Alumni News

THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 2021/2022

PRESIDENT Charlie C. Keller ’95

FIRST VICE PRESIDENT Heather Elliott Hoover ’91 P’20 ’23 ’24

SECOND VICE PRESIDENT Gregory G. Melconian ’87

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Carter Cikovic ’14 Matthew Dominy ’65 Paul Fitzgerald ’67 P’03 Morgan Dever Morris ’06 Meera Nathan ’90 P’24 ’24 Ralph W. Spooner ’75 Elizabeth Greenberg Wilkinson ’02 Emily Wilson Elipas ’05 Steven K. Wong ’01

ALUMNI TRUSTEES

Mark M. Larsen ’72 P’01 ’04 ’06

Jennifer Ridley Staikos ’91 Vincent J. “Biff” Cahill ’68 P’09 Porter Braswell ’07

SELECTORS Rocky Barber ’69 P’08 Nina Mackenzie Kumar ’02 Maine Huang Park ’88 P’22 ’23 Emily Starkey ’03 Kevin Huang ’05 Donna Rizzo ’04

FACULTY LIAISON Emilie Kosoff H’88 ’96 ’00 ’18 P’19

EX OFFICIO Catherine E. Bramhall ’88 (Lawrenciana)

FROM THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT

With students back on campus, the Lawrenceville experience is once again in full swing, giving the next generation the opportunity to fully experience all the School has to offer. Like those who came before them, today’s student body is participating in intramural athletics, performing in Periwig, creating new artistic endeavors, and completing a rigorous academic course load to prepare them for the future.

Alumni around the world also have exciting opportunities to engage with the School and its current students. A new feature that started this fall is the Big Red Times, a monthly email from the Alumni Office that offers a quick and easy way for alumni to get up to speed about the latest news from campus. Whether it is an update about sporting event results, the highlights of Convocation, profiling an alum who is making a difference in the world, or letting people know about upcoming alumni events, the Big Red Times is a one-stop shop for all your alumni news.

Another way to get an in-depth look at the lives of students on campus today is to watch the School’s version of a campus television program, L10 News on Lawrenceville’s YouTube channel. Each episode looks at several topical events on campus, including segments like how the School conducts its recycling program, an interview with famous alumni like sportswriter Bob Ryan ’64, profiles of a House basketball team, or an in depth look at the faculty yoga instructors. With topics like these, L10 has it all!

Re-engaging with our communities also provides opportunities for alumni to attend virtual and regional events to gather with friends and classmates from Lawrenceville. The School offers several dozen affinity groups, regional clubs across the country, and some even internationally, to help facilitate the sharing of the Lawrenceville experience after your time on campus is complete. If you, or someone you know, is interested in serving in a leadership position on one of our regional groups, please reach out to the Alumni Office. We are always looking for the next generation of volunteer leaders to help support the School’s activities!

Lawrenceville in 2021 offers so many opportunities for students that did not exist a generation ago, let alone two hundred years ago. As alumni, our ability to stay engaged with the School has never been easier, with more and more ways to remain connected with campus life and the great things happening at Lawrenceville. I know the School will continue to produce high-quality and appealing opportunities for all alumni to maintain their connection to Lawrenceville, and hope that everyone enjoys the exciting things happening around the world today from our fellow Lawrenceville alumni.

Kind regards,

Charlie C. Keller ’95

President, Alumni Association charliekeller2001@yahoo.com

STAR APPEAL

Commemorating the longtime home of the Dallas Cowboys was a very Lawrenceville affair.

Thumbing through the Class Notes section of The Lawrentian a couple of years ago, Burk Murchison ’67 P’94 noticed several images of paintings shared by artist Dan Cooper ’66. (See more about Dan Cooper's work on page 24.) Intrigued, Murchison visited Cooper’s website, dancooperart.com, which displays his entire catalogue of works for sale. Among his many California landscapes, one image – “Pac Bell Nocturne” – got Murchison thinking.

The acrylic-on-paper painting shows the home ballpark of baseball’s San Francisco Giants as seen from the city’s eponymous bay, light towers illuminating the unseen field inside, their glow reflected on the water. Murchison – the son of Dallas Cowboys founding owner Clint

W. Murchison Jr. ’41 P’65 ’67 ’71 GP’03

– reached out to see if Cooper would be interested in immortalizing Texas Stadium, the team’s home from 1971 through 2008.

“We decided on an aerial view at night, which would show the field under the lights and as many details as possible,” Cooper says. The pair agreed they wanted to highlight the team’s iconic star emblem on the 50-yard line through the stadium’s signature feature – the massive opening on the roof that covered all seating yet left the field open to the elements. However, this presented an artistic hurdle for Cooper.

“There were lots of photos online, and Burk sent me additional pictures,” he says, “but there was no photo that showed the proper angle.”

So Cooper, who also builds 3D computer models from blueprints for architects to create realistic renderings of their construction projects, created a 3D model of the stadium, including the field and stands.

“Once I had the model, I rotated it until it showed the scene you see,” he says.

Cooper spent more than a week painting the 4,000-plus cars that ring the stadium, and although the entire painting is 24-by36 inches, the distance between the yard lines is only three-eighths of an inch. Along the way, Cooper sent Murchison photos of his progress, and Murchison provided direction on small details he recalled from the stadium.

Though Texas Stadium was demolished in 2010 after the Cowboys’ move to nearby Arlington, Clint Murchison’s groundbreaking structure was for many years the gold standard for NFL home fields, no less in the minds of their fans and players. “Texas Stadium has a hole in its roof so God can watch His favorite team play,” longtime Cowboys linebacker D. D. Lewis once said.

“So it had some historical importance,” Cooper says, “and Burk wanted to try to preserve that.”

Dan Cooper’s painting of Texas Stadium looks through its distinctive roof to reveal the Cowboys’ iconic star logo at midfield.

— Sean Ramsden