after a good winter in Palm Beach, Frank Kenney reports he is looking forward to a great summer at Kbunk, Kbeach, Kport! If you are a Kenney, no doubt it’s ok
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
41
to omit that part of those well-known Maine towns. Hope all of my classmates are well and still cook’in,” says he. Fine reflections on GDA came from Dunc McCallum: “The Academy advances in many ways. Students now have many more opportunities for a variety of subjects. Girls now make up about half of the student body; and they help vitalize the school. Also, the number of students has grown by about 30 percent since 1948. In addition many now come from several other countries. The Academy has so much more to offer than we had. However, for me my four years at GDA were some of the most enjoyable years of my life. I hope the Academy continues enriching the students and the school; and I hope all now and in the future will love their Academy as much as I did.” Dick Attwill sent us, “News, for what it’s worth. Still doing time as volunteer at the Motion Picture and Television retirement facility in Woodland Hills. My ninth year at it. Also continuing to co-moderate a current events class for seniors at a local retirement facility. Obviously, car thieves are little prone to observe the Sabbath or Easter, as another ever-recurring police chase raced past my home and me at the curb that celebrated afternoon. The end of the pursuit on the hill above my neighborhood made national television as the miscreant, a female, made a dash to commandeer a nearby black and white cruiser and further her escape before being wrestled to the asphalt and cuffed. So much for me and my pedestrian life.” Your secretary notes that his college Class of 1952 has suffered about fifty percent mortality—a better record than our own in GDA 1948. We guess that roughly a quarter have opted to live in senior communities, or continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs), where their health needs will be met without burden to their children. It would be interesting to know how many GDA ’48s have made this move, and if possible we will take a poll on this for the next issue of The Archon.
1949 MANSON HALL PO Box 328 349 Whidah Road North Chatham, MA 02650-0328 kenneyhall@hotmail.com The Class of 1949 has lost another classmate with Bill Reid’s passing. Bill was born in California but grew up in Cincinnati. He passed away this past summer on July 30. I talked with Bill’s wife, Phyllis, who reminded me that Bill graduated from Washington and Lee after GDA. He served in the U.S. Army with the C.I.C. and was stationed in Germany where he traveled a good deal there and through Europe even after he was separated from service. Bill worked for the Fifth Third Bank in Cincinnati, went to New York to take a course in investments and returned to Cincinnati to work for Hill and Company, but he eventually returned to work for the Fifth Third Bank where he remained as an investment broker. 42
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
Phyllis mentioned, when I asked about travel, that they did visit Rome and Prague and vacationed in North Carolina as well. Bill loved music, especially opera, and spent time wood working in his basement shop, making tables, etc. and repairing what was needed. He leaves his wife, a daughter, two sons, a brother, a grandson, and many nieces, nephews and cousins. I apologize for not sending out a reminder that class notes would be due for this issue and as a result there will be some filler at the end. Which leads me to write of driving from Chatham with my wife, Ann, to South Dartmouth to see Tom and Mina Otis. We had a superb lunch followed by a game of golf with the wives leading the way. Tom seems not to age a bit and his golf game is equally in good shape. And by the way, Tom plays tennis regularly. Tom was the house lawyer for Eaton Vance in Boston for most of his career. He served on the board of directors for a family owned company called Makepeace which apparently owns buildings and cranberry bogs. He has managed to remove himself now from that board. He and Mina were vacationing in Florida’s Boca Grande when I reached them by phone. It seems that their very antique 1840’s house in Dover, Mass., where they raised their children, was a victim of New England weather and needs to be taken down. Even the Dover Historical Society sadly agreed that the house was beyond repair. The house is now in their daughter’s hands and she will build a new house for her family, after she sees the house taken down. Tom declared that he and Mina were too busy to travel and were very much involved with grandchildren. Among their grandchildren is one grandson who will attend the University of Hartford in September with a very full scholarship and a strong interest in robotics and a granddaughter who will attend a Yale University summer program and will be looking at colleges to attend. I had a very pleasant chat with Gordon Price by phone. Strangely enough, Gordon and Susan had just returned from Costa Rica and on the way back to Massachusetts they stopped in Naples to see a close friend. Ann and I live in Naples and had also just returned from Costa Rica. Neither of us realized that we could easily have connected had we known. Gordon mentioned a spectacular view of a volcano that usually is hidden by clouds. He and Susan enjoy the occasional cruise and somewhat recently they passed through the Panama Canal and were very impressed by the construction of the new canal. Of course we shared recent health issues, one of which kept Gordon off the ski slopes this past winter (not to mention the poor snow season in New England). Gordon’s son has taken over the farm but Gordon still rides the fields to see how things are progressing. And now for the filler. Your secretary and his wife, Ann, continue to move back and forth from Chatham and Naples each year for about six months in each location. Tough duty as they used to say in the army. Back in October we attended a lecture by the well-known Harvard Law School professor, Alan Dershowitz. He is an extraordinary man. After high school Dershowitz attended Brooklyn College, then Yale Law School, clerked for two judges in Washington,
and arrived at Harvard Law School at the age of 24. We really enjoyed his talk and afterwards I read his entertaining book Taking a Stand. He certainly is a mixture of arrogance and generosity but without a doubt he has a brilliant mind. And in November, Ann and I flew to London for a week of theater with the Weston (VT) Playhouse Theater Company. And to celebrate Ann’s 80th, we spent a week in Costa Rica with all of Ann’s family—three children, three grandchildren, and various partners. I was lucky to be included. The highlight, beside the beautiful beaches and impressive countryside, was swinging through the mountains on zip lines. We were told that we were the oldest couple they had ever seen, but that is a bit hard to believe. Please send some news to me at Box 328, North Chatham, MA 02650.
1950 BOB GODDARD 330 Short Beach Road, #F3 East Haven, CT 06512-3539 Bob.goddard2012@gmail.com Tim Greene Is in the process of selling the house he has lived in for twenty plus years and moving to a newly built condo in Natick. No more shoveling snow, paying through the nose for plowing, or cutting the grass. The new place is closer to his grand kids and to where he plays tennis twice a week. Couldn’t reach Charlie Bowen, so he’s probably off on another cruise. Tried several times to call Al Flynn, but no answer. Had a long, long talk with Mal Robertson. He had to cancel last year’s reunion trip because of a pending medical problem with his wife. The day of the Reunion the doctor postponed, but eventually he said she was fine. Later they took a trip to Branson, Missouri, to trek in the Miracle Mile. He stays fit by going to the gym several days a week and wants to come back for the sixty-fifth. Had a long talk with Art Withington. He spent a cold winter at home in Montana, but I caught him in southern Florida while visiting some friends. He and his wife are both well. Bob Squire is fine now after having a cyst removed from his back. After having orthopedic people a Yale try to help me with my back, a good friend suggested to try a Chinese Massage therapist. Best thing I ever did. I’m standing tall with no pain a no walker.
1951 TED BARROWS 6 Steeplechase Way Southern Pines, NC 28387-2941 401-254-1909 Fred Franzius writes: “This year started by the loss of my wife of 37 years on 1 January 2016. Mary Ann had an earthy sense of humor. She was the first woman I’d heard say, “Go shit in your hat and pull
CLASS NOTES it over your ears.” Life with her was never boring. Unfortunately, she couldn’t shake her addiction to nicotine, and she died of lung cancer. Stacey Hancock, Mary Ann’s only daughter (Mary Ann had four sons), and my daughter, Katrina Perry, made a very inviting room of the room in which she lived. We had very different sleep modes. If she fell asleep on her left side, that’s where she awoke. I’m a thrasher. I wake up shivering, with the sheets and blankets on the floor. We had 37 great years. George MacGregor was the president of our Class of ’51, and we respected him so much, we kept him as president for life! It took me to attend a Reunion to discover we had a faith journey. Without knowing of our similar convictions, I told him when I retired I joined a church filled with African Americans. He lit up with joy and confessed he’d done the same thing, but probably earlier. We’ve both lost our brides to the grim reaper, and we have no interest in getting remarried. Dave Bullock ’51 is the one I’ve kept in touch the most. My car is a 2000 Subaru, and his car is 2 years older. Carol Ann Goldberg ’76, emailed me not long ago to tell me she’d purchased a GDA ring online. She told me it was engraved with ’51 and FF, which are my graduation year and my initials. I have no idea why I never saw it. My grandmother sent me a $300 check for graduation, and the only thought I had was to buy a car! I then heard that Master Tom Cleveland had a ’41 Chrysler Coupe. He wanted $350, but my father wouldn’t give me the extra money. He let me have it for $300. If you can remember your first car, I’m sure you’d have forgotten to get your class ring. Carol Ann, you have a generous spirit to let me wear or carry it at our Reunion. George MacGregor, you have been president of the Class of ’51 for your lifetime. Your classmates have held you in high respect, and I’m sure Dave Bullock and many others would love to see and hug you. Your integrity is unvarnished. Guard well the honor. Fearless.” David Pope writes: Woodie and I just returned from a threeweek trip to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and China, and it was wonderful, but in some respects overwhelming. The infrastructure building that is going on in China to deal with the large population is intimidating. Seabourn Cruise line does a great job with its land tours. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were sobering. We will be at this year’s reunion, even though we celebrated last year. Best to everyone.
1952 Ed Carter writes that he and Kim are “Still following the sun: winters in Arizona and summers in New Hampshire!” Matt Grossman shares this news: “Two new grandchildren were born to my daughter, Heather, in the last few years: two girls, Dylan, who is now three years and three months, and Ryan, now nine months. My wife and I are enjoying our grandchildren, as we are fortunate they live close by to us.” Dirk Owens writes: “Life has been good. Graduated Class of ’56 at Princeton, where I roomed with
fellow classmates Jack Lucas and Steve Ream, who was probably the first of our class to give his life in the service of our country. I also served in the Navy. I am married and have three kids, who attended Princeton (1) and Dartmouth (2). I worked for IBM and The Aspen Institute. Lost my wife to cancer. Now have five super grandkids and am settled in California to be close to my family. Life at GDA initiated a lifelong quest to learn, understand, and support those around me. Princeton added, to dwell ‘in the nation’s service.’ Life is good. Hug someone every day.”
We would love to hear from you! Please contact Meredith O’Donnell in the Alumni Office: classnotes@govsacademy.org with news and events.
1953 DICK MARR 28 Union Field Road PO Box 823 Truro, MA 02666-0832 rmarr2748@aol.com We were all saddened by the passing of Frank Dow, one of the friendliest members of our class. A long time class agent and a loyal Governor. His Newburyport perch gave him many opportunities to keep a weather eye on the Academy. Our condolences go out to his family. Joe Hill was the only one of you sluggards to return a post card. (If not enclosing a stamp was the prime disincentive, let me know and I’ll do better next time!!!) Joe writes, “I am a walking example of the wonders of modern medicine. Don’t judge a book, however, by its cover. A wonderful wife of 57 years and five lively grandchildren, two of them in Hong Kong, make an old man jump! Reading, cooking, travel, and summers in Nova Scotia keep me active. “(Sounds good to me, Joe)” Newt Hyslop and Don Tracy should be commended by all of you. Without their carrying the ball again, our Notes would be embarrassingly skimpy. Newt emailed on some wonderful memories he put together for his 55th reunion at Harvard Medical. I’m sure he will share the full trip down memory lane if you contact him. Some of his observations: “Relocation from New Orleans became a personal goal after Hurricane Katrina, finding an ideal condominium on the North Shore of Boston, close to family resettled in Middleton. Sorting and boxing up a lifetime’s accumulated possessions awoke dormant memories deep in the unconscious, impeding decision-making and, like an archeological dig, slowing action” (Isn’t that true for all of us as we enter our 9th decade and are forever downsizing!) “In March of 2013 we set off
for Boston in a Dodge Grand Caravan, retracing the route Debbie and I had taken 29 years earlier. The rural landscape had changed dramatically.” Upon arrival at the new family home, and after completing his earlier “painful but necessary disassociation from life in medicine,” Newt goes on to describe his varied “torrent of new historical projects” to keep him active. (We all should have the chance to read his text book template showing how to approach to adjusting to a new life style. I am sure we have all been facing the same challenge. Thanks, Newt, for sharing your journey!). Scott Lothrop writes: “Unfortunately, at our age most of the news concerns our health. I am happy to say that in recent years I have survived triple heart-bypass surgery, cancer surgery, four eye surgeries, hemorrhoid surgery (Ouch!), arterial stent installed, and recently a possible mini-stroke or a seizure, no one’s really sure yet. I’ve had to stop acting in community theater, which I did for many years both before and after retirement, but I am still constructing puzzles for the Penney Press puzzle magazines—over 2,500 submitted so far. Doris and I recently moved back to St. Paul, MN, to spend our remaining years with our five fantastic grandchildren, all of whom will be present at our 60th Anniversary celebration in August (assuming that we will be there too).” Don Tracy’s email was equally rich and another challenge for me to pick and choose the highlights. Photos and vivid descriptions of the Northeast winter from Hell were convincing (but our house at Truro on Cape Cod’s major ice damage and costly repairs matched the winter in Maine.) He writes: “My wife and I remain busy, especially with most of our family that has chosen to remain locally in Maine. In November we visited our son and his wife in Phoenix, driving a few days to Rocky Point in Mexico and renting a condo on the beach. We learned that we will never take a red-eye back home again. It took about four days to recover!” Don still does some tax forms from his home office, though lamenting the new IRS rules and forms. His closing words to us are heartfelt: “Well, at age eighty, I can only say that if life was a recording on a cassette tape, I would elect never to have it re-recorded. I look back on many happy years. Even the days now are filled with happiness because of my nice extended family and my many true friends. Any experiences which were like sour lemons now have become lemonade, especially when I can give advice from experience. Hope many of you have the same feelings in these senior years.” Marr family update: Our all hands on deck (17 overall) Christmas week family reunion in St. Lucia was a blast. At times it was like herding cats, and location and accommodation “requirements” ranged from beach tents to Hyatt Regencies. The final nesting place was fabulous, however, on a northern “castle with rooms for all, excellent cooks, and a beach below.” With the years passing by quickly, there will be few opportunities to replicate this kind of experience. We have our second grandchild college graduation coming up in June, two high school graduations in May, and time is moving on. Take advantage of the precious opportunities while you can, folks. MORE NEWS NEXT FALL, PLEASE!
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
43
1954 Michael Smith writes: “Our first son, Lt. Devereux B. Smith USN, has been awarded a full scholarship by the Navy to attend SAIS (Johns Hopkins) in Washington to obtain his master’s degree. Devereux was graduated from the Naval Academy in 2012, and is currently serving on board an Aegis Missile Destroyer home-ported in San Diego. Our second son, Lt. Christian Smith USMC, was graduated from the Naval Academy in 2013, and is currently stationed in Hawaii. He recently returned from a six month tour in the Far East.” Dave Alven writes that he and “Hack Rhett (Emery to most of us) and their wives, Kathy and Janet respectively, had their annual lingering lunch in Jupiter, Florida, in January. Dave and Kathy live year-round in the Hilton Head, SC, area, while the Rhetts split their time between Virginia and Florida. Janet is the only one of the four still in the workforce. She continues as a senior captain for United Airlines, where she is currently flying 777s around the world.” Dick Michelson shares this news: “This past fall, my wife, Judy, and I spent a month traveling to Iguazu Falls, Patagonia (Perito Moreno Glacier, Fitzroy Range, Torres de Paines, Puerto Madryrn, etc.) and Tierra del Fuego. Significant tourist infrastructure improvements have been made since I visited the area 20 years ago. The five day, four night cruise on Stella Austral through Tierra del Fuego is worthy of special mention.” Richard Pew writes: “I have good news and bad news, which is not unusual at our age! Starting with the bad, after a great normal summer in Maine I had some tests run in September and in October was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer. What a shock for an otherwise healthy and active 79 year old. I guess that is the way this particular form of Cancer often strikes. Anyway, for the good news, 6 months later I am sending this
note from Sarasota, Florida, where we are renting a very nice condo for the month of April. My chemo treatments seem to be working well without serious side effects. I feel well, eat well, sleep well for now, so that is all good news. Have had nice chats by phone and email from various classmates who had gotten the word and that is always fun. Enough about my challenges! I hope you are all well and enjoying your lives with family and friends. How can I end this note without mentioning the Governors Annual Fund!? I have not visited campus recently, but it sure is a different place than we knew in 1954—for the better, I might add. I plan to send in my gift by June 30 and hope you are all planning to do so as well! Our very fine school and the great young men and women who currently attend will appreciate your help!”
We would love to hear from you! Please contact Meredith O’Donnell in the Alumni Office: classnotes@govsacademy.org with news and events.
1955 GEORGE GARDNER 10 Winnatuxett Beach Road PO Box 32 Mattapoisett, MA 02739-2127 George.gardner3@gmail.com
Dave Alven ’54, Hack Rhett ’54, and wives
44
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
Donald Hicks writes that he “had a great reunion luncheon with Rick and Bobbette Sears last month.” He “Tried to go to the Governor’s Red Sox spring training event, but weather intervened.” Phil and Rosie Angell are enjoying their permanent residence in Venice, Florida. Rick Sears and his wife, Bobette, spent two months this winter in Bradenton, Florida, and visited Phil and Rosie on two different days. One of those involved a grand tour of Venice, Florida, founded as a planned community. It was very interesting for the Sears’s, and all had a great time. In February Rick and Bobette Sears met in Bonita Springs with Don Hicks and his wife, Marilyn, to visit with the widow of a recently deceased Amherst fraternity brother. Bowen Tucker reports his professional life was spent in litigation and managing the project that standardized product safety labeling for products everywhere and is mandated by federal regulations. Upon retirement, Bowen says he lost 50 pounds and now runs; he has run at least ten marathons. Bowen reads and travels when he can, and he hopes to attend our next Reunion. Peter Scott is enjoying Falcons Landing, a, ACCRC for retired military officers in Potomac Falls, Virgina. Peter says moving there was the best decision he’s made since marrying Anne. He’s organizing the second annual Geezerville golf tournament for his old buddies from Gettysburg. Peter is looking forward to our next Reunion. Frank Walcott says he is living in Salisbury Connecticut, Boothbay, Maine, and Boca Grande, Florida. He saw quite a bit of Tom Wendy before his passing; such a good man! Frank says he passes his time restoring old wooden lobster boats and cars. He’d love to see classmates at the above locations. Bill Friend sent me a picture of himself, his son, Will Friend ’82, and his grandson, Will (’18). Bill often attends his grandson’s lacrosse and hockey games. Go Govs!
Phil Angell and Rick Sears visit in Florida
CLASS NOTES
1956
1957
JAMES DEAN 140 Pepperell Road Kittery Point, Maine 03905
LYMAN COUSENS 4 Goodhue Road Boscawen, NH 03303-2500 lymancousens@comcast.net
Bowen Tucker shares this news: “Since retiring in 2000, I do keep up on the law through various organizations, but mostly I run, read, and travel. Last year I completed what I think was my 11th marathon, and I hope to run Chicago again this year. Perhaps the best book I read was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. In 2013, I went back to Vietnam for the third time to visit a young woman I met ten years ago on my first trip to that country. I sensed she was very smart despite having only a fourth grade education. With a little help, she now has both a clothing shop and a souvenir shop which allow her to support herself, her sister and brother in law as well as her two nephews. Not fancy, but remarkably successful. Perhaps, the most important activity for me now is my work for the American Law Institute on their two projects to update the law on sexual assaults. As I learn more in this area I find it disturbing to learn how many women and students are victims of sexual assault. Hopefully ALI work can change this. I still want to travel to Eastern Europe. We’ll have to see if I can make that happen. Otherwise, I am fortunate to be healthy and doing well. My career was exciting and challenging managing a larger portfolio of litigation across the country. I always look forward to seeing classmates at reunions and marvel at the excellent education the Academy provides to a diverse group of students.”
A less than inspiring note from ’57’s Class Secretary drew some seriously inspiring responses from members of this somewhat depleted class. To which the Class Secretary says, “very cool.” Ever reliable for a good quote comes Jeff Fitts, who has fully rehabbed his hands to the point he can again challenge Charlie Volpone ’55, should the two ever meet. Jeff plays his golf at Misty Creek, one of Sarasota’s most challenging courses seven months of the year, retreating to Wolfeboro, N.H. for the other five. While he pursues the elusive hole in one, wife Sandy volunteers in the local (N.H.) hospice. They are expecting another grandchild shortly. Mel Blake is leading the charge for a big gathering in June 2017 at our 60th Reunion. More later! Mel sent a terrific note, so terrific I have to quote him: “Consulting a bit with a company I have been associated with for close to forty years. Being able to work with others, who are really friends, toward the same goals while being respected for my contributions is particularly rewarding.” Mel is also co-chair of his Brown class reunions and is past president of Temple Beth-El. Travels a bit, like in the last nine months, to Scotland, Spain, Seattle, Caribbean, Phoenix and Florida. You done good, Mel! All of us senior-like folks are particularly concerned about falls and here’s why. Usually stable Ned Beebe fell in his bathroom in March and sustained a cerebral hemorrhage. He’s much better now, the blood being absorbed elsewhere, but Ned is still feeling the effects. Good luck, pal! Gene Bouley was one of GDA’s greatest wrestlers on the undefeated 1957
Will Friend ’82, Bill Friend ’55, and Will Friend ’18
squad, AND one of the most successful high school soccer coaches in Massachusetts history. Gene has not slowed down much, despite a knee replacement. He is Chair of the Highlanders chapter of Florida Trails, responsible for the maintenance of 53 mile of trails. He is also on the Board of Pear Park and manages their nature center. He and Terry still spend summers in North Woodstock, N.H., entertaining their four kids and ten grandchildren. Ned Stone sent a great note, worthy of another quote: “I am busy with two NGO Boards, teaching both English and Spanish. My real joy is getting out on the Potomac River in my kayak and filling trash bags with riverbank litter. We physicists are taught the Conservation of Matter, but there is a strain of humanity that believes that an object tossed into the bushes ceases to exist. Aargh!”
1958 Chick Carroll shares this news: “I seem to be the furthest thing from retired, unless being retired means working like crazy and not being paid for it. That would describe me. A few years ago a couple of friends and I started a day center for the poor and homeless in Brunswick, Maine. What a great ride it has been. Who would have believed how many folks there would be, and how much we can learn from each other. Was also ordained as a deacon in the Episcopal Church a few years ago. Another very satisfying, but non-paying, job. Beginning late this coming summer, my duties will diminish somewhat, and I’m looking forward to a bit more leisure. I have a bunch of grandkids I like to see. I brought my oldest grandson, an avid birdwatcher, to Plum Island for the day recently. We loved it. Ann and I saw Russ Tornrose and Holly last fall in New Haven, where they live while Holly goes to seminary. They will be back in Maine this summer, and we will see more of each other then.” Jim Main writes: “This last Halloween, I found myself bound for Hawaii and costumed as a Hawaiian beach bum.” Tom Pierpont Grose shares this news: “Life goes on more or less as it has with our living in London and spending three months in Christmas Cove, Maine, every summer. All of our children come to Maine during the summer for various lengths of time and two of our four children also have houses there. Thus with all of our children, their spouses and our grandchildren (11), we number in the low 20’s. We spend much of the time on the water and tend to cruise on our sailboat as often as possible. Unfortunately, we generally cannot leave for the USA in time to get to the June reunions but we will try to for our 60th which is fast closing in on us. We do periodically pass through the campus on our way to Maine to refresh the many happy memories I have of those formative years. Every winter, we spend time in Singapore where two of our daughters and their families live. They have been there for many years and expect to stay there for the
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
45
foreseeable future. Thus, that pattern will continue as long as we are up to it. We have one son in NYC who is working at Google so we do make periodic trips to our old hometown. We have another daughter on the outskirts of London. Recently, we have been going to St. Barths for a week or so in January when London days are short, wet and cold. All is well health wise and I am still running my business so as to keep out of my wife’s hair. We would welcome visits by any of you in either Maine or London where we always have a room for traveling friends.” Neil Quinn shares this news: “Still in Guilford, Vermont (51 years so far). Still riding my bicycle (but sold the bike & X-C ski shop after 33 years). Still an elected Town Auditor, for almost 30 years (but stepped down as Town Meeting Moderator after 14 years). Still have all my original knees, shoulders, and hips (although I did get rid of a burst appendix years ago and a section of bowel in 2013). Any bike riders out there who would like nice route suggestions in Southern Vermont, let me know. (neilq@sover.net). I might join you, also.” Jack Morse writes: “My wife and I returned recently from two weeks in “chilly” Islamorada. Caribbean next winter! We continue to commute between her home in Plymouth Meeting and my condo in Boston. We have family and friends in both places so it makes sense to keep both homes after our recent marriage. We will move to Quissett in June and would like to catch up with Fred Sayles. I believe he is still in the Woods Hole area. Sonya and I are planning a cruise in August from Dubrovnik to Venice. We are also planning a trip to Thailand at Christmastime to visit my son who is teaching English at The British School in Phuket.”
46
1959 RANDY LIGHT 13 Willow Place Cazenovia, NY 13035-1210 clight@twcny.rr.com
We would love to hear from you! Please contact Meredith O’Donnell in the Alumni Office: classnotes@govsacademy.org with news and events.
“This time we find ourselves in a much changed and changing world, do we not?” So said Brian Marsh for these Class Notes. Certain current events seemingly indicate as much. Some classmates see troubling signs in the present presidential primaries and caucuses. Howard Medwed: “The danger is clear. Our election has plenty of madness.” Geoff Lewis: “I am appalled with the political campaigns and fear mightily for this country. The whole system is, in my opinion, imploding and is in desperate need of radical change and restoration.” Walt Cannon writes, “We are fascinated and worried by the craziness of the presidential primaries. My Swiss relatives are wondering what is happening in America.” Bob Pouch expressed the thought no doubt joined in by all classmates: “I am hoping that whoever our next president will be, he or she will create a team to successfully face all the challenges in front of us.” The present influx of refugees from the Middle East into Europe and elsewhere also generated comment by classmates. Howard Medwed: “I do not see the current refugee crisis as fundamentally different from 1945. In both cases the refugees were fleeing from devastation.” Howard added: “It takes courage to emigrate. My father did it in 1922, fleeing both communists and fascists.” Brian perceives a possible “Trojan Horse” in “the flow of Refugees into Europe” as the migration may include “hundreds of potential or actual jihadists…as…seen in the carnage in Bruxelles. A dimension not existing in 1945.” As remedies for various existing social and economic ills, Howard does not view a proposed British exit from the European Union as an answer. He offers
Jim Main ’58
Thomas Pierpont Grose ’58 and Missy Grose
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
that “today’s solution is more European integration, not less” and that “government should do more for people not less.” From across the pond, Brian based an aphorism not repeated here about being in or out of a tent, which he loosely attributes to Alan Stone, concluded: “I do expect to be voting for ‘in’ the EU.” Meeting Howard’s assertion that we can disagree without being disagreeable,” Steve Volpone contends that: “full employment through the private sector is the one panacea that raises all ships as counter-intuitive as it may seem... The more we depend on any ‘government to do more for people not less’, we take away incentives to climb the achievement ladder and depend on an inefficient bureaucracy dole-out welfare financed by an ever declining producer class.” Ferg Jensen offered: “It still gets back to having at least a high school education, a non-oppressive government and a job!” Should any classmate need a respite from the trials and tribulations of the current state of the world, he may want to take up the invitation of Geoff Lewis to visit him in Maine or the District of Columbia. Geoff said: “I enjoy ‘split living’ between Cushing, Maine, and Washington, D.C., and would love to have classmates call/visit in either place.” Geoff added: “I am involved as a hospice volunteer in Maine, and am a founder and board member of Capitol Hill Village (CHV) in Washington, D.C. Capitol Hill Village is a non-profit organization I started in 2006 to help us elders stay in our own homes as we continue to age. My wife, Terry, and I have two children and two grandchildren. We just celebrated our 45th anniversary with a trip to St. Martin, F.W.I.” Peter Bostwick wrote in that he had “been pretty much out of the loop since around Thanksgiving.” He mentioned his “wife’s 100 year old mom passing away just before Christmas” and his own later surgery. He said that “I’m now home, recuperating and playing catch-up.” In a subsequent email from me, Peter replied; “I’m recovering nicely, thank you, and am nearly back to whatever ‘normal’ is for a 75-year-old ‘active’ wannabe.” Hopefully, Peter is in complete good health and is fully “normal” as measured by all reasonably acceptable standards “for a 75-year-old ‘active’ wannabe” by the time of the publication of these class notes. Walt Canon “is as active as ever. [He] finished . . . [his] second Piper Cub airplane restoration and then sold them both.” He is looking forward “to compet[ing] in another regional glider contest in N. Calif. and a national contest near Salt Lake City.” He has “twelve grandkids” and his “large family reunions in New Hampshire are becoming annual events.” After raising a question about Donald Trump and Fred Huntress (Fred’s answer was not received by press time), Ferg Jensen stated: “Half way through ‘Colossus’ by Michael Hiltzik about the building of the Hoover Dam, I read that Frank Crowe, the chief engineer, attended high school in Byfield, MA, in 1901. I thought I would give GDA a real scoop, went to the school website to get the phone number to call Alumni Relations and discovered under ‘Notable Alumni’ in Wikipedia he was listed in full with a color picture. Guess they are on the ball without us!” Ferg also mentioned: “Three fantastic
CLASS NOTES daughters and their equally fantastic husbands, five grandkids! Linda and I are blessed. Still cutting a lot of wood, doing my annual Alaska set up for the troops for Healing Waters, and much involved with the Simsbury Meadows Performing Arts Center (Hartford Symphony, Rock & Roll). Ray [Ferris] is still older than I am!” Peter Sherin writes: “I’ve been traveling and enjoying at a distance the burst of internet energy from my classmates. Based on the interchanges, I recommend the following: We find a way to meet together to have a round table discussion on governmental national policies, the general state of the world, and if the Patriots should get back their draft choices stolen by the incompetent NFL commissioner during the Brady lynching. I also suggest audio-visual hook-ups to enable worldwide participation for our distant classmates in this faceto-face, which might provide GDA with a working model for regional alumni activity. Having recently attended the Sundance film festival in Park City, Utah, I very much recommend it to film lovers (my wife and I watched nine in five days!) AND to skiers. With the festival dominating the city for the week, the magnificent slopes are virtually empty—a grand slam for movie buffs who love to ski!” Roy Nash and I, with guests, attended the Academy’s March alumni gathering at a Red Sox/Cardinal exhibition baseball game in Fort Myers, Florida. It was a pleasure seeing Head of School Quimby and other school representatives and alumni, including Bob Hicks ’57 and Bill Tuxbury ’60 and their spouses. In the last Archon class notes, Roy had invited Brian to the game to buy him a “Red Sox/red soxs.” Roy and I looked for Brian, but we did not find him, or any other 1959 classmates. Perhaps next year. JetBlue Park, where the Red Sox play home exhibition games, is appropriately named. The seats are small and narrow, and it took over an hour “to depart” from the parking lot after the game. Nonetheless, it was a fun afternoon, and kudos to the Academy for arranging the alumni event. By this time next Church attended by John ’60 and Natalie (Lee) Silver. John helped design and install the cross
year, we may well know in answer to Brian’s earlier question about change—whether indeed a seismic transformation is slowly bubbling to the surface in America. On the chance that Bernie Sanders is elected president and that as a result Howard, who is one of Bernie’s supporters, becomes the head of the IRS or even Bernie’s chief-of-staff, I entered the request now that Howard give us a tour of the White House. I do not include a tour of the IRS. I try to stay as far as possible away from the IRS.
1960 JOHN ELWELL 266 High Street Newburyport, MA 01950-3838 johnelwell@verizon.net Greetings, classmates. I was truly sorry to hear of the passing of our Duke Morton on March 18. Duke put up a courageous fight against cancer. I will always remember the picture in the last Class Notes of Duke on his beloved sail boat. He is an inspiration to us all. A number of classmates sent me comments about Duke. Rick Benner wrote, “I was saddened to hear of Duke’s passing away. I read in his obituary the line about “love of life and passion for people.” That was right on!” And Larry Ross shared, “I, too, remember Duke well and had the room next to him in Phillips. Always quick with a story! Sad news for sure!” John Silver clearly has experienced the pain that Duke’s family has gone through as John shared the following: “I am very sorry to hear about Duke. Cancer has hit our family as well. We lost our daughter Jennifer on March 9, 2015, to colon cancer, which spread to the liver. She received Chemo for eighteen months, but the liver cancer could not be controlled. We see our son-in-law Scott and our grandsons Doran and Logan in Dallas, Georgia,
mostly on school breaks. On March 9, 2016, we met our three guys at Cumberland Island on the Georgia coast for a ceremony to scatter her ashes and a commemoration. My wife, Lee (Natalie), and I visit with our other daughter Heather and granddaughter Kayleigh here in Cape Coral nearly every day. Heather is disabled with a nerve disorder called CRPD, which limits how much she can walk and do, but she is a trooper who does all she can for herself. We still spend as much of summer as we can at our camp on Rangeley Lake in Maine. We DO have guest beds! Just email me. Lee and I are deeply involved with our church; I still do “architecting” mostly for the Church, even though I am retired. See the photo of our church, the cross for which I helped design and install, notwithstanding the rule of “nobody-over-70-on-a-ladder.” I think we all need to give John and Lee a standing round of applause for their strength and faith. I was moved by how they are handling life’s challenges! I was in Rangeley several weeks ago to pick up my son Kane’s snowmobile which had broken down on the way to Eustis a month earlier. We have several camps in Norway, Maine, so might be able to get up to Rangeley for a day visit this summer. Tom Wadlow, world travelers that he and Dorothy are, wrote the following: “Dorothy and I are back in the USA aboard Joyant, our sail boat. Joyant has been in Central and South America for the last two-and-a-half years, but we are now in Fort Lauderdale, docked behind a friend’s house. During the time Joyant was out of the country, we did return periodically by air. The trip south was for us to cruise the canals of Chile which we did for a long season. This winter we have been returning Joyant to the U.S. and will finish the trip north to Connecticut when the weather warms up a bit. Best to all!” WOW! Tom and Dorothy. I am always impressed and moved by your adventuresome spirit and challenges. Keep it up! How about a book and pictures of your travels? I received a phone call from Jim Deveney several weeks ago.
John ’60 and Natalie Silver with son-in-law Scott and grandsons Doran and Logan, Cumberland Island, Georgia
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
47
Jim was taking off for Florida after battling cancer and having chemo and radiation this winter. He said he was doing much better, slowly regaining his strength, and hoping to get out on the golf course again soon. I know that you all join me in wishing Jim the best and early successes on the golf courses! Bill Tuxbury is still on Cape Cod and says he is still trying to spoil his six grandchildren, who are all in the Boston area, active with the SCORE chapter, and trying to improve his golf game, which he says is going nowhere fast. They do have a new addition to their family, Rosie, a five-year-old retriever/lab mix, which was a Texas rescue, and is a great dog. He thinks Edie wanted a dog so that he would have an excuse to walk more. They just returned from three weeks in Florida (Cape Coral/Ft Myers). Attended the Bosox/Cardinals game in Fort Myers on March 19, where Governor’s Academy had a tent for alumni meet-and-greet. While there, he had the opportunity to talk with Randy Light ’59 and Roy Nash ’59. Head of School Peter Quimby ’85 and Faculty Emeritus Mike Moonves P’82 were also in attendance.” Keep walking, Bill. Candy and I walk a lot of mornings to downtown Newburyport, where we get a coffee at Plum Island Roasters and then walk back usually along the river. Now, a dog I would love! Don Alexander writes, “Hey, as one living in Maine, I’ll take this winter over last winter, anytime. Here is my update for the last 12 months or so, since our 55th Reunion dinner. This is being written from Lake Buena Vista, Florida, where we spend two weeks each March to warm up. The Alexander’s big events for the past year: (1) our daughter, Katherine, turned 31. Ouch! Remember when, in our twenties, we were told, “Don’t trust anyone over 30?”; (2) We gathered with our son, Phil, who lives in Maine, our daughter who lives in Montana, their spouses, and our five grandchildren for family events and family pictures here in Maine last October; (3) My wife, Barbara, was featured in an April 2015 article in TIME recognizing the 45th
anniversary of Earth Day. The article included a 1970 picture of the seven young organizers of the original Earth Day, and noted that Barbara was the only woman in the group. She continues her very active consulting practice, working with consumer groups in many states to support adequate service and reasonable rates for consumers, particularly low-income individuals, in electric and gas utility regulation. She travels frequently to present at utility regulatory hearings and conferences, and her advocacy has met with significant success in some states. I still enjoy my service on the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, where I am continually impressed by the commitment, integrity, and hard work of my colleagues, and continually surprised by the great volume of work we do that is unrelated to opinion writing. Beyond opinion work, in 2015, I supervised a complete revision of our court rules books governing court practice, bar admissions, and attorney and judicial ethics and discipline, and I did a lot of drafting work supporting our complete revision of the Maine Code of Judicial Conduct and its Advisory Notes, hoping to give Maine’s judges competent guidance on ethics issues as they may arise.” Don and Barbara keep up the active and productive life you have—it matters much. Although Don, I do hope that we get snow next winter, as my snowmobiles are in depression! Heard from Greg “Stretch” Meyer, who reminded me that he moved to a one-story home as the other was too large to handle by himself. He is now living in Ridge Manor, Florida, on a lake. Sure hope they have tall ceilings in your new home, Greg! Carl Youngman reports “we continue to be very lucky to have both our children and all our grandchildren near us. Weekly celebrations are great fun and just the best. I continue teaching and mentoring CEOs with both the Young Presidents Organization and the American College of Corporate Directors—very interesting work.” (See photo of Carl and his lovely wife, who look younger each time I see them. Must
Carl Youngman ’60 and his family
48
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
be a secret here, somewhere!). And Peter Stonebraker emails, “Once again, we seem to have beaten the winter here in Chicago, sustained by the memories of our 55th reunion, and the warm weather in Byfield last June. Our routines continue to be little changed. Eva is a member of several guilds and church groups, and I am teaching two and three days a week. However, increasingly, Loyola is moving away from the traditional classroom toward a range of online and virtual pedagogies. This means extensive revision of materials and learning new technologies, but it also increases the potential for students to take and transfer courses to and from many global programs. My wife, Eva, and I were inducted into the Kennelworth Town Club in December (see photo) and have just returned from Spring Break in Cabo. Long walks on the beach, rock-climbing, and plenty of warmth and sun!” Sounds like Peter and Eva are as busy as ever… Kudos to them! Last, but not surely not least, Larry Martin writes asking about some of our classmates. “My overall interest is in finding out what our class members have done over the years, and where they are. I have a vague recollection that there was an attempt many years ago, perhaps at GDA ’60 25th anniversary in 1985, to collect brief biographies and photographs. I submitted both. The result was a sketchy, incomplete, photocopied summary about a few of us. Archon contributions, as you are all too well aware, have been sparse. Before too many more years pass, would it be possible to compose a directory of the class? Harvard publishes (online) classby-class reports, including photos. Some GDA grads may not be willing to participate, but at this late date it would be pleasing to know who’s still around, how they spent the past fifty or sixty years, and what they think about their lives, the society they live in, and even their reflections on GDA, then and now. With appreciation for your attention to my inquiries!” Larry raises a good question, and I will endeavor to see if you all can assist me in locating missing
Peter Stonebraker ’60 and His Wife, Eva, were inducted into the Kennelworth Town Club in December 2015
CLASS NOTES classmates. I will compile a list of the classmates for whom I have email addresses and see if all of you can help to update it. Will be in touch on this one. Not much news from the Elwell family. I am still doing some consulting. Finished workshops in Needham last month, and am looking forward to some workshops in the fall. Beginning Maple Crest Farm planting season soon! No MVPA convoy trips this summer or fall, but there will be a convoy in 2017 following Rte. 66. I am proud to report that my oldest grandson, Aidan, was accepted at GDA— ooopps, GA—for the fall semester. Now, given the tuition costs, we wait to see what financial assistance the Academy may be able to provide. It sure would be fantastic to have a third generation family member attend (Erin, my daughter and Aidan’s mom, won the Academy Prize in ’92). Well…that is the Class of ’60 news for this issue of The Archon. Thanks to so many of you who took the time to contribute some news. Remember, the porch light is always on for you at 266 High Street!
1961
Carroll, Geoff Robinson, Ted Dietz, and Mike Stonebraker. Several of us hadn’t seen each other since graduation, but the years quickly melted away as we compared our experiences as day-boys and boarders, caught up on some of the twists and turns of our lives, and shared the challenges and joys of growing older. The meeting really defies distillation, but a couple of highlights included learning about Mike’s pioneering work on relational databases that led to his receiving the A.M. Turing Award in 2014, a visit to Dartmouth and to the Augustus SaintGaudens National Historic Site “in Cornish, NH,” and a freewheeling discussion, skillfully led by John, on issues facing today’s youth. Stan Thomas shares this news: “I had a very nice conversation with Pete Boynton last week who called to encourage me to attend our 55th Reunion. I had already signed up, and I hope we have a great turnout. I had a wonderful time at our 50th. My wife, Rosalie, and I will be leaving mid-April for a three week auto trip to the west coast with most of the time spent in Utah
visiting and hiking in the national parks there. I have reported in the past that I got turned on to running over 40 years ago, and I completed my 30,000th mile on March 5. The local newspaper did a write-up, which included a picture of me completing the last mile. I am attaching that photo. I know it is weird that I have recorded every run, so anyone is free to comment on my sanity.”
Tony Garland ’61 and Steve Sawyer ’61 at Steve’s House in Pennsylvania
Tony Garland ’61 and Peter Boynton ’61 at Steve Sawyer’s House in Pennsylvania
1962 TOM TOBEY 59 W Portola Ave Los Altos, CA 94022-1209 ttobey13@gmail.com 650-868-6230 The task of updating things for the Class of ’62 gets more complicated every day. People change their
TOM MERCER 5311 Edlen Drive Dallas, TX 75220-2101 tmercer@cerescap.net STEVE SAWYER 202 South Fileys Road Dillsburg, PA 17019-9563 stevesaw@comcast.net Peter Boynton writes that “seven members of the Class of 1961 gathered last September for a weekend at John Carroll’s extraordinary home—that he built himself—on a bend of the Ompompanoosuc River near Norwich, Vermont. Classmates included Pete Eaton, Tony Garland, Peter Boynton, John
Stan Thomas ’61 Completing Mile Number 30,000 of His Running Career!
Tony Garland ’61, Peter Boynton ’61, and Steve Sawyer ’61 at Steve’s House in Pennsylvania
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
49
addresses, classmates change their email, and most unfortunately of all we lose some through death. It is hard to lose good friends, people we have known for fifty years and more. The last few weeks has brought some sad news with passing of George McPhail. George passed away on Monday, February 29, 2016. George was a day student at the Academy. He was a resident of Huffman, Texas, at the time of his passing. He attended Governor Dummer Academy for four years. George honorably served in the U.S. Navy 1961–1970. A private family service will be held. In lieu of customary remembrances the family requests that donations be made in his memory to the charity of one’s choice. George’s personal preference was the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston TX. He was a Systems Administrator in Houston, Texas. He has four children and lived in Huffman, TX. I am sad to report that Colin Studds passed away on March 17th. In addition to GDA, Colin, Andy Whittemore and Tim McNally attended Trinity College in Hartford together. In his final days Colin was well supported by old friend, Sam Wakeman ’61 and Steve Kasnet. Tim McNally commented that Colin was “a very good, kind, man. Colin’s family was a wonderful host to me during our adolescent days at GDA. One of my fondest memories is when I was wrapped up in hockey goalie garb and used as a target in goal at a rented rink in South Weymouth, MA, at 1:00 a.m. in the morning! This was my one and only ice time in my life.” Bob MacLaughlin is making a new life for himself with his partner, Rene. They are keen enthusiasts of running in all kinds of weather, terrain and locations. Most recently they found themselves in Florida visiting friends. From what I know of “Mac,” this location surely had to have some connection with the Grapefruit League in Florida. Perhaps Mac has convinced Renee to join him as a lifelong Red Sox fan. My understanding is that the Red Sox export their own version of the “Wall” at their Florida venue in Fort Myers. From Peter Machinist ’s first days at the Academy he set a high bar for the rest of us in View of Sunset from Bob Snyder’s ’62 house in the Bahamas
50
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
the early sixties. Peter went to Harvard in 1991. “In addition to being on the Faculty of Divinity, he was a member of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, serving in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and the Committee on the Study of Religion. Earlier, he taught in departments of religion or Near Eastern studies at Case Western University at Case Western University (1971–1977), the University of Arizona (1977–86), and University of Michigan (1986–90). He also served as a visiting lecturer (1981) and Lady Davis Visiting Professor in Jewish History (2003) and at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and he was Visiting Professor at the Munich Center for Ancient Worlds of the University of Munich, Germany in 2013–14. The University of Zurich, Switzerland, awarded an honorary doctorate in 2009.” Burke Leahy, with wife Barbara, met up with Ham Agnew at the car museum in Fort Myers, Florida, in mid-winter, escaping the snows of winter. The photos seem to suggest that one of them may have been shopping for some new wheels! Also, or should I say, usually, Peter Butler and Marie are on their way to some exotic locale—this time it is the Falkland Islands. I did not hear whether or not Peter did his traditional jump under the ice in Marblehead Harbor this year, so will have to wait and see. Peter did announce that he was planning to appear at our 55th Reunion next year. Let’s maintain our ties as time moves on. We still want to keep in touch, hear about your travels and other adventures, grandchildren and the like. Remember that we have a reputation to uphold as we slide into the Old Guard status at the Academy. Send your notes, give me a call or alert when you may be in the San Francisco area.
1963 WANTED: Class Secretary for the Class of 1963! We are looking for someone to collect class news and share it with The Archon editor twice a year. The Class Secretary also helps the Alumni Office share alumni event information and Academy news with all of you. This is a great way to stay connected to your classmates and to give back to Govs. Contact Amy Swiniarski at alumni@govsacademy.org if you are interested in filling this role. In the meantime, please keep your class news coming! Email celebrations and news to classnotes@govsacademy.org for inclusion in the fall 2016 Archon. Terry Delano writes: My wife, Paula, and I are both retired and living by the shore of Keeler’s Bay on Lake Champlain in South Hero, Vermont. We’re keeping pretty busy these days, but I have to admit that Paula has the majority of the irons in the fire. A member of our town’s Zoning Board of Adjustment and a very busy member of the local “Church Ladies”, she is also a volunteer driver and Board Member for C.I.D.E.R., a local charitable organization providing meals and rides to folks who need help getting to medical appointments, etc. I am co-chairman of our town’s Planning Commission, currently in the midst or rewriting our Zoning Regulations. I also am responsible for maintaining and renting out our lakeside cottage as well as two other nearby cottages. Additionally, I am President of the Delano Kindred, a genealogical organization exploring the ancestry and genealogy of Philippe Delano, the progenitor of the Delano family in America. And, of course, I “invited” Paula to participate in the Kindred as well, so she holds a position on our Board of Directors. Sadly for us, our two children have scattered in opposite directions; at least they both live in places that are nice to visit. Our son and daughter-in-law live with their two dogs in Colorado Springs,
Terry ’63 and Paula Delano
CLASS NOTES Colorado. Our daughter and son-in-law live in Clearwater, Florida. I’m happy to report that we have three grandchildren in that house, and our daughter is quick to play the “Time to come visit the grandchildren!” card every chance she gets. Thankfully, we’re both still healthy enough to travel frequently. Randolph Langenbach shares that his “most recent work has been in Nepal after the 2015 earthquake. This assignment came from an unusual source. I was contacted and invited to come to Nepal by the filmmakers for the PBS (WGBH) science documentary show NOVA on the earthquake called “Himalayan Megaquake.” This show was aired in January of this year. I appeared twice, first talking about the Hanuman Dhoka Palace in Kathmandu, and then shown organizing the reconstruction of a rural rubble stone house with mud mortar with an earthquake-resistant technology that I have proposed, which I have called “Gabion Bands.” See www.traditional-is-modern.net/Nepal.html. J. Forbes Farmer writes: “Just finished my 40th year of teaching and publishing in various areas of criminology and penology. I’ve also taken up abstract sculpturing by welding free steel I get from dumpsters and metal fabrication companies. My wife died last May, but I still have my two married sons, who both teach. I live in the New Hampshire woods with the deer, bear, and occasional bobcat. Love it!” Cal Mackenzie’s twentieth book, The Imperiled Presidency, was published in April. Independence, his novel about the American revolution, was published in 2015. Both books are available from Amazon. com. Cal is the Goldfarb Family Distinguished Professor of Government at Colby, where he has taught for 38 years. Robert Mann shares that “all is well in Fort Lauderdale” and that he is “close to retiring from ReMax.” Peter Morrin writes: “My wife Carolyn and I had coffee with Carson Taylor a while back In Bozeman, Montana, where Carson has recently taken office as Mayor. I am pleased to report that Carson was recently described in the Bozeman press as “the most liberal member of the City Commission.”
1964 DON BALSER 12 Hawkes Street Marblehead, MA 01945-3138 dsb-co@comcast.net Charlie Parker reports that all is well, and they are looking forward to some travels this summer in Canada. Ken Hoadley reports: “It’s been a while since I provided an update: After eight years as President of Zamorano University in Honduras, and another five years with Abt Associates, an economic development consulting company in the Washington, D.C. area, Leana, my wife of nearly 40 years, and I are now living in “semi-retirement” in Costa Rica. I continue to be involved in some teaching activities in various Latin American countries, and the occasional consulting assignment, but
am also (finally) beginning to learn the game of golf and enjoying the beauties of Costa Rica. Our growing family includes our three children, their respective spouses (or spouse-to-be: our youngest will be married in May), and one wonderful grandchild. Both daughters, their spouses, and our grandson live on the West Coast, and our son and his bride are soon to move there as well. Since the skiing isn’t all that great in Costa Rica (a hard base…), I still hope to return to New England and some of its delicious winter.” Peter Thomas reports: “In July I returned to Pleiku, Vietnam with Gail Benton where we met in 1970, as a bonus for speaking at an astronomy meeting in Qui Nhon. The changes in 45 years, even aside from violent regime change, are amazing. The government seems pretty dysfunctional, but 20 years of chasing outside investments means some parts of the country are humming. Am still working part time on projects such as Cassini, orbiting Saturn until September 2017, and studying various Martian geology and climate questions. Larry and Jane Henchey stopped by Ithaca in August and we explored local gorges and arboreta. Other drop-bys are most welcome!” Ralph and Joanne Johnson report that all is well in Newbury, and Ralph continues his work and business (Pert Lowell Co.), saying that he “just doesn’t know how to say no to people.” For the past two years, he has been refurbishing “town class” boats, in conjunction with the Marblehead Town Class Association, and a project in Marblehead, where a number of “townie” moorings are being set aside at the head of Marblehead Harbor for a town class fleet. Town class racing is very popular in Marblehead, and has been since the 1930’s. Also, Joanne is very active with the Newburyport Choral Society, and both sing actively with this group locally, and enjoyed a wonderful choral presentation in late April at the Belleville
Congregational Church.” As for Don Balser: “All is well in Marblehead and still residing in the same home after 43 years! I’ve given away my last account as of 11/30/15, and am now finally retired after 52 years (a few jobs and one for 30 years with the same company). Life is good (really always has been!), and the RMD’s are working very well! Recent travel activity has taken us to Park City and the ski areas there, along with our son, Andrew, his wife and our granddaughter. Also, we just recently enjoyed a wonderful river cruise, primarily on the Rhine. An interesting experience there, at the Gutenberg Museum, was that I, as a volunteer, was allowed to print a full-sized page of the Gutenberg Bible, in Latin, on the press used by Gutenberg over 500 years ago. After finishing the actual printed page, the person conducting the demonstration said, “You can take this page home with you, and all those in the audience can purchase a copy in the book store.” John Steele reports: “I continue to maintain joy through living life’s aging trifecta: good health; meaningful work as a semi-retired landscape architect; and ongoing involvement with nearby young grandchildren. And all this in Burlington, Vermont, on the shores of Lake Champlain between the Adirondack and Green Mountains. Also enjoying singing with local choral group, and helping manage a small progressive church community on the edge of extinction. My best to all.”
Example of Town Class boat Ralph Johnson ’64 and his business, Pert Lowell Boat Shop (Newbury, Massachusetts), have been refurbishing. Pert Lowell was one of the first boat builders to build this boat, more than eighty years ago
We would love to hear from you! Please contact Meredith O’Donnell in the Alumni Office: classnotes@govsacademy.org with news and events.
1965 KEN LINBERG 6766B Del Playa Drive Isla Vista, CA 93117-4910 Ken.linberg@gmail.com
1966 JIM CONNOLLY 47 Green Street Newburyport, MA 01950-2646 jc.connolly@verizon.net We are looking forward to celebrating our milestone 50th Reunion together on campus this June! Special thanks to the hard working Reunion Committee that has helped spread the word and encourage attendance: Jim Connolly, Tim Keeney, Roy Hope, Dave Oliker, John Whitmore, Larry Hilliard, Len Johnson, Dana Woodward, and Jim Keeler. The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
51
We would love to hear from you! Please contact Meredith O’Donnell in the Alumni Office: classnotes@govsacademy.org with news and events.
1967 BEN BEACH 7202 Denton Road Bethesda, MD 20814-2335 benbeach@gmail.com Until April, Florida and New Hampshire were deadlocked with seven Class of ’67 residents apiece. But when Bill Barnes sold his home in Weare, N.H., and bought one in Ponte Vedra Beach (southeast of Jacksonville), the Sunshine State took sole possession of second place, behind Massachusetts. “All of my sisters and my brother are down south,” Bill wrote, “so I figured I’d join the rest of the family. By the way, if anyone needs a car window scraper …” Also on the move: Mike Rogers. After 40 years in Southern California, the University of Arizona alum has planted the class flag in the Grand Canyon State, specifically in Prescott. “Deirdre is singing, and I am a docent at Sharlot Hall Museum and Fort Whipple Museum, building on a 1933 Ford Coupe roadster, and being a cowboy at the Palace Saloon. I am also working on some 3-D feature film projects with Callicoat Productions. We have backyard javelinas, and deer nest in the field watching us and digging flower beds. Life is sweet up here.” Rick Erwin is living happily in a veterans’ retirement home in the Tar Heel State. You can reach him at Pinebrook Residential Center, 244 Harrison Avenue, Yadkinville, NC 27055. “My summer plans are to get into shape for next year’s 50th celebration,” Anthony Gerard says. “Lots of early Rolling Stones, thinking about Perkins 2. Where are they now? What was House in the Pines? Did people really smoke? W.H. Brine? Just thinking about it all is so much fun. Look forward to seeing everyone.” One great cross-country trip deserves another, and Alan Rothfeld will do it again this summer. His 2016 route will run from Atlantic City to San Francisco. “While a sophomore at GDA,” Alan recalled in April, “I found a book in the library called US Route 40, A Portrait of a Nation and daydreamed how I would drive it someday. I found the book on Amazon (original 1950 printing) and will use it as a guide.” Another Californian, Rich Brayton, reported: “We moved to Sausalito and have been fixing up a shingle-style house dating back to the 1870’s. Ouch! Why do I keep doing this to myself? Architects can’t help themselves, I guess.” His firm is completing the new interiors for the American Enterprise Institute’s Washington headquarters. Joan and Bill Alfond “shared another great holiday trip in Southeast Asia with our daughter Kenden, her husband
52
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
Charles, and our granddaughter Yaël. We enjoyed exploring Kuala Lumpur and Bali, followed up with a visit at Kenden’s home in Battambang, Cambodia, where we celebrated Yaël’s birthday.” Anne-Marie Laverty put her three years of GDA French to good use recently when a severe wind storm hit the French-speaking district of Coquitlam, B.C., and she was called on to act as interpreter at a local hospital. Mr. Griffin, Mr. Robinson, and Miss Sullivan would be proud. Now in his nineteenth year with the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, where he oversees national meetings, Jeff Wood continues to visit many of the USA’s convention hot spots. In April Jeff made one of his many trips to Houston. “Life continues to be good,” Cap Purinton reports. “Travel, Tai Chi, model boat club, and best of all, granddaughter Cordelia Rose, who turned one in April, keep Jane and me happy and busy.” “With Kathy still working full-time, I’m keeping busy with housework and my new hobby, creative cooking,” former headwaiter Gene Romero wrote. “I’m also working as a volunteer for our conservation commission, cutting and cleaning up trails, writing descriptive lit with pictures, and doing outreach.” Caroline and Tom Taylor, who spent much of the winter at their place in Vero Beach, Florida, visited both the North and South islands of New Zealand and enjoyed five days with some Australian friends in Tasmania in late March and early April. In February, the Kiwis hosted Bart and Paul Hemmerich, who hiked three classic New Zealand “tracks” and kayaked Milford Sound. Next adventure, in July: bike touring in the Adirondacks. “My eye is on a tour of Cuba before the legs give out,” Paul wrote. “Any cyclists out there wanting to do Cuba? Professional work is tapering down to zero, but I am busy with volunteer projects, the condo board, and getting our disaster assistance architect/engineer group up and running now that we have the protection of a Good Sam law.”
Mick Doolittle joined the Grandfather Club October 3 with the arrival of Thomas. “He’s small but feisty,” Mick wrote. “Grand-parenting is a blast.” Web Pearce’s job got nailed by budget cuts, but he feels that Silicon Valley will provide another for him before long. As of early April, that transition meant more time with Web’s two German shepherds. “We were very lucky with our first New England winter in five years,” wrote Roger Block, who is back in “The Port,” adjusting to not sailing the seven seas. “The weather has been easy to take, and we’ve been very busy with a house renovation project. We’re just about done, so come by for a visit. Amy and I are looking forward to returning to some of our favorite spots along the coast of Maine this summer.” Ward Westhafer and Barbara have been very busy trying to trace one of her ancestors, Ezekiel Morse. “He was born in Newbury and may have died in various places in New Hampshire,” Ward wrote. “Or he may have never died. He could be the world’s oldest man. No death record anywhere. But we keep searching.” If you’re looking for Stanley Greenberg in Maine this summer, set your sights just west of Horseshoe Island. He and Julie are moving from Lake Maranacook to Lake Cobbosseecontee in Winthrop, home to the state’s only active inland waters lighthouse. Those lakes are almost as tough to spell as Language Study words. Edwin Beatty has now devoted more than ten years to working on homelessness in Seattle, where the problem has become a crisis. During a November trip to London, Stockholm, and Copenhagen, he not only enjoyed cultural highlights but interviewed many homelessness experts. Edwin is about to launch a blog and website and is planning a series of short web videos. It looks like he’ll return to Stockholm in June. “Lest it sound like I never take any time out to play,” he added in April, “I am off to La Paz, Baja California, to kayak and hike later this month.” Don Gay reports from the Motor City that he is in his nextto-last year as a lacrosse referee. “I will look again
Bill Alfond ’67 and Family Kuala Lumpur Petronas Twin Towers, Malayasia
CLASS NOTES at doing some football in the fall. I am still singing at St. Joe’s Catholic Church and the Church Choir. My granddaughter celebrated her first birthday on February 23.” Doug Curtis survived a high-speed collision with a deer—but the deer did not. He also has bounced back well from last summer’s a-fib episode, with no apparent heart damage. Doug is working 32 hours a week at his company, “with no end in sight.” “Despite the fact that it snowed six-plus inches today on the first day of spring,” Jeff Harris wrote March 20, “I am thankful I needed to use my new snow blower only three times. I was counting on the investment to deliver a mild winter—y’all can thank me while the skiers hate me (Stanley). I’m still consulting about three-quarters time and spending most of the rest of my free time with the grand tykes.” Bill Dougherty now has a dozen grandchildren, thanks to twins born just before Christmas to his younger son Andrew’s wife. Bill and Cynthia recently visited their older son, William, and his family at their home in Zurich. Bill Haggerty and his new wife Lynn have become off-road jeeping fans and are taking advantage of this opportunity to see parts of Florida that are both beautiful and rarely seen. Bill had a second skin cancer surgery in March and once again had good results. “Still doing the landscaping and loving every minute,” Jay Ryder reported from Marion, Mass. Somehow, Jay also is reading two books a week. He must have had some great English teachers at GDA. One of his grandsons, quarterback Cam Hamilton, scored all the points for his high school in a big Thanksgiving Day win. “I’ve got two more QB’s coming up the ranks! Can you say: ‘living vicariously?’ I am committed to getting back to Byfield next June.” Mountain Man Phil Congdon reported from Boulder, “I’m continuing to recover from POEMS and hope to be back hiking sometime in the fall. I may try some short easy hikes this summer and take advantage of my national parks senior pass.” Bob Bass is a Stanford trustee and a
Ben Beach ’67 and Professor Ted Dix, in Austin
Rockefeller University board member, so he took a special interest when Stanford hired Rockefeller President Marc Tessier-Lavigne as its new leader. A neuroscientist, Tessier-Lavigne has done noteworthy research on how Alzheimer’s is triggered. From the nation’s capital, Lew Rumford wrote: “Fran and I just moved from our house of 30+ years to an apartment in anticipation of our Golden Years. The effort involved is aging me fast, but our more urban location allows me to walk to my office, and we look forward to a more pedestrian lifestyle.” “Biggest news in recent memory,” Sid Bird wired from the Granite State: “First grandson was born! Daniel Morse Bird. We all went to the hospital expecting the birth of Addison Elizabeth Bird, and she turned out to be a he.” “Thirty years of playing squash has taken a toll on my body,” Reid Pugh notes, “and in the past year I have had two surgeries on my foot. Then, on February 29, I had knee replacement surgery (although talking to Rem Clark about his experience almost scared me out of it). I will be curious to see at our 50th reunion how many of us have new knees or hips. The weekend before my surgery I had a great visit with Mayo and Dan Morgan in my new adopted home town of St. Augustine. We had a great weekend catching up, reminiscing, and seeing the sights of St. Augustine, predominantly the insides of some of the many quaint cafes and bars.” Harper Follansbee continues to tutor and to write, “both of which are going exceedingly well. Young Harper finished his freshman year at Loomis in fine fashion, and his older brother Len is on his way from New Zealand to Japan, staying in hostels and making many friends along the way. He will start business school at UConn in the fall. Harriet is taking a gap year, having taught Latin and English at Loomis for 20 years, to figure out what the next step will be.” With vinyl enjoying a boom, Rem Clark is hoping to cash in some of his vast collection via eBay. To accommodate his three children and their growing families, especially during holidays, he’s expanding the house in Wenham, while hoping that his knees improve. Mike Miles and Ben Beach (a new member of the Grandfather Club) got together in Mike’s Largo, Florida, home in March to assess the chances that the Red Sox will return to the playoffs this season. Conclusion: You can bet your GDA letter jacket. A half-century ago this spring, Dwight Reid was selected to edit the 1967 Milestone, while Dan Morgan was tapped to head The Governor. Jeff Harris received the Ingham Fund Scholarship; Larry Miller, the Hale Scholarship; and Ray Huard, the Harvard Book Prize. We elected Anthony Gerard, Bill Alfond, and David Marsh as our class officers. At that time it was hard to imagine that one day most members of the Class of ’67 would be 67 years old.
1968 TED NAHIL 320 SW Panther Trace Port St. Lucie, FL 34953-8201 tednahil@gmail.com I hope this finds you all well, that you had a wonderful holiday season, and are all looking forward to summer! Speaking of the holidays, the annual holiday gathering (last year at Phat Cats) took place in December this year at Davio’s in Lynnfield and included Art Veasey, Wayne Barbaro, Marc Tucker, Jim Rudolph, Jay Worthen and Chris Page. Many traded holiday wishes on the GDA ’68 Facebook page, including Elliott O’Reilly and Bill Degen. I actually made it north in November and was able to have a wonderful lunch with Veas, Bubba, Jay and Tuck at the Black Cow in Newburyport. It was great to see you—it had been too long! Life continues to be good to us. Newly retired as of the beginning of 2016 are Chris Page and Wil Sullivan. Wil reports, “I have retired after practicing law for 40 years and my wife, Janet Hymowitz, and I will be moving to Wellfleet next year.” Chris says that he is doing a lot of skiing and enjoyed the milder winter this year. Also retired, but not really, are Rick Scheiss and John Sowles, as C.F. Spang indicates in this update: “Despite the disappointing snowfall in New England this winter, we managed to get in a few days at Sunday River, Loon, and Cannon, as well as Zermatt for four days. Rick Scheiss and I were planning to meet Chris Page for a ski day at Sunday River, but had to cancel at the last minute due to weather. Would definitely like to plan a ski day with classmates next winter. We also welcomed our second granddaughter into the world on December 23, born in NYC to our son Eric and his wife Arielle, their first child. Our first granddaughter was born in October of 2014 to our daughter and her husband, who live nearby in Manchester, MA. John Sowles, Rob Lord, Rick Schiess, myself, and our respective spouses got together last week (early March) for a movie at the Portland Museum of Art and dinner. Great fun catching up. John is working on a few projects, including a soil conservation program in Kenya. Rob is working in Customer Support at Idexx as a road warrior. Rick will be spending his third summer as a mate aboard the Gundalow in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. A replica of the sailing barges used around Great Bay in the 1800’s, the Gundalow does several daily cruises around Portsmouth and educational programs for local schools. A very worthwhile experience if you are in the area this summer. We are looking forward to getting aboard our boat in Rockland this summer for some serious Maine cruising. Last year we got as far down east as Northeast Harbor. This summer we hope to get to Campobello Island and perhaps catch up with Art Veasey, Tom Jacobs, and Jim Rudolph during their Maine adventures.” Rob Lord adds this about the March dinner: “Some of the memories that came up over dinner included Mr. Linberg’s French The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
53
I class, which some of us repeated often; Heb Evans barking “Timmy!” from the sideline when a ground ball spent too much time rolling around between sticks; Mr. Navins’s response to a broken bone on the soccer field; Mr. Sargent hopping up onto a desk top to celebrate; and Mr. Robinson’s hairstyle.” Elliott O’Reilly sent this update: “Hope you’re staying clear of the gators down there! My wife and I have continued to show our dog Austin. In early April at Purina in Gray Summit, Missouri, my wife showed Austin, and he earned the last point he needed for his championship. He is now officially Ch. Danvers Racing the Wind. I am temporarily hobbled with a meniscus tear in my knee and will be getting it scoped soon. Otherwise, all is well here in St. Louis.” Certainly hope that the knee is better, Elliott! Charles Johnson, also retired, says, “My retired life is so boring it is hard to find anything newsworthy to share. I am getting antsy about our 50th in 2018. I kind of envy our classmates who live close by and can gather more often. We’re in the final throes of Spencer’s senior year, after which he has several orientation trips to Murray State University to complete. Laura and I are looking forward to this separation event in August with a combination of conflicting emotions. I think we may slip over to one of our favorite cities, Asheville, N.C., for some decompression. Also in June, we’re all going to slip away to my brother’s beach house in Kure Beach, N.C. for some R & R, including, but not limited to, fishing and bourbon.” Sounds like a good plan, Charles! Jim Rudolph reports that, by the time we read this, he will have received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters at the graduation of Salem State University in May. Congratulations, Jim! Steve Robinson gave us all a scare back in February but says, “I’m feeling better each week. Went back to work and driving again. Started cardiac rehab this week. Just have to keep myself
Black Cow Lunch in November 2015. Front row (L to R): Jay Worthen ’68, Ted Nahil ’68, Art Veasey ’68; back row (L to R): Marc Tucker ’68 and Wayne Barbaro ’68
54
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
from doing too much. My oldest daughter, Carly, is living and working in Falmouth, and my youngest, Lauren (TGA ’14) is a sophomore at Wake Forest. The more time I spend in North Carolina, the more I like it. Hope to see you before our 50th.” Ross Raymond, first time contributor, says, “I am currently remarried and happily settled in Newburyport with a view of the Merrimack River. An interesting part of my story is that the woman I was lucky enough to “reconnect” with at this “stage” (we don’t use the word “age”) of my life is from my hometown of Ipswich. Moreover, she was my prom date my junior year at GDA. We had not been in touch since until last March when, serendipitously, we met again on Facebook. Things came together for us quickly, with the result being that we eloped and were married October 17, 2015, at a bucolic B&B in Phippsburg, ME. I am still consulting part time in the Bio Pharmaceutical industry; specifically in the area of electronic submissions to the FDA and other global regulatory agencies. My two sons, Christopher and Adam (26 and 23), still live and work near Chapel Hill, NC, where I raised them, and are making their mom and me prouder every day. I am also hoping to connect with Tuck, Bubba, CF and others in the coming months now that my life has settled down a bit.” Jonathan Williams (honorary ’68) sent a quick update. I edited out the nasty Patriots remarks, no worries. He says: “Life is good in Longmont, CO! I hope all is well with you. We were in Marco, Naples, and Punta Gorda last month. Way too cold for Florida!” The picture is of Jonathan and his granddaughter, Blythe. Chuck Johnson sent an update from Sacramento, too: “Retirement suits me well. I’m finally getting to finish a lot of “to do” projects, some that had been on hold for years. Also increased visits to grandkids in Seattle, more attendance at local theater and art shows and appreciating the very much needed rain. Haven’t broken the drought yet but we are hopeful.” He also included a picture of his family during a trip
to Seattle to celebrate Ben’s 8th birthday. Dan Look made this post on Facebook: “I just want to make all aware that might be traveling through Atlanta and hoping for a bed. We have moved. If you now find yourselves the Chapel Hill/Raleigh/Durham area of NC, you have a bed. We moved to Cary, NC. Still commuting to DC every other week, by train, it is great. Hope you are all well.” And Dave Mitchell reports on life in Columbus, GA: “Life in Universityland is still great. I’d recommend it to anyone who is looking for something to do that is less high-pressure and more intellectually stimulating. I thought maybe some might be interested in a wood project I’ve been working on for about 3 years (between all the other projects that arise), which is now half done, a picture is included. The other half is the bonnet-top book case which will sit on top of the desk. So far it’s patterned after a PA secretary, but the top will take it in a more New England direction.” In March, Terry and I joined Bob Parsons and his wife, Suzanne, and Art Veasey and his wife, Susan,
Dave Mitchell’s ’68 Wood Project
Chuck Johnson ’68 with his family
CLASS NOTES at Bob’s house in Hobe Sound for a wonderful dinner get together that featured great food and terrific company! Speaking of Veas, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that his second novel, A Reasonable Doubt, is doing well and available for download from many of the usual sites, including Amazon and Smashwords. Life in Florida continues to be good! I am busier than ever with GatesAir, a company that makes broadcast equipment—radio and TV transmitters, studio equipment, and audio and data transport equipment. My territory is the southeast, but I also provide pre-sales technical design and support for one of our product lines for all the Americas, making for long days and lots of travel across the U.S. and Canada. Terry is well, too. Our grandchildren continue to amaze us, growing up so fast. We make trips to Denver to visit our son and his family there, and thanks to Facetime, we are able to stay in touch and not become strangers to our granddaughters. We are fortunate to have our daughter and her family very close to us here in Florida which enables us to see our grandsons many times a week. Our health is good so you can’t hate that! Please keep the updates coming throughout the year. Take care and have a great summer!
1969 JEFF GORDON Slocum, Gordon and Co. 39 Mill Street Newport, RI 02840-3016 jgordon@slocumgordon.com Jonathan Williams shares this news: “Mary and I are loving life in Boulder County and enjoying visits from and to our 18-month-old granddaughter. I had a bet on the Broncos Patriots playoff game, with Steve Goodhue. The prize is a round at the Grog,
Jonathan Williams ’68 and his granddaughter, Blythe
in Newburyport. Now I guess that commits me to the next Reunion, but Goobs will probably decline! Work is doing well, after a few trying years. I am trying to scale my company to a manageable size and figure out how to “envision” retirement after the housing collapse and after a few years of redistributive national economics! I am testing my new knee at Arapahoe Basin this weekend. That was a JV ball injury circa 1965 that finally gave out. (I have to get my increasingly bionic body back in skiing shape so I can chase Tenney around Beaver Creek, after all!) See you all in ’19!
1970 TERRY NOLAN 4377 Briers Way Stone Mountain, GA 30083-6209 nolan_t_e@hotmail.com Well, here’s to another edition of The Archon. Topmost on my mind is reminding classmates that our 50th anniversary approaches quickly. Commit to coming to The Governor’s Academy and attending in the 2020 events. Christopher Morse penned a poem that states my current sentiments well, soon we too will be on the short list if not on the “stringer.” “To a Fallen Angler” by Christopher Morse (dedicated to Jeff “Boat King” Armstrong) Death goes fishing as he pleases; No fly fishing only, no catch and releases. He ties on lead weights & treble hooks, He doesn’t give a damn how it looks. Then he drags the pool until he catches One of us unsuspecting wretches. Foul-hooked and startled we’re all dragged Up on the shore and then we’re bagged; Out of time and out of luck, While God, the warden, sleeps in his truck. Christopher Morse also writes, “Still roaming New England with my camera and fly rod and my copilot, Sadie. February I was in Texas on a photo shoot, then on to the Faquetaique Courir de Mardi Gras in Eunice, LA, with Karel dancing and chasing chickens. Summer: North Atlantic Blues Festival, more shooting and a bit of fishing. Fall: a trip to Santa Fe and Taos with Karel to see Zozobra and Los Lonely Boys @ KTAOS. Thanksgiving: the usual. Meanwhile, I have five pieces hanging in a show at the University of Maine’s Hutchinson Center in Belfast, ME, and one off to Brooklyn, NY, for the BWAC (Brooklyn Waterfront Arts Coalition) national juried “Wide Open” show opening May 7. Let’s all try to make the 50th!” Thanks, Chris. As for me, Terry Nolan and Ruby have spent much of the last six months bouncing back and forth between Alexandria, Virgina, Dupont, Washington, Holly Ridge, North Carolina, and Jackson, Georgia. Although I am not currently employed (and not seeking employment, either) we have a full-time job
trying to keep up with our sons and their families. Four grandkids in the family and another on the way. Both sons (and one daughter-in-law) are career military, which is not an easy career, especially in these times of tumultuous political and continuing global crisis. This is one aspect of life that my studies at GDA did not prepare me for. Morocco Flowers writes, “Hello fellow classmates! After all these years, I’m still following the light, photographically speaking. Enjoy the day. StoryTelling: 1 frame@a time.” Barkley Simpson shares this news: Tawnyn and I are really enjoying being a part of the Artspace community. My photography is displayed in the gallery and we moved into the penthouse loft in October, 2015. This is one of 35 Artspace communities across the US. Our building is on the historic register, as it has been converted from a department store from 1864. I am also continuing my work as a reader/score analyst for the federal No Child Left behind program and as a commencement photographer for Grad Images. I’m looking forward to all the traveling to the universities in the Great Lakes region during the spring graduation season, starting in May.” Stilman Davis sends an update indicating he has no news for The Archon. But he continues to work in his garden and various computer tasks. Continues to enjoy showing his dogs. Bill Murray posts: “I continue to enjoy my retirement, splitting my time between volunteer work at the Office of the Episcopal Bishop of San Diego, and volunteer/ leadership in the San Diego ballet and modern dance community. In April, I’ll be visiting my eldest daughter, husband, and granddaughter in Texas. I hope to visit my mother and sister at Sebago Lake in Maine this August. I am also making plans to vacation St. John in the Virgin Islands. Currently single, but we’ll see! Not a day goes by but what I am grateful for my education at The Governor’s Academy. Ciao, Bill.” Henry Eaton pens it in: “In the groove with the Eatons, Henry ’70, Cathy, Brooke ’03 and Perry ’08. It has been a busy year (what else is new). Brooke continues her work and Christopher Morse ’70 and Karel
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
55
life in NYC, now director of Digital Media for the Brooklyn Nets, New York Islanders, and the Barclays Center. She was one of the featured speakers at the 2016 Boston Business Leaders Luncheon on April 19, an annual event sponsored by the Academy. This year’s topic, the Impact of Social Media on the Business of Sports. Proud of her and would love to get her working for one of our Boston teams, just to get her closer to home. Perry is writing for Boston. com, the digital arm of the Boston Globe, and was recently featured in a piece on ESPN SportsCenter based on a story he wrote that was picked up nationally. Also in the piece, former Bruins great Ray Bourque and Celtics legend Tommy Heinson. Pretty good company! Perry has been accepted to Brown and Tufts graduate programs as he pursues a master’s degree in teaching. Two good schools, and he is struggling with the choice. He’s also finding time for some good old Rock ‘n’ Roll as singer, songwriter, and guitarist for his band BEEF. Album in the works. Cathy continues building out her innovative Media Ventures Program, a graduate program at Boston University. She has built it from scratch over the last few years into a very competitive and highly respected program. She is also on the board of trustees at the Esperanza School in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Esperanza is a magical little place: all girls grades five through eight, with a focus on the underserved inner city population of Lawrence. We attended a dinner there recently, and I was so impressed with the work being done by a dynamic and very dedicated group of teachers, parents, trustees and, of course, the students. I am continuing my modest law practice, which consists almost entirely now of criminal defense work, representing indigent clients in Boston and Cambridge. It is challenging work, not particularly lucrative but it does have its rewards. Cathy and I spent a week in Florida in March which was very relaxing and enjoyable. It made us both think of what life might be like in retirement. Did I really say that? Love Governor’s
Academy and hope all members of the Mighty Class of 1970 will commit to a return to Byfield for our 50th Reunion in 2020. See you there! Best to all. Bob Jaffe is alive and well, working primarily as a freelance actor and director, performing in productions, films and plays in NYC friend him on Facebook to see what he is performing on/in. First and most importantly, Bob Jaffe and his wife, Jill, are overjoyed with their granddaughter, Riley Leah Jaffe, who will be one in June. Bob has been busy with acting work as well. Two highlights, among various projects, are: a supporting role in the upcoming indie film Crazy Famous, and playing six characters in a new play, Honors Students, at Ensemble Studio Theatre. He also, with a few others, produces a late-night, monthly variety show, EST Last Call, where he can be heard playing blues harmonica. Other tidbits from social media about our classmates: Peter J. Blakney is living the life in North Carolina. Jeb Bradley, in addition to his busy legislative duties for the state of New Hampshire, likes to hit the dusty trail. This year he posts that he completed his Single Season Winter 48, climbing all forty-eight of New Hampshire’s four-thousand foot mountains. Ben Smith, according to Facebook posts, is somewhere in the Bahamas sailing, soon to return to Florida. We have a Facebook page (GDA Class of 1970), with 26 classmates as current members. Join us, let us know what you are up to, and post a picture or two. See ya. Terry.
Jeb Bradley ’70 on a New Hampshire Hike
56
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
1971 JAMES FLEMING 9 Red Coat Lane Redding, CT 06896-1623 DAVE LAMPERT 4479 Timber Falls Court #2006 Vail, Colorado 81657 Warren Ross is retired, enjoying his new hobby of writing and publishing children’s books. Two are out in the world; a third is on the way (books, not children). Ted Northrup writes: “Unfortunately, we can’t make the Reunion this year, but I am gearing up for our 50th in 2021. Can’t wait to see what our Class of ’71 softball team will look like then. All is well. Spending a lot of time in Florida in the winters and try to get out west skiing for a week each year. All three daughters are married now and we have two grandchildren and one due in August, 2016. I see Mike Fish (my cousin-in-law) a lot in the summer and hope all is well with all the classmates from the Academy. Saw Peter Alfond in Palm Beach a few weeks ago. I thought he was a dead ringer for Billy Joel, hairline and goatee. And, hope to be playing golf with Mike Moonves this spring.”
1972 GEORGE FREIMARCK 67 Overlook Road Marblehead, MA 01945-1445 781-584-2377 gfreimarck@gmail.com We thank James Irving for his service as Class Secretary. James has decided to step down from this position, with George Freimarck graciously
Peter Blakney ’70 and Furry Pal
CLASS NOTES agreeing to collect news until a new Class Secretary is appointed. If you are interested in fulfilling this position, please contact Amy Swiniarski at alumni@ govsacademy.org. Dear Classmates: Wonderful response to my ask for your latest news and photos. Let’s get to it! Pete Conway, whose family printing business was purchased a while back, wrote to say: “Still working with the company that bought us (RR Donnelley bought Courier Corp.), and I’m seeing how the real big boys play in the business world. Staying in touch with some guys like Kevin Kearney, Paul Commito, Kid Franklin, Artie Moher, Jim Irving. Those guys spent some time with Hal Curtis as well. And Ace Pierce is the board of trustees ‘man’, so I get to see him and chat occasionally. It’s nice to go back and forth with all of them and to stay connected.” Bill Connolly, ensconced in New Canaan CT, advises: “I quit my investment banking job five years ago to devote myself full-time to the small biotech company in which I was already an investor and board member. I spend my time raising money, spending money, and negotiating contracts, while the scientists are busy building amazing new vaccines for everything from Avian Flu to Anthrax to Zika. I divide my time among Colorado (our lab), home (no hardship there), and the road (mostly DC, and wherever investors are). My youngest will graduate from SMU this year, and his older sisters are in NYC, Southern California, and Boston, mostly profitably employed. My wife is an EMT, substitute teacher, volunteer extraordinaire, and active in many sports, including ice hockey, tennis, paddle, and golf. I attend GDA alumni events at least once a year, and have recently visited JBO in Virginia and Pierre Baratelli in Denver.” Kevin Kearney, dividing his time between CT and somewhere north of Tampa, reveals that he was a piano player in his youth, but gave it up for the rigors of GDA and all that life
Matt Kotzen ’08, Thomas Lampert ’08, David Lampert ’71, Mayflower Gulch, Colorado, March 2016.
had to offer thereafter. Now, “I will tell you that my primary hobby is playing the piano. Five years in, and I practice one to two hours daily. Not Van Cliburn, exactly, but I’m getting better.” As I said to Kevin, has to be good for the brain and the hand-eye thing...got to admire it! Speaking of hands and eyes, a serious practitioner in that realm is Charles Bouchard, chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at Loyola University Medical Center. Charlie tells of his work in Guatemala with daughter as well as relaxing in his garden in the Chicago area: “The Loyola Department of Ophthalmology has a long history of international humanitarian service, which started in 1963. I generally travel with a resident and several other Chicago ophthalmologists to Guatemala for one week, where the team screens hundreds of patients and we perform 60 to 70 cataract surgeries for people who cannot afford the procedure. We work with an organization called Humanity First. The exposure to another health care system is always an experience. This past March 2016, my daughter Olivia (in photo) and her cousin Clara joined us for one of these trips. We then spent some R&R time in Antigua and managed to hear one of their active volcanoes erupting and see the lava flow (from a distance) in the evening. Now they are both planning to return in the future. We certainly welcome anyone else to join us on our trip next year! Anne and I currently live in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, and welcome any visitors, especially during the spring and summer months. I spend most of my free time maintaining and landscaping a threeacre property with two beehives, a large vegetable/ flower garden, and 2 or more hours of lawn mowing per week.” Speaking of Ophthalmology, listen to this-what are the odds?! Richard Hackel writes “I recently moved back to the area since that graduation day in 1972, and after successfully retiring after 29 years as an ophthalmic photographer and director of the program at University of Michigan. My wife also retired from Michigan, but has taken
on a new career on the nursing faculty at UMass Boston, so now we live in Cambridge. It’s great to be back in New England, finally. I now get to pursue the life of the artiste. I have a studio in Somerville, and have had a few shows and commissions in Cambridge. My website shows some of my current work: www.richardhackel.com. Also since 1972, I’ve more or less continued playing in bands since Guy and the Greasers. The last one in Ann Arbor was The Uh Ohs. We did songs about aging misfits played by aging misfits. I’d love to hear from other classmates in the area. If you still are playing an instrument, let’s start a band!” Guy and the Greasers...Duke and the Drivers...Vinnie and the Jets; a long line of distinguished GDA musical virtuosity! Sticking with a medical theme, your former faithful correspondent and class agent Jim Tikellis, MD, says: “I am still practicing General Surgery and Trauma/Critical Care in Wilmington, Delaware. Teaching our surgical residents and medical students is keeping me young, and their young minds keep challenging me. I hear from Jabo from time to time as he travels around Maine. Looking forward to our reunion next year.” Another former, and equally illustrious, class correspondent, Geoff Durham, tells of life in retirement, and keeping the fans under control as Tiger Woods gets ready for a shot:
Olivia and Charlies Bouchard ’72
The Uh Ohs playing at the Blind Pig, Ann Arbor. Richard Hackel ’72 on the right
“Life is good. I have been retired from Allstate for nine years, ten years this June. The package they offered and our being frugal allows for a nice retired life. Our daughter Andrea still works in the area, and we see her often. Last year I surpassed my annual personal goal of one-thousand hours volunteering. Adding up time in the Level 1 Trauma ER, the no-kill animal shelter (cat room), golf tournaments and work for the Forest Preserve, I was able to surpass the goal. Mainly due to the BMW Championship (Lake Forest) and the Encompass Championship (Glenview) being so close by, I was able to surpass the one-thousand hour mark. Without the golf
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
57
tournaments, it is harder to hit the number. I’m one of the guys holding the QUIET signs sometimes.” Jon Davis, one of the speediest midfielders that ever trod the lax sod (and it was sod in them thar days!) wrote Jim Irving, in part: “Life continues to be good in the West, however. I am splitting my time between Bainbridge Island and Bozeman, Montana. Louise and I just returned from a road trip to check out the sand hill crane migration in central Nebraska! Literally, hundreds of thousands of cranes in one section of the Platte River hanging out as they are in the middle of their migration north. Good fun, and a great road trip through the Rocky Mountains and plains…the big empty. Otherwise, I am immersed in a project funded mainly by the Paul Allen Foundation looking at the effects of cultivating kelp to help mitigate the effects of ocean acidification in Puget Sound. This is a pretty large project with a lot of players to keep tabs on—more like herding cats these days—and keeping me busy for a couple more years at least. We are still cultivating oysters and geoduck clams on our family shellfish farm (twenty-sixth year), and I have been thrilled that my younger son, Caleb, has joined the business. So we are now a multigenerational operation! I am planning on next spring’s 45th reunion, and I hope others make the effort to attend. Pete “the Kid” Franklin writes and sends us a photo of him with first grandchild, a girl. Pete lives in Newburyport, and is instigator of many a fine informal dinner gathering of local Govvies. Pete says, “Highlights of the winter include two trips to California getting acquainted with my newly arrived granddaughter, which has been pretty exciting, and, more recently, another arthroscopic procedure on my left knee (my seventh overall surgery on this knee, including a total replacement a little over a year ago. If I could skate, I’d be the Bobby Orr of Newburyport).” Keeping with work in a charitable vein, something of a theme here, Sarah (Ewell) Smith writes of work preparing taxes as a volunteer for AARP,
Geoff Durham ’72, back to Tiger Woods, arms outstretched, quiets the crowd
58
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
among other things: “Your email caught me just back from a quick trip to Mexico. When you live in Maine, you need a break from winter! For the past nine years I have been volunteering with AARP/ IRS doing taxes for the poor, middle-income, and elderly. I oversee a group of 35 volunteers that covers 10 tax sites in Southern Maine. Together we e-file about 2,500 federal and Maine tax returns for free. It is challenging, but it makes the winter go by quickly! Looking forward to getting back to Kezar Lake this summer, the remodel of the rental camp behind us. Back to weekend chamber-maiding for me! Our son Zach just finished up his PhD at Tufts last year. It was such a treat to have both kids in Boston for five years, 1.5 miles apart—easy to visit! Zach and his girlfriend moved to Pittsburgh, where Zach is a Post Doc at Carnegie Mellon. Soon he will move onto research at Pittsburgh Plate Glass—exciting! Our daughter, Margo, is at the Museum of Science as a Senior Recruiter—been there almost eight years. She has lovely condo in Somerville, where we visit and help her with small projects. Yesterday it was new closet doors, replacing the old flat hollow core sliders with swing four raised-panel doors—classy!” Sarah, congratulations on the kids. They sound great, and you know, as I write this, I probably could use those tax prep services! Finally, dear classmates, as for yours sincerely, the past year was an interesting one. I took on a new job in December as the head of marketing and business development for a support services firm dedicated to the insurance industry. Based here in Boston, so now commuting from Marblehead. Earlier in the year, got together with Jim Irving, Pete Franklin, Paul Commito, as well as renegade Bill Skaff ’74, for dinner in Newburyport. It was around this time that Bob Murphy died, which Jim Irving noted in our last class notes. Bob went to Eisenhower College after GDA, then into the family banking business, in the Andover area. Although his passing is unalterably sad, on the bright side I’ll always remember that easy,
deep voice chuckle of his. Bob was a good man. Also in December, I attended a Govvie alumni holiday event in downtown Boston, where I reconnected with Rich Hackel after all these years (see Rich’s note above), and caught up with the president of the Board of Trustees, our very own Jim “Ace” Pierce, and his wife. Jim gave some heartfelt remarks on the value of our common connection to the throng of mainly incredibly young and good looking people (how does that happen?) who now count themselves as alums of our distinguished school. My wife, Gratia Pelliciotti, works for Partner Healthcare in Boston, and at aforementioned Govvie holiday event, we met a colleague of hers whose husband is class of ’66. Small world! In October I stroked an alumni quad (four-man sculling boat) for Columbia at the Head of the Charles, where we beat a boat of Harvard’s of similar vintage—always pleasant. I’ve included a photo (at the Charles) of self and daughter no. 1, Olivia, graduate of University of Toronto, now gainfully employed in Boston, and
Pete Franklin ’72 with his grandaughter
George Freimarck ’72 with daughters Olivia (l) and Averyl (r)
CLASS NOTES daughter no. 2, Averyl, in her final year of rowing for Northeastern and headed to France for a six-month co-op in advertising with a company in Montpelier. Mais oui! Rob Martin checked in, lately of the Bordeaux region, now operating out of the UK. Rob is Managing Director at Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) Advisory, CIC. Rob advises he is married 34 years, with 3 grown children and one grandchild since last September. His second daughter’s wedding coming up in June. And in the “who woulda thunk it” department, turns out Rob rowed for 4 years at Yale! Hoping to see Rob at the Re-union to catch up on all this in greater detail. Thanks for all the responses, and good wishes. Let’s all plan on being in Byield for the 45th! !
1973 DR. GLEN WINKEL 250 Saddlemountain Road Colorado Springs, CO 80919-2108 drwink@me.com Thank you to all my classmates who sent in updates to my Spring Class Notes request. While some have said class secretary is a thankless task, I must say that I am rather enjoying the experience of communicating with my former classmates and keeping everyone in touch. I really do think as we approach our 50th class reunion, that it’s enlightening to look back to those days so long ago and reflect upon where we were and where we are today. I have found that some of the events that were birthed at GDA have had an important influence on my life today. On that topic, Adolf Haffenreffer writes in, “I wish you had not mentioned our 50th! My word, it’s hard to believe we are even talking about it.
The only news in my life is that my wife Lisa and I are happy to say that we are still living in Little Compton, Rhode Island, both practicing real estate and spending winters in Jackson, New Hampshire, working at Wildcat Mountain. We became grandparents two years ago, which is also hard to believe! Skied with fellow classmate Wyatt Garfield this spring. Life is good!” Thanks, Adolf. Yup, just seven short years away. This winter I know we had massive amounts of snow in many parts of the country, and I fully expected to see some pictures of record snow fall. Well, my jokester friend Jim Fox sent in a picture of himself golfing in the snow, and writes, “No spring in New England either as photos will attest. Perhaps the ’73 alumni NE locals can get back together for a round at Ould Newbury Golf Course this summer!” Jim, I am sure you have a head start on your golf game, and for those who will be at GDA this summer, Jim has extended the offer for a round of golf with classmates! Back to the snow scene, Maria Polcari writes in that she’s “happy to report that I enjoyed a much milder winter in Salem, Massachusetts, this year as compared to the heavy snows of 2015. I’m keeping busy as a volunteer with various local organizations as well as heading up the condominium association where I live. As always, looking forward to spending as many long weekends as I can at my home on Cape Cod. Best wishes to all”. Thank you, Maria. I know that many of my classmates live on the East Coast near GDA. Ian Chisholm writes in that he’s planning a trip overseas. Check out this itinerary! “We just booked our vacation plans. It starts with a ten-day River Cruise from Basel, Switzerland, then winding up through Germany, France, and the Netherlands to the North Sea. After a few extra days in Amsterdam, we are flying to Reykjavik, Iceland, for another three days. We should have plenty of
Peter Phippen ’72 and his family. Left to Right: Sam, April, Oberon, Peter, and Morgan
great photos. We fly in and out of Montreal, and we’ll spend a few days there at the end to unwind. Montreal is two-and-a-half hours from our house.” Even though I haven’t been to Europe since 2012, at least I can live vicariously through Ian’s photographs of places I’ve never been to. And speaking of pictures, Daniel Wise (Parky) sent me some awesome pictures. He is an amazing photographer and writes that “spring has sprung here. It is 80 degrees today, very unusual for this time of year. The daffodils are done and the fruit trees are in full bloom. The rhodies are just getting going. We have mowed twice already, and there is a bunch of work to do in the back yard. The next step is the veggie garden, but things are still too wet. I am still in business printing custom photos. It is fun turning folks’ photography into something they can actually hang on the wall. Hopefully we will be able to get away to do some of my own pictures this year. Oregon is a spectacular place for photographers. I might even get away to do some fishing. I hope all goes well with you and all the scattered members of our legendary class.” And speaking of legendary class, did you know that John Blake is working with the Texas Rangers baseball team? He writes that “I am in my 38th season of working in professional baseball. This is my 8th season back with the Texas Rangers after my time in Boston with the Red Sox. My daughter Becky, who spent her sophomore and junior years at GDA (2007–09) while we lived in Massachusetts, is getting married in November. My son Chris went to work for Major League Baseball Advanced Media in New York in February after three years as a radio announcer with Corpus Christi, the Houston Astros Double-A affiliate in the Texas League. I guess it runs in the family. My wife Harriet and I have been married for 38 years. I’m also speaking at GDA’s Boston Business Leaders Luncheon on April 19 about social media and sports. It’s a lot different world than when I started in this business.” So for all you baseball fans out
Jim Fox ’73 getting an early start on his golf game
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
59
there, check out John’s talk at the Business Leaders Luncheon! If you are not into baseball, but you are into politics, I see that Jay Martus has moved to DC and writes, “I have recently moved to Washington, DC, with my family after spending over 30 years in South Florida. I had been a senior executive and Chief Legal Officer at Sheridan Healthcare for over twenty years and we sold the company in 2014. We have begun a new life in DC, again working in health care. My wife, Devra, is a practicing psychiatrist who is now using telemedicine in her new locale to keep treating her Florida patients. My two native Floridian daughters are adapting well to their colder climate. Washington is a very interesting city, especially in an election year.” Jay, that is most certainly an understatement in this election year!!! And finally in the exciting news and great pictures category, Kevin McKenna sends in an adorable picture of his grandson, and writes, “Attached is a picture taken last month at the Providence Zoo of my grandson Connor McKenna
Photography by Daniel Wise
Daniel Wise ’73, his daughter Sarah, and grandson, Parker
60
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
(19 months). His dad, Owen, is an environmental scientist living and working in the Boston area. My daughter Faye is doing research work in San Francisco at your (Glen’s) alma mater UCSF. She will be returning to the East Coast to enter the PhD program at NYU in Biomedical Imaging at the Sackler School of Medicine. My wife of 37 years, Diane, retired from lawyering five years ago and is busy with her second career as a Buddhist priest at a temple in Worcester. I am the least interesting of all, still plugging away wholesaling heating oil, diesel, and gasoline in Connecticut. I like what I do, so no retirement plans yet.” Thanks, Kevin, for the update, and congratulations on your daughter’s PhD program! Chip Connelly writes in from Pittsburg: “attached is a photo of my son, Liam Connelly, on his 15th birthday, and his new dog. I spoke to Jaike Williams and Chris Baker this week. Nice keeping in touch with old GDA roommates! Best wishes from Pittsburgh to all!” Thanks for the pictures, everyone! As they say, a picture tells a thousand words. Bruce Sheldon has some exciting news to report, “My big news is my daughter is getting married in May. Looking forward to that. I’m happy with who she is marrying—really nice guy. I run my own commercial/residential real estate business in Stamford, Connecticut. Classmates can reach me at: BruceWSheldonRealEstate@gmail.com (203-5640224).” Bruce, congratulations on the marriage, and for those who need a real estate agent, be sure to keep Bruce in mind. Finally, from all the way across the pond, in the Middle East on a Kibbutz far, far away, Mike Balf emails in: “I am really enjoying being a grandfather to three-year-old Natan and six-month-old Liron (both boys). Our daughter Timna and her husband, Yochai, along with the two boys, live on our kibbutz, so we are within minutes of each other, which is also a really nice situation. Our daughter Noa is a PhD student at University of Maryland, so we see her far less, but in May we will be with her in DC for a couple of days, which will be
special. After that we will be in my old stomping grounds, Rockport , Mass, for about a week. Our son Alon is in a paratrooper ranger unit in the Israeli army. I am well into my fifth year heading the educational services of the kibbutz. It is a very interesting community job. My wife is a social worker. Along with many Israelis, it is very interesting to follow the US election process. Many of us in Israel feel that our politicians leave a great deal to be desired. I have yet to decide whether it is somewhat comforting to know that we are not the only electorate with those feelings or whether it is just plain scary. Anyway, as I have said in the past any ’73 grads who happen to find themselves traipsing through the Holy Land, get in touch. The sea is very close, the beer is cold, and life is comfortable.” I teased Mike regarding scheduling our 50th reunion in Israel in 2023, and I think this could really be a fun and fantastic trip to the Holy Land. It’s definitely on my bucket list, and as Mike says, “Check out Micha Balf on Facebook. I just posted a set of aerial photos of the kibbutz so you can see what the place looks like from above. They don’t include the fact that we have a very nice pub and our own brewery. By the way, just so I don’t sound overly attached to beer references, kibbutz life is really interesting—a communal middle class collective life alternative. I’m still waiting for GDA to invite me to talk about my path from Ingham to Israeli kibbutz.” Okay, so you heard it from Michael directly. Anyone interested in a 50th post-reunion party in Israel?? Finally, I continue to coach cyclists on the Velodrome in Colorado Springs, which recently got an inflatable roof now allowing us to train year round. Unfortunately, this has led to a conflict with my new love: I recently became certified as a level 1 US speed skating coach and have been coaching my new sport, short track speed skating! I was able to qualify to race at Age Graded Nationals and was finally able to medal (bronze). While I have nearly 30 gold medals in cycling, this bronze medal was far more precious, as it has taken
Kevin McKenna’s ’73 grandson, Connor (19 months) at the Providence Zoo
Chip Connelly’s ’73 fifteen-year-old grandson, Liam Connelly, with his new dog
CLASS NOTES me six years to learn this difficult sport and to finally make the podium! With that note, I know there are many other classmates who didn’t get back to me this edition of the Class Notes. I hope you are all doing well and life is treating you with respect. Keep in the back of your mind that in just seven short years our class will be gathering in a small town on the East Coast called Byfield to check in with long lost friends and classmates. Put it on your calendar, make it a high priority. I really do hope to see many of you soon on the grass in from of the Commons! Until we meet again, may your summer be wonderful. Glen Winkel.
1974 PAM TONER 206 River Run Greenwich, CT 02831 ptoner@optonline.net Bob Scribner shares this news: “I suppose we should all poke our heads out of the hole every few years! Well, I’ve been grinding away on the corporate treadmill for a long time which, to be fair, has been a pretty good ride. Lucky for me, the company I‘ve worked for the past 32 years is being acquired and if the sun aligns with the moon I will ride off into the retirement sunset (yikes! really?) within the next few months. Kinda nervous about that, but it should give me plenty of time to find something of interest to spend my days or maybe just work on my boating habits full time. I’m sneaking up on my 25th wedding anniversary, the kid is 23 and a college graduate aiming to be a professional sailing coach (what the?), and we’re about to move into a ‘one floor living’ new home. Needless to say my knees are shot, my back is always sore but I still go skiing a few times each year and spend lots of time
Glen Winkel ’73 winning the bronze medal at Speedskating Nationals in Wisconsin
power boating and sailing in the warmer months. As the saying goes, Life is Good!” Pamela Toner writes that she continues to “work in real estate in Greenwich, Connecticut, mainly, downsizing homes and moving them into condos and Florida that is a popular destination for tax reasons. My oldest is living in NYC launching a career in theater with a back-up plan and side job as a paralegal. Do you remember your early 20s? The uncertainty and fear? I have blocked out those years, but I am reliving them with my daughter. My youngest graduates in May and is moving to Philadelphia and working as a buyer for Urban Outfitters. As the cliché goes, they grow up so fast!” Kim Potter Navarre and her husband, Alex, recently visited Pam on their way to Washington D.C. After living and working in France for three years, and touring extensively throughout Europe, Kim and Alex are back in Montreal, continuing their travels in North America. Steve Winer writes: “I can’t believe I’m 60 years old! It doesn’t seem that long ago that we were at GDA! After 28 years as Director of Tennis at Wayside in Marlborough, MA, the club was recently sold. I am now working at the Marcus Lewis Tennis Center in Acton, MA, as l look forward to retirement asap! My son Ethan had his Bar-Mitzvah on 12/13/14, coincidentally his 13th birthday. He is staying busy playing hockey, soccer, and baseball. My daughter Jillian is a senior in HS, looking forward to going to Trinity College in Hartford in the fall, where she’ll be playing tennis. College tuition is going to keep me working for a long time! Hope to see everyone at the 45th in 2019. It’ll be here soon!” Tom Mosely writes: “My wife Cindy and I are empty nesters contemplating retirement. Our son Thomas is living in Marquette and about to graduate in business accounting, and he and his wife, Mandy, are now trying to start a family! Very exciting time. I was able to marry these two back in 2013 at St. Anne’s Church on Mackinac Island! Such a blessing.” Steven Epstein writes that his youngest child received her bachelor’s degree in May. “She will be living home thereafter until. His oldest child is expecting first child in September. Steven is continuing to primarily practice criminal defense and domestic relations law.”
1975 PAM PANDAPAS 202 Central Street Rockland, MA 02370-2470 pamrobfine@msn.com Pam Pandapas writes: “Greetings everybody! Here we are again. The fall and winter have passed and now I am looking forward to getting outside for all the spring and summer activities. I am thinking of taking up kayaking. And I’m eager to get the bike on the road, too. All else is well on the Fine/Pandapas home front. It is always so great to read all about what our classmates are up to and this time is no
exception. We also have an added bit of fun thanks to our classmate, Bill Shaheen. He has submitted the following photo of the ’71–’72 Freshman Basketball team and has challenged anyone and everyone to put names to the faces. You will see the submissions following the photo. If anyone has a differing opinion or names to add, you know where to find me! (No peeking at the yearbook!)” Sam Gilliland shares this news: “All’s well down here as our recent change to “empty-nesters” has been fun-filled with both of us abroad for much of the fall. In September, I had the great chance to travel with my two sisters on river cruise for two weeks starting in Nice, up the Rhone and Saone rivers, with several stops along the way in Provence, Avignon, Viviers, and the Burgundy region, and ultimately ending our trip in Paris for a few days. A few weeks later, Beth and I flew back over to Italy to visit Leigh who was spending her junior fall semester at Georgetown’s villa in Fiesole (just as Anne had done the year before). We had a terrific time touring Florence and the Chianti region and even managing to fit in a visit with old friends living in London on our trip back. Anne, who spent last summer as an intern at RBC in NYC will be joining the firm full-time as an investment banking analyst following her graduation this May. Charlotte, a freshman, is loving this last spring semester when she and her sisters will all be at school together!” This from Keith Esthimer: “While I am heading toward retirement from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, I am not so sure about my wife who has no intention of retiring. As for our daughter, Katelyn, she is following her parents’ professions and is in an M.S.W. graduate school at Rhode Island College while working fulltime. Wesley graduated from Bridgewater State University with a physical education degree and would like to be a tennis pro while making plenty of music. Good to see folks at Reunion and looking forward to the next.” Mike Sapuppo writes: “My daughter Sophia is well into her sophomore year at U of Oregon. I recently attended a Dad’s Weekend hosted by her sorority, Alpha Chi Omega. I actually played beer pong with her! I also managed to pull a hamstring while playing in the Dads vs Daughters Kickball game. My future endeavors include a return to the Lake Como region for a week of bike riding in July and a second attempt of Mt Rainier sometime this summer. I’ll send pictures for the Archon if I’m successful. Craig McConnell shares this news: “We are also in a very mercurial weather pattern out here in Northeast Ohio as those of you in New England. It was 70 yesterday (3/25), and today it is snowing. Keeps me on my toes trying to figure out what I need to brace for when I let the dogs out!! I am retired from the Nuclear Power Industry as of March 1 after 39 years of ‘glowing in the dark. So I have been attacking the list of things around the house that have been on hold for goodness knows how long but I seem to be falling farther and farther behind! Hopefully, after I finish off the basement, I will get a chance to relax a bit, but I’m not betting on it. I’m sorry we missed the Reunion last year but our jobs conflicted with getting any time off so we were forced to stay home. Future Reunions should The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
61
be a better option. We are currently living about 30 miles east of Cleveland in a rural setting about 12 miles south of Lake Erie. We have four dogs: three Golden Retrievers and a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever. We foster for a local Golden Retriever group but due to our present large “family” we are on hold for a while. We also have three cats, Siamese types. This makes for a lively household when a new dog comes in, I can tell you that!! All in all, we lead a pretty sedentary life. I still enjoy reading and so does Kristi. We are eagerly anticipating the times when we can again sit outside next to the pond and relax with a book and bottle of wine. Almost did it last night (3/25/16) before the weather changed, but it started to rain so that killed that idea. That rain turned to snow for a while but it is slowly disappearing. That’s all for now.” Lisa Johnson writes that “spring is coming to Byfield. It hasn’t been much of a winter, but if you combine last winter and this one it evens out. We are busy doing house renovations to put our house on the market. We’re getting ready to move back into the family home on 28 Main. The old homestead reminds me of all those times I climbed up the lilac tree into my bedroom coming home too late from being “out” when I should have been “in.” I’ll be sure to cut the tree down so that future grandchildren don’t have the same access for sneaking in. Hope everyone is well and finding their busy lives as calm as they can be.” Vickie Bell Jones writes: “The Reunion was great, and I really enjoyed the tour with Spencer. The school looks beautiful! It was a lot of fun catching up with everyone! I have fond memories of my time in Byfield. And every spring I’m reminded of some of my fondest as I assist the local high school coaching staff in assessing players for the upcoming lacrosse season. Most of my news, though, is about my children/grandchildren as I’ve been retired from teaching for a few years now. All three of our children are married now and we are expecting our second grandson at the end of April. Most of my travel consists of numerous trips to San Francisco to visit our oldest grandson!” Starr Gilmartin shares that “the Gilmartins had more dreams of travel than actual travel this year. We had plans to go to Ireland, but were afflicted by Lyme disease, both of us at the same time so our Ireland trip was postponed until this summer. Now, in celebration of my making it to 60, we are splurging on that trip in June: a trekking trip in Scotland and Ireland. We managed a short, soggy trip to Seattle in January to visit friends. Then because there was scant snow in Maine this winter, I went to Banff in March for a solo ski trip in the majestic Canadian Rockies. In September I am doing my second 400 mile, seven-day bike trip, this time along the Bold Coast of Maine. We have had several kind offers to accompany friends on various world travels, and so I’m looking forward to a year of great adventures … if the stars align in my favor. I am hoping to see my good friends, Brit Babcock and Pam Pandapas during the summer months and any of my former classmates who may want visit Acadia National Park for their Centennial.” From Guatemala, Bud Rice writes, “I am down here for work, a frequent destination over the last few months. I had planned 62
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
to retire by now, but I just needed a bit more cash with my youngest son, Nick, heading back to school. At twenty-five he should have been done by now. Oh well. I am now planning on changing to part time work in June, though this had been the plan for last September, then January and then March. I think my employer will agree this time in June, since my project is running out of money! Also, since last report I have another grandchild, Beatrice Ann, who is now (in April) six-months old. Best wishes to the GDA crew.” Bill Shaheen shares that he is “semi-retired now, running my consulting business and playing lots of golf. While looking through my archive I found this ’71–’72 photo. Let’s see how many of you can identify the faces! And about this photo: it sure seems to prove we were way ahead of the curve on Title IX athletics!”
Ed Gage: Filling in the gaps and errata: (Sorry for being a smarty pants). First Row: L to R—Andy “Potted” Plante, Towner, “The One Eyed” Fiona Harris (For those who know Lyle Lovett’s ouevre), Wild Willie, Draper and SS Second Row: How Can You Forget Dick “Hey Watch What You’re Saying, Gage” Downs, Lovetron, Chris Richards, Sly, Gary Coorsen (not to be confused homophonically with Bob Tourison—both running buddies of Towner) Jim GreeeeenStone, That Pingree Kid, “Cloud Splitter” and Jim “Take Me To Your Fearless … Oh, I Am Your Fearless Board Leader” Pierce Third Row: Ed Carrier, Steve Lu, The White Boys—Brad and Roger and Rim Shaker. What can I say? If you do politics at any time in your life, you need to remember faces. Chris and I still think the Red Sox got hosed on the Jose Iglesias deal. E Ant. G.
The next four entries are in response to the photograph of the ’71–’72 boys basketball team photo:
Peter Richardson writes, “We continue to renovate our house in Vieques, PR. It should be available for vacation rentals by late summer. Let me know if you are in need of a warm place to escape the cold winter. Our son and daughter-in-law are living in Brussels and were close to the latest bombing. The metro stop that was hit is my son’s stop, near his work. Fortunately he drove to work that day because he had misplaced his metro pass. They are fine.” Pam Post writes that “It’s hard to believe the season is almost over here in Florida. This winter has just flown by. I made my annual visit to San Miguel Allende, Mexico this fall. I go with friends during the Day of the Dead festivities for a mixed media art retreat with women from all over the world. We all stay in a former brothel there, Casa de la Nocha. This year will be my third trip and I can’t wait to go back. I am just finishing my first term on my condo board…interesting experience. Not exactly Del Boca Vista, but close. Business at my Sleep Disorders Clinics has continued to grow, this growth being a blessed relief considering the predicted effect of Affordable Care Act on medical practices. I have had
Charlie Albert: Front Row (left to right) The Other Spencer Purinton, Bruce “Yeasties” Towner, Fiona “And One” Harris, Bill “Flying Semite” Shaheen, Scott “White Chocolate” Draper, Bruce “Swedish Solstice” Hoaglander. Second Row (left to right): Jim “Lovetron” O’Donnell, X, Ethan “Sly” Stone, X, Jimmy “One and Done” Greenfield, Some kid from Pingree, Craig “CloudSplitter” McConnell, X. Front Row (left to right) Top Row (left to right): X, X, Brad “I’ll be Rasslin” White, X, Rob “RimShaker” Kaplan. Barry Miller: Well done! Jim O’Donnell: Outstanding and incredibly accurate. Wow! Now that is as blast from the past. The most famous people in the picture were Fiona, as the only woman on the team but could play, and I think Jimmy…? Greenberg, who left after freshman year. I recognize ¾’s easily but a few escape me. Ouch, the hair! All the best, “Lovetron”!
1971–1972 freshman basketball team
CLASS NOTES a lot of family and friends visit this winter, which has been great fun. I got to see classmates Fiona Harris Lubbock and her husband, Geoffrey Lubbock and Peter Richardson each briefly during their respective trips. I will be heading to Maine to my cottage in June for the summer, hoping to meet up with some Govies! I love the idea of a mini reunion, five years is just too long to wait.” Dan Morris writes, “Greetings from NJ! Updates for Katherine and me: We were in Colorado skiing for a week in early February. We stayed with her son who lives in Denver. Happily, through his connections, we got discount lift tickets at Vail, Beaver Creek, and Keystone! (He is a snowboarding instructor.) We skied in New Hampshire about a month ago, staying at the Wildcat Inn in Jackson, and we also skied Loon and Wildcat. We LOVE NH! It is hard, though, to locate just the “right” waterfront property up in the Lake District to buy, renovate, and ultimately move to. I am actively looking, though. We have been to see a number of music concerts, as usual (Iron Butterfly, Sarah McLaughlin, Irish Rovers, The Yardbirds, Joe Banamasa, and some smaller singer/songwriters). Aside from these things, not much other than work is going on. I am hoping to go to Portland, Maine, and Niagara Falls this summer with Katherine and her oldest son, Eric, for long weekends and if I can locate inexpensive housing, for a longish weekend to Martha’s Vineyard. I have never been there! MaryAnne writes, “Greetings fellow classmates! MaryAnne (Myers) Polich here from Boston!! My husband, Bob, and I and all our cats moved here in 2008 from San Diego, CA (where we lived for 25 years) to complete his career with Procter and Gamble. He joined the Gillette division when we moved here and was retired in 2012. We LOVE living in Boston! I have been singing for my whole career in the Catholic Church. In San Diego I was the Cantor at The Immaculata Church on the prestigious University of San Diego campus for 15 years (our bishop’s church) and sang for at least 1,500 weddings and hundreds of funerals, along with weekly Masses. Currently I am the cantor and music director at St. Thomas Aquinas church in Jamaica Plain. I am a big animal advocate and very active in cat rescue. Check out my website to meet my kitties and to hear me sing if you are so inclined! http:// singingcatlover.com/ I hope to make it to a Reunion sometime soon, but I am always working on the weekends, so it’s difficult! I have such wonderful memories of my short time at GDA!” Warm Regards to all. “Until one has loved an animal a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” –Anatole France. Leslie Abbott Haas shares, “As I am writing this (3/22), I am very busy at work but I will be going to California to see my son, Chris, who is getting married later this year. It will be a short five-day stay, but it will be great. My twin, Judy, is in Florida with another of our other sisters, Liz. Judy is recuperating from a torn ACL and some knee issues. And my son, Alex, who you may remember was in a horrible fireworks mishap and who was very badly burned, is having yet another surgery in a few days but is healing really well. Spencer Purinton reports that “Rob Kaplan and I spent several hours last evening (4/6)
in the basement of Philips calling classmates and of course raising money for the Academy. We left many voicemails and we connected with Craig Clark, Ethan Stone, Ben Young, Craig McConnell, Jim Roome, and Steve Dunvey. Truthfully, Rob and I felt incredibly fortunate to catch up with such an accomplished and generous mix of fellow 75-ers. On a personal note, I would like to share with my classmates the continued success of the GovsPlus Program which I’m so passionate about. We have two new directors, and we are again on track to have 40 7th and 8th graders from Lawrence, Massachusetts, back on our campus this summer. They will be building their math and communication skills and, most importantly, their confidence in preparation for the all-important high school years. GovsPlus is impacting young lives in a huge way. So, if you never had the opportunity to send a child to the Academy, or you wish you still had a child in Byfield, then for $1,500 you can cover the cost of sending a child from the poorest city in Massachusetts to one of the oldest and most enriching Academy’s in the United States. Your contribution still goes to The Governor’s Fund. Just include a note that your contribution is for GovsPlus. Finally, for those who have not seen it, I recommend you read the article in the Huffington Post (http:// www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-mulligan/theseteachers-changed-my_b_9277188.html) by Mike Mulligan, a former student and teacher at our Academy. Cheers. Non Sibi Sed Aliis.” Randy Diggle writes that he “bought a condo in Ipswich last year after mom died, and live there with my little beagle/dachshund, Bailey. I’m still getting settled in. I can’t believe it has been almost one year since my life turned upside down. I spend my days at the keyboard writing, a sometimes agonizing act, yet a passion I embrace enthusiastically. I am hoping to finish a novel I am working on next year. My writing, my little dog, and a few good friends keep me happy and busy. I hope everyone is doing well. I send my best to all.” Rob Kaplan shares, “It was great fun connecting with classmates last night (4/6). Thank you to our donors who are leveraging the 1:1 match in the Milestone Challenge. Thank you, too, Spencer, for your leadership as Class Agent. His excitement about the GovsPlus program is infectious. All is well with the Kaplans. We’re very proud of our sons: Lucas, who is a college sophomore at St. Michael’s, and Harrison, who starts his high school senior year this fall. I couldn’t help noticing how many classmates are in Maine during the summer. Hmm… Perhaps we should gather for a lobstah-bake. Lastly, thank you to Bill Shaheen for distributing that photo from freshman year. What a hoot! Best to all!” Finally, Derek Bergmann writes, “Greetings from Telluride. I am here with my son, Charlie, enjoying a fantastic father-son adventure. If you haven’t seen this corner of Colorado before, the rugged beauty of the San Juan mountain-range is breathtakingly (literally so at 10,000-plus feet altitude) spectacular! The locals are welcoming, the food has been fabulous, and the skiing has been nothing short of incredible! On the home-front, we are very excited for youngest daughter Elise’s graduation from our
beloved Academy this spring. The past four years have been such a wonderful experience for her, and she will leave Byfield well-equipped, just as we did, with a wonderful group of lifelong friends! Speaking of lifelong friends, I missed the previous Archon deadline so I was not able to express my thanks to all who were able to attend our 40th Reunion last June. How great it was to be with all of you! I hope we can bring even more old friends together in 2020.”
1976 CAROL GOLDBERG 185 East 85th Street, Apt. 32C New York, NY 10028-4718 caaydin@aol.com We are looking forward to seeing many of you at our 40th Reunion this June! Special thanks to the Reunion Committee for their help in planning for this event and for spreading the word: Carol Ann Goldberg, Lisa Palais, Steve French, Tom Adams, Marc Weinchel, Elizabeth Pino, Steve Spaulding, and Perry Smith.
1977 VICKI MURPHY 22 Lilac Lane Haverhill, MA 01830 vmurphy@mhl.org CARRIE NISSI 102 Haseltine Street Bradford, MA 01835-7726 cnissi@me.com Top billing goes to Betsy Saunders Oski, who is “on cloud 9” since the birth of her grandson Finn on 3/18/16. He’s 7lbs 4oz. and 20.5 inches of cute, sweet and amazing. Congratulations to you and your family, Betsy! Ted Babcock is working on a very important project called When We Rise, which “chronicles the real life personal and political struggles of the LGBT community who helped pioneer one of the last legs of the US Civil Rights movement from its turbulent infancy in the 20th century to the once unfathomable successes of today.” I’m sure Ted is very proud of this important work. He wanted us to mention that Rick Lee works with him on all his projects at a company called Hula Post. We’ll be watching, guys! If you have not yet seen Elisa Adams’s beautiful stone sculpture work on Facebook, you must. She’s incredibly talented and her work is showing at the Abigail Ogilvy Gallery in Boston. Congratulations on your show, Elisa, and thanks for sharing the pictures! Tracie Ackerman Connors is enjoying life’s adventures with her husband and best friend Jeff. You can see her happy pictures of skiing and horseback riding on Facebook. So happy Tracie is planning to be here for our 40th Reunion next year. Ron Arieli The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
63
is still riding bikes, motorized and pedaled, in Arizona. Kate Tewksbury’s posts from Turks and Caicos are breathtaking; she’s got the good life mastered. We saw your new patio taking form and wonder if the fire pit is ready…we’ll be down for s’mores. David (Hambone) Ham writes, “Light snow winter so limited snowshoeing and camping. Instead introduced myself to bodysurfing in the winter ocean, was a blast! Can’t wait for next year. Also continued with weekly ice hockey sessions. Have been spending a great deal of time listening to Native American chanting and wooden flute music as well as Tibetan healing bell and medicine Buddha meditations. Check in regularly with my Shaman on Facebook and learning Reiki this year. Special shout out to Joe Pietrafesa and all my other FB buddies, including Vicki and Carrie. I continue to make my living in the renewable energy field as a commercial solar developer. Family is fine with kids in high school and college. Wife continues to put up with me for now.” Your posts are some of the best, HB, keep them coming. I expect to see you at the top of Everest with a cigar and just a bathing suit one of these days! Joe Pietrafesa says, “Greetings from Beaver Creek! Getting a week of spring skiing in with Lola (age 5), and it’s killing my already-bad knees! All four of mine have graduated college and now it’s a slow sprint to Lola class of ’33! Enjoying life in Florida and traveling a lot. Heading to Italy in April, Derby in May, and lots of polo in between where I rely on the horse’s knees, not mine. Love connecting with everyone on Facebook, especially Hambone! Joe and Dave, you get the ‘extreme sportsmen of the year’ award for our class. Carrie Lyons Nissi reports that her daughter, Sarah Borwick ’13 is enjoying Mass College of Art and living in Boston. Her son, Andrew, has moved on from the public school system and is in a great day program in Ward Hill. She is training for the Best Buddies Challenge to be held the first weekend in June. I saw Chris Poole when his family was in Andover for his niece’s college basketball game at Merrimack— first time in about 34 years—and caught up right where we left off over risotto, scotch and wine. He’s doing well living and working in Florida where his parents retired to. That’s about all I got since, as he reminded me, I talked enough for both of us. That’s surprising since not much is new with me. All three daughters are out of college and I’m still working at the Memorial Hall Library in Andover where I just saw Evelyn (Saliba) Caron this morning. Jack Lu stops by now and then also. If any of you are in town, please stop by and say “hello.” Carrie and I are already planning the ‘reunion before the reunion’ party at the Grog in Newburyport since our 40th— YES FORTIETH—Reunion is next June. All are invited to the pre-party which has no date yet, but was a lot of fun the last time we met there. Details on Facebook when we get closer. I hope the first half of 2016 finds everyone happy and well. Like Joe, I love to hear what everyone is doing. It certainly makes nagging for class notes so much easier. Thank you all, and hope to bump into some of you soon.
64
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
1978 BRAD CLARK 31 County Street Ascension Church Ipswich, MA 01938-2224 rectoramc@gmail.com SCOTT POPE Abtsdorferstrasse 22B Salzburg 5020 Austria Scottpope23@yahoo.com
starts in Milan and Lake Como. Have you been to LC? Best, Peter.” Peter, thanks for connecting and look forward to sharing a long weekend in Salzburg again—gotta make this happen. Leave your chop sticks at home J For most of you, Lake Como should be a bucket list destination …you will return again and again! (I’ve been there twice thus far.) In perfect Pam Webb form, which made me smile big time, she writes: Hey Pope, Webb update. Did college tour in Bozeman, Montana, and some bad ass skiing with family and friends at Bridger Bowl and Big Sky. So much snow and plenty of untouched powder runs. That wrapped up the season and now we are onto watching lax from the side lines. Hi to all classmates.
Happy spring and summer to you all! Brad and I would like to express our appreciation to those of you who have contributed to our spring/ summer Archon article—thanks for making the effort! We hope by the time our class news reaches your post box your summer schedule is packed with fun events. If it isn’t, then unleash the beast and go spontaneously wild—do something you’ve never considered!! From my side of the pond, Salzburg, Austria has been simply beautiful this spring. It was an easy winter within the old city, yet the skiing in the Alps was just outstanding. I am looking forward to traveling back to my New Hampshire shore for a feast of family time with my children, grandkids and extended family. I feel very fortunate to have exceptionally healthy parents, David Pope ’51 and Woodie, both whom continually amaze me with their globe-trotting stamina. If time permits, I hope to squeeze in some time to see long-time friends and coerce Steph, Clarkie and Goodie to go fly fishing again for stripers. In addition to being exceptionally proud of my grandchildren, I am very proud of my creative step-daughter, Jennifer Murray who has created her on-line luxury handbag company—Scotria.com. Be sure to also check out her SS16 collection in addition to her newest 16/17 line! That’s it from my corner; now time to share the news of others. In usual style, we like to compliment everyone’s efforts that write us by publishing your news in its entirety—so here we go: From Andy Stephenson, Steph writes: “You guys rock! Becky and I are getting used to our empty nest. Nate, 19, is a sophomore at Bates, where enjoys both theatre and French. Lyle, 22, lives in Portland, where he tries to make a go as an artisan. Currently he’s learning to work with iron from a traditional blacksmith. Really cool and interesting to see how common place implements are made. As for me, I’m a bit like a broken record: still teaching math, loving fly fishing, building boats, and waiting for the next hatch. Please let me know if you’re going to get on this side of the ocean. I would love to see you. All the best, Steph.” Steph, gear up big boy, Brad and I are waiting, as I am sure Goodie will be too! From our longest X-Pat living abroad, Peter Feith writes: Hey Scott, thanks for keeping us all informed … April 11 arrive Budapest until September. Got some advisory and consulting work with Chinese (I’m on two advisory boards). Travel includes Balkans, Romania, Ukraine…Actually, this trip
Pam, what can I say, Babe. You’re awesome and, thankfully, you never change—I love it. Keep it comin’, baby. From a man that I have rarely heard from yet so grateful for his efforts, Rik Willard writes: “Hi there, second time’s a charm.” (FYI— Rick is referring to the 2nd request for news to most of you.) “I’m presently the founder and managing director of Agentic Group. We are a consortium of thirty member companies in North America, South America, the EU, and Asia, providing executive education, consulting and development of advanced technologies in the Blockchain and Digital Currencies sector. Hope all is well with you guys.” Thanks so much for writing, Rick, and well done founding what sounds like a prosperous enterprise! It also sounds like you travel frequently as well. Consistent as the sun’s rising and setting, Tom Mathews maintains his batting average to write the rest of us: Nothing especially new to report. I’m running the Human Resources department at CREE in Raleigh/Durham, and we are still living in Charlotte, NC. Twins are juniors in high school and thinking about college. They are southern girls now, and want to stay south of the Mason Dixon. Life is great in NC!!!!” Rick, try to put the college experience out of your mind—it’s financially depressing. Enjoy your summer instead. Thanks from Brad and I for writing! From a man that makes his first debut to our Archon, The Big John Webster writes: “I hope all is well on this Ridiculous Snowy Monday. Well, I have never sent in a note before so this will be my first. I am getting married again! We are planning a July 14 wedding on Nantucket with just our children and immediate family. My new wife’s name will soon be Marti Webster. We have eight children between us: I have three boys and a girl, Marti has four boys. We are definitely working with the “Eight is Enough” household. We have done a week on Nantucket for the last three years, and all the kids get along great—that is a plus. No time for any honeymoon, but maybe this fall we will get in a trip to Napa Valley.” John, congratulations!! This is exciting news and we wish you all the best for your July big day. With the next Archon notes, John, we want an update for sure. One last thing: Eight Is Enough was a comedy/drama series. Leave the drama, keep the comedy. Rick and Amy Neville were among the mini-reunion guests this past summer in Ipswich. Rick was quick to reply to the Archon request for notes with this: “Hello, Holy Secretarial Team!
CLASS NOTES Thanks a lot for checking in, and thanks for putting together that great get-together last year at Brad’s house. It was terrific having an opportunity to catch up with you and the others who attended. Things are well here. Our business is working long hours toward reaching the end of tax season. I tell the staff that working really hard during this time of year is really good news for us and for them, because it means we have business; I don’t think they’re buying it! Amy and I managed to hike a few four-thousand footers this past winter in Vermont and in the Rangeley Lakes region of Maine. There wasn’t a lot of the white stuff to snowshoe through, but, above the tree line, there was plenty of ice and wind. It felt like winter up there. We are looking forward to hiking out west in the Rockies this summer if the plans materialize. Daughter Courtney is thriving in Washington DC, lawyering in the telecom industry. She occasionally speaks with Doug Minster and says he’s a really smart, helpful contact. I hope all’s well with everyone. Best regards, Rick Neville.” Last but not least, a great letter from Paul Cook who I have enjoyed connecting with more than once a year. Paul was in ‘lockdown’ in his office during the Brussels terror attack on March 22. I was immensely relieved to hear from Paul ‘on the day’ that he and his family were not in danger. Paul writes, “Hi Scott, I am still in Brussels, Belgium, where I am the assistant secretary general of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and director of both the Economic Committee and a special parliamentary group working on Middle East security issues. Because of all the travel and writing I do, I have stopped teaching at the University of Kent, but continue coaching lacrosse at the International School and with the Belgian men’s national team. We brought a squad to play in the World Champions in Denver in the summer of 2014, and I was delighted that my then 16-year-old son, Julian, had an opportunity to play attack for us (see attached pic of Julian and I). He
was the youngest player of about 800 in that tournament, learned a great deal about punching above his weight and scored the winning goal against Austria in the final seconds of that match. He and I are heading to Budapest with the national team this summer for the European Championships. My eldest son will graduate from Syracuse University, where he studied the music business, founded a music venue …in his house, and done all of this while writing and recording music under the names Spark Alaska and Petite League, respectively. I had the occasion to see Jule-Ann [Huffnagle] in Maine last summer and found it particularly easy and rewarding to resume a conversation that had started about thirty-five years ago or so. Should anyone find themselves traipsing through Europe, they are welcome to drop by our place along the way. Best, Paul.” Fascinating work you are doing, Paul, and critically important—amazingly delicate as well. We greatly appreciate the picture AND for your taking time out of your demanding schedule to write us. If there is a YouTube link of that final goal of Julian’s, let us know, thanks! Brad Clark grabbing the microphone away from Scott to offer thanks to all you who sent an update. Erica and I were pleased to host a good number of you at our home in Ipswich last August—a mini-reunion ahead of the significant and sobering 40th coming in 2018. We have good reason to be proud of our high school alma mater. GDA/TGA is a beautiful school with a justified reputation for continued excellence academically and athletically. Several students from our parish are attending TGA, and others have been recently accepted and all are truly honoured and delighted to be TGA students. It is a treat for me to visit the campus, and I am resolved to increase my support financially out of gratefulness for all I received and for all TGA continues to offer its students. Cheers and see you soon, cause life is short! We hope your summer drums up some great letter for the next Archon. Until then, keep laughing, keep smiling. Scott & Brad
Paul Cook ’78 with Son Julian at LAX World Champions, Denver, CO 2014
1979 TROY DAGRES 7 Patriot Lane, Unit 20 Georgetown, MA 01833-2251 troydagres@aol.com I’m baaaack. Sorry for the hiatus. Life got in the way. I finally got into the 90’s and used the email thing. Funny how that works. I thought it was just a fad. Well, I have some news to report. Thank you to those who provided me with content. Here are some updates. Some folks gave more details than others. Jeff Williams is living in Hong Kong. Jim Ronan says hi. Holly Spoerl and husband Chris are moving to St. Croix at the end of June. I write this as I look outside to watch it snowing on April 4. If anyone is in the area, look them up. Lisa Law and Marty will be spending time with them. Lisa has left her job as a therapist and is now enjoying her life as a personal trainer. Bring it! Marty is working hard flying all over the world to help make governments safe using non-lethal weapons. Randy Tye writes that “Life is great with the O’Briens. Moved to Sharon three years ago, which works well for my five-minute commute to the temple I am president of. Molly will be graduating from NYU in May and will continue to reside in NY as an actor. I kid that at 6'1½", there needs to be taller leading men on the stage. Conor is a sophomore at RWU. He’s a Business Management major who made deans list this fall, and at 6'6" while playing basketball on a team that made it to the championship round. Bill and I love going to the games and Molly’s shows, but mostly kick back with our two dogs, Rocky and Mimi. I finally gave up basketball at the age of 54, as I play team tennis. I miss our GDA alumni games. Here’s a shout out to “H” who had his “happily ever after.” Speaking of Henry Rosen, I’ll be visiting him in Florida in April. He and wife Vanessa are living large in Boca Raton. Andy Linn is in HotLanta and writes, “83 degrees on March 16. Broke a record. Speaking of breaking records: Landon, our son (14), is running
Brad Clarke ’78 and Erica Fuller
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
65
track this spring. Lead man on the Men’s 4x 100 relay—just like his old man. This past fall he, too, was the JV Tailback (like his old man) and was named Offensive MVP. It’s in the genes, I guess. Daughter Olivia, our Georgia “Peach,” is off to college this coming fall to The University of Georgia, which is not too far from home. We have become Dawg fans, own a beautiful white bulldog named Winnie—who is featured in the UGA 2016 school calendar as Ms. June! Although I am not featured in any calendars (I don’t think), I am now into my second year with Home Depot (having been a vendor into Depot for a good 20 years). Loving every bit of it and life now at age 55 ain’t so bad. I can’t run as fast as I used too, but think I actually got smarter with age, believe it or not—at least that is what I like to tell myself! I am on LinkedIn, but still too dumb to figure out the whole Facebook thing. Maybe you (Troy), Wendy Bixby Cowie, Lisa Law, and all the other Facebookers can give me a lesson sometime. Anyway, Laura Roome and I have been in touch by email—it’s easy and the best way to find me. Hope all is well and say “Hey” to everyone for me!” Susie Potter reports a few years of being Susie Potter. “Still running my ad agency, Potter Ruiz, catering to brands seeking to capture the US Hispanic market, co-founded with my Mexican ex-husband. Yes, you heard correctly, and imagine the delicate dance that working with your ex requires. My uber hipster rocker creative ex sometimes joins me in our office in now also hip Somerville. Mostly however, he enjoys a bon vivant lifestyle in his new locale of Toronto. But don’t cry for me, Argentina (Avita reference), as I also found love in the third chapter. I met my now fiancé, Pete, on one of the trolling singles sites we divorcees are forced to do business with. So Pete is the polar opposite of Fernando. Gone is my citified lifestyle resplendent in cocktailing and the arts. Today you are more likely to find me leisuring at our little fixer upper in Maine. By leisuring I mean toiling, alongside my punisher, Pete, who knows how to chop wood, build houses, and do other manly things. I have been introduced to the sawzall and can be found employing it for cutting down small trees. Pete won’t let me near a chainsaw, boo. We have met many nice Mainers, most who seem to be kin. But we don’t judge. Home is still Arlington, Massachusetts.” As for me (Troy), I also gave up basketball, although much earlier than Randy. I now play tennis in USTA and local leagues. But I’ve had to learn, that in tennis unlike baseball, it’s not how far you can hit the ball…Speaking of baseball, the field has recently been refurbished with actual dugouts, a backstop that actually lives up to its name and stops the ball, and an outfield fence. About 40 years late, if you ask me. And that’s the way it is. I hope to have more news next time.
1980 HELEN MAZARAKIS 222 North Mountain Avenue Montclair, NJ 07042-2307 hmazarakis@yahoo.com 66
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
Our class now has a Facebook page, using the retro terminology: Governor Dummer Class of 1980. If I’m not already friends with you on Facebook, friend me and we’ll add to the group—hoping for 100 percent representation. Plus, it will make my job here a lot easier. I’ll start. My husband, Thanassis, and I are new empty-nesters (woohoo!) having sent our youngest, Andreas, off to Drexel this past fall. His older sister, Anna, is finishing at Princeton this spring, and big brother George (Dickinson ’15) is working for Madison Square Garden in NYC. I’m re-creating myself after many years in community and urban development as a writer—poetry and middle-grade books (9–14), as yet unpublished, but here’s hoping—and I’m doing some work in race relations, education, and with the Community Foundation of New Jersey. See how easy that was? I expect to hear from all 70-odd of you before the next issue. Other news: I got to have breakfast with Sally O. Lee last summer, and introduced her to my daughter. She reports that she has recently won first prize in the New England Book Festival for her book Book of Cats, and an honorable mention for The Dog Show. Sally has written and illustrated over 30 books for children, and writes, “My children’s books are an extension of my work as a painter.
Writing is a new addition for me, and I’m enjoying it very much. And creating the illustrations is a perfect way to continue my painting in a new direction and a nice way to complement my writing.” After Colby, Sal studied graphic design and painting at the Art Institute of Boston and the New York Studio School. She has had several shows of her work, and has also won The Pinnacle Book Achievement Award (four times) and the Family Choice Award (three times). She is living happily ever after in Danvers with her two cats, Dominic and Vinney, both poets hoping to go to Yale. I also got to see Elizabeth Evans and Leslie Robins last fall at a mini-reunion at Liz’s home in Vermont. Liz and her sweety, Geoff Ransom, are transitioning to Vermont from Manchester, New Hampshire, along with their bees and chickens(!). Her son, Garrett Coler, graduated from Endicott last spring and is currently the Sport and Recreation director at the Cape Ann YMCA in Gloucester. Daughter Atlee Coler is also a student at Endicott. Leslie is living in San Diego with her husband, Ron Hyatt. She’s been working as a consultant and distracts herself with amazing, unusual art—she carves gourds. She “began gourding about ten years ago, the latest passion in a string of creative hobbies that led a friend of mine to refer to me as a serial
SUN-MOON – Carving by Leslie Robins ’80
Leslie Robins ’80 and her husband, Ron Hyatt
Painting by Sally Lee ’80
Left to right: Geoff Ransom, Liz Evans ’80, Helen Mazarakis ’80, Leslie Robins ’80, Thanassis Mazarakis
CLASS NOTES artisan ;-) I love the medium because there is so much you can do…paint, carve, wood burn, weave, etc. Gourds come in all shapes and sizes, from tiny “jewelry” gourds to very large. I love working with the natural material of the gourd and prefer to work with colors and embellishments that bring out the natural markings and personality of the gourd.” The fabulous Lisa Devine will be celebrating 21 years with her husband, Dave Kenerson, in May. Lisa’s real passion and calling is to photography, specifically nature photography. She writes, “my photography truly is what I enjoy and how I define myself. I love to create. When I go out and shoot I get totally lost in time, it’s my ‘meditation’. Hours go by and it feels like minutes.” She often posts her photos on Facebookhave a look. See you all in the fall—write me/fb me! Helen
1981 KATHRYN SHILALE 18 Longmeadow Road Medfield, MA 02052-1017 kathryn@shilale.net We are looking forward to seeing all of you at our 35th Reunion this June! Special thanks to our Reunion Committee members for spreading the word: Mike Reilly, Abby Castle, Kathryn Shilale, Jenn Schaeffner, Kristen Russell, Tom Johnson, Lisa Louden, and Tracey MacCormack. Kathryn Shilale writes: “We are hopeful for a great turnout in Byfield the weekend of June 10. Best to all for a fabulous spring and summer.”
Lisa Devine ’80 and her husband, Dave Kenerson
1982 NANCY WICKWIRE 78 Smith Road Bedford, NH 03110-6322 anwick@comcast.net John Nye reports: I’m running the Paris marathon with Brother Dan this weekend, (April 2, 2016), so my March mornings begin strapping on my sneakers and headlamp for a jaunt in the dark. It will be fun and well worth the training. If you can wait until Monday to send your notes to school, I’ll send you a photo of both of us over there. Reunion will be fun! Claire Dober Danaher shares this news: My Phoebe is going to the University of Michigan next year, to get two degrees: a BFA in art and a BA in history. In-state tuition and she’ll be 45 minutes away! Having worked in education for 20 years, I’ve concluded that college is so freaking expensive because universities have engaged in an unsustainable arms race of building extravagant buildings. Typical Michigan March day? 30’s one day, 60’s the next. The early daffodils know how to survive: put their little heads down and wait for the sunshine-a great lesson for us all. I have no plans to go to my college’s 30th or my business school’s 20th, but I would totally make the trip for our 35th at GDA. Things that make me happy these days include my family, singing in the church choir, Crossfit, working (I’m CFO of Michigan’s oldest synagogue), scratching my cat behind her ears, waking up to a good thunder storm, medium-rare hamburgers, the morning sun, and a full tank of gas. Love to all!” Martha Vickers Ryan, Martha Lawlor Krauch, and Nancy Wickwire might have a repeat of our 2014 July trip to Gilford, New Hampshire, to see James Taylor at Meadowbrook, spend the night at the Margate, and spend most of the night talking and giggling like we are teenagers
John Nye ’82 (R) and Brother Dan Nye at Paris Marathon on April 2, 2016.
again. Jennifer Evans Curley writes: “Hope all is well! Life is great living in the beautiful seacoast area of New Hampshire. Working in Cambridge at a biotech company (have been here almost 13 years). We hope to launch our first drug next year, so very exciting times. Looking forward to summer at Crystal Lake in Gilmanton, New Hampshire, and entertaining guests every weekend! I think you, Heather, and Martha may be seeing James Taylor at Meadowbrook, we just may run into each other. I hope to see Trina one day when she is in Cambridge. Not much else to report. Thanks for keeping track of our class! Best regards, Jen.” Sloan Tyler writes: “Nancy, nice that you keep up with the class notes. Thank you. Jim retired after 30 years in the Coast Guard, and I retire this June after 25 years. Madison graduates from college this spring. Two more to go! Bought a house in Connecticut. Just trying to keep ahead of the home improvement projects. Just when I think they are all done I have to start again! All my best, Sloan.” Nancy Wickwire writes: “I am very excited to report that our son Eddie (21) is going to STRIVE U, an excellent residential program for young adults with developmental disabilities, in Portland, Maine, starting June 26. It has been a real challenge for us as to find the path for Eddie that will lead him to some independence. He’s a little nervous, of course, but also happy about the program and all it will offer him. At press time, Layla (17) is still considering which school is right for her (she’s got until May 1 to make up her mind!) Looks like we will be empty nesters by Labor Day! Of course I will be at our 35th Reunion and will do everything I can to make sure that you are, too!”
1983 CATHERINE EVELETH 113 Hawthorne Road Fulton, NY 13069-4525 catmando_ent@msn.com DANIELLE JACOBS 91 Pond Street Marblehead, MA 01945-2604 dljacobs@aol.com Danielle Jacobs shares this news: “All is well with me. My daughter is headed off to college in the fall, still waiting for responses, and I’m about to be an empty nester. Maybe some of you are, too? I’m sure there will be some perks to this new stage in life but at the moment I’m sulking about it. I’m actually applying to school myself. Thinking about getting a master’s in Expressive Arts Therapy. Using my art and yoga background as a counselor. I’ll let you know if I get in! On the sad side, and I should have written about this last time but didn’t get my notes in, our classmate David Dow passed away last August. David died of cancer. I didn’t really know him in high school but did get to know him a bit after graduation at class get togethers. I know from Adam Hirshfield’s posts that he loved Monty Python. He was also a gifted artist. He definitely died
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
67
way too young. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family.” Luc Levensohn writes: “We’re still living in Manchester, MA for the time being. Son’s finishing up his rook year at Norwich University and daughter’s a junior the Hyde School’s Bath, ME campus. We’re looking forward to spending April in Bath to catch most of the home lax games without the commute.”
1984 HARRY TAORMINA 1706 Vinton Circle Chesapeake, VA 23323-6664 Harry.taormina@cox.net
We would love to hear from you! Please contact Meredith O’Donnell in the Alumni Office: classnotes@govsacademy.org with news and events.
1985 NATHALIE AMES PO Box 114 Mesa, CO 81643-0114 names@nathaliames.com
We would love to hear from you! Please contact Meredith O’Donnell in the Alumni Office: classnotes@govsacademy.org with news and events.
David Dow ’83 (1964 –2015)
68
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
1986
and Ilsa were at the finish—what a surprise! My best, Anita Russo Bartschat.”
PAUL NARDONE 190 Summer Street Lynnfield, MA 01940-1857 paulbnardone@gmail.com
1988
Special thanks to Reunion Committee Chair, Kim Carey Rochford, and her hardworking Reunion Committee members, including: John Bailly, Rob Studley, Tom von Jess, and Paul Nardone. We are looking forward to a great weekend! Class Secretary Paul Nardone writes: “Well, you all must be saving your updates to share in person at our 30th Reunion so I’m looking forward to hearing all the updates then. Our Reunion committee has been working hard to plan a great weekend of activities so be sure to sign up and make the journey back to Byfield to reconnect with classmates and the Academy. I’m looking forward to our Reunion and hope to see you all then.”
1987 CARLA ENGLISH 93 Prescott Street North Andover, MA 01845-1715 Carla_english@yahoo.com DAVID MILLER 28 Hunters Village Way Manchester, NH 03103-5936 davidnowis@gmail.com Amy Mack Forshoffer writes, “Hello, David! I am cutting back on my Facebook addiction, so here is an email for you. We are all still well and happy here in Northern, Virginia. Finley is 10, in fourth grade, and loves baseball, Legos and Minecraft, of course. Mae is 7, in 2nd grade, and is starting lacrosse this season, which is fun for mom, too! I am still with Oracle, though manage to spend time playing for a local tennis team as well as running races, though those get shorter as the years go by and as I try to keep up with the kids. My husband, Mark, is a golf fanatic, so we’re all finding ourselves out on the course as well. Christmas brought a new addition to our family, Izzy, a high-energy Cockapoo, who is adorable, but, wow, a lot of work—be forewarned! Wishing everyone the best, and, as always, you have a place to crash if you are visiting DC! Best, Amy.” Anita Russon Bartschat offers this correspondence: “Hey David! Thanks for collecting info on classmates. I admit, the Notes section is the first place I look when my Archon arrives. We are living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and enjoying our time on Lake Michigan. The kids are growing up (ages 20, 17, 14, and 11), staying healthy and keeping busy with school, sports, clubs, and music. We are coming to Plum Island at the end of July, and I hope to see some classmates. Anyone up for the Yankee Homecoming Road Race? Last year Coach Abu
DEANA BOYAGES 156 Aurora Street Hudson, OH 44236-2943 dboyages@msn.com Hi Everyone! As I sit down to write out our notes submission, I am looking out onto the Atlantic Ocean and the pool in Miami Beach. All the while it is snowing back home in Ohio! I hope that our Notes find everyone and their families doing well. Life seems to be moving at breakneck speed these days, with my girls being so busy and growing up way too fast. This summer we will be traveling to Austin, Texas, while one of my daughters dances at Ballet Austin. I am hoping that I will be able to connect with Jenny Reynolds, and maybe even get to hear her perform! For spring break this March, I was able to get back to New England and spend time in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. During this trip I was able to see Meganne Fabrega and catch up over the last ten years since we had seen each other. I am happy to report that she and I will be collaborating on posting throwback photos in The Archon, hoping to get some alums we haven’t heard from in a while off the sidelines! Ahhhemmmm, cough, Nancy Hough, you are first on the list! Both Meganne and I have a photo to share! I also was on campus and although I drove right in the front driveway, I managed to miss the relocated Red Schoolhouse and had to “find” it to show my girls. Campus feels familiar in so many ways, even though the addition of many buildings has changed the landscape a bit. Meganne and I were in agreement that somehow even as time has passed we are able to pick up with each other without skipping a beat. Our class was incredibly close, and although we haven’t seen each other in many years, our bond remains strong. During the Paris attacks, Facebook posted on my page that Dan Morison had checked in and was safe before he even had time to respond to my message asking if he was okay. I hope that we will all get the chance to come together en mass one more time, but until then, and as we all travel around the country and the world, don’t forget to contact a classmate wherever you land. And since Meganne is such an amazing former class secretary, she is happy to catch us up on all our friends that she was able to see recently… and she saw a LOT in Vermont! She writes, “As I have done so many times in the past, here I am, picking up the communication responsibilities of all of my dear, slacker friends. Ha ha! Where to begin? I feel very fortunate to have seen so many people in person over the last few months, or get the coveted phone calls where we can catch up beyond the limitations of Facebook. I’ll start with the West Coast and Airin Brown McGinness, who, while not corralling her brood of three young kids or skiing in Tahoe, has become
CLASS NOTES a docent at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. This is a highly sought-after position, and of course Airin is loving it and working her tail off. She got to spend some time with Tica Barry Lubin who straddles the line of Nevada and California, shuttling her super active and sporty (big surprise) kids to skiing, lacrosse, and soccer, all while working and continuing her illustration work. Brendon O’ Brien and Jed Mixter got together with their families at Brendon’s in Southern California over the New Year holidays. Jed is still in Wyoming, running his construction business and travelling whenever he can. I got to see Brendon, his wife, Luciana, and their twin eight-year-old sons at Damon Kinzie’s in Stowe, Vermont in February, with Jason McLoy ’89 and his kids (with Kara Moheban McLoy, who enjoyed a quiet weekend at home… missed you, Kara!), and Kristina von Trapp Frame and her two daughters. It was a great weekend, just like old times with the modern twist of using Facetime to call Jed. In case you’re wondering, Kara and Jason’s daughter has just as much energy as Kara did back in the day…hilarious. It was so fun to see the next generation all together; within minutes they were having pillow fights and destroying Damon’s lovely grown-up house! Ha ha! Just like old times. I had a great brunch with Christina Dalessio, who is living and working in Portland, Maine, and I am going up this weekend to have a girls’ night out on the town with her. Today I am off for my quarterly get-together with Amy Goldstein Northup ’87 and Lise Carrigg ’87, where the filters come off and we enjoy some laughs; we always raise a glass to Carrie O’Keefe Hunter when we do. She is sorely missed. I talk to Heidi Stevens at least five times a week, if not more. She is still working at Exeter Hospital and juggling family life; they just got a new Golden Retriever puppy so she has her hands full. She wants me to be sure to say that whenever Hall & Oates are on the radio she thinks about Archer desCognets and Jon Morriseau taking the stage at a talent show to impersonate the duo.
We’re all in that middle phase of life now, believe it or not, where change is inevitable. I am currently the editor of The Square, an arts and culture magazine for the Seacoast of New Hampshire, still writing book reviews and working on other writing projects. I am getting divorced and taking each day as it comes, always made more interesting by my fourteen-year-old daughter (payback has arrived). When I saw Deana last week, a great pleasure, we talked about how amazing the friendships we made in high school were, and how even though so many years have passed the bonds are still there. I hope that everyone is handling life’s rapid pace with grace and humor. Don’t forget to reach out to old friends in person when you have a chance.” If you enjoyed reading about this lovely group of classmates, take a minute to drop me an email. NOW! I promise I will save it until our next Notes submission is due. I do have to take a moment to remember Andy Noel, who was faithful in submitting notes for every Archon. I miss having an email from him in my inbox. He is missed by so many of us. Keep in touch. Deana Last year, we lost another dear member of the Governors community. Carrie (O’Keefe) Hunter ’89 passed away on March 12, 2015. While we all have our personal stories and memories of her that we’ll carry with us forever, we want to preserve Carrie’s memory on the Governors campus. This spring, a tree with a memorial marker will be planted in honor of Carrie. Please join us at Governors on Sunday, September 18, 2016 at 11:00 a.m. for the tree dedication service followed by a luncheon. Signs will be posted directing you where to go. All who knew Carrie and would like to celebrate her life are welcome to attend. We kindly ask that you RSVP to carriesmemorial@gmail.com.
View of Atlantic Ocean from Miami Beach. Photo by Deana Boyages ’88
1989 KRISTIN BROWN 45 Georgian Road Cambridge School of Weston Weston, MA 02493-2110 Lindsey Curly, Allison Magee, and Kerry Morrison are organizing a tree planning and dedication on campus, in memory of Carrie O’Keefe. This dedication will take place at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, September 18, 2016. The dedication will be immediately followed by a catered lunch in the Governor’s dining room. Please contact Lindsey Curley if you have any questions, or plan to attend: llcurley@wellington.com.
Last year, we lost another dear member of the Governors community. Carrie (O’Keefe) Hunter ’89 passed away on March 12, 2015. While we all have our personal stories and memories of her that we’ll carry with us forever, we want to preserve Carrie’s memory on the Governors campus. This spring, a tree with a memorial marker will be planted in honor of Carrie. Please join us at Governors on Sunday, September 18, 2016 at 11:00 a.m. for the tree dedication service followed by a luncheon. Signs will be posted directing you where to go. All who knew Carrie and would like to celebrate her life are welcome to attend. We kindly ask that you RSVP to carriesmemorial@gmail.com.
1990 NIKKI DELLICOLLI 1 Riverview Boulevard, #3-202 Methuen, MA 01844-6043 ndellicolli@aol.com The Class of 1990 suffered a big loss this year with the passing of our dear friend and classmate Mr. Andy Baird. Andy is fondly remembered by many as a fun-loving, one-of-a-kind, great guy, a cherished friend and a super athlete. Andy, his family, and closest friends are in our thoughts and prayers. He will always be greatly missed by his GDA family, but he will live on in our hearts and minds through fond and funny memories. Jon Bonnell gave me some great news to report. He completed his second Ironman 140.6 race this past October at the World Championships in Kona, Hawaii. He plans on returning to the Sprint and Olympic distance triathlons after this last race, hoping to qualify once again for the National Finals in Omaha, Nebraska, later this summer. In addition to raising his two kids, Jon has also just signed on as the celebrity chef of TCU’s Amon G. Carter Stadium for the next three football seasons, specifically being hired to cater the clubs and suites in that new venue. He still operates three restaurants, all in the Fort Worth area, with his wife, Melinda. In his business, he often crosses paths with GDA friend Warren Prescott, who The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
69
owns and operates the largest valet car service in the city. Congratulations, Jon, on all those great accomplishments! Last year, we lost another dear member of the Governors community. Carrie (O’Keefe) Hunter ’89 passed away on March 12, 2015. While we all have our personal stories and memories of her that we’ll carry with us forever, we want to preserve Carrie’s memory on the Governors campus. This spring, a tree with a memorial marker will be planted in honor of Carrie. Please join us at Governors on Sunday, September 18, 2016 at 11:00 a.m. for the tree dedication service followed by a luncheon. Signs will be posted directing you where to go. All who knew Carrie and would like to celebrate her life are welcome to attend. We kindly ask that you RSVP to carriesmemorial@gmail.com.
1991 NICOLE LATOUR MACLAUGHLAN 23 Webster Park Needham, MA 02492 617-320-1267 latourdecor@verizon.net Alanna Rosenberg writes, “We moved to Arlington, Massachusetts, last fall. My children, Molly (9) and Miles (7) are adjusting well to their new school and surroundings. I am really hoping to make it to Reunion this spring!” I (Nicole) look forward to seeing Alanna and many other classmates back on campus in June. The committee has been putting much thought into making this 25th something special and memorable for all. Keep in mind there are many events scheduled throughout the weekend. It is a busy time of year, but I really hope that many of you will come back for any portion of the weekend that your schedule allows. Let me take this time to thank all my fellow committee members, Stratton Newbert, Todd Bairstow, Catherine Batchelder, Nick Dunham, Brian Novelline, Megan Hight, Cathy Burgess, Alex Regan and Felix Motta for their time and efforts these last few months. I hope to have many more updates and photos to share in the next Class Notes after we all have all reconnected in Byfield in June.
Last year, we lost another dear member of the Governors community. Carrie (O’Keefe) Hunter ’89 passed away on March 12, 2015. While we all have our personal stories and memories of her that we’ll carry with us forever, we want to preserve Carrie’s memory on the Governors campus. This spring, a tree with a memorial marker will be planted in honor of Carrie. Please join us at Governors on Sunday, September 18, 2016 at 11:00 a.m. for the tree dedication service followed by a luncheon. Signs will be posted directing you where to go. All who knew Carrie and would like to celebrate her life are welcome to attend. We kindly ask that you RSVP to carriesmemorial@gmail.com. 70
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
1992
1994
CASSIE FIRENZE 44 Dean Street Belmont, MA 02478-3257 cwfirenze@gmail.com
KRIS HUGHES 5649 Colbath Avenue Van Nuys, CA 91401-4725 Kris.hughes@sbcglobal.net
Amy Daniels writes: “Hello to all! Life is good! I’m still in Darien, CT and recently left my job in marketing with the New York Yankees to try the stay-at-home mom gig for a bit. I’m loving spending more time with my kids (Tyler-8 and Molly-4), but think I’ll be returning to the workforce when my daughter starts kindergarten in the fall. It was wonderful catching up with Mrs. White a few weeks ago at the GDA Alumni gathering in NYC! She hasn’t aged a bit! Wish I could say the same! Hoping to reconnect with many of you during our 25th (holy crap!) Reunion next summer! Let’s get a banging turnout from the Class of 1992! Until then, stay well, and stay in touch!”
Michelle (Dumas) Lafleur, husband Ryan, and big sister Ava welcomed Emilia, born on November 25, 2015. Also attended Tim Gould’s ’95 wedding in Portland, Maine. So much fun to reunite with so many GDA alum!
1993
The Class of ’95 has been busy. Or so it would seem, based on the surfeit of tumbleweeds and cricket chirps we received in response to the Notes solicitation. However, two classmates swooped in to the rescue. Gretchen Scharfe writes: “My term is up as president of the Alumni Council. It has been such fun to represent the Alumni Association, especially back during the 250th. It was so special to have so many of our classmates back at the holiday party this year. It was my last hurrah! Though I doubt I’ll ever really get away from Govs. The Academy is in the family. Not only did my sisters and I attend Govs, and my dad serve as a trustee for 20 years, but my father-in-law, Gardner Sisk ’67 is also an alum! I just can’t get away. Also, I’ll still be around campus occasionally since I help with secondary school placement as part of my director of Upper School responsibilities for the Glen Urquhart School. Hopefully, I’ll have a little more time for my two little minions, Charlotte and Libby, and for golf! That said, I hope to see many of you at the little golf tournament Friday of Reunion. Deb Barry, Elizabeth Corcoran, and I made quite the
INGRID CUNNEY 35 Prince Street Beverly, MA 01915-2007 icunney@aol.com SHAWN MARKEY 192 Kingsbury Avenue Bradford, MA 01836-8173 Stmarkey58@yahoo.com
We would love to hear from you! Please contact Meredith O’Donnell in the Alumni Office: classnotes@govsacademy.org with news and events.
1995 MICHAEL NOON 70 Harvey Street Cambridge, MA 02140 646-245-5014
Left to right: Karen Hesselbach LaFleur (‘94), Michelle Dumas LaFleur (‘94), Mara Gould, Deb Barry (‘95), Tim Gould (‘95), Christine Holbrook Frary (‘95), Jameson Case (‘95), Christian Dubois (‘95), Eric Whittier (‘95) and Ryan Martin (‘96).
CLASS NOTES team last year. Even if it isn’t our Reunion year, we can still take part. It is lots of fun! It might come as a surprise that I see a lot of Molly Prinn. Ha. Molly, Caroline Scully, and I are planning a fun birthday trip for Nicole Costello to Disney. I’ll make sure to send pictures. I am sure we will be up to our high school shenanigans.” After totally ruining that birthday surprise for Coley, Gretchen expressed her hope that all are well. Chris Terry also took the time to write: “Not sure if I announced the birth of my second son, Marshall Dirk Terry, on 1/18, yet, not as walloping big a guy as the first, but still good, strong stock.” Thereafter, Chris elaborated at length on his rationale for voting for Donald Trump on Super Tuesday, but it contained too many bullet points to reproduce in the magazine-column format. Our apologies. The secretary has his own bit of news. The Noons will add to their number in late summer, finally producing a girl for the American Noons on the East Coast to spoil and buy/make cute outfits for. Name suggestions are not being solicited at this time.
1996 JANNA DE RISI 1 Walnut Tree Lane Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724 JEFF LABELLE 3546 North Reta Avenue, #25 Chicago, IL 60657 labejef@gmail.com We are looking forward to seeing many of you at our 20th Reunion this June! Special thanks to the Reunion Committee for help in planning for this event and spreading the word: Kavy Yesair, Ray Long, Laruen Carroll, Dan DiPietro, Jeff LaBelle, Jana DeRisi, Jason Rivera, and Aaron Sells.
1997 SANDY PADILLA 4 Park Avenue, 22D New York, NY 10016 Spadilla08@gmail.com
1998 ELLE ESCOBAR 888 Main Street, #611 New York, NY 10044-0216 Ericksone_e@me.com
We would love to hear from you! Please contact Meredith O’Donnell in the Alumni Office: classnotes@govsacademy.org with news and events.
1999 JESSICA KARLIN 22 Schiller Road West Roxbury, MA 02132-6336 Jess.karlin@gmail.com
We would love to hear from you! Please contact Meredith O’Donnell in the Alumni Office: classnotes@govsacademy.org with news and events.
2000 CATHERINE CORREIA 26 Rosemary Street #1 Jamaica Plain, MA 02130 Catherine.correia@gmail.com Hi everyone! It’s Eve Seamans here. I hope you all had a great winter! I have been staying busy
taking care of my twins, Eugenia and Maxwell, who arrived in October. They are lively little people who grow and learn every day. I did get to see Gretchen Gee when she came to visit me and meet the twins. Gretchen is doing well and it was wonderful to see her. Mark Lipman wrote in with lots of news. “Mark is performing around Boston with his band and promoting his cd “Goodbye Copilot,” which has had great reviews thus far and has been played on multiple radio stations in the Boston area. (You can listen to his music on marklipman.bandcamp. com). He is also working part-time as an inpatient group therapist and using the expressive arts to help people work towards recovery and fight stigma. He spent New Year’s Eve 2015 with Diana Burnell and Catherine Correia, and has seen Elizabeth Turnbull and Kelsey Correia at gatherings as well. Pete Ellis represented at Mark’s first NYC show in late 2015 at Rockwood Music Hall (thanks, Pete!). Mark is looking forward to seeing Paige Ramsdell, Jessica Watson, and Eve Seamans soon, Goddess willing.” Elizabeth Turnbull Henry wrote in with the exciting news that, “All is well with the Henry family. We welcomed Charles to the family on January 30.”
2001 MEG LLOYD 16 Hewlett Street, #1 Roslindale, MA 02131 lloydy505@gmail.com Thank you to Maria Collins for her service as Class Secretary with Meg Lloyd. Jordan Harband writes: “I got married in July! We had a destination wedding in Tulum, Mexico. Matt Macoul ’02 was one of my groomsmen. My wife, Crystal, and I also had a blast on our honeymoon. We spent three weeks traveling all over Japan. I left Twitter in February and have been working at Airbnb since May. It’s a great place to work, and I am loving what I do, which includes doing tons of open
Adam Shelley (center) with groomsmen Jamie, Kevin, James, DJ, and John
We would love to hear from you! Please contact Meredith O’Donnell in the Alumni Office: classnotes@govsacademy.org with news and events.
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
71
source work and being a member of the committee that writes the JavaScript specification (right up my alley, Natch). Any alums who find themselves in San Francisco, come to my office for lunch, or let’s grab a drink!” Adam Shelley writes: “I am reminded of New England and thought I would drop you a line. Since I was last in touch I have gotten married and moved into a house in the countryside with my wife, Jo, from London. We’ve been lucky to be able to travel to Japan, Australia, and Brazil in the last year because Jo has been volunteering with the Paralympic Games as one of their clinical psychologists. I hope that all our classmates are doing well and having a great time no matter how far they are from Newburyport! Megan Rothwell Saia writes: “My husband, Mike, and I welcomed a beautiful baby girl this summer. Adeline Elizabeth Saia already aspires to be a Governor!”
Gabriel Winer was married on New Year’s Eve. Lauren Marsh O’Brien ’02 and Taso Kapernekas ’03 in attendance. Rachelle Borer and her husband, Jon, are thrilled to announce the arrival of their daughter Isabelle, who was born on March 21, in New York City. Since birth, baby Isabelle has loved to move around, leading her parents to think she may be following in her mom’s dancing footsteps.
2002
I want to thank the class of 2003 for their Archon updates. Not as many as hoped this time around, however, I know that we will do better in the fall. I hope you all will enjoy. Grady Harris Wing, son of Jen Arno Wing and husband Mike Wing, arrived on September 29, 2015. Jen, Mike, and Grady live in Gardner, Massachusetts, and are enjoying being a family of three! Jen is in her second year
HEATHER JAMESON-LYONS 62 Walnut Street Lynnfield, MA 01940 jameson.heather@gmail.com
72
2003
as the director of Admission and Financial Aid at Applewild School, a pre-k through 8th grade independent school in Fitchburg, and participates in a nationwide financial aid task force through the National Association of Independent Schools. Jen attributes much of her preparation, enthusiasm, and love for her career in admission and financial aid to her transformative experience at Governor’s. Dan Guyton had a chance to catch up with Morgan Gabe Winer ’02 and his wife at their New Year’s Eve wedding
TASO KAPERNEKAS 447 Flanders Road Coventry, CT 06238-3439 tkap07@gmail.com
Adam Shelley ’01 with wife, Jo, and wedding attendees
Adeline Elizabeth Saia, daughter of Megan Rothwell Saia ’02
Taso Kapernekas ’03 Gabe Winer ’02 and Lauren Marsh O’Brien ’02 at Gabe Winer’s wedding
Adam Shelley ’01 with wife, Jo
Adam Shelley ’01 with wife, Jo
Rachelle Borer ’02 and her husband, Jon, with their new arrival, Isabelle
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
CLASS NOTES Steir at Loco in Southie for dinner. He says it’s great to have Emily Block back from Ireland. She was missed. Also, he just finished his last ski day of the season with Lindsay Clunie and sister Lesley ’04. Speaking of Morgan: he just moved into a new home with his wife, in Reading. He also has a small dingy room for Brandon Bates to sleep and yell at sports in. Chris Kelley is preparing for his wedding this summer. He is marrying fellow
Govs alumnus Ali Cotreau ’06 at Governor’s. Taso Kapernekas was engaged this past fall to his fiancé, Carolyn. Attending his engagement party were some Governor’s alums, including, Jon Weiss, Brandon Bates, and Morgan Steir. Doug and Sarah Turnbull brought baby number two into the world on March 28. Welcome, Molly Ayres Turnbull. Sister Suzanna and parents are smitten. Allison Tsao is enjoying the last few busy months
Devin Smith ’03 and wife at autumn 2015 Wedding.
Eden ’03, Joe, and Seraphina Ree Davies
of her year as Assistant Chief of Service down at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She took a picture of the Barker Medicine Firm, a fantastic group of young physicians that she has been privileged to lead for the past year. She is also looking forward to moving back to Boston in July and hopefully making it to some GDA alumni events again! Devan Smith was married in October! Her husband was roommates with JP Phillips at UNH, who was in the wedding! Amanda Gilmore and Megan Lagasse were also in attendance! She would like to thank Karen Gold and EB White for their wedding advice!
2004 LESLIE CLUNIE 137 P Street, #2 South Boston, MA 02127 Lesley.clunie@gmail.com
Grady Harris Wing, son of Jen Arno Wing ’03
Photo of (left to right) Morgan Steir ’03, Jon Weiss ’03, Taso Kapernekas ’03, and Brandon Bates ’03
Leslie Clunie writes that she is “enjoying life in Southie (having a lot of fun on P Street with Lizzy Guyton ’06 and Dan Guyton ’03 and working for Unum’s Boston sales office. Joe Brown writes: “I’ve never contributed to this before because I generally have nothing especially noteworthy to add, but I’m graduating with my PhD in biomedical engineering this May. I defended last December, and now I’m with a start-up trying to commercialize the research I worked on during my grad days. If it goes well, I may be able to turn around and set up internships, etc., with Governors alums or students interested in bioengineering. Laine Frey writes: “I’m currently living in Chicago. I was recently promoted to Team Lead at my job designing and building electronic medical records at Northwestern. I will be getting married to the wonderful Franklin Vargas in May of this year and we will be jetting off to Asia in the fall for our honeymoon. It is a very exciting time for me! Hope everyone you have heard from is doing well, can’t wait for the next reunion.”
2005 Allison Tsao ’03 (kneeling) with Physicians at Barker Medicine Firm at Johns Hopkins Hospital
KELSEY CORREIA 74 Lime Street Newburyport, MA 01950 Kelsey.correia@gmail.com NICOLE ZOGRAFOS 279 W 3rd Street Unit 1 Boston, MA 02127-1631 nicolezografos@gmail.com Greetings ’05! I hope this edition of The Archon finds you all happy, healthy, and enjoying 2016. I’m excited to be sharing each of your thoughtful contributions. Our class has certainly been busy! First off, congratulations are in order to Tim Cushman, who was married this year at the Worcester Art Museum, where Justin Leonard and Aaron Moberger
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
73
acted as best men. Tim also reports he has been traveling quite a bit for work to both Germany and Singapore as part of his work as an IT consultant at SCHOTT. He has even been able to use some of the German he learned at GDA during his days taking classes in Parsons. Congratulations are also due to Andrew Guyton, who is expecting his second child (a daughter!) with his wife, Jenn. Andrew is now living in Stratham, New Hampshire, while practicing at The Guyton Group. He reports that everything is going well, despite the fact that his house is slowly turning pink. Audrie Grigun is also celebrating a major accomplishment, graduating as a pediatric nurse practitioner from Northeastern in May 2016. Congrats, Audrie! The Class of 2005 has also been busy globetrotting. At the time of printing, Mike Barnaby was preparing to start a five-month excursion, hiking the Pacific Crest Trail beginning at the border of Mexico and ending at the border of Canada. Jon Mahoney is still living in Seoul, Korea, and teaching at an international school, while also studying Korean at a local university. He plans to travel to Myanmar and Nepal this summer. Locally, Alex Whitney reports that he recently moved to South Boston, after living with Dan Galadja in Beacon Hill. Alex is in his third year working at HubSpot, where he manages the company’s ecommerce segment of customers. Morgan Steir ’04 also works with Alex, and it’s nice having a fellow alum around the office. Alex would love to see some Govs in Southie! Matt Ahern will be returning to Boston after spending the last few months in London working for Santander. Welcome back, Matt! Nick Almy also recently located to South Boston and works for Brown Brothers Harriman. Chris McKinnon writes, “Craig and I are very happy to call Boston home! I’ve had a ton of fun introducing him to some great friends. We see Barrie, Audrie, Nicole, Jim and Bobby often. I’m still getting used to the 2:00 a.m. wake-up call for the early morning news on WBZ, but the job is beyond exciting! Shameless plug, if you’re up early on weekdays, flip on channel 4. Highlights of the last year: Visiting Paris, Costa Rica, and having way too much fun at our ten-year reunion! Can’t believe we
Laine Frey with fiance, Franklin Varges
are that old. Great seeing so many of you!” Turns out that Chris has a large GDA fan base. As Hallie Martin writes, “My mom, Julia Martin, called me a while back very concerned that Chris had taken a job in another news region. I assured her that, according to Facebook and Instagram, Chris was just enjoying a well-deserved tropical vacation. She was quite relieved to have her favorite news anchor back on the air.” Hallie continues to enjoy living Brooklyn, NY, though Jim and I try to drag her back to Boston as often as we can. Brendan Giblin also continues to call Boston home, and enjoys living in the Back Bay. He attends as many Celtics games as he can, and also plays in a weekly basketball league with fellow ’05er Nick Almy. Brendan has also been volunteering with The Greater Boston Food Bank. Reach out to him if you are interested in joining! Down south, Sam Adams works for the mayor of Atlanta and lives with his girlfriend in the Virginia Highlands section of the city. He’s looking forward to attending Chris Vancisin’s wedding this coming September, and will also travel to Japan later in the fall. Tyler Gobin is living in Santa Monica, CA where he works as a Manager at the consulting firm Protiviti. He’s also looking forward to seeing some fellow ’05ers at Chris Vancisin’s wedding this fall and any others that find themselves out west. Chris Vancisin is now working as a commercial banking underwriter for Bank of America and continues to live in California with his fiancé, Abby, where they just moved to Laguna Beach. They would love to have some Govs come visit! Max Dornbush is still enjoying California living and is grateful to still be in touch with his strong friends from GDA. Finally, Tim Brierley writes that he has been focusing on his acting career, and had the opportunity to shoot a commercial with Vince Wilfork last summer. If you’d like to make it into his Oscar acceptance speech, plan to get in touch with him ASAP, because he’ll definitely forget about us all once he becomes famous. That’s it for now! Thanks to everyone who shared notes, hope to see (and hear) from you all again soon!
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
JACK LAMSON 12A N Dogwood Drive Surfside Beach, SC 29575-3751 Jalamson5368@gmail.com RACHEL STAVIS 310 Columbus Avenue Boston, MA 02116 Rachel.stavis@gmail.com Jack Lamson writes this update: “It’s nice to be back in the Northeast! Late last year I accepted a job as a morning anchor at CBS in Albany, New York. It’s great to be back within driving distance of the Academy, and I’m hoping to make a trip back to campus this spring. I’m also excited to announce my engagement to my college girlfriend. We’ll be tying the knot next summer! Go Govs!”
2008 PERRY EATON 21 Easton Street Allston, MA 02134 perry@bdcwire.com ABBY HARRIS 1 Edwards Street Bath, ME 04530-2720 Abigail.harris@ddg112.navy.mil
We would love to hear from you! Please contact Meredith O’Donnell in the Alumni Office: classnotes@govsacademy.org with news and events.
2006 EMME HUGHES 29 Wilson Park #3 Brighton, MA 02135 m.esther.hughes@gmail.com We are looking forward to seeing many of you at our 10th Reunion this June! Special thanks to the Reunion Committee for their help in planning for this event and spreading the word: Cam Archibald, Lizzy Guyton, Mark Rinaldi, Morgan Bradford, Emme Hughes, and Amy Block.
74
2007
Jenna Glendye ’07 and her husband Luke on their wedding day.
CLASS NOTES
2009
2010
AMANDA CORRENTI 55 Dearborn Street Salem, MA 01970-2430 a.corrents@gmail.com JIMMY KING 6 Driftwood Drive Chelmsford, MA 01824 Jamesmking41@gmail.com
EMILY HARROLD 1713 Commonwealth Ave., #10 Boston, MA 02135 emilycharrold@gmail.com
We would love to hear from you! Please contact Meredith O’Donnell in the Alumni Office: classnotes@govsacademy.org with news and events.
Mei Li Johnson ’13 (L) and Abigail Howard ’10 (R) at a Vinyard in Mendoza, Argentina
THANK YOU to Alice Tonry for your service as Class Secretary! Abigail Howard and Mei Li Johnson ’13 met up at a vineyard in Mendoza, Argentina, in autumn 2015. Abigail is living in Santiago, where Mei Li is currently studying.
2011 NORA KLINE 90 Moulton Street Hamilton, MA 01982 Nora.k.kline@vanderbilt.edu KATIE REILLY 24 Porter Street Portsmouth, NH 03801 katiemacreilly@gmail.com Yaomin Pan writes that he is “getting my JD at BU School of Law. I will be working for the District Court of Massachusetts this fall.” Claire Lilly has moved from Nashville to New York City. She is working at Cornerstone Agency/The Fader. Skylar Frisch has started the clinical phase of PA school and will be rotating amongst NYP-affiliated hospitals in NYC. Felix Emiliano is a software
David and Emily Doggett wedding photo. Back (l to r): Andrew Doggett ’04, Tom Hyndman ’04, Jeff Gold, Colin Doggett ’08, Tim Langmaid ’07, John Carlson ’08, Perry Eaton ’08, Henry Eaton ’70; middle row (l to r): Marty Doggett, Libby Marshall, David Doggett ’08, Anna Smith ’08, Whitney Ocko ’08; front row (l to r): Molly Prinn, Madelyn Durgin ’09, Karen Gold, Emily Doggett ’08, Samantha Boulais Howsen, Patty Doggett, Ellie Clayman ’10, Annie Clayman ’08
engineer for Google in New York City, working on the Classroom iOS team. Nora Kline is finishing up her master’s degree in psychology at Vanderbilt. She has accepted a job offer at the Boston VA Research Institute, for June. She will be researching PTSD and trauma-related mental illness in veteran populations. Katie Reilly is a reporter for TIME magazine in New York, covering breaking news and politics.
2012 AUDREY CHENEY 3 Elm Street Marblehead, MA 01945-3403 acheney@bryant.edu JOHN DAMIANOS 8 Winterberry Lane North Hampton, NH 03862-2055 John.a.damianos.16@dartmouth.edu Meg Mullin is spending her junior year abroad. In the fall she was in Florence, Italy, and is currently in Sydney, Australia. She is still on the women’s crew team and will graduate in spring 2017 with a double major in Physics and Economics. Andrew Coleburn has accepted an offer to join the next MFA Acting Class at the University of Central Florida, where he will begin this fall. Chris Cowie will graduate from Trinity College this May before working to bring to life an app he has been working on since the fall called HowIMobile (http://www. howlmobile.com). The app is a social nightlife application linking users to real-time socially generated data on what is going on around them as well as connecting them with their friends to compete within the app and socialize. Tina McGrath is excited to graduate from Johns Hopkins and will be working in the DC area next year while applying to medical school. She just ran her first marathon and qualified for the Boston Marathon next year. Andres Saenz will graduate from GW and move to NYC, where he will work as an investment banking analyst at Morgan Stanley. John Damianos is graduating this June from Dartmouth College with a degree in Linguistics modified with Neuroscience and a minor in French. In August he will matriculate to the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.
2013 WANTED: Class Secretary for the Class of 2013! We are looking for someone to collect class news and share it with The Archon editor twice a year. The Class Secretary also helps the Alumni Office share alumni event information and Academy news with all of you. This is a great way to stay connected to your classmates and to give back to Govs. Contact Amy Swiniarski at alumni@govsacademy.org if you are interested in filling this role. In the meantime,
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
75
please keep your class news coming! Email celebrations and news to classnotes@govsacademy.org for inclusion in the fall 2016 Archon. Esther Tram writes: “I have recently been accepted to, and am now attending, Rutgers Business School, the top business school in the state of New Jersey, where I am pursuing a double major in Psychology and Business.” Brittany Perez shares this news: “I have had the privilege to spend four months exploring Australia and the wonderful sites they have to offer. I arrived in Sydney in early February and will sadly depart in July, but I am extremely happy to have this opportunity to travel across the world to such a beautiful country.
2014 EMILIE MACDONALD 45 Pine Street Exeter, NH 03833-2720 Emiliemac95@gmail.com LUCY PURINTON 61 High Street Newburyport, MA 01950 lucy.purinton@icloud.com Colby King played on the Macalester Men’s Soccer Team in the fall and started every game. His team went on to go undefeated in the regular season with a record of 13-0-5 and made it into the national tournament as an at large bid. They lost the second game of the tournament but finished the year ranked 20th in the country. Alex Curran-Cardarelli is working hard as the editor in chief for one of Denison University’s online school journals, the Odyssey. Andrew Kulig will be spending this summer in London studying supply chain management at the London School of Business. Sarah Keith spent summer 2015 studying abroad in Berlin and has now declared a Psychology major and German minor. This summer she is interning with Special Olympics Massachusetts before spending her
Brittany Perez and Aussie pal, a brush-tailed rock wallaby
76
The Archon | Spring/Summer 2016
junior winter semester studying abroad in Ireland. Jessica Titus was recently elected to the UMass Amherst Student Government Association as class of 2018 Senator. She also go initiated as a sister into Chi Omega Fraternity at UMass in January. Emilie MacDonald is the new coxswain for Franklin & Marshall’s women’s crew team and will be spending next semester in Jordan studying Arabic. Mark Beluk is catching for the Boston College club baseball team. They recently went 4-0 in their spring tournament in Tampa Bay. Mark would also like everyone to know that he recently shaved his beard. Cassie Clavin will be spending this summer in Rome studying art before returning to Boston College in the fall. Nick Nonis will be completing his final year of Junior League Hockey and starting school at the University of New Hampshire in the fall. Cassie Hanlon will be interning at The White House in the fall before completing her studies at Sacred Heart and graduating a year early. Ted Zimmerman has decided to play another year of club hockey. Michael Ducharme recently transferred from Penn State to Colgate University. Lucy Purinton will be interning at Mechanica this summer. In the fall she’ll head back to Tufts University before spending her spring semester in Sydney. Daniel Capobianco is a volunteer tax preparer at Community Tax Aid, a non-profit organization that provides free tax return assistance to low income taxpayers in the Washington, DC area. Jenny Tejeda writes: “Last summer I had the opportunity to study abroad in London! I took philosophy and art history courses while there and fell in love with the rich culture the UK has to offer.”
Hello! I’m excited to take on the role of Class Secretary and hear from all of you about what’s going on in your lives. Please send me news for the Class Notes anytime! You can email me directly or send your news to classnotes@govsacademy.org. Thanks! The news from me is that I spent the fall studying abroad in Italy, where I got the chance to learn Italian and become immersed in the culture. I traveled throughout Italy: Florence, Tuscany, Pompeii, Capri, Sorrento, Cottanello, as well as many other towns and cities, where I learned to paint frescos, cook Italian food, appreciate Roman architecture. I saw the Roman ballet perform Coppelia (Boston Ballet is way better). Now I am at USC studying neuroscience and minoring in dance. I joined the ballroom dance team for USC and have competed in a few competitions. I am about to start an internship at Children’s Hospital LA. I continue to keep in touch with Governor’s alumni, including Spencer Campbell, Racquel Nassor, Kate Anderson-Song, McLean Sherrin, and Saule Bussing. Zongrui Wee writes that he is “currently serving Singapore in the Singapore Police Force.” Ballroom Dancing: Photo of Katy Maina ’15 in March 5, 2016, UCSD Dance by the Shores dance competition in San Diego. Katy danced the waltz, fox trot, Viennese waltz, tango, swing, rumba, cha cha, bolero, and mambo.
2015 KATY MAINA 837 Main Street West Newbury, MA 01985-1304 978-518-6864 Katherine.n.maina@gmail.com
Sorento, Italy: Taken by Katy Maina ’15, October 3, 2015, in Sorrento, Italy, at the Marina Grande
Capri, Italy: Taken by Katy Maina ’15, October 4, 2015, on a boat tour off the island of Capri. Photograph shows Faraglioni (rock formations) just off the coast
PROFILE J A N E T A D A M S - WA L L PEER PROFILE You can search high and low, but you’ll never find a colleague and friend as devoted and caring as Janet Adams-Wall. For the past thirty years, her life has been inextricably woven into that of the Academy. Arriving a “bachelorette,” she soon married the love of her life Ed Wall. Before long her two beloved sons Christopher and Thomas also arrived and, given their mother’s dedication to duty, spent their first few months sleeping at her feet in the College Counseling Office—a metaphor for the nurturing Janet has gifted to us all. Her ability to juggle both family and job at that time speaks volumes about her organizational skills, her determination, and the depth of her convictions. She could and would give nothing less than her very best to all who needed her, her modus operandi to this day. Yet this she does without fanfare; indeed, she shuns the spotlight. She nourishes her soul by doing good rather than seeking praise for a deed well done. An unstoppable thinker, she has always offered creative suggestions for improving our community, and when we’ve listened, we’ve learned. Yet regardless, she has quietly gone about her business of caring for others in her office, the dining hall, the dormitory, and at every imaginable student event. Long before the term “diversity” was a household word, she invited long-distance or homesick students into her home and life, for that is simply where her heart led her. She has been known to calm nervous middle-schoolers awaiting their Governor’s interview, as well as to cold-call any available college students in their respective libraries in the quest of unearthing the real “skinny” on student life at their school. If it matters, no outreach is too great. After thirty years, we are releasing Janet to retirement in Brunswick, Maine, where another community welcomes her home with open arms. But her dedication, integrity, and passion have left an indelible positive spin on her legacy here at the Academy. We are a better community because she was here. Photo: David Oxton
YEARS AT THE ACADEMY:
FAVORITE BOOKS:
30 years
Wide variety of fiction and non-fiction with a few favorites: Half the Sky; Team of Rivals; The River of Doubt; The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down; The Power of One; Crime and Punishment; Cutting for Stone; Classics
EDUCATION: Washington State University, BS University of Southern Maine, MS
RESPONSIBILITIES/DUTIES: Director of College Counseling - 25 years; Co-Director - 1 year; Senior Associate Director of College Counseling - 4 years.; Dorm Duty: Farmhouse Dormitory 13 years; Dorm Parent - Farmhouse, Phillips, and Doggett Dormitories; Driver for Community Service or Health Center
FAVORITE MUSIC: All types of music, but especially classical, folk, and popular music from the 1960’s and 1970’s
ACTIVITIES AND INTERESTS: Travelling, sports and fitness, music (piano
and guitar)—singing and playing, reading, writing, religion/spirituality, gardening, volunteering
PASSIONS: Learning more about myself and the world through travels, reading, volunteering, and spending time with people from a variety of backgrounds
GREATEST SATISFACTION: To have had a wonderful marriage, the birth and love for my two sons, and the satisfaction of a meaningful career working with young people, parents, and college admission officers
The Governor’s Academy Byfield, MA 01922
Want to see images from Commencement 2016? Visit: www.thegovernorsacademy.org/commencement