Hotchkiss Magazine Winter/Spring 2018 by The Hotchkiss School

Winter/Spring 2018

Board of Trustees

Alumni Association Board of Governors

Charles Ayres ’77

Charlotte Dillon Ross ’10

Craig Bradley, Head of School

Miriam Gelber Beveridge ’86 VP and Co-chair, Gender Committee

Robert Chartener ’76, P’18, Vice President

Sirin Bulakul ’06

William Sandberg ’65

John Coumantaros ’80, P’16,’19

Adam Casella ’06 VP and Chair, Alumni Services Committee

Thomas Seidenstein ’91, President

Elizabeth Ford P’11,’13 Sean Gorman ’72, Secretary Robert Gould ’77 John Grube ’65, P’00 Elizabeth Hines ’93 Raymond McGuire ’75, Vice President Kendra O’Donnell Thomas Quinn ’71, P’15,’17,’19 Chris Redlich Jr. ’68 Jean Weinberg Rose ’80, P’18, President Thomas Seidenstein ’91 President, Alumni Association

Blake Ruddock ’12

Nathalie Pierrepont Danilovich ’03

Sheria Smith ’01 VP and Chair, Alumni of Color Committee

Marita Bell Fairbanks ’84

Richard Staples ’74, P’10,’12

Meredith “Mark” Gall ’59

Thomas Terbell ’95

Peter Gifford ’93

Michael Thompson ’66

Brooke Harlow ’92

Carolyn Toolan ’97

Caldwell Hart ’87, P’16,’20 Secretary and Chair, Nominating Committee for Membership Keith Holmes ’77 VP and Co-chair, Gender Committee Annika Lescott ’06 Barrett Lester ’81

EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS

Craig Bradley, Head of School Katheryn Allen Berlandi ’88, P’19 Past President, Alumni Association Edward Greenberg ’55 Past President, Alumni Association

Nisa Leung Lin ’88

Rebecca van der Bogert

Nicholas Moore ’71, P’89,’01,’06

Jean Weinberg Rose ’80, P’18 President, Board of Trustees

Gwyn Williams ’84, P’17, ’19, President, The Hotchkiss Fund

Paul Mutter ’87 VP and Chair, Nominating Committee for Awards

Gwyn Williams ’84, P’17,’19 President, The Hotchkiss Fund

Daniel Wilner ’03

Emily Pressman ’98

David Wyshner ’85, Treasurer

Chip Quarrier ’90 VP and Chair, Communications Committee Casey Reid ’01

PHOTO BY WENDY CARLSON

Roger Smith ’78, P’08

COVER PHOTOGRAPH BY WENDY CARLSON

Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Permit No. 36 Pittsfield, MA

Winter/Spring 2018

HEAD OF SCHOOL

Craig W. Bradley CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER

Hellen Hom-Diamond EDITOR

Wendy Carlson MAGAZINE DESIGNER

Julie Hammill WRITER & DIGITAL CONTENT PRODUCER

Chelsea Edgar ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS

Danielle Sinclair VIDEOGRAPHER AND DIGITAL MEDIA SPECIALIST

Tyler Wosleger WEBSITE AND DESIGN MANAGER

Margaret Szubra CONTRIBUTORS

Pete Assakul ’18, Faith Briggs ’06, David Holahan ’67, Roberta Jenckes, Priyanka Kumar ’19, Peter Rogers ’73, P’07,’11, Roger Wistar, and Tyler Wosleger 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, members of the faculty and staff, and friends of the School. Letters and comments are welcome. Please send inquiries and comments to: The Hotchkiss School, 11 Interlaken Road, Lakeville, CT 060392141, email magazine@hotchkiss.org, or phone 860-435-3122.

F E AT U R E S

16 In Rural Thailand,

A Student Finds a Second Home

18 The Future of STEM is Female 20 Dreaming Big 22 In Search of the ‘Boys’ of Memorial Hall 26 The Hotchkiss Holahans 28 The Call of the Wild 33 Nature’s Painter: Allen Blagden ’57, P’90

D E PA RT M E N T S

4 Campus Connection 36 Class Notes

62 In Memoriam 68 Parting Shot W i n t e r / S p r i n g

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From

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“Dr. King provided the leadership for America to move closer to an ideal of equality.” – Head of School Craig Bradley

n M artin L uther K ing Day, we gathered to celebr ate the legacies of two men: the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., leader of the civil rights movement in the United States, and the late Walter J. Crain Jr., the first African American teacher at Hotchkiss who profoundly touched the lives of thousands of students and scores of colleagues during his 33-year tenure. Dr. King provided the leadership for America to move closer to an ideal of equality; Mr. Crain provided the leadership and example of an inclusive community, one that supports the learning and growth of all its members. One of Mr. Crain’s great gifts — expressed in poignant terms in letters and emails from former students following his death in March 2017 — was his ability to see the potential of every student and to set at ease that student’s natural feelings (particularly in adolescence) of self-doubt and inadequacy. He focused on students’ strengths, thereby helping them recognize their own gifts. In the words of one former student: “Mr. Crain committed himself to helping you do your best and find your rightful place at Hotchkiss. You always came away from a conversation with Mr. Crain feeling much better about yourself.”

From left to right: artist Susan Durkee, Jay Crain, Adrienne C. Dedjinou ’89, Roger Crain ’86, and Head of School Craig Bradley pose in front of the portrait of Walter J. Crain Jr., who passed away last March. The portrait honors Crain, the first African American instructor at Hotchkiss, who taught at the School for 33 years.

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

PHOTO BY WENDY CARLSON

Walter Crain first arrived in Lakeville in 1965 for a summer teaching job in the newly established Greater Opportunity (G.O.) program, which provided mentoring and educational opportunity to disadvantaged innercity youth. After teaching in G.O. for several summers, Crain joined the faculty full time in 1970 and retired in 2003, a period that saw momentous shifts in society and at the School. Hotchkiss’s establishment of the G.O. program came at the height of the civil rights movement. The year before, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, along with racial segregation in schools, employment, and public accommodations. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibited racial discrimination in voting, and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 abolished a long-established immigration quota system and dramatically altered the nation’s demographic mix. From 1965 to 2015, the proportion of immigrants in the U.S. population increased from five to 14 percent. The composition of the current student body and, to a growing degree, the faculty reflects the changing American demographics. Hotchkiss is a more diverse community, with a higher proportion of American students and faculty members whose parents were born outside the U.S., allowing for a multitude of perspectives and experiences. The curriculum at Hotchkiss has evolved, too. One example is a class on representations of women in African American literature, taught by Dr. Rachel Myers, who is featured in this issue. Dr. Myers and I work with the recently formed Council on Diversity and Inclusion, which recommends steps we can take to best support a student body comprised of many backgrounds, beliefs, and cultures. In that process, it is my hope that we follow the example of Mr. Crain and help students to see their own strengths and to share them with others while ensuring that all students are valued, protected, and respected as contributors to this remarkable learning community.

Fall 2017

Class Act Thank you for the interesting fall 2017 design issue, the ART of and especially for Wendy Carlson’s excellent article on DESIGN my talented and visionary classmate Nader Tehrani. As an author of books and articles on architecture and design, I have watched his career from a distance with utter fascination and awe. Nader is fast becoming one of the most important and oft-awarded architects in the country, yet he is all modesty, constantly deflecting conversation away from his own work and accomplishments to focus on others. No wonder his collaborators produce such great work under him. He is an inspiration! Chase Reynolds Ewald ’81

Long Live Daily Themes The Head’s excellent article on craftsmanship reminded me of the many hours we all spent writing Daily Themes. I am pleased to see that the tradition is still in place, but I have always wondered who conceived of the idea and when it was implemented. During my four years, we used a text, The Conventions of Composition, written by Edgar and Coolidge in 1935. Perhaps that handbook, and the Daily Themes, were companion creations? Julian Coolidge ’52

That Hotchkiss Car You can’t imagine my pleasure at opening the current issue of Hotchkiss Magazine and finding an article about the Hotchkiss car. Thanks for mentioning my discovery of the car’s existence. I’m amazed by all the information you unearthed beyond what I was able to find in the literature. I hope Hotchkiss alumni experience the same excitement I had in discovering that The Hotchkiss School has an automobile with a distinguished pedigree associated with it. Mark Gall ’59 Ten years ago, my wife and I took a two-week summer vacation to France with our children, David ’06 and Anne ’09. On one of our side trips, we went to a museum in Grasse. As we were leaving, we heard about a small auto museum in the nearby village of Mougins. After some difficulty finding the place, we arrived and wandered through the small museum of vintage cars and trucks. While there was no Hotchkiss auto on display, there was a poster for sale. Having no idea about the auto or its history, but amazed that anything with the name Hotchkiss would be found in this little French village, we bought the poster. We did learn it was the name of a car, but we knew nothing of the history until now. Thomas Keating ’69

We want to hear from you! Send your comments on this issue to magazine@hotchkiss.org. W i n t e r / S p r i n g

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A Message from the Board of Trustees ROBERT CHARTENER ’76, P’18

The trustees met in Lakeville in late January for two days of board and committee meetings.

Stamats Study – Last year, Hotchkiss retained Stamats, a research firm specializing in education, to conduct a broad survey of students, alumni, parents, faculty and staff, prospective families, and third parties familiar with the School. The goal was to gain a clearer understanding of the image and perceptions of Hotchkiss — including strengths and weaknesses, performance ratings, and competitive position — to assist in strategic planning, admissions, and communications. Over 1,500 people completed a web-based survey, and a further 350 were interviewed by phone. Stamats analyzed the results, and Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Erby Mitchell P’21 and Associate Director of Admission Amy Rasner Clulow presented the findings to the trustees. Identified strengths included academics and college preparation, the quality and variety of academic and extracurricular offerings, the quality of the faculty and student body, and excellent facilities; the principal weakness was affordability, with residential life also cited as an area for improvement. Strategic Planning – The trustees continued their work on the strategic design process begun in the summer of 2017. A large

number of needs and opportunities had surfaced during prior sessions and in the Stamats study, and this time the trustees focused on setting priorities for the School and on the accompanying costs. Faculty members Josh Hahn, Adam Lang, and Charlie Noyes ’78 facilitated the discussions. While the process will continue during the winter and spring, the emerging areas of focus were affordability and financial aid; enriching the quality of community and residential life (with implications for both program and physical plant); developing an integrated, “whole school” curriculum; and improving the advising system. The process should be completed this year.

Investments – Bob Gould ’77, chairman of the Investment Committee, reported that the endowment reached $472 million, a new high-water mark, at the end of 2017 as global equity markets continued their remarkable run. After posting a 14.2 percent return for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2017, the endowment recorded a preliminary investment gain of a further 5.7 percent from July through December 2017. The Investment Committee rebalanced the portfolio at the end of the year to avoid excessive concentration in public equities and continues its work to identify exceptional managers in private equity, venture capital, and diversifying hedge funds.

Budget – The trustees typically approve the following year’s preliminary budget at the winter meeting. Presented by Treasurer David Wyshner ’85 and Chief Financial Officer John Tuke P’13,’21, the balanced budget assumes a student body of 600 (a step toward a reduction to 585 in 2019-20), boarding tuition of $58,300 (a 2.9 percent increase from 2017-18), and a 5.7 percent increase in financial aid per student to $9.7 million in aggregate. An endowment draw of 3.7 percent will fund 32.7 percent of the $51.7-million operating budget.

Investigation into Sexual Misconduct – The trustees discussed the investigation into sexual misconduct that occurred in the School’s past. The trustees reaffirmed their commitment to completing the process with thoroughness and integrity so that the School fully addresses these issues. The Board approved a new policy to provide reimbursement of prior counseling expenses, which supplements a prior program that offers support services to survivors. Periodic updates to the community will continue.

PHOTO BY WENDY CARLSON

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Hostetter Music Gift Announced

PHOTO BY WENDY CARLSON

t an All-School meeting on Jan. 26, Head of School Craig Bradley announced a major three-part gift from Barbara Walsh Hostetter ’77 and her husband, Amos, to enhance the music and arts program. The announcement was made in conjunction with the winter Board of Trustees meeting and took place at Elfers Hall in the Esther Eastman Music Center, which was named in honor and in memory of Barbara Hostetter’s grandmother and was given on behalf of all of Mrs. Eastman’s family members in 2005. The gift establishes the Joanne Eastman Sohrweide Chair for the Director of Music Programs at Hotchkiss. Fabio Witkowski, visual and performing arts department chair and director of the music program, was named the inaugural recipient of the Chair. Additionally, the Hostetter gift will endow a scholarship fund to provide need-based financial aid for students who show exceptional promise in the performing and visual arts. The third part of the gift will support the creation of the Hotchkiss Philharmonic Orchestra. Student musicians, including representatives from other local schools, will learn from and perform alongside experienced, professional musicians — including guest conductors and soloists — for the enjoyment of the campus community as well as the surrounding communities. “We owe Barbara and Amos Hostetter our sincerest gratitude for all that they have done and continue to do for Hotchkiss,” remarked Bradley. “The Hostetters understand the connection between outstanding faculty members and excellent students. The establishment of the Sohrweide Chair and of a scholarship fund, as well as the creation of the Hotchkiss Philharmonic Orchestra, will ensure the deepening excellence of the music program and the arts at Hotchkiss.” Commenting on the occasion, Barbara Hostetter said, “This gift is made with pride, pleasure, and gratitude to Hotchkiss for your outstanding commitment in bringing the arts to an increasingly broad community and to the very high standard of excellence in your programming.” Both Witkowski and his wife, Instructor in Piano Gisele Nacif Witkowski, celebrated

Fabio Witkowski named inaugural Chair recipient

their 15th year of service at Hotchkiss earlier this year. Fabio and Gisele are true partners in all aspects of their life and work, including both teaching and performing. The duo has given shape to both the School’s music program and to the Summer Portals Piano Program, which runs every July. The Chair is named in honor and in memory of Barbara Hostetter’s mother, Joanne Eastman Sohrweide, whose memorial service was held at Hotchkiss in July 2016. A resident of Lakeville for many years, Sohrweide held Hotchkiss’s music program in high esteem. She taught music at Indian Mountain School and Salisbury School, and served as an instructor of music history and choral director at Hotchkiss. Her husband, Bob Sohrweide, taught Latin and Greek and chaired the classics department at Hotchkiss. Sohrweide’s son, Jonathan Walsh ’80, and grandson, Bennett Rathbun ’03, are Hotchkiss alumni. In accepting the honor, Witkowski said, “I am extremely humbled and honored to hold the first Joanne Eastman Sohrweide Teaching Chair. We had the distinct pleasure of knowing Joanne during our initial years at Hotchkiss. Her love and enthusiasm for music and teaching were quite palpable. At that

time, Gisele and I were two young Brazilians completely new to boarding schools. Every time I met Joanne, I felt her wings spreading over us — her encouragement, appreciation for our performances, and invaluable advice guided us.” “Our mother would have been over the moon that this chair has been established in her name and especially touched to know that the first recipient is Fabio Witkowski, whom she had a very fond regard for,” said Hostetter. President of the Board of Trustees Jean Weinberg Rose ’80, P’18 expressed her appreciation on behalf of the Board. “We are so grateful for Barbara and Amos Hostetter, whose generosity has already made an indelible mark on Hotchkiss and transformed the footprint and fabric of our music program. The caliber of the musicians at the School is stellar, thanks to the Hostetters’ visionary gifts and the leadership of Fabio and Gisele Witkowski. Additionally, we are delighted that a new scholarship will help us attract gifted music and art students who might not otherwise have the means to attend Hotchkiss.” To view a slideshow and video, visit hotchkiss.org/arts. W i n t e r / S p r i n g

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How to Get to Carnegie Hall: Teamwork, Teamwork, Teamwork, and Practice, Too STORY AND PHOTOS BY WENDY CARLSON

“We’re humbled to be here on one of the world’s finest stages for what is the first of many future performances by Hotchkiss students.”

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– Head of School Craig Bradley

ixteen Hotchkiss student musicians made School history when they performed to a nearly full house on Jan. 29 at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. The event marked the first time that music students represented Hotchkiss on one of the world’s most storied stages. It also signals the beginning of a new chapter in the music department’s future. Performances at Carnegie Hall will become an annual tradition for the music department, an opportunity that will be extended to students enrolled in the School’s Summer Portals Piano Program, according to Fabio Witkowski, head of the visual and performing arts department. But on that blustery winter evening in New York City, under the glittering chandeliers and ornate ceiling in Weill Hall, the spotlight was on the 16 young musicians making Hotchkiss history. As they entered the stageside door of Carnegie Hall on the day of the performance, their nervous energy was palpable. “Just think how many times Leonard Bernstein walked in through this very door,” clarinetist Matthew Yao ’19 blurted excitedly.

Carnegie Performers: Victoria Chen ’21, piano Angela Choi ’21, violin Christine Deng ’18, flute Sarah Kinsley Du ’18, piano Esmé Govan ’18, cello Jack Henshaw ’19, piano

“Look, there’s Mahler,” piped up another student as he pointed to a poster of the19thcentury Austrian composer and conductor Gustav Mahler, one of many musical greats depicted on the posters lining the backstage walls inside Carnegie. As students waited their turn to perform, upper mid James Herring III paced back and forth in the greenroom. The evening before the concert, he had practiced meditation to clear his head and resisted the urge to rehearse his piece. To protect her vocal chords, Jailyn Mallard ’19 held back screams of excitement while watching the Grammy Awards on TV the night before. “I drank a lot of tea instead,” she said.

Riley Henshaw ’20, flute James Herring ’19, piano Shane Kim ’20, violin Hannah Liu ’19, voice Jailyn Mallard ’19, voice Shine Peng ’19, piano

For the concert, students performed solos on piano, violin, flute, and cello, tackling challenging pieces by Chopin, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and others. Hannah Liu ’19 and Mallard sang Brahms selections in flawless German. Aside from concentrating on their individual efforts, students worked together as a team and supported each other through rehearsals and the performance, said Gisele Nacif Witkowski, piano instructor. She tried to instill a sense of calm and confidence in her charges. “You’ll be fine, don’t worry. And remember to smile,” she told students. “They’re nervous, of course, but as musicians, we practice for this kind of pressure,” she said. “I think every student here has made a special effort for this night. Carnegie has such a phenomenal

Gemma Tung ’19, cello Brian Wong ’19, piano Matthew Yao ’19, clarinet Michael Zhang ’21, piano

history of great performers, and the students take great pride in being on one of the most prestigious and professional stages in the world.” “Above all,” her husband, Fabio Witkowski, added, “they are the ambassadors of the School.” Before the start of the concert, Head of School Craig Bradley took the stage to comment on the historic moment and emphasize that “it takes a village to take students to Carnegie Hall.” “We’re humbled,” he said, “to be here on one of the world’s finest stages for what is the first of many future performances by Hotchkiss students.” To view a slideshow of the concert, visit hotchkiss.org/news.

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Honoring MLK: #stickwithlove

otchkiss honored the memory

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MLK Jr.,” “Stand up if...,” “Exploring Equity vs. Equality,” and “love.interpretive.” In the evening, a special reception was held in honor of Walter Crain Jr. P’86,’89, a beloved math instructor and dean of students who passed away last year. On Monday, Jan. 15, friends and family of Crain attended an All-School program in Elfers Hall to celebrate his contributions to Hotchkiss. Crain, who first came to the School as a teacher in the Greater Opportunity (G.O.) program, became the School’s first African American instructor in 1970 and retired in

PHOTO BY WENDY CARLSON

“We want to show the importance of respecting everyone’s differences, of sticking together as a community and loving one another.” – June Perteet ’18

and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with two days of speakers, performances, workshops, and community discussion. The theme of this year’s program was “Stick with Love,” which alludes to King’s 1967 “Where Do We Go From Here?” speech. On Sunday, Jan. 14, Detroit poet Will Langford, this year’s guest speaker, held a workshop on performance poetry in the English Wing. Other workshops included “Exploring Love Across Cultures,” “Love Thyself: A Mindfulness Practice in Honor of

Clockwise, left to right: Abdoulaye Fall, instructor in French, drums with guest Troy Ramcharran. Black and Hispanic Student Association (BaHSA) co-heads June Perteet ’18 and Sherman Cravens ’18, and Jean Weinberg Rose ’80, P’18, president of the Board of Trustees, unveil a portrait of Walter Crain Jr. Senior Gabrielle-Ingrid Coffey watches a performance by guest speaker and poet Will Langford.

2003. Head of School Craig Bradley praised Crain’s commitment to mentoring students and making them feel heard. “He always worked to help students believe in themselves,” said Bradley. Bradley, along with Black and Hispanic Student Association (BaHSA) co-heads June Perteet and Sherman Cravens ’18, and Board of Trustees President Jean Weinberg Rose ’80, P’18, unveiled a portrait of Walter Crain, which will hang in Main Hallway before being moved to its permanent home outside the math wing. Following the portrait dedication, Will

Langford performed a selection of his poems, many of which celebrated his hometown of Detroit. The day’s programming concluded with Community Voices, an annual tradition in which students, faculty, and staff share reflections, including songs, poems, and stories. Instructor in Biology and BaHSA advisor Kadeine Peterson read the Langston Hughes poem “Let America Be America Again”; other students reflected on moments of personal transformation and growth at Hotchkiss. The program ended with a performance of “Ooh Child” by The Gospel Choir.

For Perteet, the day’s theme, #stickwithlove, emphasized the strength of the Hotchkiss community. “We want to show the importance of respecting everyone’s differences, of sticking together as a community and loving one another,” she said. Throughout the day on Jan. 15, monitors throughout the Main Building showcased social media posts using the hashtags #bearcats and #stickwithlove. For more photos and videos from the day, visit hotchkiss.org/news. W i n t e r / S p r i n g

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Recognizing Excellence

Recipient of the Margot Hooker Award, Heather Mechare, registrar, with Kerry Mosher, admission visit coordinator, who received the Robert J. and Candice Barker Staff Recognition Award

Hotchkiss Recognizes Long-Serving Staff and Faculty

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a smile, a creative solution, and kale,” Mardon said. “She makes it easier for all of us to live, work, and learn at Hotchkiss.” Admission Operations Manager Val Burke presented Mosher with the Barker Award, citing her warmth, friendliness, and dedication to the School. “She is a confident and dedicated leader in mentoring the 100-plus student tour guides, collaborating with admission counselors, coaches and department heads to ensure a great visit experience for over 2,000 prospective students and their families each year,” Burke said. “She greets all with a warm and reassuring smile, and chances are that you

have witnessed her infectious giggle.” Other staff and faculty members were recognized for reaching milestone work anniversaries. The School’s longest-serving employee is Tom Drake, instructor in history and director of the Center for Global Understanding and Independent Thinking. Drake’s Hotchkiss career spans 35 years and multiple roles, including interim dean of faculty. Dance Instructor Alice SarkissianWolf and Financial Aid Assistant Lil Helming also received special recognition for reaching the 25-year mark.

PHOTO BY WENDY CARLSON

n Jan. 23, long-serving staff and faculty were honored in an AllSchool ceremony. Combined, they represent more than 600 years of service to Hotchkiss. Two special staff awards were presented in recognition of outstanding contributions to the School: the Margot Hooker Award, given to Heather Mechare, registrar; and the Robert J. and Candice Barker Staff Recognition Award, presented to Kerry Mosher, admission visit coordinator. In presenting the Hooker Award, Dean of Faculty Merrilee Mardon praised Mechare’s positive attitude (and impressively healthful lunches). “Every day, Heather comes in with

Day Brothers Named 2018 Community Service Award Recipients

Stanley R. “Stan” Day Jr. ’76

Scotty McLennan ’66 Chosen as 2017-18 Alumni Award Honoree

cotty McLennan ’66 has been named the 2017-18 Alumni Award recipient. McLennan is a lecturer in political economy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB), where he teaches business ethics and the intersection of business and spirituality. From 2000 to 2014, he was the Stanford University dean for religious life. He became lecturer at the GSB starting in 2003. Prior to working at Stanford, he was the university chaplain at Tufts from 1984 to 2000; during 10 of those years, he was also a lecturer at Harvard Business School. McLennan received his B.A. from Yale University in 1970 as a Scholar of the House, working in the area of computers and the mind. He earned M.Div. and J.D. degrees from Harvard Divinity and Law Schools in 1975. That same year, he was ordained to the Unitarian Universalist ministry and admitted to the Massachusetts bar as an attorney. From 1975 to 1984, McLennan practiced church-sponsored poverty law in the Dorchester area of Boston. He represented low-income people in the general practice of law, including consumer, landlord-tenant, government benefits, immigration, family, and criminal law. He will accept his award during a ceremony at Hotchkiss on May 11.

Frederick K. “F.K.” Day ’78

tanley R. “Stan” Day Jr. ’76 and Frederick K. “F.K.” Day ’78 are the recipients of this year’s Community Service Award. In 1987, they founded SRAM, now the largest designer and manufacturer of high-performance bicycle components in the U.S. and the second-largest in the world. They’ve also used their expertise to develop their nonprofit, World Bicycle Relief (WBR), which distributes high-quality bicycles to students, entrepreneurs, and health care workers in rural developing countries and disaster-stricken areas around the world. In addition, the brothers founded the SRAM Cycling Fund, which advocates change to cycling infrastructure that improves safety and access and has provided millions of dollars in grants in Europe and the U.S. The two were living in downtown Chicago in 1987 when they decided to go into business together. “Stan was a weekend triathlete, and I was a weekend mountain biker. One day after a training ride, Stan said: ‘I am going to get myself killed on the Chicago streets reaching to the down tube to shift gears. We’ve got to put the shifting up on the handlebar.’ Solving that simple, yet overlooked need, became our first product — Grip Shift — and the start of SRAM,” F.K. said. The brothers will be honored in a ceremony at Hotchkiss on April 27.

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Conversations on Poetry, Gender, Politics, and Philosophy

Let’s Dance

Exploring Chinese Heritage

Italian dancer, teacher, and choreographer Liliana Candotti returned for her 11th dance residency Jan. 28 - Feb. 10. She worked with all dance students and led master classes, creating new commissioned work for the Hotchkiss Dance Company’s March performance. Candotti is director of Alambrado Danza and Florence Summer Dance Intensive in Florence, Italy. Earlier in January, the dance program hosted international director, choreographer, and producer Ann Marie DeAngelo, who also created commissioned work for the March performance.

To mark the Lunar New Year, the Chinese Program and Chinese Club hosted film producer Paula Williams Madison on Feb. 15. Madison grew up in Harlem, cognizant of her Jamaican roots, but disconnected from her maternal grandfather, a Chinese migrant worker. After retiring from NBCUniversal as an executive, she began tracing the footsteps of her Hakka grandfather from Kingston to her ancestral family village north of Shenzhen. Madison is the Chinese American Museum’s 2015 winner of the Chinese American Heritage and Legacy Award and a board member at the Center for Asian American Media. At Hotchkiss, Madison spoke with students in humanities and Chinese-language classes and gave a talk during an All-School Assembly on her film, Finding Samuel Lowe: China, Jamaica, Harlem. Faculty and students also had an opportunity to watch the film that documents her search to uncover details of her relatives in China. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, the Dining Hall served Chinese side dishes, and the Chinese Club students hosted games and activities.

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Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Vijay Seshadri read a selection of his poems to students and faculty in Harris House living room on Jan. 23. His work reflects diverse influences — from a meditation on the story of the three little pigs to a poem about a worm with jellyfish genes that produces translucent silk, inspired by an article in a science magazine. “People are scared of poetry,” Seshadri said. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be difficult or abstruse, he told students; instead, he thinks of poetry as entertainment.

PHOTO BY HELLEN HOM-DIAMOND

At an All-School meeting Jan. 19, Alex Myers, a writer and teacher, spoke about gender identity and supporting transgender students. Myers, who graduated from Phillips Exeter and Harvard, was the first openly transgender student at both institutions. In 2014, Simon & Schuster published his novel, Revolutionary, based on the life of his ancestor, Deborah Sampson, who disguised herself as a man to fight in the Continental Army. Myers discussed his journey from being a selfdescribed “tomboy” growing up in Paris, ME, to coming out as transgender in his senior year at Exeter. He also talked about the challenges of accommodating transgender students in a boarding school.

Hotchkiss Hoops in Germany

BY ROGER WISTAR

PHOTOS BY WENDY CARLSON

Other Visitors The Center for Global Understanding and Independent Thinking (CGUIT) hosted Bryan Van Norden, chair professor in the School of Philosophy at Wuhan University, Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple Professor at YaleNUS College in Singapore, and professor of philosophy at Vassar College. Van Norden visited Hotchkiss Jan. 9 and 10, attending classes and discussing Eastern philosophy as part of the Center’s faculty symposium series. The Center also hosted Cheng Li, Ph.D, director of the John L. Thornton China Center at Brookings, on Feb. 12. Li, who is a leading scholar on China’s politics and foreign relations, addressed China’s changing political scene with students and faculty members. Li compared China’s political course to an airline pilot flying somewhere over the Pacific who says, “I have good news and bad news: the good news is that we are ahead of schedule, and the bad news is that we are lost.”

welve members of the boys varsity basketball team traveled to Germany on a cultural exchange program during the Thanksgiving break. The experience not only helped build team chemistry, it also gave the players an opportunity to connect with another culture through sports. New varsity head coach Yassine Talhaoui, who worked with German Instructor Marc Dittmer and Director of International Programs David Thompson, organized the seven-day trip. Talhaoui, who has family in Germany, developed the idea last winter when visiting some youth club teams there. “I realized what a great cultural experience it would be to compete or practice against these teams,” he said. One of the highlights of the program was when the team spent the day with students at the Kaiserin Friedrich Gymnasium (KFG) school in Bad Homburg. Hotchkiss and KFG have enjoyed a long-standing relationship since Dittmer started the connection in 2007. The team played in a charity basketball game to raise money for a KFG student, Jan, who had suffered paralysis after complications from surgery. “At the conclusion of the game, kids came running up to us asking for our autographs and pictures,” said Tommy Lewis ’19. “We were celebrities for the night.” But Lewis was quick to point out that the ultimate meaning of the game transcended a few minutes of fame. “Despite the fact that we live in different countries, our love of athletics, specifically basketball, created a bond that erased our differences,” he said. As part of the game ceremony, the team agreed to give Jan’s family the jersey of Matt Mirkovic ’18, who wears #50, signed by all the members of the team. The moment was especially poignant for new upper mid Szilveszter Palvolgyi ’19. “I really felt like the Hotchkiss basketball program showed that we go way beyond just playing basketball,” he said. Mirkovic, who chose to be the first player to wear #50 at Hotchkiss as a testament to the hard work he had put in to make the varsity team, added a personal note for Jan about what the gift meant to him and the team. “Right now there are only two of these #50 jerseys, the one you have and the one that I will wear back at school. Throughout my time as a basketball player, I hoped to leave behind this number to a resilient and fearless guy. I now know that as long as you have this jersey, that legacy will never end,” he wrote. W i n t e r / S p r i n g

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ON THE COURT AND IN THE CLASSROOM,

English Instructor Rachel Myers Wants to Level the Field BY WENDY CARLSON

Rachel Myers sat down with Hotchkiss Magazine to talk about her role as coordinator of the School’s Diversity and Inclusion Initiative, her philosophy as a teacher and coach, and why Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” is a powerful teaching tool.

How does your academic background inform your work as an English instructor?

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How receptive have the students been to those courses? The response has been really great. I’d like every instructor to have classes like these in terms of the diversity of students in them. In my “Protest in African American Literature” class, I had three white Americans, three Canadians, three black American students, three Asian students, and three students of known African origin. It was great to have all those different perspectives in the classroom. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I have learned and grown from all of those students through class discussions and their personal writing.

You’re the coordinator of the Diversity and Inclusion Initiative, which launched more than a year ago. Why is this effort so important for the future of Hotchkiss? I’m thankful the position was created. I think the “why” is the biggest component of the question. If you look at the world and specifically at Hotchkiss, we need to be sure that the student experience is safe and the education we’re providing is more holistic. We have a diverse student population — how do we incorporate that into the curriculum and culture they experience while at boarding school? We, as educators, need to help students create an environment where they accept and learn from one another, which will help all of us become better people. These efforts are a journey and not a destination; we’re going to keep evolving as an institution, and the needs are going to continue to change. There have to be structures and policies in place to support and cultivate this evolution.

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The senior elective courses I teach are very much informed by my black studies background. I earned a B.A. in Africana studies and minored in sociology at Binghamton University, and I earned my Ph.D. at Michigan State, where I completed my dissertation, “South African & U.S. Black Female Athletes Compared: A Critical Ethnography Focused on Image, Perceptions, and Narratives.” One of the senior elective courses I teach, “The Protest in African American Literature,” is loosely modeled after an introductory course in African American studies. I also teach another elective course called “The ‘Lemonade’ of African American Literature,” based on Beyoncé’s 2016 “Lemonade” video album that explores the lives of black women. Throughout the album, she quotes a lot of black female authors. Shortly after the video album was released, a writer and educator, Candice Benbow, created the #LemonadeSyllabus project. I decided

to use some of the authors I was already familiar with, like Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, and then chose works by J. California Copper and Somali poet Warsan Shire to round out the course. There are so many significant black female characters in all of those books. It’s really powerful for the class to look at how the female characters view themselves against societal standards of beauty and women’s roles.

“Teaching is a two-way street: I want to leave class every day feeling like I’ve learned something new about my students, myself, or the world.” with students by meeting them where they are; I don’t come in with the expectation that they are going to work towards a goal of “getting on my level,” or some other elitist mindset. I believe that if you meet students where they are, that’s where the real learning begins. Teaching is a two-way street: I want to leave class every day feeling like I’ve learned something new about my students, myself, or the world.

You were a star basketball player at Binghamton University, where you were inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame in 2016. What did you learn from your own experience that you impart to your players as a coach?

What is most important to the success of the initiative going forward? What’s most important for success is institutional buy-in, from the trustees on down, because just like anything else, there has to be an established budget, an administrative team, dedicated time carved out for programming, and other considerations.

What’s your teaching philosophy? In graduate school, I studied bell hooks, a black female scholar who wrote Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom, which is about teaching students to “transgress” against racial, sexual, and class boundaries to reach a place where they are truly “free” to learn and share knowledge. So when I’m in the classroom, I try to engage

It’s funny, because I used to hate basketball growing up. I did gymnastics for eight years before I outgrew it around the age of 12. Then I started playing basketball, and I was terrible at it at first. But my father made me play one-on-one with my sister (who was much better than me), and he sent me to what felt like a million camps, and I started to fall in love with the game. It was my first introduction to team sports; gymnastics is a team sport, but you compete individually. There’s something amazing about playing and being part of a team, contributing to it, and the life lessons you learn from being a competitive athlete. I love that I can give that back to kids — and help them learn that they can achieve a lot on and off the court once they put their mind to it.

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IN RURAL THAILAND, A STUDENT FINDS A SECOND HOME PHOTOS AND STORY BY PETE ASSAKUL ’18

o you think you could put snow in a bottle and fly it back to us next time?” one of the fourth-graders asked me. I was pretty sure she knew that snow would definitely turn to water in the tropical rainforest. But I told her that I’d try anyway. Last summer, I joined a group of seven other students from Bangkok on a community service trip to Nan Province, a rural and sparsely populated area near the Laos border in northern Thailand. Coming from Bangkok, the only city with glass towers and high-rises in Thailand, I considered Nan Province to be a world of its own. And it was. The way people speak, interact and behave is very different from the cosmopolitan community I’m used to at home. The Nan people speak in a different dialect that sounds a bit sweeter than the main Thai dialect, which makes them seem more relaxed and friendlier (which, in my opinion, they are). Earlier that year, I learned about an opportunity to teach at an elementary school in a remote town enclosed by mountain ranges, with rice paddies surrounding it in all directions. At first, our only intention was to help them learn English, but the students’

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curiosity led us to expand our teaching menu; we, in turn, learned much about their way of life. At the start of every school day, teachers used daily announcements to instill moral values in their students, giving them guidance about how to behave in certain situations: for example, they told students that they should help others by cleaning up the dining area and carrying materials to the classroom for their teachers. After the announcements, students meditated for five minutes. Then, they stood up and faced south, in the direction of Bangkok, for the King’s anthem. In their daily rituals, I felt a strong, unspoken sense of age-based hierarchy. Whenever the students passed by an adult, they bowed, a cultural gesture of respect called a wai, and before entering any classrooms, they had to take off their shoes. During lunch breaks, students would play dodgeball, soccer, tag, and card games in the narrow concrete lane beside the main building. On the first day, I played Frisbee with the students during lunch. Of course, there were some arguments about who would have the next turn to throw it. Interestingly, I saw one student snatching the Frisbee, but

instead of throwing it herself, she gave it to a classmate who had not had the chance to throw yet. For someone like me, who studies in the United States, where competition is highly prized, this gesture stood out. A sense of community runs deep in the school’s social environment, even though students come from a kaleidoscope of socioeconomic backgrounds. Whenever we asked a “yes” or a “no” question to the whole class, the few students who uttered an answer that was incongruous with the rest would fall silent. Not surprisingly, spontaneous

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discussions among students were not always very fruitful. Their grasp of English greatly varied. One day, I asked a sixth-grader to come up to the board and write the date for the class. After a few minutes, I found him stuck on the letter “t.” He could not spell Tuesday. Some students had trouble reciting the days of the week, while others read the Harry Potter series and even participated in English speech competitions. Finding a way to teach everyone with this huge gap was a great challenge. Students self-segregated by gender and grade at lunch, which often included rice omelettes as well as spicy noodles (which even the first-graders had no problem devouring). On Fridays, students wore traditional clothes to school. The color of the fabric varied from region to region; for this district, it was dark red. After Friday classes, boys participated in Thai boxing while girls practiced Thai dancing. Although most boys and girls followed their designated activities, students occasionally broke gender norms: some boys opted for dancing, and some girls chose boxing. The school’s director told me that some students enjoy a comfortable life, while others have to work in the rice paddies after school and subsist on only an egg for the entire day. At times, the director himself helped students with their chores. On weekdays after school, I would sometimes go biking with students on a dirt road that snaked around the rice paddies. Along the route, we saw students helping their parents in the fields: a firstgrader helped his mother herd the cows and buffaloes; another planted rice, wearing boots clearly too big for his feet. One of them told me he woke up as early as five in the morning to help feed the pigs and cows, clean the house, and make food for their family. In the three weeks I spent there, I fell in love with the place. I grew to love everything from the cool air after the rain to the empathy and kindness of the people. The wide expanse of rice fields and the mountain ranges behind them restored my spirituality and sense of well-being. There was, I learned, something about the rural landscape and its people that an urban setting could never replicate. At the end of my visit, when my plane began its descent in Bangkok, I looked down at the gray towers and apartments that spike up against the sky like broken glass shards, and I already felt something missing.

“I grew to love everything from the cool air after the rain to the empathy and kindness of the people.”

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THE FUTURE OF STEM IS FEMALE

Priyanka Kumar ’19 is paving the way for a new generation of STEM leaders at Hotchkiss

BY PRIYANKA KUMAR ’19

ll 100 pairs of eyes were glued on me, a tiny 16-year-old girl, who stood up from the back of the room to challenge the panel of engineers at General Electric’s (GE) Robotics Leadership Summit last summer. But I’m getting ahead of myself. The story of how I ended up there begins when I was in first grade, when I became passionate about learning how the world worked and how I could make it better. As a kid, I felt that each math or science problem was a puzzle that I had been challenged to solve. I was placed into my school’s Learning Enrichment Program in first grade and still remember asking my teacher why I was the only girl. This is a sentiment I would feel all the way through middle school as I took advanced math classes, became a member of the math team, and developed my love for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). When I arrived at Hotchkiss during my prep year, I was grateful to have amazing math and science teachers, an opportunity to take higher-level math and science courses, and a computer science program. My advisor, Dr. Marta Eso, instructor in mathematics, recommended many math and science camps to me and pointed me in the direction of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence (AI) Laboratory Outreach Program (SAILORS), the first allgirl artificial intelligence camp in the country. I decided to apply, regardless of the fact that I knew next to nothing about coding and AI. Three months later, I found myself spending two life-changing weeks in Palo Alto, CA. The camp taught me more than how to code in Python and use AI; it taught me how important it is for girls to be aware of the opportunities they have to explore their interests in STEM. SAILORS encouraged me to share my knowledge with other girls like me, who had no idea opportunities like this existed. During my lower mid year, I worked with my fellow co-heads of the Student Diversity, Equity, and

Inclusion Committee, faculty members, and Head of School Craig Bradley to create a more inclusive curriculum in math and science. We worked to ensure that students of all genders, races, and socioeconomic backgrounds would have access to information about programs and the funding to take advantage of them, from creating a list of summer programs to working with faculty to foster a classroom culture where everyone could succeed. We advocated for a classroom environment that would allow students to receive ongoing, constructive feedback through uniform rubrics, as well as consistent, faculty-led help sessions to help new students acclimate to Hotchkiss math and science classes. Overall, our objective was to ensure that everyone, especially people in historically marginalized groups, would be aware of the School’s available resources and use them to the best of their ability. What struck me the most from listening to other girls talk about why they struggled in STEM was that most of them walked into class with the mindset that they simply were not good enough at math or science. This attitude prevented them from doing well in the class, because some of them believed that additional effort would not make a difference. Other girls just didn’t know about the opportunities they could pursue outside of school to advance their interests. While I am co-captain of the math team and a member of the robotics team, I should note that I love writing and discussing history and politics. I’m president of The Hotchkiss Record and editor-in-chief of Spectrum Magazine on diversity and inclusion, which allows me to be creative and connect my love of humanities and politics back to STEM, as I did in an article about India’s IT revolution for The Hotchkiss Review. So how did I end up in that room full of GE engineers? Well, the story picks up last summer, after my internship at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where I learned how to make 3D-printed skin for burn victims using

bioinks from cells and collagens. My work caught the attention of the robotics director at the GE Research and Development Center in my hometown of Schenectady, NY, who then invited me to the 2017 GE Robotics Leadership Summit, where I got to meet representatives from GE, Amazon, iRobot, and various start-ups. I was one of only seven women in that room, never mind the fact that I was younger than everyone else by at least 10 years. After I had finished asking my question about why their inventions were considered ingenious compared to other start-ups, all of the engineers stared at me, wondering how a teenager had snuck into their summit. After getting over their shock, the room laughed at my daring question, and one of the panelists responded, mentioning how important it was for tech industries to attract more girls like me into their workforce. Soon after the summit, the robotics director offered me a position as a fellow for the GE R&D Center among graduate and Ph.D. students, whom I will be joining this summer. However, the work for me at Hotchkiss still isn’t over. One of my goals is to create a Girls Who Code chapter, so more girls can have access to opportunities in STEM. I will continue to tutor my peers and local elementary-schoolers in math and science, and I hope to teach programs in computer science for kids as my spring co-curricular. I encourage everyone at Hotchkiss to support girls as they attempt to overcome stereotypes in this field. I hope that every girl will carry with her the same lesson that I learned from one of the most impactful women in technology, Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook: “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?” I urge everyone reading this to try something new, whether it’s joining the robotics team to volunteering as a tutor. We have to work together as a community so that we can all plant our STEM.

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DREAMING BIG From the pitches of Ghana to the pros, Francis Atuahene ’15 keeps his eye on the goal

BY TYLER WOSLEGER

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PHOTO COURTESY OF UNIVERSIT Y OF MICHIGAN

HEN YOU ASK FRANCIS ATUAHENE about his time at Hotchkiss, he instantly flashes the effervescent smile so familiar to his classmates and fellow athletes when he was in Lakeville. He speaks fondly about his time as a Bearcat, citing the opportunities he was given on his path to becoming a professional soccer player. Atuahene came to Hotchkiss through the Right to Dream (RTD) program, which provides talented boys — and more recently, girls — with an opportunity to succeed in both sports and education. When the scholar-athlete from Ghana arrived on campus as a prep, he was 5,000 miles from home, with endless possibilities in front of him. From the moment he hit the fields, the accolades started pouring in. As a star prep, he won a New England championship; during his senior season, he was a team captain. He was awarded the Lucien Swift Strong ’40 Memorial Award for his performance in soccer and the James T. Bryan ’11 Award for overall athletic excellence. During his upper mid year, Atuahene committed to play for the maize and blue of the University of Michigan. In Ann Arbor, he starred as a left wing, earning Big Ten Freshman of the Year and Big Ten secondteam honors in his first season and helping to win the Big title for the Wolverines. He has begun his major league career with FC Dallas after being selected #4 in the draft. Shortly after the announcement, Atuahene spoke with Hotchkiss Magazine about his journey from the dirt pitches of Ghana to starring at Hotchkiss and beyond.

What is your favorite memory of Hotchkiss? Little things, like before practice on Centennial Field or the turf. Nicky Downs ’15 would always come to my room and hang out, and we would get ready for practice — getting my mind clear of school and focusing on playing soccer. In the evenings, hanging out in the snack bar — it was so much fun. That type of thing doesn’t exist in college, seeing familiar faces all the time. You don’t get to experience that in a big school like Michigan. I loved that about Hotchkiss.

Who influenced you the most during your time in Lakeville?

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[Associate Director of Admissions] Maggie Crain, who was my advisor, helped me when I first came to Hotchkiss. She invited me over to her house during my first week on campus for an advisory dinner, and she helped me adjust to life in Lakeville. Jane Herold, study skills coordinator, is probably the reason I was able to go from Hotchkiss to Michigan. She did a lot for me in terms of making sure I did my homework and studied. During times I was struggling, she let me come to her house at night to help me — late at night, weekends, it didn’t matter. She was very influential in my Hotchkiss experience. Nicky Downs ’15 helped me adjust to school and soccer. He’s always been there for me. William Pasik ’15, my host brother, has been there for me since my prep year. I can’t say enough about what he has done for me. There are many others — too many to name — who helped me during my time at Hotchkiss. I am grateful for the support of the community.

Classmates Ben Macshane, Will Pasik, and Nicky Downs joined Atuahene at the MLS Superdraft in Philadelphia in January.

What are you most looking forward to about your professional career?

You’ve accomplished so much already. What’s left on your list of goals?

Being a part of a new club, I am excited to meet the new guys and get to know the city. I am excited about my first season. I really want to play well and push those around me to be better.

My short-term goals include adjusting to being a pro, earning my spot on the team, playing well, winning games, and trying my best to finish my Michigan degree. I also want to make sure I help people back in Ghana.

Describe the emotions you were feeling at the draft.

Advice for current Hotchkiss athletes who want to play college sports?

I was very, very nervous. I didn’t know what was going to happen. I had an open mind, and I was so happy FC Dallas was willing to take a chance on me. That says it all — they really wanted me. And that’s what will motivate me and push me in my first season.

Keep working hard and listening to coaches and mentors, and keep an open mind during the recruiting process. The opportunities will come if you work hard.

Favorite soccer moment from Hotchkiss? Prep year, when we won the New England championship against Andover.

Talk about your role as a leader for RTD kids.

Who are you most excited to play against in the MLS?

What do you miss most about home?

People always supported and pushed me to help me get to where I am. Part of me always wanted to give that feeling to other people who have limited opportunities. There are so many talented people in Ghana who don’t have the opportunity to reach their full potential. The least I can do is set an example for people in Ghana and my village that anything is possible with hard work. You can always achieve your goals. I hope to one day do something in Ghana — maybe make a pitch or start a foundation. I want to be the light for people in Ghana and help those around me.

I am less excited about playing against people and more excited to focus on playing well and helping my team win. I am here to play and to win, and I hope to bring that mentality every day.

My grandma and mom, who live in Techiman, a small village in the Brong-Ahafo Region of Ghana. The last time I saw them was the summer of 2015, when I returned to Ghana after graduating from Hotchkiss.

Favorite meal at Hotchkiss? Egg-A-Bagel

Favorite class at Hotchkiss? Math with Mr. Cooper. My first A in a class at Hotchkiss!

Footballer you would like to have dinner with? Messi

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Favorite off-the-field activity? Watching TV

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In Search of the

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of Memorial Hall

BY PETER ROGERS ’73, P’07, ’11

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service branch, and date of death of each man hangs on the wall on the first floor of Memorial Hall. While at Hotchkiss, I remember reading the plaque in Memorial Hall. I was also aware that the Hotchkiss family built its fortune by designing, manufacturing, and licensing rifles, machine guns, artillery pieces, and munitions. Years later, I would read aloud those same names to my daughter, Abigail ’11, who was a prep in Memorial Hall, which by then had been converted into a girls’ dormitory. But I have often wondered who the “boys” of Memorial were. I use the term boys, as this is how Huber G. Buehler, headmaster from 1904-1924, referred to these young men in his correspondence with the soldiers’ families, friends, and School community. My own interest in military history began in 1961, the centennial anniversary of the beginning of the American Civil

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his year , 2018, is the centennial anniversary of the end of the Great War, better known today as World War I. Approximately 38 million soldiers and civilians, including over 116,000 Americans, died during the four-year war, making it one of the world’s deadliest conflicts. At Hotchkiss, the Great War had a deeply personal impact, as many members of the Hotchkiss community either enlisted or were drafted into military service for the United States and its allies. School records indicate that more than 700 Hotchkiss alumni, students, and faculty served in the military, including Headmaster George Van Santvoord, Class of 1908. An additional 117 served as ambulance drivers with the Red Cross and YMCA, providing aid to American and Allied soldiers, sailors, and Marines. By the time the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, ending the war, 23 Hotchkiss alumni who served had died from combat, training accidents, or illness. These alumni were honored in 1923, when the newly built Memorial Hall was dedicated in their memory. Today, the bronze plaque listing the name,

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AVIATORS

Charles Fleischmann, Cadet

Who were the Boys of Memorial?

War. My father, a World War II Marine combat officer, gave me a Time-Life book about the Civil War, and I was instantly enthralled. I also learned that my two grandfathers each served in the U.S. Army during World War I, including one who was deployed to France as a member of the American Expeditionary Force (A.E.F.). My quest to learn more about the boys of Memorial began in the spring of 2017, when I was preparing for a trip to France and Belgium to tour World War I battlefields, including sites where they had fought, died, and were buried. The remains of many men who died fighting were never returned to American soil. In December 1917, General Pershing, commander of the A.E.F., ordered that all Americans who died during the conflict would be interred in France until after the war. The French government felt strongly that the deceased remain buried in France, not wanting to set the precedent of returning bodies for fear that thousands of French families would request the same privilege. Ultimately, American families were finally allowed to request the return of deceased family members following the end of the war. Yet approximately 19,500 bodies, 31 percent of the war dead, remained buried in Europe. Among those were 13 Hotchkiss boys. The journey was emotional for me — researching these 23 alumni, seeing their faces, learning about their service, and visiting their battlefields and burial grounds. Putting names and faces to the Memorial Hall plaque was a labor of honor, a means of extending my thanks to each of them. These young men served in the U.S., France, Great Britain, and Canada. Little did they know that they were participating in an epic struggle that would serve to set up the outbreak of World War II 20 years later. In France, I visited two of the cemeteries where some of the men were buried and paid a silent tribute to their service and sacrifice. At the U.S. Meuse-Argonne Cemetery, I found the burial site of Reginald Stanley Young ’12, with whom I felt a special connection. He was the captain of the track team in 1912, and I had been co-captain in 1973 with teammate Scott Meadow ’73.

Aviator U.S. Naval Reserve, Class of 1915 and Yale Class of 1919, was the first Hotchkiss boy to die, on Aug. 8, 1917, suffering from injuries incurred after crashing his plane while training over Long Island. He was one of 18 boys who were either graduates or students at Yale. Charles’s parents funded a full scholarship at Hotchkiss in his honor and were major donors to the funding of Memorial Hall.

Henry Norman Grieb, Corporal

French Air Service, Class of 1914 and Yale Class of 1918, died shortly thereafter on Aug. 26, 1917, from injuries suffered from a training flight crash in France. He was a member of Lafayette Aviation Corp, a designation awarded to Americans who traveled to France prior to America’s declaration of War in April 1917 and joined the French Air Corp. Two other Hotchkiss boys were also members of Lafayette Aviation Corp.

Wallace Charles Winter, Jr., Lt. French

Air Service, Class of 1915 and Yale Class of 1919, and

Matthew Dowd,

2nd Lt. U.S. Army Air Corp, Class of 1914 and Princeton Class of 1918. Wallace was killed in action over German lines on March 8, 1918. Matthew was killed in action over Verdun on Oct. 26, 1918, participating in the MeuseArgonne Offensive, a large A.E.F. operation which lasted from Sept. 26, 1918 to Nov. 11, 1918, the date of the Armistice, which ended fighting. All three pilots are entombed at the U.S. Lafayette Escadrille Memorial, located in Paris, along with 49 fellow American pilots.

Lyman Holden Cunningham,

2nd Lt. U.K. Royal Air Force, Class of 1916, Yale Class of 1920, died from injuries suffered from a training flight over England on Jan. 4, 1918. He was attached to the U.K. Royal Air Force, 103rd Squadron. He is buried at Chilton St. Mary Courtyard, Wiltshire, England.

Franklin Crumbie Fairchild,

Cadet Aviator U.S. Army, Class of 1913, Yale 1917, died on Feb. 23, 1918, suffering from injuries incurred from a crash while training in Ft. Worth, TX.

Wilson Marshall, Jr., Lt. U.S. Army, Class

of 1916, Yale 1920, died from injuries incurred on April 27, 1918, from an airplane crash while training in England. Wilson is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, NY.

Maxwell Oswald Parry, Lt. U.S. Army

Air Corp, Class of 1905 and Yale 1909, was killed in action on July 8, 1918. He was providing support for the combined French and A.E.F. Soissons campaign. Maxwell is buried at the U.S. OisneAisne Cemetery, France.

John Francisco Richards II, 1st Lt. U.S. Army Air Corps, Class of 1913 and Yale 1917, was killed in combat on Sept. 26, 1918 while flying over Varennes, France, the first day of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. An airport in Kansas City, MO, was named in his honor. He is buried at the Mt. Washington Cemetery in Independence, MO. Alexander Thomson Burr, Class of 1914 and Williams Class of 1918, 1st Lt. U.S. Army Air Corps, was killed in a training accident over France on Oct. 12, 1918. Burr played briefly for the New York Yankees in 1914 as a pitcher, one of eight major league baseball players who died in World War I. He is buried at the Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago. Glen Dickenson Wicks, 1st

Lt. U.S. Army Air Corps, Class of 1914 and Yale 1918, was killed on Oct. 5, 1918, while bombing a German munitions dump in France. His plane collided with another U.S. plane. He is buried at the U.S. Somme Battlefield Cemetery, France. He was credited with one combat kill while he was a fighter pilot, later transferring to a bomber squadron. He was flying in support of the A.E.F.’s MeuseArgonne Offensive. An airfield in Utica, NY, was named in his honor.

Kenneth MacLeish, Lt. Senior

Grade U.S. Naval Reserve Class of 1914 and Yale Class of 1918, was killed in air combat on Oct. 14, 1918, over Belgium. His unit was attached to the U.K. Royal Air Corp. He was flying in support of British Commonwealth and U.S. Army troops in the final British

offensive of the war. MacLeish’s brother was Archibald MacLeish, Hotchkiss Class of 1911 and Yale Class of 1915, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and writer. Archibald was a volunteer ambulance driver and a Captain of Artillery, U.S. Army, during the war. Kenneth was a member of the famous Millionaires Unit, a group of 30 Yale students who volunteered for flight training and service with the U.S. Naval Reserve. He was killed in his second air patrol. His body is buried in a British Commonwealth Cemetery in Flanders Field, Belgium.

Roy Edgard Hallock, Captain,

U.S. Army Air Corps, Class of 1903 and Yale Class of 1907, died of influenza in Montclair, NJ on Dec. 27, 1918. His unit was awaiting orders for deployment to France when the war ended on Nov. 11, 1918.

INFANTRY AND ARTILLERY

William Kenneth Inglis, Private, Canadian

Army, Class of 1916, was the first Hotchkiss ‘boy’ to enter military service. A Canadian citizen, he enlisted in the Canadian Army soon after graduation in June 1916. He died on Nov. 5, 1917, from wounds suffered from a gas attack while in action during the Battle of Passchendale, Belgium. Kenneth served in a machine gun unit. He is buried at the British Commonwealth Etaples Cemetery in Pas de Calais, France.

Allan Wilkins Douglass, 1st

Lt. U.S. Army Field Artillery, Class of 1915 and Yale Class of 1919, was killed in action in France on Sept. 13, 1918. He died on the second day of the four-day St. Mihiel Offensive, the first time the A.E.F. operated as an independent force under U.S. Army General John J. Pershing. He is buried at the U.S. St. Mihiel Cemetery, France.

Elbert Curtis Baker, 1st Lt. U.S. Army Infantry, Class of 1911 and Cornell Class of 1915, was killed in action on Sept. 26, 1918, over Varennes, France. It was the first day of the A.E.F.’s Meuse-Argonne Offensive, which included more than one million U.S. soldiers and Marines. Elbert is buried at the U.S. Meuse-Argonne Cemetery in Varennes, France.

Reginald Stanley Young, 2nd

Lt. U.S. Army Infantry Machine Gunner, Class of 1912 and Yale Class of 1916, was killed in action on Oct. 9, 1918, while leading an attack on German machine gun position on Hill 240, Charpentry, France. He is buried at the U.S. Meuse-Argonne Cemetery.

Wilhelmus Mynderse Rice,

Captain, U.S. Army Infantry, Class of 1906, Williams Class of 1909 and Cornell Law 1912, was killed in action on Oct. 2, 1918. Wilhelmus was wounded while carrying a message from the front line to regimental headquarters. He served in the Mexican campaign of 1916 under General Pershing. He was a member of the 28th Infantry Division, composed mainly of Pennsylvania and New York National Guard units. He was posthumously promoted to Captain. He is buried at the U.S. MeuseArgonne Cemetery.

SPECIALIZED UNITS

Holmes Mallory, Sgt. 1st Class, U.S. Army Intelligence, Class of 1914, Yale Class of 1918, died of a heart attack on March 18, 1918, while stationed in New York City. James Webster Waters, Private,

U.S. Army Engineers, Class of 1907, Yale Class of 1911, died of pneumonia on March 25, 1918, while stationed in Washington, D.C.

Hubert Coffing Williams, 1st Lt., U.S. Army Engineers, Class of 1903 and Yale Class of 1907, died on Sept.13, 1918, from wounds suffered in combat. He is buried at the U.S. Meuse-Argonne Cemetery. John Leavans Lilley, Captain, U.S. Army Aircraft Production, Class of 1905 and Yale Class of 1909, died of influenza on Sept. 26, 1918, in Washington, D.C. Richard Jones Conner, Captain, U.S. Army Ordnance, Class of 1903 and Yale Class of 1909, died of influenza on Oct. 4, 1918, in Evanston, IL.

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The Hotchkiss Holahans An Alumnus Reflects on His Family Legacy David Holahan ’67

BY DAVID HOLAHAN ’67

y family’s connection to

Hotchkiss dates back nearly a century, to 1927, when my father, Richard, arrived on campus for the first of two postgraduate years that would prepare him for Yale University and beyond. One of six children from a working-class family, he had graduated from high school in Stamford, CT. The modest family house is still standing; how they packed eight people into it is an enduring mystery. Short in stature, my father had several nicknames, including “Quarter Pint,” but he stood out among his classmates for other reasons. He was on scholarship. His father, a switchman for the New Haven Railroad, was a union man, a Democrat, and a staunch Irish Catholic. Michael Holahan began his working life at age 10 in a coal mine — until an uncle, who was a priest, hired him as a sexton for his parish. His formal education consisted of learning telegraphy at the local railroad station. My father’s parents never owned a car, but somehow would manage to see four of their six children graduate from Yale. My parents would ship four

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of their five boys to Hotchkiss and all of us to Yale, on scholarships. I was the last to graduate from Hotchkiss, in 1967. My father’s Hotchkiss was different from mine, but not terribly so. They didn’t go home for Thanksgiving — never mind on weekends — and no one was allowed to have radios to keep in touch with the outside world. In my day, 40 years hence, radios were permitted for upperclassmen. There were far more breaks from school, we could watch TV in the common rooms, but the curriculum was remarkably similar — it had not yet evolved into its current panoply of options. Both my father and I studied medieval art history under George P. Milmine, and my parents often stayed at the Milmines when they came to visit me. I had one of my first run-ins with Hotchkiss authority when I was a prep, which involved an illicit radio concealed in a pile of dirty laundry beneath my bed in Alumni (now Tinker) Hall. I didn’t listen to the news, the gathering storm of the mid-1960s, but rather Top 40 tunes and

sports, like the first Clay-Liston fight in the winter of 1964 — well after “lights out.” When the soon-to-be Muhammad Ali became heavyweight champion, I shouted with joy, waking up my proctors across the corridor. Busted! I don’t recall the punishment, but the incident was duly recorded on my burgeoning rap sheet. In my day (and everyone else’s, I’m guessing), bemoaning the rigors of Hotchkiss was de rigueur. But I never heard a disparaging word from my father about his alma mater. He was a fervid Hotchkiss patriot until his death in 2003 at age 94 — a class agent, a fundraiser, and a reunion regular. My father’s first job, after graduating from Yale into the teeth of the Great Depression, had been pumping gas at a New Haven filling station. But one of his classmates was Sheldon Luce ’29, brother of Time magazine mogul Henry Luce, Class of 1916, and this connection would help him secure his initial position in publishing at Time, and later, Fortune. Not that there wasn’t a spark of rebellion in young Richard. The family archives contain a

Both father and son were varsity baseball players. On opposite page, David Holahan ’67 is pictured fifth from the left, front row. On left, Richard Holahan ’29 is pictured first from the left, first row.

Richard Holahan ’29

terse letter from Michael Holahan to his son upstate in that fancy-pants Protestant prep school: “Dear Richard, I understand that you are not fulfilling your religious obligations. If this continues, I will bring you home.” My father dutifully returned to the “one true Church.” Nor would he desert the Democratic Party: he was among a handful of FDR proselytizers in the Yale Class of 1933. In 1960, a campaign poster of John F. Kennedy hung proudly in my bedroom. Like my father, I was obliged (or thought I was obliged) to rise early on Sundays and catch the bus to attend Mass in Lakeville with the dozen or so other Catholic boys, returning to campus just in time for compulsory Chapel. So much for my day of rest. Then, one Sunday, I missed the bus. I waited all week for demerits to fly, for thunderbolts to descend from on high, at least from the headmaster. But nothing happened. Apparently, this was the one thing at Hotchkiss that was not compulsory. I ceased forthwith fulfilling my religious obligations. In my day, as well as my father’s, Hotchkiss did a superb job of sequestering boys from the real world — from current events, girls, booze, cigarettes, pool halls, and, toward the end of my tour, marijuana et al. We were to be monkish for the greater glory of erudition and Ivy League admission. I do recall, however, where I was at Hotchkiss when the news of John F. Kennedy’s assassination struck: I was in the main corridor, after lunch, getting ready to head out to play touch football. But otherwise, I don’t remember politics or the

Vietnam War intruding much, if at all, on the life of the Lakeville monastery. I was more aware of racial issues. My brother Tom ’58 had taken part in the Freedom Rides of the early 1960s to register African American voters in the South, and rioting in Watts erupted in 1965, right before my upper-mid year. The summer before my senior year, I worked as a proctor for the Hotchkiss G.O. Program, which brought inner-city middle- and high-school students to campus for academics and rural recreation. I think I learned more than the campers did. The music they listened to was so stunningly different from my tinny Top 40 fare. It was rich and earthy and original, and had much more to say than the Beatles’ silly love songs. Each night before lights out, one of my charges, John, had to pay homage to James Brown, the Godfather of Soul. It wasn’t negotiable (I was barely in charge). John would scream out “Please, please, please!” and stagger down the first floor of Buehler as if it were the Apollo Theater. At the song’s climax, John fell to his knees in feigned exhaustion and despair, and I — playing the role of one of the Famous Flames — draped a cape across his regal shoulders and tried to coax him into his room. It took a while. He had about 50 pounds on me. (On the last night of camp, my corridor mates introduced me to Kickapoo, an urban joy juice comparable to moonshine. Where they got it remains a mystery, but that was the most fun I ever had on campus.) At my 50th Reunion last October, I sat down in the Ford Library for some quality time

with “my file” — Hotchkiss keeps detailed records on every student. I had heard about this dossier decades ago, when I had asked a former teacher and coach to write a recommendation for me. I was stunned that anyone would compile a file on me, much less keep it, or bother to access it for any reason whatsoever. Its existence made me feel vaguely subversive, like one of the Berrigan brothers. Look, I freely confess to being annoying, likely more so back then: variously too loud and slovenly, and always looking to skirt the rules when I thought I could get away with it (which I sometimes did and sometimes didn’t). After my lower-mid year, the School mulled over whether I should be asked back. I had been suspended for a week that spring for slipping out of a multi-school concert in Hartford with some classmates to experience the ambience of a nearby pool hall. My rap sheet included other offenses as well. My letter of contrition is in my file. The letter shows that I was not ready to give up on Hotchkiss, and thankfully, Hotchkiss did not give up on me. I made it through — and I’m glad I did. I appreciate it more today than I did then. One of the letters my mother kept from my prep year includes this equivocal endorsement of my new surroundings: “I am not as miserable as I once was.” David Holahan, a former weekly newspaper publisher, is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times and The Washington Post.

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Call Wild the

OF THE

An alumna pushes herself to the limits BY FAITH BRIGGS â&#x20AC;&#x2122;06 PHOTOS BY CAM MCLEOD

Holding onto a ridge amid high-speed winds in Iceland

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T THE AGE OF 16, I WAS HAILING DOWN A PICKUP TRUCK on a dirt road in the mountains of Honduras, trying to get to a hospital because I had gotten parasites. I will spare the details. I still have the box from the pill I was given by Doctora Norma, whom I will always remember for saving me in her tiny office in Gracias, Lempira. She listened to my stomach, laughed a little bit about how this was an extreme case, and explained in Spanish that this one little pill would solve the problem. The box is pink. It has little green and blue worms all over. They have teeth and horns. The English translation on the box isn’t a perfect one: “cure for the common earthworm.”

Experiencing sticky snow and -30s in Yukon backcountry

If it weren’t for Hotchkiss, I would not have visited Honduras and, thus, would not have started down this path of adventure in the outdoors. I started at Hotchkiss in 2003, a late admit over the summer. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. My parents were moving to another small town, I was tired of being the new kid, and then, I found Hotchkiss via Google. To this day, it’s the most important discovery I have ever made. At Hotchkiss, I learned the term “global

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citizenship.” It was one of our community buzzwords at the time, and it changed my world. I left the country for the first time in my lower-mid year, the only one in my family to ever leave the lower 48. I spent two months with the American Field Service in Panama and fell in love with the opportunity to experience a new culture. The following summer, I volunteered in Honduras with Amigos de las Américas. This was one of the most incredible times of my life, albeit with a few difficult moments.

Twelve years later, the adventure bug that bit me at Hotchkiss brought me to Columbia Sportswear. For ten months in 2016-2017, I was one of Columbia’s “Directors of Toughness,” traveling the world and testing gear under every possible weather condition our beautiful planet could throw at us. Columbia chose two people who had the will to test themselves and show the world that with the right gear, you can push yourself to the limits. They wanted people with proven grit, a love of the outdoors, and an ability to share stories with an audience. They weren’t looking for a pro, I learned; they wanted someone who might shine under the pressure of tough circumstances in the outdoors. I applied intending to go on a fun interview, never thinking that I might be offered this dream job. Yet, as a lifelong runner, a media scholar, and a participant in the 2016 Find Your Park Expedition, a campaign that brings media influencers with content creation experience into America’s national parks, I fit the bill. Along with my soon-to-be adventure partner, Mark James Chase from the United Kingdom, against our wildest expectations, we were chosen from more than 4,000 applicants. It has been an incredible year, and one of the most important lessons for me has been about the power of an introduction — not only the opportunity to try something new, but also having someone open their world to you. I grew up in the Hudson Valley, and while I always played outside, I didn’t have a concept of “the great outdoors.” My family did not have the means for vacations. Wilderness, mountains, rivers, canyons and deserts were places not in my purview. They were places you read about, inaccessible places. At Hotchkiss, I was afforded the opportunity

“At Hotchkiss, I was afforded the opportunity to travel, my first introduction. These faraway places became accessible. I began to understand myself in a new context and to form a new definition of community.”

Trekking in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Colombia, in Kogui Indigenous Territory

to travel, my first introduction. These faraway places became accessible. I began to understand myself in a new context and to form a new definition of community. My experiences complicated my understandings of race, class, socioeconomic background, and religion. My sense of belonging expanded. After Hotchkiss, I attended Yale University and majored in African American studies and film studies. I’ve always been drawn to media because of the importance of representation.

From filming a documentary in rural Ghana to working for author James McBride and then joining the Discovery Channel, everything I’ve done post-Hotchkiss has been fueled by a desire to diversify the images that exist in our shared mainstream imagination. It is hard to imagine ourselves in a place where we’ve never seen anyone that looks like us. When limited profiles exist, understandings of those people are similarly limited. I work in film because I want to create more diverse images. Sometimes,

it’s a photo of an unexpected person in a beautiful place that can make someone believe in a new version of herself. Sometimes, that never-before-seen image can be the introduction needed to widen our perspective of who we get to be in the world. The team at Columbia Sportswear and all of the people I met on our amazing journeys offered me countless introductions. I trekked in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Mountains of Colombia with the permission

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Learning to count in Kogui with Directors of Toughness partner, Mark James Chase

“At every step, whether halfway up Mt. Shasta or kayaking down the Klamath River, I met amazing people who wanted to share their passion for the outdoors.”

of the Kogui indigenous elders who live there. I drove a team of sled dogs in the Yukon across a frozen lake, the most remote place I’ve ever been. As a sprinter asked to run cross-country at Hotchkiss, I’d felt outside of my comfort zone. Never could I, nor Dr. Kirby, my beloved coach, have imagined myself going from 5Ks in Lakeville to a 55K in the Swiss and French Alps during the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc. Throughout this year of new experiences, I was often overwhelmed by the encouragement of strangers. During my ultramarathon, each village along the course came out to cheer with their families and hang extra bells from their cattle for the race. At every step, whether halfway up Mt. Shasta or kayaking down the Klamath River, I met amazing people who wanted to share their passion for the outdoors. Their passion has become my own. Standing in the middle of a river in Kamchatka, Russia, and getting to the top of a steep ridge with a beautiful view during a 100k race in the Andes has made me truly understand the urgency with which we have to protect these places. These experiences have also helped me to know that we belonged in these spaces, and they belonged to us. While I’m used to being behind the camera, at Columbia I was thrust in front of the lens. As an African American woman, with dreadlocks and tattoos, many times I’ve been in places where people don’t expect to see someone that looks like me. While, at times, that experience can be uncomfortable, I’m proud to be a part of attempts to raise awareness about the lack of diversity in our public lands and to urge companies, parks, and individuals to offer the big introduction: “Come out and join us. This is our land. You should be out here.” I think so much about the importance of outdoor activities for mental health. It’s been

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a large part of a mourning process for me after losing one of my dearest friends. The challenges of going down ski slopes, pushing up mountains, or biking through the desert in insane temperatures have helped me show myself what I’m able to do when I dig deep inside to find reservoirs of strength I was not aware I had. I want everyone to have these opportunities, and that’s the space where I’m now seeking to work. I want to share my experiences and offer an introduction to others into “the great outdoors.” Looking forward, I am in development on a film project that involves running close to 300 miles through the national monuments identified for modification by the current administration. I want to use what I have: the introductions to our public lands I received this year, and my primary resources — my perspective, my filmmaking skills, and my body — to be part of this conversation. Something my parents taught me that was further embedded during my time in the classrooms and on the track at Hotchkiss is that we all have a responsibility. We can “each one teach one”; we can each offer an introduction to someone else, which could very well be the introduction that will change their life.

Faith E. Briggs is a content creator with a focus on representation in media. Propelled by her recognition of the impact of media on inner-city youth, she pursued her undergraduate degree at Yale University in African American studies and film studies. After graduating, she joined the film production program at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts before transferring to complete her master’s in documentary journalism at New York University. Faith worked as an author’s assistant to James McBride for three years before joining the documentary department at Discovery Communications. After working with Columbia Sportswear as on-camera talent in the Directors of Toughness marketing campaign, Faith is now producing media that connects diverse communities with the outdoors. She is a board member at Soul River, Inc., a non-profit organization that connects youth and veterans through fly fishing. She is currently developing a documentary and 265-mile running project that explores the controversy surrounding the status of U.S. national monuments under threat by the current administration. To learn more about Faith’s adventures, watch Columbia Sportswear’s Youtube series: http://blog.columbia.com/category/ directors-of-toughness/

Nature’s Painter Allen Blagden ’57, P’90 BY ROBERTA JENCKES

The Broad Axe

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Crowned Crane

“I constantly need reassurance from mountains, forests, and waters that my senses will be recharged, and confirmation that the ultimate beauty belongs to nature alone.”

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ver since I can remember, I have been the happiest out of doors… Maybe I was a feral child,” muses Allen Blagden in his recently published book, Marking the Moment: The Art of Allen Blagden (David R. Godine, 2017). “I grew up in rural Connecticut, and every summer, my family went to the Adirondacks, where my grandparents had originally built a log house,” he writes. Since his childhood, Blagden has been immersed in nature. “I constantly need reassurance from mountains, forests, and waters that my senses will be recharged, and confirmation that the ultimate beauty belongs to nature alone,” he writes. The meandering house and studio he designed in Salisbury, on a site surrounded by protected land, affirm that the natural world is very much the center of his life and art. The house sits near the same parcel of land where he was born and raised, the son of Thomas Blagden ’29, who taught art at Hotchkiss from 1933 until 1956. Allen, as well as his two sisters, have continued to pursue art, as has Allen’s brother, Tom Blagden ’69, P’08, a professional photographer.

Head Dress

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“...it is impossible to live life without returning, however briefly, to the constant beauty of the outdoors.”

Wildfire

The house where they grew up was an incubator for budding artists. In Marking the Moment, he writes: “There was a long bench in the living room of our house. And it was full of paper, crayons, watercolors — all the essentials for creating art.” At Hotchkiss, his talent was recognized by Headmaster George Van Santvoord, Class of 1908, who, in a letter to Allen’s mother, wrote: “I was deeply moved by Allen’s paintings. He has great ability and power. My comment on his pictures was very homespun and pedestrian; but my admiration is profound.” After graduating, Blagden earned his B.F.A. degree from Cornell and won a fellowship to study art at the Yale Summer School in Norfolk, CT. In the summer program at Yale, he learned

Totem

an important lesson about creating art, one he’d struggle to impart to his own students later on. “I’d say, ‘One of you get up on the stand and pose, and everybody will draw you.’ I’d stand in the corner, and after 20 minutes, I’d say, ‘Now, rip it up and throw it away.’ And they’d say, ‘But it’s art,’ and get mad at me. I wanted them to get used to the fragility, the transparency of creating art,” Blagden says. “I learned that as a student at Yale. And I was trying to pass that on to the students.” Blagden taught art from 1968-69 at Hotchkiss, traveled to the National Serengeti Park in Kenya to paint, worked in filmmaking, and then was an ornithology illustrator for the Smithsonian Institution. This last assignment led to a turning point in

his career. “That work at the Smithsonian meant I was headed for scientific illustration,” he says. “That’s when I really said to myself, ‘Okay, pretend painting is a job. Just get up, go to it, nine to five.’” And that’s what he’s been doing ever since. Drawing inspiration from Winslow Homer, John James Audubon, and Andrew Wyeth, he focuses on creating portraits from nature that captivate, startle, and amuse. In the big, bright studio in his house, he gestures at the window, with its views of green forests and hawks and eagles in flight, and says, with wonderment, “You know, I could sit up here all day.”

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pa rt i n g s h ot

Bienvenue au Québec Twenty-six students visited Québec over a long winter weekend as part of the French-language cultural immersion program, which marked its 18th year this January. In Québec, students spoke only French and stayed with host families for part of the visit. “The generosity, respect, and friendliness I received from my host family made the trip enjoyable, and allowed me to apply the French I learned at Hotchkiss in the real world,” said Harry Roepers ’19, who snapped this photo of old Québec City.

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Hotchkiss Reunion June 15-17, 2018

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Classes ending in 3 or 8

Registration is now open! Visit www.hotchkiss.org/alumni (Events & Reunions) For more information, please contact Kamaren Suwijn, associate director of alumni relations, at (860) 435-3114 or ksuwijn@hotchkiss.org. You can also visit www.hotchkiss.org/alumni and click on Events & Reunions.

Classes of 1953 and 1968: Save the Date for September 28-30, 2018.

Alumni Association

Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Permit No. 36 Pittsfield, MA

11 Interlaken Road Lakeville, CT 06039-2141 (860) 435-2591 www.hotchkiss.org ALUMNI