Faculty Profile

Ten Minutes With Jeff Trundy

Jeff Trundy has served as the David N. Hoadley ’51 Baseball Coach since he joined the faculty of The Frederick Gunn School in 1997. Trundy is also one of the longesttenured managers in the history of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL), where he is a local legend. Having just completed his 23rd year as Head Coach of the Falmouth Commodores, he has been named Coach of the Year in the Cape Cod league three times over the course of his career, and was honored in 2018 for his 20 years as manager of the ’Dores.

As one might guess, Trundy lives and breathes baseball, and has since he started playing on a town team in Maine, alongside his cousins and uncles, at the age of 13. He grew up in Hebron, Maine, and began his baseball career at the University of New Hampshire, where he was the team captain and made the All-New England teams. After college, he coached the team at Corey High School in Augusta, Maine, where he received the Maine Public School’s Coach of the Year Award three times. He was inducted into the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame in 2013 and is a former scout for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Many of Trundy’s former players in the CCBL attribute their success in the major leagues to him, according to Steve Kostas, past president of the Falmouth Commodores. Several of the studentathletes he has coached at The Frederick Gunn School have also gone on to play baseball in college and in the MLB, including Justin Dunn ’13 (Seattle Mariners), P.J. Higgins ’12 (Chicago Cubs), and Brooks Belter ’07 (Tampa Bay Rays). When he is not teaching or coaching, he enjoys spending time with his wife, Patti. They have three daughters. he passed away at a young age. He said: ‘Baseball breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again … and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall all alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.” It’s a very accurate description of people who have a passion for baseball and how they feel.

Q: What would you say to Mr. Gunn?

A: I would want to know what it was like standing on the Green watching that baseball game. I would like to ask him what it was like to observe a baseball game back in the 1800s. What was the focus? What were the things that were important? If I had to guess, I would say it was having fun. But what was it like to be part of The Gunnery team at that time and what was baseball like back then?

Q: What is your favorite expression?

A: I know Justin Dunn ’13 can recite these three goals: You work to improve each day. We work toward respecting our teammates. And finally, we work towards respecting the game. Those three things we live by. Myself and the coaching staff, Assistant Coaches Richard Martin P’20 ’23 ’25 and Ed Small, we collectively express those things on a daily basis.

Q: Who has been your biggest influence?

A: My father loved baseball. He loved the Red Sox. Growing up, he was one of five boys. Every one of them played baseball. In 1946, the Boston Post called them “the playingest baseball family in Maine.” You could look at a box score of the West Minot town team and there would be five Trundys in the lineup. It was ingrained in me. It would have been wrong for me not to play baseball.

Q: What advice do you have for new students?

A: Take it all in, experience as much as you possibly can. There’s so much offered outside the classroom. Becoming part of teams, clubs, doing as many things as you possibly can is a great opportunity for our students. Once they have the chance to look back, they’re going to look on this place more fondly than they do already.

Q: What is your favorite day of the year?

A: Opening day for baseball. It’s exciting. Baseball’s back. It’s also the time of year. The grass is getting green, the leaves are coming out, the warm weather is coming. There was a gentleman, Bart Giamatti, he was the Commissioner of Major League Baseball for a while and

Education University of New Hampshire — BS, Physical

Education/Biology University of Colorado — MS, Physical Education and

Recreation

Responsibilities Teaching Biology and Anatomy and Physiology The David N. Hoadley ’51 Baseball Coach Former Head Coach, girls and boys soccer, and former

Assistant Coach, Girls Soccer Accolades The Noto Family Chair for Dedicated Service, 2018-2021

Peter Becker

Head of School

BOARD OF TRUSTEES 2020-21 OFFICERS 2020-21 Patrick M. Dorton ’86

Board Chair Neil Townsend P’18 ’20

Vice Chair Wanji Walcott P’19

Vice Chair Beth W. Glynn

Secretary Ashleigh Fernandez

Treasurer

Stephen W. Baird ’68 William G. Bardel Peter Becker, Head of School Robert Bellinger ’73 Kevin Bogardus ’89 Sarah Scheel Cook ’82 Jon C. Deveaux Gretchen H. Farmer P’05 Susan Frauenhofer ’88 Adam C. Gerry P’21 Sherm Hotchkiss ’63 Peter R. Houldin ’92 Thomas R. King ’60 Jonathan S. Linen ’62 Paul McManus ’87 P’21 ’23 Len Novick P’18 ’21 Krystalynn Schlegel ’96 Omar Slowe ’97 Richard N. Tager ’56 Robert M. Tirschwell ’86 Dan Troiano ’77 Rebecca Weisberg ’90 TRUSTEES EMERITI Stephen P. Bent ’59 Leo D. Bretter ’52 P’88 Jonathan Estreich P’06 Edsel B. Ford II ’68 David N. Hoadley ’51 Joan Noto P’97 Jonathan Tisch ’72 Gerrit Vreeland ’61

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Laura Eanes Martin ’90

P’20 ’23 ’25

President Omar Slowe ’97

Vice President Scott A. Schwind ’89 Krystalynn M. Schlegel ’96

PARENTS FUND COMMITTEE Keith Gleason P’19 ’21 ’23

Committee Chair

The Bulletin is produced biannually (spring and fall) by The Frederick Gunn School Marketing & Communications Department. The 1850 Fund FUELING THE FREDERICK GUNN SCHOOL EXPERIENCE

From experiential learning opportunities and faculty development to student life activities, athletics, and financial aid, your annual gift to The 1850 Fund enhances the experience of every student at The Frederick Gunn School.

Gifts of all sizes from alumni, parents, and friends, collectively help ensure that our programs, our campus, and our faculty are the very best for our students.

MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS Doug Day Chief of Enrollment Strategy & Marketing dayd@frederickgunn.org Jennifer Clement P’22 ’25 Bulletin Editor clementj@frederickgunn.org

ALUMNI & DEVELOPMENT Sean Brown P’22 Chief Development Officer browns@frederickgunn.org ADMISSIONS Suzanne Day Interim Director of Admissions days@frederickgunn.org

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Peter Becker, Sean Brown P’22, Jennifer Clement P’22 ’25, Sarah Clemente

PHOTOGRAPHERS Jennifer Clement P’22 ’25, Phil Dutton ’81 P’23, Daniel Fladager, John Gennantonio, Heather Hall P’22 ’23, Becky McGuire, Chip Riegel, Marilyn Roos, John Senecal, Tony Spinelli, Lincoln Turner

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Frederick Gunn: An American Original

Head of School Peter Becker, Emily Gum, Associate Head of School for Teaching and Learning, and Bart McMann, Director of the Center for Citizenship and Just Democracy, presented “Frederick Gunn: An American Original” on September 13 as part of the Gunn Historical Museum’s Guest Lecture Series. The program, which was co-sponsored by the museum at the suggestion of Trustee Jean Solomon and Curator Stephen Bartkus, focused on Mr. Gunn as an abolitionist, educator and citizen.

“We hope you see from this brief dive into three distinct elements of Frederick Gunn why we believe he deserves recognition not only as ‘an American original’ but also far beyond the recognition that he has garnered thus far in American history,” Head of School Peter Becker said. “The founder of American camping, the key figure in the first known photograph of a baseball game, an abolitionist and Underground Railroad leader, and a wise, creative, studentcentered educational pioneer — we believe he deserves recognition among the great figures of American 19th-century history.”

View the recording online at https://youtu.be/OG9qbg2JyaE.

Bart McMann, Director of the Center for Citizenship and Just Democracy, with Jean Solomon, Trustee of the Gunn Memorial Library & Museum, Head of School Peter Becker, Curator Stephen Bartkus and Emily Gum, Assistant Head of School for Teaching and Learning, outside the Meeting House on the Green in September