Hotchkiss Magazine, Fall 2011 by The Hotchkiss School

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10 Consecutive New England Titles for Hotchkiss Field Hockey

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Board of Trustees Thomas C. Barry P’01,’03,’05 Katheryn Allen Berlandi ’88 Ian R. Desai ’00 Thomas J. Edelman ’69, P’06,’07 William R. Elfers ’67, Vice President John E. Ellis III ’74 Lawrence Flinn, Jr. ’53

EMERITI

Kerry Bernstein Fauver ’92

Howard C. Bissell ’55, P’82 John R. Chandler, Jr. ’53, P’82,’85,’87, GP’10

Quinn Fionda ’91, Chair, Communications Committee

Frederick Frank ’50, P’12

Brenda G. Grassey ’80

David L. Luke III ’41

Edward J. Greenberg ’55, Vice President and Chair, Alumni Services Committee

Dr. Robert A. Oden, Jr. P’97 Nancy Watson Symington P’76,’78, GP’00,’10 Francis T. Vincent, Jr. ’56, P’85 Arthur W. White P’71,’74, GP’08,’11

D. Roger B. Liddell ’63, P’98, Secretary Jennifer Appleyard Martin ’88, Chair, Gender Committee

Diana Gomez ’76, P’11,’12

Alessandra H. Nicolas ’95

Sean M. Gorman ’72, Secretary

Nichole R. Phillips ’89

John P. Grube ’65, P’00

Daniel N. Pullman ’76, Ex Officio

Elizabeth Gardner Hines ’93

Thomas S. Quinn III ’71, P’15, Ex Officio

Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet ’85 Eleanor Green Long ’76 Forrest E. Mars, Jr. ’49, P’77,’82 GP’09,’09,’11,’11,’14, Vice President Malcolm H. McKenzie P’10, Trustee Ex Officio Christopher H. Meledandri ’77, Vice President

Alumni Association Board of Governors Christopher M. Bechhold ’72, P’03, Vice President and Chair, Nominating Subcommittee for Membership Christina M. Bechhold ’03 Lance K. Beizer ’56

Kendra S. O’Donnell

William J. Benedict, Jr. ’70, P’08, ’10

Philip W. Pillsbury, Jr. ’53, P’89,’91

Katheryn Allen Berlandi ’88, President

Thomas S. Quinn III ’71, P’15

Keith E. Bernard Jr. ’95, Chair, Alumni of Color Committee

Jean Weinberg Rose ’80, President Roger K. Smith ’78, P’08 Jane Sommers-Kelly ’81 Marjo Talbott John L. Thornton ’72, P’10,’11, Officer-at-Large William B. Tyree ’81, P’14, Treasurer Daniel Wilner '03

Douglas Campbell ’71, P’01 Charles A. Denault ’74, P’03, Ex Officio Patricia Barlerin Farman-Farmaian ’85

Wendy Weil Rush ’80, P’07, Vice President and Chair, Nominating Committee Peter D. Scala ’01 Thomas R. Seidenstein ’91 Bryan A. Small ’03 George A. Takoudes ’87, Vice President

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COVER ARTIST: JONATHAN DOSTER

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F HEAD OF SCHOOL

Malcolm H. McKenzie EDITOR

Roberta Jenckes DESIGNER

Christine Koch, Boost Studio CLASS NOTES EDITOR

Divya Symmers Communications Writer WRITERS AND CONTRIBUTORS

Lee Daniels ’78 Kristen Hinman ’94 Robert Johnson ’38 Jared Klebanow ’12 Molly McDowell Malcolm McKenzie Henry McNulty Alan Murphy Wendy Weil Rush ’80, P ’07 Divya Symmers Fay Vincent ’56, P’85 Roger Wistar The Hotchkiss School does not discriminate on the basis of age, sex, religion, race, color, sexual orientation, or national orientation in the administration of its educational policies, athletics, or other school-administered programs, or in the administration of its hiring and employment practices. Hotchkiss Magazine is produced by the Office of Communications for alumni, parents, and friends of the School. Letters and comments are welcome. Please send inquiries and comments to: Roberta Jenckes, The Hotchkiss School, P.O. Box 800, Lakeville, CT 060390800, email to rjenckes@hotchkiss.org, or telephone 860-435-3122.

Living healthily is not just a 21st-century ideal – not at Hotchkiss, certainly. Credit the pristine environment, the sweet, crisp air, or the many farms that populated Lakeville well into the 20th-century. In this issue, we report on the fundamentals of a healthy campus. But we know the attention to health here is not altogether new. Take, for example, this letter in the Hotchkiss Archives written by Headmaster Huber Buehler to a friend in 1922. He wrote, “…I am convinced that everybody eats too much and that we give the boys entirely too much meat. I honestly think that a breakfast of cereals and meat only once a day would be a better diet than the bountiful table which we provide.” We think he would approve of today’s healthier dining and lifestyle habits.

Teaching Healthy Habits

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Campus Connection

Media Makers

Sports News

Alumni Profiles

It’s My Turn

Annual Report of Giving

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FROM

THE HEAD of school

In a recent State of the School webcast, currently available on the Hotchkiss website, I quoted four comments from students new this year about their perceptions of the place upon arrival. These, with many other new views,

were collected at my request by senior proctors. Here are the four that I chose:

These, with many other new views, were collected at my request by senior proctors. Here are the four that I chose: “All the returning students seem so excited to get their academic schedules – I’ve never seen that before!” “I’ve been to Hotchkiss a few times (because my dad is an alum) so I know the campus layout, but now it's cool to be here because I’m the student and this is my experience.” “This is the most beautiful campus ever; I really want to go to the lake sometime soon when it clears up.” “It’s so awesome to have people smile to me as I'm walking to Bissell – I don’t even know their names, but they are still so friendly.” These comments are fresh, enthusiastic, and appreciative. They encapsulate some essential aspects of our school: the joy of learning, the pleasure and significance of making the Hotchkiss experience one’s own, the beauty of our location, and the magic of courtesy and friendliness. Most important, perhaps, is that they all focus on qualitative characteristics, and not on factors that might to some be more

immediately obvious, such as buildings and facilities. We do possess extraordinary facilities, and we look after them well. Our campus presents itself impressively to visitors, who frequently comment on this, and those who live and work here relish the variety of outstanding opportunities afforded by our plant. But here’s the rub. I often find myself saying to prospective students and their parents that it is the spirit of the place that matters more than anything. Look through the buildings, I say, and see what makes the heart of the institution tick. I say this too to older alums, such as the Class of ’61 that returned recently for its jovial and restorative 50th Reunion. Do not become beguiled by the buildings, I urge, just as we, the current denizens, should not allow those buildings to encourage in us any edifice complex. I have seen extraordinary teaching and learning taking place under a tree. And I have seen just the opposite in grand facilities that so many, everywhere, would not even be able to begin to imagine. It is indeed possible to lose one’s way, even one’s soul, in a plant that seems paradisiac, and this is a tendency that must be watched, and combatted. It’s what we do

inside and outside our buildings that matters, how we learn and live within the compass of these constructions. This is why I was so pleased to receive this e-mail, unbidden, the morning after a lovely, late fall day. The author was a Prep writing on her behalf and that of two friends: Dear Mr. McKenzie, Today A, E, and I took advantage of our off day by taking a leisurely bike ride through campus on the community bikes. We rode for about half an hour through the entire campus. It was so nice to take the time to slow down and do something relaxing and fun with such a busy schedule here at Hotchkiss. We stopped at the patio behind Elfers overlooking the lake and mountains. The bold colors of the autumn leaves looked beautiful popping out of the mountains in the distance. Sitting there I felt so lucky to be at a school like Hotchkiss. It is so beautiful here and it is such a privilege to go to a school like this. I have only been here for about two months, and Hotchkiss has quickly become one of my favorite places in the world. I just wanted to bring to your attention how happy and grateful my friends and I feel here. It is perceptiveness, gratitude, and appreciation like this that allow us all to keep the heart of Hotchkiss beating in the right way, circulating energy and purpose. Fresh eyes and young spirits keep us in a groove that grows and quickens.

LEFT: Talking with students at the annual Prep for the Planet Day at Fairfield Farms

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move. There are tremendous developments and initiatives occurring in the United States and all over the world in the high school domain. Third, and probably most important, I want to have the space to reflect, with you, on how our school has reached towards a new sense of itself in the past few years, through focusing both on the enduring and the innovative. Three semesters, starting in January, contain many months. There will be projects to bring to fruitful conclusion and others to start, and I want to make sure that we all know, with clarity and precision, what these tasks are. “I have invited Jeannie Rose, President of our Board and a good friend, to be here today. Jeannie has some concluding remarks to offer.”

MALCOLM MCKENZIE TO STEP DOWN IN JUNE 2013 ON NOVEMBER 29, IN THE FIRST AUDITORIUM AFTER THE THANKSGIVING BREAK, HEAD OF SCHOOL MALCOLM MCKENZIE ANNOUNCED TO THE STUDENTS THAT HE WOULD BE STEPPING DOWN AT THE END OF THE ACADEMIC YEAR IN JUNE 2013.

Members of the faculty and staff also were present in the Katherine M. Elfers Hall of the Esther Eastman Music Center when McKenzie, Hotchkiss’s 12th Head of School, made the announcement. In his remarks, which are excerpted here, McKenzie acknowledged that what he was about to say would take some by surprise. “I shall have served as your Head of School for six years, one year shorter than my tenure in my last school,” he noted. “Leaving Hotchkiss will be hard,” he said. “I love the place and you, the people who make it, and I feel that I have done good work here. I have also enjoyed it immensely.” He then introduced Jean Weinberg Rose ’80, president of the Hotchkiss Board of Trustees, who made her remarks. REMARKS BY MALCOLM MCKENZIE

“As a Head, I have left two schools before, and made similar announcements. Leaving,

and moving on to a new set of tasks and responsibilities are not easy. … I shall continue to work hard, to enjoy it, and to strive to make Hotchkiss the very best that it can be, a model of what a New England and national boarding school should be aspiring to become in our interconnected and rapidly changing world. I am excited by what I can still do, with you, to help us all achieve that vision. I am also excited by the thought of moving to another school community. Each move that my family and I have made has brought us new friends, challenges, and accomplishments. “Why, you may wonder, am I making this announcement now? There are three reasons for this. First, I want to give our board the proper length of time to find and appoint my successor. Too often such searches are rushed. Second, I want to give myself the opportunity to look around, and to consider carefully with my family where we might go next before deciding on that

REMARKS BY JEAN WEINBERG ROSE ’80

“I want to start by saying how grateful my fellow Trustees and I are for the tremendous contributions Malcolm has made to our School. He brings passion, intelligence and warmth to the challenge of leading Hotchkiss. His love for the School is palpable. In a 2007 interview, he was asked why he came to Hotchkiss. He said: ‘The students are exciting, the faculty motivated, the staff committed and the trustees farsighted.’ Malcolm always sees the best in us and helps us expand our sense of what we can achieve. “In that same interview, he also said that he came to Hotchkiss because he was convinced he could impact the School in a significant way. He truly has. He has brought energy and enthusiasm to our campus. He has led a rigorous process of curricular reform. He has focused the school more than ever on ensuring the wellbeing of our students, faculty and staff. And perhaps most importantly, he has made our community so much warmer and more open. He has taught us that in order to learn, we must celebrate each other’s differences and embrace the unfamiliar. “While we look back on Malcolm’s time

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in Lakeville with gratitude, it is too soon to commemorate his accomplishments. You will note my use of the past tense in some of my comments. That is because what he has done for our school is important and has made us better. Equally important is what remains for him and us to do. Malcolm’s tenure is not over. Nor is our dedication to the key initiatives we believe are essential to an outstanding education and preparing our students for college and the world today. All of us on the Board look forward to what we will accomplish together over the next year and a half. We will maintain our momentum, and build on our success. “The Board will begin searching for a new Head of School early next year, and will keep you informed as we move forward. In the meantime, please join me in thanking Malcolm and Judith for all they have done, and all they will continue to do for Hotchkiss.” The audience then rose to its feet and gave Malcolm and Judith a resounding round of applause. In a subsequent e-mail to members of the faculty and staff, Rose emphasized the Board’s “unwavering commitment” to

the core concepts that have guided the School’s evolution since 2005. Our current strategy, she said, emerged from a years-long process that began before Malcolm’s arrival in 2007, and reflects the work of a broad array of stakeholders who sought to identify contemporary initiatives that would be consistent with its enduring values and purpose. Five pillars emerged: academic excellence and a high level of standardized care in advising and residential life; the diversity of our student body, which requires financial accessibility; the practice of meaningful global citizenship and a deep focus on global issues throughout School life; environmental stewardship, with opportunities for experiential learning and a deep focus on environmental issues throughout School life; and, service – locally, nationally, and abroad. Modern expressions of the School’s enduring values intellect, curiosity, discipline and character – these initiatives are consistent with the School’s purpose: to make a worldclass education available to students from all walks of life, an education that would prepare students for college while foster-

ing in them a desire to contribute meaningfully to the world. “With your support,” Rose said in her e-mail to faculty and staff, “Malcolm has advanced these initiatives with courage, enthusiasm, and creativity. We are confident that he will maintain this momentum for the next year and a half, and we look forward to working with him and you to consolidate and deepen the gains we have made. We will remain earnestly committed to these key initiatives through the rest of his tenure and beyond.” SOME STUDENT REACTIONS

Blake Ruddock ’12 “Mr. McKenzie has supported me on numerous occasions throughout my time at Hotchkiss. He has always been considerate of my efforts not only academically, but also athletically and extracurricularly. He will be missed by many both on and off campus. Nevertheless, I am always excited for change, and I am eager to see what new perspectives our next Head will bring to the school!” Arielle Miller ’12 “Mr. McKenzie has shaped our community to be more globally aware, diverse, and environmentally conscious than Hotchkiss has ever been before. He's been so active and enthusiastic about improving the school in every way possible.” Mohammad Amaren ’12 “Mr. McKenzie listens to the student body, and they are his first priority. I am a big fan and fond of him. I wish him all the best, and I am glad that I have known him, because he added much to my life.”

LEFT: In a photo taken this September, Malcolm is shown presenting a School prize at Opening Chapel to a student.

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usic has always been celebrated at Hotchkiss: in the classroom, on stage, in the rehearsal hall, in the chapel, in the dorm. Vocal and instrumental sounds are embedded in students’ experience of this place. For the 100th anniversary of music in the curriculum, Senior Archives Associate Joan Baldwin P’03 researched the history of teaching music at Hotchkiss for an Archives exhibit in the James Lindsay Luke Foyer. Some of the history she gathered for “Music at Hotchkiss: A Century of Teaching” is presented here, and is the source for the material in this article. In the School’s very first year, students organized a six-person orchestra and a vocal quartet. By 1896 the orchestra had grown to 22 members, and students had organized mandolin, banjo, and glee clubs. In 1909 the School held its first annual music competition. Shortly thereafter, in 1911, the board of trustees approved Headmaster Huber

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ABOVE: Students practice before their performance, 1968, and below, members of the Gospel Choir perform, 2010.

Buehler’s request to hire Hotchkiss’s first music teacher. Grover Tilden Davis, a graduate of Pomona College and the Cincinnati College of Music, taught classes that were a combination of vocal instruction and music appreciation. He also established the school choir. Davis’s youthful enthusiasm paid off. One of his students, Douglas Stuart Moore, a graduate of the Class of

1911, went on to compose several operas, including “The Ballad of Baby Doe,” and won the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 1951 for his opera, “Giants in the Earth.” Fast-forward to 2011 … In the century since Grover Davis’s appointment to the faculty, several generations of students have enjoyed and pursued music at Hotchkiss, in and out of the classroom. They’ve learned from inspiring and talented teachers, conductors, and choir leaders. They’ve grown in their knowledge and appreciation of music as well as in their skill as vocalists and instrumentalists. Some have gone on to win fame in their own right, teach new generations of students, and achieve success as composers and performers. Their teachers at Hotchkiss have followed in the tradition of that first pathsetter. In the early 20th century, Frank Hancock and his assistant, Arthur Warwick, trained and directed the Choir and Glee Club and gave private lessons in voice, organ and piano. According to the

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RIGHT: Fabio Witkowski conducts the Hotchkiss Orchestra. BELOW RIGHT: Gisele Nacif Witkowski on the Fazioli, a gift of alumni BELOW: Acclaimed musician John Hammond performed at the 100th anniversary celebration.

Archives’ exhibit, Headmaster Buehler asked the School’s music faculty to do “whatever can be done to improve the school singing as a whole and in every way possible to encourage and stimulate the musical atmosphere of the place.” Between 1914 and the 1950’s, all Preps were required to take Music Appreciation. Instrumental students took private lessons from the music faculty or visiting teachers while Hotchkiss vocal students took part in interscholastic glee club competitions in New York and Hartford. By 1940, however, the School’s musical groups that had once numbered a dozen had shrunk to one: the Glee Club.

RESURGENCE In 1950 two new music teachers, Albert Sly and Charles Demarest, arrived, inspiring renewed interest in all types of music. Alumni often express appreciation for Al Sly’s magnificent organ music, especially as it sometimes coincided in Chapel with the welcome announcement of a School holiday. In the late 1960s musician and composer David Sermersheim joined the faculty to head the music department, for what turned out to be a 33-year tenure. In 1978 he was joined by Roger Claiborne, teaching piano, organ, music history and theory, and directing the choirs. In the year 2000, Hotchkiss had a 45-member orchestra and 15-piece stage band as well as string quartets and trios. After Sermersheim’s retirement, Fabio and Gisele Nacif Witkowski joined the faculty. Fabio heads the music department and co-chairs the arts department; both

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also instruct students in piano. Students can now take private lessons for academic credit as well as an extracurricular activity; as a result Music’s adjunct faculty numbers 20, including 18 instrumental instructors in strings, brass, wind, guitar, and percussion. Music is one of the offerings in the Arts portion of the Humanities Program, and currently about 50 students are taking music in this program.

TRANSFORMATION In 2005 the Esther Eastman Music Center opened to great fanfare and appreciative audiences. Built from sustainable materials and resources, it achieved a LEED-certified rating from the U.S. Green Building Council, the first Hotchkiss building to receive this distinction. The 715-seat Katherine M. Elfers Hall, a glass-walled music pavilion with a flat floor orchestra modeled on Boston’s Symphony Hall, offers

amazing acoustical quality and provides a welcome venue for performers and audiences at many School events. The Esther Eastman Music Center offers beautiful, quiet practice rooms for music students and performance and rehearsal spaces for music students, faculty, and visiting artists. Also housed here are the WKIS radio station, a Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) lab, and visual arts faculty offices. At the building’s dedication, Head of School Skip Mattoon said that the Esther Eastman Music Center was a “transformative” gift that would change music instruction at Hotchkiss. Its impact has been all that, and more. In fact, the Esther Eastman Music Center has changed not only music teaching, but the entire school.

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LEFT: Laurie Myers Ellington ’83 led the singers in rehearsal and on stage.

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ne hundred years of music at Hotchkiss were marked with a number of events in 2010-2011, the highlight being “Hotchkiss in Harmony.” For this event in late March, alumni spanning five decades – from the Class of 1957 to the Class of 2009 – returned for a weekend of song, performance, and the sharing of musical memories. Led by choral director at Hotchkiss Laurie Myers Ellington ’83, the singers rehearsed on Saturday before an evening concert in the Katherine M. Elfers Hall of the Esther Eastman Music Center. The day’s events introduced them to current faculty and students, some of whom were performing with them, and also united them with teachers and mentors from their own Hotchkiss days. Participating in the rehearsals and accompanying the performers was former teacher Al Sly, who is well remembered for his musicianship.

J e n c k e s Also returning for the event were Carl Hagelin, who taught music from 19751977, and his wife, Joan. Ellington emceed the evening program, which offered informal “Pops”-style seating at the orchestra level in the Katherine M. Elfers Hall. In addition to the alumni performances, student a cappella groups and the Hotchkiss Gospel Choir performed that night. The idea for bringing together musicloving alumni for a harmonic reunion originally came from two members of the Board of Governors, Bill Baker ’61 and Ed Greenberg ’55. The two worked on plans for the event with Sara Eddy ’78, director of alumni and parent programs, and Caroline Sallee Reilly ’87, associate director of alumni and parent programs. Baker, who is Of Counsel at Day Pitney in New York, spoke reverently at the Saturday evening program about “what choral music has meant to me, my education and

to our country through its international bonding effect and spirit of cooperation.” “I was honored to be a part of Hotchkiss in Harmony,” says Baker. “There were far better voices singing than mine. I enjoyed the full range of group singing. The thrill of standing on a stage, watching the audience’s reaction, and listening to those around me will always remain wonderful.” Also working on the planning committee was Sam Niles ’84, a financial software consultant who sings in his church choir and recently resumed piano studies he had begun at Hotchkiss. “My postgraduate experience had just been Reunions,” he says. “Hotchkiss in Harmony was a nice alternative, a reunion for musical people, spanning many years of graduation. It was quite a nice way of networking and community building. “I called people from a whole range of classes for the event,” Niles says. “I noticed a pattern – sometimes I was calling alumni from my class, for instance, as well as their parents. We didn’t have a case of a father and son attending or father and daughter, but there were several families that spanned two generations or more. It’s probably not a coincidence; my father also enjoys singing. “I have always enjoyed making music and had sung in Glee Club throughout day school,” he says. “I naturally joined the Hotchkiss Choir. Mathematics was always my strongest subject. I approached music as an intellectual challenge, a puzzle, rather than a means of artistic expression. Always knowing that mathematics would be my ‘day job,’ I simply regarded music as an enjoyable extracurricular activity.

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TOP: Alumni singers and their guests await their turn on stage. UPPER RIGHT: Malcolm McKenzie presents former Choral Teacher Al Sly with a gift. ABOVE: Al Sly took his accustomed place at the keyboard.

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“I was surprised to see that Music Theory was actually part of the academic curriculum at Hotchkiss. To this day, I am so glad that I enrolled in that class with Roger Claiborne. It still puts me at the head of the class as someone who can read music and understand cadences. I also studied piano for exactly one academic year. Finally, I sang with the Blue Notes singing group, which had been revitalized by Chris Holding (’84). “Since graduating from college, I have sung in a few church choirs. Singing keeps me involved in church services, and

Thursday evening rehearsals are a welcome break from the daily routine,” Niles says. Like Niles, Bill Baker enjoyed music at Hotchkiss and especially group singing, so much so that he chose to go to Yale because of its singing tradition. “I sang in the Choir, the Glee Club, and the Blue Notes at Hotchkiss. I remember very well trips to the Bushnell in Hartford for the Spring Choral Festival. I also remember practicing with the Blue Notes in the basement below Main. Acoustics and the environment were so-so, but the team effort was wonderful.” Returning to Hotchkiss for the event afforded one unexpected opportunity for Baker. With Al Sly providing the accompaniment for the musicians, Baker had the chance to talk to him about the follow-up assignment from the Music Appreciation and Composition course he took with Sly his senior year. “Part of the assignment in the course,” recalls Baker, “was to compose a work based on a poem I liked. I chose Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s ‘Kubla Khan.’ The melody I composed I can sing today. Execution of the rest of the score left a great deal to be desired, and my grade appropriately reflected that. Fifty years later, I told Al at Hotchkiss in Harmony that seeing him inspired me to try to finish my ‘masterpiece.’”

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Hotchkiss Alumni in Print The Faces of Phi Delta Phi: Leaders, Lawyers, & Legends – A History of the International Legal Fraternity Phi Delta Phi, 1869-2009 BY ANNIE MILLER DEVOY ’85 HARRIS CONNECT/THE DONNING COMPANY 2010

Through anecdotes and archival photographs, this limited-edition pictorial history chronicles the 140-year-old story of the country’s oldest professional fraternity, Phi Delta Phi. Many of the most influential jurists in American history, including Hotchkiss alumni Robert Bork ’44 and Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart ’33, have been members, as were five former U.S. presidents (both Roosevelts, McKinley, Taft, and Ford). So, it turns out, was author Devoy, along with her husband, his father, and both their grandfathers. From law school into the world, Phi Delta Phi alumni “have led by extraordinary example and established a challenging standard.” The foreword is by fellow Phi, Senator Daniel Inoue of Hawaii.

Freedom Is Not Enough: The Moynihan Report and America’s Struggle over Black Family Life – from LBJ to Obama BY JAMES T. PATTERSON ’52 BASIC BOOKS, MAY 2010

Ford Foundation Professor of History emeritus at Brown University, Patterson presents an absorbing history of the controversial 1965 report on “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action” written by the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then a little-known official in the Labor Department. Describing the political fallout that resulted from the report’s assertion that government intervention was needed to help break the cycle of single-mother households in the urban ghetto, Patterson “offers a compact, well-researched, reliable, lively, and above all, balanced account of a major social and political issue.” (Journal of American History)

Secret Society BY TOM DOLBY ’94 HARPERTEEN/HARPERCOLLINS 2009

The first young-adult effort by Dolby, whose previous works include The Sixth Form (2008), Secret Society is a compulsively readable take on the “Gossip Girl” genre set on New York’s Upper East Side, with a dash of murder mystery and the occult. The story centers on a cadre of privileged private-school students who join a mysterious group that promises to help them realize their dreams, only to discover that their lives have become nightmares. An equally entertaining sequel, The Trust, was published earlier this year.

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Fast Forward: Ethics and Politics in the Age of Global Warming BY WILLIAM ANTHOLIS AND STROBE TALBOTT ’64 BROOKINGS INSTITUTION PRESS 2010

As a review in the Financial Times noted when this book came out last year, for almost two decades world leaders have gathered at regular intervals to discuss the threat of global warming, with few concrete results. In summing up the December 2009 international climate summit in Copenhagen, the authors are unapologetic in making their case that it is effectively now or never – the scientific consensus is 2015 – for the world to begin to reverse emissions growth. “Our forebears had the excuse of ignorance,” they write. “Our descendants will have the excuse of helplessness. We have no excuse.”

Eating for Beginners: An Education in the Pleasures of Food from Chefs, Farmers, and One Picky Kid BY MELANIE REHAK ’89 HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT

Featuring a recipe for “Easy Flip Raisin French Toast” that won a rave from The Washington Post, Rehak’s Eating for Beginners takes a beguiling look at the food revolution launched by people like Michael Pollan and Alice Waters. A passionate amateur cook, she spent a year working for a Brooklyn restaurant devoted to farm-to-table produce, including a stint at the farm that supplied it. She even lent a hand on the fishing trawler that provided the restaurant’s seafood. In the eye-opening process she gained a greater understanding of what to feed her young son, and why.

One Mountain Thousand Summits: The Untold Story of Tragedy and True Heroism on K2 BY FREDDIE WILKINSON ’98 NEW AMERICAN LIBRARY/PENGUIN JULY 2010

The world’s second-highest mountain, K2 – in the Karakoram Range of northern Pakistan – is also one of the most dangerous; in August 2008, 11 climbers from seven countries died trying to reach its summit when a wall of ice collapsed. Wilkinson, an Alpinist and veteran climbing writer who has made first ascents on peaks in Alaska, Patagonia, and the Himalayas, wrote one of the first accounts of the accident (in The Huffington Post). His book is a true insider’s account of “the hubris, racial tensions, and ethnic ambiguities that threaten to consume modern mountaineering. It is also an honest portrait of how heroism can transcend these divisions.”

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news

Ten Consecutive N.E. Titles for Coach Robin Chandler’s Teams: Field hockey, boys soccer capture crowns BY ROGER WISTAR

The field hockey and boys soccer teams brought home the glory on Sunday, Nov. 20, winning the Class A New England championships in their sports. For head coach Robin Chandler ’87 and assistant coaches John Virden ’64, P’89,’91 and Amanda Bohnsack ’98, and the field hockey team, the 2-1 victory over archrival Greenwich Academy also signaled a historymaking ten consecutive New England titles for Hotchkiss field hockey teams. Five of the championships (2002, 2003, 2004, 2010, and 2011) have come against GA, including last year’s triple-overtime thriller. During their decade of dominance, the Hotchkiss teams have recorded five unbeaten seasons and a combined record of 160-5-5 in that time. “It was a remarkable weekend and season,” said Chandler. “These kids fought hard for everything and earned each victory along the way. I could not be more proud of each and every one of them.” The two teams played to a scoreless first half, but the Bearcats jumped ahead early in the second half off a penalty corner. Shannon Cherpak ’13 tipped in a rebound off a shot by Ally Chute ’12. Cherpak added the game-winning goal later in the half. The title runs have not come without suspense. Each of the last two years, the team has been pushed to penalty strokes, including this year’s dramatic 1-0 victory over Taft in the semifinals. Like last year, the outcome came down to the final stroke, with Samantha Sandler ’13 providing the decisive goal against Taft. Chandler gave special praise to goalkeeper Leah Settipane ’12. “Leah was amazing in goal over the weekend,” she said. “We had six saves on Saturday and seven on Sunday, some of which were jaw-dropping, ‘How the heck did she get that?’ saves.” For the boys soccer team, the road to the

title came somewhat more easily, with a 2-0 victory over Andover in the finals at Northfield Mt. Hermon. The team endured its own semifinal struggles, needing overtime to beat Taft 2-1 in the semifinals held at Hotchkiss. In the finals, the Bearcats relied on its trio of offensive stars for both goals. Isaac Normesinu ’13 scored the first goal at 20’, with assists from Mohammed Rashid ’12 and Mohammed Moro ’14. Normesinu would return the favor, assisting on a goal by Rashid at 78’ to clinch the victory. The win is the team’s third title in the last four years, with wins in 2009 and 2008. Coming off a semifinal loss to Kent last year, the Bearcats stormed through the regular season, with losses only to Brunswick and South Kent. Head coach Chris Downs P’12,’15 praised his squad for its chemistry and character. “This team didn’t have as much talent as the other two teams,” he said. “Everybody did some heavy lifting. It was a team effort.”

TOP: The winning boys soccer team members and their head coach Chris Downs pose for the team photo. ABOVE: Field hockey players celebrate their victory. F a l l

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Ambassador Arturo Fermandois

Visitor

Chile: Its Institutional Way to Development

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HISTORY-MAKING

SNOWSTORM

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POWER

OUTAGE WEREN’T THE ONLY NOTABLE EVENTS TO TAKE PLACE IN LAKEVILLE

THE

LAST

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OCTOBER.

WEDNESDAY,

OCTOBER 26, THE HOTCHKISS COMMUNITY WELCOMED CHILEAN AMBASSADOR ARTURO FERMANDOIS, WHO GRACIOUSLY AGREED TO SPEAK WITH THE STUDENTS ABOUT HIS COUNTRY, ITS HISTORY,

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CHALLENGES

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OPPORTUNITIES

CHILE

FACES.

The visit was arranged by David Thompson, director of international programs, and Philip W. Pillsbury, Jr. ’53. In his work for the United States Information Agency over three decades, Pillsbury served successively in Madrid, Florence, Bamako, Antananarivo, Lubumbashi, Tehran, and Buenos Aires. Thanks to his continued friendships in the diplomatic corps, he has brought a number of current ambassadors to Hotchkiss in recent years, providing an excellent grounding in world affairs for the entire school community. In introducing His Excellency Arturo Fermandois, Pillsbury cited his extensive credentials, including his many academic achievements. A Fulbright scholar, Ambassador Fermandois holds a law degree from Catholic University of Chile and an M.A. from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He has published numerous books and articles and has practiced both private and corporate law, in addition to serving as a law school professor at Catholic University of Chile and as a visiting scholar at Harvard Law School. He received the Catholic University Outstanding Teaching Award. The e-announcement of the ambassador’s forthcoming visit promised a dynamic speaker, and his audience was not disappointed. Ambassador Fermandois began his hour-long presentation with a description of the “perfect job” he inherited when he began in his current post a year and a-half ago. At that time, Chile ranked first in 11 out of 13 lifestyle factors in Latin America, including per capita income, human development, infant mortality, life expectancy, adult literacy, science performance, global innovation, civil liberties and political rights, gender equality, corruption, and freedom of business and communications. Ambassador Fermandois helped bring about the 2004 freetrade agreement with the United States, which brought greater prosperity to his country. Under the agreement, the U.S. has more

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By Alan Murphy

than doubled its exports to Chile, and the job creation rate there has increased dramatically. Poverty has fallen from 34 percent to 13 percent in less than a decade, and extreme poverty has sunk to three percent. In the meantime, the Chilean government has managed to transform itself into a stable democracy without major political or legal global conflicts. On the day he assumed his current position, therefore, Ambassador Fermandois saw his primary focus as further spurring the country’s development, including encouraging exchanges of technology and education and seeing per capita income raised even higher. A year into his ambassadorship, Mr. Fermandois said, things changed: Discontented youth began massive demonstrations, calling attention to problems in the education system, economic disparity, and labor issues. The continuing upheaval has become the major focus of his attention. Mr. Fermandois drew the students into his presentation by asking them to consider what they would do in his place. How would they position Chile in order that it might become a more developed and prosperous nation in five years’ time? The ambassador pushed students to think like leaders, problem solve, and strategize. So that his audience would have a better understanding of the context behind these decisions, he offered a quick overview of the last halfcentury of Chilean political history, starting with the moderate government led by Christian Democrat Eduardo Frei Montalva in the 1960s and then the socialist victory of Salvador Allende. He took the students through the economic depression of the early ’70s, marked by capital flight, a scarcity of goods, high unemployment, and a 500-percent inflation rate brought on by economic reforms. The 1973 military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, he said, dealt blows to human rights and democracy, but began with economic reforms that helped the country grow. The country’s return to a more centrist government brought with it increased civil rights and, once again, democratic rule. Sharing his pride in Chile’s accomplishments and optimism for its future, the ambassador nonetheless didn’t ignore the serious challenges his nation faces. With no oil production and limited and expensive hydro resources, Chile has some very real energy concerns, reflected in the fact that Chileans currently pay 50 percent more for energy than do citizens of neighboring countries.

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Educational equality is another serious problem. In the past, the education system was state-owned and of generally poor quality. Privatization has dramatically improved the quality and coverage of education but at a high cost, with graduates now burdened by enormous loans. While students press for a return to completely free education for everybody, the ambassador says that this would

not be affordable at this time. Already, corporate tax rates have been raised from 18 to 20 percent to help the nation recover from the devastating 2010 earthquake. The most important issues facing Chile, the ambassador says, are access and flexibility in the cost of education, fostering innovation and entrepreneurship, and the development of critical thinking.

Student Reactions Hotchkiss students came away from the presentation with a much better understanding of the politics, economics, and people of Chile. They also learned a lot of interesting facts about Chile, including that it is home to the world’s largest copper mine and largest astronomical park. The country can actually lay claim to 60 percent of the earth’s stargazing capability due to its optimal climate, elevation, and clear skies. Ambassador Fermandois earned high marks from students for his fascinating introduction to a country some students had known little about: MARTIN CARRIZOSA ’14

Martin mentioned the dramatic drop in population growth, noting the ambassador’s statistic that “the index of children per family has declined from around 5.0 to 1.9.” He was also impressed by Chileans’ “great sense of business,” citing the fact that the country has signed free-trade agreements with some 52 countries.

GONZALO MOCORREA ’13

Gonzalo also was impressed by the Chilean approach to trade, saying, “The Chilean economic model is very distinct from most other countries in its openness to other markets.” He cited the ambassador’s remark that Chilean leaders began the process of gradually reducing tariffs in the 1970s, until they reached six percent in 2003. HUDSON KURAS ’12

Hudson applauded the ambassador’s determination to find ways to “increase incentives for young Chileans to become educated abroad and bring their acquired skills back to their home nation.” Only five percent of Chilean students speak English, and the ambassador sees placing young Chileans in universities all around the globe as an important strategy for his country’s future. He wants Chileans to know other realities, races, and governmental systems, and also believes it’s critical that Chileans become more aware of their place within the international community.

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Students’ film, ‘My Flag’: A much-praised documentary wins first place and other awards

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Sometimes students tell the School’s story in a way that the ‘grown-ups’ on campus can’t. A case in point is the documentary “My Flag” by Ji Hwan “Brian” Ryu ’13 and Danielle Jacobs ’13. Produced during the 2010-11 year, the film relates the dialog that took place during the fall semester 2010 regarding the hanging of the Tibetan flag in the School dining hall. Thoughtful and restrained, “My Flag” allows students and teachers to talk with each other about how Tibet’s flag (which, a Hotchkiss faculty member points out in the film, is a “cultural” flag, not a national flag) should be displayed with other flags. While the student filmmakers did not foresee the powerful effect the story would have or its resulting acclaim, some has indeed followed. As of mid-November, “My Flag” has won Best Student Short Film in the Southern Utah International Documentary Film Festival 2011 (winning over 27 other entries in the final round) and Best High School Documentary at the International Student Film Festival Hollywood 2011. It also won second place and honorable mention awards at two other film festivals. And it was an official selection at both the Independents’ Film Festival 2011 and at the Bayou City Inspirational Film Festival 2011. “I'm not surprised that this film is winning awards,” said Instructor in Film Ann Villano. “In documentary, the topic is everything. Brian observed a quiet, little-known RIGHT: the White Flags installation by Aaron Fein at Vassar College appears in the film.

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conflict on our campus that reflects a larger global issue. His authentic interest to better understand the issue, coupled with Danielle's mature perspective, made a winning combination. Brian and Danielle extended themselves to better understand our community. “They both took great consideration for their colleagues’ points of view,” Villano continued. “They were very concerned about sharing both sides of the debate, and I think their caring and respect come through.” The story began with the display of flags in the dining hall, which Director of International Programs David Thompson carries out as a way to educate students about the countries of the world. In fall 2010, when a Tibetan student asked that the Tibetan flag be hung along with the others, some mainland Chinese students reacted, finding the act

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to be offensive. They campaigned to have the flag removed, unknowingly paving the way for a series of discussions and “teaching moments” eagerly seized upon by Head of School Malcolm McKenzie and Hotchkiss faculty members. Filming this educational process and public debate came about through coincidence and sharp intuition. Brian needed an idea for a film for his course, Introduction to Film. “I knew some talk was happening within the school,” said Brian, “but didn't pay too much attention to it. One day, I was walking to film class; we were supposed to have an idea for our next projects, but I couldn't think of one the night before. I had roughly three minutes left until class started when I saw a poster for Mr. Orville Schell's talk on the history of the Tibetan flag scheduled for that night. After pitching the idea to Ms. Villano, I quickly grabbed a camera and shot the lecture. “Prof. Schell really paved the way for us. His talk isn’t in the final cut, but he catapulted us into the subject, especially because his talk emphasized the history between the two ‘nations.’ Because I barely knew anything about the subject, his talk was definitely what really got the project going,” he said. Like Brian’s idea for the film, the discussions about the flag developed organically. Malcolm McKenzie encouraged the dialog, talking to interested students about which flag they thought should go up and what they considered to be the appropriate way to consider the topic. David Thompson spoke to a group from mainland China and Hong Kong about the possibility of including the Tibetan flag. A lower mid who is both Chinese and a practicing Tibetan Buddhist gave an evening talk about resolving the tensions between these two aspects of her identity. Orville Schell P’11, Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.China Relations, was invited by the Asian Society to speak at Hotchkiss on the history of the Tibetan flag (the talk that inspired Brian and Danielle). Viewers of the film drop in on these conversations, taking place around the School and in locales that include New York City and Poughkeepsie, where the filmmakers visit an outdoor sculpture installation, “White Flags,” at Vassar College. In this exhibition, artist Aaron Fein had rendered all 192 flags of the U.N. member nations entirely in white. Commemorating the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the art project was intended to be a monument to peace.

At the white flags installation and throughout the film, the student “co-stars,” Michael and Karma, are seen musing out loud about what they’ve seen and heard. The camera follows David Thompson as he stands atop a ladder in the dining hall, carefully unfurling flags and explaining to students the difference between a cultural flag and a national flag. “Directorially, there are choices that Brian made which are unknown by the viewer. His decision to put a mike on Mr. Thompson while he was moving flags made for some excellent cinema verite filmmaking. And during the white flag shoot at Vassar, he opted to take two cameras. That extra effort brought a more dynamic interview scene with Karma and Michael,” said Instructor Ann Villano. “When Brian and I started making ‘My Flag’ in October,” said Danielle Jacobs, “we didn't have a clear direction or certain goals in mind. Later in the year, we realized we wanted our film to be about understanding and compromise in a community as diverse as Hotchkiss. Our finished project is a collaboration of our ideas, along with the help of several Hotchkiss students and faculty members.” “As a student filmmaker,” said Brian, “I was least concerned about the impact while we worked on the film. Danielle and I were partners in the project, and both Danielle and I discovered and learned a lot as we went through the process. “Our goal was, and still is, to tell a great story,” he said. “We were lucky in that we had the entire story in front of us. The conversation continued while we fabricated the film. We just had to tell it.”

ABOVE: With Edward Asner at the International Student Film Festival, Hollywood 2011.

YOU CAN VIEW THE FILM BY GOING TO THE ABOUT HOTCHKISS SECTION OF THE WEBSITE, WWW.HOTCHKISS.ORG.

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Teaching Healthy Habits

Up on the [Hotchkiss] Farm: Growing a New Kind of Education

few rules apply when you’re wandering around the Hotchkiss Farm – still known formally as Fairfield Farms – but the most important is to close the gates behind you. The 280-acre School property off Route 41, where open meadows are dotted by clumps of white oak, hickory and maple trees, is home to some 50 head of cattle – a benign and shaggy-coated mix of Devon, Devon-cross, and Hereford and Hereford-crosses that belong to local farmer Allen Cockerline. Poised between Lakeville and Sharon, 260 acres of this gorgeously diverse blend of forest, wetlands, upland fields, and pasture were acquired by Hotchkiss in 2004, a generous partial gift from Jack Blum ’47, a former trustee, and his wife, Jeanne, who raised Black Angus cattle here for 27 years. In 2010 the School purchased the remaining 17 acres, a tract that included the Blum family’s stately, white-columned home and three sturdy outbuildings. With dramatic views of the iconic twin oaks beloved of local painters and the Taconic hills cascading north to Massachusetts, the farm is a spectacular setting for events such as the annual Prep for the Planet day, held for the third time in September 2011 and inspired by Head of School Malcolm McKenzie’s remark, several years ago, that “Prep for college is vital, but prep for the planet is a more compelling matter, a matter of survival.”

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For Hotchkiss preps, it’s an opportunity to spend a day outside picking apples, beans, and squash, digging potatoes, clearing trails, and in general experiencing a place that’s becoming a pivotal part of Hotchkiss life. “We’re getting better every year,” said Josh Hahn, assistant head of school and director of environmental initiatives. “We’re more organized. We have more crops, so the diversity of the produce is better. And these kids are discovering where their food comes from, how it’s processed, and where it goes. ” “I think today, especially, it’s really important to be able to grow food locally in an organic way,” said Maude Quinn ’15. “And I think it’s really cool to be out here and know that Hotchkiss is part of something like this.” About eight tons of potatoes were harvested from the Farm this fall, which is almost half the estimated 20 tons consumed in the Hotchkiss Dining Hall during a typical academic year. Students, faculty, and staff have been feasting on squash and fresh greens, tomatoes and an impressive variety of other vegetables planted, tended, picked, and even pickled, by members of FFEAT (Fairfield Farms Ecosystems and Adventure Team) and six hardworking farm interns. Thanks to an agreement with the School’s food service company as well as contracts with a pair of humane, FDA-approved slaughterhouses in Connecticut and Massachusetts, an estimated 600 organic free-range chickens raised on the farm will

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‘‘

My hope for the farm is that everyone at Hotchkiss will be able to say that they had a part in providing the food that they eat in the dining hall.” —Maren Wilson ’14

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Teaching Healthy Habits

be cooked and eaten at Hotchkiss this year, as will meat from three grass-fed steers the School purchased from Allen Cockerline; this spring, there may even be rice from an experimental rice paddy. “My hope for the Farm is that everyone at Hotchkiss will be able to say that they had a part in providing the food that they eat in the dining hall,” said farm intern Maren Wilson ’14, in a passionate email at summer’s end. “We are a big school so it is a huge goal. But the internship program in the summer and FFEAT in the fall and spring help so much in integrating talk about the farm in classrooms and at lunch tables, and helping advertise how sustainability and organic farming are really important in the world today.”

A Destination and a Classroom eyond its increasingly visible role providing organically grown food for the School Dining Hall, the Hotchkiss Farm is also where art classes can practice plein air painting, poetry classes can find inspiration, environmental science classes can explore terrain that includes rare grassland bird habitats, and American

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history classes can reflect on the fact that this was once part of a land grant from King George III. For the past two years, the School’s human development teaching assistants have organized a nutrition seminar, and there are other courses in the works that will look at everything from genetically modified food to food-borne illnesses. When completed, farm trails will add an estimated three to five miles to the six or more that already traverse the Hotchkiss Woods, resulting in an even more welcoming nature experience/destination for students, faculty, staff, and neighboring town residents. One particular stretch of field between the big red barn and a screened gazebo that Jack Blum built for his wife has already lent itself to tented gatherings of all sorts, from an end-of-year staff and faculty retirement celebration in June to a 99.9 percent farm-grown Trustees’ dinner in September. At a faculty wedding in August, “The cows came right up and watched,” said Head of the Visual and Performing Arts Department and Instructor in Art Charlie Noyes ’78, with a laugh. “The Farm has become a part of the fabric of the School.” In the spring of 2008, it was a different story. As

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Noyes puts it, when he said farm, “no one knew where it was.” But by then Allen Cockerline, owner of Whipporwill Farm in Salisbury and a longtime purveyor of healthy, grass-fed beef, had been brought on board to help manage the property. He and Noyes were old friends, and he encouraged Noyes to get involved with planting crops. “It really was an organic process,” Cockerline explained during an educational day at the Farm held for faculty and staff last summer. “There were early discussions of what can we do? How can we grow food? Then we sank the plow into the ground and said, ‘All right, let’s do it!’ ” Enlisting the initially reluctant help of the School’s climbing club, a co-curricular activity he coached at the time, Noyes took them out to the Farm to plant squash, pumpkins, beans, and potatoes, all crops that are simple to grow. At the same time, he sat down and wrote a proposal for a new co-curricular activity – the Fairfield Farms Ecosystems and Adventure Team, or FFEAT. The following fall he and the kids who had signed up for FFEAT spent days cleaning out the Farm’s barn, since its concrete floor made it ideal for storing potatoes and apples in what they hoped, erroneously it turned out, would be a rat-proof root cellar of sorts. Deer had already decimated the beans and pumpkins. And when it came time to harvest the potatoes, Noyes sent three girls out to check how they looked. “Yeah, yeah, you already showed us where they are,” they assured him, and off they went, only to come back empty-handed. “They couldn’t find the potatoes,” Noyes remembered, laughing. “So we all trundled back out to the field – and this was a teaching moment, because the vines had withered at that point, and because we don’t use fertilizer or weed killer, it just looked like a weedy field. I said to them, ‘If you stand here, you can see there’s kind of a row,’ and they said, ‘Oh, yeah.’ And they started to dig, and they pulled up a potato, and you’d think they’d found gold, they were so happy.” He laughed again. “They all started digging and they were filling the bottoms of their T-shirts with dirty potatoes. When I asked them what they were doing, they said, ‘We’re gonna eat them! We’ll bring them back to the dorm and have a feed!’ ” The excitement of that moment was as unexpected as the realization that the students didn’t know potatoes grew in the ground; admittedly, plenty of city-bred adults don’t know, either. It’s only in the last decade that the organic and locavore farming movement has

gained momentum, fueled by ‘slow-food’ gurus such as Alice Waters, who spoke at the School in 2009, and The Omnivore’s Dilemma author Michael Pollan, who has a house in nearby Cornwall. The knowledge disconnect between the process of growing food and the consumers who buy it has narrowed considerably; even Wal-Mart sells organic, locally grown produce these days. In the three years since FFEAT was founded, student awareness of where their food comes from has similarly grown in leaps and bounds – as has the School’s use of Fairfield Farms. “We now have five acres under tillage and we could expand easily and double that. That’s a lot of food,” said Noyes. “This year we’ve partnered with Sodexo, our food services company, to streamline the farm-to-table process, so we’re getting homegrown food to the School more efficiently. That means most of it is going to the Dining Hall – so kids are eating what kids grow.”

A Homecoming of Sorts here’s definite synchronicity in the fact that the house Hotchkiss acquired in 2010 was built in 1905 by Albert B. Landon, the husband of Carrie Bissell, who was Maria Hotchkiss’s aunt. In the 1700s, the land surrounding it was the core of a 7,000-acre tract deeded by King George to Captain James Landon, who in turn conveyed 170 acres of what became known as Tory Hill to the Bissell family. (A loyalist, Landon lost everything in the Revolution.) Both Maria Harrison Bissell Hotchkiss and her brother Charles H. Bissell, a future School trustee, were born in a house on

Opposite: Students enjoy some downtime at the farm, attracting mild interest from resident cows. Top: Charlie Noyes ’78 gives instruction to members of FFEAT (Fairfield Farms Ecosystems and Adventure Team). Above: Erin Markey ’11 shows off an example of the farm’s robust crop.

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Above: Members of the prep class harvest potatoes at the annual Prep for the Planet Day in September.

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Tory Hill Farm, also known as Home Farm. Before her death in New York City in 1901, Maria visited Charles frequently, and her funeral service was held there and was “largely attended,” according to records, “the faculty and students of the Hotchkiss School being present in a body.” When Charles Bissell died, his will included the wish that his “farm of land with the buildings thereon, containing one hundred and seventy-five acres, more or less, on Tory Hill, in said Town of Salisbury” to the Maria H. Hotchkiss School Association “to create in said school an Agricultural Course or Department where, under scientific direction, the various branches of farming or dairying, fruit culture or other kindred agricultural subjects can be both practically and scientifically taught.” The Blums, too, were avidly committed to conserving the land – and Jack Blum, as a former commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Agriculture, hoped that Hotchkiss students would “work and study on the farm and become educated, engaged, and passionate stewards of the environment.” It’s finally happening. For the past two years Hotchkiss has sponsored summer farm internships, and Kurt Hinck ’08, now a sophomore at Gettysburg College, and lower-mid Maren Wilson ’14, are veterans of both summers. For Wilson, who arrived not knowing what to expect, it’s been an opportunity to master skills like weeding, seeding, harvesting, and tending fruit trees;

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even welding portable chicken coops and raising the birds – a breed known as Kosher Kings – in “the most healthy and organic way possible.” Hinck, who was comanager this year, had worked on a farm in Millbrook every summer since his lower-mid year and volunteered for the Farm’s first spring planting as a senior in 2008. He’s still amazed by the progress that’s been made. “Just that little five-acre plot, we buried them in squash last year. We had too much. The potential is awesome.” This summer the program was expanded from three to five days a week, and Wilson said she “smiled all the way home” because of the enormous tasks accomplished by the group, which also included Tavo True-Alcala ’11, Sandie Knuth ’10, and Nancy Palmer ’11. Supervising them was Serena Whitridge, a Millbrook School (“I’m a traitor, sorry!”) and University of Vermont graduate who worked at Growing Power, a nonprofit urban farming organization in Milwaukee before coming to Hotchkiss. “It’s exciting seeing the potential of what it is now and then dreaming of the future, of how much more food can be produced,” she said, noting that one of their more ambitious projects is building hoop houses – portable, passive solar greenhouses that extend the growing season by allowing winter planting. They also help boost soil fertility: the Farm’s Stockbridge clay loam, while a “great grassland soil,” can be tricky in wet years with crops, “corn, soybeans, that kind of stuff,” according to Allen Cockerline, who works closely with students. The kind of tender-hearted farmer who takes care to ensure his cattle lead idyllic lives with ends that are as swift and humane as possible (the three steers he sold Hotchkiss were sent to a slaughter-house that runs on principles established by animal advocate Temple Grandin), not long ago he took a group of faculty and staff on a tractor tour up a narrow grassy road and down to a small, experimental rice paddy, where a Japanese variety already successful in Vermont was planted last spring. “Who would have thought we’d be growing rice?” he asked, with a grin. “But it’s credible. It’s viable. And we’re doing it.”

Modeling Self-Reliance arther up on Farm property there’s a beaver swamp where Charlie Noyes hopes to put in observation decks. There are trails that need to be built, marked with signage, and maintained. New crops are being planned (this year, the Farm grew black beans for the first time) along with new and larger storage areas to hold the pro-

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duce that’s harvested next year. There’s already an emphasis on food justice, with the Farm participating in local food banks and similar outreach, including educational displays right in the Dining Hall. “A lot of my kids are saying, ‘OK, this is all well and good, but what about the people who can’t afford organic?’ ” explained Noyes, who sees the Farm’s potential for integration into the life of the School as limitless. “One of Josh Hahn’s missions as environmental coordinator is to weave in curricular elements – not just environmental studies and science courses, but also the arts, languages, math. Every program, whether co-curricular or curricular, will be built on the four R’s: responsibility, relationship, relevance – which is absolutely essential – and rigor.” In September, after a morning of hard but exhilarating work for Prep for the Planet day, the prep class was treated to a farm-to-table lunch prepared by Andy Cox, the new manager of the School’s dining services. A far cry from the packed sandwiches of yore, there in the Farm’s red barn, not far from where the latest batch of fast-growing Kosher King chicks peeped contently under warm lights, a long table was covered in chafing

dishes whose enticingly labeled contents included “tossed salad with tomatoes from the Hotchkiss Farm”; “herb roasted potatoes with potatoes and rosemary from the Hotchkiss Farm”; “braised greens with collard and kale from the Hotchkiss Farm”, and braised barbecue brisket from Alan Cockerline’s grass-fed cows. Even the fresh cider was pressed by the kids from apples they’d picked that morning. “It was a great experience,” said Serena Sommerfield ’15, seated contentedly on a hay bale near classmates Gloria Odoemelam, Kahiya McDaniels, and Maude Quinn. It’s only the first of many. “Our focus is on how these kids can create their own futures,” points out Josh Hahn. “Producing energy with the new biomass plant, building soil and sequestering carbon, and growing food – this is all part of the creative, regenerative, entrepreneurial, problem-solving mindset. The Farm builds context for the content we teach in the classroom. Even if we only produce enough tomatoes for a month or half the potatoes we consume all year, we’re modeling not just being consumers, we’re modeling self-reliance. And that’s really the thrust of each and every environmental initiative the School promotes.”

Below: Students work at Prep for the Planet Day, before sitting down to a hearty farm-to-table lunch, with food from Fairfield Farms.

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Teaching Healthy Habits

The Dining Services’ Andy Cox: A Passionate ‘Farm to Table’ Chef

ast summer, as Andrew Cox prepped his family’s move from Boston to the Lakeville area, he realized there’d be a few adjustments to country life – like, the lack of mail delivery in his new town of Copake, NY. All things considered, however, the 33-year-old chef was ready to escape the urban jungle and spread out in a landscape primed for his dream project: building out a local food system. Cox, who hails from New Haven, came of age as a cook at the beginning of a national culinary awakening, just as socially-conscious consumers began to press for more sustainably- and humanely-sourced whole foods at their favorite groceries and restaurants. He’s staffed stands at farmers’ markets and worked the soil beneath his ingredients. The food he serves his own family comes from small growers who eschew hormones and antibiotics, pesticides and fossil fuel-based fertilizers. Cox put in stints for chefs who shared his beliefs in Oregon, Chicago and Boston. Then he joined the ranks of corporate food service, where he has helped improve sustainability practices at Sodexo in particular. Cox recently left his post as Sodexo’s executive chef at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he served locally-sourced repasts to the likes of Condoleeza Rice and Al Gore, to take

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over as Sodexo’s general manager of Hotchkiss Dining Services. Cox says the School’s farm was a big lure to Lakeville. But his rapport with Josh Hahn, director of environmental initiatives, and John Tuke, chief financial officer, was equally important. “I could see we were all on the same page in terms of achieving more sustainability,” says Cox. “We all see eye-to-eye on the challenges we have, but also the opportunity to really be a leader in the industry.” What will the 21st-century dining hall look like? Here, Cox expands on his philosophy and plans to innovate in Lakeville.

You’ll have to tell me how a former physics major at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute ended up in culinary school.

I studied physics for more than a year, but then I switched majors several times. Eventually my parents suggested a leave of absence. I moved to Chicago and did some telecoms engineering. A friend came for the summer, and since I got out of my union job early every day we wound up cooking dinner every night. Before she went back to the East Coast she put me on the mailing list of every culinary school in the city. I got laid off after 9/11, but they gave me re-training money. I ended up enrolling at Kendall College.

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The farm manager and I want to grow all the food that we need and we’re looking at those costs now. We might succeed with potatoes by next year.” —Andrew Cox

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You must have done some cooking as a kid.

I actually became a vegetarian in college and wound up having to cook for myself a lot since my fraternity was not very vegetable-friendly.

Q A

Do you eat meat now?

Yes. I gave it up for four years because I was morally-opposed, not to killing animals but to eating the highly-processed commodity meat that’s everywhere in our society. The first time I ate meat again, a friend had gone deer hunting. I thought that I might as well start back up with the real stuff. We did a rack of venison with a cherry and pinot-noir reduction.

You eventually landed at Blue Ginger, the Boston-area restaurant owned by celebrity chef Ming Tsai. But your formative education in seasonal cooking came much earlier? Below: Chef Cox makes an afternoon visit to the Farm and gets some just-picked produce from a student.

Yes, while I was at culinary school I went to intern for a Kendall alumnus who had a farm-to-table restaurant in Ashland, Oregon. The menu changed every day based on which growers showed up at the back door. I

visited a lot of farms, and I volunteered at one that did a lot of our greens.

Q How did that influence your outlook as a chef? A When I went back to Chicago I was only willing to work in restaurants that served local food. There were basically only three at the time; I just bothered the chefs till I got a job. I ended up at a very refined restaurant with a chalkboard that listed every ingredient and what farm it was from. The chef quizzed the waiters constantly on the sourcing — he was that passionate about making sure people knew where the food came from. Even after I moved into corporate food service, that philosophy was still what influenced me the most. I’ve tried to take advantage of every opportunity to push people toward using local food and reducing waste. Q A

Why is local food better?

You can’t know what’s happening on a farm halfway around the world, and it’s pretty easy to green-wash with certain labels. With local food you can find out what farmers are putting into the soil – if it involves pesticides, petrochemical fertilizers, insecticides. You can learn what they’re doing with their water management. You can find out if they’re paying their workers a living wage. Your food is going to be healthier, you’ll know if it’s better for the environment, and you’ll respect it a lot more. You’ll know you’re helping to stimulate the local economy and developing community.

Q I understand Hotchkiss just bid out its food-service contract for the first time in more than a decade, and though the School decided to continue working with its previous contractor, Sodexo, you were an important part of the winning package, along with a set of sustainability standards that the company wants to implement. A The program is called A Better Tomorrow, and it has 14 metrics that we work toward. Some of them are measurable, that we’ll look at quarterly or annually. Local purchasing, energy reduction, and health and wellness all factor in. A You didn’t come in thinking that feeding kids healthier food would be easy, did you? My wife reminded me that she’d gone to a prep school, and everybody hated the food. She said, ‘The kids are gonna hate the food no matter what you do.’ I

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Left: In the School’s pastry kitchen, Cox shows some garlic twist rolls for the evening’s dinner. Purchasing from local growers, energy reduction, and health and wellness are among the dining services’ sustainability standards.

guess there’s only room for improvement; that’s how I see it. I hated brussels sprouts growing up, until I learned to cook them properly. I think Hotchkiss kids would eat beef tongue if it’s cooked well. Q So where do you start?

A My first focus is on cooking real food well, from scratch. There’s stuff we’re serving that I myself wouldn’t eat, like frozen strawberries in syrup. We have a full bakery and a Culinary Institute of America-trained baker, but we’re buying pre-made scones and throwing them into the oven. Items like those need to be looked at across the board. We’ve done away with large, sauceladen portions of meat at lunch. We’re trying to stick to lighter sandwiches. We started offering an organic oatmeal bar every morning with various toppings. Do we still serve Cap’n Crunch cereal? Yes. But the oatmeal bar has been really well received. You just can’t take away all the fat and sugar at once. Q How do you ramp up the locally-sourced offerings? A

We have some now from Connecticut and Massachusetts, but I’ll be working on getting even more into our system. There are a lot of factors involved; it’s complicated from the standpoints of food safety and pricing, as well as transportation. Mainly I’m trying to figure out things like, how many carrots do we go through in a year? Can we grow them here at the Hotchkiss farm, harvest them at their peak, process and then store them for use them all year-round?

Wow. How much Hotchkiss-sourced food are we talking about?

A The farm manager and I want to grow all the food that we need, and we’re looking at those costs now. We might succeed with potatoes by next year. If we can grow 18 tons of potatoes, that’ll save us money. My long-term goal is to put a processing plant-slash-kitchen on the farm. Q A

What about meat?

There’s a lot of red tape there, and I’m trying to break through that now. In the case of our beef, it’s basically all commodity. It’s full of hormones and antibiotics. Can we afford to switch all our beef to grass-fed right now? No. But when we start saving money in other areas, including energy and waste, that will help. I’ve just set up an arrangement with a slaughterhouse in Massachusetts so that we can raise our own cattle, slaughter and serve it. It turns out there’s even a local farming family with a stu-

dent at Hotchkiss who has a number of steer, and they’re willing to sell to us. First I have to set up processes to be sure everything meets USDA regulations and Sodexo product-quality assurance.

Q You mentioned energy savings. What kind of shape did you find the kitchen in? A

Oh, man. The bakery has lights that are on 24 hours a day, because nobody knows where the light switch is. I’ll walk by storerooms with lights on when nobody’s there. I think we could install motion sensors there for savings. We also have seven walk-in refrigerators, four reach-ins, and three walk-in freezers; it’s too much. We use one refrigerator just to store oil that gets used on one of the buses. It doesn’t need to be refrigerated! I’ve already talked to the mechanic and he’s going to just start taking these containers. We’re paying for water and energy where we don’t need to be.

Q Are you starting to hear about some of your changes from students? A

I’ve gotten some comments about the fact that we don’t have dessert every night any more. But we have fresh fruit available 24 hours a day. Malcolm asked what we could do with stuff from the farm, to highlight it there. We ended up with carrot cupcakes and a cream cheese frosting.

Q Mmm. That reminds me of a Hotchkiss tradition known as “a feed.” Have you heard of it? A Q

No.

I’m not sure about that. But you never know.

It involves late-night gluttony. I’m guessing your influence won’t be felt there as much.

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Hotchkiss in Balance A Wellness Program for Body, Mind, and Spirit

ousekeeper Melissa Wilson regularly frequents the Forrest E. Mars Jr. Athletic Center once her work day ends. “Raising two boys was the most athletic I got before this,” she says, laughing. “Although starting about when my oldest – he’s 29 now -- was in grammar school, he and I would do pushups during the commercial breaks when we watched television.” For the last few years, Wilson’s physical activities have gone far beyond short bursts of calisthenics during TV hours. She’s learned how to swim, taken water aerobics and stability ball strength training classes, maintained a walking habit, and danced it out in Zumba. “I’ve moved from class to class; I’ll do anything,” she says. But readers beware: get between her and her spin class, and there will be trouble. “I love the bike workout. Tim rocks,” she adds, referring to the twice weekly spin classes led by Supervisor of Grounds Tim Schilling. The enthusiasm of Wilson and other Hotchkiss employees like her is the force to which Wellness Coordinator and Manager of HR Information Services Nancy Vaughan attributes the success of the Hotchkiss in Balance wellness program. Increasingly popular since its establishment in 2005, the initiative offers a wide range of wellness opportunities, which Vaughan defines as anything that helps people to be a little bit healthier in body, spirit, and lifestyle. Every employee is welcome in any class, as are their spouses or partners, and in many cases, children. And every employee is given one hour of release time each week to participate in a wellness activity. While she started as a volunteer facilitator, Vaughan now devotes 20 hours of her workweek to the program, up from the eight hours for which she had originally been hired. The School’s administration – in this case, under Chief Financial Officer John Tuke’s purview –

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has fully embraced wellness as an essential component for a healthy, productive workforce. With good reason: Vaughan reports that a few employees no longer require medications since adopting lifestyle changes learned from Hotchkiss in Balance; at least one program participant has stopped smoking. Vaughan cites several more reasons besides enthusiasm for the success of the program. Support from the administration, accessibility, low costs, diverse offerings, and a line-up designed to accommodate every employee’s schedule have each been essential to the thriving initiative. The informal feel of the program fosters a nonthreatening environment that is both welcoming to fitness newcomers and still challenging to hardcore athletes. “The program provides the structure and framework for people to get stronger and fitter, but no one’s forced into participating,” says Vaughan. “When I plan classes or events, I think about the best ways to engage the whole campus. That’s ridiculously difficult if you think about it: everyone’s days start and end at different times, not to mention people come here from all over the world and have different cultural perspectives on exercise and health.” Vaughan makes it work. Spin classes and open swim time begin at 6:00 a.m. most days with strength training starting at 6:30 a.m. twice a week. Lunchtime classes and pool hours are 45 minutes each, allowing employees to recharge midday. Afternoon and evening options are similarly accessible — the earliest class starts at 4:45 p.m., and the fitness center and pool (when staffed by a lifeguard) are available for use until the MAC’s doors lock at 8:00. That’s just a snapshot of regular fitness offerings. Hotchkiss in Balance also features an ever-changing programming roster that has included gentle yoga, Weight Watchers, tennis and golf lessons, Zumba, Zoga,

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I think everybody needs to get a little bit healthy, so it’s nice that Hotchkiss offers this program; not every school does.” —Melissa Wilson

Aqualogix, stress-reduction and meditation workshops, a Fairfield Farms tour, triathlon training seminars, sailing, stand-up paddle boarding, cooking, couch-to-5K plans, ice skating, family gingerbread house building, and self-defense. Program participants are almost as likely to be led by a colleague as they are to find one standing beside them in class. “If we have qualified faculty or staff members to teach a class, they’re our first choice,” explains Vaughan. “If not, we find the most qualified person outside of the School community who is the best fit with our population.” Vaughan’s philosophy is to start small, focus on fun, and find the right mentor. One requirement of last spring’s popular Wellness Challenge was trying a new fruit or vegetable each day for a week. She’s not afraid to look silly dancing on the pool deck to bad ’80s music in order motivate her Aqualogix class. And she’s keenly aware that having a workout buddy fosters success. Melissa Wilson agrees. “I’d be quicker to skip the non-spin classes if Sabrina [Argentina, her fellow housekeeper] didn’t stay on me about going. Music helps out, too, when I don’t want to be at the gym – sometimes we ask Mark to put Latin music on the sound system. I don’t speak Spanish, so I don’t know the words, but it’s fast and sets a good pace for my workout,” she says, referencing fitness center director

and conditioning coach Mark Knapp. “I think everybody needs to get a little bit healthy, so it’s nice that Hotchkiss offers this program; not every school does,” she adds. “The best thing they could have done is offer these wellness classes.” Those other schools might change soon: Avon Old Farms Academy has asked Nancy Vaughan to visit their campus and help them implement a similar wellness program. Perhaps in another six years, other schools will have followed suit.

Above: At the inaugural Bearcat 5K Run in 2010, eager faculty, staff, and student participants ran the Hotchkiss course, along with community members.

[ THE HOTCHKISS IN BALANCE RIPPLE EFFECT ]

ince being put into practice, the wellness initiative has had a subtly positive influence on the way many members of the School community know each other. Friendly competition encourages camaraderie, bringing out untapped leadership qualities and hidden talents. The annual Bearcat 5K serves as a natural incentive to get moving alongside colleagues of all fitness levels and try to outrun the head of school (who demurred from wearing a timing chip in the inaugural race) while fundraising for the Housatonic Youth Service Bureau. One female Hotchkiss wellness program participant who grew up in a culture where women’s fitness was not encouraged observed to Vaughan that the initiative had value beyond improved physical and mental health: Hotchkiss in Balance classes let employees meet each other on a different plane than their normal hallway pleasantries ever allowed, she said.

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A Healthy Difference: Fitting in Time for Sleep

Upper Right: Meeting the quota for sleep means greater alertness in class. Right: Inadequate sleep can translate into microsleeps on the playing field.

n April 2009, a nationally known sleep expert, Professor James Maas of Cornell University, spoke to students and faculty members at an all-School meeting in Walker Auditorium. His recommendation to everyone in the room that morning was plain: Get more sleep. Maas, a Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow at Cornell and best-selling author on the science of sleep, delivered a message that really woke up his audience. “Most people are moderately to severely sleep-deprived,” he said. “Every single high school and college student I have ever measured in terms of their alertness is a walking zombie.” Adequate sleep for teenagers, he said, means eight, eight- and a-half, or nine hours every night. “If you don’t get adequate sleep,” he continued, “you are at increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, micro-sleeps in class and on the athletic field, unintended sleep seizures, irritability, anxiety, depression, and weight gain.” Maas pointed to Harvard studies showing that “your internal bedtime clock is set to make you maximally sleepy at 3 in the morning, and to wake up at 11 in the morning. And we expect you to be alert at 7 or 7:30 in the classroom? That’s crazy! That’s the middle of your night.” The answer, he said, is later school start times. The students applauded mightily; the faculty listened attentively. Said Head of School Malcolm McKenzie after the talk, “Faculty and students were excited by Dr. Maas and his findings. The promise of enhanced learning,

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8:30 IS MUCH MORE HUMANE.” — respondent to 2011 survey on the new schedule

efficiency, and alertness, not to say well-being, through longer sleep is alluring. We are thinking seriously of the implications of his research for our daily schedule.” In faculty meetings later that year, discussions began on changing the School’s daily schedule to allow for a later start time. Making the change was no easy fix. Faculty members discussed pacing in the schedule, time for students’ extracurricular activities and athletic practices, lunch times, and needed breaks in the school day before approving a new schedule to

be tried out the following year. “We changed the schedule to have an 8:30 start to our day during the 2010-2011 school year in response to recommendations by experts such as Dr. Maas,” said Thomas Woelper, assistant head of school and dean of academic life. “We experimented with the schedule all during the 2010-2011 school year, and in late January 2011 I surveyed students and faculty about the schedule. With 586 respondents, 476 of whom were students, we had 96 percent of respondents saying that they supported the schedule change. These results became the de facto vote for keeping the late start as our permanent schedule. “The late-start schedule has provided students with the opportunity to get more sleep, especially for them to get the 9 1/4 hours of recommended sleep per night,” said Woelper. “The later start also means that students are more alert for their early-period classes and that they are more likely to eat a hot breakfast. Finally, the late start provides more space at the start of the day, which helps reduce stress.”

Top: The late-start schedule has helped to reduce stress. Left: Ninety-six percent of survey respondents approved of the schedule change.

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An alumnus advises: Here’s to Friendships, Music, and Good Health

ob Johnson ’38 visited Hotchkiss in September to speak in Auditorium. Head of School Malcolm McKenzie had asked Bob to talk to students about the place of friendship in his life, and especially the lifelong friends he made at Hotchkiss. Here is his talk.

Good morning, students, faculty, trustees, staff, and strays. I can’t tell you how refreshing and what a pleasure it is to look out upon all this concentration of youth. For the past 15 years I have been associated with fellow inmates at a retirement community, all getting older and older, and it seems, at a much faster pace. … But you give me quite a boost. I’d be tempted to ask the genie to start my life all over again with all of you right here, except I am afraid that my new life would not compare favorably to the one I have had: full of happiness, adventure, challenge, love, and good luck, a considerable part of which came about because of having wonderful friends and especially my very best friend, my wife, for 63 years up to May of 2009. …. Mr. McKenzie seems to feel that I can impart some benefits to you on the subject of “friendship.” I can’t tell you how to make friends; I don’t believe there is any established formula. No doubt having good friends is an important aspect of everyone’s life. Right now and later on in college, you have a wonderful opportunity to make lifetime friends. One of your recent graduates said it beautifully: “Academic skills were not the only

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thing I gained from Hotchkiss. I made lifelong and talented friends who enriched my experience by opening my mind to different cultures and interests…..” My being here came about in the following manner. Last September I returned to Hotchkiss to participate in a memorial service for Frank A. Sprole [Class of 1938]; I’ll just say he was a remarkable guy, which the School will attest to as well. There is a new athletic field bearing his name. I explained how I first met him. In September 1934, I had come to the School as a new Prep a couple of days early for orientation purposes. I heard that a touch football game was going on up on Taylor Field, so I wandered up there hoping to get to play. I sat down near the action trying to make myself obvious. Then along came another Prep who sat down beside me. We got talking, found we both were from New Jersey, and one thing led to another. We became immediate friends. After Hotchkiss we went on to be roommates at Yale. As years passed the bond got stronger and stronger. Hardly an earth-shattering episode but a very meaningful one in my life, and apparently it touched Mr. McKenzie, for it was on hearing this anecdote that he asked me to speak here. Just who is a friend? There are many definitions for “friend,” but the one I ascribe to is a person you KNOW, LIKE and can TRUST. The last word, TRUST, is of course the vital one; that is what makes a real friend. My son-in-law asked me a while back what the chief thing was I learned from my varied business experience. With practically no hesitation, I replied that I had put too much faith and trust in others, some of

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whom I thought were my friends. My father, who was Hotchkiss 1901, was very successful in his business; he knew how to sell a very complex engineering business on a worldwide basis. He often repeated that his success came more from WHO he knew, or is it WHOM, rather than WHAT he knew. While I certainly made a lot of friends through sports, especially golf, all during my life music was the primary friendship pathway. Singing with others, to others, and listening to others in close harmony had a tremendous impact. The friends that grew out of these relationships are extensive. Try it, you’ll have a lot of fun and make, I assure you, many friends. Not all friends have to be bipeds to have a strong influence on your life. Consider the ultimate trust often found in “man’s Best Friend,” especially in dogs leading the blind. You all know about the Seeing Eye organization. I live near its Morristown, NJ headquarters and often observe the dogs and their owners being trained to accept one another on the streets of that town; that’s trust. I wonder how many of you out there miss your

Make friends. It’s important.” — Robert Johnson

pets more than your parents? Don’t answer that. Something comparable to this is the close relationship that develops among combat troops who work as a team where each depends on the others to protect him under intense battle conditions. It’s very traumatic when there’s a loss of life under these circumstances. But these are friends indeed! I cite as an example a good friend of mine, George Mead, a class ahead of me at Hotchkiss and college. I admired him in every way; he had great leadership qualities. He went into the Marine Corps and as an officer had his own Company. He was in the invasion of Guadalcanal on 8/6/42. In the fierce fighting that ensued, one of his enlisted men got wounded in a forward position. He elected to rescue him, not assign the perilous task to one of his men. He was killed in the process, a tremendous loss to his Company and mankind, I might add. His name is inscribed on the memorial plaque on the wall outside the chapel. Another so inscribed is a classmate of his, Scotty McLennan, a Marine fighter pilot also lost at Guadalcanal. It’s obvious – avoid wars. …

Top: Bob Johnson ’38, left, singing in 2010 with his Yale friends in the "Below Par Quartet": from left, Johnson, Coddy Johnson '36, Clem Edwards (Yale) and Stow Phelps (Yale). Above: Bob Johnson and his late wife, Audie

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Above: Singing and music were vital to Bob and Audie.

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If I can leave you with any message or counsel, it would be along these lines. Tom Brokaw in his book called my generation “The Greatest Generation.” It is gratifying perhaps to live under such an illusion, but I can’t see after all our efforts and sacrifice that we left the world any better. We may have survived a very deep depression and rescued our civilization from three forms of tyranny, but it seems to have been replaced by other forms that are just as bad, maybe worse. In other words, there are plenty of problems out there for you to find solutions to. In my adventurous spirit, perhaps enforced by my war experiences, I have sort of lived by the premise that “problems are opportunities,” which got me into trouble quite often, but I had a lot of fun trying. Many of these world problems, I believe, can be resolved by a grassroots involvement: making friends all over the world. With the kind of education you are getting here and the strong international interrelations that prevail, I really think you have an exceptional opportunity to do something about them. So make those friendships; don’t rely on your electronic gadgets. I am going to wind up this treatise telling about how a close friend really impacted my life. The “close friend” I met and got to know right here at Hotchkiss, and the relationship continued strong at Yale. In our junior year at Yale, war clouds were gathering on the horizon for the U.S. My friend, George Haines, who was already engaged to be married with the wedding, I believe, scheduled for after graduation, decided with everyone’s consent to move the occasion to the end of his junior year (1941). I was an usher at their wedding. They lived off-campus but quite close by, and I saw them frequent-

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ly. On December 7 of our senior year, the attack on Pearl Harbor took place, and the U.S. was suddenly very much in the war. George was Navy ROTC at Yale and after graduation was assigned as Gunnery Officer on the USS Lansdale, a destroyer operating in convoy duty in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. I also went immediately into the Navy under a specialist ordnance program and with George graduated in Navy uniform. George and Audrey had a son in August 1943 (Hotchkiss ’61). The following April George’s ship was struck by an aircraft-launched torpedo in the Mediterranean, causing it to sink. George was seen in the water attempting to collect members of the crew; he had given his lifejacket to a crewman who didn’t have one. George was a good swimmer. However, he never turned up during the rescue operations and was presumed lost. He was awarded the Silver Star posthumously for bravery in action. The war was over in early September 1945, but I did not get back to the States from the western Pacific until March of 1946. A couple of months thereafter I drove to Connecticut to pay a visit to George’s widow and son. One thing led to another, and one year later we were married: the greatest thing that ever happened to me. So you see the demise of my friend George turned out to be a lucky break for me – a real paradox. Not many can say that they were an usher at their wife’s wedding. I would like to take this moment to recognize someone in our midst who played a big part in what I have been talking about here. Fred Godley was also a close friend of George Haines, rooming with him in college before George got married, whereupon he joined Sprole and me for our senior year. With him is his wife, Mary, who was a good friend of my wife, Audrey. Fred was godfather to my stepson and Mary godmother to my daughter Beverly, who is also here. I should add that Fred, also a Navy veteran, has been a notable friend of and benefactor to The Hotchkiss School for many years. A true friend; will they all please rise and be recognized, including my very supportive daughter, Bev? As I have said, singing and music were vital elements in our marital relationship, and in short time we adopted a song that became a family theme and tradition sung at many occasions. If you’ll allow me, I’ll sing it here in hopes you can be as lucky as I was and wish you well in your future endeavors. …. MAKE FRIENDS. It’s IMPORTANT. This is the last song George Gershwin composed before he died at age 38. (Sing “It’s very clear, our love is here to stay ….”)

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Michael Mogollon ’78: A “Green Vision,” nourished

at Hotchkiss, now realized in sustainable aquaculture BY LEE DANIELS ’78

One of the pictures on Michael Mogollon’s senior page in the Mischianza shows him relaxing with a fishing pole at a favorite spot near a creek where he fished for brook trout as a teen. The fishing photo provides

a glimpse into his future. As a boy in Colombia, fishing was Mogollon’s

passion, and he would go often with his father on weekends and after work.

“I grew up with a love for fishing,” explained Mogollon, 52, who has just driven the 80 miles from his home near Ft. Lauderdale to his farm, nestled the pine scrub of south of Lake Okeechobee. “I would go fishing at every chance I got.” But this farm is unique, in that Mogollon cultivates a product that normally lives far from the cattle, alfalfa, or sugar cane crops spread throughout the heartland of Florida: it is shrimp. Since he was young, Mogollon has been driven by a vision: to find a way he could parlay his love for fish into a career. He has not only championed his cause, but also has taken it a step further, by offering a product that is all-natural, in that it does not harm the environment by raking ocean or sea beds, or add chemicals which are often used to preserve frozen shrimp, to the environment. Accepting an invitation to come to the U.S. as a high-school senior to study at Hotchkiss, Mogollon found that his dream – to try to find a steppingstone to a good marine biology program in the U.S. – had begun to taken shape. “I wanted to be the Jacques Cousteau of Colombia, return to my country and spend the rest of my life under the sea. I wanted to

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LEFT: Michael Mogollon at his business, EarthCare Aquaculture

be with the fish,” said Mogollon. Later, at Harvard, Mogollon landed a job taking care of the aquaria in the university’s fish lab and collection. With a broad knowledge of all the exotic fish species from areas such as the Amazon in his native South America, he was a shoo-in for the job. “I realized that becoming an aquaculturist would give me proximity to the fish world, and also give me the opportunity to make a living from my passion. I knew these fish, because I had seen them in their living environment. The same professor who helped me get the assistantship gave me my first book on aquaculture, and I was off and running,” said Mogollon. After Harvard, Mogollon was accepted into the renowned Aquaculture and Fisheries program at Auburn University. “During my second year, a recent graduate came to campus to speak about the booming shrimp business in Ecuador. I spoke with him about my background and interests, and he ended up asking me to come look at the hatchery business at his shrimp farm. So, I flew down to Ecuador and was offered a position,” said Mogollon. Thirty years later, Mogollon is living his dream. He greeted me when I arrived at his farm at midday earlier this year, tired from working all night to get a shipment ready for

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export to New York, but his golden-green eyes flashed in the sun as he stepped down from his truck and exuberantly explained his expansion plans for his five-acre farm. “My plan is to triple the greenhouse facilities, from the current five greenhouses to ten, and then to 15 over the next six months,” explained Mogollon. Mogollon bought the land near Clewiston, Fla. to start the business, EarthCare Aquaculture, with his own capital, and began operations with a loan from the USDA’s Farm Loan Program in 2008. Since then, Mogollon has grown it from the ground up – literally – with the help of his wife, Claudia, and one worker/technician, Antonio, who assist with the aquaculture, infrastructure, storage, export, accounting, and marketing for his business. The caveat for this expansion, however, is that Mogollon receives additional funding from private investors. “I’m at break-even now. I had to temporarily suspend the hatchery part of the business—raising the shrimp from embryo stage—and outsource it from a third party, until I can raise more capital to expand the grow-out to a scale that justifies the expense of the hatchery,” Mogollon added. On a tour of the farm, I was immediately struck by the meticulousness of Mogollon’s

operation. Each person entering the farm has to walk through a “bath” designed to cleanse his or her shoes of any external contaminants. “I usually make people put on an outer suit, but you guys look pretty clean,” he said with a chuckle, as I came through the entrance with my photographer. He led us to the lab, where each day, he does a microscopic viewing and count of newly hatched nauplii, or one-day-old larval shrimp, which is necessary to verify a healthy development of the larvae, and where he mixes the feed for the shrimp, which is all organic, and entails eight different feed types which are administered during a critical two-week larval period, during which size increases and anatomy changes along with feed requirements. Next, Mogollon took us to what he called the “sex room,” a dark and carefully climatecontrolled area where female shrimp are impregnated by male shrimp (through a “sperm pack” from the male which emerges and attaches itself to the underside of the female); eggs are spawned by the female shrimp; larvae are collected, counted and measured, and checked consistently through the various stages of their growth, i.e., twoweek, four-week, etc. Next, we were shown the large “grow-out” tanks in one of Mogollon’s large, 36,000square-foot greenhouses, where the shrimp grow in various tanks, according to which stage of growth they are in, until they are ready to harvest. Mogollon’s two main markets for his shrimp are divided between his “live” and “fresh” markets. In the live market, his secret chilling technique allows him to air-freight the shrimp alive to wholesalers nationwide, who in turn sell to retailers who desire a live product. His major clients in this segment are the live Asian seafood markets in New York, which provide steady demand. The fresh market provides fresh shrimp to buyers such as restaurants who desire fresh, all-natural products on their menus. Since 90 percent of shrimp that is sold and

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RIGHT: A growout tank with a healthy population of marine diatoms BELOW: Shrimp ready for harvest

consumed in the U.S. is frozen and imported, Mogollon’s fresh business provides the desired product to clients around the country who can’t get fresh shrimp locally off-season. “People love shrimp. It is the most consumed seafood in the U.S. What we offer is an all-natural, domestic product that also is ‘green,’ in that it is farmed and produced in such a way that does not alter or harm the ocean floor,” explained Mogollon. Mogollon joined a group called the Chef’s Collaborative, a non-profit consortium of chefs, farmers, fishers, educators, and food lovers dedicated to promoting sustainable and healthy food sources from around the U.S. “What I am trying to do is appeal to a segment of chefs that offer an ocean-safe, environmentally safe product that has all the quality of a natural product, with very little handling involved, which you can only get from a fresh product. No chemicals have been added, which is common in preserving imported, frozen shrimp, and it has not been frozen. In frozen seafood, ice crystals expand in the fibers of the flesh, risking the loss of texture and some of the essential flavors when you thaw the product, which are very subtle but very important to taste. So chefs, as well as consumers, value this,” said Mogollon. Mogollon’s largest market is for small- and medium-sized shrimp, which is favored by the live market, which buys these in bulk quantities. In addition to expanding his farm, he also intends to grow more large-sized shrimp, which are more in demand from what he calls the “white-linen tablecloth” restaurants and retailers. EarthCare Aquaculture’s twin mission statements succinctly sum up two tenets that Mogollon and his wife follow in their quest to provide a product that is not only healthy, but also good for the earth’s health: 1) to provide you with shrimp in its most natural form, unadulterated by chemicals, preservatives, antibiotics or hormones; and 2) to pro-

duce these shrimp without harming the environment using natural processes common in Mother Nature. In their nod to Mother Nature, the Mogollons encapsulate what is most important about sustaining and enjoying life on this planet: eat clean, live clean.

Lee Daniels, a resident of Pleasantville is a columnist for the Westchester Herald and an editor-at-large for ICU in Kiev, Ukraine. For more information about EarthCare Aquaculture, please visit: www.earthcareaquaculture.com.

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ALUMNI

n a me s a n d f a ce s

John Ward Anderson ’75: Reporting the news from New Delhi, Istanbul and Jerusalem

I BY HENRY MCNULTY

In September veteran news correspondent John Ward Anderson ’75

gave the after-dinner remarks at the annual Maria Hotchkiss Dinner in New York. An accomplished journalist, Anderson spent 27 years at The Washington Post, 16 as a

foreign correspondent. He worked at Politico as contributing editor and is currently a principal at the Washington-based Podesta Group.

At Hotchkiss, Anderson cultivated a longstanding interest in creative writing, but realized while at Harvard that a career writing fiction was too uncertain; so he decided to pursue political science instead. Devouring The New York Times every day, he developed a passion for foreign news. During his undergraduate years, he left college to work in California for the weekly underground newspaper, The Berkeley Barb. After graduating from Harvard, he landed a job at The Washington Post, thus beginning a long and distinguished career. In his overseas assignments, Anderson was part of a husbandwife team with his spouse, Molly Moore, who also was a reporter for the Post. Here, he talks with Henry McNulty about those years as a foreign correspondent and the challenges facing reporters – and readers – today. What did you do at the Post? I began as a copy aide in the wire room, running wire copy out to editors, then was a copy aide on the Metro Desk. I then went to work for Bob Woodward on a book he was writing about John Belushi, and when we finished writing the book, I got hired as a night police reporter. That was a great break for me, because a night cops reporter has to write about virtually everything: killings, earthquakes, plane crashes – wherever they need a live body. It prepared me well for working overseas. I started in New Delhi, then

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ABOVE: Molly Moore and John Ward Anderson, husband-wife reporting team

was in Mexico City and Kosovo. Then my wife, Molly, and I opened the Post’s bureau in Istanbul, then we moved to Jerusalem, finishing up in Paris. There must have been a lot of reporting competition in those places. Yes, and there is still, especially on breaking news. There’s this huge pressure to be first out there, and to get it right too, although oftentimes it seems that being first is more important than being right, which is a shame. But that’s the pressure people are

under. I remember that when we were in Jerusalem, my wife and I put a real priority on being first – it was important to beat The New York Times, and they had some great reporters who really understood the nature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and were brilliant writers. But Molly and I were almost always first, and part of the reason for that was that we helped each other on everything. This was back when the Internet was just starting, and people were just beginning to look to the Internet for breaking news. Suicide bombings were occurring in Israel every couple of days at that point, and we covered all of them. After a couple of years, I would go to a bombing and look around, and I would be the only Western reporter at the scene. Everybody else said, “it’s just another suicide bombing – I’m not going.” But we didn’t look at it that way, because every single bombing involved lives, heroes, tragedies – and if you didn’t see for yourself, you didn’t discover that. The Washington Post, at the time, had just lost The International Herald Tribune, which it used to run in cooperation with The New York Times; it was losing millions of dollars a year. But as it turned out, the Internet became just as good, and some would argue better, as a platform for the Post’s international news. We started aggressively getting our news into the paper quickly so they could post it on the Internet.

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RIGHT: At the Maria Hotchkiss Dinner, John Anderson took questions from the floor.

It was a difficult assignment, I’d imagine. The Israeli-Palestinian story is one of the hardest stories to cover in the world. People pick over every word; nobody is happy with it. If you followed an incident back, you could never figure out who threw the first punch – this was in retaliation for this, which was in retaliation for that, which was in retaliation for something else. It was an amazingly challenging story to write, and part of the reason was that whatever you wrote was completely dissected by both sides; they put everything under a microscope. The whole thing is one big tragedy; it isn’t more tragic for one side than for the other. Do you think the rise of the Internet as a source of news requires a new type of skepticism on the part of readers? Boy, you sure hope so! The sophisticated reader will examine when a story was posted on the Web. If it’s a matter of minutes or even an hour ago, I think everybody would be well advised to bring a level of skepticism to it. It could just be a rumor. But eventually, a story does have a tendency to self-correct, because the overwhelming preponderance of people will start reporting the truth. In a sense, a lot of what a foreign correspondent is getting is derivative news. When you’re on a breaking story, in Iraq or Afghanistan, you have access to five or six different sources of information. You always hope that one or two of those are people you’re calling on the phone, so you’re actually getting firsthand information. But a lot of what you see comes from the Associated Press or Reuters or Bloomberg, and every reporter has access to that stuff. So to a certain extent, what you’re doing is triangulating the information to try to get the best version of the truth that you can, at that particular moment. As a reporter, it’s important to attribute where you’re getting your information. It covers your own backside, but it also is simply a matter of giving credit where credit is due. You don’t want to get out there too far and discover – whoops! I was basing this on an AP report, but I didn’t attribute it, so now it looks as if I made a mistake. That helps the reader decide whether or not to believe the story, too.

Apart from being just skeptical, what other advice would you give readers? They need to decide who it is that they trust. The reason you go back to sources you trust is that over time, they give you what you want – and second, they’re right. They’re not just making this stuff up. That’s what builds reader loyalty, and that’s what every newspaper and magazine and electronic news outlet is trying to build. Part of the problem with the industry right now is that readers are fleeing the traditional places where they always used to go, and are looking for different sources of news. People should find out who’s writing the good stuff, and reward them by going back. Also, besides readers, reporters and the editors also need to bring skepticism to what it is they have heard. They can’t afford to sit around and not publish anything, or not post something on the Internet, because then people will stop reading. There’s an immediacy that people these days are demanding. So that brings a greater burden to editors and reporters to make sure they’re doing everything they can to find out what really happened. At the same time, as a story evolves, it’s important to constantly update with fresher and better information. You obviously enjoyed being a foreign correspondent in a trouble spot. There is a real excitement to it. Your adrenaline gets pumping, and you’re always multitasking; that’s one of the things reporters have to do these days, and then pull it all together into a comprehensive story. It is extraordinarily challenging, but it’s also a huge amount of fun. It can be nerve-racking to sit down and

look at a blank computer screen and to know you have only 20 minutes to write a story. But you know what? You sit down and go into “full reporter mode,” and it always manages to get itself written. The problem is that places like the Washington Post are getting rid of their older reporters, because they can’t afford to pay their salaries and benefits. So a lot of the foreign reporters these days are younger. There’s no problem getting reporters to cover foreign trouble spots, but there is a problem getting experienced reporters. The war correspondent with 20 years’ experience costs too much, and quite often they have families, and that just makes everything more expensive. Would you recommend that a Hotchkiss graduate follow your career path? There are a lot of opportunities for people who want to go into journalism, and it’s still a noble calling. The question is what journalism is going to evolve into, and nobody really knows that. But the people who are entering it right now are the ones who are going to be making the decisions about how it is that people get their news. The question is not whether there are opportunities – there are – but the question is whether anyone is going to be able to afford to be an employee. Increasingly, these places – Huffington Post or Politico – are able to go out and hire live bodies for extraordinarily inexpensive salaries. There’s a great future for content – everybody is demanding content – but whether you can actually afford to work and go be a journalist I think has not really been decided yet. F a l l

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THE BOARD

o f Go v e rn o r s

A MESSAGE TO ALUMNI f ro m t h e B o a rd o f G o v e r n o r s o f t h e A l u m n i A s s o c i a t i o n

IN RECOGNITION OF HOTCHKISS ALUMNI VOLUNTEERS “Hotchkiss could not achieve all that it does without the contributions of the more than 700 alumni and parents who commit their time for the benefit of the School. Be it alumni and parent events, meetings with students, admission interviews, or fundraising, the good work of our volunteers enhances our ability to connect with many more members of the Hotchkiss family than would otherwise be the case.”(Joseph P. Flynn, Chief Advancement Officer) The Hotchkiss Alumni Association Board of Governors (BOG) is a volunteer group of 21 alumni whose mission is to reach out to fellow alumni of all ages and offer them a variety of ways to maintain their connection to Hotchkiss. The BOG works with the Office of Alumni and Parent Programs to host a variety of events: Hotchkiss Day of Service, Hotchkiss Career Connections, the Alumni Award and Community Service Award Ceremonies, Gender Committee teas and forums with students, and Alumni of Color gatherings in New York City and on campus. The success of these events, and others organized by Alumni and Parent Programs, depends on the support and interest of a wide network of volunteers. One of the highest priorities of the Board of Governors is to focus attention on the remarkable contributions of alumni volunteers who devote an enormous amount of

time, energy, and good will to the School. Some have served for as long as 50 years, others for 25, and still others are just beginning their tenure of service. Volunteers serve as reunion planners, event hosts and speakers, admissions interviewers, hosts during breaks to students who live at a distance from campus, and fundraisers. Alumni volunteers are a crucial root system for Hotchkiss. They carry with them an important historical perspective, a genuine sense of gratitude to Hotchkiss, and a deep, lifelong affection for the classmates and teachers they grew to know while they were here. They support Hotchkiss as they remember it (not perfect but enormously important in their lives) and Hotchkiss as it is today (an institution that is balancing extremely well the need for change and innovation with maintaining traditional strengths and connections). In recognition of the valuable role that volunteers play, Hotchkiss holds an annual Volunteer Leadership Weekend. This event provides an opportunity for the School to recognize and thank alumni and parent volunteers and for the volunteers to hear firsthand from Head of School Malcolm McKenzie, faculty, staff, and students about the state of the School, the challenges it faces, and the successes it hopes to achieve. Volunteer Leadership Weekend, which kicks off with LEFT: At a recent Volunteer Leadership Weekend, a panel of students talked with the volunteers about life at Hotchkiss. Senior Associate Director of Admission Ken Craig ’86, left, moderated the program. OPPOSITE:: Volunteers in Boston at the 2011 Day of Service

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the Alumni Award ceremony, is one of the best and most interesting parts of being an alumni volunteer. All volunteers are encouraged to participate. What are some of the ways that you can become involved as a volunteer for Hotchkiss? Visit www.hotchkiss.org/alumni/ volunteering/index.aspx for a list of volunteer opportunities. Wendy Weil Rush ’80, P’07 Vice President and Chair, Nominating Committee Board of Governors

Rebecca Markus McIntosh ’86 PAAC Member, Lead Agent “What I’ve done as a volunteer for Hotchkiss over the 25 years since my graduation, feels pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things. I’ve been a longtime Lead Class Agent and a member of the Parent and Alumni Admission Council, for which I interview teenagers in the Bay Area who have a dream of going to Hotchkiss. Even though my contributions are small, it’s always been an important connection in my life that I treasure. I am appreciative to have a way (or really an excuse) to stay connected to the School. Hotchkiss is a place that has meant so much to me — both for the great experience I had while I was there in the ’80s and for the continuing friendships I have carried forward as an adult. I am happy to help the School out however I can. I figure, it’s the least I can do.”

Adam Casella ’06 Reunion Committee, Event Host, Class Agent “… I carry with me an intense appreciation for the value of education and a broad intellectual curiosity born out of English roundtable discussions with Sam Coughlin and history lectures by Tom Flemma. Perhaps most importantly, I am supported by a deep bench of loyal and intensely passionate friends. For these reasons, I feel tremendous pride in the volunteer work I do at Hotchkiss. There is no single way to give back to the school that is more fulfilling and exciting…. Volunteering is a tangible, effective way to stay connected and play a small but meaningful part in the continuously evolving legacy of Hotchkiss.”

SAVE THE DATES FOR THE DAY OF SERVICE: MAY 5-6, 2012 Last year’s very well-received Day of Service program, planned and coordinated by the Board of Governors, will be reprised this year on May 5 and 6, 2012. In the inaugural program, alumni and parent volunteers did trail clean-up for the Audubon Society, planted an “edible garden,” served breakfast to homeless people, cleared trails in the Red Mountain Trail system, and prepared and served lunch to children at a crisis center. “With the great success of the 2011 pilot project,” says Jennifer Appleyard Martin ’88, “the Board of Governors is planning the May 2012 event, with the help of the Alumni Office. Our goal has been to identify six or seven sites, some of which may be the same as 2011 and others that may be new to the program. Likely sites for 2012 are: Boston, Chicago, Washington, DC, New York City, Northwest Connecticut, and Philadelphia.” Save the dates of May 5 and 6, as program plans are being made for each location. Watch for more news of the 2012 Hotchkiss Day of Service in the Alumni section of the website and in Hotchkiss Happenings e-newsletters.

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HOTCHKISS

i n me mo ri a m

In Remembrance Edgar M. Cullman ’36 – Loyal Friend BY FAY VINCENT ’56

Edgar Cullman, whose death at 93 ended a long life of dedicated service to Hotchkiss, was my dear friend, and I shall miss him greatly. We met as trustees of Hotchkiss in 1976 when I was asked to join the Board on which Edgar was a senior influential member, and over the following years we became devoted colleagues and loyal friends. And it is loyalty that best sums up the finest of the many wonderful qualities of this decent and unusual man. To his many close friends he was unfailingly loyal and devoted. He cared about us and worked hard at maintaining relationships. Yet he was a man of property. Always elegantly dressed, he was unapologetic about his wealth and genetic nobility. He loved people and as I came to know him, I also came to understand he loved just about everyone he ever met. And we who knew him best loved him in return. The cook in Jamaica, the driver in Connecticut, and the fishing guide in New Brunswick all cared about him deeply as he cared for them deeply and generously. His great passion was his lovely and caring and supportive wife, Louise (Bloomingdale) Cullman. Whenever he and I had a disagreement, I urged him to ask Louise what she thought. She always gave solid counsel. He died on the 73rd anniversary of their wedding. They married in 1938, when he was 20 and a sophomore at Yale, and she was the daughter of the eponymous department store mogul. They were young, and his father consented to the marriage for a reason Edgar softly confided to me one evening as he sipped his martini amid a gentle cloud of smoke from his Cuban cigar. When he arrived at Yale, he had happily joined a fraternity along with some of his good Hotchkiss friends, but after a few days the president of the fraternity had told him his membership had been rejected by the national fraternity authorities, who would not accept a Jewish member. Devastated, he importuned his father to permit him and Louise to marry. After the wedding the couple moved into a fine flat on Edwards Street in New Haven. As they set up their new home, Louise’s mother told them she was sending her maid to live with them because she knew Louise was too inexperienced to train new help. Edgar and Louise began their life together as they ended it – in the courtly style in which they had been raised.

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One of my small jokes with Edgar was my repeated insistence he had never had a sandwich in his life. To him lunch was a threecourse formal event served in his elegant office dining room by a cook who prepared his consommé and oysters and broiled fish in just the appropriate manner. In some ways he was the last of the Victorians, and sadly his style of life is almost gone. He went off every morning to the office and worked hard right up to the final days of his life. He took business and his work seriously. But his charitable passions were also vital to him – Yale, Mt. Sinai Hospital, and Hotchkiss. He was devoted to each of them, worked intensely for their welfare, and was generous with his gifts. His three brothers were also Hotchkiss and Yale alumni, and his family helped to found Mt. Sinai when Jewish doctors were refused certification at the other New York hospitals. Quietly and gently he pushed sensible agendas for those fine institutions, and he rejoiced in their prominence, though he anguished at the Yale Bowl when his beloved Yale team failed to run plays he believed wise. He never doubted his football insights were as sound as his knowledge of cigars. His death leaves us with joyous memories and the sure conviction he led a superb and good life. His life was as set as the seasonal calendar. At a certain time of year – every year – he did set things. He went to Jamaica for Thanksgiving and again in late January. He returned home in April in time for the salmon fishing runs in Canada. Then he was home at his beloved Stamford farm until Saratoga and later the Yale football season opened. In each of those cherished places he shared himself and his fun and his cigars and his homes with his friends. And after his death three of us, all close to him and to each other, met for dinner in New York to honor him. When I asked what the others thought was his greatest quality, Peter Solomon quickly responded – “loyalty.” Dan Lufkin and I agreed, and we rather wistfully raised a glass to our dear friend. The ancient toast is appropriate – Ave atque vale. Hail and farewell, loyal friend. Fay Vincent ’56 served with Edgar Cullman on the Board of Trustees and is a former President of the Board.

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IT’S

MY t u rn

I Would Have Never Known BY JARED KLEBANOW ’12

It’s a typical spring, in 1939 where my grandfather opens his

calculus textbook in his middle-class, Jewish Brooklyn neighborhood. It’s April 1945, and my grandmother is finally liberated from the atrocities of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

It’s December 22nd, 1956, and my mother, Judith Blaustein, is born in the small, postwar town, Uzhgorod, in the USSR. It’s a chilly day in October 1967, and my widowed grandmother and mom become the third family in Soviet Union history to legally leave the USSR under the Iron Curtain. It’s August 1976, and my father pulls up to Tulane University in New Orleans, LA. Finally, it’s April 27, 1994, and at Mount Sinai Hospital in uptown Manhattan, a premature, blueeyed boy is born. My name is Jared Klebanow, and for the better part of my life, most of these dates were a piece of my family’s history I was reluctant to acknowledge. My grandparents were just the grey-haired relatives who always greeted me with a smile. In fact, the past of any of my family members before 1994 was like a history textbook I never read. It was not until I looked deeper into my heritage, that I found a connection between the values of my family and the values I cherish today. Now, like all of you, I’m moving on from the stages of dependence to the stages of independence. As I moved through my Hotchkiss career, I’ve been on my own more and more. Now that I think about it, I need to form my own values. Values that I will use through college, early adulthood, and the rest of my life. So when I’m lying in my uncom-

fortable Hotchkiss cot, staring up at the numerous sayings written on my wall, I think about who I will be when I graduate from this place. Will I be like my grandfather, who studied in his room for hours until he received a full scholarship to college? Will I be like my grandmother, who fought through the unlivable and found some way to make it when all odds were against her? In truth, I don’t plan on being a copy of any of my relatives, but I will always use their stories as a foundation for the way I go about life. It is always hard to hear about the horrors my grandmother encountered in the Holocaust. How she was separated from her ten-year old sister and mother at Auschwitz. From being the only one to survive after a triple-decked sleeping bunk collapsed on top of her, to getting typhoid fever and weighing 95 pounds at liberation. Nevertheless, instead of looking down in anger, I hope I will someday have the same willpower and determination she had in those ten long months. Her experience will always stay with me when times are rough and when I know I must fight through them. Standing in the middle of nowhere, in northwestern Connecticut, I am proud to say that part of my heritage lies 5,000 miles away in the Carpathian region of former Czechoslovakia. I ask you now, where do you

Jared Klebanow ’12

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IT’S

MY t u rn

come from? Walking through the Hotchkiss corridors, I pass people with backgrounds from all over the world. From Afghanistan to Ireland. From colonial America to Japan. From Thailand to Northern Africa. We are all the same in that we are pieces of the Hotchkiss community; however, at the same time we all are unique. I stand here today, as a Hotchkiss senior, urging you to capitalize on what makes you unique. As great as this school is in giving you the education and opportunities of a lifetime, it also has the ability to mask who you are and why you are here. In June, I want to graduate from this school not just as a Hotchkiss alum, but as the person who believes in never forgetting where I’m from. If someone were to ask me now what my values actually are, it would be hard to give a straight answer. The values that I cherish come from every experience I’ve ever had. I’d say for me, it is all about happiness. Do what you makes you happy. I’d rather be living in a shack next to a mountain with a smile on my face, than in a penthouse looking over New York City, but miserable. I also think about being true to myself. I will not let anyone change who I am as a person. I remember times where I’ve questioned my heritage because of other people’s opinions, and I know never to do that again. You are the product of yourself, nobody else. But regardless, I’m not here to persuade you to follow my values, but for you to follow yours. Nearly two years ago, during my first year here at Hotchkiss, Mr. Pressman made the announcement for transportation to religious services for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish holiday celebrating the new year. Although I’m not religious, I had still always gone to services as a kid growing up. I remember walking the long ten blocks with my mother in jacket and tie to our local synagogue in New York City. When I saw the sign-up sheets for anyone wanting to go, there was no hesitation in picking up the pen and writing my initials. Little then did I know the feeling I

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would get when waiting for the Suburban in main circle. Standing in the middle of Hotchkiss in dress code plus one, with a yarmulke in my hand and nobody around, the awkwardness of the situation hit me hard. Occasionally, as I was waiting, someone would pass by and ask where I was going. Knowing that I was no longer in the Jewish bubble of New York City, it took all of my willpower to tell the truth. In fact, all I really wanted to do was lie. Tell him or her that I’m going to a wedding, or a special dinner with family friends. Saying, “I’m going to Friday evening services for Rosh Hashanah” just didn’t feel right. As though I was alienating myself from the rest of the community. Being that I’m not observant, I really just wanted to take off my tie and head back to Tinker. “Who cares if I don’t go?” I thought. “None of the other Jews on campus are going.” However, in the end, I jumped into the Suburban with Mr. Pressman behind the wheel and continued the tradition of Rosh Hashanah for the 15th year. As I’ve said before, I’m not a religious person. So I’m sure many of you might ask why I still observe Jewish holidays and ceremonies. When I’m celebrating Shabbat on a typical Friday night; I think about my great-grandparents who did the exact same ceremony over 100 years ago. Knowing that much of my family died for the freedom I hold today is something I can’t ignore. That is why it is important that I don’t give up traditions of any sort. Whether the tradition is religious or not, don’t let a place like Hotchkiss, or what you think Hotchkiss accepts, take that away from you. Being a Jew is something that I take pride in, and helps establish some of the core fundamental values I learned as a child. My bottom line is this: make sure you can look in the mirror and know exactly who you are and where you come from. For all new students, don’t forget the traditions and values you held at home. Choose new ones if you’ve given thought to the choice and it’s your own judgment. But don’t lose your val-

ues or traditions out of laziness or embarrassment. Once you forget about your background and traditions, it’s possible you may lose them forever. For returning students, it’s not too late. Call your grandparents. Talk with your aunts, uncles, parents, fourth cousins, anyone close to you. Listen to their stories. Everyone has a background that is unique, and whether it be special or not, I encourage you learn about it. Three months ago, my mother, brother, and I took an unforgettable trip to the Carpathian region of former Czechoslovakia, and it changed my life. Walking through the cobblestone streets of Uzhgorod felt like a chapter out of my family’s history book. An African Proverb says, “Knowledge is like a garden, if it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested.” Every person in this room has a garden of knowledge in front of them. Understanding your heritage is not innate, you need to seek the answers yourself. Otherwise, that garden will rot; and the opportunity will be gone forever. For the most part, heritage is passed down orally, consisting of stories passed down from generation to generation. If I didn’t reach out to learn about the countless hours my grandfather spent studying to get to college, I would never know. I would never know that my mother speaks six languages, or my grandmother worked three jobs to support herself. I would never know that my great-grandmother would feed you every time you came over. I would never know that my family’s blood still lies in the cold dirt at Auschwitz; I would never know that my grandparents would do anything for the opportunities I hold today; I would never know how important understanding my heritage is; and I would not have been inspired to give a speech like this today. SENIOR JARED KLEBANOW GAVE THIS TALK IN CHAPEL IN SEPTEMBER. SOME CHAPEL TALKS ARE AVAILABLE AT THE HOTCHKISS WEBSITE, HTTP://WWW.HOTCHKISS.ORG/ABOUTHOTCHKIS S/CHAPEL-TALKS/INDEX.ASPX.

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Th e H o t c h k i s s S c h o o l

Annual Report of Giving 2010-2011

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Message from the Head of School

Dear Friends, In true blue Hotchkiss fashion, you have supported your school in magnificent style during the 2010-2011 fiscal year. On behalf of everyone in the campus community, I thank you for your inspirational loyalty and for your unwavering devotion to our fine school. Last year the School received more than $16.5 million in total philanthropy. In the pages that follow, you will discover that your generosity touched many of the Schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most important initiatives, programs, and projects, all central to the vision and well-being of Hotchkiss. Most extraordinary is the new record of $4.6 million set by The Hotchkiss Fund, in addition to the new participation and dollar records achieved by the Parent Fund. Your support came to us in both restricted and unrestricted ways, and you directed your gifts to such critical student causes as residential life and financial aid. You made certain that the programmatic aspects of the School are as excellent as they have always been. Additionally, you invested wisely in our most valuable asset, our people, by making it possible for us to maintain competitive salaries, offer beneficial health insurance options, provide fitting residences for our faculty, and enhance the professional development opportunities that encourage us all to keep learning. This support is reflective of a constituency that believes in the life-changing value of education. Thanks to your generosity, and the tireless efforts of our volunteers, we are ennobled to offer an education that is uplifting and lasting.

O T C H K I S S

A G A Z I N E

Every Head of School in the past 120 years has noted the fact that Hotchkiss alumni and family members are remarkably loyal to their alma mater. I have seen this firsthand during the past few years, and it is a wonderful thing to witness. Legend tells us that before Hotchkiss was established, the Boston stagecoach routinely passed by our hill. The driver stopped frequently at the top, while its passengers enjoyed fully the view to the north, a view so spectacular that Henry Ward Beecher named this spot, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Inspiration Point.â&#x20AC;? How fitting that, many years later, Maria Hotchkiss would choose this spot for her community of inspired learners. How fitting, too, that you choose to nourish that inspiration through your giving. Generations of the Hotchkiss family have made sure that the School is equipped to continue to do the work Maria had in mind. As our current-day stewards, your generosity is full and flowing. Thank you for your gifts to Hotchkiss. Yours sincerely,

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Report of Gifts JULY 1, 2010 - JUNE 30, 2011

6% The Hotchkiss Fund

$4,662,874

Restricted Current Use

$1,466,814

Restricted Endowment

$7,803,218

Unrestricted Endowment

$1,646,968

28% 47% 9%

Property, Plant, and Equipment $935,641 ___________________________________________________

Total Gifts

10%

$16,515,515

Giving Societies JULY 1, 2010 - JUNE 30, 2011 • ALL CASH GIFTS TO THE SCHOOL

GIFT LEVEL

DONORS

TOTAL GIVEN

$11,319,864

$1,488,315

St. Luke’s Society $10,000 – $24,999

102

$1,306,150

Maria Hotchkiss Society $5,000 – $9,999

151

$859,292

The 1891 Society $1,891 – $4,999

253

$645,407

3,476

$896,487

_________________________________________________________________________ Head of School’s Council

$50,000 or more

Leadership Council $25,000 – $49,999

Olympians 1st – 5th Reunion $250 – $4,999 Pythians 6th – 10th Reunion $500 – $4,999

Blue & White Society Up to $1,890

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Th e H o t c h k i s s F u n d O v e r v i e w o f R e s u lt s

DONORS

DOLLARS

Total Raised $4,662,874 (New Record) __________________

________________________________________________

Alumni Participation 37%

Current Grandparents 52 $52,486 ________________________________________________

• Twenty-two classes achieved 50% or better participation • The Class of 1939 achieved 100% participation and earned the Class of 1932 Award

Alumni 2,910 $2,952,882 ________________________________________________ Current Parents 397 $1,349,448 ________________________________________________

Parents of Alumni 295 $211,606 ________________________________________________ Individuals, Corporations and Foundations 145 $96,452 ________________________________________________ Total

3,799

$4,662,874

Ar m i t a g e Aw a rd Peter J. Rogers Jr. ’73, P’07,’11 received the Thomas W. Armitage ’25 Award. This award is given annually to a member of the Hotchkiss alumni body for distinguished service to The Hotchkiss Fund. Having served three years as the Fund’s President and achieving a record total this year in unrestricted gifts to the School, we extend our sincere thanks to Peter for his unbridled enthusiasm and dedication to The Hotchkiss Fund. Peter and Anne Rogers ’73, P’07,’11

O T C H K I S S

A G A Z I N E

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Th e H o t c h k i s s P a r e n t F u n d R e s u lt s b y C l a s s

The Parent Fund had a record breaking year in both unrestricted dollars raised and participation. Current parents increased their giving to the Fund by $306,380, a 29% increase over the previous year. These numbers do not reflect gifts from parents who are also Hotchkiss alumni. Alumni parents fall into the alumni category.

CLASS

DOLLARS

DONORS

PARTICIPATION

_________________________________________________ 2011 $375,430 103 69% 2012 $325,927 109 72% 2013 $253,616 109 82% 2014 $394,475 76 83% _________________________________________________ Total

$1,349,448

397

76%

Total Raised $1,349,448 (New Record) Current Parent Participation 76% (excludes alumni parents) (New Record)

M c K e e Aw a rd Elizabeth J. (Jan) and Stefan P. Ford P’11,’13 received the McKee Award. Named in honor of Hugh and Judy McKee P’78,’80,’84,’89 in recognition of their tireless work for The Hotchkiss Fund, this award is presented annually to a Hotchkiss parent for distinguished service to The Hotchkiss Fund. Through the passionate leadership of Jan and Stefan, the Parent Fund obtained unprecedented results in both participation and gifts during the 2010-11 Fund year.

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Th e L a p t o p I n i t i at i v e — P r o v i d i n g t h e To o l s f o r S u c c e s s Several years ago, a Strategic Technology Plan for Hotchkiss was developed with input and ideas from close to 50 people. The plan was finalized in February 2008. Various committees were formed, and the Curriculum and Instruction subcommittee established the high priority goal “to ensure ubiquitous and reliable access to a consistent technology framework.” From there, the Information and Technology Governance Council decided that one way to

approach and achieve this goal would be to issue standard computers to our students. It made sense to begin with the prep class, giving all Humanities students the same platform from which to work. The MacBooks have provided an equitable solution for our students. When surveyed, 72 percent of the prep class (now lower mids), say that having a school-issued computer helps them succeed academically at Hotchkiss.

Initiatives such as this are possible, in part, thanks to unrestricted gifts to The Hotchkiss Fund.

O T C H K I S S

A G A Z I N E

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Reunion Giving In March 2011, The Hotchkiss Fund announced a reunion participation challenge: the reunion class that achieved the highest participation in the 2010-2011 Hotchkiss Fund would have the honor of naming an award after its class. It was a very close race; the Classes of 1986 and 1951 were neck-and-neck to the end. The Class of 1986 won with 79% participation to establish the Class of 1986 Award. The ’86ers received two additional Hotchkiss Fund awards: the Class of 1963 Award (greatest improvement in year-to-year class participation; 79% vs. 35%) and the Class of 1978 Award (highest number of donors to The Hotchkiss Fund). Congratulations to the Class of 1951 on coming in a close second, having achieved 77% participation, an incredible increase over the previous year’s 44%. The Class of 2006 had an amazing 5th reunion. The members set 5th reunion records in participation (61%), attendance, and

fundraising, and received the Cullinan Challenge Award. This award was established by the Class of 1967 and is presented annually to that class among the youngest 15 classes that achieves the highest participation in The Hotchkiss Fund. Nine reunion classes achieved 50% participation: 1931, 1936, 1951, 1960, 1966, 1971, 1976, 1986, and 2006. The Class of 1981 earned the Class of 1949 Award, given annually to the reunion class that raises the most unrestricted money for The Hotchkiss Fund, with a total of $141,808. The Class of 1960 received the Charles Gulden Jr. ’53 Volunteer Achievement Award, recognizing the outstanding achievements of the reunion gift committee who helped their class raise the highest unrestricted Hotchkiss Fund gift. Thank you to all our reunion classes for their generosity and loyalty to The Hotchkiss Fund.

Reunion Giving Results JULY 1, 2010 - JUNE 30, 2011 • ALL CASH GIFTS TO THE SCHOOL

REUNION

CLASS YEAR

PERCENT OF PARTICIPATION

THE HOTCHKISS FUND

DONORS (ALL FUNDS)

TOTAL DOLLARS

____________________________________________________________ 80th 75th 70th 65th 60th 55th 50th 45th 40th 35th 30th 25th 20th 15th 10th 5th

1931 1936 1941 1946 1951 1956 1960 1966 1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006

50% 87% 40% 36% 79% 47% 54% 53% 52% 53% 35% 79% 44% 42% 19% 61%

$1,720 $40,320 $17,250 $10,850 $23,463 $43,820 $444,725 $30,423 $131,979 $75,000 $141,808 $113,178 $38,910 $22,005 $6,525 $8,322

2 7 8 17 49 35 36 42 37 63 52 113 63 65 28 103

$1,720 $52,031 $84,185 $118,261 $23,664 $105,072 $761,750* $30,223 $134,429 $225,848 $218,057 $128,178 $41,097 $23,005 $6,650 $8,335

* The Class of 1960 celebrated their 50th reunion in October 2010. This comprehensive total reflects gifts and pledges to The Hotchkiss Fund, restricted funds, and planned gifts raised throughout their reunion campaign.

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Non-Reunion Class Giving JULY 1, 2010 - JUNE 30, 2011 • ALL CASH GIFTS TO THE SCHOOL

CLASS PERCENT OF THE HOTCHKISS D ONORS T OTAL DOLLARS Y EA R PARTICIPATION FUND (ALL FUNDS) ____________________________________________________________________________

CLASS PERCENT OF THE HOTCHKISS DONORS TOTAL DOLLARS YEA R PARTICIPATION FU N D (ALL FUNDS) ____________________________________________________________________________

1932 1933 1934 1935 1937 1938 1939 1940 1942 1943 1944 1945 1947 1948 1949 1950 1952 1953 1954 1955 1957 1958 1959 1961* 1962 1963 1964 1965 1967 1968 1969 1970

1972 1973 1974 1975 1977 1978 1979 1980 1982 1983 1984 1985 1987 1988 1989 1990 1992 1993 1994 1995 1997 1998 1999 2000 2002 2003 2004 2005 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

72% 50% 33% 100% 31% 46% 100% 26% 63% 46% 80% 46% 66% 43% 100% 50% 50% 62% 59% 65% 52% 76% 37%

$10,633 $400 $1,740 $30,330 $1,273 $7,600 $5,646 $4,400 $13,820 $5,373 $23,493 $18,425 $13,060 $15,909 $162,102 $71,925 $13,647 $48,062 $16,965 $49,497 $20,729 $79,169 $47,200

5 $15,822 2 $13,446 3 $1,740 13 $32,830 4 $2,499,699 11 $1,428,024 19 $6,646 5 $4,400 19 $34,320 12 $163,973 25 $25,193 19 $40,454 38 $60,160 21 $26,409 55 $1,469,154 29 $132,308 29 $14,597 37 $79,013 38 $45,835 42 $66,597 37 $31,864 50 $156,537 32 $72,781

43% 57% 38% 51% 32% 27% 53% 50%

$5,745 $59,906 $41,634 $32,621 $52,729 $40,645 $62,418 $38,652

29 $5,845 42 $81,000 25 $45,325 47 $88,158 24 $204,230 23 $4,168,165 46 $128,961 40 $48,652

44% 37% 33% 42% 33% 62% 33% 37% 32% 37% 30% 39% 40% 40% 35% 38% 26% 30% 24% 18% 20% 15% 21% 27% 24% 28% 26% 25% 23% 22% 19% 15% 43%

$81,633 $34,837 $66,551 $21,822 $108,367 $90,245 $74,967 $73,051 $101,590 $84,581 $51,535 $46,404 $45,932 $41,115 $41,676 $26,418 $25,934 $10,712 $5,623 $9,470 $16,280 $14,830 $4,380 $9,790 $5,180 $10,481 $7,305 $2,398 $3,260 $1,760 $4,322 $2,455 $778

42 34 35 48 48 89 47 49 48 51 44 55 58 61 51 51 38 50 38 29 32 24 34 46 40 45 47 43 41 38 37 27 84

* Members of the Class of 1961 celebrated their 50th reunion October 28-30. Their 50th reunion totals will be included in the 2011-2012 Annual Report of Giving.

O T C H K I S S

A G A Z I N E

$145,883 $40,837 $272,476 $82,237 $136,037 $260,041 $94,599 $105,326 $132,330 $149,831 $61,785 $60,154 $46,032 $57,602 $43,643 $26,468 $25,934 $11,212 $7,723 $9,970 $38,380 $14,855 $4,420 $10,790 $5,230 $10,831 $7,305 $2,398 $3,260 $2,775 $5,522 $2,455 $2,983

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The Bigelow Hotchkiss Dramatic Association Fund was created through a bequest from the late John E. Bigelow ’44 to support the Theatre program by providing funds to purchase capital equipment such as the recent addition of updated lighting boards and sound equipment.

Th e To w n H i l l S o c i e t y — Su p p o r t i n g Ho t c h k i s s i n Pe r p e t u i t y For generations, Hotchkiss alumni have recognized the transformational academic experience they had here in Lakeville, and they are grateful to the alumni and parents who came before them, making it possible. Members of our community honor their own experience by providing present and future generations of students that same opportunity. By joining The Town Hill Society through the establishment of a charitable trust, revocable trust, or simply by including Hotchkiss in their wills, members of the Hotchkiss family ensure the School’s future and enable this circle of philanthropy to continue through the years.

In fiscal year 2010-2011, Hotchkiss received $3,840,776 in realized planned gifts from 13 individuals. The Society also welcomed eight new members, the majority of whom are in their 40s, proving that it is never too early to plan one’s estate allocations. These resources provide critical support for the School’s efforts to maintain the high-caliber student experience that Hotchkiss has offered for the past 120 years. We are deeply grateful to all of our alumni, parents, and friends whose generosity helps Hotchkiss to thrive.

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Senior Induction Dinner — A We l c o m e t o t h e A l u m n i A s s o c i a t i o n

At a school where traditions are deeply valued, a relatively new ritual has become an important part of senior spring, and it is just one of the many activities associated with one’s final days on campus as a Hotchkiss student. Its significance is not to recognize an end – but to celebrate a beginning. The Senior Induction Dinner welcomes the graduating class into the Alumni Association, a worldwide group of more than 9,000, in which each graduate will have a lifelong membership. Senior Induction Dinner is the first of several special events leading up to graduation. It is hosted by the School’s Alumni Association Board of Governors and held on the Friday evening of its annual spring meeting. The senior class assembles outside of the Tremaine Gallery, where the class presidents lead the procession out to and around “senior grass.” Here, on this hallowed ground reserved only for the twelfth-graders, the students are presented with their Alumni Association pins. The class presidents then lead the way past the Edsel Ford Memorial Library to the Dining Hall’s “senior staircase.” The class presidents split and shake the hand of each and every one of their classmates, as they pass through the Lt. Col. James Lindsay Luke Foyer into the Dining Hall. The dinner opens with a welcome from the president of the Board of Governors. The newly-chosen class agents address their classmates, and the senior gift is presented to the School. Just as they began their careers at the School by singing Fair Hotchkiss, at the close of the dinner they sing the School song once again. It is a moving recognition of their newly achieved status as alumni of The Hotchkiss School, and a fine tradition to behold as yet another class joins the ranks of the Hotchkiss alumni body.

It is an honor for the Board of Governors and other Hotchkiss alumni to be a part of the Senior Induction Dinner. It is a meaningful opportunity to welcome the members of the senior class into the Alumni Association, to have the chance to share a meal and learn about them and their Hotchkiss experiences, and to enjoy the talent of the members of the senior class who perform at the culmination of the evening. The energy of graduation and adventures ahead surely emanates from the students. As alumni, it is exciting to be wit-

Class of 2011 The newest alumni class raised a total of $2,983 in their senior year for the School, $778 of which was unrestricted for The Hotchkiss Fund.

ness to the energy and richness of a Hotchkiss education and where it will take the students.

CLASS AGENTS

Shannon N. Brathwaite, Emily A. Brigstocke, Kelsie M. Fralick, Elizabeth L. Johnson, Kwang Jun “Eric” Lee, Hector L. Marrero, James Nortey, Taylor A. Peterson, Justin F. White, Anne E. Wymard

O T C H K I S S

A G A Z I N E

Katie Allen Berlandi ’88 Board of Governors President Alumni Association

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Revenues and Expenditures

The current economic climate certainly challenges the fiscal management of the School’s budget. However, as always, the School takes great pride in being careful stewards of its funds. The 2010-11 operating budget was just over forty million dollars. Charitable giving accounts for 52% of the revenues and allows Hotchkiss to continue to provide an outstanding education.

P e r c e n t a g e o f To t a l R e v e n u e s 70% 60% 50% 40%

43%

37%

30% 20% 10% 0

NET TUITION

AUTHORIZED ENDOWMENT UTILIZATION

12%

THE HOTCHKISS FUND

RESTRICTED CURRENT USE

AUXILIARY ENTERPRISES

2% FEES AND OTHER

P e r c e n t a g e o f To t a l E x p e n d i t u r e s 60% 50%

57%

40% 30% 20%

19%

10% 0

EDUCATION AND STUDENT SERVICES AND GENERAL INSTITUTIONAL

GENERAL ADMINISTRATION

16% PLANT OPERATIONS

5% CAPITAL AND SPECIAL ITEMS

Th a n k y o u f o r y o u r g e n e r o u s s u p p o r t ! 80

O T C H K I S S

A G A Z I N E

3% AUXILIARY ENTERPRISES

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Hotchkiss REUNION

June 15-17, 2012 Classes of 1932, 1937, 1942, 1947, 1952, 1957, 1972, 1977, 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997, 2002, 2007

October 26-28, 2012 For more information, please contact: Caroline Sallee Reilly â&#x20AC;&#x2122;87, Associate Director of Alumni and Parent Programs, at (860) 435-3892 or creilly@hotchkiss.org. You may also visit www.hotchkiss.org/alumni and click on Events & Reunions.

Class of 1962 - 50th Reunion (opening reception on the evening of October 25) Class of 1967 - 45th Reunion

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HOTCHKISS M

Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage

PAID Permit No. 8

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Lakeville, CT

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