The Lawrentian - Summer 2014

Lawrentian THE

SUMMER 2014

Departments 2 From the Head Master 3 Editor’s Note 4 1,000 Words Fast feet in dual meets.

F e at u r e s 22 F amily Ties On the Cover:

For some families, Lawrenceville is a gift that keeps on giving.

6 News in Brief The Lit is lionized, tuition runs out, and Capstone offers complete coverage without copays.

French Master Brian Jacobs takes in a show.

Photo by Jordan Hollender.

30 The Eclectic Elective From sports statistics to Avant Garde literature, Lawrenceville’s electives cater to even the most idiosyncratic passions.

10 Sports Roundup Spring sports stats.

12 Go big red!

Big Red recruits.

13 FUNDING THE FUTURE The math building’s winning formula.

sports roundup

14 On the Arts Students awe at the easel.

16 Cover to Cover Thompson gets grounded.

18 Take This Job and Love It Kamer’s never met a mic he didn’t like.

20 Ask the Archivist For some faculty, it’s “like father, like son.”

72 By the Numbers awrenceville’s bottom dollar.

L 73 Student Shot Tung clicks the light fantastic.

o n t he a r t s

10 TA K E T H IS J O B A ND LO V E IT

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Alumni 38 Alumni News

39 Class Notes

9 From the Head Master

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akers of the Modern Mind, Religious Dimensions of Music, Food Studies, Immigration Stories, The Middle East: Myth and History, and Bioethics. Those are just a few of the more than three dozen interdisciplinary electives that are offered each year at Lawrenceville. Our interdisciplinary courses, like the many upperlevel departmental electives, are designed to reinforce the key disciplinary concepts introduced in our foundational program by enabling students to study a topic in more depth and at an advanced level. Each interdisciplinary class looks not only at core concepts in at least two disciplines, but also at how those ideas intersect to produce greater insights and understanding.

For the past four years, I have co-taught an interdisciplinary elective on Design Thinking. In that class, students learn the basic principles of design thinking and study how such an approach has been applied in various contexts, from reinventing a high school to greening a hotel chain, from creating new household products to reconceiving traditional goods and services. The students then use the design thinking process to address issues on campus, such as recycling, Harkness 2.0 teaching, campus unity, and school spirit.

Although design thinking draws primarily from the disciplines of art and engineering, including people from a wide range of backgrounds is also beneficial to the design process. As they work on various group projects, students discover the importance of leveraging the diverse talents, experiences, and knowledge of their classmates, and they realize that good designs need to be both functional and desirable, doable and attractive, viable and meaningful.

Like my design thinking course, many interdisciplinary classes either include an experiential component or address issues of contemporary importance. Such features help students understand the relevance of what they’re studying. They also come to understand how complex and complicated many issues are and how messy it can be to combine two disciplines. Seldom in an interdisciplinary course is there a “right answer,” so students are challenged to deal with ambiguity, competing perspectives, and incomplete information. In fact, there is even an interdisciplinary elective called just that, Decision Making in the Face of Uncertainty. The skills and habits that students develop in our interdisciplinary electives, particularly how to approach issues from multiple perspectives and with many disciplinary lenses, will serve them well in college and beyond as they grapple with the many complex, multi-faceted, challenges and exciting opportunities that their generation has inherited.

Reading the list of interdisciplinary and other electives in the course catalog always makes me wish that I could be a Lawrenceville student. I suspect that you’ll want to return to Lawrenceville as a student too when you read about some of the electives featured in this edition of The Lawrentian. Enjoy this small glimpse into Lawrenceville’s classrooms today.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth A. Duffy H’43 ’79 The Shelby Cullom Davis ’26 Head Master

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Lawrentian THE

SUMMER 2014

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Volume 78 Number 3

publisher Jennifer Szwalek editor Mike Allegra art director Phyllis Lerner proofreaders tim doyle ’69 H'79 P'99 Rob Reinalda ’76 Linda Hlavacek Silver H’59 61 ’62 ’63 ’64 GP’06 ’08 Jean Stephens H’50 ’59 ’61 ’64 ’68 ’89 P'78 GP’06 contributors Keera Annamaneni ’16 Lisa M. Gillard Hanson Jacqueline Haun Karla Johannes Katie Rand ’14 Selena Smith Paloma Torres Natalie Tung ’14 Yvonne Yan ’16

The Lawrentian (USPS #306-700) is published quarterly (winter, spring, summer, and fall) by The Lawrenceville School, P.O. Box 6008, Lawrenceville, NJ 08648, for alumni, parents, grandparents, and friends.

Periodical postage paid at Trenton, NJ, and additional mailing offices.

The Lawrentian welcomes letters from readers. Please send all correspondence to mallegra@lawrenceville.org or to the above address care of The Lawrentian Editor.

Letters may be edited for publication.

The Lawrentian welcomes submissions and suggestions for magazine departments. If you have an idea for a feature story, please query first to The Lawrentian Editor via email (mallegra@lawrenceville.org).

Visit us on the web at www.lawrenceville.org. www.lawrenceville.org/thelawrentian Postmaster

Please send address corrections to: The Lawrentian The Lawrenceville School P.O. Box 6008 Lawrenceville, NJ 08648 ©The Lawrenceville School Lawrenceville, New Jersey All rights reserved.

From the Editor

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edited my first issue of The Lawrentian 10 years ago. I don’t consider that issue to be particularly good; I was too new to the School to write about the place knowingly and didn’t have enough time to learn all that much. But working on the issue convinced me that there would be a lot of fascinating discoveries in store.

The cover story, “RoboKids,” was about Lawrenceville’s fledgling Robotics Club. Supported by Trustee Jeremy Mario ’88 P’16 and advised by IT Director Bill Freitas, this club turned out to be a perfect introduction to the School. I could see right away that the club members G Wow! These guys are in their late 20s were engaged, zealous, bordering now! on brilliant, and grateful that Lawrenceville made an effort to provide an outlet for their creative passions. It was a joy to witness such unbridled enthusiasm.

That story encouraged me to learn as much about Lawrenceville as possible as quickly as possible. So, for the first few years of my tenure, I made a point to sit in on as many classes as I could. I wasn’t searching for magazine stories, exactly; I just figured that watching the teachers teach would give me a good sense of what this place was all about. Watching the students and masters interact in these academic settings was uniformly dazzling – and, much to my surprise, each master was dazzling in a completely unique way. I expected different styles of teaching, of course. I didn’t, however, expect to see such a wide range of teaching styles. It was living proof that there are many means to an academic end.

After a year or two of these field trips, I tapered off my classroom visits and directed my tunnel vision on the magazine. But there was a part of me – a big part, it turned out – that missed sitting in on those classes.

So, for entirely selfish reasons, I wrote “The Selective Elective” (page 22), which provides a sampling of the unique classes the School offers (and the marvelous masters who teach them). Like my visits of long ago, my recent sitins showed faculty members who are every bit as skilled, knowledgeable, and engaging as they had been in my memories.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the five masters who generously opened their classrooms to my scrutiny and incessant note taking. It was quite an education. Here’s hoping you agree.

Warmest wishes, Mike Allegra Editor mallegra@lawrenceville.org

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9 1000 Words

Beyond Highest Expectations The boys’ indoor and outdoor track teams have not lost a dual meet since 2007, leaving Big Red with a dazzling

Photograph by Paloma Torres

record (so far) of 107-0.

9 News in Brief

Gates Gets to the Root of the Matter

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enowned literary critic and scholar Henry Louis “Skip” Gates Jr. visited Lawrenceville to discuss his celebrated PBS documentary series Finding Your Roots. Acclaimed for his comprehensive exploration of genealogy and AfricanAmerican history, Gates delivered his speech as part of the Heely Lecture, a series developed to educate the Lawrenceville community by bringing distinguished individuals to campus.

Born in Keyser, WV, Gates excelled as a student. As the first African-American to receive the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship, he earned a B.A. summa cum laude in English language and literature, from Yale University and his M.A. and

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Ph.D. in English literature from Clare College at the University of Cambridge. He has received 51 honorary degrees and has won prestigious awards including the 1993 George Polk Award for Social Commentary, the National Humanities Medal, and the 2008 Ralph Lowell Award.

In his lecture, Gates shared the experience of how attending his grandfather’s burial spurred his interest in genealogy. He then proceeded to dispel certain misconceptions of African-American culture, noting that although almost all African-Americans have in fact descended from slaves, the Southern states historically contained a larger free black population than did the North. Gates also explained how he uncovers

By Yvonne Yan ’16

information regarding family lineage with the aid of other historians and scientists.

The focal point of the lecture was Gates’s television show, Finding Your Roots. The series, which attracted nearly 30 million viewers last year, traces the family histories of notable celebrities and is a continuation of previous projects started by Gates on the topic of family lineage. Explaining the success of the series, Gates told the audience that genealogy intrigues people primarily because “your favorite subject in the whole world is yourself, which is what genealogy is all about.”

Gates plans to apply his passion for genealogy to inner-city communities; his goal is to intro-

duce a curriculum to inner-city schools in which every student completes a family tree.

“African-American history is also American history, and it was simply an honor and an important intellectual opportunity to have had a leading historian come to share insights with us,” Dean of Residential Life Brian Daniell H’06 said after the event.

The timing of the lecture was also noteworthy, Daniell added, as next year Lawrenceville will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the enrollment of its first black students.

H Cara Washington '14 (left) and Alex Brown '14 greet Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Williams, Johnson Deemed Master Masters

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capacity as an admissions counselor and xtraordinary teachers T.H. Johnson P’61 director of financial aid, he is remembered and Charlie Williams ’67 H’85 ’98 P’94 as a thoughtful and caring counselor who ’97 were recently honored at the 17th helped shape the economic diversity of the presentation of the Masters Awards, which recstudent body. ognizes “distinguished classroom teaching wor Comments from those assembled at the thy of special praise.” event ranged from the humorous – with Johnson, (who received the honor posthuHistory Master Tim Brown H’84 ’04 P’04 mously) began his career at Lawrenceville ’08 calling Williams’ style as a rival House in 1937 as an English master and was named football coach “diabolical” – to the subchairman of the department in 1945. Johnson lime – with English Master Champ Atlee was widely known for his work in the field of ’62 H’74 ’79 ’83 ’84 P’92 noting in his colonial American literature and his editions of remembrance of Johnson that “he was the poems and letters of Emily Dickinson. He simply the greatest intellect to ever teach was an editor of the definitive Literary History at Lawrenceville… To this day, the stanof the United States and The Oxford Companion dard edition of Emily Dickinson’s poems to American History, and, in 1952, was awarded G From left: Charlie Williams; T.H. Johnson's daughter, Laura Waterman; and Alumni is Thomas Johnson’s edition.” a Guggenheim Fellowship to establish a proAssociation President Tim Wojciechowicz '78 Both award recipients were lauded for gram in American literature at the University of P'06 '10 '12. their dedication to teaching. “Tom Johnson Copenhagen. His writings have been described as concise, witty, accurate, perceptive, and balanced, and he transferred remained [at Lawrenceville] despite being a renowned scholar who was those talents to the Harkness classroom, where he ignited a passion for repeatedly recruited by universities,” Atlee pointed out. Brown called reading and learning in several generations of Lawrentians. Johnson’s Williams “a great housemaster and teacher” who “could teach at any level but had an affinity for working with the weakest students.” And award was accepted by his daughter, Laura Waterman.

Williams came to Lawrenceville as a postgraduate in 1966. He lived no discussion of Charlie’s talents would be complete without citing his in Upper, played varsity ice hockey, tennis, and football, and was a operatic rendition of “O Holy Night” during the annual Lessons and member of The Lawrentians, Glee Club, Periwig, and Choir. In 1978, Carols service in Edith Memorial Chapel.

Williams returned to Lawrenceville as a math master. He soon rose to Williams accepted the award with characteristic humility. “For the department chair and served as a mentor to many Lawrenceville mas- first couple of years [at Lawrenceville], most of what I did was listen. ters. Housemaster of Hamill from 1982 to 1988, he exemplified the I learned a lot. My own feeling about my teaching is that for 31 years boarding school “triple threat.” Under his guidance as varsity tennis I was taught how to be a teacher.” He concluded with, “When you apcoach, Big Red teams achieved brilliant success; he also coached both plaud, I would like to remind you that you are applauding for all the boys’ and girls’ varsity ice hockey and House and JV football. In his people in the Math Department, and all the teachers in the School.”

Giving Gratitude

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andy and flowers are traditional Valentine’s Day gifts, but Lawrentians gave friends of the School an even better present: their heartfelt thanks. Because tuition dollars cover only 65 percent of Lawrenceville’s annual operating costs, February 14 is the point in Lawrenceville’s fiscal year when these funds literally run out. The School must then rely on the dollars it receives from donations and endowment income to carry it through to the year’s end.

Over the past three years, students have turned “Tuition Runs Out Day (TROD)” into an opportunity to express their gratitude to all of the parents, alumni, and other donors who keep Lawrenceville up and running.

Student celebrations took place throughout the day. Beginning that morning at School Meeting, the Student Council led a Lawrencevillethemed version of The Price is Right with boys and girls encouraged to “Come on down!” and play. Students sported TROD pins, created videos, let loose with an all-School “shout out” to donors, and signed “Thank You” banners.

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Lit Lauded

By Keera Annamaneni ’16

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he National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) recognized Volume 119, Issue 1 of The Lit as

“superior,” the council’s highest distinction, through the Program to Recognize

Excellence in Student Literary Magazines (PRESLM) competition. According to the NCTE, not only is The Lit one of the top five literary magazines in New Jersey, but also it ranked as one of the top 30 in the nation.

Awards are nothing new for The Lit. Lawrenceville’s 119-year-old, art and creative writing magazine was also honored by the National Scholastic Press Association, which deemed the publication to be “First Class.”

In the wake of these honors, however,

The Lit staff refused to rest on its laurels.

In the weeks following the honors, the executive board spearheaded an effort to solicit more poetry/art submissions by launching a tumblr that featured writing contests and recommended readings.

The magazine also hosted writing workshops with English Master Margaret Ray.

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New Deans Named

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lake Eldridge ’96 and David Laws were recently appointed Lawrenceville School’s new Dean of Students and Dean of Academics, respectively. Both positions commenced on July 1.

As dean of students, Eldridge is responsible for the overall experience of students at Lawrenceville and for overseeing the House and Advisor system. He supervises housemasters, advisors, and level directors, and is responsible for student orientation, discipline, and the Student Services Office.

Once classes begin in the fall, he will work closely with student leaders and faculty to maintain Lawrenceville’s positive tone and culture of respect.

A Lawrenceville alumnus, Eldridge returned to his alma mater in 2004 as an English master and the boys’ varsity soccer head coach. In addition to his duties as an English and philosophy master, he chaired the School’s Interdisciplinary Studies Program. Eldridge has served the School in a number of important academic, athletic, and residential life roles over the past decade. He was a Circle director and served on the School’s Student Leadership Prototype Team. He also served on committees concerning ethics, academic integrity, interdisciplinary studies review, and humanities redesign.

In his role as dean of academics, Laws guides curriculum design and its developing academic policies (in collaboration with the academic department chairs and the dean of faculty). He coordinates the support of students with academic challenges, and oversees the Registrar’s Office, International Programs, and the Educational Support Program. Working with Kevin Mattingly, the School’s director of Teaching, Learning, and Educational Partnerships, Laws is responsible for supporting curricular innovations and educational partnerships.

Laws began his tenure at Lawrenceville in 2000 and, like Eldridge, has served the School in several important roles. He was the assistant Science Department chair from August 2002 to June 2011, when he stepped down to serve as Lawrenceville’s

G Blake Eldridge '96

G David Laws

assistant dean of academics and registrar before returning to full-time teaching last year. Laws was also the co-faculty advisor to Lawrenceville’s Science and Robotics clubs. He has received numerous honors from the School, including the Henry and Janie Woods Meritorious Service Award (2013), the Henry C. Woods Family Junior Teaching Chair (2010), and the Robert B. Ritter ’53 Award for Fostering a Nurturing Academic Environment (2002).

“I’m excited to have both Blake and Dave join the School’s senior staff,” said Head Master Liz Duffy H’43 ’79. “They are smart, hardworking, and, most importantly, care deeply about the students, their colleagues, and the School.”

Capstone Covers Affordable Care Act

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hat is the best solution to improving health care in the United States? Fifth formers explored that very topic in depth this past spring in the School’s Capstone Course.

Since 1990, the Culbertson Capstone Program has educated Lawrentians on contemporary issues and provided an opportunity for fifth formers to synthesize the intellectual skills they’ve developed over the course of their Lawrenceville careers. The course is highlighted by lectures from na-

plications of the Affordable Care Act (ACA),” he explained. “It’s hard to find a contemporary topic richer in possibility for interdisciplinary integration.”

Over the 10-week course students studied the history of the health care debates (with a particular focus on the ACA), the legislative process, the role of corporations and finances, the effect of medical advances, and how America’s program compares against others in the world.

The cornerstone of all Capstone courses is the slate of ex-

of America, became a national best-seller. His most recent film, U.S. Health Care: The Good News, premiered on PBS in 2012.

Susan Dentzer is the senior health policy advisor to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

She is a renowned health policy expert, health policy analyst for the PBS NewsHour, and a former editor of the influential journal Health Affairs. Dentzer is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine and the Council on Foreign Relations, and a public member of the Board of Directors of

the author of Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class (Hyperion, 2005) and the co-author, with Reihan Salam, of Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream (Doubleday, 2008).

Charles M. Blow is The New York Times’s visual op-ed columnist and the paper’s graphics director, a position he held for nine years. In that role, he led the Times to a Best of Show award from the Society of News Design for the Times’s information

G Jonathan Levy

G Susan Dentzer

G Charles M. Blow

G Froma Harrop

tionally known experts who present diverse points of view on topics of contemporary relevance – from climate change, to post-Katrina New Orleans, to religion and politics. The Capstone course is part of the School’s Interdisciplinary Studies Program.

This year’s program was organized by Blake Eldridge ’96, who was chair of Interdisciplinary Studies as well as an English and Philosophy teacher. “This topic allows our fifth formers to ask some of the big questions about personal responsibility, social ethics, democratic participation, and the Constitution. They will be called on to use their skills and background in history, ethics, constitutional theory, and economics to explore the national and local im-

perts invited to campus to provide insight and varying points of view. As in past years, 2014’s offerings were impressive: Jonathan Levy, an assistant professor of history at Princeton University, is a historian of American capitalism. His book, Freaks of Fortune: The Emerging World of Capitalism and Risk in America, (Harvard UP, 2012) won the Organization of American Historians’ Frederick Jackson Turner Award, the Ellis W. Hawley Prize, and the Avery O. Craven Award.

T. R. Reid is one of the nation’s best-known reporters through his books and articles, his documentary films, his reporting for The Washington Post, and his commentaries on NPR’s Morning Edition. His 2009 book, The Healing

the American Board of Medical Specialties.

Judith M. Persichilli, R.N., B.S.N., M.A., is president and chief executive officer of Catholic Health East (CHE). Prior to joining CHE’s System Office, she served for eight years as CEO at St. Francis Medical Center in Trenton, NJ. In September 2011, Persichilli was awarded the Benemerenti Medal, a papal honor bestowed on her by Pope Benedict XVI. Ross Douthat joined The New York Times as an op-ed columnist in April 2009. Previously, he was a senior editor at The Atlantic and a blogger for theatlantic.com. His most recent book is Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics (Free Press, 2012). He is also

graphics coverage of 9/11, the first time the award had been given for graphics coverage.

Froma Harrop’s nationally syndicated column appears in over 150 newspapers, including The Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, Seattle Times, Denver Post, and Newsday. A Loeb Award finalist for economic commentary in 2004 and again in 2011, Harrop was also honored by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.

“Many of our fifth formers prepare to vote in the upcoming midterm elections and will undoubtedly work in related areas in the future,” said Eldridge. “This course will certainly inform and sophisticate their thinking on this important issue.”

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9 Sports Roundup Boys’ Baseball Record: 13-9 Coach: Champ Atlee ’62 H’74 ’79 ’83 ’84 P’92 hris Euell ’14 Captains: C Mike Tola ’15

Boys’ Crew M.A.P.L. Champions Coach: Benjamin Wright P’10 Captain: B rendan Fish ’14

Girls’ Crew M.A.P.L. Champions Coach: Bernadette Teeley Captain: Geena Fram ’14

Boys’ Golf Record: 5-6 Coach: Tim Doyle ’69 H’79 P’99 Captains: John Warden ’15

Chis Zhang ’15

Girls’ Golf

SPRING Season STATS

Record: 5-2 Coach: Gus Hedberg H’03 P’96 ’00 Captain: Sofia Pullen ’15

By Karla Guido

Boys’ Lacrosse N.J.I.S.A.A. Champions M.A.P.L. Champions Record: 12-9 Coach: Allen Fitzpatrick ’73 H’85

’89 P’99 ’04 Captains: Stephen Clarke ’14

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Wyatt Rancourt ’15

Girls’ Lacrosse M.A.P.L. Champions Record: 9-6 Coach: Kris Schulte P’15 Captains: Jessica Castelo ’14

Claire Crowley ’14

Girls’ Softball M.A.P.L. Champions Record: 8-9 Coach: J ohn Schiel H’78 P’97 ’08 ’10 organ Pothast ’14 Captains: M Karen Prihoda ’15

Boys’ Tennis N.J.I.S.A.A. Champions M.A.P.L. Champions Record: 10-2 avid Cantlay H’89 ’91 Coach: D ’93 ’94 P’07 ’09 ’11 avid Laub ’14 Captain: D

Boys’ Track N.J.I.S.A.A. Champions M.A.P.L. Champions Record: 2-0 Coach: Steve Shuster Captains: R ob Daniels ’14 Myles Hollis ’14 Alec Waugh ’14

Girls’ Track N.J.I.S.A.A. Champions M.A.P.L. Champions Record: 3-1 Coach: Katie Chaput Captains: Caroline Doll ’14

Allison Gaston ’14

For the most current athletic news visit www.lawrenceville.org/athletics.

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9 Go Big Red!

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Big Red’s

BIG REACH

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n February, six of Lawrenceville’s gridiron greats signed letters of intent to play on some of the most prestigious college football teams.

That news, impressive as it is, is only one part of a much larger story, however – for dozens of other Big Red athletes have been signed to play basketball, lacrosse, squash, fencing, track, soccer, swimming, and other

sports, at colleges across the nation. An additional dozen students have committed to trying out for a college team.

To commemorate the achievements of this broad-based group of scholar athletes, Lawrenceville’s Athletics Department held a reception in the Lavino Field House. Thirty-nine students attended the soon-to-be-annual event – and, of course, posed for posterity.

Lawrenceville students continue their athletic careers.

Back row from left: Tony Watkins, Jacquie Klotz, Zach Colton, Zach O’Leary, Alec Waugh, Matt Apuzzi, Stephen Clarke, Mary Mahfood and Alex Brown.

Third row: Charlie Card-Childers, David Slater, Brandon Federici, Randall West, Will Jones, Sheridan Lawley, Nolan DeMarco, David Plumlee, and Reilly Hupfeldt.

Second row: Amanda Drobot, Zoe Ferguson, Sterling Wright, Claire Crowley, John Avendano, Julia Conley, Robert Daniels, Josh Durso-Finley, Kate Gulbrandsen, Geena Fram, and Megan Reilly.

First row: Maddie Jones, Morgan Pothast, Isabel Guataco, Ammani Fernandez, Carrie Shaw, Jess Castelo, Ashley Suan, and Nelly Spigler.

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9

Funding the Future

The Value of X The charming and eccentric, doughnut-shaped Corby Math Building is an arresting architectural anomaly that juts out from the western wall of Kirby Science. Though the two buildings share an adjoining hallway, they don’t share much else. Kirby, airy and open, sensitively incorporates technology into each room’s layout, and provides ample classroom space for the science faculty. Corby, on the other hand, lets in little natural light and contains only eight classrooms, which are dominated by chalkboards that go largely unused in lieu of smart boards.

In short, after nearly 35 years of loyal service, there is room for improvement at Corby, and, thanks to the F.M. Kirby Foundation and other generous donors, those improvements will be made soon. Corby will be torn down and rebuilt as a more integrated part of the Kirby Science Building. Although this means the addition will largely reflect Kirby Science’s architectural scheme, the new math wing will also have its own unique character.

Whimsical touches in the design will seek to incorporate “mathematical themes.” Upon completion, the building will be rechristened the Kirby Math and Science Center.

Due to Corby’s proximity to the Mackenzie Administrative Building, the math wing must occupy more or less the same footprint as it does now. To get more classroom space, the redesign will contain a second story. The new building will include 13 classrooms, a department/faculty room, and open spaces for informal gatherings. Ten of the classrooms will accommodate single classes, and the remaining three will be sized for larger presentations and projects.

The $10 million cost of the project will include the demolition and the rebuilding of Corby as well as the relocation of the IT Department, which now shares Corby with the Math Department. Also included in the price will be the redesign of Flagpole Green—the large, grassy space encircled by Mackenzie, Corby, Kirby, The Irwin Dining Center, and the Bunn Library.

Construction is scheduled to begin at the end of the 2014-15 academic year with the new building expected to open in September 2016.

“We are thankful to the Corby family for helping us usher in the computer age,” says Head Master Elizabeth Duffy H’43 ’79. “Technology has undergone a sea change since 1980. The generosity of the Kirby Foundation and others is enabling us to respond to these changes in a way that will provide an inspiring, light-filled space for our math classes and flexibility for the future as math curricula and pedagogy evolve.”

In addition to the F. M. Kirby Foundation, Joe Tsai ’82 has made a major investment in the project. Also, both Granger Hwa ’81 P’14 ’17 and Tommy Lee ’85 P’16 ’18 have committed to name individual classrooms.

“The new Kirby Math and Science Center will enable our science and math departments to collaborate more intentionally,” Duffy adds. “Our students and faculty are the fortunate beneficiaries of this generous philanthropy.”

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9 On the Arts

Students Show their Stuff

By Katie Rand ’14

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Artwork by Ashley Raynes '15

Artwork by Alex Lin '14

Artwork by Lillly Kwon '15

ome of Lawrenceville’s finest student artists were featured in two shows at the School’s Gruss Center of Visual Arts. The annual Student Art Show was in the Center’s Marguerite and James Hutchins Gallery, and a solo show titled “The Chinese Worker in Shenzhen” by Alex Lin ’14 was in the Rotunda Gallery.

Lin, with the financial support provided by a Lawrenceville William Welles Award, spent two weeks in Shenzhen, China, to document the story of Chinese construction workers through the lens of his camera.

“During my time there, I spent more or less every day at the construction sites, walking around, photographing, and talking with the workers,” he says.

“Perhaps the biggest surprise I received was the personality of the workers.

That they were far from beaten down. Despite their difficult lives, they still live with hope and smiles.

“Through viewing this exhibition, I hope the Lawrenceville community will be able to feel a connection and understanding with the Chinese workers, and see their story as a human story, rather than social commentary.”

Many of the pieces on display in the larger Student Art Show were created by the students of Honors Advanced Studio Art, taught by Art Master Jamie Greenfield P’05. Each Advanced Studio Art student presents seven to 10 pieces that best represent their body of work.

“The goal of the class is the creation of a portfolio,” says Greenfield, “One focus of the portfolio is breadth, or the different range of media and approaches. The students experiment with projects like figure drawing, still life, and works from the imagination.”

The show was open to artwork submitted by other students as well. The result was an exhibit both varied and dramatic, featuring drawings, paintings, photography, sculpture, and mixed media that served as a testament to the School’s expansive art curriculum.

Winterfest wows

‘‘

Photo by Alex Lin '14

Through viewing this exhibition, I hope the Lawrenceville community will be able to feel a connection and understanding with the

’’

Chinese workers, and see their story as a human story, rather than social commentary.”

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interfest is Lawrenceville’s annual answer to Mickey Rooney’s oft-repeated line, “Hey, kids, let’s put on a show!” This year was no exception; the always-intriguing slate of student-acted and -directed plays in the Kirby Arts Center’s Black Box Theatre drew standing room only crowds.

This showcase also offered something unexpected: a Broadway cabaret in the Clarke Music Center in which student singers belted tunes from theatre classics.

All proceeds from the performance ($10 donations were suggested) benefitted The Lawrenceville School Allegro Performing Arts Camp, which provides free theatre, music, and dance lessons to local, underserved children.

Featured in the cabaret were Edward Allen ’17, Mark Allen ’14, Lewis Chapman ’15, Joon Choe ’15, Madison Daniels ’15, Gabrielle Forte ’15, Kyler Fullerton ’15, Nina Kalkus ’15, Jay Lee ’15, Emily Li ’17, Matteo Lopez-Castillo ’14, Daric McKinney ’15, Brandon Medina ’15, Eliot Schulte ’15, and Jeff Zhao ’14. Selections from musical favorites such as South Pacific, Kismet, Oliver, Annie Get Your Gun, and many more were performed.

Artwork by Mu Gao '15

— Alex Lin '14

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9 Cover to Cover

grounded by

EXPERIENCE

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n 1962, Julian Thompson ’45 decided to end his 12-year tenure as a Lawrenceville master to take a stab at becoming a full-time novelist. Leaving a stable and enjoyable job to leap feet first into the unknown might appear to be a momentous decision – and it was – but, says Thompson, not a very difficult one.

“I had an uncle, my father’s brother, who always used to recall many regretful times in his life,” says Thompson. “When he was an old man he was always saying, ‘Oh, I should have…’ all the time. I didn’t want to be like my uncle. It seemed to make more sense for me to give things a try and see what would happen.

“And what happened,” he adds with a laugh, “was that I reeled off a couple of novels that were absolutely dreadful.”

Thompson would have to wait 20 years to get his first novel published, but that wasn’t an entirely bad thing. Those years were not squandered. They were not filled with avuncular regrets. Thompson used the time to find his creative voice; once he found it, there was no stopping him. Beginning with The Grounding of Group 6 in 1983, Thompson wrote 18 young adult novels over the next 20 years, earning critical and commercial acclaim and a loyal fan base that continues to this day.

In fact, the more-than-30-year-old Grounding is slated to become a major motion picture, with principal cinematography planned for summer 2014.

Thompson’s passion for writing was not without precedent. His father (also named Julian Thompson) was a playwright of some renown, penning a number of well received

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Alumnus and former master Julian Thompson ’45 found his calling in teen lit.

stage productions including The Warrior’s Husband, a play that bears the distinction of being Katharine Hepburn’s first starring role on Broadway. But the elder Thompson described his writing as “a hobby,” and one that rarely, if ever, distracted from his real career as an executive at a pharmaceutical company.

“I was 11 when he died,” Thompson recalls.

“I was in awe of him in the nicest kind of way. He was a wonderful humorist, a talented pianist, a great father, and a wonderful husband. But I was too young to be inspired or influenced by him.”

The desire to write would come much later for the younger Thompson. His first passion would be working with teens. Thompson discovered this when he was a teen himself, coaching baseball at a Connecticut summer camp.

Later, as a student at Princeton, Thompson volunteered at Jamesburg, a nearby juvenile detention facility. The kids were ages 1114, and most of them had been convicted of “breaking, entering, and larceny,” or been judged to be “uncontrollable.” “But it was very easy to be sympathetic with them. You knew what they had done, and they knew that you knew what they had done. But we weren’t talking about their crimes. We talked about their thoughts.”

It was this ability to relate to kids that led Thompson back to a successful teaching career at Lawrenceville. After leaving the School (and taking a few years to write those selfproclaimed “dreadful” novels), he accepted a teaching job at an inner-city program in Trenton followed by a position as the director of a new

life around teens. He had interacted with teens from all walks of life. He understood them. He should write about them.

“As the old saying goes, ‘Ya gotta dance with who brung ya.’”

Thompson’s first two novels that centered on teenage protagonists, Facing It and The Grounding of Group 6, were snapped up by Avon Publications.

Grounding was the first to hit shelves and almost instantly courted controversy. The story takes place at a remote boarding school in Vermont. The school offers two services to parents: It can educate their kids, or, if they prefer, murder them.

“Some of the reviewers balked at the idea that there could be a book – even if that book

is black humor – that suggested that parents would ever want to kill their kids. This was unspeakable. This was a crime against nature.

And how dare somebody write such a book.

“But they didn’t get it,” Thompson says, still a little irked by it all. “That book is about good kids. It’s only the adults who want them killed who are evil – and most of those are clearly caricatures, pretty near unbelievable.”

Thompson is now 86, and his most recent book, 2009’s Getting In, he says, is his last.

But Thompson’s fans still remain and his books still sell. He even continues to get fan letters. Once The Grounding of Group 6 makes it to the big screen, reintroducing Thompson’s timeless story to a new generation, he will almost certainly receive many, many more.

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Photograph by Oliver Parini

alternative high school, CHANGES Inc. CHANGES, founded in 1971, was very much a product of its time. Students were able to create their own curriculum and held a majority of seats on the Board of Trustees.

There were no grades, and sharing the student evaluations was left up to each child’s discretion. The success of CHANGES would, not surprisingly, depend on the motivation and work ethic of the students enrolled. Thompson recognized them as “Ivy League material” and signed on. He would lead the school for the next seven years.

In addition to being the director, Thompson taught a writing workshop at CHANGES. It was in these classes that Thompson got his epiphany: He had spent his entire professional

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9 Take This Job & Love It

THE

VOICE

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here is really no way to escape the appealing, dulcet tones of Steve Kamer’s ’81 voice. He was heard during the Sochi Winter Olympics.

His voice graces the trailer of the Oscar-winning film Argo. It is he who politely yet firmly tells you to “stand clear of the closing doors” on the New York/New Jersey PATH Train. Kamer’s was the voice you heard before seeing Geraldo Rivera, Phil Donahue, Martha Stewart, and Regis Philbin. He’s urged you to buy your entertainment center at Circuit City, lean back in a La-Z-Boy, and sprinkle your stinky feet with Gold Bond Powder – as well as advised you on hundreds of other purchases that will make your life more deeply satisfying. And, perhaps most notably, Kamer is the one who reads the copy for the Deborah Norville-helmed show, Inside Edition.

Kamer’s career as a voice actor comes as little surprise to his mother, Phyllis. As soon as her son could walk and talk, she recalls, he was following her around the house interviewing her with a Coke bottle, hairbrush, or anything else that resembled a microphone. And when he wasn’t working on his voice, he was studying the voices of others.

“I was a fan of television since I was in the single digits,” Kamer recalls. “But it was the game shows that intrigued me.” It wasn’t long before Kamer began to beg his parents to take him to see To Tell the Truth, The $10,000 Pyramid, What’s My Line? and other shows that taped in New York City. It was official, the boy was smitten with broadcasting.

As a student at Lawrenceville, Kamer was naturally a fixture at WLSR, the School’s twowatt radio station, then housed in the basement of Old Lower. More surprising is that at that

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When Steve Kamer ’81 talks, people listen.

time he was also a deejay at two Trenton commercial stations, WPST and WTTM, working weekends at the not-so-coveted midnight-to-6 a.m. shift.

“But there the phones lit up!” Kamer says, still beaming at the memory. “People were listening!”

After getting his degree at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School, he settled in to a career at New York’s WNSR. It was steady work, and not unpleasant, but it wasn’t where Kamer wanted his career to end up. So when he was not on the air, he pursued work as a voice actor.

“The transition from being a disc jockey to a voice actor is one that many deejays want to make,” he explains. “But it’s a transition that is difficult to make. People learn habits as a disc jockey that are not compatible with being a voice actor. Clients don’t want ‘an announcer,’ a male with that deep, stentorian voice. They want voice actors who are trained in acting.”

Kamer worked at WNSR (which later became MIX105) for nine years, getting the occasional voiceover on the side, until 1994 when NBC hired him to be the voice of The Today Show, with Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric. That job, steady and lucrative, allowed him to leave radio behind forever.

Back in the 1990s, and for years thereafter, Kamer was required to do his voice work in network studios, but as technology and telecommunications improved, the trips across the Hudson from his home in New Jersey were no longer required. These days, Kamer does all of his work from a home studio – and there is a lot of work, usually 100 scripts a day, necessitating a workday that often begins at 8 a.m. and ends at midnight. Sometimes

he is directed by phone by the client as he records. Far more often, however, he directs himself, sending his work out as an MP3 or WAVE file.

Over the years Kamer has developed a reputation not only for his polished delivery, but also for his quick turnaround time. “So if a TV station in L.A. needs to put a promotional announcement on the air within the hour, I can do that,” he says.

He even has a portable studio so he can record while on vacation. Voice acting is a very lucrative vocation, Kamer notes, but one that comes with “golden handcuffs.” Fortunately he loves the work enough to not mind the hours.

That is especially true with announcing a show like Inside Edition – one that allows him to joyously revisit the good old bad habits of his radio days.

“I’ve been Deborah Norville’s announcer for 18 years. Before I got there, it seemed like they had a new announcer for that show every year. They couldn’t settle on what they wanted. I started in 1997 and have kept the job ever since.

“I do everything on that show that I can’t do on any other job,” says Kamer with a laugh.

“It’s classic announcer style. At the beginning of the show there might be 10 different stories that are going to be on that episode. It’s my responsibility to shift gears when I tease each story so each one sounds different.”

Kamer provides a demonstration. Turning the schmaltz dial up to 11, he goes to work.

“Inside Edition is backstage at the Super Bowl with all the action and activity you didn’t see anywhere else!” Then, in the blink of an eye, that wonderful voice slips into slow

voice, whether you want it to or not, gets you swept up in the moment. Suddenly you can’t help but wonder how posterity will remember Philip Seymour Hoffman. Or exactly how high hemlines might creep up next spring. Or how you’d really like to sit in a La-Z-Boy to bet-

ter prop up your formerly stinky feet while watching that TV you bought at Circuit City.

After you turn it on, you won’t have to search too long to come across more of Steve Kamer’s persuasive pitches. And yes, they will all worm their way into your brain.

Photograph by Jordan Hollender

and somber mode: “Plus, the tragic death of Philip Seymour Hoffman and how he overdosed on heroin.” Then, in another blink, his voice is joyful, bordering on delirious: “And the latest spring fashions!”

It all works beautifully. The power of that

G Steve Kamer and his very first interview subject.

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9 Ask the Archivist

All in the Family

By Jacqueline Haun

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ne of the traditional and distinctive characteristics of Lawrenceville is the close relationships that develop among members of the School community – from the lifelong friendships of housemates to the mentoring bonds between faculty and students. It is not surprising that such a tight-knit culture includes a history of familial as well as professional links

that often span generations. Over the course of two centuries, one of the most prominent of these family associations is that of father and son faculty members Charles Henry Raymond and Charles Harlow Raymond, whose surname lives on in Raymond House, now one of the houses of Boys’ Lower.

A graduate of Wesleyan College, Charles Henry Raymond came to Lawrenceville in 1889 after teaching for several years at Wes-

G Charles Harlow Raymond finds love at Lawrenceville.

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leyan Academy. In addition to promptly being named both the head of the Elocution Department and director of athletics, Raymond was housemaster of Davis House, located north on Route 206 near what is now Cherry Grove Farm. Raymond would remain housemaster in Davis for the next 18 years, while also supervising several of the major student organizations on campus (the Calliopean Society, the YMCA, and

Periwig). The meticulous and conscientious Raymond so completely embraced Lawrenceville that he came to be regarded as integral to campus life, and, by 1907, he had risen to the position of assistant head master under Head Master Simon J. McPherson. He became a beloved fixture on campus, known as “Pa” Raymond to faculty and students alike.

Charles Harlow Raymond, commonly known as Charlie, was 10 years old when “Pa” Raymond first arrived on campus. He graduated from Lawrenceville in 1894 and then followed in his father’s footsteps by attending Wesleyan College. After his graduation and a brief stint teaching at The Hill School, the younger Raymond returned to Lawrenceville in 1900 as a member of the English Department and the assistant housemaster of Woodhull.

There was a relatively new resident at Lawrenceville when Raymond began teaching there: Jeannette McPherson, daughter of recently appointed Head Master McPherson and one of the very few single young women on the mostly male campus. Love blossomed between the young faculty member and his new neighbor and, on June 23, 1904, the couple exchanged wedding vows in the Edith Memorial Chapel in a ceremony presided over by the bride’s father – and the groom’s “boss” – Head Master McPherson.

Not only were the two families united by marriage, but the professional ties were strengthened by the close working relationship of the Head Master and his assistant head. The genuine affection that developed between the in-laws could be seen when the senior Raymond fell ill in 1917. After 10 years as assistant head master, the stress of the position had taken its physical toll on “Pa,” leading to an almost complete physical collapse. Following the advice of Raymond’s physician, the Head Master urged his in-law and colleague to take a year’s paid sabbatical in order to recuperate.

When Raymond finally did return to campus in 1918, it was to a reduced load designed to ease the strain that had driven him into severe illness. Ironically, when the two friends were separated by death less than a year later, it was Head Master McPherson who had succumbed; he fell prey to the 1919 influenza pandemic.

Because of his continuing frailty, the senior Raymond was never able to resume the full rigor of his previous campus activities, and by 1926, he had opted to retire. In 1930

when concerns about fire safety led the School to discontinue use of the wooden-framed Davis House as a student residence, the new brick building erected on the east side of The Bowl in order to replace it was designated Raymond-Davis House to honor Charles Henry Raymond and his 37 years of devotion to the School. Until 1972, the Raymond-Davis House housed Circle boys, only becoming the home of the Lower School after the decommissioning of Old Lower. Today, it houses Second Form boys.

Charles Harlow Raymond worked alongside his father on campus for the first 26 years of his 44-year Lawrenceville career and made his own marks on School history. Like his father before him, the younger Raymond spent nearly 24 years as the chair of his department

(English) and even made an impact on the athletic life of the school as head football coach.

His duties as housemaster also continued for the entire length of his tenure at Lawrenceville, with his longest service being as the housemaster of Cleve between 1920 and his retirement in 1944.

In addition to his prominence on campus, the younger Raymond also experienced modest success as a book editor, a published poet, and the author of a book on the lives of famous authors.

Even though only the oldest living alumni may still remember the connection between Raymond House and the father and son faculty powerhouses, the two masters’ legacy of loyalty and devotion to Lawrenceville will live on for many decades to come.

G Charles Henry Raymond bestows some wisdom.

G The Raymonds' namesake building.

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Family

Ties For some families, a

Lawrenceville education is like a prized heirloom, passed from one generation to the next.

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Photograph by Fred Fields

Phil Jordan ’50 H’61 ’96 P’85 ’90 & Phil Jordan ’85 “What I feel – and what both of my sons have said themselves – is that Lawrenceville is the most important part of my education.”

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Photograph by Donnelly Marks

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he invitation was unexpected. When Phil Jordan ’50 H’61 ’96 P’85 ’90 got the fateful call from Board President Peter Lawson-Johnson ’45 GP’95 ’98 ’15, he was on the verge of retiring from a long career in academia – which included two decades as president of Kenyon College, a stint as dean of the faculty at Connecticut College, and constant classroom teaching. Lawrenceville Head Master Si Bunting H’37 ’59 ’88 P’88 ’97 had just accepted a position as head of VMI (Virginia Military Institute). Would he succeed him? Jordan said yes.

It was not surprising that Jordan came back to the school he loved, because, really, he never quite left. After graduating in 1950 with the best academic record of his class, he continued to be linked to the campus – as a trustee, a two-time Lawrenceville parent, and a recipient of the 1996 Aldo Leopold Award.

“I was always involved with the School in one way or another, so I never looked back on my days as a student with a sense of nostalgia or loss,” he says. “What I feel – and what both of my sons have said themselves – is that Lawrenceville is the most important part of my education.

Lawrenceville provided us with the foundation for becoming the people we became.”

What prompted Jordan’s son, Religion and Philosophy Chair Phil Jordan ’85, to return to Lawrenceville was, in at least one way, similar to the circumstances behind his father’s return: Jordan didn’t seek the job; the job sought him.

He was in Japan, living in a Buddhist temple contemplating doctoral study in Asian religions when he got the call from Catherine Boczkowski H’80 ’11 P’89 ’91, then the School’s dean of faculty. The School needed a Buddhism teacher. Would he consider taking the job? Jordan said yes.

The younger Jordan’s return wasn’t much of a surprise either.

“I realized that the one thing that I’d rather do than be in Japan on a cultural adventure was to come back to the Harkness table and share what I gathered from both graduate school and my Japan years,” he says. “Lawrenceville has allowed me to be who I am and has challenged me to share that. I find very few parts of myself that don’t have expression here.”

The two Jordans’ faculty tenures never overlapped, but once the younger Jordan made his return to the Harkness, father and son achieved something historic: They were – and remain – the only Lawrenceville legacy alumni faculty in the School’s history.

Jordan ’50 came to Lawrenceville as a student because of geography; he lived along the Jersey Shore at a time when his local public high school sent very few graduates to college. His school was so weak compared with Lawrenceville that upon acceptance, Jordan was asked to repeat his sophomore year. “It didn’t come as a shock,” he says. “It turned out to be a benefit. It gave me a great foundation on the basic subjects.”

What he knew about Lawrenceville was first informed by his perusal of The Lawrenceville Stories. “Those books, read first by my father and his brothers, shaped my sense of the traditions of the School. I was familiar with The Jigger Shop and the colorful names of the masters and so on.”

There were still recognizable remnants from the days of Owen Johnson turn-of-the-century tales (the film adaptation of Johnson’s book, was filmed on campus when Jordan was a student). Masters called students by their last names, students responded with “sir.” “There was a more austere tone to things, a more authoritative tone to things,” he remembers. The

softer, more understanding side of Lawrenceville was a role best played by the housemaster’s wives. “They were very important in our lives,” he says.

The School has evolved, of course, but some traditions never change.

“The academic challenge was the greatest tradition. I found the classes very stimulating and engaging. I had always been a person who enjoyed learning things, so Lawrenceville was marvelous in that regard.”

When the younger Jordan was looking for a secondary school to attend, he was living in Ohio. He visited Lawrenceville, then Taft, and was about to visit Choate when the teen abruptly called off his search. He knew he wanted Lawrenceville.

For one thing, the campus felt eerily familiar. “At that time my father was president of Kenyon, which has a magical appearance and atmosphere. It has integrity as a campus. When I visited Lawrenceville, I was similarly struck by the unified aesthetic. This was a place of beauty in which the space itself somehow speaks something of the School’s values.”

Jordan’s grades weren’t stellar that first year (he, too, would be asked to repeat a year he had completed in public high school), but that was OK. “I wasn’t getting incredible grades, but I was getting incredible feedback.”

“When I came here, I knew this was the place where my father had begun to find himself and become who he would be. I liked who my father was. I was very proud of him as president of Kenyon and a leader of that community, but I wasn’t trying to mold myself according to him. My mother and father’s message to me – as well as Lawrenceville’s – was that this is a place where people learn how to be themselves. And that turned out to be so very true. At Lawrenceville I had a chance to craft my own identity and have those elements of who I was encouraged and affirmed.”

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Photograph by Donnelly Marks

larry leighton ’52 & leighton galvin ’16

Photograph by Donnelly Marks

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either of my parents made it past the eighth grade,” says Larry Leighton ’52. “While they were not by normal standards well educated, they were educationally focused. They put a high value on education, so when they heard about schools like Lawrenceville, they were very supportive. They wanted me to go.”

And so, with the assistance of Leighton’s aunt, a public school teacher in Queens who prepped him for the entrance exam, Leighton was accepted at Lawrenceville as a scholarship student.

“Once I got there,” he recalls. “I thought I died and went to heaven.”

Though Leighton’s place at Lawrenceville was well earned – “I never had a grade in public school below a 97,” he remembers – he soon found that he still had a bit to learn.

“I remember my first day vividly. I had lunch with two of my housemates at Hamill House. One was from Greece and the other was from Caracas and I made a bit of a faux pas. I knew people lived in those places, but I suppose I didn’t imagine teenagers lived there,” he says with a laugh. “I don’t know where I got that idea, but I thought they were pulling my leg. I accused them of that and they looked at me as if I had arrived from another planet. When I learned that they were from those places, I thought ‘No more faux pas for me.’ I made a vow to not speak for three months. If I listen for three months I’ll figure out what’s going on around here.”

One such thing he figured out was that his days of getting nothing lower than a 97 were over. History Master Jordan Churchill H’44, for one, gave him a grade considerably lower.

“I went to see him and he looked at me and said, ‘You don’t know how to read and write.’ I told him ‘That’s just not correct.’

I was 14 years old I certainly knew how to read and write. But he said, ‘You don’t know how to read and write critically. If you’re willing to spend some afternoons with me, I will prove it to you and I will help you.’ I give him enormous credit. I subsequently ended up with honors at Lawrenceville.”

Leighton hoped to provide his daughters the opportunity to go to Lawrenceville but, unlike peer schools Exeter and Andover, Lawrenceville was slow to convert to coeducation. By the time the School accepted its first female students in 1987, Leighton’s daughters were no longer teens.

By the time his grandson, Leighton Galvin ’16, began to research private schools, however, Leighton was conflicted; by all means he wanted Galvin to go to Lawrenceville, but he also wanted the boy to decide where he wanted to go on his own.

“I was always guarded about influencing him. I’m also a strong believer that students have a very good sense of what’s good for them and what they like. Also, my daughter was initially opposed to him going away to school. So I didn’t want to put any pressure on Leighton with regard to Lawrenceville.”

But Galvin’s grandfather was still an influence – though not an overt one. When Galvin was 10, he often visited campus with his grandfather to watch School hockey games. “If we were in the Princeton area, he would ask me if I would like to go see a game at Lawrenceville. We’d go, and he’d tell me stories about his times

And when Galvin is on breaks, he always makes a point to keep his grandfather up to speed on the latest Lawrenceville news. there,” Galvin recalls. “Those visits did influence my decision but I don’t think it was part of a master plan. He just wanted to show me where he went to School and where he spent a significant part of his life.”

As for Galvin, a Dickensonian and a member of the Class of 2016, he will continue to cultivate his own Lawrenceville memories, of course. Hitting the ground running as a third former, he has already made his mark on the varsity hockey and lacrosse teams, is on the Model UN, and is eager to find new ways to broaden his horizons.

And when Galvin is on breaks, he always makes a point to keep his grandfather up to speed on the latest Lawrenceville news.

“When he tells me what going on,” says Leighton, “I’m always impressed. I’m impressed with how the quality of athletics is so much greater than when I was there. And I’m impressed with how the School is on the cutting edge of education. It was a great place when I was there, and it is even greater now.”

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dara miles ’90 P’18, tom miles ’90 P’18 & ryan miles P’18

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Photograph by Tom Kutz

Ryan had wanted to be a Lawrentian for years – and pestered his parents on this issue with vigor.

S

ports injuries were the foundation on which Dara Williams ’90 and Tom Miles ’90 built their friendship. Dara pulled her hamstrings playing field hockey and Tom, Big Red’s quarterback, regularly needed to get his ankles taped. The teens fell into easy conversation while they held ice packs and elevated extremities.

They got to know each other over the course of their Fifth Form year. Tom taught Dara how to play golf. Dara, a car-owning day student would provide transportation for Tom and however many other bodies she could cram into her old BMW. The limit, she discovered, was nine.

Dara came to Lawrenceville as a third former in 1987, the first year women were admitted to campus. She doesn’t describe herself, then or now, as a daring person or a “let’s try new things” sort, but she found it difficult to pass up such an opportunity. Or, to be more accurate, “I couldn’t pass up the male/female ratio,” she says.

Tom, a native of Connecticut, came to Lawrenceville as a second former. He was familiar with the campus through his older brother, John ’84, and was eager to follow in his footsteps. He was also eager for the sea change that was about to occur on campus. It had been announced that Lawrenceville would become coeducational in 1987, his Third Form year.

“I was looking for a wife,” Tom jokes.

Despite their rapport, Dara and Tom wouldn’t be linked romantically until after they graduated. They reconnected over Alumni Weekend at their fifth reunion in 1995. Tom asked Dara to marry him two years later and chose the Lawrenceville campus for the proposal. They married shortly thereafter and, in 2000, gave birth to a son, Ryan ’18, who is thought to bear the distinction of being the very first child born to two Lawrenceville alums. In other words, just by being born, Ryan made history.

Through Ryan’s hard work and dedication, however, he earned another, far more noteworthy first in Lawrenceville history: He is the first child of two Lawrentians ever to be accepted as a student.

Ryan had wanted to be a Lawrentian for years – and pestered his parents on this issue with vigor. “My parents think I should be a lawyer,” he says with a laugh. “Not because I’m interested in the law, but because I’m persistent in my arguments.”

“And he usually wins,” Tom adds with a hint of weariness.

“Ryan started talking about wanting to go to Lawrenceville four years ago,” Dara recalls. “I couldn’t even think about it. He was 10 years old. We live in Connecticut. I couldn’t imagine his going away from home.”

When Ryan was 12, however, he attended The Nike Golf Camp at Lawrenceville headed by English Master Ron Kane ’83. Years ago, Kane coached Tom and taught Dara English. Seeing their son on campus and so happy to be there, watching him get instruction from one of their old teachers, made the idea seem OK. Better than OK. Dara and Tom were on board. Ryan applied and was accepted.

Ryan Miles will arrive for his first classes in the fall. He doesn’t know what lies ahead for him exactly – everyone’s Lawrenceville story is unique, after all – but the new second former is certain that Lawrenceville is where he belongs.

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EclecticElec tive The

L by Mike Allegra

he ne of t o e b to n’t get ols in o h You do c s ry seconda bit r e i m e ring a pr e f f o t u o st ld with This pa the wor . ’s R e hre ad an the t h t e r o atalog h m c e s r u o c ic year’s students academ g n i d i v ro sses, p a l c ptions o 6 8 e 2 v i t c ele ens of e z o d h t push th wi , e l u d e ch ent a s comfort r i to augm e h t side e ous out r u t n e v to pursu ad d e t f i g e h r allow t gree of e d zones, o a h wit ssions a p at of r i e th ivals th r t a h t ic rigor academ . the Ivies re le featu g n i s a y s no wa dth and a e There i r b e th explore ic y l l u f n academ ca ’s e l l i v e r Lawrenc er, offe v depth of e w o h n, r. It ca the a d n e l a c nse of e s a , s t r ke e of so ight ma a sampl m t a h t s offering f o e ment – g o n a m r a r fo – if only h s i w n. u yo ool agai h c s n i were that you

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photography by Jordan Hollender

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Letting One’s Garde Down Current Avant Garde Literature

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ne can be forgiven if the sounds emerging from English Master Deborah McKay’s H’85 ’88 ’94 ’14 P’97 classroom cause alarm. The ground vibrates with thunderous rhythmic drumming. Guttural singing reaches an almost deafening volume – only to be followed by “tortured monkey shrieks,” which pass the “deafening” threshold with relative ease.

Paper is torn in a manner described as a “symphonic poem,” the scraps of which are hurled or stuffed into the folds of one’s clothing.

This curious activity takes place only in the first few minutes of McKay’s class, but the results are nothing short of seismic. At first, the students’ enthusiasm for taking part is, if not exactly half-hearted, certainly selfconscious. After a minute or so, however, the uneasy sideways glances give way to smiles, then laughs. Soon, even the most jaded teen has given in to her primal impulses.

Everyone present has fully embraced the weirdness and McKay is delighted. A person cannot be expected to discuss wild creativity without first getting a little wild, she explains.

Current Avant Garde Literature can now begin. Oh, and don’t let the drumming fool you, this honors course is not all fun and games; it requires students to comment on and write copiously about an armload of alternative literature – the relatively conventional illustrated novel The Invention of Hugo

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Francophilms Honors French Cinema

Cabret, the letter swapping narrative of Griffin & Sabine, the graphic novel Maus, and a number of other works that, in most cases, defy categorization or explanation.

If the Catchers, the Caesars, and the Gatsbys are the entrees of an English lit diet, then McKay’s offerings are tasty appetizers. “By the time most students become seniors, the creativity is pretty much beaten out of them,” she notes. “This literature is meant to inspire it. I want to make sure their hair catches fire.”

That inspiration is necessary, as students aren’t just asked to analyze the Avant Garde, but also to come up with some of their own.

Student journals, which can run for a hundred pages or more, are expected to be works of art – and they are. Sketches, painting, mosaics, free form poetry. Some journals give their bindings a workout, bulging with collages.

Others stink of spray mount. Others are fussy and pristine masterpieces. Each one reflects the inner life of each artist.

These journals are certainly a far cry from where the students’ minds were on the very first day of class – when more than a few of them questioned the legitimacy of the Avant Garde. By the end of the 10-week course, each of the students has come to see not only the pleasure and the literary merits of the genre, but also their own Avant Garde talents flourish.

And so the joyous tortured monkey sounds continue.

B

rian Jacobs’ French I class is a jampacked roomful of giggling second formers making flawed yet valiant attempts to conjugate verbs on Pop Hall’s marker boards. Jacobs presides over the din with amusement and quiet control, but it is clear once 2 p.m. rolls around – and the last of the underclassmen file out – he looks upon what comes next with anticipation.

In addition to being a fluent speaker, Jacobs is a cinephile and his elective, Honors

French Cinema, reflects this devotion. During the one-term course he covers the whole of French filmmaking, beginning at the dawn of the era with Georges Méliès silent classics such as A Trip to the Moon, through the iconic French Surrealist and New Wave movements, to the present day. He expects his charges to review the films and converse intelligently about them as well as provide essays on what they had seen. In contrast with French I, the discourse is a considerably lower key affair

– no writing on the board, no boisterousness, and, above all, no English. If you can’t say it in French, you can’t say it.

Once students begin to file into the room they, on cue, remove segments of the modular Harkness table to create a circle to better accommodate the smaller class and encourage more intimate, thoughtful exchanges.

This day’s discussion is on the 2011 film, The Intouchables. The story is about an aristocrat who, in becoming a quadriplegic in a hang-gliding accident, hires a young black man from the projects to serve as his nurse.

Wasting little time, the class delves into conversations about the cinematography, music, and character arcs and development. The lion’s share of class time, however, is devoted to the charges of racism that dogged the film upon its American release.

The students analyze how the two countries could view the film’s themes so very differently. (A Le Figaro article read in class comments in a tone of sheer bewilderment that Variety found the film to engage in blatant stereotypes.) Students point out scenes that were singled out for such charges, including ones in which Driss, the nurse, was shown to be violent, lascivious, and a drug user.

In the end it was largely agreed that the accusations of racism were less about the film’s content than the culture of the countries viewing it. America’s history of subjugating African-Americans would, not surprisingly, prompt greater racial sensitivity than in France. Not that France didn’t subjugate Africans, too, Jacobs explains; they were just a step removed from the injustice, doing the bulk of their subjugating in colonial Africa rather than in France.

Through it all, the discussion demonstrates that Jacobs’ aspiring film critics are more than capable of holding their own intellectually, even when their opinions are not communicated in their native tongue. The enthusiasm, the back and forth, and the cogent expression of ideas is obvious – not only in the way the students speak and respond to one another, but also in the expression on Jacobs’ face which remains thoughtful and focused. Aside from an occasional prompt to keep the conversation lively, he volunteers little – especially when one of his charges asks for an opinion. Jacobs already knows his own opinion, he wants to know what they think. So in response to such queries he simply replies with an amused, knowing smile and a Gallic shrug.

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The Big Score Statistical Reasoning in Sports

I

t is a sign of the changing times that the iconic floor-to-ceiling chalkboards in the Corby Math Building go largely ignored in favor of the smart board. This is especially true in room #68. Every pair of student eyes look to the screen to see who will be selected by the random name generator, a whimsical app that precedes each selection with an anticipatory drumroll.

“The winner is…” announces Math Master John Schiel H’78 P’97 ’08 ’10 with a genial smirk. A computerized cymbal crashes.

“Brandon!”

And so the winner – or victim – lopes to the head of the class to present his solution to a statistics problem.

He analyzed the scoring percentages of Miami Heat players to determine the relationship between a player’s height and his ability to play the game. As his graph demonstrates, the relationship between height and scoring shows a correlation, but one so small that is statistically insignificant and can easily be explained away by a host of variables. A correlation between height and rebounds, however, does raise an eyebrow; that relationship is 10 times greater than height and scoring.

Schiel likes what he hears. “But I’d be more comfortable with that figure if it was a sampling from the NBA rather than a single team.”

The next student to be on the receiving end of the smart board’s drumroll, presents a graph of Barry Sanders’ rushing totals, showing off a jagged, yet upward trend from 1990 to 1997.

“What could that mean?” Schiel queries the class, pacing the front of the room like a coach during halftime.

“Better offensive line,” one shouts.

“Yes!” “Better playing conditions!”

“Right!” Schiel beams. “Or, hey,” he volunteers. “Maybe Barry just got better!”

Welcome to Statistical Reasoning in Sports, an honors course where students are not just asked for results through formulas and graphs,

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but also their response to the question, “What’s the ESPN story here?”

It’s a lively way to communicate statistics for sure, one that attracts a student who is both an athlete and math geek, which – despite the numerous prerequisites needed to be considered for this class – is apparently not that rare a commodity. Every chair lined up against those unused chalkboards is occupied.

The stats continue. A student graphs the standard deviation on the winning percentages in Major League Baseball. Another discusses tennis. Another running.

And another student looks at Mark McGwire’s home run totals. As his graph indicates, they slip downward from one season to the next until 1993 when, at the nadir of his career, McGwire’s numbers launch skyward,

Poor Decisions indicating along an X and Y axis the exact moment the major leaguer decided to augment his talents by way of a needle. A little thrill resonates throughout the class as the damning evidence is laid out in black and white. It’s official: A few astute calculations can lay a man’s transgressions bare.

It’s nearly as exciting as watching The Big Game.

Poverty in the Developing World

W

hen History Master Kris Schulte P’15 concentrates, she leans far forward, hunching down low over her Harkness table, her elbows on her thighs, her fingers interlaced, and her chin inches from the tabletop.

Schulte assumes this Rodin-esque pose as Megan Reilly ’14 and Kennedy Levee ’14 stand before the class to present their laundry list of Haiti’s varied and persistent problems.

The corruption there is rampant, they note. Things are so bad that the casual observer can be forgiven for thinking the country is cursed. Just as the post-Baby Doc Duvalier era seemed to be bearing fruit, in 2010 Haiti was hit with a devastating earthquake from which the country has yet to recover. Despite the $4.6 billion in cash and goods that was donated in the wake of the disaster, less than 40 percent went toward the recovery effort – with much of the aid finding its way into private hands or onto the black market.

“The Dominican Republic shares the island with Haiti,” Schulte says. “It shares a border. Why doesn’t that country have the same level of poverty as its neighbor?”

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“Poverty has a strong correlation to corruption,” Levee replies. “And the Dominican Republic generates more wealth through tourism,” a revenue generating strategy that Baby Doc actively discouraged.

This is Poverty in the Developing World, a new course in which students evaluate the root causes of poverty in selected countries and develop strategies to possibly improve the lot of the poor. In addition to Haiti, the six-student class delves into the struggles of India and Tanzania and, as Schulte takes to the whiteboard, it is clear that all three share many problems. Lack of Education, she writes. Unstable Employment. Healthcare Issues. Gender Inequality. Lack of Infrastructure. Despite the similarities, however, Schulte explains, due to geography, culture, and politics, each country may require very different approaches to solve these problems.

“And there’s another problem,” she adds, “Most countries are resistant to an outsider telling them how to behave.” This is especially true if an impoverished country’s values differ from our own.

This pushes the conversation into a gray area. Ridding a country of poverty is not only about kicking around abstract platitudes such as improving education and rebuilding infrastructure, but also the nittygritty of implementing grandiose ideas in a way that would be economically and practically feasible while not being perceived as condescending.

The key, Levee suggests, is to recruit locals in the communities to lead the charge. This, however, presents its own set of questions: How does one recruit locals? How does one balance local and outside help? What is a country like the U.S. supposed to do if and when these recruits begin to diverge from America’s value system?

And, in a country where the citizenry knows little more than disappointment and despair, how does one motivate the people? How does one convince the locals that This Time It Will Be Different?

Poverty is not an easy thing to eliminate. That’s why there’s so much of it. And that is why these Lawrenceville students have their work cut out for them.

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The Story of Everything Journey of the Universe

R

eligion and Philosophy Master Tom Collins has the syrupy smooth voice of the prototypical laid-back Southern gentleman, which he is.

When an important point needs to be emphasized, however – and in his honors class, Journey of the Universe, no points are unimportant – his voice booms.

“The Earth is 5 billion years old,” he exclaims, his words echoing off the walls of his Pop Hall classroom. “We’re nothing! Will the Earth do OK without us? For most of its life it has.”

As the course name implies, Journey of the Universe is designed to tackle big questions such as: Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? But if the course has one takeaway it is a plea for humility.

“Most know that the Earth is not the center of the universe, but we don’t act that way,” Collins observes. “Think of the way we use language. For example: ‘The sun rises in the east.’”

He lets the remark sink in. And indeed it does, as each student recognizes the egocentricity of a statement that hasn’t been justified since before the days of Galileo.

The course was created and fine-tuned by Collins at his previous school, Palmer Trinity in Florida, and was the result of research he conducted with scholars at Yale. At Lawrenceville, the two-term course meets four times a week – three times around the Harkness to discuss big ideas and assigned readings, and a Saturday class out in the woods with the Director of Teaching, Learning and Educational Partnerships Kevin Mattingly

P’99 ’01. After all, what better way is there to learn about the world we live in than to go outside and observe it?

Today’s class discussion is on climate change. “Why, in the face of such overwhelming evidence, is no one doing anything about it?” Collins asks.

“Because we have a dominant worldview,” one student says. “Consumerism. Stuff.”

“Advertising has been around longer than talk of global warming,” adds another. “It’s more immediate.”

“And we’re used to advertising,” Collins says. “On average we see 5,000 ads a day.

Think about it. When I wake up, I turn off my alarm clock. There is a logo on the clock. I put on my slippers. There is a label in the slippers.

There’s a label on the robe I wear, there’s a logo carved in the soap. And it goes on and on all day long.”

Every aspect of a person’s development – education, career, earning money – is to sate one’s desire for stuff. And because the pattern has been in place for a while now, there is an unearned presumption that the resources to create that stuff are infinite.

“Is everything for sale?” Collins asks, letting the question hang there for a while.

Answers of “No,” arrive only after an uncomfortable silence and are uttered with less than complete certainty.

Collins then turns the screw. “Are you for sale?” Pause. “How happy would your mother be if you married a billionaire?”

“I’d be happy,” one student replies, and the resulting laughs break the tension.

It’s all very much a downer, until one student takes the long view. “If there is one thing I learned about The Universe Story, it’s the dynamism of it. The universe is never stagnant.” In other words the overconsumption path we’re on can always change and adapt.

Collins’ booming voice is silent. The teacher smiles. Perhaps understanding the universe may not be as daunting as one might imagine.

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9 Alumni News 9

F Lawrenceville alumni and parents gathered for a Benefactors Dinner hosted by Trustee Judith-Ann Corrente H’01 P’98 ’01 at the Four Seasons Hong Kong.

A In February, local Lawrenceville Legends (those who have already celebrated their 55th reunion) gathered for an open house coffee and tour of Foundation House.

F In March, AAEC Vice President Jen Staikos ’91 hosted a dinner for local volunteers and their spouses at Foundation House. First row: Carrie Casey, Meghan Hall Donaldson ’90, Katy Dubbs Terry ’91, and Jen Ridley Staikos ’91; second row: Mollie Moran Sheppard ’91, Joanna Weinstein Partridge ’91, Ryan Donaldson, and Robert Sheppard; third

row: Bobby Casey ’92, Lukas Partridge, Andy Terry, and Bill Staikos.

A Deirdre Ehret ’06, Kate Bennett ’06, Kirby Culbertson ’06, Meghan Bush ’06, and Kate Culbertson ’13 caught up at St. Francis Yacht Club.

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9 By The Numbers

student Money spent on Jigger Shop chocolate chip cookies annually (est.)

11 years

Annual food budget

18,420 endowment

Lawrenceville’s

percent of

Size (in millions) of

in 2013 — 15

budget (in millions)

(in millions)

budget (in millions)

School debt

Annual financial aid

over the past

2,000,000

Annual operating

189

Big red giving day total

325

66.9 12.0

628,984 (in millions)

ledger

Big red giving day goal

Funds raised

lawrenceville'S

200,000

360

55

2003 endowment

3.83 The endowment

percent of

67

in 2003 — 35

2013 endowment

(in millions)

Lawrenceville’s

School debt

Size (in millions) of

15,435,000 Annual physical plant budget (not including benefits)

Lawrenceville

17.2

Annual educational expenses (in millions)

Fund (TLF) and The Lawrenceville Parents Fund (TLPF) totals in 2003 (in millions)

5.54 The TLF and TLPF totals in 2013 (in millions)

9 Student Shot

95*

by Natalie Tung ’14

Lawrentian THE

usps no. 306-700 the Lawrenceville School Lawrenceville, New Jersey 08648 Parents of alumni: If this magazine is addressed to a son or daughter who no longer maintains a permanent address at your home, please e-mail us at vavanisko@lawrenceville.org with his or her new address. Thank you!