Hotchkiss Magazine Spring13

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11 INTERLAKEN ROAD LAKEVILLE, CT 06039-2141 (860) 435-2591 w w w. h o t c h k i s s . o r g

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Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage

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Permit No. 36 Pittsfield, MA

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

EMERITI

Miriam Beveridge ’86

Howard C. Bissell ’55, P’82

Adam Casella ’06

John R. Chandler, Jr. ’53, P’82,’85,’87, GP’10

Charles A. Denault ’74, P’03 Ex-Officio

Frederick Frank ’50, P’12

Patricia Barlerin Farman-Farmaian ’85, Chair, Gender Committee

David L. Luke III ’41 Dr. Robert A. Oden, Jr. P’97 Francis T. Vincent, Jr. ’56, P’85 Arthur W. White P’71,’74, GP’08,’11

Quinn Fionda ’91, Chair, Communications Committee Caldwell Hart ’87, P’16

Lawrence Flinn, Jr. ’53

Keith Holmes ’77

Diana Gomez ’76, P’11,’12

Alessandra H. Nicolas ’95

Sean M. Gorman ’72, Secretary

Nichole R. Phillips ’89

John P. Grube ’65, P’00

Daniel N. Pullman ’76 Ex-Officio

Elizabeth Gardner Hines ’93 Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet ’85 Eleanor Green Long ’76 Forrest E. Mars, Jr. ’49, P’77,’82 GP’09,’09,’11,’11,’14, Vice President Malcolm H. McKenzie P’10, Trustee Ex Officio Christopher H. Meledandri ’77, Vice President Kendra S. O’Donnell Thomas S. Quinn III ’71, P’15 Jean Weinberg Rose ’80, President Roger K. Smith ’78, P’08 Jane Sommers-Kelly ’81 Marjo Talbott John L. Thornton ’72, P’10,’11, Officer-at-Large William B. Tyree ’81, P’14, Treasurer Daniel Wilner '03

Alumni Association Board of Governors President Katheryn Allen Berlandi ’88 Vice Presidents Christina M. Bechhold ’03

Hotchkiss REUNION

Thomas S. Quinn III ’71, P’15 Ex-Officio Casey H. Reid ’01

October 25-27, 2013

June 13-15, 2014

Class of 1963 - 50th Reunion Class of 1953 - 60th Reunion

Classes of 1934, 1939, 1944, 1954, 1959, 1969, 1974, 1979, 1984, 1989, 1994, 1999, 2004, 2009

Peter D. Scala ’01 Thomas R. Seidenstein ’91 Bryan A. Small ’03 Michael G.T. Thompson ’66 Carolyn H. Toolan ’97

Edward J. Greenberg ’55, Chair, Alumni Services Committee George A. Takoudes ’87, Chair Nominating Committee Douglas Campbell III, ’71, P’01, Secretary and Chair, Nominating Subcommittee for Membership Lance K. Beizer ’56 William J. Benedict Jr. ’70, P’08, ’10 Keith E. Bernard Jr. ’95, Chair, Alumni of Color Committee

For more information please contact: Megan Denault ’03, Associate Director of Alumni Relations, at (860) 435-3114 or mdenault@hotchkiss.org.

You may also visit www.hotchkiss.org/alumni and click on Events & Reunions.

Photo by Jonathan Doster

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COVER PHOTO: JONATHAN DOSTER

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F HDA’s “Much Ado about Nothing” See story on p. 19.

HEAD OF SCHOOL

Malcolm H. McKenzie EDITOR

Roberta Jenckes DESIGNER

Christine Koch, Boost Studio CLASS NOTES EDITOR

Divya Symmers Communications Writer

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Hotchkiss Magazine is produced by the Office of Communications for alumni, parents, and friends of the School.

Letters and comments are welcome.

Please send inquiries and comments to: Roberta Jenckes, The Hotchkiss School, 11 Interlaken Road, Lakeville, CT 06039-2141, email to rjenckes@hotchkiss.org, or telephone 860-435-3122.

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Malcolm McKenzie: At home in the world Malcolm: The Hotchkiss Years

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3 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.

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For those whose lives are spent in happy devotion to students and their learning, May and June each year present a confluence of emotions. For teachers especially, there is the complete and unrestrained joy felt on seeing the honors being awarded to graduating students. And everyone in the School shares unreservedly in the happiness so transparent in the expressions of parents and grandparents. Graduation every spring offers uncounted joyous moments, all around; it may be the best-loved day in the school year, when all is said and done. But along with the tears of joy come the bittersweet moments. The leave-takings, goodbye hugs, and wistful looks come at this time, too. And so for those members of the faculty to whom we pay tribute in this issue, including Malcolm McKenzie, and to the accomplished and amazing members of the Class of 2013, we say our sincere “thank you” and “go well.”

WRITERS AND CONTRIBUTORS

David Holahan ’67 Daniel Lippman ’08 Molly McDowell Malcolm McKenzie Henry McNulty Divya Symmers Brenda Underwood

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Media Makers

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Campus Visitors P.8

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Alumni Profiles

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Teaching Matters

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Class Notes

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In Memoriam

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It’s My Turn

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FROM

THE HEAD of school

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For six years I have written a foreword

to every edition of The Hotchkiss Magazine. I love doing this. It is a privilege to go first, to introduce what is always a splendid publication, and

a challenge to try to find something memorable and useful to say.

In my first foreword, I described what I called ‘my motto’ for that year, as I had outlined it in the school convocation a month or so earlier. It was ‘an exhortation to us all to stand on tiptoe.’ Here is the crucial paragraph: Why this mantra, this metaphor? Because standing on tiptoe stretches us. That way we do not settle for the old mold and we stay nimble and supple as we take on new challenges. When we stand on tiptoe, we tread more lightly. I know that the strength and effectiveness of our community depends hugely on how we treat each other. Let’s go lightly and politely, without sacrificing the great expectations that we have of ourselves and each other and the high standards that we set. That’s a delicate balance.

Finally, when we stand on tiptoe, the view is slightly different. The horizon is just a bit further, the view more extended and more enticing. We are drawn upwards, and onwards, when we stand tall like this.

I feel that we have stretched in the past six years, as individuals and as an institution; that we are now more civil and gracious with each other in this fascinating, extended community; and that our view of what we do, and should be doing, as a school has altered and is now more expansive. We have stood tall.

This year, at convocation, I urged all in our community to try to find their voices, to create for themselves and others the capacity to speak sincerely and to give expression to their true identities. I suggested that our community is only as powerful as the number of individuals in it who feel able to find and

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sound their voices with passion and authenticity. This is especially so in relation to minorities, of whatever category. It is a sign of the coherence and commitment of a community that those small or single in number are confident and articulate about who they are and what gives them their sense of self. I asked us all to recognize that we have different passions, to create space for others by listening actively and observing supportively, and above all to be kind. Kindness and kin are connected, I said, and it is not really possible to claim a likeness to an extended family unless we show a kindred spirit to each other.

We have, I believe, done these things in good measure this year. That feels positive, and productive. For me, it makes saying goodbye easier.

As always, it seems strange to be in the throes of final events, whether these be forewords, chapels, meetings, or simply hugs. I say “as always” owing to the fact that this is the third time I have prepared myself for saying farewell and moving on to a new school. I feel sad about leaving, especially as there is unfinished work here at Hotchkiss. I wish Kevin Hicks and our whole community Godspeed in carrying out successfully all that will be required in the coming years. But I am also very excited about the pioneering project in Beijing, Keystone Academy, of which I shall be an integral part. This is an opportunity of a type that seldom occurs and I am fortunate to have been presented with it.

I have learned a great deal, personally and professionally, in my six years at this wonder-

ful, complex, and powerful place. I have stood on tiptoe, have indeed been made to do so, and have found my own voice in this context. I have also made many fast friends.

If others have learned from me, and if the institution has profited from my tenure, I feel gratified. I am sure, however, that I have been molded more than I have molded.

That’s the way it should be. The influence of a strong community is far weightier than the heft of any individual.

Thank you. It has been an honor to serve Hotchkiss.

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Graduation

GRADUATION 2009 The PromiseCoflass a New Day of 2013

On the day of graduation for the Class of 2013, the sound of voices raised in song filtered out from the open windows of the Hotchkiss chapel where parents and students had gathered for the Baccalaureate service. The words, Morning has broken like the first morning, gently floated across the grass and by the rows of chairs arranged for the graduation audience. Above, in a cloudless sky, the sun shone warmly over a pristine campus washed by rain from the night before.

“Seniors have reason to hope for great things,” said Chaplain Louis Pressman at the morning’s Baccalaureate service.

“With the talents you have,” he continued, “you will be able to achieve the remarkable, although there is no guarantee about how your life will go. But there is an assurance that you will take with you amongst other things: understanding, wisdom, and truth.”

That hope was evident in the faces of the 174 soon-to-be graduates as they passed before the line of cheering preps, lower mids, and upper mids and towards their waiting parents, grandparents and greatgrandparents, alumni, faculty, and staff.

It was also evident in the words of Malcolm McKenzie, Head of School, dur-

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ABOVE: Graduation speaker Nancy Bird, retiring director of health services, told the students how she had learned alongside them.

ing his address both on this day and at the Awards Ceremony Friday evening, when he congratulated the graduating class for their achievements and commended them on the two gifts they had given the School: a more open, more benevolent, and more inclusive school; and, a willingness to make the most of the privilege of being at Hotchkiss.

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ALL PHOTOS BY JONATHAN DOSTER

Creating Moments that Can Live Forever

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never lose this sense of opportunity, OF THE POWER

AND VALUE OF THAT WHICH LIES AROUND THE CORNER …

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“I wish now to offer you two gifts,” said McKenzie, as he stood on the dais addressing the seniors. “My first gift is autobiographical. It is triggered by what I called last night your ‘openness to opportunity.’ I hope that you never lose this sense of opportunity, of the power and value of that which lies around the corner, just waiting to be brought within your grasp.”

McKenzie continued by telling the story of Khotso, a resilient and elderly guide he met when he was a young man of 20 on a fiveday pony trek to the Maletsunyane Falls in Lesotho and the self-reliance this guide taught him.

“My second gift is a poem, written by me for this occasion, written especially for you Seniors…. One Time derives from a

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Japanese expression, ichi-go ichi-e, which is associated with the art of the tea ceremony.

It means, translated word for word, ‘one time, one meeting’ and encapsulates our knowledge that each and every meeting is unique and transient, but that although all moments vanish quickly they do, if engaged with completely, contain an aspect that is forever.”

This sentiment echoed in a sparkling address by School Presidents Priyanka P. Sekhar and Jack M. Weiss as they spoke for the seniors on their four years at Hotchkiss. “There is no way we can adequately describe our time here except that we are connected by our stories. Only we know what it’s like to cheer on someone on crutches. No one can really know

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we are connected by our stories. NO ONE CAN REALLY KNOW UNLESS THEY WERE HERE.

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OPPOSITE PAGE:: Top, the graduates enjoying the program; Below, School Presidents Priyanka Sekhar and Jack Weiss addressed the Graduation audience.

THIS PAGE: Singing “Fair Hotchkiss,” once more, with special feeling

unless they were here. Thank you for being here with us.”

Not only was it a leave-taking for the graduates but also for McKenzie, as he performed one of his last duties as Head of School, and for Nancy Bird, Director of Health Services, and the Class of 2013 graduation speaker. In her remarks, Bird likened her 25 years at Hotchkiss to being a prep, a lower mid, an upper mid, and a senior and described how she had learned alongside the students, saying: “There will be times when you think you are a senior, when in actuality you are only a prep. You will need to listen to what others say and try to hear their words. You will need to be a student and know that this is not a demeaning place to be. … Always be both a student and a teacher. Learn from others, support and guide those around you when they need it – see, hear, understand, make contact. If you do you will be respected, effective, and feel moments of contentment. Strive to find balance in your life.

No one can do it for you. And, above all

ONE TIME M A L C O L M

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One time, some time, come back to meet this place again.

Drive north and west, to our corner, past the furled farm, Then down into the sudden, opening bowl of the hills.

Our gate has no wall or fence; it simply offers passage.

Return in April or May, when the light is lemon fresh And water has swallowed its ice. Vapors silver the lake.

Early spring shoots all over. The elms on the drive divide The air, the copper beeches flare with lava leaves, And turkeys, winter spare and tough, fan tails on fields.

The nights turn merely crisp, and the days become yielding.

Do not ever think that you will regain these years, But know that their echo will be here, waiting still, Ready to rebound with a thrill, similar but not the same.

Your heart will fill fast, your spirit here and everywhere.

For a moment, then and now are fused, and your future Will be sprung from time, not just one time, but forever.

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Always be both a student and a teacher. LEARN

FROM OTHERS, SUPPORT AND GUIDE THOSE AROUND YOU … .

else, always remember to breathe.”

And breathe they did… as they walked to the podium to accept their diplomas amidst cheers from family, friends and faculty… with sighs of relief, with pride, with jubilation at their own success and joy in that of their peers. And in each heart McKenzie’s message resonated: “When lived fully, the not-to-be-repeated possesses the power to defy time, to redeem time from chronicity. Let’s remember that as we prepare to leave, and console ourselves with the thought that we shall come back at different times in our lives to this magical place, with its attendant memories and experiences. It will be waiting for us.”

Congratulations to the Class of 2013!

A VIDEO OF THE GRADUATION CEREMONY AND TEXT OF THE SPEECHES CAN BE FOUND AT WWW.HOTCHKISS.ORG.

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ABOVE: New graduates, showing their pride and happiness – and diplomas LEFT: Joining the alumni body on May 31 – 174 extremely happy young men and women

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APPOINTMENTS

ANNOUNCED

THOMAS J. FLEMMA HAS BEEN NAMED A S S O C I AT E H E A D O F S C H O O L A N D D E A N O F FA C U LT Y. THE APPOINTMENT WAS ANNOUNCED BY KEVIN HICKS, CURRENTLY THE ASSOCIATE HEAD OF SCHOOL AND DEAN OF FACULTY AND HEAD OF SCHOOL-ELECT. BOTH DR. HICKS AND DR. FLEMMA BEGIN THEIR NEW DUTIES ON JULY 1.

Flemma, who joined the faculty in 1999 as an instructor in history, was appointed Associate Dean of Faculty in 2011. In that role, Hicks noted in his announcement, Flemma “has demonstrated the same enthusiasm, ability, and creativity he has brought to all of the many different positions he has held at Hotchkiss.”

Flemma received his B.A. from Stanford University and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. He has taught AP U.S. History, U.S. History, Humanities, and electives on the 1960s and African-American history. Since his arrival at Hotchkiss, he has been the assistant and head coach of JV Girls Hockey. He also served as an assistant coach for Varsity Football for eight years. Tom has lived in Dana, Wieler, and now Edelman, where he is currently the Dorm Head. He and his wife Diana, a counselor in health services, have two children, Bella and Max. Flemma chaired his department for five years and helped develop the Humanities program. During his time as chair, he received a fellowship with NAIS for aspiring school leaders, during which time he made extensive studies of faculty evaluation and professional development strategies. As a member of the Hotchkiss Plan steering committee, he helped to draft the early versions of the Plan and co-chaired the residential life task force that emerged from it.

As Associate Dean of Faculty, Flemma managed faculty housing, organized new faculty orientation, oversaw the hiring and supervision of the Teaching Fellows, directed the Faculty Colloquium, and served on the School Leadership Team. He also helped to create the Penn Residency Master’s in Teaching Program and directs the History and Culture of Boarding School portion of the Fellows’ coursework. In his capacity as Associate Dean of Faculty, he has

served on the Academic Matters, Building and Grounds, and Student Life subcommittees of the Board of Trustees.

“I’m tremendously excited about both the opportunities and challenges ahead,” said Flemma.

“I’m eager to propel our ongoing school conversations about teaching and learning. And I look forward to fostering collaboration amongst teachers and across academic departments, building on some of the strides we've already taken as a school. I’m always interested in hiring, especially trying to expand and diversify the pool of candidates we have to choose from. In these and other areas I hope to support our faculty personally and challenge them professionally. Serving them and the students is a real privilege,” Flemma said.

PAUL OBERTO WILL BE ASSOCIATE DEAN

Paul Oberto has been named Associate Dean of Faculty, succeeding Tom Flemma in that post, with his duties beginning this summer. Oberto is currently the William Elfers’37 Chair, head of the Science Department and instructor in biology and chemistry.

Flemma said of him, at the time of the appointment, “Paul’s many years of experience at Hotchkiss and deep knowledge of the place will serve us all well as he tackles some of the important duties of this position.”

Oberto received a B.A. in biology from Hamilton College, graduating cum laude with departmental honors. He earned his M.S. in natural science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He joined the Hotchkiss faculty in 2000 and became co-head of science in 2006.

He has taught various levels of high school biology and chemistry, and developed and taught elective courses for seniors in biotechnology and genetics. Oberto assisted in leading a department curricular review that resulted in the design of a two-year science “core” curriculum for all ninth- and tenthgraders. He is head coach of Varsity Baseball and lives in Garland Dorm with his children, Quillan and Rosie.

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ADVENTURES OF A LIFETIME: Hotchkiss graduates learn through experience on gap years

GapYear

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By Divya Symmers

Being abroad AND OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE WAS THE

MOST REWARDING THING ABOUT DOING A GAP YEAR…IT ALLOWED ME TO BECOME MORE OR LESS COMPLETELY INDEPENDENT…

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ABOVE: Izzy Betances ’12 spent last year in Thailand and Cambodia as a “gap staff” at the Regent’s School Pattaya, a British International School that, like Hotchkiss, is a member of the Round Square Organization. All 80 Round Square schools around the world are dedicated to six ideals: internationalism, democracy, environmental awareness, adventure, leadership, and service to the community.

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his year 13 Hotchkiss graduates – approximately eight percent of the Class of 2013 – have stepped off the highschool-to-college fast track to work or volunteer and study either abroad or in parts of the U.S. unknown to them.

Taking an academic breather after a dozen years of non-stop studying to learn from the world around them, they’re embracing independence and empathy, traits that may lead to a more successful college experience. Along the way they’re developing other, more tangible skills that may help them live their lives more successfully.

From volunteering with an NGO in Nairobi to spending a semester teaching in Beijing to working at a battered women’s shelter or volunteering in a Peruvian nature reserve, they’re fearlessly exploring unexpected options, taking on new responsibilities, and contributing time and energy to a wide range of socially conscious organizations.

“It’s an ideal time in their life – a natural break point in their education when they can go do something that is either aligned with their already-expressed interests and goals and passions, or they can go out and experience something they’ll never have an opportunity to do again,” says Hotchkiss Gap Year Coordinator Elsie Stapf.

Although the U.S. still lags behind the U.K. and Australia when it comes to gap year participation – an estimated seven percent of all British students defer their college admission to take a gap year while only 1.2 percent of first-time American freshmen do – it’s a concept whose time, increasingly, has come.

At Hotchkiss, the number of students opting for gap years since 2009 recently hit 60, a landmark total driven by the School’s ongoing emphasis on global understanding as well as the realities of today’s global marketplace.

“If students can learn to understand other perspectives, whether through community service, learning languages, or vol-

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RIGHT: For part of their gap year, 2008 graduates Tess Mahoney and Isaac Wilder (lower right) taught English at the Ahilya School in Maheshwar, India. The school is run by the Rehwa Society, which was founded by Richard Holkar ’62 and supports the families of local weavers with education, housing, and health care (www.rehwasociety.org).

unteering with an NGO, then they’ll be getting out of it what we hope they will, including a more expansive worldview,” notes Stapf, the only full-time gap coordinator employed at an American secondary school and “a force of nature,” according to School Chaplain Lou Pressman.

Stapf, who came to Hotchkiss with a background in experiential education encompassing wilderness survival and overseas travel, has identified and input close to 550 organizations and programs in her database, tagging them according to criteria that includes whether or not they offer partial or full financial aid or university-affiliated credit.

She spends hours each day talking with students about their likes and dislikes and helping them apply for everything from community service learning to intensive cultural immersion.

“Art, music, science, language – there are programs for everyone out there,” she notes. “Even if it’s not the perfect one, if it aligns enough with your interests that you’re going to accomplish your goals and learn more than you expected, then that’s the point.

My challenge is to help kids see what their big goals are, but also that there are a hundred ways to get there.”

Choices abound: the Gap Year page of the Hotchkiss website lists options available through the English Speaking Union, Round Square Schools, and organizations with connections to Hotchkiss alumni: the Ahilya School in India, for example, and Simply Smiles, Inc., a Connecticut-based non-profit that supports a children’s home in Mexico and a slew of worthy projects on South Dakota’s Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Reservation. Other opportunities include City Year’s Give a Year, an offshoot of AmeriCorps that not only provides a living stipend but also gives participants a $5,500 award toward their college expenses, and Global Citizen Year (GCY), an ambitious international service-learning mission designed to get young Americans out in the world.

Even if Hotchkiss grads aren’t under the auspices of an organized or specific program – instead opting for a variety of jobs and experiences – as long as they have a college deferment their year off still constitutes a gap year, and often provide a glimpse of future careers.

Lillian Barry ’03, a New York-based clothing designer, spoke at a Hotchkiss international dinner and described how during her gap year she traveled to India and met artisans who specialized in block-printing technique. “It was beautiful, she was drawn to it,

although it wasn’t until several years later that she realized those contacts could be part of her future and the work she was going to do,” Stapf said.

Lillian’s father is Tom Barry P’01, ’03 ’05, a Hotchkiss trustee as well as a parent. His own year on a college exchange program was “transformative,” and he and his wife, Patricia, were responsible for funding the School’s Gap Year Coordinator position for the past five years, beginning in the fall of 2008.

That year, there were eight Hotchkiss graduates on gap year programs, three at the Ahilya School in Maheshwar, India, founded by the Rehwa Society, a successful cottage industry for local weavers headed by Richard Holkar ’62. (It was Holkar, Stapf says, who “opened the door for the Gap Year program at Hotchkiss.”) The number of participants dipped to six students in 2009-2010, rising to a record 13 in 2012 and again in 2013.

This has been the busiest year ever, with a surge of interest in everything from language development and science-oriented programs to political internships. The fact that more colleges are encouraging deferments – Harvard has actually done so for 40 years – along with the increasing visibility of prestigious new programs such as Princeton’s competitive and fully funded Bridge Year and the Global Gap Year Fellowship Program at UNC Chapel Hill – has also made gap years that much more acceptable to Hotchkiss parents.

“Gap Year has allowed us to recast the conversation from getting in – getting the golden ticket – to a conversation about who and what a student wants to be in three, five, and 10 years,” says Rick Hazelton, the School’s director of college advising, emphasizing that it’s the opposite of a break from learning.

The Middlebury College website, for instance, states that students who participate in its February admission program “bring more to their college experience and, as a result, derive more from it. They also hold a disproportionately high number of

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LEFT: “Every meditation session I wondered why they didn’t give us chairs. How was I supposed to meditate if my brain instinctively focused on the pain in my back? I soon realized the answer to this question was a perfect metaphor for training the mind. It seems that meditation is most useful in times of adversity.” – Mac Sutphin ’12, Where There Be Dragons, India

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Whether teaching FIRST

GRADERS TO SING OR.…OR TRYING TO LEARN WOLOF BY SITTING IN ON WOMEN’S LITERACY CLASSES, EACH DAY BRINGS UNEXPECTED

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CHALLENGES.…

GAYA MORRIS ’09, GLOBAL CITIZEN YEAR, SENEGAL (BELOW LEFT)

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leadership positions on campus and, on average, perform better academically.”

“They arrive at college refreshed and more focused on what they want to study and what they want to get out of their education,” says Hazelton. The importance of real-world experience in the digital age also can’t be denied. “Practicing service, working on the land, living in different cultures near and far: all these and others add to the knowledge grown in the heart, through doing, that goes even deeper,” wrote Malcolm McKenzie, Hotchkiss’s recently departed Head of School, in an article for Independent School Magazine.

Elsie Stapf wholeheartedly agrees. “Natalie Boyse ’09 came back from Jordan and said it wasn’t what she was doing day-today – she had a job in the development office of King’s Academy there – it was her exposure to the dialogue around conflict in the Middle East, and the emotion behind it, that she took away with her. And that’s perspective.”

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Robert Hilliker named to head the Edsel Ford Memorial Library Robert Hilliker has been selected to succeed Barbara Doyle-Wilch as Director of the Edsel Ford Memorial Library.

Robert joins Hotchkiss from Columbia University, where he managed Academic Commons, the University's public access digital research repository, during a period of rapid growth, helping to make it one of the top-rated digital libraries in the country. Prior to that, he worked in the Rutgers University Libraries, where he had primary responsibility for acquiring foreign language materials and e-books.

Robert holds an M.L.I.S. from Rutgers in digital libraries and a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Brown University. He earned a B.A. in English at the University of British Columbia.

“Robert brings talents and skills that will serve us well in the next phase of the library’s growth,” said Dean of Faculty Kevin Hicks. “He is acutely aware of the current trends in scholarly communication and will prepare our students to conduct research in the digital world they will enter after leaving Hotchkiss. His command of opensource repositories, copyright interpretations, and digital research tools will support both faculty and students. He also brings a love of literature and comfort in several languages. He will live on campus and be joined by his wife Renée and their son.”

“I'm very excited about the opportunity to come to Hotchkiss and guide the Edsel Ford Memorial Library,” said Hilliker. “I will continue the work Barbara has begun to make the library an open and inviting space--in fact, I aim to extend our presence on campus well beyond the library walls through enhanced digital collec-

tions and services. Having met with faculty, administrators, and students, I can tell there is a strong interest in improving research skills in particular, and information literacy more broadly. Clearly our librarians and the rest of the library staff, who have already made me feel so welcome, will play a key role in making that happen as we undertake a number of interesting collaborations with faculty and students in coming years.”

In recruiting for this position, Hicks said, the School worked through the American Library Association, the Association of College and Research Libraries, the Oberlin Group of the Library Arts College Library Directors, the National and New England Association of Independent School Libraries, Yale University Library, and Harvard University Library. Four finalists were invited to visit campus, and each one met with the entire Library staff and spoke with students from the Library/Information Technology advisory group; various members of the teaching faculty; and Malcolm McKenzie.

“Within this superb group of finalists,” Hicks said, “Robert emerged conclusively as the unanimous favorite.

“The Library staff are as excited as Robert is about this new chapter in our Library's history,” Hicks said.

“The Library staff are as excited as Robert is about this new chapter in our Library’s history.”

KEVIN HICKS

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THIS YEAR’S RECIPIENTS ARE BETH WAITKUS ’79 AND DIEGO DE SOLA ’91 In t roduct i on

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tudents, faculty, and guests of the honorees enjoyed the Hotchkiss Auditorium program of April 12, as the alumni recipients of the 2013 Community Service Award spoke movingly about the volunteer efforts that have transformed their lives and the lives of others.

Katheryn Allen Berlandi ’88, president of the Hotchkiss School Board of Governors, represented the Board’s Nominating Committee in presenting the awards.

This year’s honorees are Beth Waitkus ’79, founder and director of the Insight Garden Program at San Quentin State Prison, and Diego de Sola ’91, co-founder of Glasswing International, a nonprofit venture that promotes social integration through volunteering and strategic social investment. Waitkus was introduced by Karma Lama ’13 and de Sola by Sebastian Sanchez ’14.

In her remarks, Waitkus described how she felt inspired to work in community building after 9/11. “In 2001, when jets flew into the World Trade Center,” she told the audience, “I finally woke up.

“From then on, I knew I had to live a life more aligned with my heart. To do that, I would have to reestablish my faith in human capacity for transformation and goodness.

“Through a serious of synchronistic events, the year following 9/11 actually led me straight into prison. I wanted to practice ‘being present’ with what I thought then would be a difficult population – prisoners. When I was asked to start a gardening program there, despite all odds, we did. …”

Diego de Sola, co-founder of Glasswing

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International, spoke directly to the students, urging them to use their time at Hotchkiss to discover their own beliefs and values.

“I am an absolute work in progress,” he told his audience, “but I’ve learned a few things along the way … about discovery, about service, about authenticity, and about the wake that we all leave behind. …

You have accomplishments, you have shortcomings. But in the end, it’s just the output of what you believe in and put into practice. You just have to apply yourself, and apply your criteria, and be honest with what you think. ….”

Glasswing International is an independent, nonprofit organization based in San Salvador, El Salvador. The organization’s aim is to transform communities in Central America by leveraging and mobilizing human, financial, and material resources from companies, government, and beneficiaries. The Glasswing model focuses on social investment consulting and volunteering.

TOP: Award winners Waitkus and deSola with the students who introduced them

“In 2001, when jets flew into the World Trade Center,” she told the audience, “I finally woke up. “From then on, I knew I had to live a life more aligned with my heart. To do that, I would have to reestablish my faith in human capacity for transformation and goodness.”

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LEFT: Malcolm McKenzie presents the award to a beaming Beth Waitkus.

ACCEPTANCE SPEECH BY BETH WAITKUS ’79 C o mmu n i t y

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o the Hotchkiss School Alumni Association’s Board of Governors and to the Hotchkiss community, I offer my most heartfelt thanks for this 2013 Community Service Award. I accept it on behalf of the more than 1,000 men who’ve participated in the Insight Garden Program at San Quentin State Prison and whose lives continue to be transformed through connection to nature.

I also extend my love and gratitude to my family and friends, and the faculty who are here today – and some who taught me many years ago – and who have, in many ways, been part of my journey. And to all of the current students who are planting the seeds of future care, community service, and building a better world. Finally, thanks to Patty O’Connor who has so graciously helped prepare the logistics for this visit and been there every step of the way– you’ve been amazing!

I’d like to start off with a quote I first discovered when reading “The Little Prince” – in my prep year French Class,

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taught by our dear Bob Hawkins – “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

So I’d like to briefly share the story of how I got from Hotchkiss to San Quentin State Prison.

For some context, I grew up in these bucolic hills of Lakeville, CT…playing in the streams, wandering the woods, and sailing on the lake. Nature was then, and still is now, my refuge.

When I entered Hotchkiss in the early ’70s, the School had just welcomed girls for the first time the year before. These were years of great transition. In my first year, there were only four girls in my prep class. We were, upon reflection, pioneers and faced some interesting challenges in those early years of coeducation.

Those were also times of great national and international upheaval. We had Watergate and an oil crisis. As the “outside” world swirled around us – in this bubble – we remained somewhat protected and only remotely aware of the massive shifts under-

way. Back then, we didn’t have email, computers, or cell phones to connect us, only television, radio, and each other.

And as part of that larger “Shift,” I shifted too, thanks to an evening in the Walker Auditorium with then-consumer advocate Ralph Nader. He spoke passionately about the auto industry in the context of consumer rights and large corporate interests – at the expense of our environment and people. At that point, I didn’t even know what fossil fuels really were, where they came from, or why I should care. But he stood up for the rest of us, demanding large systems change, and predicted back then what is now our current state of environmental degradation, the gaps between the rich and the poor, and important issues of social justice.

For me, he planted a seed. Although I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I “grew up” after graduating from Hotchkiss and even college, I did feel a restlessness to make a difference. What I did know intuitively was that I wanted to integrate my love of the natural world with my work.

So over the years, as an activist, I began to find my place in the world. I dabbled in politics and ran social marketing for federal programs in Washington, DC. In some of those arenas, my head and heart weren’t always aligned. For me, it was uncomfortable to be doing someone else’s bidding…corporate public relations is where I ended up working after I moved to the San Francisco Bay area in the late 1990s.

So in 2001, when jets flew into the World Trade Center, I finally woke up.

From then on, I knew I had to live a life more aligned with my heart. To do that, I would have to reestablish my faith in human capacity for transformation and goodness.

Through a serious of synchronistic events, the year following 9/11 actually led me straight into prison. I wanted to practice “being present” with what I thought then would be a difficult population – prisoners. When I was asked to start a garden-

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RIGHT AND BELOW RIGHT: Beth’s examples of growth and transformation were powerful and moving.

ing program there, despite all odds, we did.

In those beginning months, the staff was steadfastly against any gardens on a prison yard. Why do you think they would care?

Coming from a fear-based frame, they assumed prisoners would plant weapons instead of flowers. But at the helm of San Quentin in 2002 was a woman, Warden Jeannie Woodford. She had faith, too, that working in a garden would be therapeutic at most, and keep men busy at least. With her leadership, she led our effort for a garden on a prison yard in an institution highly resistant to change.

So after a year of planning and some false starts, during winter solstice of 2003, we planted a gorgeous flower and herb garden there…an experiential lab for men to learn landscaping skills and to tend to what we call their “inner gardens.” The men worked quietly in their new garden on winter solstice, installing what for them might become a path to salvation.

Over the years, our garden has become a place that represents connectedness, of interrelation and wonder. It is a place prisoners name the bugs, pet the bees, and tend to themselves and each other. They literally stop to smell the roses. They learn about landscaping and gardening, food, farming and urban agriculture, human/eco connections, and green jobs. And it’s the only place on the prison yard where the races mix without fear of retribution. With all of this, seeds of compassion, forgiveness, and care are nurtured both in the garden, and in our classroom circles.

For the men, their “shift” happens somewhere between understanding that they alone are responsible for their behavior and feelings and for how they show up in the world. When they stop blaming others for that which binds them, they gain a greater level of consciousness, and the healing can begin. We are about restoration, not punishment.

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Although these men come from backgrounds we can’t even begin to imagine – they have a second chance – sometimes a third or fourth. Whatever it takes. We are willing to hang in there with them, because we realize that growth and change is a lifelong possibility and process. When those in our program leave prison, most of them don’t come back. They become productive members of society – and have a new commitment to caring for each other and our world.

So along with our garden (where nature teaches us everything we need to know), these men are my teachers. When they can touch their own humanity, they open up to the possibility of transformation. They offer me hope, time and time again, in the human capacity for change and for good in the world.

So being here, today, in front of all of you feels like coming full circle. Thirtyplus years after my Hotchkiss experience, I am so touched to see the evolution of an institution which has evolved into a community, deeply committed to service, environmental care – and, of course, lots more women. You are all a great reason for hope. You CAN follow your heart, dare to be different, take your leaps of faith, and let your passion for the things you care about guide your life. We have to be the change we want to see in the world – and we have to do it together.

I’d like to close with a quote from Steve Jobs…who while struggling with cancer, offered these words of great wisdom to Stanford University students: “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” [Stanford commencement speech, June 2005] Again, thank you all so much, on behalf of all of us at the Insight Garden Program.

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ACCEPTANCE SPEECH BY DIEGO DE SOLA ’91 C o m muni t y hank you, Sebastian, for the kind introduction.

Good morning to you all. I want to begin by thanking the Board of Governors for having nominated us for such a prestigious honor, especially George Takoudes and Katie Berlandi.

Thanks to Malcolm McKenzie for his warm hospitality, to Martin for taking us on a great tour yesterday, and to all of you present for accompanying and supporting us today.

I’m excited and humbled to be standing before you today, and although this award is probably more related to our work at Glasswing promoting education, health, and volunteering in Central America, I’d

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like to take my allotted time and share with you some ideas I’ve been batting around almost since my graduation in 1991, regarding discovery, authenticity, service, and the wake we leave behind.

So 20-some-odd years ago I was sitting where you are, learning how to think critically and how to be rigorous in all of my endeavors. I will tell you that without question, these characteristics that Hotchkiss instills in us are incredibly valuable later in life. I was an OK student, sometimes painfully shy, but perhaps what stands out most in my mind was how intimidated I was by my classmates and peers in general. I was always feverishly seeking to stand out, and at the same

Remarks time, fit in. Seeing the Hotchkiss Facebook yesterday, I had to smile remembering how I spent way too much time obsessing about what comment was scribbled next to my picture! My biggest fear was that my mug shot would simply be passed over, and a close second was a comment by some girl that read “Nice Guy” or something of the sort.

All in, I was pretty stressed, and my sense of self-worth was derived almost solely from others. It was like I developed ABOVE: Students, members of the faculty, staff, and guests of the award winners filled the room.

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ABOVE: Diego’s messages of self-discovery, authenticity, and service resonated with the students in the audience.

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a sort of dependency on praise. At some point in my teens, the underlying goal guiding my words and actions became receiving praise or avoiding rejection by saying or doing what I thought others wanted or expected me to say or do.

Whenever I received what I was after, I got a boost for a bit, but like any dependency it never lasted and I needed more. The flip side of this also held, of course...any disapproval or rejection was pretty rough.

After sharing this with friends on a couple of occasions, I’ve come to realize, surprise, surprise, that this phenomenon is not unique to me or to any high school environment. Perhaps some of you sitting here can relate to it in some way...? It seems to me that too many of us pick up this nasty habit – caring more about how

others see us than about how we see ourselves. But after a few years keeping a tally, I can assure you that there simply isn’t enough praise in the world to fill a void that only we ourselves can fill.

To the point, in seventh grade, an English teacher in New Jersey told me “Diego, you'll never amount to much.”

Since I left, went on to Hotchkiss and then life after Hotchkiss (there is such a thing!!), I’ve been involved in all sorts of things, and I’ve been very fortunate to have a great deal of support from people who genuinely care for my wellbeing. Among these, I can point to several during my time roaming these halls, including Walter Crain who supported and guided me as a student, Tim Katzman, who taught me to compete with intensity on the squash court, and most of all Robert “Photo Bob” Haiko who taught me to see the world through a camera lens, and who even flew down to El Salvador for my wedding some years later!

Professionally, I’ve worked in the United States and Central America in airline marketing, investment banking, coffee exporting and now real estate development. In the last decade or so, I’ve been privileged to join two wonderful leadership Fellowships, the Aspen Institute’s Global Leadership Network and World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders. In 2005, my sister, my brother-in-law, and I co-founded Glasswing International, which (mostly thanks to Celina and Ken) has since grown to become a world-class regional non-profit based in El Salvador with over $3MM in program investments in education, health, and volunteering, and with well over 100,000 direct beneficiaries. This year my wife Alexandra and I celebrate 15 years of a very happy marriage which has blessed us with three spectacular boys, the eldest of whom (Diego Xavier) made the trip up with me today. And now I stand here before you receiving an award from an institution and a group of people that I respect and admire enormously.

Years ago I would have loved to wave my accomplishments before that seventhgrade teacher’s nose and get an apology or

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LEFT: Diego de Sola accepts the award from Malcolm McKenzie.

at least a retraction. I would have loved to scribble these in alongside my picture in the Hotchkiss Facebook so I wouldn’t get passed over. I would have tried to stand on my little mound of accomplishments to build my sense of self-worth. As if that would help me feel better about myself!

It’s taken me quite a while to realize that neither accomplishments, nor shortcomings, make us any better or worse as people. They’re just the results of the decisions and efforts we make based on our priorities in life...no more, no less. For me, this windy road to self-acceptance and appreciation began by shifting my gaze from outside-in to inside-out. I can’t say I’ve mastered the art or that I ever will, but I’ve definitely improved, and I feel like a better person for it. Of course I could probably have just picked up any one of a number of self-help books to read about this, but what can I tell you...I had to learn the hard way!

These days we hear lots of people talking about leadership, the need for empathy, self-awareness, and service. We see our economies and governments mired in conflict and uncertainty. We see the levels of personal stress increasing to the point of contributing to terminal illnesses. So what is it that we want? This is the age-old ques-

tion each of us has to answer for her or himself, but let’s say for today that Aristotle was right in telling us that HAPPINESS can be the only true END, and all else can only be a means to that end. If we agree with Aristotle that material success, influence, and other things so many of us strive for are only means to this higher end, where do we begin?

Today I submit to you some tips to take or discard as you see fit. They have helped me enormously as I’ve grown (older), and I truly hope they can be of some use to you as you find your own way. So we go back to the words I mentioned at the beginning: discovery, authenticity and service and the wake we leave behind.

1. Discovery: Make it a point to DISCOVER what you’re about and what’s important to you. Watch yourself react to people or situations and you’ll inevitably discover things about yourself. You might like your findings or not, but don’t fall into the trap of judging yourself. Just observe, appreciate, and modify as needed.

2. Authenticity: When you begin to know yourself and get comfortable in your skin, your AUTHENTICITY shines through. You eventually learn to TRUST yourself, and that helps others trust you

as well. How about getting your very own private and sustainable source of self-worth?

3. Serve others: When we volunteer or help others in general, we have a chance to forget ourselves and focus on those we are helping. In doing this, we place others’ needs before our own, inevitably shifting our perspective from outside-in to insideout. I have to admit that I’ve discovered this only recently, but I’m grateful for having found it and excited to see where it will take me looking forward.

4. The wake we leave behind: Fourth and lastly, I invite you to EXAMINE YOUR WAKE as you go through life.

Every decision you and I make and everything you and I do affects everything and everyone around us positively or negatively. It is only when we look back and understand our effects on our surroundings that we can make conscious choices regarding what we’re leaving behind. This can start the instant we leave here, when you interact with the first person you see leaving this spectacular hall. What is he or she going to walk away feeling based on that interaction? How can I cause positive ripples in the water around me??

So that’s it for me. Before I say goodbye, thank you all once again for inviting me back to campus and for allowing me to share in this Award. Thank you to the Board of Governors, especially George and Katie, thank you to the Head of School Malcolm McKenzie and thanks to all of you. I wish for each of you healthy doses of discovery, authenticity and service so you can improve and magnify the wakes you’re already leaving behind.

Trust me when I tell you: you’ll be happier for it!

PLEASE TAKE A LOOK AT GLASSWING INTERNATIONAL: WWW.GLASSWING.ORG AND WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/GLASSWINGI

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Hotchkiss Alumni in Print BUSINESS SECRETS of the

TRAPPIST MONKS

One CEO’s Quest for Meaning and Authenticity

August Turak

Business Secrets of the Trappist Monks: One CEO’s Quest for Meaning and Authenticity

BY AUGUST TURAK ’70 COLUMBIA BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING, JULY 2013

Service and selflessness are at the heart of the 1,500-year-old Trappist monastic tradition and key elements in the remarkable business success of the Trappist monks of Mepkin Abbey in South Carolina. Turak, an entrepreneur and corporate executive who has been a frequent monastic guest since 1996, combines vivid case studies from his own successful career with intimate portraits of the monks as they built and ran a highly profitable portfolio of businesses. “Success for the monks is just a byproduct of living a life based on the highest moral values,” Turak points out. Demonstrating that Trappist principles can be applied both to secular business settings and our personal lives, Business Secrets of the Trappist Monks, based on an article Turak wrote for Forbes.com a few years ago, offers a “genuine, perceptive and often moving exploration of ethics, authenticity and effectiveness in life and business” (SUCCESS Magazine). It also introduces other “transformational organizations” that share these enlightened, and enlightening, monastic business strategies.

Traps: A Novel

BY MACKENZIE BEZOS ’88 ALFRED A. KNOPF, 2013

A “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned novel” (Kirkus Reviews) by an American Book Award winner (for her first novel, The Testing of Luther Albright), Traps tells the story of four very different women in distress – a famous actress, an abused teenage mother, a dog shelter owner, and an exmilitary bodyguard – whose lives intersect over the course of four suspenseful days. “Her characters are…arrestingly original,” writes Geraldine Brooks, author of the 2008 All-School Read Year of Wonders, and adds: “There is a sparkling, chiseled quality to her writing that puts me in mind of a master sculptor who commands the most disciplined craftsmanship in pursuit of passionate artistic ends.” Bezos’s taut prose and nuanced insights give this story of “interconnectedness, strength and courage” a complexity that few thrillers can match. The book’s theme is aptly summed up by one of the four principal characters when she tells another: “Life is full of things that feel like traps…later we see that they led us where we needed to go.”

Beautiful Country

BY JOHN RANDOLPH THORNTON ’10 PUBLISHED IN CHINA, MAY 2013 (AVAILABLE THROUGH AMAZON-CHINA)

Beautiful Country, written in Chinese, is an ambitious first novel about the experiences of an American teenager living and studying in modern China. In delicate strokes, and against the backdrop of a society and culture undergoing rapid economic development, he observes and explores the country’s seemingly infinite complexity from his own unique perspective. Bestselling author and essayist Feng Tang said, "This novel gives us a totally different angle on Beijing and China, places we thought we knew best." Beautiful Country is based on John Randolph Thornton’s experiences studying in Beijing as a 14-year-old – a year that “helped me to develop a deep understanding of and feelings toward a country that has had a profound influence on my values and outlook on life.” He is currently a history major at Harvard University and has studied fiction writing under Amy Hempel and Bret Anthony Johnston.

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They met in in 1961, just as London was beginning to Swing, became friends while attending LAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts), and have been friends ever since. “She was simply talented beyond anyone else there,” says William Kinsolving, author, screenwriter, singer, and spouse of Hotchkiss Poet-in-Residence Susan Kinsolving, recalling the young woman from South Africa whose work he admired in various scenes and exercises. “I wanted to get to know her.”

Fast forward 52 years, to the winter of 2013 in Lakeville and the stage of Walker Auditorium, where Dame Janet Suzman, red and black scarf draped dashingly around her neck, is coaching Avery Baldwin ’13 and Tatiana Marku ’16, the two leads in the Hotchkiss Dramatic Association’s production of Much Ado About Nothing.

“Don’t feel you should act,” she said in her elegantly rounded, husky voice, giving emphasis to “act.” “Try to get each other.

Don’t rush your sentences. It’s beautiful what you’re doing,” she tells Avery at one point. “You just have to listen a bit more.”

Having an Academy Award-nominated actress who’s also a stage legend coach seven full rehearsals of a high school production, even at Hotchkiss, is definitely not the norm, admitted Marcus Olson, director of theatre. “She helped the students tremendously with her guidance into the intricacies of Shakespeare’s text,” he said. “She asked questions – really probing questions – that forced the students to delve deeply into motivation, and how Shakespeare – an actor himself – left clues in the text for what was going on moment to moment.”

One of the world’s most formidable classical actors, Janet Suzman has been Dame Janet Suzman since 2011 when she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to

PHOTO: DREW MCKINZIE '14

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drama. Oscar-nominated for her role as the doomed Russian tsarina in the 1971 film Nicholas and Alexandra, she was an original member of the Royal Shakespeare Company under Peter Brook, and her performances have included Joan of Arc, Rosalind, and a legendary interpretation of

Cleopatra as a “sinuously balletic African potentate” in a production of Antony and Cleopatra directed by Sir Trevor Nunn, her former husband.

And while her multifaceted career includes many other acclaimed films (The Draughtsman’s Contract, A Dry White S p r i n g

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OPPOSITE: Dame Janet gestures approval to Avery Baldwin, at left in the photo, as Director of Theatre Marcus Olson and students look on.

Season) as well as riveting television productions (The Singing Detective), it’s the stage – and the classics – that was always her lodestar: the plays of Ibsen and Chekhov and, especially, Shakespeare. “You can’t escape him. He made the English language,” she notes, with a throaty laugh. “I think one forgets that the English language is what it is because of him.”

Janet Suzman was born in Johannesburg in 1939, in a country eventually riven by apartheid. Her late aunt, Helen Suzman, was a fiery, liberal member of the South African parliament, a thorn in the side of the ruling white elite, and an inspiration to her niece, especially during her college years at the University of Witwatersrand. “I was there at the height of apartheid and my whole generation was leaving; all over South Africa, peo-

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ple my age were getting out,” she said at Hotchkiss, a few days after arriving. “So I left, too.”

As it would be for many others, London became her refuge, its post-war Dickensian shabbiness oddly and comfortingly familiar from literature. This was the golden age of English theatre: Laurence Olivier was running the National Theater and the great actors – including John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson – were performing in plays, not waiting around for movie parts. The scrubby brick building in Earl’s Court that housed LAMDA became her home away from home, under the tutelage of a pair of teachers she remembers fondly.

“They were both rather eccentric, but you always remember your eccentric teachers, the ones who were a bit off the wall, right?

And you know,” she adds, after a wellplaced pause, “If you’ve been taught well you pass it on. What did Jack Nicholson say?

When you reach the top floor you have to send the elevator down again!”

If “the staggering power of language” has informed her career, so has her love-hate relationship with South Africa, which she calls “a hectic in my blood.” She wrote (and has directed and starred in) a play, The Free State: A South African Response to Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, which she describes as a tribute to Nelson Mandela. She’s also written theatre-themed books, including Not Hamlet: Meditations on the Frail Position of Women in Drama, been a visiting theatre professor at English universities, and periodically gives classes on the Bard at the Actors Centre in London (a recent workshop was devoted to developing confidence through unraveling “the clues in his rich and wonderful text”).

“She’s an extraordinary director,” said her friend William Kinsolving, citing in particular a multi-ethnic production of Hamlet she originally directed in Capetown, which opened the 2006 Complete Works Festival at Stratford upon Avon. “It was one of the most exciting Hamlets I’ve seen; it was revelatory. She found things in that play that I’d never seen before, and I’ve seen, I suppose, 40 versions of it.”

It was the same, he says, during rehearsals of Much Ado About Nothing at Hotchkiss.

“She has this unique quality of drawing out of them something that they had no idea was in them or in the character. I told the kids that if they were really, really lucky, this

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was the kind of experience they might have as professional actors.”

For Dame Janet, her week here was revelatory, too, albeit in unexpected ways. The campus facilities were “extraordinary” and the students “lovely and open” and eating lunch in the cheerfully crowded dining room, she said, became the best part of her day. She was surprised, in improvisation workshops and daily classroom visits, to find students so knowledgeable about aspects of life that, for her generation, were unknown or hidden away. At the same time, their general lack of life experience made it challenging to grasp Shakespeare’s poetic vocabulary and more subtle innuendos.

“Give the word ‘courtesy’ the courtesy it deserves,” she urged during an evening rehearsal. “Good, lovely,” she said, after asking Tatiana to slow down. “Make it simple, but full of feeling.

“I’m not so much a teacher as an enabler,” she noted later, with another laugh. “I’m helping them read those black marks on the page,

which are like Sanskrit. It’s in old language, in verse or prose. So what I am is somebody who’s gently pointing out that maybe this or that word has another meaning.”

It comes as a surprise to learn that Dame Janet has a fondness for musical theatre, but when she was eight or nine years old, she remembers, touring productions of Oklahoma and Annie Get Your Gun arrived in Johannesburg. “It was such an excitement!

I’d never seen an American musical before – and these were the two grand old musicals! I fell in love with Will Durant and got his signature eight times. So I suppose that was the beginning of a sort of love affair with the theatre. I knew every word of those musicals. I still do. Every single one.”

Not as surprisingly, she brought plenty of star power to the All-School lecture she gave toward the end of her week-in-residence.

Introduced fondly by William Kinsolving as “Our Janet,” and wearing a sparkly bluesequined blouse, she mesmerized students, faculty, and staff with tales of eccentric

English actors, unexpectedly kind Hollywood producers, and life in South Africa, both now and back when she was a small girl waiting for the whites-only bus to take her to school and wondering why her closest friend, a Zulu boy, couldn’t go to school with her.

“I can’t bear injustice. It’s as simple as that,” she said. Her life’s work has been inspired or, rather, “provoked” by her exposure to the bigotry, racism, and prejudice of an autocratic police state “that quelled every better instinct.”

From the outset of her career it was important, she felt, for her art to have a link to the real world – as when she directed a groundbreaking interracial Othello in Johannesburg in 1987, three years before Nelson Mandela was freed after 27 years in prison. “Why weren’t we stopped by the censors or arrested for breaking every rule of the state?” she asked. “Muddle and confusion, I think. How can you arrest somebody for doing a play by Shakespeare without becoming a laughingstock?”

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CAMPUS

v i si t o rs

Christopher Buckley: Spring 2013’s Lambert Lecturer B Y

D I V Y A

S Y M M E R S

Winner of the Washington Irving Medal for Literary Excellence and the Thurber Prize for American Humor, Christopher Buckley is arguably the funniest writer in the English language (John Updike memorably called him “Benchley with Word Perfect”).

He’s written more than a dozen popular satirical novels, one of which, Thank You for Smoking, was made into a very funny movie, with two others (Boomsday and Little Green Men) apparently in production. By 24 he was managing editor of Esquire and at 29 published the first of two best-selling memoirs, Steaming to Bamboola: The World of a Tramp Freighter. He was chief speechwriter for Vice President George H.W. Bush.

He helped start Forbes FYI, where he was editor-in-chief until recently. (Today he is editor at large.) He’s written untold comic

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essays for The New Yorker, among other publications.

He is also the seafaring son of a seafaring father.

“This being a lecture endowed by a father in honor of his son, I thought it would be appropriate to talk to you tonight about my father,” Buckley said on a May evening in Walker Auditorium, possibly disappointing those expecting rib-tickling excerpts from his latest novel, They Eat Puppies, Don’t They?

They weren’t disappointed for long. The stories he related about the legendarily meta-erudite William F. Buckley Jr., author of nearly 60 books and thousands of articles, founder of National Review, founder of modern conservatism, and host of television’s proto-political jousting match, Firing Line, revealed a paternal figure whose passion for sailing not only exceeded reasonable expectations but also caused bursts of outright hilarity in the nearly full auditorium.

“My father’s greatness was consistent with how he conducted himself at sea,” recalled Buckley. “Great men always have too much sail. Great men take risks. Timorous souls like myself, when we see a storm coming, we look for snug harbor. Not my old man! As my mother used to put it, ‘Bill, why are you trying to kill us?’”

William F. Buckley Jr. grew up “just over the hill in Sharon,” among a talented clan of siblings that includes former New York Senator James L. Buckley, in the audience for his nephew’s talk. As a young boy, he learned to sail in a small boat called “Sweet Isolation,” on Lake Wononscopomuc, according to his son, generating a burst of proud, parochial applause. In adulthood, he moved on to pedigreed sloops graced with mahogany and

names like “Panic,” “Suzy Wong,” “Patito.”

In these he not only made frequent trips across Long Island Sound and up to Maine’s Penobscot Bay but also across the Atlantic and the Pacific, Christopher aboard as crew, companion, and occasional amanuensis.

Their many adventures together included hunting for a treasure chest his father buried on Eaton’s Neck, which contained some of his mother’s prized Queen Anne silver and was lost when a storm reconfigured the island. (“How thrilled my mother was!”

Buckley commented wryly.) Years later, on their trans-Atlantic voyage, they “sailed into the Azores accompanied by a thousand dolphins, camped out in the crater of an extinct volcano, and sailed to the spot where Nelson sank the French and Spanish fleets, and finally through the place that had once been called the Pillars of Hercules, end of the known world,” he said. “We had such a good time, in fact, that my father declared that we must sail across the Pacific, from Honolulu to New Guinea.”

And so they did, a decade later, when the younger Buckley discovered that for his father it really was the voyage, not the destination, that mattered – no sooner had they anchored in some idyllic lagoon than he was eager to shove off again. “Great men are not idlers,” his son recounted, “they’re built for speed.” (“I myself was built to lie in the sand and drink beer; I am not a great man,” he added.) “We are racing through paradise,” he complained to his journal, a line his father liked so much he used it for the title of a book about the trip.

The Lambert Lecture is given twice a year in honor of Christopher Lambert ’76, who died in 1981. William F. Buckley Jr. died in

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RIGHT: Christopher Buckley entertained his audience with stories of sailing with his father, William Buckley. BELOW: a photo from a 1968 Hotchkiss Record of William Buckley speaking in Walker Auditorium

2008. He was, it turns out, a close friend of Christopher’s father, Paul C. Lambert ’46, who with his wife, Mary, established a fund in their son’s memory to be used for writers to visit the School to work with students and offer evening readings. “Mr. Lambert and my father were at Yale together,” Christopher Buckley noted at the beginning of his talk. “I’ve known and loved the Lamberts for longer than I can recall.”

In 1997, on what would be their last sail together, his father stubbornly insisted on embarking from Stamford for their old “Treasure Island” during a terrible windstorm, with his reluctant son, an old sailing friend, and a friend from San Francisco who had never sailed before, in tow. It was the eve of a major nor’easter, a soon-to-bedeclared state of emergency, and after battling a “screaming dark night and 15-foot seas,” Christopher vowed never again.

Today, of course, “I would give almost anything for just one more sail together, even in a howling northeaster.”

It was during the 4,400-mile trans-Atlantic voyage they took in 1975 that his father first showed him how to navigate by the sun and the stars with a sextant, now a dying art. “As I look back, it seems to me one of the most elemental and fundamental skills a father can teach: finding out where you are, using the tools of our ancestors.” And so, he explained, he has taught his own son to sail, at first placing their hands together on the tiller, while ultimately passing along what his father taught him – “something elemental, thrilling, and joyous.”

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MALCOLM • MCKENZIE AT •H O M E • I N • T H E •WO R L D

If you were to spend a day follow-

He spends a lot of time there. He saves sixth peri-

ing Malcolm McKenzie at work, you would find –

od four days a week for faculty to drop in and

perhaps unsurprisingly – the consummate school

holds office hours for students every Wednesday

master. He likes the daily business of school. He

from 6-8 p.m. He likes to attend as many athletic

welcomes the challenges, as well as the routine. And

competitions and School events as he can. “He

he really enjoys being with students.

makes himself available,” notes his assistant, Marie

When he was a senior at the Diocesan College (Bishops) in Cape Town, he won the distinction of

Bushey. “If he’s not in a meeting, he’s out in the hallway, talking to students.”

head boy. Although he didn’t know it at the time,

In July McKenzie and his wife, Judith Crouch,

he was interning for his future. He lived so close to

complete six years at Hotchkiss. He will leave this

the school that he could sleep late, sprint the short

summer to become the founding head of school at

distance, vault the fence, and be there in a flash.

Keystone Academy in Beijing, China. Uniquely in

At Hotchkiss, the third school where he has

China, the new school will be fashioned in the New

served as Head, he presides in the same room

England boarding school tradition. Of 1700 stu-

where his predecessor, Robert “Skip” Mattoon,

dents in 12 grades, 960 will be living in what the

worked until 2007. Malcolm seems entirely com-

new head calls “elegant and very comfortable” dor-

fortable in the space, where the walls display art

mitory rooms. Currently, boarding schools in China

drawn from his life and the desk holds his hand-

house students in hostel-style accommodations.

painted ceramic mug and perhaps an apple from

During his Hotchkiss tenure, two new assistant

the dining hall. The room feels more like his

head of school positions were created: Manjula

home than office.

Salomon was appointed Director of Global Initiatives

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and Joshua Hahn Director of Environmental Initiatives. The Center for Global Understanding and Independent Thinking also opened in new renovated office and meeting spaces in Monahan, including a networked classroom for engaging in dialogues with people and classrooms in other countries. Students applying to Hotchkiss from outside the United States increased dramatically, although the number of countries represented in the student body (30, this year), has changed little in 20 years. In environmental initiatives, the School’s programs with Fairfield Farm, the 260-acre working farm near campus acquired in 2004, expanded to help provide healthful farm-totable menus in the dining hall. And the biomass central heating facility opened to great success in 2012, replacing a power plant that was nearly a century old and offering environmental and cost-saving benefits.

McKenzie was named Hotchkiss’s 12th Head of School in 2006. Born and educated in South Africa, he earned a B.A. degree in English and Philosophy from the University of Cape Town, a B.A./M.A. in English (Honors Degree) from the University of Oxford, and an M.A. in Applied Linguistics from the University of Lancaster. He taught English at universities in Johannesburg and Pietermaritzburg, before joining the Maru-a-Pula School faculty in Botswana as a teacher and later becoming its Principal. It was at Maru-a-Pula that he discovered his love for teaching students of this age group. He then served as Principal of United World College of the Atlantic, Wales, the first of the 13 United World Colleges, before coming to Hotchkiss.

Now, says Manjula Salomon, “He is going to China to take a place in a world paradigm shift in Chinese schooling. No one is better suited to catch the winds of change and hold the tiller steady. We shall miss in many ways Mr. McKenzie’s strengths.

But we have a friend across the world.”

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MALCOLM T H E • H O T C H K I S S •Y E A R S IN T E RV I EW

BY

R O B E R TA J E N C K E S

HOW ABOUT IF WE START THE QUESTIONS WITH RIGHT – SPRING 2013 – AND WORK BACKWARDS? HOW ARE YOU FEELING THESE DAYS? NOW

Very relaxed. I feel resolved about moving on. It is a familiar feeling. I also feel grateful for what I have learned in my six years here. It has been an honor for me to serve Hotchkiss.

People here have a tremendous sense of purpose. There’s a pride in the staff and faculty about what they’re doing. And you have the involvement and support of alumni and parents.

You don’t find that elsewhere. At the same time I am very excited about the pioneering project in Beijing of which I shall be an integral part. This is an opportunity of a type that seldom occurs, and I feel fortunate to be presented with it.

This coming year is going to be absolutely fascinating. I will be working with a senior administrative team of about 12 people, planning with them for the school’s opening in 2014. It’s quite a diverse group, with people from the U.S., China, and the U.K. Beijing is such an extraordinary city, especially now.

Judith and I will live in an apartment in the school, and we will also have an apartment downtown, in the center of Beijing. When people come to see us, they can stay with us.

We’ll probably have more visitors in Beijing than we’ve had anywhere else we’ve lived – which is fine!

This whole part of Northwest Connecticut is astonishing. It really is ... which is why Judith and I decided to buy a house here in Sharon. It will be a base for us the next few years. It’s an old carriage barn with spectacular views.

YOUR MENTION OF SHARON BRINGS ME TO YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE POWER OF “PLACE.” YOU HAVE SPOKEN MORE THAN ONCE TO STUDENTS AND OTHERS ABOUT THE PRIVILEGE OF

LAKEVILLE. CAN YOU WHAT OTHER BEAUTIFUL PLACES HAVE THERE BEEN IN YOUR LIFE?

LIVING IN A BEAUTIFUL PLACE LIKE SPEAK A BIT MORE TO THAT?

Well, I would say that I’m unusually sensitive to the beauty and the power of landscape, because I grew up in a place that is remarkable. And that’s Cape Town. So it’s been part of me.

And the landscapes in Southern Africa generally are grand and in some cases monumental and in many cases very powerful. I also believe that there are certain spots on the planet that have particular power for me. And that’s not an objective

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“Probably the area where Malcolm has had the most significant impact is on the student body itself. Our bright and engaged student body has come to distinguish Hotchkiss. Students and parents feel the difference when they visit; colleges have taken note. And any teacher you ask will tell you that working here is special because of the students we have attracted to Lakeville. They have come here because they believed in our mission and trusted in Malcolm’s leadership to carry it out. ”

ALL PHOTOS BY JONATHAN DOSTER, EXCEPT AS NOTED

J EAN W EINBERG R OSE ’80, P RESIDENT OF THE B OARD OF T RUSTEES

TOP: P RESENTING

AWARDS

• ABOVE: W ITH N OBEL L AUREATE S EAMUS H EANEY ( AND

DAUGHTER

M ORAG ,

FOREGROUND )

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“Malcolm dreams big, and in doing so, encourages us to focus on humanity's capacity for goodness, on “what can be” or “what should be,” rather than on “what has been.” As a global citizen, Malcolm celebrates, with childlike intensity and glee, the multiple ways of being he witnesses in the world, while also asserting our common humanity. As I think about the Malcolm I have come to know over the past five years, it is clear that his peripatetic life is guided by a unifying principle – our shared responsibility to take care of one another and the world that holds us. ” D R . M ARGARITA C URTIS , H EAD D EERFIELD A CADEMY

OF

S CHOOL ,

ABOVE: E NJOYING R EUNION , 2009 • OPPOSITE: “P HOTO

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observation; something that has power for me might not have power for somebody else. I’ve tried to find power spots. I feel that way about where I lived in Botswana, where we lived in Wales. And I feel that way about this place.

I certainly think that if you’re a teenager and you spend three or four years in a place that is beautiful and powerful, that does inform your life. I went to school looking up every day to Table Mountain. And if you come to school here, you look every day at the surrounding country and the hills, and at the lake. And now that we have a farm … that’s an extraordinary property. Those landscapes become part of the adult in ways that people like Wordsworth celebrate in their poetry.

I have no doubt the power and beauty of the landscape here will stay with me as long as I live.

DURING YOUR TIME HERE YOU CELEBRATED 20 YEARS AS A HEAD OF A SCHOOL. WHAT DID YOU BRING WITH YOU FROM THE TWO SCHOOLS WHERE YOU HAD SERVED BEFORE

– MARU-A-PULA AND ATLANTIC COLLEGE? There are lots of things I brought with me, and some things I didn’t bring. Perhaps the most significant thing that I’ve brought with me is the richness of experience in diverse cultural contexts. You feel that that what you bring from different contexts has its own value…. whether or not you want to impose those previous experiences directly on the new place.

TIME ” BEFORE THE

S ENIOR D ANCE , 2011

PHOTO: ANNE DAY, P'09,'11,'13

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I’m a great believer in continuous change individually and personally in life. I’m a different person from who I was six years ago. I’m a different kind of leader, a different kind of head. Hotchkiss has changed me. You come with the ideas, and the place molds them, and you.

At Maru-a-Pula, two great successes of that school are in bringing together students from the different racial groups in Southern Africa and in community service. Atlantic College has a real experiential program in community service; it involved actually putting yourself at risk to rescue other people.

It’s one of the reasons I was interested in the Volunteer Fire and Ambulance Services when I came here. We’ve moved quite a ways in developing experiential education, but there’s room for much more growth.

Something I didn’t bring from Atlantic College is the International Baccalaureate diploma. It doesn’t fit easily in this context. Every course is a two-year course. There are things we can learn from the I.B. diploma, however, one of them being more rigorous assessment. Its assessment of students and students’ learning is much more fair and reliable. We’ve moved toward objectifying that process.

IF WE WERE TO GENERALIZE, IS THERE ONE OVERRIDING MISSION THAT YOU FELT TO BE YOUR CHARGE HERE? Well, I didn’t have any specific written charge before I came here. I had long discussions with some of the faculty and trustees, and there was a sense of what I had done in other places. But there was nothing that I was told I must do.

Two really important qualitative shifts for me are significant.

One is that the idea of change is now welcomed, and I’m not sure that it was before. Manjula Salomon uses a nice metaphor; she says part of her job is to open windows and get people to look out, look beyond the horizons that they had previously

accepted. Many of us have opened windows here. We have changed culture … culture among faculty, students, and others.

The world is changing quickly, for good and sometimes for ill, and I think it’s very important that we accept that change is necessary. And it’s important for us to be focused on making the right changes.

The other qualitative difference concerns mainly the students, but also the adults. We are much better at supporting each other now. The students are much more generous and gracious in deriving pleasure from each other’s achievements and talents. I say this again and again, because it’s very easy for selective, competitive schools to breed amongst their participants a culture of envy – where “I don’t like you, because you know how to play the violin brilliantly,” or “I don’t like you because you know how to play hockey marvelously well, and I don’t.” I see less and less of that here. And I like that a lot. But those are not charges that I came with.

Something that I felt I had to do and wanted to do was to look closely at the academic standards. Pretty much all of the changes that happened there came out of the Curriculum Committee, and that report predated my arrival. Skip had approved that report. I was attracted here for many reasons, one of them being just that, that this curricular review was very substantive and promised significant change. And we’ve done quite a lot of the work outlined in that report.

Another obvious thing that I needed and wanted to do was to diversify the student body and to have us get a more profound sense of what that actually means … in the sense of how it feels, not just how it looks. But also, that is the only model nowadays for building inclusive excellence. I don’t think you can be excellent now and homogeneous at the same time.

“From the very start Malcolm showed deep interest in the Board of Governors and made it a priority to attend every meeting. His respect for the Hotchkiss education, past and present, is strong, and his genuine interest in the Hotchkiss alumni body has been apparent throughout his tenure as Head. For all of this, the Board and I are extremely grateful.”

K ATIE A LLEN B ERLANDI ’88, P RESIDENT OF THE A LUMNI A SSOCIATION B OARD OF G OVERNORS

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And of course, the School was helped enormously by that amazing gift of financial aid support from Forrest Mars, which was made in my first year here, as a response to my saying we needed to diversify the school. And we are finding creative ways to keep that financial aid support going.

“When I think of the McKenzie era, I think first of the extraordinary administrative team he put together.

The second thing that comes quickly to mind is the increased diversity at the School and an impression of more openness and communication among both students and faculty. The seating in the dining room is far more heterogeneous than a decade ago.”

THE GLOBAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVES HAVE RECEIVED MUCH OF YOUR FOCUS HERE . HOW DO WE INCREASE AND DEEPEN STUDENTS’ KNOWLEDGE AND AWARENESS IN BOTH THESE AREAS?

W ILLIAM R. E LFERS ’67, V ICE P RESIDENT OF THE B OARD OF T RUSTEES

“Mr. McKenzie is incredibly kind and genuine, and I will miss his thought-provoking perspective on my life, Hotchkiss, and the world. His presence has changed the way I view the world outside of Lakeville, and has helped define for me what it means to be a global citizen. Hotchkiss is a better place because of him.”

PHOTO: NELL GLASS, P'14

J ACK W EISS ’13, S CHOOL P RESIDENT

ABOVE: W ITH

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I think many people will regard the global and environmental initiatives as a hallmark of my tenure here, but I don’t regard those as being as important as the more qualitative things I mentioned earlier. We were thinking about initiatives in those areas; it was logical that they should take the course that they’ve taken.

Those two posts at the assistant head of school level – director of global initiatives and director of environmental initiatives – have had a tremendous influence. It’s the combination of the two people, two positions, and the statement that they make. I had the idea to create the two positions, and the Board supported me, because you can only make those things become part of the fabric of the place if you have the human resources to get them established. You can’t expect someone who’s doing so many other things at the same time to really devote himself or herself to the work that Manjula and Josh have accomplished.

You try to create the resources for things to happen – the people and then the physical things, like acquiring the farm, or having the building for The Center for Global Understanding and Independent Thinking. And then it seems to me that things acquire their own momentum and start happening. When we decided to review our catering arrangements, Josh led that – we had somebody who could take the time. We were able to say to Sodexo, “We’re going to invite a number of companies to come in to bid, and we need you to tell us what you will do with us, moving forward. We have to have a catering director who understands what we are trying to do, and who is prepared to open up the rather tight company regulations to make it possible for us to bring vegetables and meat and other produce from our farm to the dining hall.” We were able to say to them, you have to bring us the kind of person that we need, and so they persuaded Andy Cox to come here. Andy Cox couldn’t have accomplished what he’s done without those negotiations and this new contract. And we eat so much more healthfully now.

The students are aware of that, and they like it – they are loud in their praise. We simply couldn’t have done this five years ago.

PEOPLE HERE COMMENT ON A GREATER “COMFORT WITH OTHERNESS” NOW AT HOTCHKISS. HOW DO YOU BRING THIS ABOUT IN THE SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT? It’s a matter of your own experience; people know I come

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with a range of layers that perhaps they don’t have. The example that people set, not just me, but others, clearly is important. But then beyond that you have to talk about it, you have to make people aware of it, you have to invite people here who represent it. And that’s how it comes through.

Coming in as an outsider, I was able to do certain things because they seemed natural to me. It was natural for me to go to the Fire House and the Ambulance Service, and yet it caused such a huge sense of attention and appreciation from the community. When you come in from the outside, things like that seem natural to you. When you’ve been living here and working here all the time, you become part of the place. You go native. So you don’t question as much.

DO YOU THINK THAT GROWING UP IN SOUTH AFRICA IN THE 1950S AND 1960S PLAYED A BIG PART IN YOUR BECOMING WHO YOU ARE? HOW UNUSUAL WERE YOU AMONG YOUR PEERS IN YOUR VIEWS ON BREAKING DOWN RACIAL BARRIERS? Yes, obviously … And, no, I was not unique in my peer group at all. But I was different from many whites.

I grew up feeling at odds with the white community in South Africa that I was born into; that’s a fundamental experience, I think. If you feel that you’re part of a community, that you’re born into something that feels natural, whatever that group might be, that’s a different kind of formative experience.

So, I felt a disjunction as a white South African from an early age. I couldn’t articulate it until I was older, 17 or 18. When you have that kind of fault line in your consciousness, it makes it much easier as an adult to understand fracture and dissonance. It doesn’t unsettle me; it’s part of my life.

ABOVE: J UDITH

WITH VISITING

Z ULU

POTTERS ,

2011

And then Seamus Heaney came, and he was so different from Soyinka. He actually spoke many of his poems; he had books with him, but there were very few poems that he read. Because they were all in his head, he spoke them. He just talked for about an hour, and it was this extraordinary mix of poems and commentary and aspects of his life, all merging into one.

So, those are strong memories, those two. But the happiest moments are just … being with students, always. I was sitting in the dining hall at breakfast one morning and deliberately sat on my own – I think it might have been a Saturday morning, because I was in a rush and didn’t want to get caught up in a conversation. About a minute later, two girls came up and sat down next to me, and said, “You can’t eat alone, Mr. McKenzie.”

And what I was trying to avoid was – in the end –delightful.

WHAT PEOPLE AND EVENTS FROM YOUR EXPERIENCES HERE WILL ALWAYS STAND OUT IN MEMORY FOR YOU? Well, there will be lots and lots of memories. The time when we had Seamus Heaney and Wole Soyinka, two Nobel Laureates, in the space of 10 days, was truly astonishing. Some things stick in my mind about both of those.

In Wole Soyinka’s case, we had booked him to come to Hotchkiss about a year before he came. When we first contacted him, he was still teaching at a university in the States. But about six months before he came here, because there were very important elections happening in Nigeria, he returned there. He flew to Hotchkiss from West Africa just to give that talk. And he flew back the next day. And he gave this very abstract and erudite talk. The students were rapt; they followed him all the way.

And I remember Katie Forrestal [Instructor in English] coming to me the next day, and she said, “You know, Malcolm, it was amazing. In the Humanities class that I just taught, those students were really inspired by what Soyinka said. They picked it up, and they had had a whole period-long discussion about it at a very deep level.”

“When I arrived at Hotchkiss mid-year, Judith was one of the first people to welcome me to the community.

Without any fanfare, Judith has carved out her own identity here, as a provocative artist, an inspirational teacher in the Environmental Science Portal, an attentive hostess, a community activist, a devoted mother, and an omnipresent spectator at Chapels, games, plays, lectures, and performances.”

S TEVE M C K IBBEN , D EAN OF S UMMER P ROGRAMS AND I NSTRUCTOR IN E NGLISH

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ALUMNI

n a me s a n d f a ce s

Ethan Oberman’95: Bringing his trademark passion to concerns for online privacy

BY DANIEL LIPPMAN ’08

E

Ethan Oberman ’95 uses a simple example when talking about

why more privacy is desperately needed in the digital age.

When you’re on your computer in a coffee shop, would you want

the person next to you to constantly look over your

Few people would be comfortable with that scenario, and that’s where Oberman comes to their rescue. This creative entrepreneur is now the CEO of a top online data backup company called SpiderOak, which puts privacy at the core of its business model and has attracted hundreds of thousands of customers, including several Fortune 500 companies. SpiderOak now counts 36 employees and in the last few years has seen revenue growth in the double-digits.

“When you start really thinking about it, privacy in many ways affords a certain amount of freedom. It affords the freedom of being able to decide with whom we share information,” said Oberman, who lives in San Francisco with his partner of five years, Linzi Oliver.

With top competitors such as Dropbox, SpiderOak distinguishes itself with strict privacy settings, which means that it can’t see the encrypted contents of the data that its customers store in its two data centers. It’s able to make that assurance because it doesn’t store its users’ passwords.

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shoulder at what you’re working on?

Besides serving as a backup for customers’ data, its other key selling points are that clients can access their data wherever they are and can share files with friends or colleagues.

Oberman wasn’t always interested in online privacy and technology. Growing up in Deerfield, IL, a northern suburb of Chicago, he loved hockey, which he started playing when he was three. Because his father had gone to boarding school and his older brother, Aaron ’92, had attended Hotchkiss, it seemed natural for Ethan to go to Lakeville.

Once at Hotchkiss, Oberman immersed himself both in sports, where he played defense for hockey and lacrosse, and in the classes he took during his four years in Lakeville.

“I loved the idea of getting to know teachers as people who you saw on the field, in the dining room, and in the dorms at night and not just people you saw for 45 minutes during the day and then had no other connection with them outside the classroom. So for me that connection to the educators was critical and really played a big part in my development, frankly,” he said.

Among the teachers that Oberman connected most to were John Cooper and Keith Moon, his adviser. “Ethan was one of those disarmingly charming students who craved his independence but also could dive heartily into deep, meaningful relationships with his friends and teachers with candor and mutual respect,” recalls Keith Moon, instructor in Russian, Spanish, and English. “I watched him in sometimes quite distinctive circumstances – Memo dorm, the classroom, in Russia on a student trip, with his family – and he always maintained the same intensity within the context of all his individual ‘homes.’”

Instructor in Mathematics John Cooper observes: “From his early years at Hotchkiss, Ethan exhibited a truly competitive spirit for all things athletic, academic, and personal. I can only imagine that at the forefront of his valuable work with SpiderOak is the same initiative he showed as a student at Hotchkiss when he spirited me over to the athletic center on a regular basis at 6:00 AM, so that we could lift weights together as he trained for

his hockey and lacrosse careers, both of which he continued with at Harvard. In all my years of coaching lacrosse at Hotchkiss, Ethan was the only player to actually play all four positions in the game of lacrosse, and I am sure that he is sharing that same versatility, flexibility, and spectrum of insight in his endeavors as the CEO of SpiderOak.” After graduating from Hotchkiss in 1995, he went to Harvard, where he majored in sociology, but found the university less than fulfilling to someone who says he had “absolutely no idea” about what he wanted to do as a career. He found Harvard to be “a very grown-up place” that focused on excellence, but didn’t place as much emphasis on community as he would have liked. He also laments today: “I don’t think [Harvard]… helps you understand the other possibilities of life outside of banking, or becoming a lawyer or becoming a doctor or becoming a consultant.”

Once Oberman graduated from Harvard in 1999, he went to New York to work as a film producer with a friend on a movie called “Artemin Goldberg Custom Tailor of Brassieres,” a mock documentary about an old Jewish brassiere maker.

Oberman said movie making was a “fun way to live” but constantly challenging: “There are a billion decisions to be made literally every day and there are always things going wrong, and you’re always walking around trying to solve as many problems as you can given the limited budget that you have.”

Because the dot-com crash was occurring around the same time as his work on the film wound down, Oberman said that “being in New York and not having a whole lot of money and not knowing what your next move in life is going to be is never really a good idea.

I sort of learned that the hard way.”

But since Oberman always liked design and “building things,” he then went back home to Chicago and worked for nine months as a furniture-maker, building objects like dining room tables and side

PHOTO: © BARBARA BUTKUS PHOTOGRAPHY

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tables which he mostly sold to friends.

In 2001, he started working on an email marketing product called O-Mail for his family business Omeda Communications, which manages circulation and customer lists for film and publishing companies.

After about four years of doing that, he decided it was time to move on and take a year off to travel. He would go to different places for weeks or months on end, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, and New York.

“The theme for the year was: I do not have a meeting at that time. So friends would call and say ‘hey, Ethan, let’s go to Croatia. I want to put on my bachelor's party in Croatia.’ Or ‘hey, I’d like to go skiing in Tahoe.’”

Oberman would usually agree and respond: “I don’t have a meeting at that time.”

After his year of travel, Oberman worked with a friend-turned-business partner to create SpiderOak, partly inspired after having trouble transferring a file from one computer to another.

While he admits that it’s tough to start a company, he says the main challenges after founding a business are to keep customers

happy and find ways to grow revenue and profits.

Oberman and SpiderOak also started Zero Knowledge Privacy Foundation, which advocates for stricter rules on online privacy. He is slated to testify before the California legislature to support the Right to Know Act, which would require companies, if requested, to tell their customers what data they have collected on them and who they’ve shared it with.

As Oberman put it: “When companies aren’t transparent about what they’re doing, it then raises privacy concerns around: why aren’t you telling us what you’re doing?

Maybe you’re doing things that you shouldn’t be doing with my data…If I were to sit down at your computer and start looking through all your stuff, even though you didn’t have anything bad on there, those are your things! They’re your things and you wouldn't want someone riffling through them for any reason.”

DANIEL LIPPMAN ’08 IS A FREELANCE JOURNALIST BASED IN WASHINGTON, D.C. AND HAS WRITTEN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS, REUTERS, AND THE HUFFINGTON POST. HE CAN BE REACHED AT DLIPPMAN@GWMAIL.GWU.EDU

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Nancy D. Bird P’02,’03: Working to create a holistically well campus community

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Rarely are dental appointments life-changing.

One day in 1987 proved to be an exception, however – not for the

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patient, but for the dentist’s wife.

Dr. Robert Bird and his wife Nancy had been living in Sharon, CT, for two years when a patient of his who was also a member of the Hotchkiss community mentioned that the School was hiring for a new position: director of health services. Dr. Bird, said Nancy, came home and declared that the job “had her name written all over it.”

While that would bear out to be true, Nancy faced considerations many women her age did in the mid-1980s: she had recently moved to a new town, her husband was establishing his career, and she had two very young children at home. What would a job as director of health services look like?

Enter fellow pioneering Hotchkiss woman Marilyn “Sam” Coughlin, the then-dean of faculty. Nancy says that, along with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing, “I had done hospital management, organizational management [which included supervising medical services for the New York City Marathon], and communications, but wasn’t familiar with boarding school life and all it entailed. So I gave Sam a call to find out more about the position.”

“It was an incredible professional opportunity,” she remembers. “Sam, and the report of the committee that had created the position, had me intrigued. The director of health services would be tasked with building a com-

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prehensive program that incorporated the more traditional medical services with health education.”

So, she applied. And in what was probably Hotchkiss’s first taste of Nancy Bird’s mettle, she told Arthur White not to offer her the position if it couldn’t be flexible for at least the first two years. “He stood by that promise,” says Nancy. “I am so grateful for his and Sam’s support.”

“The first question I was tasked with answering as director of health services was defining the difference between a health services department and an infirmary,” Nancy says. “That answer would shape the way we developed our program. It seemed to me that an infirmary is a place where you come in when you’re sick, you get treated, you get better, and you leave. Health services is comprehensive: it includes the treatment you would get in an infirmary, but it also addresses wellness, support, and education – for adults as well as our students.”

According to Nancy, very few schools have the Hotchkiss model of administering health services. Her position is not responsible for provision of day-to-day care (Hotchkiss employs a staff physician (medical director)

and a team of nurses for that task), but rather shapes the direction of the overall program, a task not without challenges.

Although the School had been coed for just over a decade, “When I came to Hotchkiss in 1987, I felt like I had walked back a generation in time,” she says. “Even though there were girls, it still felt like a boys’ school.” An administration made up of men underscored this feeling.

“Sometimes it felt like it was ‘okay’ for me to be on the senior administrative team because I was in charge of health, and health was a safely female discipline,” says Nancy.

“When I’d address the group, Nancy Gaynor [a health services counselor and human development instructor] and I would want to say, ‘look at your group, look at what you’re modeling for the students’ – because if we couldn’t model equity and respect for all genders and sexualities, how could we ask the kids to do so?”

Those early days of leaning in did indeed lead to a conversation about gender equity and diversity – not just at Hotchkiss, but in the independent school community at large.

A decade after her arrival at the School, Nancy and Nancy Gaynor – the best friends

OPPOSITE: Nancy with Karen Edey ’97, one of the speakers at the retirement dinner ABOVE: Nancy, front and center, with students, alumni, and faculty participants in a recent MLK Day program

now known to Hotchkiss generations as simply “the Nancys” – helped found the Independent School Gender Project, which holds a biannual conference and also engages in research and discussion related to the experience of girls and women in independent schools. The group has also collected data on boys and men, but a spinoff of the group’s work for boys and men has not gained traction.

“Data from the ISGP helped legitimize that the gender issues I brought up weren’t just ‘Nancy not liking a joke in an administrators’ meeting’ but were broadly felt concerns that went further than Hotchkiss,” says Nancy. “And as time has gone on, the School has been so willing to examine equity and participate in the larger conversation, sharS p r i n g

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ma t t e rs LEFT: Smiling through tears at the retirement dinner, with her son Charlie ’02, left, and husband Dr. Robert Bird

ing data, expanding the gender task force and the gender committee. No one has shied away from that here, which isn’t true for all schools. That says a lot about Hotchkiss.”

Gender equity has not been the only issue addressed by the ever-more-comprehensive Health Services department under Nancy’s direction. Over the past 26 years as Hotchkiss has evolved from a traditional New England boarding school to one that strives to model a global education, so too has the definition of health services. The counseling services have expanded, and the skill set of the nursing staff is ever-changing to match the increased understanding of adolescent development and current best practice.

“The diversification of the School brought with it challenges – needed challenges – that would have been difficult to anticipate when I first arrived,” Nancy says. “Twenty years ago, communication with parents, especially those of international students, was minimal.

Now we have translation services so we can discuss student health issues across language barriers.”

Other ways Nancy and her team have expanded health services to address the needs of a more diverse student population encompass everything from working with dining services to ensure dietary restrictions are accommodated, to making sure the pace of boarding school life is flexible. As an example, she mentions accommodating a student who wishes to observe the holidays

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of Ramadan – a major consideration for an athlete who is also an observant Muslim and therefore must fast during a day that includes not only hours of class but a rigorous practice in the hot late-summer sun.

Both personally and through working on programs for BaHSA (Black and Hispanic Students Alliance), Nancy has seen how seemingly minor issues can have major implications in terms of feelings of inclusion at Hotchkiss vs. feeling like an outsider. “Many times students with whom I work educate me and identify issues that are problems,” she says. “I then help them to get their voices noticed and heard.”

Although Nancy has seen through many important, visible initiatives during her time with the School, perhaps her most lasting mark is the Human Development course.

Modeled after a similar curriculum from the Cate School in California, the course “exists to provide Hotchkiss students with a common foundation of knowledge about their own personal development, their choices, and their health and well-being.” A requirement for all lower mids, the yearlong course is taught by senior teaching assistants who work with Human Development instructors to lead the discussion-based classes.

As the program has evolved, says Nancy, “I’ve gone from feeling like an event coordinator to a program director. The experience for the senior teaching assistants is a unique opportunity, as they are not only teaching

classes but also learning about all the issues discussed, group dynamics, and mentoring skills.”

Her colleague and best friend, human development instructor and counselor Nancy Gaynor, shares her pride at the evolution of health services in the time the two have worked together. “Helping get the human development program in place was a huge accomplishment of ours,” she says. “It took a couple of years to get it going and we met a lot of resistance, but it’s turned out to be a wonderful success.”

“Nancy’s personal and professional support made all the difference as to how I feel about my job,” says Gaynor. “She has been a terrific mentor, and it’s been a pretty amazing ride we’ve had together.”

Staff physician Jared Zelman has similar praise. “Nancy is the go-to person if you want something done, especially for the most difficult, complicated problems. Clinically, of course, but also beyond that. She takes charge and is sensitive, especially for people who need an advocate the most,” he says.

“She doesn’t shy away from controversial or sensitive topics. There’s a sense of relief when she’s on the case.”

He adds, “It’s incorrect to say that we’re going to replace Nancy; she’s irreplaceable.

But we are going to hire a new director of health services.”

Nancy leaves Hotchkiss a better place.

“I’m proud of what we’ve done: create a department that’s collegial, problem-solves, and grows with the change in demands,” she says. “Now it’s on to the next step, for me and for the School. I believe that the groundwork has been laid for the School to carefully examine the current pace of life and the demands on both our students and adults in the community. I am hopeful that it will take seriously the need for relaxation, reflection, meditation, and quiet.” As for herself? “I’m ready for the next step. Wherever life takes me is where I am prepared to go.”

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Geoffrey Marchant P’93,’07: Retiring, but still

ready ‘to smite the sounding furrows’ (Tennyson) B Y

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For English instructor Geoffrey Marchant,

“Mr. Marchant is the only teacher I know who calls his students’ attention to the view outside the window,” says Mary Claire Brunelli ’08. “He welcomes students to join him in his woodland hobbies, such as building bridges over swamps, splitting logs, checking up on the bluebird houses, seeking out fringed gentians, and participating in the maple syrup process.”

Adds Luke Flinn ’06: “I remember when Mr. Marchant threw batting practice, one day I hit the maple syrup jug he used as a water bottle. ‘Water jug bonus!’ he shouted, and I got five more pitches. The day before our next game, I found the dented maple syrup jug in my mailbox, with a note that read, ‘Now do it when it counts.’”

Teacher, soccer and baseball coach, maple syrup maker, marathon runner, parent, tree surgeon, Ernie Banks fanatic – Geoff Marchant, it seems, has done it all in his 41 years at Hotchkiss. Yet he didn’t originally plan on becoming a teacher.

Born in Evanston, Illinois, Geoff attended Evanston High School. His success there earned him admission to Princeton, where he majored in English. “They were looking for public school kids,” he modestly suggests.

Geoff was a goalie on the university’s soccer team all four years and in his spare time coached Little League in the town.

PHOTO: ANNE DAY, P'09,'11,'13

almost anything that happens can be a teaching moment.

A Fish out of Water Cameron Smith ’68 became his close friend at Princeton. “He asked me if I was interested in teaching, and my answer was no,” Geoff recalls. “But in senior year, I was interested. I took a teaching seminar and taught in [Princeton] at a middle school. Cameron said there was a job opening at Hotchkiss. I came up to interview and eventually was

offered the job.”

He also married his childhood sweetheart, Kathy Ward. “I did it all in two months,” Geoff says. “Went from single student to married teacher.”

When he first arrived, he hardly knew what a boarding school was. “I was a fish out of water,” he smiles. “I got here and took my first schedule out of the mailbox, and said S p r i n g

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LEFT: Geoff Marchant in the classroom, in a photo circa 2003

Teaching the Unexpected

something like, ‘This is a misprint – it says there are Saturday classes!’ [Math teacher] Arthur Eddy was walking by, and he just started laughing. It was all foreign to me.

There was no faculty orientation; it was just – ‘Here’s the ditto machine – good luck!’”

The workload was overwhelming. “I taught three sections of 10th grade and one of 11th,” Geoff says. “The 10th grade had 20 themes from each boy in seven weeks, and I had 42 students, so I read 800 themes. It was difficult.”

He also coached soccer and Junior Varsity baseball, which he says was “a lot of fun. I worked with the goalies a lot and instantly bonded with them.” He and Kathy lived on Buehler Three; their daughter, Kara Anne, was born in 1975.

Mr. Maple Syrup During the summer, he looked after the trees on campus, something he had done as a summer job starting in high school. “I’ve been up and down most of the trees here,” he says.

And if any particular species is identified with Geoff Marchant, it is the sugar maple.

These days, both nature classes he teaches, as well as other students, are involved in the maple sugaring process; they learn to tap and

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gather the sap, participate in the boiling, and, of course, get to enjoy the results on ice cream or pancakes.

The sugaring hut is next to Geoff’s house at the edge of campus. “George Kiefer, the forester from Salisbury, and I hand-hewed the beams with axes,” he says. “All the wood is local hemlock and pine.” As for the syrup, “some of it is given away or used by me, and sometimes the School buys some.”

In 1978, Geoff and Kathy separated, and later divorced. Geoff became a single parent, raising Kara on campus, which he now says was “one of the best things I ever did. I learned so much in those years.”

One of the lessons, he says, was how to practice better time management: “Any teacher can easily get overwhelmed with classes, sports, dorm duty, and everything else,” he explains. “You add being a parent, and it could be impossible. So I just learned to say ‘no’ once in a while.”

Kara, who graduated in 1993, was a threesport captain (soccer, basketball, lacrosse) at Hotchkiss, and is now a college counselor and lacrosse coach at the Thacher School in Ojai, California, where her husband teaches. They have two children.

Geoff has always enjoyed running. “If I had two hours between classes,” he says, “I’d take a 10-mile run. I was a better person when I hit the classroom than if I had just sat around.” He has run more than 20 marathons.

Both inside and outside the classroom, his students seldom know what to expect.

“Who could fail to be inspired by a teacher who has no qualms about arriving in a Scottish kilt to pronounce the praises of the haggis?” asks Mary Brunelli. She also remembers his “bringing in sleds to lighten up our reading of Ethan Frome, performing selected piano pieces, and numerous occasions of dress-up and dramatic monologue.”

In class, Geoff encourages following themes wherever they may lead. “I’m in a prep class yesterday,” he says. “We were doing Candide, and a boy said, ‘You know, part of this book seems to be how people with material possessions don’t seem to be very happy.’ I said ‘go ahead, go ahead.’ He said, ‘people kind of envy these people who have all this material stuff.’ So I go to the board and write down exactly what he said, and said, ‘This is The Great Gatsby. Let’s look at the other side of this: Yes, people envy those who have it all – but look up ‘Richard Cory’ right now on your computer – it’s a poem.’ So a kid starts reading it out loud, and another kid says, ‘He put a bullet through his head?’ And what’s amazing about this whole thing is that this student did not walk into the class planning to say this. It just percolated. Nor did I walk in with any idea that we’d be talking about Gatsby and Richard Cory.”

Daniel Lippman ’08 recalls that Geoff “was so energetic and fun in the classes that I took, and he really wanted students to be passionate and learn a lot about literature

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RIGHT: This time, he’s teaching apple cider making in a program for Preps at Fairfield Farm.

and writing. The courses of his that I took are one of the main reasons why I became a journalist, and I use the lessons in his classes about writing, rewriting, and observing every day in my work.”

‘Abundant Recompense’ Geoff was involved outside the classroom as well. Charles Frankenbach, head of the English Department, recalls that when his father died, and “I struggled through a most challenging year of teaching, Mar was always watching, checking in, even making cookies at one point, and sending along notes from his family, notes sometimes dotted by pictures of wildflowers or a line from Keats. Tonic indeed I received from the tree-tapper, the wood chopper, the Robert Burns chanter ... he of the big heart.”

In 1987, Geoff married Katharine Brown, whose brother he had known at Princeton.

The next year, their son, Bart, was born. Like his sister, Bart was a three-sport Hotchkiss captain (soccer, basketball, baseball); he graduated from Hotchkiss in 2007, Dickinson in 2011, and is now working for Goldman Sachs in Manhattan.

“How many people get to coach their own children?” Geoff asks. “I got to watch Kara go from freshman to captain, and coached Bart for two seasons in baseball, two seasons in soccer. That’s abundant recompense.”

For decades, Geoff has been a fan of Ernie Banks, the first black player for the Chicago Cubs, who played from 1953 to 1971. Every sports uniform he has worn bore Banks’s number, 14. Former students have sent him letters addressed to “Ernie Banks, Hotchkiss School.” He never failed to get them.

Widening the Margins Seldom does Geoff occupy himself with one thing at a time. Quoting Thoreau, he describes his habitual multitasking as having “a wide margin to my life.”

As if he weren’t busy enough on campus, he played Lakeville Tri-State baseball for 20 years in the summer, mostly in the outfield, though he also pitched. “It was terrific,” he says. “I became part of the town and got to know all kinds of people I never would have known otherwise. It was a whole different thing. And I ended up coaching in the youth leagues for soccer, baseball, and basketball. So that expanded my margins.”

Charlie Frankenbach testifies to Geoff’s many interests: “One day, he asked if I wanted to help him out by driving an extra mid-bus so that his classes could visit Olana, over by the Hudson, the home of Frederic Church, the artist. On the way, we stopped at an apple orchard to have kids pick apples and meet the growers, who were parents of a Hotchkiss alum. Then Olana itself, with a gorgeous view of the very land Church and others portrayed.

“In addition to the glee of the kids throughout the day,” Charlie says, “what remains even more clearly with me was a beautiful book that the kids passed on, signed by all, thanking me for driving. Mar would never admit his role in the gesture, but I knew who was originally behind it all. What a simple, vital lesson there. Fitting that the backdrop was filled with friends, apples, the land, art, and artists.”

Geoff and Kathy plan to retire to Belvidere, Vermont, where they own 100 acres of woods. “Let me quote Tennyson,” he says: ‘’Tis not too late to seek a newer world. Push off, and sitting well in order smite the sounding furrows.’ We’re going to smite the sounding furrows, and see what happens.”

There’s no question that he will miss Hotchkiss. “We’ve thought about that; it’s a risk,” he admits. “But some year has to be your last year. We just decided that 41 years might be enough. Kathy works harder than I do – she’s been a teacher at Salisbury for 23 years, and she tutors kids, which is much tougher than what I do – do a song and dance, and get out.”

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THE BOARD

o f Go v e rn o r s

KATHERYN ALLEN BERLANDI ’88 Stepping down as B.O.G. President, but never giving up voluntarism R o b e r t a

In June, Katie Allen Berlandi ’88 will return to Hotchkiss for her 25th Reunion. It’s fair to say, however, that Katie will be unique among her classmates in having spent about half of those 25 years immersed in the life of the School. As a member of the Board of Governors of the Alumni Association, and for the last six years as its president, and as a result, a member of the Hotchkiss Board of Trustees, she has logged many miles back and forth to campus and been present for innumerable School events and meetings. In June, the gavel will be handed to her long-standing B.O.G. colleague, Ed Greenberg ’55.

Yes, she agrees with the interviewer, these 12 years have coincided with some of the big events in life: being engaged and then married to Brian Berlandi (Bowdoin ’93, St. Paul’s ’89), having three children, enjoying “some great professional experiences,” and making a couple of household moves, each one bringing her (coincidentally?) closer to Lakeville. Yet, says this seriously multi-tasked alumna, she would not trade a minute of that time, even if she could. And she strongly encourages other alumni to consider voluntarism for Hotchkiss for themselves.

“If you are connected to The Hotchkiss School, you can make a difference. This school is an open door in terms of welcoming graduates to be engaged in whatever way is possible for them. This could be through admission interviewing, being a class agent, hosting a dinner in your city for alumni or incoming students, participating in Reunion, serving on the B.O.G. Any graduate who is interested in becoming a member of the B.O.G. can certainly speak to a member of the Nominating Committee or reach out to the President, Ed Greenberg ’55, or the Director of Alumni Relations, Caroline Sallee Reilly ’87. We, as the Board of Governors, are here to provide for the alumni what is relevant and interesting to them in terms of programming and communication and to continue the dialogue between the School and its alumni. The B.O.G committees are: Nominating, Alumni Services, Alumni of Color, Communications, and Gender. The 20-plus members of the Board serve three-year terms, after which they are invited to stay on.

“For me, having experienced this continual interaction with Hotchkiss these past years has been extremely rewarding and an incredibly powerful learning experience,” she says. “It has been full and rich and, in some ways, challenging – not unlike my years at Hotchkiss. And I’ve been well supported and made

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ABOVE: Katie Allen Berlandi and Ed Greenberg

lasting friendships through the Board of Governors and the Board of Trustees – again, very much like my student years.

“You have the opportunity to be in-the-know when you’re engaged as a Hotchkiss volunteer. In the role as B.O.G. President, you also have a voting seat on the Board of Trustees, an incredible experience for sure. It is wise and necessary, in my opinion, for the President of the B.O.G to have both an ear and a voice representing alumni on the Trustee level. I feel fortunate to have a reference point on how far this school has come in the years I have served as B.O.G President, and I hope to stay in close touch with where the School goes. It has been a great honor for me to have been a small part of the School through volunteering.”

“It is no accident that during Katie’s tenure on the B.O.G., alumni have enjoyed an ever-widening variety of Hotchkiss programming,” says Director of Alumni Relations, Caroline Reilly. “Events such as the Day of Service, Hotchkiss Career Connections, and our off-campus Back to the Classroom series are all a result of her ability to thoughtfully push us all to think more creatively, to connect-the-dots across the priorities of the School, and to communicate her infectious desire for alumni to stay connected to each other and to Hotchkiss.

Katie’s dedication is so admirable and inspiring. But, not surprising; she is a tremendous human being.”

Board of Trustees President Jean Weinberg Rose ’80 says, “I have been lucky to work with Katie for the last six years in her capacity as the President of the B.O.G. She could be counted on to infuse every topic of discussion with the very important ele-

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ABOVE: Katie with, from left, Wes Guylay ’58, P’85,’88, Fred Frank ’50, P’12, and Bill Benedict ’70, P’08,’10

ment of what our alumni body would think or want to hear about. Our school would not be the distinguished and successful institution it is without the dedication and hard work of our alumni volunteers. Katie is the ultimate example of this for all of us – her optimism and sense of what is possible are limitless.”

Those first Hotchkiss years Katheryn Ruth Allen arrived at the School from Pawling, NY in 1985 as a lower mid. She knew Hotchkiss well. Her father, the late John M. Allen ’45, came to Hotchkiss as a scholarship student after his father died. “For my dad, these were years of which he was very proud and grateful,” she says. He went on to the Marine Corps and then Yale and served as a longtime, devoted class agent for his Class of 1945. “He was a volunteer for years and years and years,” Katie says. “What he loved most was communicating by letter with his classmates, in the effort to rekindle and/or nurture relationships.”

Katie’s brother, John M. Allen III, is a member of the Class of 1971, and her sister Rebecca Allen Ehrhardt preceded her in the Class of 1986. In her three years here, Katie played not one, not two, but three sports: soccer, ice hockey, and lacrosse, cocaptaining all three teams her senior year. She enjoyed being on the staff of the Hotchkiss Record for three years, serving as its Sports Editor her senior year. Katie belonged to the St. Luke’s Society, Hotchkiss’s oldest club, with its focus on service. She received the Edwards Prize after her lower-mid year and at Graduation, the Allen Prize. (“No relation – Of course, there were a few jokes about that.”)

“Charlie Noyes was one of my favorite teachers, as was Sarah Tames. I had Arthur White as a math teacher. I was one of those who benefited from his staying on in the math classroom once he became Head of School. And Mrs. Demaray and Mrs.

Becker were both very strong and influential teachers in French.

“I took a public speaking class with Sarah Tames my senior year that proved to be a very powerful and fun experience. In my final presentation, I spoke about my grandfather (Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, acclaimed minister and author of The Power of Positive Thinking). He was a public speaker, and that experience in class brought me great empathy and appreciation for what he did, seemingly effortlessly, throughout his life.

“Senior year I was a proctor in Watson, which I loved. To have the Merrills as my dorm parents was terrific. ‘Miss Parsons’ (now Sarinda Wilson) was new that year, serving as a dorm parent.”

“Katie was a stronghold in Watson,” says Sarinda Wilson, who just celebrated her 25th year at Hotchkiss. “Just by being herself, she certainly helped me acclimate to Hotchkiss ways!

With her generous smile and life-is-good laugh, she worked so well in a team. Flanked by good friends (I remember especially Michelle, Ali, and Abigail) and living out loud, Katie was confident, committed to peer leadership, fun-loving, and sensitive.

Little seems to have changed!”

Katie says of those dorm experiences, “I remember being in awe that we were growing up together; there you are engaging with other gals who aren’t your sisters but who are seeing all of you in a way your family would if you were living at home. Such a circumstance creates this wonderful opportunity – and this is something that Diego De Sola spoke about in his Community Service Award speech in April – to discover yourself and honor that authenticity of yourself and then leave an impact because of you, not because of those in your family that surround you.”

Applying to Bowdoin early decision and veering away from her family’s Yale tradition, Katie set out on her path. After graduating with a major in psychology, she earned a master’s degree at New York University in clinical social work, preparing her for her career as a clinical psychotherapist. Her professional work has included counseling children and families in pediatric settings, adolescent therapy and counseling grief-stricken members of the Sandy Hook, Connecticut community after the tragedy there in December 2012.

Presiding at the last B.O.G meeting in May, Katie showed the same bright-eyed and smiling demeanor as she has always brought to the meetings. Musing on the Board and its members, she spoke with wonder of the “great trajectory” that she sees for it and each of them as ambassadors to the School.

“I think of all the stories there are – the life stories of all of those touched by Hotchkiss – and what we can learn from each other,” she says. “Think of all the different generations coming together, given the common thread that we share, which is Hotchkiss.” Powerful indeed.

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In Remembrance STEPHEN BOLMER

WELL-REMEMBERED FACULTY MEMBER AND COACH, DIES AT 87 Stephen T. Bolmer, a member of the faculty for 44 years, died May 11 at Sharon Hospital. He was 87. He and his wife, Peggy, lived in Salisbury; they were married 62 years. Their sons are Instructor in Mathematics David Bolmer ’73, Michael Bolmer ’72, and Tom Bolmer.

Born on February 24, 1926, in Queens, NY, Steve was the son of Maurice and Rachael Bolmer. He graduated from Union College with a B.S. in chemistry and earned a M.A.L.S. from Wesleyan University. He also completed classes at the University of Vermont during summer months. He served in the U.S. Navy during the Second World War. He joined the faculty in 1947, hired by Headmaster George Van Santvoord ’08. He held the George P. Milmine ’19 Chair from 1977 to 1991. Among the many hats he wore during his long tenure were: instructor in mathematics, teaching all levels of math, and chairman of the department; varsity, junior varsity, and Club Sports coach; and, for 14 years, dormitory master. He spent several years as the Director of Admissions and served two terms as a member of the Secondary School Admission Test Board, including for a time as its President. He coached the undefeated 1960 Varsity Basketball team and also refereed some sports after he no longer coached.

Steve Bolmer achieved renown outside of the classroom as a coach of Taylor Football teams, Taylor being one of the four athletic clubs in which all Hotchkiss students participated in the 1940s and ’50s.

John R. “Rusty” Chandler ’53, former headmaster and trustee emeritus, recalls the dominance of the Bolmer “machine” in those years. “I remember that Steve Bolmer, who coached Taylor, had a ‘T’ formation that was really the best of the four clubs,” Chandler said in an article on club sports in the Hotchkiss Magazine. “Taylor was pretty much the perennial champion of the club competition when I played. They had a very good machine, and Coach Bolmer used his players very, very well.”

At the time of his retirement in 1991, Steve had the distinction of the longest tenure of any teacher in the history of the School. The 1991 Mischianza was dedicated to him. And at the retirement dinner held in New York that year, he and fellow retiree David

Demaray were remembered as the last of the members of the Hotchkiss faculty to have been hired by George Van Santvoord.

In 2012 Dr. John D. Leggett ’59 established a fund at Hotchkiss in Stephen Bolmer’s name to support advanced study and training in mathematics. Mr. Leggett, who studied engineering at Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania, said that the mathematical rigor that he learned in Mr. Bolmer’s classroom proved useful in later life. Also, he says today, “I recall with pleasure the lessons I received on the field with Taylor Football.”

Steve served on the Salisbury Central School Board of Education and the Town Recreation Commission. In retirement, he volunteered to read for the Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic and to read letters at the Holley-Williams House for the Salisbury Association. For most of his life he enjoyed golfing and was an avid tennis player. A longtime member of the St. John’s Church in Salisbury, he served as Senior Warden and Treasurer, and as the “Monday morning counter of the Collection.”

Steve Bolmer is survived by his wife Peggy and their sons: Tom and his wife Ellyn, Mike and his wife Linda and their two children, Dan and Jennifer, and Dave. Steve is also survived by two sisters, Rachael and Janet, and many nieces and nephews.

ABOVE: Mr. Bolmer in the classroom, 1969

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IT’S

MY

t u rn

I’ve Gone Country, like Hotchkiss

I

BY DAVID HOLAHAN ’67

I wrote a piece about Hotchkiss for Connecticut Magazine in 1990, describing its

environs as the “coldest, hilliest, woodsiest and most isolated spot in the realm.”

The first draft deployed “gulag” as well, but it fell to the editor’s knife

(he attended Canterbury downstate, so how would he know?).

I had grown up in suburbia, on Long Island for heaven’s sake, and Hotchkiss, to me back in the mid-1960s, was quite literally far out. It may be where the term originated.

My most memorable encounter with nature was the wintry trek from Monahan Gym: at dusk, through the windswept gloom, past Buehler, Ford, Main, Coy, Alumni (now something else), the Headmaster’s House, Van Santvoord, the graveyard, down the icy incline to Dana (at Hotchkiss slippery slopes are literal). You can measure it and tell me how long this odyssey is, and I will not believe you. It was way longer then. Indeed, winters in that decade were so severe that many scientists posited a looming ice age – or global cooling at least. The first thing I’d do when I reached my room was conduct a census of my extremities. No doubt the lack of proper head and footwear exacerbated the ordeal. My hair would freeze in Medusa-like configurations.

There were other encounters with the great outdoors. On those glorious holidays – for which Bill Olsen had us leaning forward in Chapel days on end before he finally declared one – my posse and I would head for Lakeville, past the Halfway House, and wander off the beaten track. We were picking our way through cow paddies in a farmer’s field once, when the beast responsible for the malodorous portfolio appeared in high dudgeon, scattering us like chaff in a gale.

I knew that nature was out there, you couldn’t miss it; I just didn’t engage it very often. I had friends who got up really early

72

H

O T C H K I S S

M

A G A Z I N E

(everyone got up early in them days) to go hunting or fishing with like-minded masters (probably not the correct term today). Then, of course, there was the Wood Squad, which was for boys who weren’t competing in sports and couldn’t possibly be left to their own devices for several hours. If it still exists, it is probably called something else, perchance Stewards of the Forest Primeval and Contiguous Fens. But I played as many sports as I could, so that was out.

Well, I’ve changed, and so has Hotchkiss.

Nature is no longer an elective. The School is committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2020, and students have numerous opportunities to get out and explore the natural systems that support life on our planet. There is a new sustainable woodchip-burning heating facility that doubles as an educational destination, gardens tended by students (who enjoy the fruits of their labor at meals), courses on ecology, etc. To put all this in perspective: the suggestion that a furnace is fascinating – that students should visit, caress, and admire it – could have gotten you committed in my day.

I, too, have gone country. I live in the sticks of southeastern Connecticut, tend a big organic garden, bird watch, compost and recycle, serve as steward of the adjacent conservation land, and shamble through the woods and wetlands with my dog Sophie.

Over the years we have encountered coyotes, deer, fox, warblers, owls, mink, woodcocks, and the occasional otter and bald eagle. One year I grew a pumpkin that weighed more

than a quarter of a ton: it’s the rural equivalent of a Ph.D. I can’t imagine living on Long Island, or anywhere else.

Among my regrets is that I didn’t take full advantage of all that Hotchkiss had to offer, inside and out. The natural world was something to endure when it could not be avoided. I didn’t see the splendor in it. I must have crossed paths with innumerable birds during my four years at Hotchkiss, but I took no note of them. I can’t conjure a single memorable sighting of a hawk or robin. I was an environmental illiterate. It is such obtuseness that has gotten us – and generations to follow – into the fix we’re in.

DAVID HOLAHAN ’67 IS A FORMER NEWSPAPER PUBLISHER WHOSE ARTICLES HAVE APPEARED IN THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, AND ELSEWHERE.

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

EMERITI

Miriam Beveridge ’86

Howard C. Bissell ’55, P’82

Adam Casella ’06

John R. Chandler, Jr. ’53, P’82,’85,’87, GP’10

Charles A. Denault ’74, P’03 Ex-Officio

Frederick Frank ’50, P’12

Patricia Barlerin Farman-Farmaian ’85, Chair, Gender Committee

David L. Luke III ’41 Dr. Robert A. Oden, Jr. P’97 Francis T. Vincent, Jr. ’56, P’85 Arthur W. White P’71,’74, GP’08,’11

Quinn Fionda ’91, Chair, Communications Committee Caldwell Hart ’87, P’16

Lawrence Flinn, Jr. ’53

Keith Holmes ’77

Diana Gomez ’76, P’11,’12

Alessandra H. Nicolas ’95

Sean M. Gorman ’72, Secretary

Nichole R. Phillips ’89

John P. Grube ’65, P’00

Daniel N. Pullman ’76 Ex-Officio

Elizabeth Gardner Hines ’93 Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet ’85 Eleanor Green Long ’76 Forrest E. Mars, Jr. ’49, P’77,’82 GP’09,’09,’11,’11,’14, Vice President Malcolm H. McKenzie P’10, Trustee Ex Officio Christopher H. Meledandri ’77, Vice President Kendra S. O’Donnell Thomas S. Quinn III ’71, P’15 Jean Weinberg Rose ’80, President Roger K. Smith ’78, P’08 Jane Sommers-Kelly ’81 Marjo Talbott John L. Thornton ’72, P’10,’11, Officer-at-Large William B. Tyree ’81, P’14, Treasurer Daniel Wilner '03

Alumni Association Board of Governors President Katheryn Allen Berlandi ’88 Vice Presidents Christina M. Bechhold ’03

Hotchkiss REUNION

Thomas S. Quinn III ’71, P’15 Ex-Officio Casey H. Reid ’01

October 25-27, 2013

June 13-15, 2014

Class of 1963 - 50th Reunion Class of 1953 - 60th Reunion

Classes of 1934, 1939, 1944, 1954, 1959, 1969, 1974, 1979, 1984, 1989, 1994, 1999, 2004, 2009

Peter D. Scala ’01 Thomas R. Seidenstein ’91 Bryan A. Small ’03 Michael G.T. Thompson ’66 Carolyn H. Toolan ’97

Edward J. Greenberg ’55, Chair, Alumni Services Committee George A. Takoudes ’87, Chair Nominating Committee Douglas Campbell III, ’71, P’01, Secretary and Chair, Nominating Subcommittee for Membership Lance K. Beizer ’56 William J. Benedict Jr. ’70, P’08, ’10 Keith E. Bernard Jr. ’95, Chair, Alumni of Color Committee

For more information please contact: Megan Denault ’03, Associate Director of Alumni Relations, at (860) 435-3114 or mdenault@hotchkiss.org.

You may also visit www.hotchkiss.org/alumni and click on Events & Reunions.

Photo by Jonathan Doster