The Lawrentian- Summer 2017

Lawrentian THE

SUMMER 2017

A RELIABLE Middle East correspondent Jane Ferguson ’04 stays calm under fire.

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FEATURES

DEPARTMENTS

24 On the Cover: Jane Ferguson ’04 is living her journalistic dreams.

Photo by Donnelly Marks

24 REMEMBERING “COACHIE” Recalling the beloved Ed Poreda H’57 ’61 ’63 ’67 ’69 ’70 ’89 P’77 GP’04 ’07 ’08 , who coached Big Red runners for 63 years.

26 A RELIABLE SOURCE PBS NewsHour’s Middle East correspondent Jane Ferguson ’04 is calm under fire.

32 FAKE NEWS!* Lawrenceville legends that are absolutely, positively not true … *unless they are.

36 ALUMNI WEEKEND

2 FROM THE HEAD MASTER 3 EDITOR’S NOTE 4 A THOUSAND WORDS Students celebrated the Hindu spring festival of Holi, known for its colorful fun.

6 NEWS IN BRIEF A new CFO, A hair-razing challenge, The Crescent charts a new path with Corrente Walk.

12 ON THE ARTS Spring Dance Concert takes a ‘Turn,’ Carothers’ art colors Alumni Weekend

14 SPORTS ROUNDUP 16 GO BIG RED! A coaching tradition ends with the retirement of Rusty Hlavacek H’95 P’06 ’08

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TAKE THIS JOB AND LOVE IT

18 TAKE THIS JOB AND LOVE IT Kearney McDonnell ’12 facilitates artistic opportunities for people in prison.

20 TABLE TALK Q&A with visual arts chair Allen Fitzpatrick ’73 H’85 ’89 P’99 ’04

22 ASK THE ARCHIVIST Valorous young Lawrentians absconded from School to help slow the Confederate charge.

41 TIME WAS… 92 BY THE NUMBERS Lawrenceville’s new electronic ‘front step’ is a web of intrigue.

93 STUDENT SNAP

ALUMNI

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42 CLASS NOTES

ON THE ARTS

SPORTS ROUNDUP

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FROM THE HEAD MASTER • NOTES FROM COMMENCEMENT 2017

“We spend a great deal of time fretting about the current state of affairs in the world, perhaps rightly so, but watching these talented young people set out into the world, I am greatly reassured, even optimistic.”

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espite predictions of heavy rain, we held Commencement for the Class of 2017 in the Bowl under blue skies. We even managed to arrange for a gentle breeze to keep everyone cool under the warm, late-May sun. It was a rather fitting final moment for the members of this especially warm-hearted, spirited, highly accomplished graduating class. I welcomed those assembled with a brief reflection, which I share below. We spend a great deal of time fretting about the current state of affairs in the world, perhaps rightly so, but watching these talented young people set out into the world, I am greatly reassured, even optimistic.

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ood morning! Students, faculty, staff, trustees, alumni, and especially families of the Class of 2017. It is a pleasure to gather with all of you on this momentous occasion to celebrate both the achievements of this remarkable group of graduates, and also to recognize the guidance and nurturing they have received from their teachers, coaches, and housemasters – some of the finest educators I have ever had the privilege to call colleagues.

We often take time at these threshold moments, these ritual passages, to pause and to reflect. So, allow me to open with a thought.

In his book titled Collapse, historian Jared Diamond analyzes factors that led to spectacular failures of various human communities throughout history. From Easter Island to the Soviet Union; from the Mayans of the Yucatán to the Carthaginians of North Africa.

Apparently, for example, the remote Norse settlement of Greenland – beginning in A.D. 984 – led a hardscrabble existence while it persisted and endured for a time; then, due to an inability to adapt to a range of factors, including climate change, the colony collapsed. The answers were within reach, right in front of them, in fact. Had they collaborated or learned from their fellow Inuit living on Greenland, their end might have been quite different. But in being too oriented to a European mindset and likely disdainful of the Native Americans, they were unable or unwilling to change, and they met their demise.

What can we learn from this?

It is trite to comment on "our rapidly changing world," but we do seem to be at an extraordinary juncture, where

access to information is exploding, and this in turn seems to be accelerating exponentially the pace of change.

The recurring questions for educators lie in how to prepare young people for the world ahead. The truth is that we have little idea what that world will look like in ten years or what careers will be available, let alone twentyfive or fifty years from now.

I do have faith, however, that your Lawrenceville education has equipped you with the willingness and perhaps even more so, the courage, to adapt, unlike the Norse.

It may be that the best preparation is to give you the confidence and the tools to get involved when you can effect a positive change, and the flexibility and wisdom to adapt when you can’t.

And knowing you as I do, I am quite certain that in either case, you will not sit passively as challenges arise; you will not miss seeing solutions that are right there within reach; and that you will use your confident voices not only to participate effectively, but to lead in the important debates of your time. This I find most reassuring.

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atching this year’s Fifth Form cheer each other on as we catalogued their accomplishments at the Prize Ceremony, sensing their soulful reverence at Baccalaureate, witnessing their tearful, heartfelt goodbyes in the art gallery inside the Gruss Center of Visual Art on that final Saturday night, we are indeed unleashing a force for good out into the world. And if their collective, determined performance during the last four years is any indication, they will indeed make a positive and lasting impact when it is their turn. I hear cynical views from time to time about the current batch of millennials that we are raising.

I just don’t see it – not here at least. As I say, all things considered, I remain an optimist.

Sincerely,

Stephen S. Murray H’55 ’65 ’16 P’16 ’21 The Shelby Cullom Davis ’26 Head Master

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Lawrentian S U M M E R 2 0 1 7 | VO LU M E 8 2 N U M B E R 3 PUBLISHER JENNIFER SZWALEK EDITOR SEAN RAMSDEN ART DIRECTOR PHYLLIS LERNER STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER PALOMA TORRES PROOFREADERS ROB REINALDA ’76 LINDA HLAVACEK SILVER H’59 ’61 ’62 ’63 ’64 GP’06 ’08 CONTRIBUTORS KATHERINE BIRKENSTOCK PETER G. BORG ANDREA FERESHTEH EDEN FESSEHA ’19 HENRY GOLUB ’18 LISA M. GILLARD HANSON JACQUELINE HAUN BARBARA HORN HUNTER KORN '19 SEAN LEE '19 DONNELLY MARKS NISH NALBANDIAN JEROME STUDER JAMES WELLEMEYER ’18

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 sramsden@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.

Visit us on the web at www.lawrenceville.org. www.lawrenceville.org/alumni/the-lawrentian POSTMASTER

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

EDITOR'S NOTE

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n between Commencement and the flurry of summer camps and programs, the campus of The Lawrenceville School is muted in a way that even many of its alumni would not recognize. The familiar grounds take on a stillness that almost allows you to hear the whispers of the past if you listen – and look – closely.

Inside Woods Memorial Hall, affixed to the long front wall of the first floor, is a row of large, white marble tablets. They run chronologically from left to right, commemorating masters who have served Lawrenceville for twenty-five years or longer. Carved neatly and uniformly in the stone is a long string of names, the earliest of which reach far back before anyone’s living memory. These names are accompanied by the years in which they began their service, followed by another marking the end of their tenure at the School. The tablets fixed toward the right of this elegant display feature many names the youngest Lawrentians know well, including those whose careers endure, their entries on the tablets patiently incomplete.

But as your eye moves left, those sets of dates all become double-ended and final.

Sliding further down the hall, you begin to read names you might only recall from the black-and-white pages of Olla Podridas past.

And then you see just one line whose second date remains uninscribed, a blank space following the year “1954,” belonging to a familiar name: Edward J. Poreda.

Sadly, that blank space can be filled now. We know that “2017” marks the year Lawrenceville lost Ed “Coachie” Poreda H’57 ’61 ’63 ’67 ’69 ’70 ’89 P’77 GP’04 ’07 ’08 to an automobile accident. He was 90 years old, and was set to have his boys’ cross country runners defend their 2016 Mid-Atlantic Prep League championship this fall. It’s one thing to say that Poreda mentored Big Red runners for an astounding sixty-three years, but you might also consider it this way: Coachie’s final team featured boys born during the presidency of George W. Bush, but he also coached men born during the first years Franklin D. Roosevelt GP’57 occupied the White House. That first squad ran during the Eisenhower era, and some have now surpassed the age of 80. And in all those years, Coachie had yet to hang up his whistle.

If cross country is all about stamina, it would be hard to match the endurance of Ed Poreda. Whether you count the miles he logged, the years he coached, or the ways in which he’ll be fondly recalled by generations of runners, the record shows that he leaves Lawrenceville a champion for all time.

All the best,

Sean Ramsden Editor sramsden@lawrenceville.org Setting the Record Straight The photo on the back cover of the spring 2017 issue of The Lawrentian should have credited Philip Gow ’17.

Class Notes submissions from Bob O’Grady ’53 and Led Gardner ’53 were inadvertently omitted from a previous issue of The Lawrentian. They appear on page 48 here.

The editor apologizes for these oversights.

All rights reserved.

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A THOUSAND WORDS

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THROWING SHADES

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Photograph by Olalla Duato '18

The Hindu spring festival of Holi, also known as the “Festival of Colors,” has become popular with many non-Hindus for one simple reason: It’s a lot of fun. A day to play and laugh, aided by thrown handfuls of colored powder and spraying water, Holi struck just the right tone with Lawrenceville students this spring.

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NEWS IN BRIEF TEDx Takes Residence at L’ville For years, TED Talks have engaged audiences, sometimes going viral on YouTube by sharing “Ideas Worth Spreading.” Convinced that Lawrenceville had more than a few great ideas of its own to share, Kalah Brown ’19 and Ally Stonum ’18 managed to obtain the highly sought TEDx designation for the School, permitting it to host TED events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience on campus. The

Clark’s Research Featured

“x” signifies that the event is independently organized, but licensed by the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) media organization. Lawrenceville’s inaugural TEDx Talk, themed “Our Future,” debuted in May, with Eve Brewer ’18, Damla

Science Master John L. Clark was

Ozdemir ’19, Cameron Desnoes ’19, and Shaezmina Khan ’19 speaking to fellow

part of a research team whose work

students in the Heely Room of Woods Memorial Hall.

was published in the biological sciences journal Proceedings of the

RAMSAY-BURROUGH A PRESIDENTIAL SCHOLAR

Royal Society B and later featured

HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS SELECTED AS A 2017 U.S. PRESIDENTIAL SCHOLAR. THE WHITE HOUSE COMMISSION

as a “Research Highlight” on Na-

ON PRESIDENTIAL SCHOLARS SELECTS SCHOLARS ANNUALLY BASED ON THEIR ACADEMIC SUCCESS, ARTISTIC

ture.com. The article, “Hummingbird pollination and the diversification of angiosperms: an old and successful association in Gesneriaceae,” which Clark authored with four collaborators, originally appeared in the April 12 issue of the journal, published by The Royal Society, a fellowship of eminent scientists and the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence.

Clark and his co-authors generated molecular sequence data for over 500 plant species in Latin America in order to look at “diversification shifts through time and correlated rapid rates of speciation humming-

MAXWELL RAMSAY-BURROUGH ’17 IS ONE OF JUST 161

EXCELLENCE, ESSAYS, SCHOOL EVALUATIONS AND TRANSCRIPTS, AS WELL AS EVIDENCE OF COMMUNITY SERVICE, LEADERSHIP, AND DEMONSTRATED COMMITMENT TO HIGH IDEALS. THERE WERE MORE THAN 5,100 QUALIFIED CANDIDATES THIS YEAR FROM AMONG THE NATION’S 3.5 MILLION GRADUATING SENIORS.

Good Sport!

Khatumu Tuchscherer ’19 received the 2016 United States Tennis Association (USTA) Middle States Sportsmanship Award in the Girls’ 16s division. “Sportsmanship not only makes the game enjoyable, but also allows for friendly competitiveness. This is award is a reflection of the diligent effort made by my parents and coaches to instill in me sportsmanship on and off the tennis court,” Tuchscherer said. “The recognition of sportsmanship as a valuable attribute by the USTA has also made the game healthier, especially for younger players.”

bird pollination,” he said.

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Debate Club for the Win! The paired teams of Anika Bagaria ’20 and Riley Rogerson ’18; Kevin Xiao ’19 and Rishi Bagaria ’19; Casey Rogerson ’20 and Allison Chou ’19; and Damla Ozdemir ’19 and Melody Leung ’19 led Lawrenceville to victory

THOMPSON ELECTED SCHOOL PRESIDENT Brianna Thompson ’18 was elected School president for the 2017-18 academic year.

Thompson’s platform was centered on creating a Lawrenceville where all students have the opportunity to contribute their beliefs, opinions, ideas, and talents at the Harkness table and outside of the classroom. Thompson hopes to highlight Lawrenceville’s diversity of opinions and cultures by initiating more social activities, theme days, and “minute-to-win-it” – Eden Fesseha '19 games during School meeting.

when the Speech and Debate Club hosted the inaugural Lawrenceville Classic, a public forum debate tournament, in April. Students debated the merits of the U.S. Electoral College against students from the Hill School and West Windsor-Plainsboro (N.J.) High School South.

Four judges from Princeton University, including Lawrenceville’s new debate coach, Carolyn Beard, decided the results.

– James Wellemeyer '18

TALKING BASEBALL WITH WONG

Author Stephen Wong ’85 returned to Lawrenceville in April to discuss his new book, Game Worn: Baseball Treasures from the Game’s Greatest Heroes and Moments, an illustrated history of the most significant and coveted baseball uniforms worn by players in the 20th century. Wong showcased selected uniforms from his own extensive collection inside the Bunn Library.

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Jones Tapped for All-America Game Chloe Jones ’17 was one of just 44 girls’ high school lacrosse players in the United States selected to play in the 2017 Under Armour All-America Lacrosse game on July 1 at Towson University. The talented midfielder will continue her lacrosse career at the University of Virginia next year.

NEW RECORD AT PENN RELAYS THE GIRLS’ 4X400-METER RELAY TEAM BLAZED ITS WAY TO A SCHOOL RECORD IN APRIL AT THE PRESTIGIOUS PENN RELAYS AT HISTORIC FRANKLIN FIELD IN PHILADELPHIA. ARIEL CLAXTON ’17, TESS MALONEY ’18, SIDNEY SWEARINGEN ’17, AND AMY ARIRIGUZOH ’20 CLOCKED IN AT A SPEEDY 3:58.88 TO TOP THE PREVIOUS STANDARD.

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A ‘TELLING’ HONOR The Lawrentian was honored with a CUPPIE Award for creative excellence in marketing and communications in education. “The Tell-Tale Art,” which appeared in the “Ask the Archivist” section of the winter 2016 Lawrentian, took silver honors in the Writing – Creative Headline category. The CUPPIE Awards are presented annually by CUPRAP (College and University Public Relations and Associated Professionals), an organization of communications professionals from colleges, universities, and independent schools, with nearly 350 members from 100 institutions. Last year, The Lawrentian earned top CUPRAP honors for creative headlines and an honorable mention in the category of feature articles.

REACHING OUT TO YOUNG SCHOLARS

Danea Dutton and Geraldine Eure of YSI, Sam Cabot ’17, YSI founder Jerri Morrison, and Rikki Schlott ’17

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Lawrenceville’s student-run Community Reach Out (CRO) club issued a $20,000 grant to the Young Scholars Institute (YSI) of Trenton, New Jersey.

YSI provides educational, cultural, and recreational activities for Trenton students in grades pre-K through 12. Funding for this grant was provided through an annual donation to CRO by the Elbridge and Debra Stuart Family Foundation.

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Ben Hammond Named CFO Ben Hammond has joined the administration of The Lawrenceville School as its chief financial officer (CFO).

He began work on July 1.

Hammond returns to central New Jersey after six years in Massachusetts, where he has served as vice president for finance and administration and treasurer at Wellesley College, from 2013 to 2017, and in a similar role at Mount Holyoke College from 2011 to 2013.

From 2002 to 2011, he served as a senior administrator at Princeton University in a series of roles with increasing responsibility, most recently as executive director of Finance and Administrative Services for the Facilities division. Earlier in his career, he was a management consultant at McKinsey. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where he earned an M.B.A., and Harvard College, where he earned a B.A. in history and literature, magna cum laude.

As Lawrenceville’s CFO, Hammond will have primary responsibility for the School’s financial management, endowment operations, risk management, legal affairs, auxiliary business management and development, and "town-gown" relations. He will also be an officer of the School, serving as secretary to Lawrenceville’s Board of Trustees and as the administration’s liaison to the Board’s Finance, Investment, Legal, Trustees, and Audit and Risk committees.

“Ben displays real intellectual depth, having both a humanities and finance background, and he has had a significant tenure understanding and managing

the financial model of private educational institutions.

He clearly understands in a hands-on way how the CFO’s guidance affects school culture, workplace morale, and overall revenue strategy,” said Head Master Stephen S. Murray H’55 ’65 ’16 P’16 ’21. “He has had specific experience in a broad array of areas, including strengthening financial sustainability and transparency, reaffirming a commitment to need-blind financial aid, building strong relations with faculty, and improving operations and service.”

Hammond was eager to begin following his April appointment.

“Joining Lawrenceville as its next CFO is a dream job for me. The School’s mission and intentional approach to education – through House and Harkness – have never been more fundamental,” he said. “I grew up on the campus of a peer institution (Phillips Exeter Academy), and Harkness teaching has had a profound influence on me. The Lawrenceville School is remarkable, and everyone has been so welcoming. My family and I are delighted to be joining the community.”

– Lisa M. Gillard Hanson

HAIR TODAY, GONE TOMORROW Blake Eldridge ’96 H’12, dean of students, issued a hair-razing challenge to Lawrentians in February: Raise $20,000 for St. Baldrick’s Foundation and he would permit them to shave and shape his coif into a Mohawk-style cut. Better than the task, the community raised a whopping $20,840.79 to benefit the nonprofit, which is committed to finding cures for childhood cancer. More than a dozen students, faculty – and even a faculty child – collected pledges and shaved their heads in solidarity with young cancer patients. Stylists from the Mane Design Hair Salon in Lawrenceville volunteered to oversee the haircutting, and Eldridge happily lived up to his end of the bargain, submitting to the eager clippers in March.

Acing Science Emma Dasgupta ’17, Darren Shum ’17, Panos Vandris ’17, and Ricky Williams ’17 earned awards in the 2016-17 Delaware Valley Science Council Science Competition.

Vandris claimed the competition’s highest honor, the Reuben Shaw Memorial Award, while Dasgupta earned the Excellence in Science Award. Shum and Williams each received a Science Achievement

prize. The competition draws high school juniors from more than 300 schools in Southeastern Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey, and Delaware, who are interviewed by local scientists and engineers and judged not only on their expertise in science, but also on their poise, communication skills, and other interests.

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CORRENTE WALK:

THE CRESCENT CHARTS A NEW PATH Some 30 years after transforming the campus map by providing an equivalent to Lawrenceville’s fabled Circle Houses, the Crescent and its environs continue to evolve in harmony with the rest of the School’s distinctive landscape.

The latest progress was formalized on May 4 during Alumni Weekend with the ribbon-cutting dedication of Corrente Walk, a gift from Lawrenceville trustee Judith-Ann Corrente H’01 P’98 ’01 and her daughter, Corrie Schankler ’98.

Corrente, whose term on the Lawrenceville Board ended in May, had held the leadership position since 1998. The stone-block-lined pedestrian walkway replaces the former Crescent road, creating a tranquil, park-like plaza that incorporates the Bath House Café and the expansive green space behind Bunn Library.

“I know that we as a group don’t normally think of transformational gifts in terms of landscaping, but this is indeed a beautiful and significant transformation, and a really lovely legacy,” said Corrente, whose efforts to elevate the status of the Crescent are rooted in the 2003 Crescent House Initiative, intended to endow the Houses. “I am deeply honored to have it named ‘Corrente.’”

Corrente traced the progress that began with that initiative, including the construction of Carter House following the bicentennial campaign and the addition of welcoming porches to the Crescent Houses, which she called “not only useful, but symbolic in the stature that they brought to those buildings, as well.”

Most recently, Corrente continued, last spring’s dedication of the Bath House Café and Terrace made it “apparent that the center of campus life had begun to shift towards the Crescent,” she said. “Now, finally, the Walk brings a new equilibrium to campus.”

Schankler, Corrente’s daughter who lived in Stanley House before graduating in 1998, acknowledged her mother’s tireless dedication to making the Crescent an integral part of campus life for all students.

“My mom has worked tirelessly to make

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Top: Thomas Carter ’70 P’01 ’05, Corrie Schankler ’98, Judith-Ann Corrente H’01 P’98 ’01, and Head Master Stephen Murray H’55 ’65 ’16 P’16 ’21 cut the ribbon to officially open Corrente Walk in May. Right: Corrie Schankler ’98 and husband Nathaniel Hunt with their children; Terence R. Kooyker ’01; and Judith-Ann Corrente H’01 P’98 ’01 and her husband, Willem Kooyker P’98 ’01.

Lawrenceville the best place it can be for a new generation of students,” said Schankler, now the director of The Monteforte Foundation, Inc. “Corrente Walk is just the physical manifestation of the work that she has done.”

Outgoing Board of Trustees President Thomas Carter ’70 P’01 ’05 said that while Corrente Walk has elevated the status of the Crescent, it also “has moved Lawrenceville a step closer to the goal of a carless core and provides an example of how this vision might one day be achieved.”

The consequence of Corrente Walk – both symbolic and physical – is already being felt

among the alumnae who spent their student years living there and who now serve the advancement of the School.

“Judith is an inspiration. She truly is the gold standard, for she has not just modeled excellence and demonstrated loyalty to each one of us, she has done that for our School,” said Whitney Hailand Brown ’91, who is beginning a term as vice president of the Board. “Judith has made a singular impact on its direction. She has made Lawrenceville into a school that better reflects her own deeply held values; a school of which we can all be even more proud.”

– Barbara Horn contributed to this report

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BIG RED GOES TO COLLEGE In May, the School recognized Lawrentians who will continue their careers as student-athletes next year at some of the nation’s finest colleges and universities. Not every student who will continue his/her career as a collegiate student-athlete was available for the accompanying photo, but listed are the names of those who were present.

Front row, from left: Owen Jones – New York University, wrestling • Nikki Pallat – Wesleyan University, rowing • Janean Cuffee – New York University, basketball • Maddie Fouts – Brown University, ice hockey • Michael O’Hare – Hamilton College, baseball • Jess Haviland – Union College, ice hockey • Emma Polaski – Syracuse University, ice hockey Second row, from left: Joelle Floyd – Occidental College, volleyball/track • Eva Melendes – Bates College, rowing • Tom Cummins – Colby College, rowing • Sophia Cai – Princeton University, rowing • Katherina Petermann – Georgetown University, rowing • Arthur Benson – Colby College, rowing • Virginia Schaus – Middlebury College, squash Third row, from left: Chloe Jones – University of Virginia, lacrosse • Timothy Park – Brown University, rowing • Reilly Fletcher – Boston University, lacrosse • Christian Hwa – MIT, swimming • Emily Walther – Hamilton College, ice hockey • Isaiah Wingfield – Harvard University, football • Ariel Claxton – Yale University, track • Aly Demas – Bucknell University, rowing Fourth row, from left: Sydney Cikovic – Duke University, rowing • Teddy Friedman – Dartmouth College, rowing • Patricio Madero – ClaremontMcKenna College, swimming • Ebube Ezeagwula-Ebube – Manhattan College, basketball • Philip Gow – The College of William & Mary, rowing • Brandon Leibman – Colby College, football • Ezra Swell – University of Chicago, basketball • Tobin Burgdorf – Providence College, lacrosse • Julia Simkus – Princeton University, soccer SUMMER

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ON THE ARTS

‘IT’S YOUR TURN’ AT SDC

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ore than 100 students donned their dancing shoes for the 17th annual Spring Dance Concert (SDC) at the Kirby Arts Center in April. They performed 20 dance numbers, inspired by everything from Taylor Swift to Shakespeare to Bollywood. Seventeen of the performances were choreographed by students, with the remainder created by Derrick Wilder, chair of the Performing Arts Department and director of dance.

Students began building sweat equity in SDC as soon as they returned from winter break, working with choreographers who were selected weeks before, according to Wilder. He lauded the rigorous physical efforts that fueled rehearsals, and the range of styles offered by the student choreographers.

“What’s wonderful about SDC is variety – that is always the specialty of what this is,” he said. “This gives young choreographers an opportunity to put forth their work, and it gives students who have never had an opportunity to be on stage to try this once.”

Students spent hundreds of hours rehearing and refining their craft in anticipation of the two-night event, which was themed “It’s Your Turn!” Cristina Elizalde ’18, president of the SDC, said the theme turned out to be a guiding principle in recognizing the efforts of all who participated.

“All of the choreographers have been trying so hard,” explained Elizalde, who attended her mother’s dance school since she was 3 before enrolling at Lawrenceville.

“The theme really stands out because it implies that everyone gets a chance to be a part of the show.”

Elizalde choreographed the SDC’s upbeat opening number, setting the tone for an exciting evening.

“It’s very rewarding to have the audience enjoy what we’ve created,” she said. “And I also hope that some members of the audience want to be part of SDC next year!”

– Hunter Korn ’19 and Sean Lee ’19

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Cole Carothers '67 and Lisa Giberson P'10, associate curator, at the opening of Curtain Call.

CAROTHERS’ WORK COLORS ALUMNI WEEKEND

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he Gruss Center of Visual Arts celebrated the work of artist Cole Carothers ’67 during Alumni Weekend in May. Carothers, who returned to campus for his 50th reunion, helped the Alumni Office

host an opening reception for the exhibit on May 5 in Gruss’s Hutchins Galleries. He also generously donated one of the works featured in the show, Curtain Call, to the School.

Carothers has had solo exhibitions in New York, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, and throughout the Midwest. His paintings are in the permanent collections of the Cincinnati Art Museum, University of Kentucky Art Museum, Georgetown College, Lakeland College, and the University of Cincinnati’s George Elliston Reading Room.

From 2011 to 2013, his paintings were installed in the Ohio governor’s executive offices in Columbus. Twice, he has collaborated with the U.S. Department of State’s Art in Embassies program, and he currently has three works hanging in the U.S. Ambassador’s residence in Nairobi, Kenya.

Recognition for Carothers’ work includes numerous grants, fellowships and awards, including an NEA Arts Midwest Fellowship, two Ohio Arts Council grants, three Summerfair artists grants, and a Peter S. Reed Foundation grant.

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SPORTS ROUNDUP

Record: 10-10-1 Coach: Ron Kane ’83 P’20 Captains: Samuel Cabot ’17

Jim Gidicsin ’17 Michael O’Hare ’17

N.J.I.S.A.A. CHAMPIONS M.A.P.L. CHAMPIONS Record: 14-6

Coach: Allen Fitzpatrick ’73, H’85

’89 P’99 P’04 Captains: Ryan Verducci ’17

John Whiting ’17

M.A.P.L. CHAMPIONS MERCER COUNTY CHAMPIONS Record: 20-2

Coach: Kris Schulte P’15

SPRING SEASON STATS

Captains: Reilly Fletcher ’17

Chloe Jones ’17 Emily Walther ’17

Record: 8-9 Coach: John Schiel H’78 P’97

’08 ’10 Captain: Megan Kucker ’17

N.J.I.S.A.A. CHAMPIONS M.A.P.L. CHAMPIONS Record: 10-2 Coach: Dave Cantlay Captains: Douglas Wellemeyer ’18

Michael Zhao ’17

Record: 6-6 Coach: Tim Doyle ’69 H’79 P’99 Captain: Raj Bagaria ’17

Peter Burke ’17

Record: 7-1 Coach: Gus Hedberg H’03 P’96 ’00 Captain: Shahin Damji ’17

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N.J.I.S.A.A. CHAMPIONS M.A.P.L. CHAMPIONS Record: 1-1

Coach: Erik Chaput Captains: Alex Mauro ’18

Injil Muhammad ’17 Marcus Trenfield ’17 Michael Troup ’17

N.J.I.S.A.A. CHAMPIONS M.A.P.L. CHAMPIONS Record: 2-0 Coach: Katie Chaput Captains: Ariel Claxton ’17

Janean Cuffee ’17 Margaret Habib ’17

GIRLS’ LAX NATIONALLY RANKED After finishing with a 20-2 record, the girls’ lacrosse team was ranked 25th in the nation in the Inside Lacrosse Nation-

Varsity Four Record: 11th at Mid-Atlantics, 12th at Stotesbury Cup, 3rd at M.A.P.L. Championships Coach: Bernadette Teeley Captain: Sydney Cikovic ’17

al High School Power Ratings for the week of June 7. Big Red’s only losses were to Oak Knoll and Moorestown (N.J.), ranked 10th and 13th in the same poll.

M.A.P.L. CHAMPIONS Varsity Eight Record: 11-14 in side-by-side racing; 30-35 in total Varsity Four Record: 4-1 Coach: Benjamin Wright P’10 Captain: Tom Cummins ’17

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

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GO BIG RED

COMING FULL CIRCLE

As he retires, Rusty Hlavacek H’95 ’17 P’06 ’08 brings a sixty-year, two generation tradition of coaching to a close.

BY LISA M. GILLARD HANSON

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usty Hlavacek H’95 ’17 P’06 ’08 is cleaning out his corner classroom in the Noyes History Center. Photos of the past Big Red lacrosse teams he’s coached are neatly filed alongside shots of himself and Allen Fitzpatrick ’73 H’85 ’89 P’99 ’04, now the chair of the Visual Art Department, from when they played lacrosse together at Middlebury College. Textbooks jockey for shelf space with ice hockey rosters from the 1980s and history exams from the ’90s.

After nearly four decades serving just about every role available to a member of the Lawrenceville faculty, Lawrence L. “Rusty” Hlavacek Jr. is retiring.

“It’s time for me to do something else,” explains the current history master and coach of the boys’ junior varsity lacrosse and girls’ junior varsity ice hockey teams. Hlavacek and his wife, Betsy P’06 ’08, a Lawrenceville educational support specialist, are heading to Lake Placid, N.Y. to reside in the family’s summer cabin and … just see what comes next.

“It’s probably a great leap of faith to believe that something will work out, but I think it will be OK,” he says, his mouth widening into a smile.

“I’ve been telling students I’m taking a gap year.”

It’s hard to imagine Lawrenceville athletics without Hlavacek, who has coached all levels of boys’ lacrosse, plus both boys’ and girls’ hockey.

“I literally went full circle,” he says, noting his 16

The retiring Rusty Hlavacek H'95 '17 P'06 '08 was greeted as an honorary member of the Class of 2017 by School president Yiannis Vandris '17.

coaching path from freshman and junior varsity before moving up to varsity, then returning to the School’s less-experienced athletes.

Hlavacek said he learned from watching his father, long-time House Football coach and History Master Lawrence Hlavacek Sr. H’55 ’61 GP ’06 ’08, to always be prepared and never take himself too seriously. The elder Hlavacek was, the son notes, “very balanced and patient – kids today would say he was ‘chill.’”

Some coaches want to work only with the most elite athletes, but Hlavacek finds equal enjoyment

working with students who might never make a varsity team.

“I got my ‘winning-team’ fix, if you will, with the boys’ varsity lacrosse teams in the ’90s. I was blessed to inherit a successful tradition,” he recalls. Indeed, those squads included two that finished undefeated, several ranked in the national top ten, and a number of students recruited for preeminent college programs. It was “a world of fun,” says Hlavacek, but it also meant a lot of time away from his family. He decided to

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turn the varsity clipboard over to someone else.

“I gave it all I had for ten years, and decided that even the kids who may not make varsity still deserve good coaching. I want my students – and my athletes – first and foremost to feel welcome and safe,” Hlavacek says. “We’re all here for the same reason: Our challenge is to figure out how to take these twenty guys or girls over ten weeks and have a meaningful experience.”

Not surprisingly, Hlavacek’s best memories have nothing to do with wins or losses. In 1995, as the boys’ varsity lacrosse team was preparing to play one of the nation’s top five squads, Lawrenceville’s goalkeeper was declared ineligible to play, so second-string goalie Steve Grossman ’95 stepped between the pipes.

“The defense played in front of him like the crown jewels were [in goal] and no one was going to get anywhere near them,” Hlavacek recalls.

“They played their best game to support him and make it clear that it didn’t matter who was in the goal. It was gratifying to see that the team could rally around a first-class individual whose love of lacrosse was no less than any of the players who were on the way to play at Division I schools.”

Hlavacek fondly recalled going “toe to toe” with the athletic department so Jeanette Clark ’06 – who had played junior varsity ice hockey as a Second, Third, and Fourth Former, could continue on the team as a Fifth Former. At the time, seniors were ineligible to play on a sub-varsity team.

“I finally got them to agree that she could play in the last game of the season with permission from the opposing team, which was granted,” he explained. “All she wanted to do was play for the sake of playing and I was going to do everything I could to make that possible, even if it was just once.”

Clark captained Big Red for the day – and Fifth Formers are now permitted on the junior varsity team.

Leaving Lawrenceville is bittersweet for Hlavacek. His roots here run deeper than those of most other employees. He grew up on its campus until age 11, when Larry Hlavacek took his family to Baltimore, where he headed the Garrison Forest School from 1968 to 1978.

“I wake up every morning and I don’t say ‘I have to come here.’ I wake up every morning and say ‘I get to come here.’ Look what I get to do! All these years later, I still wake up and say, ‘I’ve got to be on my game. These kids are.’”

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TAKE THIS JOB & LOVE IT

THE OF EXPRESSION Kearney McDonnell ’12 facilitates creative opportunities for people in prison.

he time-honored French expression l’art pour l’art, typically translated to English as “art for art’s sake,” speaks to the belief that in its purest form, art is created and exists free of any instructional, moral, or practical function. To this way of thinking, art instead serves as an unadulterated mode of expression, a way of giving it a tactile form.

It is in that vein that Kearney McDonnell ’12 helps facilitate art workshops for Brown University’s Space in Prison for Arts and Creative Expression program, or SPACE. McDonnell is one of a dozen volunteers who facilitate weekly arts workshops for people who are incarcerated in the Rhode Island Adult Correctional Institutions (ACI) and those seeking treatment for addiction at the Providence Center, a residential recovery service provider located on the campus of the ACI. “It’s based around the idea that it’s important to have spaces for expression,” says McDonnell, who earned her bachelor of arts in visual art from Brown in May. “Art-making can be a validating or

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affirming experience, or just a necessary one, for people, especially in dehumanizing conditions like a prison.”

A three-year facilitator in SPACE, McDonnell says the work they do is strictly facilitation, with no instructional component. “That’s a really important part of our ethos as a group, which stems from two places,” she explains. “For one, none of us are trained teachers, and secondly, we want, as much as is possible, to break down any power dynamics between us and the workshop participants.”

SPACE facilitates creativity across an artistic span that includes painting, drawing, and writing, and McDonnell says that the people who are incarcerated are able to program their own experiences.

“Sometimes, we’ll come in with a plan to do a lot of writing, but maybe they just aren’t interested in that. So, we’ll do more drawing, or end up just chatting. Sometimes, the workshops are conversation based, and that’s great, too,” she explains. “We try to tailor the workshop to whatever people’s interest are, as much as possible.”

McDonnell says she and her fellow facilitators

also participate in the creative activities, which frequently include group sharing.

“We might give them a particular writing prompt, which we would also do, and then we all share,” she says. “Sharing is always optional, of course, but the sharing piece is very important and also acknowledges the fact that we all have things to learn from each other.”

For McDonnell, whose own art includes sketching and photography, but is dominated by painting that has become increasingly abstract, the cathartic power of artistic expression is one she has experienced in her own life. Though she says she would’ve liked to study art during her time at Lawrenceville, she admits to believing it would stymie her options for college admissions.

She enrolled at Brown as a history major, but before long, took refuge in art.

“It was after my dad had a stroke in 2013, I was really stressed out and wanted a break from all of this reading that was just kind of driving me nuts,” McDonnell recalls. “I told myself that I would give myself a semester to do all arts and writing classes and then go back to history. I did, and I fell in love with it. I felt like, I can’t go back to that.”

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“With representation, it can feel like there’s a right or wrong way to do it. It was only once I stopped trying to represent anything accurately and just paint abstractly that it became a much more emotionally intuitive process for me,” she says. “I like being able to work on this instinctual gut level where I can put my thinking brain out of the way a little bit, and just let myself paint and see what happens. It just feels like I know what to do.”

Though she is careful to stress that SPACE strongly seeks to avoid the creation of narratives in which people learn to contribute to society or are rehabilitated through art, McDonnell does acknowledge that there are individuals who may indeed find in artistic expression the very thing she has.

“I think for some people, it is that, but then for others, it’s just a space to hang out,” she says.

“What people get out of it just varies depending on the person. It’s not part of our framework, but we hold the possibility that it can be for that.”

Above all, McDonnell says, SPACE is about expression for expression’s sake.

“We talk a lot about how our goal is to create a space that, as much as possible, can resist or be a relief from the rigid oppression that is part of life in a prison, and to try and create a sense of empowerment for the people who come who just want to do what they want to do,” she explains.

“Their opinions and decisions matter to us.

They’re important and are worth hearing.”

Photograph by James Jones

She switched her major to visual art as a junior the next fall.

“It’s been a really meaningful space for me, for working through my emotions,” she says.

McDonnell also took some cues from her family, beginning with her sculptor grandfather, but from her younger sister, as well.

“She started studying visual art at the Rhode Island School of Design, and I found myself really jealous of her assignments and what she was doing,” she explains. “It felt like something to pay attention to. I figured, OK, well I don’t have to be jealous. I could actually still study the same thing.”

As her painting moved from something more literal toward the abstract, McDonnell says she felt herself being freed, not only of the technical burdens, but emotionally, as well.

Through a Brown University program, Kearney McDonnell ’12 helps facilitate art workshops for people who are incarcerated in the Providence, Rhode Island, area.

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Q&A

TABLE TALK

WHAT’S HAPPENING INSIDE THE CLASSROOM AT LAWRENCEVILLE? Since joining the Lawrenceville faculty in 1979, Allen Fitzpatrick ’73 H’85 ’89 P’99 ’04 has become just as much a fixture inside the School’s art studios as he is patrolling the sidelines as the boys’ varsity lacrosse coach. The Princeton native values both roles equally, which has led him to chair the Visual Arts Department twice for a combined twenty years while also collecting fourteen state lacrosse championships. Inside his office, amid dozens of paintings and hundreds of books on art, Fitzpatrick explained the correlation between artistic and athletic ability to The Lawrentian.

What are the origins of the relationship between you and art?

Did that inform your approach to your studies at Middlebury College?

I took a course at Princeton High School in ninth grade called mechanical drawing. It really fascinated me to take three-dimensional things and turn them flat so that you could then turn a flat thing back into three dimensions. I thought that was pretty cool.

When I got there, the same thing kind of happened. I was like; Do I really want to study math and science? So, I loaded up on the humanities.

I did take some science classes, but it certainly wasn’t a building block. I think the real connection to art for me is that I love sports. I love being outside, I love using my eyes and my hands athletically and this relationship to what I’m doing in the art building – using my eyes, using my hands, using my mind, and understanding spatial relationships – that seems to carry over naturally.

So, I ended up majoring in studio art.

So your interest had already been piqued by the time you arrived at Lawrenceville as a Third Former?

I didn’t excel in math or science, but I enjoyed writing and I really enjoyed the art classes. It seemed like the things I was doing in the art building were giving me better results than the stuff I was doing in some of the other buildings.

So, that was always in the back of my mind, but I didn’t specialize by any stretch of the imagination.

Was returning to Lawrenceville to teach something you could have pictured when your graduated in 1973?

Yeah, it was. My other friends from college were headed to New York City or Boston, for corporate jobs. My dad had commuted to and from Princ-

eton to New York my whole life. I’d seen what that life was like and I said, There’s no way I’m going to leave in the dark and come home in the dark. I want a life; I want to work to live, not live to work. I’d watched my father live to work. Plus, my mother was a teacher, my aunt was a teacher, and my grandmother was a teacher. So, that was a pretty conscious decision.

Was the dual role of teaching and coaching a strong draw to you?

The line I always heard, and I heard it even back when I was a student here, is: Good teaching is good coaching and good coaching is good teaching. I think the best teachers I had here were the coaches. John Magee [H’73 coached hockey and is] still considered the best teacher at Taft.

John King [H’79 ’01 P’88 ’90 coached hockey and soccer], and Jack Reydel [H’60 ’62 ’65 ’68] was the football coach. I think a coach’s job is to keep raising the bar, and I think a teacher’s job is similar. I want my players and my students to strive for excellence, and that’s a different bar for different kids.

In both cases, you have to have some sense of what they’re capable of, so the idea is to know when to push and when to pull back?

When you’re 16, you have no idea what your limits are, no idea what your potential is – none.

I’ve told them, you have no idea how deep your well is because you haven't even let out enough cord to get to the bottom of it yet, right? How deep is your well?

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A lot of the students who play lacrosse for you have some experience in the sport, but many of them may not have really explored their artistic interests, let alone their limits.

How do you bring them into it?

We gear everything in the art building to the beginner so the assumption is when you take a drawing class, everybody’s on page one. Some kids aren’t; some of them have more experience, but they can be harder to teach because they come with a preconceived idea of what they are and how to do things. There’s a proverb about maintaining the mind of the beginner because the mind of the expert is full and can’t accept anymore, similar to a cup of tea.

You’ve alluded to the relationship between art and athletics. Can you explain that in more detail?

I think the best thing about sport and art together is the notion of improvement through revision.

One of the things I constantly stress is not to accept mediocrity. You can lose a game, you can make a mistake, you can put on a bad line or a bad stroke of the brush, but you can also take it off and do it again. You learn through that process of redoing.

I switched to painting, and clearly I’ve been tremendously influenced by his work. But I also gravitated to his work because it was what I was interested in; it’s the thing that I can do. I can’t paint everything. I don’t draw as well as I’d like, and I learned a long time ago that I don’t do the figure as well as I would like.

Is there anything that you tell your players on the practice field that you can repeat verbatim in the classroom?

I consistently ask them: Is this your best work?

I think a good athlete and a good artist knows when they’re giving their best and can find a way to dig deep and to give their best.

As your work shows, that’s not the only way to express yourself a painter.

It’s very hard to do portraits and figurative work, and there are lots of good examples of how not to do it. I got my master’s degree in figurative art, and that made it clear that it wasn’t what I was interested in. So, it’s really about finding a beautiful spot or beautiful thing and having at it.

You still actively paint. What is your motivation to continue creating?

I think that artists paint, sculpt, and draw things that are interesting to them. I love the land, and I love to eat, and I love to look at what I consider to be beautiful things, so most of my paintings are oriented to those three things. I’m trying to find something that I enjoy looking at enough that I’m going to want to look at for six to eight hours while I’m making it, then continue to look at it after I’ve made it.

How long did it take you to understand that these were the things that inspire you?

Well, I started as a photographer, but we had an unventilated darkroom in Kirby Arts Center and I developed an allergy, so I really couldn’t do the darkroom work. But I enjoyed the darkroom work as much as making negatives – the camera

You recently exhibited your work at Rider University, choosing paintings that seem to document your own experiences, though not so literally as a photograph. Do they?

work – because in the darkroom, you’re using your hands and your eyes, so it’s a lot like painting. You’re building the image with your hands.

That’s disappointing, but it started you painting. Was anyone instrumental in your development as a painter?

Oh, yeah, although I’m getting more and more away from the factual. I know enough now that I can add or subtract when I want to, and how I want to. The reason I like to paint skies is it’s a little bit like jazz. You know, a jazz musician has a basket full of notes and just plays with them … with a sky, you can take the notes and move them around, as long as it’s believable.

Well, then I met Tom Buechner [’44 P’73] and

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ASK THE ARCHIVIST

BY JACQUELINE HAUN

The Rev. Samuel McClintock Hamill praised the motives of the young patriots who absconded from campus.

A group of valorous young Lawrentians meant well when they absconded from the School to help beat back the Confederate charge.

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t’s not known when the Rev. Samuel McClintock Hamill, Lawrenceville’s third head master, first realized that the students were missing.

Perhaps it was when the students who resided together in “the House” – what is today known as Hamill House – were awakened by the Wednesday morning rising bell at 6 a.m. and several beds were found to be empty. Or perhaps Rev. Hamill, no doubt having risen earlier to ring the waking bell, had already discovered the note left behind in his study by his vanished charges and hurried to the dormitory space to confirm its message.

No matter how it was revealed, by the early morning of July 13, 1864, the news had spread across the small campus that nine Lawrenceville Classical and Commercial High School students were suddenly gone.

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Fortunately, where they could have disappeared to was not a long-lived mystery. The young men, ages 17 to 21, had surreptitiously left school with the intent of enlisting in the Union Army, alarmed at news that the battle lines of the Civil War were approaching the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. Although six of the boys were scheduled to graduate at the end of the summer session (which, at the time, ran from May through the end of September), none felt they could afford to wait until graduation to answer their call to duty.

Throughout the summer, rumors had made their way to the quiet academy about the persistent push of Confederate troops northward, coming dangerously close to the homes of many of the School’s students. On July 6, Hagerstown, Maryland, had been seized by the rebels and $20,000 forcibly collected from its citizens

Confederate Lt. Gen. Jubal Early had his troops advancing quickly and mercilessly toward the Northeast.

in supposed reparation for Union raids the previous June. Confederate Lt. Gen. Jubal Early had ordered that $200,000 be collected, but the officer in charge of the mission misread the amount. That the officer did not hold Hagerstown accountable for his error was fortunate, for the next town to refuse to pay the so-called “ransom,” Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, was burned to the ground when it was unable to produce $100,000 in gold a few weeks later.

The tension among Lawrenceville students reached a fever pitch when word came that Lt. Gen. Early was rapidly approaching Washington.

The nation’s capital was under imminent threat of being raided, and if Washington fell, what then of the remaining northeast? Could Philadelphia or even Trenton be far behind?

Feeling and believing that the obligation to defend the nation superseded their need for

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continued education, a group of mostly senior boys agreed to go together to Philadelphia to offer their service. The night of their departure, a small number of younger boys were made privy to the would-be soldiers’ plans. After “candles out,” the volunteers and their well-wishers gathered outside Hamill House along the street side where, hidden by heavy tree shade and shrub growth, they made their farewells. In preparation for their departure, the older boys had left behind the following note:

“In consequence of the late ‘Raid’ and in accordance with the call for troops – we the undersigned, feeling it our duty to defend to the best of our ability the ‘Homes’ of our countrymen do with the hearts of Americans beating high (although regretting to leave your kind and hospitable roof) enroll ourselves in the service of the United States.”

The note had been neatly written by 17-yearold Charles Tobias Jr. of Salisbury Mills, New York, one of the youngest of the group, and signed by all nine young men.

The volunteer troops followed a trail past the pond and then across the countryside to railroad tracks, which allowed them to reach Trenton by foot without being seen in the dark. From Trenton, they took a train to Philadelphia and the following day made contact with an enlistment officer, who told them to return to the enlistment location the next morning so that they could be sworn in. The enlistment officer’s motivation for not immediately accepting their vows of service is not clear, but the practical effect was that it allowed time for Rev. Hamill’s brother, Hugh

Hamill, and one of the boys’ fathers to follow the young patriots to Philadelphia. By then, several of the boys had evidently thought twice about their plan and started back to campus.

Hamill and Charles Kingsbury’s father located the remaining three on the second night of the adventure and came bearing news: The military crisis that had prompted the boys’ departure had been resolved. Lt. Gen. Early had been driven back, and Washington, D.C., was safe.

The entire Lawrenceville campus waited anxiously to see what sort of penalty faced the runaways after such an unprecedented act. While Rev. Hamill was known to be a kind and tolerant disciplinarian, there had never been such an extreme breach of rules in the fifty years of the School. Surely, some of the boys would be expelled!

As the community waited together in the Oratory for the verdict, Rev. Hamill arrived, dressed (although it was a weekday) in his Sunday best – a clue to prognosticators that the event was of unusual importance and solemnity, which could mean the worst for the absconders.

One of the witnesses later described the speech given by the head master that day as one so moving that many wished there had been a shorthand reporter present to preserve it. Rev. Hamill, to the surprise of the students present, praised the young men for the lofty motives that had prompted their action and touted them as models of patriotism and valor.

Not only were the boys not to be punished for their endeavor, but the entire school would be

rewarded in their honor: “The School is dismissed for the day.”

They say that if you had asked the youngest Lawrenceville boys why Lt. Gen. Early had withdrawn his attack on Washington in such a timely fashion, the answer was that he had heard that these particular Lawrentians had enlisted against him and thought it wisest to retreat in the face of such passion and devotion to duty.

A sketch depicting the site of Lt. Gen. Early's battle with Union Gen. Lew Wallace at Monocacy, Maryland. Bottom: The nine Lawrenceville students who sought to join the Union forces signed this letter explaining their absence.

Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, was burned to the ground after failing to pay a $100,000 "ransom" to Confederate officers.

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[

Celebrating “CoaChie” Lawrenceville remembers the venerable Ed Poreda, who coached Big Red runners for 63 years.

By HENRY GOLUB ’18

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enowned head boys’ cross country coach Edward J. Poreda H’57 ’61 ’63 ’67 ’69 ’70 ’89 P’77 GP’04 ’07 ’08, who guided Big Red runners for at Lawrenceville since 1954, died May 1 in an automobile accident. A resident of North Fort Myers, Florida, he was 90.

Known affectionately by his runners as “Coachie,” Poreda nurtured hundreds of Lawrentian athletes over an astounding 63year career at the School. Under his leadership, Lawrenceville’s cross country and track teams amassed more than 850 wins and captured 61 New Jersey Independent School Athletic Association (N.J.I.S.A.A.) state championships.

Twenty-five of Poreda’s teams finished their seasons undefeated.

“More importantly, he was a kind and generous role model for generations of Lawrentians,” said Head Master Stephen S. Murray H’55 ’65 ’16 P’16 ’21. “His patient encouragement brought out the very best in every student-athlete. His warmth, energy, and enthusiasm will be deeply missed by all who knew him.”

Even before his arrival at Lawrenceville, Poreda had compiled a list of athletic achievement. As a student at Trenton High School in 1944, he won the New Jersey state championship in the half-mile. Competing for the old La Salle Military Academy on Oakdale, New York, a year later, Poreda earned numerous victories at the National Prep Championships, as well as at the prestigious Penn Relays in Philadelphia. In 1950, while studying at Syracuse University, Poreda and his teammates won the two-mile relay in New York’s famed Millrose Games.

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Poreda coached Lawrenceville’s boys’ track and field team until 1994, when he decided to focus his efforts strictly on the cross country program, which he led right through his final undefeated, Mid-Atlantic Prep League championship-winning season in fall 2016. He missed only two days of coaching in his entire career – one for a family illness and the other due to a snowstorm.

“With his infectious smile and unmatched determination, Coachie inspired Lawrentians for over six decades,” said Tripp Welborne, Lawrenceville’s director of athletics. “His legacy as one of the greatest coaches in the history of Big Red Athletics has been cemented. He will be missed but never forgotten.”

Over his many years at the School, Poreda acquired a keen sense of instruction, which he used to hone his runners’ abilities. Always seeking effective and novel training methods, he shaped his practices to reflect the latest research.

For example, he once based a breathing drill on an article he read comparing cross country running to singing.

But Poreda also employed a more traditional running philosophy – run miles, and lots of them.

“He had our guys running over 500 miles during the summer,” said Christopher Hyson P’14 ’16 ’21, an English master who also served as Poreda’s assistant coach, “and running at an even pace to negative splits [running the second half faster than the first] in races – there was no budging him from that.”

Dually committed to these core principles and to sensible adaptability, Poreda consistently molded runners into formidable racers.

“He was a master at combining the physical

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and the mental aspects of running to prepare us for success,” said Injil Muhammad ’17, who co-captained Poreda’s final campaign last fall.

“He was always telling us how we suffered from ‘mileage deficiency’ and should be running upwards of a thousand miles each summer,” he said.

Poreda also offered his teams much more than stellar training. He modeled good character, as well.

“He’s just the most optimistic man I’ve ever met,” Hyson said. “His love for running, his love for his runners, and his love for his coaches; I’ve never met anybody quite like that.”

Co-captain Sam Noden ’17 noted that his coach’s signature smile always helped brighten practice.

“I will never forget the positivity he lived with, and I doubt anyone who was lucky enough to meet him will,” Noden said.

Above all, Poreda loved his runners, regardless of their skill or age.

“Coachie knew your name from day one,” Muhammad said, “and incessantly gave you the confidence to improve.”

Poreda applied many of the same principles he used in coaching to his family. Elizabeth Allison ’04 says that her grandfather “lifted” everyone he met and often called family members his “champs.”

Members of the cross country team will always recall the stringed stopwatch Poreda held near the starting stone, the smile he never shed, his conspicuous fondness for baseball caps. And they will hear diagnoses of “mileage deficiency syndrome” tied to a warm laugh.

“I love you guys,” he reminded runners at the end of every practice.

We love you too, Coachie.

A version of this story originally appeared in the May 5 issue of The Lawrence.

The Coachie File ◗ Joined The Lawrenceville School in 1954 ◗ 63 seasons as coach of the boys’ cross country team ◗ Coached both boys’ cross country and boys’ outdoor track from 1954-94

◗ 25 undefeated seasons ◗ 61 New Jersey Independent School Athletic Association State Championships

◗ Six Mid-Atlantic Prep Championships ◗ Four-time “Coach of the Year” for The Times of Trenton

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A

Reliable Source

WHETHER SHE'S EMBEDDED WITH SYRIAN REBELS OR REPORTING ON NIGHT RAIDS WITH AFGHAN SPECIAL FORCES, MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT OF PBSNEWSHOUR STAYS CALM UNDER FIRE.

By SEAN RAMSDEN • Photography: DONNELLY MARKS and NISH NALBANDIAN

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ou might say there’s journalism, and then there’s journalism. That is, the kind that finds you undercover and gathering news on your own, embedded with Syrian rebels in 2012 during the bloody Siege of Homs. Yes, this is the brand of journalism you signed on for, even during this particularly violent episode in the ongoing Syrian civil war, and now you are right there, alongside the opposition forces, but bearing no weapons of defense. Instead, you are a band of one, armed only with a camera and a rucksack. Fake news?

Hardly.

“I think that was certainly a moment for me when I realized: This is quite big. These are the big leagues now, and this work is important,” says Jane Ferguson ’04, who was the first correspondent Al Jazeera English sent into the war-ravaged nation to report from a covert position alongside the opposition forces. “It’s highly intimidating, the thought of it, but it was certainly the biggest news of the day.”

Ferguson’s neutral journalistic presence amidst the fighting offered her no quarter from the perils of war. In fact, it likely made her a target.

Within weeks of Ferguson’s arrival, American journalist Marie Colvin was killed in Homs by an improvised explosive device filled with nails, which was lobbed into a media center by the Syrian military, according to a press photographer who survived the blast. The Syrian government disputed that account. However, there could be no dispute that Colvin, who earlier that day had reported on the “merciless” shelling of civilian areas for the BBC and CNN, lost her life for revealing the dreadful realities of the Syrian civil war to the rest of the world. With each day, Ferguson faced the same grim prospect, but rather than retreat in fear, she steadied herself, braced by her dawning awareness that she had established herself in the field.

“Once you realize that you’re covering the biggest news story in the world at the moment for a major broadcaster,” she says, “I think that’s the moment where you take stock and go, OK, I’m doing this now. I think I can do this now.”

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Jane Ferguson, raised on a small farm in sleepy County Armagh, Northern Ireland, was a journalist now, the foreign correspondent she dreamed of becoming as a young child among the placid apple orchards of her homeland. n late April, Ferguson was on assignment for PBS NewsHour in South Sudan, some 6,845 miles from The Lawrenceville School, reporting on the northeastern African nation’s own civil war and the starvation faced by refugees from its battle-torn capital of Juba. She was asked how her time at Lawrenceville, made possible by the Northern Ireland Scholarship program, helped direct her to her current spot in the remote South Sudanese swamps.

“I was incredibly lucky to be selected. It was a special time for me, and that’s a gross understatement,” says Ferguson, who spent the 2003-04 academic year as a postgraduate before returning to the United Kingdom to attend the University of York. “It definitely changed my world view being there, and I’ve been grateful ever since.”

Though she received what she recalls as a fine grammar school education in Northern Ireland, her first time in America was accompanied by a level of culture shock.

“I was coming from a small farm in Ireland so pretty much everything, every moment of every day, was pretty eye-opening for me,” she says, noting that she also found a level of intensity to which she was unaccustomed, but wholeheartedly embraced.

“I felt like everything we did in Lawrenceville was more challenging, but in a way where I always felt supported,” Ferguson recalls. “I think the biggest takeaway from it was the way it broadened my view of life, the parameters.”

This expanded perspective was not inconsequential for Ferguson, who already harbored dreams of reporting from the far reaches of the globe. The problem was, it seemed so … far away.

“It’s a job I very much romanticized when I was

younger, reading all of the autobiographies and the biographies of journalists, foreign journalists,” she recalls. It was Ferguson’s experience at Lawrenceville that helped her feel as if it were very much within reach.

“The parameters in your life are very often set by yourself, and so there I was in these classrooms with young people with ambitions that were so wild to me that it couldn’t help but seep into my mindset that I could really do anything that I wanted,” she says. “If I wanted to be a journalist …

“I asked them if they would give me a job and they said, ‘No,’ so I asked them if they would buy work from me if I freelanced, and that was my first foray into TV.”

the sky was the limit.”

After completing her university education in 2007, Ferguson walked into a world where, as she recalls, “the journalism world was dying.”

“It was impossible to get a job so I traveled to Yemen to study Arabic for a little while and figure out what I could do,” she says. “In retrospect I was buying myself some time.”

Ferguson was also fortifying her chances to step before a camera in the turbulent Middle East.

She took a job in Dubai at an English-language newspaper simply because there were no jobs to be had in London, and she remained vigilant for opportunities. Within eighteen months, CNN opened a bureau in Abu Dhabi, about an hour from Dubai, and Ferguson had her break.

“I asked them if they would give me a job and they said, ‘No,’ so I asked them if they would buy work from me if I freelanced, and that was my first foray into TV,” she says. “I’ve always wanted to be a broadcaster, so it was second nature to me to approach a television station in the Middle East and say, ‘I want to work with you.’ I started selling them pieces from places like Somalia and Yemen, and it snowballed from there, really.”

Ferguson, who has been based in Beirut for the past nine years, says her conversational ability in Arabic has paid her rich dividends when it comes to building relationships and developing sources.

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Q&A:

WHAT CHARACTERISTICS WOULD

YOU LOOK FOR IN A YOUNG JOURNALIST? It’s really important to like people, to genuinely be honest with yourself about whether or not you like people. You might like adventure; you might like to be on television. But that’s really not what it’s about, because your day-to-day job is going to be meeting people constantly, talking all day long, going into people’s houses, going into their offices. You need to enjoy it. Because if you can’t really connect with people, then you’re not really going to be doing your job with heart.

You must also be darn curious. You have to be honestly curious to want to do these sorts of jobs. I think there’s a type of curiosity that runs through people for a long, long time. Some of them end up becoming adventurous. Some of them end up becoming archeologists or discoverers. But journalism is now a career that is a practical solution for somebody very curious. In stories, one conversation leads to another, which leads to another, and ultimately you have to just follow a series of clues. That will involve being curious and being open-minded. I think that that’s the key to it all, really.

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“There was a part of me that knew even if you spend a significant amount of time anywhere, you’ll only ever really connect with people through their language,” she says. “I think in the Arab world, that’s more so; it’s certainly more pronounced there than anywhere else I’ve ever been’” She points to her experience in Mosul, reporting on the offensive against ISIS, where she was able to bypass the translator to conduct interviews.

“It means I can connect with people. I can make small talk that means something. It helps you build meaningful sources. My work is all about relationships. It’s not just flashing the name of a news organization and saying, ‘I would like X, Y, and Z,’” Ferguson says. “In Arab culture, I wouldn’t say it’s a formal culture, but it’s certainly a very polite culture. You don’t just call people and say, “I want this.’ Being able to speak Arabic changes your entire experience.”

Covering a regular news beat also helps establish a reporter’s bona fides in the region, and Ferguson says the year she spent in Afghanistan for Al Jazeera English as the news network’s regular correspondent was perhaps the most satisfying of her career.

“That was a very defining year for me as a reporter, and I loved getting to know Afghan people. I found it to be a wonderful adventure, and such a privilege to be able to travel around Afghanistan and cover a story that I thought at the time was really, really important,” she says, pointing to her time flying with Afghan Special Forces on night raids as an example. “I was able to talk to Afghan women, just being privileged to be a woman. I think that was a very special time for me.”

By and large, Ferguson says the combatants she reports on typically receive her journalistic presence with appreciation, understanding that the conduit she represents to television audiences are really an opportunity to amplify their efforts.

“I think a good example of that is Mosul, where we tend to go into Mosul City, embedded, usually, with the Iraqi Special Forces. They are taking enormous casualties,” she explains. “But the soldiers on the ground understand that the people of Iraq won’t recognize their sacrifice if they don’t

know about it, so I think they do really like that journalists uncover what they’re doing.”

Not every government in the Middle East is as receptive, however, and the nature of Ferguson’s work has her confronting those dangers, too.

There are times, in the instances that occur off camera, when Ferguson says an angel on your shoulder can be of far greater service than the goodwill of local troops or a command of the local tongue.

“Coming out of Syria, in the middle of the night, I was smuggled out with a volunteer driver, and I was basically dressed as his wife. I was wearing a very large coat and a head scarf, and I was actually wearing a flak jacket underneath my coat,” Ferguson recalls, adding that they could see the lights of Lebanon in the distance as they neared the border – their ticket to freedom and safety. “We were very well aware that if the Syrian regime caught a foreign reporter, that they were very likely to kill them.”

As their car reached a muddy farmyard, their last obstacle to traverse before crossing the border, a group of armed men jumped from the bushes to block their path.

“I really felt very much like: ‘They’re going to kill me. I certainly hope that they do it quickly.’”

Ferguson recalls. “They pulled my driver out of

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A Pulitzer for Nehamas While PBS NewsHour’s Jane Ferguson ’04 was distinguishing herself in the Middle East, another Lawrenceville-bred journalist was earning accolades back in the states.

Nicholas Nehamas ’07, an investigative reporter with the Miami Herald, earned a 2017 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting on the “Panama Papers,” an international investigation that exposed how crooks and millionaires use the secret world of offshore companies.

The prize was awarded to the Herald, its parent company, McClatchy, and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists for their

the car, and I felt like I could’ve run, but then they would’ve killed him. My driver was quite wily, and he must have spun them a yarn about who we were; this was a smuggler’s route – people smuggled fuel and goods through this route.”

It was dark, and the gunmen must not have detected Ferguson's blonde hair, nor the flak jacket concealed by her coat.

“My driver came around to my side of the vehicle and said, ‘Get out,’ so I had to get out.

I really thought, This is it. But he just takes my hand, and we walked. We left the car and we walked across the farmyard in the dark, but I had no idea what’s happening, and I just thought, They’re going to shoot me in the back.”

Instead, the men were merely out to steal her car, unaware she was a foreign reporter mere moments from escaping Syria. “If they had asked me for ID, then I would have been finished,” she says. “It’s not a situation a journalist wants to find him or herself in, where they’ve basically run out of options.”

For Ferguson, however, such conditions don’t cause her to turn tail and run. On the contrary, they actually heighten the sense of urgency and responsibility she feels when reporting from those sites. She knows that journalists are met with hostility from such governments precisely because they are the ones digging to unearth the hidden truths.

“Especially with Syria, where there are so many foreign players involved on both sides of this war, I think journalists covering this feel a great sense of gravity and importance and pressure because even facts can be manipulated. Everybody has an agenda,” she says. “It’s one of those stories where you need to be as sharp as you possibly can to make sure that your reporting is straight down the line because there is such an agenda from the Russians, from the Iranians, and from America and its allies in the Gulf. Wars and the information about wars are becoming very, very complicated, and certainly muddy, and that’s done on purpose by people with vested interests.”

Ferguson says she often laments that her more personal, everyday interactions with ordinary citizens don’t lend themselves to television news.

The friendly touches, cultural perhaps, might be the most surprising thing she could reveal to viewers.

“They don’t see that part of my day,” she says.

“They don’t see me being asked in Mosul to go into people’s houses to drink tea three or four times a day, or old ladies crossing the street to shake your hand and say, ‘God bless you.’ People don’t see that because it’s not really necessarily part of the news that we’re reporting. It’s just a nuanced part of our day.”

dive into a massive cache of leaked documents that revealed a financial system of tax havens preferred by tax dodgers, corrupt politicians, and drug dealers whose money often wound up in Miami real estate.

“It brought together journalists from so many different countries, speaking so many languages, to tell a story that would’ve been impossible for a single newsroom to tell,” Nehamas said following the announcement.

Nehamas got his start in journalism at Lawrenceville, reporting for The Lawrence and serving as opinion editor for his final two years on campus. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard in 2011 before completing a master’s degree from the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

What advice does Nehamas have for budding journalists? Start writing and learning about data analysis and social media.

“Journalism is what keeps people in power honest and what keeps communities informed,” Nehamas says. “It’s a very important public service.”

– Andrea Fereshteh

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FAKE NEWS!*

BY SEAN RAMSDEN • ILLUSTRATED BY JEROME STUDER

LAWRENCEVILLE

In recent months, the idea of “fake news” seems to have

LEGENDS THAT ARE

events posing as news have gained a foothold in our na-

ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY NOT

taken on a life of its own. Unfounded rumors or implausible tional dialogue, lending themselves to an expression that has now become an active addition to our lexicon.

In a more harmless way, however, fake news is nothing new. Myths, urban legends, and folklore endure through-

TRUE … *UNLESS

out any long and fabled history, and at The Lawrenceville

THEY ARE.

present just a few.

HOLY OF

HOLIES

School, they’ve been part of life for two centuries. Here, we

I

n his 1911 book The Tennessee Shad, derived from his famed Lawrenceville Stories, the Class of 1895’s Owen Johnson wrote of a hidden chamber, known in the book as “The Holy of Holies,” inside one of Lawrenceville’s Houses. Johnson’s tales of life at the School occasionally blurred the line between fiction and fact, so the truth of whether such a secret space actually existed within the historic stone structure, beyond the gaze of watchful housemasters, remained unverified for many years.

However, after The Lawrentian published, in its summer 1963 issue, a photo of an ancient (and empty) bottle of sherry and two packs of equally aged cigarettes dating to the 1890s, former Hamill House resident R. Norman Caine ’38 stepped forward to shed light on the objects’ significance. Writing in that fall’s issue, Caine says he “rediscovered” the room as a student in 1937 “after it had been closed and forgotten for many years.”

A fan of Johnson’s stories, Caine carefully considered how the character of “Doc Macnooder” unwittingly found the room, then assessed the architecture of Hamill from outdoors to determine there was a portion of unused space in the building’s northeast corner. With the aid of two housemates, Caine broke through a wall that had been “heavily reinforced with solid wood, sheet metal, and wooden slats that were newer than the other materials” before finally breaking through some plaster to reveal a hole with the words: “Below is the entrance of Owen Johnson fame.” It was the Holy of Holies.

Caine learned that the room, about 12 feet long by 10 feet wide, had been periodically accessed until a fireproof stairway was installed around 1914, cutting off the passageway Macnooder had first entered.

32 T H E L A W R E N T I A N

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HAUNTED

HAPPENINGS

R

BLACK

SQUIRRELS

L

awrenceville’s leafy campus has long played host to innumerable squirrels with unusually dark fur, nearly black in color.

Rumors have swirled for years about their origins, with one story telling how they emerged from an experiment in the biology labs at nearly Princeton University – where they are also ubiquitous – after being liberated by an animal rights group. Another traces their origins to an area pharmaceutical firm.

Although these tales (tails?) are full of intrigue, they are also full of hot air. In 1999, The Princeton Weekly Bulletin reported that black squirrels are a variation of the eastern gray squirrel, or Sciurus carolinensis, and that they often appear naturally in isolated populations such as those in Northeastern city parks. Squirrels “black as pitch and gray” were observed as early as 1655 in David de Vries’ list of New Amsterdam’s wild mammals – some ninety years before our neighboring university up the road was founded.

eports of ghost sightings are nothing new on the School’s campus, but only once was the witness actually able to name his subject. The summer 1939 issue of The Lawrentian included an account written by Guy Ramsey, Class of 1917, that originally appeared in the News Chronicle of Glasgow, Scotland, billing itself as “an authenticated ghost story.” Ramsey writes of visiting Lawrenceville in the early fall of 1919, a stay marred by the sudden passing of Kennedy Housemaster Percy Colwell, who died on September 27. After years as the headmaster of Fairfax House, across Main Street from campus, Colwell had just assumed his new role in Kennedy when, according to Ramsey, he “slipped in his bath, fell, and died.”

Ramsey attended Colwell’s funeral with the rest of the Lawrenceville community before calling on a friend that evening. As he departed his compatriot’s house that night at 10 p.m., Ramsey walked past Kennedy, where he was met by an astonishing sight: “Looking into the windows of the House to which he had just been appointed, with the same crooked stance I had always known, and with the same dirty white flannels he always wore on winter afternoons, stood Percy Colwell, whose grave had yawned beneath my feet but six hours before,” wrote Ramsey in the News Chronicle. “On his face was a wry, sad smile, as if to say, ‘Isn’t that tough? I’ve just been given this House, and now, darn it, I’ve got to leave it.’”

No sooner had Ramsey opened his mouth to ascertain the identity of the apparition than it vanished. “I did the mile across the golf links back to my room, I should think, in a minute under world record time,” he wrote.

WHAT HAVE YOU HEARD? In addition to these tales, there are a number of enduring Lawrenceville superstitions, including the longstanding practice of rubbing the foot of the Spinario statue in the rotunda of Pop Hall for good luck on the way to an exam. Generations of students have also vigorously avoided stepping on the cast bronze compass medallion set in the walkway leading down the hill to Lavino Field House for fear of not graduating.

But what about the tunnels beneath campus – are they really there?

(Spoiler: No.) Did Theodore Roosevelt make a campaign stop at the Jigger Shop in 1914? (Yes, though the 26th president’s time in office ended five years earlier.) Won’t you let us in on some long-lost tale?

Please share your Lawrenceville legends with Sean Ramsden, editor of

The Lawrentian, at sramsden@lawrenceville.org.

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Stay connected with the

Lawrenceville

Alumni NetworkAPP The Lawrenceville Alumni Network app combines the scope of our alumni database and the power of LinkedIn to connect you with your fellow Lawrentians wherever you – and they – may be. Search by name, class year, profession, company, college, location, and more.

For download instructions, go to www.lawrenceville.org and click "Connect and Network" on the alumni tab, or simply scan the QR code below.

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Planned Giving

is for Young Alumni/ae, too!

As he recalls, Bowie

Helm ’03 was a reluctant Law-

rentian. As a Houstonian far from home, he was struck by the tradition, history, and beauty of the School’s community and campus, though he initially ached for the privileges of home not available to him as a boarder. “Still, I was fortunate to make lifelong friends, in large part through the camaraderie fostered by the School’s formidable athletic program,” he says. “My fondest memories are times spent on the track with Doc Shilts H’93 ’11 ’13 and others.”

Bowie says that with each passing year, “my appreciation grows for the unique opportunity presented to me when former Board of Trustees President Thomas Carter ’70 P’01 ’05 introduced me to the School.” He wants to be sure that others know that benefit, too.

“I made a commitment to include Lawrenceville in my estate because had others not done the same before me, the world would lack an institution that has enriched me and all those who have shared my experience.” – Bowie Helm ’03

For more information on leaving a bequest to Lawrenceville or for other planned giving opportunities, or if you’ve included Lawrenceville in your will but not yet informed the School, please contact Jerry Muntz at the Lawrenceville Office of Planned Giving at 609-620-6064 or jmuntz@lawrenceville.org, or go to www.lawrenceville.planyourlegacy.org.

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ALUMNI WEEKEND 2017

36 T H E L A W R E N T I A N

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NEW ALUMNI TRUSTEE ◗ Heather Woods Rodbell ’91 .

NEW ALUMNI SELECTORS ◗ Bruce L. Hager ’72 ◗ Brendan T. O’Reilly ’83 P’16

38

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NEW HONORARY ALUMNI/AE THE CLASS OF 1957 ◗ Edward J. Poreda H’61 ’63 ’69 ’70 ’89 P’77 GP’04 ’07 ’08 (posthumously)

◗ Linda Hlavacek Silver H’59 ’61 ’62 ’63 ’64 GP’06 ’08 ◗ John Silver H’56 ’59 GP’06 ’08

THE CLASS OF 1967 ◗ Jo Brewster Devlin H’56 ’58 ’60 ’66 P’71 ◗ Edith Baird Eglin H’52 ’65 ’66 GP’19 ◗ R. Jack Garver H’71 ◗ Edward J. Poreda H’61 ’63 ’69 ’70 ’89 P’77 GP’07 ’08 ◗ John J. Reydel H’60 ’62 ’65 ’68 ◗ James C. Waugh H’74 ’85 ’88 P’68 ’70 ’72 ’74 ’76 GP’12 ’14 ’16

THE CLASS OF 1972 ◗ Edward A. Robbins H’68 ’69 ’71 ’11 ◗ Maureen Ehret P’06 ’12

THE CLASS OF 1987 ◗ Benjamin C. “Champ” Atlee ’62 H’74 ’75 ’79 ’83 ’84

BILL BARDEL ’57 P’93 NAMED DISTINGUISHED ALUMNUS William G. “Bill” Bardel ’57 P’93 was honored with the Distinguished Alumnus Award during Alumni Weekend 2017. The prestigious accolade is conferred annually by the Lawrenceville School Alumni Association Executive Committee to a Lawrentian in recognition of exception efforts to promote the best interests of the School.

’06 P’92

◗ Charles F. Weeden, III H’65 ’92 P’77 ’97 (posthumously)

THE CLASS OF 1992 ◗ Catherine Boczkowski H’80 ’11 P’89 ’91 (posthumously)

Bardel entered Lawrenceville in September 1952, living in Raymond House. He was a member of Periwig,

THE CLASS OF 1997

Herodotus, The Lawrence and the baseball team, and also served as class president before graduating cum

◗ Paul R. Brown P’96 ’00

laude in 1957. He returned to campus in 1994 as Lawrenceville’s chief financial and administrative officer

◗ Michael Goldenberg H’96 P’05 ’10

from 1994, serving until his retirement in June 2006.

◗ Stephanie A. Schragger ’89 H’98

Upon his retirement, Bardel was elected a trustee emeritus, having served as an alumni trustee from 1980 to ’85, a trustee from 1987 to ’94, and ex-officio/secretary/treasurer of the Board during his term as CFO. Bardel is also a member of the John Cleve Green Society and The Lawrenceville Club of New York, and a former class agent, and he was a member of his 50th and 55th reunion committees, the Bicentennial Campaign Steering Committee, and a residential initiative volunteer.

After graduating from Lawrenceville, Bardel continued his education at Yale University, earning a B.A. in politics and economics in 1961. He was named a Rhodes Scholar at University College in Oxford, England, where he earned a master’s degree with honors in modern history in 1963 before attending Harvard Law School, where he received a Juris Doctor degree in 1966.

THE CLASS OF 2002 ◗ John “Johnny” J. Clore ◗ Melissa Kreppel Clore ◗ Wilburn Williams H’06

THE CLASS OF 2007 ◗ Katherine E. O’Malley

Bardel subsequently worked in the Office of Midtown Planning for the City of New York; as an attorney

THE CLASS OF 2012

with Debevoise, Plimpton, Lyons and Gates; and for Lehman Brothers from 1974 until joining the Law-

◗ G. Blake Eldridge Jr. ’96

renceville administration in 1994. He spent much of his career with Lehman in London, where he directed the firm’s investment banking operations and later served as head of the Government Advisory Group,

THE CLASS OF 2017

providing financial market guidance to developing nations in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, South America,

◗ Lawrence L. “Rusty” Hlavacek Jr. H’95 P’06 ’08

and the Middle East.

◗ Jacob B. Morrow

Bardel is currently a director of Hudson City Bancorp, Hudson City Savings Bank, Black Stone Minerals GP LLC, Black Stone Natural Resources LLC, and Black Stone Minerals LP. He and his wife, Penny, a former Lawrenceville English master, live in Connecticut and New York City, and are the parents of Will ’93 and Katherine.

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HALL OF FAMERS HONORED ALYSE RUFF ’07

SAM WAUGH ’72

A rare four-sport varsity athlete, lettering in field hockey, ice hockey, crew, and lacrosse.

Amassed nine Major “L”s on the indoor and outdoor track teams during his storied Lawrenceville career.

A three-year varsity field hockey athlete, named New Jersey Player of the Year and tapped for the National Field Hockey Academic Squad, New Jersey Independent School Athletic Association Prep A First Team, and All-Mid-Atlantic Prep League Honorable Mention.

Six-time state champion and undefeated for two years in both the indoor and outdoor 440-yard dash.

Named to the N.J. All-Decade Field Hockey Team in 2010.

In four years of ice hockey, played in 88 games, scoring 134 goals with 94 assists for 228 points.

Named the New Jersey Devils Player of the Year, N.J. Player of the Year, and made multiple first-team all-state teams.

Lettered in lacrosse before trying crew, where she again took home a Major “L”.

Was awarded the Melissa Magee Best Female Athlete Award.

Played Division I women’s ice hockey and captained the team at Providence College.

Named Rhode Island Distinguished Athlete of the Year and was one of two unanimous selections for the Hockey East All-Rookie Team.

Ranked No. 3 in the 440 in 1971, No. 2 in the United States in the 440 in 1972, and No. 5 on the all-time high school list.

First-ever recipient of the Edward J. Poreda Award for his track achievements and received the John H. Thompson Jr. Prize for athletics, scholarship, and character upon graduation.

Captained the track team at Rice University from 1975 to 1977, winning Rice’s Brunson Award for Outstanding Track Athlete.

Southwest Conference champion in the 600-yard dash and a U.S. Track and Field Federation double All-American.

Currently head of Upper School at the Awty International School in Houston, he has coached five state champion soccer teams and 13 track teams to state championships in the mile relay.

In his

40th

year of coaching.

COREY FLOYD ’97 Three-sport letter winner in football, basketball, and baseball.

Captain of both the football and basketball teams his senior year.

Twice named to the first-team all-area defensive team in football, he was also on the first-team all-area offensive team and was the all-prep football player of the year.

Was a 1,000-point scorer in basketball, an all-area first and second team choice, and twice an all-prep team selection.

Recipient of the Edmund R. Megna basketball trophy and named The Nick Gusz Best Male Athlete.

BENJAMIN C. “CHAMP” ATLEE ’62 H’74 ’75 ’79 ’83 ’84 ’06 P’92 Head baseball coach since 1977.

Has led Big Red baseball to 515 wins; 18 New Jersey Independent School Athletic Association Championships; three Mid-Atlantic Prep League Championships; and two Mercer County Championships.

Signed by the Minnesota Twins in 1965 after two years at Claremont College.

Subsequently graduated from Franklin & Marshall College and served as its assistant coach, becoming the only athlete in F&M history to win a varsity letter without ever competing in a varsity game.

Corey attended East Carolina University on a full football scholarship and played in three major Bowl games.

Received his master’s degree from Millersville University in 1980.

Continuing his legacy of Big Red sportsmanship as a youth sports coach in his home state of North Carolina.

An accomplished poet, his works can be found in publications such as Shenandoah, Poet Talk, America’s Civil War, and America Magazine.

Three-time Hockey East Academic All-Star, elected to the Chi Alpha College Athlete Honor Society.

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T H E L AW R E N T I A N

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TIME WAS...

Torn str aight

from the pages of past

75 Years Ago in ‘The Lawrentian’ Spring 1942: A New Housemaster for Kennedy John K.D. Chivers has been appointed to the Kennedy House to the fill the vacancy caused

by Harley Heath’s death. Jack is a graduate of Lawrenceville ’24 and Princeton ’28. He has a broad background of successful business experience in Chicago and of farming before taking up teaching here. Since then he has done graduate work in history at Princeton and Harvard.

He is a member of the History Department and coordinating director of Non-Athletic Activities.

Jack is a glutton for work, athletic, serious-minded, devoted to all the best interests of the School. Best of all, he is married to Patty Chivers. They have three [sic] children: Lucy Ann, and John Jr. [’52], ages 13 and 8. Their summer home is near Orford, New Hampshire.

20 Years Ago in The Lawrentian Summer 1997: Stormin’ Norman Comes to Town Retired U.S. Army General H. Norman Schwarzkopf spent his boyhood years in Green House, the “great stone fortress” as he calls it, on Main Street. […]

Lawrenceville officials invited Gen. Schwarzkopf to town during Memorial Weekend so that the general could be part of the town’s tricentennial celebration. When he accepted, he made a special request to visit Green House. […] The general spent more than an hour at Green House, visiting each room of his childhood home. […] He got teary eyed when he visited what used to be his old bedroom, now a kitchen in Apartment 4-D.

40 Years Ago in The Lawrentian Summer 1977:

Home Delivery …

Old-timers will remember Pete Petrone, of hoagie fame, and the way Pete used to deliver to the Houses and cater House feeds. Home delivery has not existed for some years, but it was revived this year by Steve Immordino, proprietor of the Village Luncheonette, which is located across the street from Kinnan. Steve added pizza to his menu this year and delivers to the Houses. It’s now a familiar sight to see Steve’s delivery boy trooping around to the Houses laden with large white boxes.

SUMMER

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2017

41

7/17/17 12:35 PM

For so many, the Law-

BY THE NUMBERS

renceville School’s website is their first glimpse into life on campus and into the classroom for stu-

A Web of

Intrigue 177

Percentage of increase in website traffic on Admit Day

3.21

Average number of page views per session

dents or parents. Since the site’s latest iteration debuted on February 15, Lawrenceville has never looked better!

(All figures refer to the 12-month span from 1/1/16 through 12/31/16, unless otherwise noted.)

2,114,799 Number of page views

2016 over the daily average

185

Number of news stories posted to the website between July 1, 2016, and May 11, 2017

7, 4, 3.5

Among users directed to the website via social media, the percentage referred

78

Among users directed to the website via social media, the percentage referred by Facebook

659,083

by LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram

Number of “sessions,” the period of time a user is actively engaged with the website

2:53

Time, in minutes and seconds, of the average session

Percentage of mobile-plus-

Number of content (non-news)

tablet users accessing the

pages on the website

60.1

P E R C E N TA G E O F W E B S I T E TRAFFIC FROM DESKTOP COMPUTERS, INCLUDING LAPTOPS

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84

302

website via Apple products

31.9

Percentage of website traffic from mobile devices, not including tablets

9

Percentage of mobile-plustablet users accessing the website via Samsung products

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STUDENT SNAP: DIVYA KUMAR '17

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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 email us at vavanisko@lawrenceville.org with his or her new address. Thank you!

CELEBRATE

125 SEASONS OF

PERIWIG!

FOR 125 SEASONS, Periwig has celebrated the

performing arts, shaping the lives of young artists.

Now we celebrate you with an exciting year of theatre, music, and dance.

Lawrenceville Performing Arts invites you to return to the stage of Kirby Arts Center to join our Parade of Stars for Guys and Dolls, dance in the Spring Dance Concert, or perform in our Alumni Concert during Alumni Weekend.

For a complete listing of events, see www.lawrenceville.org/page/periwig-125th- season

GUYS & DOLLS • SPRING DANCE CONCERT • ALUMNI CONCERT and more...

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