WEBB Magazine Spring 2011 edition by The Webb Schools

WEBB MAGAZINE Spring 2011

Hal l of

LIFE

coming this fall

read about it on page 42

WEBB

A D M I N I S T R AT I O N Susan A. Nelson Head of Schools

MAGAZINE Spring 2011

Taylor B. Stockdale Assistant Head of Schools Karen J. Bowman, PhD Director of Marketing and Communications Donald, L. Lofgren, PhD Director, Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology Leo G. Marshall Director of Admission and Financial Aid Janet K. Peddy Director of Finance, Planning and Operations

FEATURES

2 4 20

From the Head of Schools Susan Nelson: A Legacy of Leadership Creative Minds at Work

WEBB TODAY

28 36 38 40 44 46

Students Sports Faculty Museum Aﬃliates Giving

NEWSNOTES

50 56 58

Alumni Proﬁles Trustees WSC News VWS News In Memoriam Final Word

Joe Woodward Director of Institutional Advancement BOARD OF TRUSTEES Robert L. Adler, Chairman of the Board Paul M. Reitler ’54, Vice Chair, Secretary R. Larry Ashton ’70, Chairman, Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology, ex officio William M. Bauman ’82 Sanjiv P. Dholakia ’87 Jenna Z. Gambaro ’95 Wayne L. Hanson ’59 Wilfred Hsu ’78 Claire H. McCloud Timothy C. Moore, ’59 David C. Myles ’80 Susan A. Nelson, Head of Schools, ex officio Mickey E. Novak ’70 Janet K. Peddy, Director of Finance, Planning and Operations, assistant secretary, ex officio Miles R. Rosedale, ’69 Susan Sasaki Mary A. Schuck Laura Skandera Trombley, PhD Gordon M. Steel ’63 Taylor B. Stockdale, Assistant Head of Schools Ralph D. Young ’63 LIFE TRUSTEES John Bryan ’43 Hugh H. Evans Jr. ’49 Anne Gould Alfred B. Hastings Jr. ’42 H. Earl (Bud) Hoover II ’52 Murray H. Hutchison Robert Stragnell, MD Volume 15, Number 1

73 82 88

From the Head of Schools

ecently, one of our seniors

time I’ve heard that and not only from

Webb is all about the transformative experience of special relationships formed in a unique place, and its special gift to me has been the richness of watching well over 2,000 boys and girls growing into young men and women, sharing in their and their parents’ joys and disappointments, coming to know most alumni and knowing many very well, and living and working with the ﬁnest faculty and staﬀ one could ever imagine— one which also educated my two sons.

seniors but also from alumni and past

Like our senior, I can’t imagine my life without Webb.

parents. And certainly today as I face

And like our seniors, I am walking through a major transition in my life’s journey. I empathize with their feelings of loss and liberation, of anticipation and regret, of the need for constancy and the excitement of change, of looking back and moving forward, and of crossing boundaries and “lighting out for the territory” as Huck put it.

remarked to me, “I can’t imagine my life without Webb.” Over the course of twenty three years, it’s not the ﬁrst

a new place for myself in the Webb community, the sentiment resonates deeply with me.

Although they are actually leaving Webb and I’m just entering a new role, the experience of transition is the same. I think it’s true that most of us are far more comfortable in our spaces and places than we are in transition. The angst really is more about getting from one place to another than the actual place itself—good,

bad, or indifferent as it may be. When you’re leaving something that you love and that has defined your identity and, indeed, your life, the transition is even trickier to navigate. But, there is the great reward of learning something new, of being inspired, and of experimenting. Of course, that’s the work of adolescence—differentiating, separating, re-negotiating relationships. Harvard sociologist Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, whom I have the pleasure of knowing, has recently named the years between 50-75 “the third chapter” and it’s something akin to adolescence —a life stage that was named in the last century. We’re neither young nor old. We’re transitioning and shifting patterns and writing new stories about ourselves and our relationship to the world and to others. I’ll confess that, other than my family, Webb has played the significant role in my life for the last 23 years and it will continue to do so. In similar fashion, it has done so and will continue to do so for our seniors. It’s no wonder that even as we venture into new realms, we can’t imagine our lives without Webb. Happily, we don’t have to. For at some level, Webb is always a part of those of us blessed to have had the experience of it. There are bonds forged here that have changed our lives indelibly. The culture of

community that has been so deliberately forged at Webb builds just the quality of self esteem and sense of purpose that leads to happy, productive, successful lives. As people who care about the future of our school and the future of our young people, we know that these gifts of relationship and purpose are the greatest we can give. At the end of the day, Webb is rich in its ability to motivate the right and most valuable goals in life—the opportunity to learn, to grow in responsibility and freedom, to contribute signiﬁcantly to others, and to be recognized for achievements. This meaningful measurement of a life well-lived—whether you’re a young teenager, a young adult, in your “third chapter,” or an octogenarian—sustains us, refreshes us, propels us, and guides us through the various transitions in our life’s journey. And, indeed, it’s no wonder then that so many of us have said, “I can’t imagine my life without Webb.”

Yours faithfully,

Susan A. Nelson Head of Schools

Spring 2011

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Her legacy is extraordinary. Her time at Webb will be remembered as prosperous, innovative, creative and a time when we, as a school, grew to know ourselves better, to have a deeper understanding of our shared beliefs.â&#x20AC;? TAYLOR STOCKDALE

Susan Nelson Nurturing and Advancing Webb’s Core Principles for 23 Years

by Debbie Carini

n the summer of 1988, Susan Nelson left her native New York City to take the helm of Vivian Webb School. At the time, she had been in education for more than 15 years, at the Staten Island Academy in New York City, where her experience—teaching English, directing the college counseling oﬃces, serving as head of the upper school and as assistant head—would provide the groundwork for her eventual rise, in 1991, to Head of The Webb Schools. Al Hastings ’42 remembers sitting next to Nelson during the hiring process: “My gut feeling told me she was right for the job—in interest and ability,” he said. “The proof to me was in her words and in her emotions, she wanted that job so badly—her competition was right in the room, but she was just passionate about getting the job.”

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H ead of Schools-elect, Taylor Stockdale recalls Nelson’s ﬁrm handshake and someone telling him, “Well, she’s from New York.”

Stockdale and Nelson started their careers at Webb on the same day. At an early point in his tenure at Webb, Stockdale considered leaving the school for an opportunity to teach at an eastern boarding school or to be closer to his family in San Diego.

“I mentioned it to Susan, and that turned into an hour-long conversation about Webb and her vision for making this the school it is today,” said Stockdale. “I also talked to my father (Vice Admiral James Bond Stockdale) and he said that the hardest thing in life is to ﬁnd a good mentor. He told me that before I left Webb, I should think about how important it is to have someone to learn from over a long period of time. That’s when I decided to commit myself to Webb for the long term.” Wendin D. Smith, PhD ’89, founder of an international consulting ﬁrm, says that as a young student, she could “feel the fresh, innovative ideas that Susan was bringing from the east coast,” while at the same time “she was clearly respecting Webb’s history and traditions.” Now, as Nelson prepares to retire as head of schools and move into a new role as head emerita, where she will have greater opportunity to focus on critical strategic

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initiatives, she reﬂects on her leadership during an unprecedented era of intellectual and academic growth in Webb’s history. Nelson also shares her deep sentiment for the institution she has called home for more than two decades.

Re-centering the school on its core mission usan Nelson’s long tenure as a leader at Webb is surpassed only by that of the school’s founder, Thompson Webb, and it was to Thompson Webb’s ideal of honor that Nelson turned during the turbulent, early years of her Webb career.

In 1988, the school was grappling with its structure—it had been operating as coordinate schools with co-ed classes. When Craig Weber left the post as head of the coordinate schools in 1990, authority returned for about a year to dual chiefs, with Nelson as head of Vivian Webb School and Donald Reed as head of Webb School of California. As the board of trustees started the process of conducting a national search for a new leader, board member Howell Webb ’35 (Thompson Webb’s son, and the founder and headmaster of Foothill Country Day School) said, “Why spend a great deal of money and a great deal of time on a search when we’ve got a ﬁrst rate administrator —Susan Nelson—already with us?” Charged with getting the school back to its mission of being a rigorous, college-preparatory, residential school, Nelson began the diﬃcult work of reinvigorating the school’s core principles. “When I was hired as head of schools, the board made it very clear to me that they thought the institution had lost its way from its core of instilling in students a life of ethical behavior,” said Nelson. “They wanted to take that piece (ethical behavior) back to its roots and have it inform all the things we did at Webb: the students we admitted, the teachers we hired, and the programs we established.” Karen Rosenthal, a member of the board of trustees, and the mother of Alix Rosenthal ’91 and Ariel Rosenthal Parrish ’93 was witness to Nelson’s earliest days at the school.

“She just got it (the Webb way) from day one,” said Rosenthal. “She never promised more than she could deliver, to the board, or to parents or, I think, to faculty. I was in awe of her ... her speeches were focused, extraordinarily literate, and made you glad you were on her team. She never said it would be easy, but I think she relished the challenges.” Peter Ziegler ’63 was chair of the board of trustees during the transition period: “There were lots of tensions between the faculty and the administration and between the parents and the schools. Susan, with support from the board, was able to navigate these troubled waters and forge her own team to implement her vision of what The Webb Schools could become. She was calm, thoughtful and determined, and ultimately successful.” Nelson likens the experience to taking a ship and steering it in another direction, after it had been drifting for a while. “It was huge work and diﬃcult work, and sometimes misunderstood and unpopular work,” she said of her and the board’s eﬀorts to reinvigorate and strengthen the school’s mission. “What we did was vitally important for the school’s survival, for Webb to grow and thrive and become the best iteration of itself that it could. Now I look back and think, if we hadn’t recaptured Thompson Webb and the honor code in a very strong, real, day-to-day way, some of the other successes would not have been possible,” she added, citing the school’s exceptional reputation for attracting the highest quality students and faculty, and for sustaining happy and faithful alumni.

Providing the best of both single-sex and coeducational opportunities When Vivian Webb School was founded in 1981, there was a real distinction between the girls’ and boys’ schools, but by the time Nelson arrived, seven years later, classes were all co-ed. “I found it very curious that we would have made the most central part of the educational experience—the classroom and the curriculum—completely co-ed,” said Nelson, “and I raised the question when I was interviewed, ‘why are all the classes co-ed?’”

“In my earliest memories of Susan, her hair was always in a bun. She had a crisp personality which was very different than what we were used to in Southern California. It was interesting to watch her adapt to the California culture. Just two months into her leadership of Vivian Webb School, we had a showcase of talents and we convinced her to join us in a skit. We got her out there singing, with her hair down, wearing a flowing skirt, and that’s when everyone realized that she could be more engaging than our first impression of her.” WENDIN SMITH ’89

“She has amazing stamina. I’m impressed by her travel schedule, the time she spends in meetings and the time it takes to run the ship ... and with all of that, she’s had a lot of big accomplishments.” CHRISTINA MERCER McGINLEY ’84

She was told that the rationales were financial and logistical, but she thought those answers were insufficient and when she became head of schools, she set about reinvigorating the coordinate educational structure. “We worked very hard to rediscover the significance of single-sex classes, and then beyond just single-sex classes, the importance of differentiating some elements of the curriculum as it was taught to the boys as opposed to how it was taught to the girls,” she said. “That was also very much about being on mission and understanding our distinctiveness.” According to Nelson, the work that went into increasing the size, stature and identity of Vivian Webb School by all the school’s constituents—administrators, teachers, parents, students and alumni—has been a great accomplishment.

coaches,” to get teams to a place where they regularly win league titles. “There are great lessons to be learned from winning and losing,” said Nelson. “You have to learn to lose gracefully and well, and you have to learn to win gracefully and well.” But, she emphasized, it’s important for kids to feel like they have a ﬁghting chance—with proper equipment and strong leadership. “Sports do remarkable things for school energy,” said Nelson, adding that there are incredible life lessons to be learned through the camaraderie and team work of participating in the school’s athletic program. “It doesn’t have to be a winning program, but it has to be a strong program,” said Nelson. “Those lessons make a huge diﬀerence in the people our students become—in their lives and in their careers,” she added.

“Susan embraced the vision of the coordinate structure,” said Christina Mercer McGinley ’84, who as a member of the ﬁrst Vivian Webb School graduating class, understood the obstacles Nelson was facing. “Susan keeps up on the pedagogical research and everything points to the success of educating males and females separately.”

Christina’s son, Tim McGinley ’12, is the ﬁrst VWS legacy student and Christina was the ﬁrst VWS alumna to serve on The Webb Schools’ Board of Trustees.

Today, one of the strongest aspects of Nelson’s legacy is the fact that Webb is a “50-50 institution,” as she recently described it. “Our girls are just as amazing and wonderful as our boys. We have strong female role models on campus, just as when I arrived,” she said, citing faculty members from the early 1980s such as Joan Presecan, Janet Macaulay, Jinx Tong, and Kathy Hasse, calling them amazing women with a tremendous sense of loyalty and commitment to the school.

Strengthening and expanding athletics and the arts A strong sports program has been part of the Webb experience since the school’s founding, but during Nelson’s tenure, the school has invested, as she describes it, “a lot of thought and planning and careful hiring of

nder Nelson’s guidance, the number of teams has grown by at least a third, the quality of the coaching staﬀ has vastly improved, the school has been able to attract more student-athletes, and overall, the community has developed a sense of real pride in wearing the Webb uniform. A similar renewal has occurred within the arts program. “When I arrived at Webb, there was real institutional discussion about what many people saw as the marginalization of the arts,” said Nelson. “We had gifted and talented students and teachers, but we had a much more narrow range of oﬀerings.” Students are now required to take two years of art classes: from the music department where there are several choruses, an orchestra, instrumental ensembles and three large-scale theatrical productions a year to the art department where student works in most forms of

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expression, from oil painting to pottery-making, are often on display. “Today we have the largest orchestra we’ve ever had and a variety of singing groups,” said Nelson. “The arts have become much more an integral part of the school community.” Even students who do not play an instrument or paint or draw are able to participate through regular art shows and student music in the chapel.

Inspired by Nelson’s leadership and encouragement of the arts, Jim ’42 and Lin Burke made the single largest gift in Webb history to establish the Copeland Donahue Theater and Digital Media Studio. The first new academic building since 1987, the Copeland Donahue Theater and Digital Media Studio offers artistic opportunities in speech, dance, theater arts classes, and small performances. It also provides workspace for art and film classes, and a fully-equipped digital media suite where students can explore the expressive and conceptual potential of digital-based projects ranging from print to physical computing. “I think of the yearbook staff and what they’re doing with digital photography. It’s really incredible,” said Nelson. Professional artists from all media are also invited to campus to share their experiences with students.

“So much of the strength of what we are today is a result of getting good minds around the table and on the job, thinking about Webb’s distinctive core competencies and how we can stretch those.” she added. “Susan inspires such strong support because she is so competent,” said Zeigler. “She is always pushing herself and others to change and improve. She is never without a challenging agenda, which is very unusual for a long-time head of an organization. Usually there are a few periods of challenge followed by years of complacency with the status quo. Not with Susan. Every year there is a new challenge and a clearly deﬁned program to meet the challenge.”

The expansion of artistic expression has made a big diﬀerence not only for the performers themselves but for their audiences as well. “We’ve expanded the idiom for the whole community,” said Nelson.

A commitment to strategic visioning and planning Applying the disciplines of modern planning and strategic thinking to the school’s long range future has been a hallmark of Nelson’s years of leadership. “Of course, there have always been people who knew where they wanted the school to go. Thompson Webb knew exactly where he wanted the school to go,” said Nelson, “but the disciplines of modern planning and strategic thinking applied to a school community with participants that include alumni, parents and, of course, our board of trustees have helped us discern where we want to go and who we want to be as a community.”

oupled with strategic visioning and planning are the successes of Webb’s three capital campaigns. The first one, The Campaign for The Webb Schools, was ending just as Nelson began her tenure, but she led the next two—Building Character, which raised $21 million and Fulfilling Our Promise, which began in 2005-2006 and has thus far raised $30 million of its $40 million goal. “Apart from raising money to support the vision and secure the future, to upgrade and increase facilities and build endowment, the legacies of these campaigns has been and will continue to be, a much more highly-invested constituency—alumni, parents and past parents—who have the well-deserved sense of pride that they are making a difference to an important place,” she added. Col. John S. Rogers USAF ’59 says he had concerns about his alma mater before Nelson took over. He met with her about a year into her tenure as head of schools and says he was impressed with her vision for the school and her efforts to create meaningful programs.

“I asked her, ‘what do you want?’ and she said she wanted to help students” said Rogers. “She spoke about the quality of Webb students and told me that we need to keep students who work hard and need a boost.”

“Her leadership is genuine and produces leaders by example.” COL. JOHN S. ROGERS USAF ’59

Through his family foundation, the Mary Stuart Rogers Foundation, Col. Rogers has contributed more than $5 million to support ﬁnancial aid endowment and capital projects, especially scholarships for students. “I always had conﬁdence in her and the people she surrounded herself with. She hired a good team and she groomed them,” said Rogers. “Her visions are focused and she leads by example—she takes care of herself, her family and her school family.”

n addition to bricks and mortar, Webb’s capital campaigns have expanded faculty benefits and professional teacher development. They have also brought significant improvements to one of Webb’s most unique educational opportunities: the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology. During Nelson’s tenure, the museum has grown in stature, professionalism and national prominence. In 1991, Nelson hired Don Lofgren, PhD, as the museum’s director. With Nelson’s encouragement and support, Dr. Lofgren sought and achieved accreditation by the American Association of Museums (a feat which is accomplished by fewer than 5% of all museums, nationwide). The museum program has expanded its reach in the Webb curriculum—not only are there Museum Research and Honors Advanced Study in Paleontology, but the collections of the museum are employed by the science and math departments; for example, students are measuring fossil specimens for projects in Conceptual Physics. The museum building itself has experienced a transformation with the Hall of Footprints undergoing a complete renovation in 2002 and plans currently underway for renovation of the Hall of Life. And the staff has grown to include a professional curator, an assistant curator, and a director of public outreach so that the museum can continue to fulfill its mission of being a resource, not only for Webb students, but for the greater public and scientific world as well. “Susan is always looking around the corner. She sees things down the road before other people do and as a result, issues get addressed and that leads to the great confidence that the board has in her abilities,” said Robert Adler, current chair of the board of trustees and parent of Joseph ’96 and Caroline ’00. “She also has a

terriﬁc sense of humor and enthusiasm. She’s very articulate and able to translate the vision of the school in ways that inspire, activate and energize others.” Through the expansion of Unbounded Thinking (a philosophy that was inspired by museum founder and Webb teacher Ray Alf, and coined by Robert Hefner III ’53 who, in 1998, established the Raymond M. Alf Inspirational and Unbounded Teaching Chair), there has been a renewed emphasis on being willing and able to think creatively, and understand that creativity can be taught, according to Nelson. “We recognize that innovative problem solving and creativity are required 21st century skills,” she said. Nelson adds that, as a school, “we haven’t even all agreed on what unbounded thinking is—and that’s a good thing. It’s a lively discussion that a great educational institution should be having.”

Susan Nelson leaves behind a true legacy of a strong school leader. For more than 20 years, she has radiated vitality and creativity, celebrated change and honored tradition, and throughout her career at the school, exhibited an unwavering commitment to the mission and principles —honor, leadership, and service—that truly deﬁne and distinguish The Webb Schools.

1988

Tw o D e c a d e s o f L e a d e r s h i p

1988 - Susan Nelson arrives from New York’s Staten Island Academy as new Head of Vivian Webb School 1990 - The Campaign for The Webb Schools completed Appleby converted to a girls’ dorm to house the growing number of VWS boarders

1991 - Susan Nelson appointed Head of The Webb Schools Dr. Don Lofgren joins community as Director of the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology

1992 - Peccary Society becomes a formal organization WSC soccer wins CIF Championship

1993 - Strategic Plan – Direction for the Future 1993-1998 published First Peccary Society Dinner

1994 - Endowment reaches $3 million Building Character campaign launched with $18 million goal

1996 - WEBBIE network completed linking all classrooms and public access computers to the Internet Mary Stuart Rogers Endowed Scholarship – Mary Stuart Rogers Scholar Program established

1997 - Webb School of California celebrates 75th anniversary VWS celebrates 15 years First Alumni Peccary Trip New Director of College Guidance Hector Martinez revitalizes the college counseling program

1998 - Endowment reaches $10 million Raymond M. Alf Inspirational and Unbounded Teaching Chair in Science and the Robert A. Hefner III ’53 Endowment for Excellence in Science established

1999 - Building Character campaign completed with $21 million raised (exceeding the goal by $3 million) Mary Stuart Rogers Peccary Scholar program established

2000 - McCarthy Collaborative Learning Lab dedicated 2001 - Hefner Observatory completed $1.3 million in ﬁnancial aid beneﬁted 21% of the student body

2002 - Heinz-Steel Duplex adds two additional faculty homes to campus Ten states and 15 countries are represented within the student body

2003 - Rogers Track and Faculty Field and McCarthy Fitness Center completed Wrestling – CIF Freelance league champs Reitler House purchased and renovated for faculty

2004 - First time VWS cross country team advanced to State Championship Webb joined consortium of schools visiting Russia Turnaround Project completed Aﬃliates Patio constructed

2006 - SAN joins the SSATB (Secondary School Admission Test Board) VWS celebrates its 25th anniversary Gallagher Quad dedicated Scene Shop completed Renovated Webb House becomes home to the Admission Oﬃce VWS 400 freestyle relay team breaks VWS school record that held for 17 years Museum sets a one-day record of 789 visitors Webb’s fundraising program wins a Circle of Excellence Bronze Medal from CASE

2007 - Endowment reaches nearly $20 million Webb wins the gold medal for Best Practices in Annual Giving at CASE District VII

2008 - SAN appointed to Cal West Advisory, Claremont Hills Conservation Corp. and TABS (The Association of Boarding Schools) boards Copeland Donahue Theater completed Students and teachers attended the Institute of Global Ethics conference in DC 4436 Towne Avenue was purchased and renovated for faculty housing Fulfilling Our Promise campaign goes public with $40 million goal Alf Museum receives re-accreditation from AAM (American Association of Museums) Dr. Andy Farke joins museum staff as first curator of paleontology

2009 - SAN becomes a member of the CAIS (CA Association of Independent Schools) Secondary Board of Standards (serving as vice chair 2009-10) and the Claremont University Consortium Board of Overseers First full-day Honor Symposium with student-led workshops Purchased home next door to campus – 90% of faculty reside on campus Dormitory renovations completed

2010 - 7 sports teams win CIF academic team championships WSC water polo captured the CIF championship - the ﬁrst since 1992

2011

2011 - Endowment reaches $25 million

Fulfilling Our Promise campaign crosses $30 million mark $2.8 million in financial aid benefits 30% of the student body

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Ma ing k

Architect, Artist, Filmmaker, Ceramicist, Product Designer, Interior Designer, Curator, Art Historian, Television Writer, Science Fiction Writer, and Novelist.

Creative Minds at Work

Webb alumni employ unbounded thinking and find fulfillment in innovative and inspired careers. Reading, writing and arithmetic form the foundation of a good education ... but a great education goes beyond the standard and provides unique opportunities for students to find inspiration and to advance their creative pursuits.

Throughout the years, Webb alumni have achieved world-renown in creative endeavors: artist David Scott ’33 painted what he called “abstractions and mindscapes,” but is best known for his leadership and transformation of the National Museum of American Art (later known as the Smithsonian American Art Museum), Scott also helped expand the National Gallery of Art; Robert Glenn Ketchum ’66 is an award-winning photographer who advocates for nature conservancy through his environmental landscapes; Leslie Epstein ’56, a Rhodes Scholar, is a novelist, playwright, and the director of the Creative Writing Program at Boston University; and Hardu Keck ’58 was an artist who worked in many media, from sculpture to painting to collage, Keck enjoyed a long association with the Rhode Island School of Design where he rose from a master’s candidate to Vice President for Academic Aﬀairs/Provost to Dean of International Programs. Today, Webb’s creative minds are tapping into new media and developing exciting new means of expressing their inventiveness.

Architect

Mark LEE ’85 is a founder and principal,

with his wife Sharon Johnston, of Johnston Marklee, a dynamic architecture firm whose mission is to create “unique and vital works of architecture.” The firm’s innovative design process incorporates collaborations beyond those typical to architecture, including work with contemporary artists, writers, photographers and sculptors. Their work pushes the conventions of engineering and materials. Among their many well-known designs is the famous “Hill House” which resembles an enormous faceted stone built into the side of a hill in the Pacific Palisades of Southern California. Lee was inspired by three amazingly diverse teachers at Webb. Not surprisingly, the first of these was his art teacher, Blair Maffris, who Lee says always encouraged him to do extracurricular projects in order to explore his interests. Lee also enjoyed physics with David Chandler who took a complicated subject and brought it to life. And finally, Lee says he learned to “step outside his comfort zone” under the guidance of track coach Jerry Gems. “I wasn’t the fastest runner, but he put me in the anchor position of the relay team—it was a situation that was outside of my comfort zone, but it forced me to raise my game,” said Lee. Lee said he also learned a lot about the value of education while he was at Webb, a lesson that he has applied as he lectures on architecture and landscapes. He has taught at ETH Zurich (a science and technology university), at UCLA, and as a guest professor at the Technical University Berlin. Lee holds a BA in architecture from the University of Southern California and earned his second architectural degree (M Arch II) at the Harvard Design School. “I never felt like my teachers at Webb were just passing on knowledge,” said Lee. “They were curious too.”

Product Designer

Jennifer TONG ’90 brings her unique

artistic flair to the sportswear industry. She is a creative director for Agron, Inc., the official licensee for Adidas and many other athletic brands. In her role as creative director, Tong oversees the direction of design for Adidas accessories (including headwear, bags, backpacks, socks, men’s underwear and swimwear, and on-field equipment), making sure the trends and colors are correct, along with her responsibilities of managing a team of designers. Tong graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a BA in art history, and then traveled to Florence, Italy, for a semester. She earned a second BA, with honors, in fashion design from Otis College of Art and Design where she was also named Student Designer of the Year in 1997-98.

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Tong says that the strong value system she learned at Webb has provided a good underpinning to her career. When a company she was working for wanted to formalize its values statement, she realized the message they were crafting was strikingly similar to the honor code at Webb. “Words like respect, trust, accountability and leadership were meaningful for me in part because of Webb’s efforts to make that code a part of our daily lives,” she said. Tong also remembers going everywhere on the Webb campus with a pencil and sketchbook. “Mr. Maffris was a great art teacher in that he let me find my way,” said Tong. “I tried to do everything when I was at Webb,” added Tong. “My teachers really encouraged my curiosity.” Tong says her well-rounded education at Webb also helps her stay focused on the myriad challenges of the fashion world, including the marketing side of product development, production, distribution and pricing.

“My job requires that I use both sides of my brain,” she added. “I have to be creative in product design, but also in executing our business.”

Interior Designer

Emily LaMARQUE ’97

Learning to think creatively and analytically while a student at Webb has enabled Emily (Golden) LaMarque ’97 not only to pursue her interests as an interior designer, but to establish a successful business as well, Emily LaMarque Design Studio.

“The intense curriculum at Webb instills a strong work ethic in students, which is 100% applicable for me today as an entrepreneur and business owner,” said LaMarque. “At Webb, I established a strong foundation as an individual, which allowed me to fully investigate and excel at future interests.” LaMarque studied art history at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she earned a BA summa cum laude. She then went on to graduate from UCLA’s prestigious Interior Design program. In 2006, she launched her ﬁrm, Emily LaMarque Design Studio, a comprehensive boutique design ﬁrm specializing in projects ranging from sleek urban lofts to playfully chic, family-friendly retreats in homes as varied as the Turnberry Towers in Las Vegas, to a stately brownstone on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia. LaMarque says that there are many examples of her Webb education—learning to study, to work in a team, to lead a project and to take risks—that play an important role in her day-to-day business. “All of those aspects support what I do today, because I still do them every day,” she said. “Whether it’s analyzing and evaluating potential products for clients, collaborating with contractors and vendors, leading a design from concept to installation, to making outof-the-box design suggestions, those aspects constitute a major part of business every day.” LaMarque values the relationships she develops

with clients and most enjoys seeing a project evolve from an initial concept to something completely tangible— “a space that physically surrounds you and plays upon all of your senses in the most wonderful way.” As a creative entrepreneur, LaMarque balances her art with the business side of her career. “Any creative entrepreneur will tell you that at the end of the day, 90% of your time is spent on business and 10% on creativity,” said LaMarque. “While the business side is essential, it’s also important to keep your imagination stoked so that your creativity ﬂows. For me, it’s getting out to see and try new things, traveling, exposing myself to new and diﬀerent experiences. If my mind becomes stale, so will my creative process and ultimately my designs.” LaMarque aspires to designing her own line of furnishings and perhaps fabrics as well, and says, “I also hope the ‘greening’ of the industry has a major impact on consumers and more clients will continue to demand healthy living spaces.”

“I think Webb gave me a feeling that I was special because a very special faculty shared their lives with us,” added Blaisdell. “They were my family and mentors. I don’t think Webb had anything to do with me being an artist. Webb had everything to do with my

overcoming the challenges of becoming a successful artist, and for that I am truly grateful.”

Art Historian Ceramicist

Nick BLAISDELL ’62

To enjoy one-of-a-kind pieces that are inspired by nature, many art lovers turn to Nick Blaisdell ’62, the creative force behind Dalton Ranch Pottery. His unique pieces are the result of 46 years of experience working with clay. Though art was not as big a part of a Webb education in the late 1950s and early 1960s as it is today, Blaisdell says that it was as a student at Webb where he was “given the tools, the power of my brain to overcome obstacles, to invent new solutions, to problem-solve, and to go beyond the ordinary.” Blaisdell explains that his success as an artist derives from following his muse, keeping after his goals and having had a life that was “exactly what I wished for.”

Julia MarciariALEXANDER ’85

Great artists are the purview of another Webb alumna, Julia Marciari-Alexander ’85. She is the San Diego Museum of Art’s (SDMA) deputy director for curatorial affairs and her goal is to “pair great art with as many people as possible.” She enjoys helping people understand how beauty affects their daily lives. Marciari-Alexander was among the first 34 students of the Vivian Webb School when it was established in 1981. She says the process of starting the new institution was very collaborative between students, faculty, the board of trustees, and the administration. “Many times, the adults turned to us and asked ‘what do you think?’” said Marciari-Alexander of those early years. “They took our ideas into consideration and now, today, I aspire to be that kind of leader.”

Spring 2011

Filmmaker Marciari-Alexander began her career as an assistant curator of paintings and sculpture at the Yale Center in 1997, moving on to associate curator and then acting curator for both. She became associate director of programmatic aﬀairs and then associate director of exhibitions and publications before moving west to begin her tenure at SDMA. She deﬁnes her role at the museum as “getting people engaged.” In 1981, her father (the late David Alexander, president of Pomona College and a member of The Webb Schools board of trustees), became the American Secretary of the Rhodes Trust which meant the family traveled to England or Europe for two to three weeks each year touring country homes and museums.

“I have never really recovered from my love of seeing works of art in ‘lived’ space, and it is this ‘lived’ connection between people and objects that particularly interests and moves me,”

Michael ARIAS ’84 says that his job

requires a variety of specialties and a broad range of knowledge. “There’s a very techie, nerdy side to it, and then there’s the artistic, expressive side of it,” he said. “I think the really great directors are generalists, in the best sense of the word—‘polymaths,’ comfortable debating ﬁlm stocks and lighting with a DP (director of photography), for example, and also happy to workshop a scene with actors or discuss musical ideas with a composer.” Arias says his parents and his teachers at Webb exposed him to “cool people and ideas and encouraged me to follow my interests. “Webb, as I remember it, was a very free and ﬂuid environment, without many obstacles; and I think it was that freedom which allowed me to be a full-on theater/music/art nerd and a computer/physics/math geek, at the same time,” said Arias.

said Marciari-Alexander in a 2009 interview for Sign On San Diego. She has several impressive exhibitions to her credit. In 2002, she co-curated “Painted Ladies: Women at the Court of Charles II,” which appeared at the Yale Center and the National Portrait Gallery in London. In 2007, she was co-curator of a show devoted to a major contemporary British artist: “Howard Hodgkin: Paintings, 1992-2007.” In her role at SDMA, Marciari-Alexander is also responsible for fundraising and laments budget cuts to the arts— within her ﬁrst six months in San Diego, 1/5 of the institution’s budget was slashed. “If we take arts and cultural education out of the learning experience, we won’t have anyone who can think critically,” she said.

Though Arias has worked variously as a visual effects artist, animation software developer and a producer, he is best known for his directorial debut, the anime feature Tekkonkinkreet, which established him as the first non-Japanese director of a major anime film. He has spent much of the last 20 years living in Tokyo, and working in the Japanese film industry.

As a child, Arias was fascinated by, and built, models— volcanoes and spaceships—and created “science projects” by filling them with gunpowder he’d emptied from Fourth of July fireworks. “In those days (the early 1980s), filmmaking was not something easily accessible to a high school student,” said Arias. “The computer room at Webb housed a refrigerator-sized PDP-10, a few text-only terminals, and a vector-graphics plotter, so non-linear editing was out of the question. That said, the first time I actually made a ‘movie’ was during my freshman year at Webb,” said Arias, explaining, “A senior friend with similar interests had an 8mm camera with which we shot a few of my models exploding, and intercut this with footage of another friend wearing a motorcycle helmet ‘piloting’ the doomed craft. I recently found the only print of that in my parents’ garage; all the tape splices had disintegrated, but the explosion still looks pretty cool!” Theater and music were a big part of Arias’ life at Webb where he was in the chamber singers, glee club, barbershop group, and also studied music theory. Today, he enjoys the complexity and uncertainty of the art of filmmaking.

“I’ve worked with directors who don’t roll without the whole movie mapped out in their mind, but I’ve always enjoyed keeping things as loose as possible at every stage of the process, adding ingredients along the way, encouraging ad-libs, and welcoming serendipitous contributions and natural phenomena; then, finally ‘sculpting’ all of this raw stuff into a movie,” he added. “Maybe it’s useful to think of making a movie as a kind of gardening project, with the director as the gardener. It sounds grandiose or self-important to speak of films as living organisms, but that’s how I think about them. Movies really have a life of their own.”

Film Producer

Nick WECHSLER ’67would agree

with Arias’ statement—the film producer and talent manager says “it’s very challenging making films that reflect my taste rather than aiming for a commercial bull’s-eye. The creative collaborations and that degree of difficulty are incredibly rewarding, even if it’s a journey that doesn’t result in the film getting made.”

Wechsler began his career as an entertainment lawyer, serving as a talent manager for musicians, including The Band’s guitarist Robbie Robertson. He then began building a reputation for taking on projects that didn’t fall easily into genres. “While practicing entertainment law, I also started backing singer/songwriters and bands because I was also

“You start with a few ideas on paper perhaps, or a song, or even just a photo that inspires images or a story and then you spend months—years!—with hundreds of people, each contributing their own ideas and personalities to the ﬁlm’s ultimate shape,” said Arias.

Spring 2011

very interested in contemporary music,” said Wechsler. “Then I started managing feature writers and directors as well as music artists, and gradually I put myself in a place where I could develop scripts with these writers and establish relationships with young, up-and-coming directors.” He co-wrote the story for the ﬁlm Made in U.S.A. in 1986, which was directed by Ken Friedman. He then co-produced Paul Mones’ The Beat in 1987. In 1988, he developed and co-produced Gus Van Sant’s striking Drugstore Cowboy and then served as executive producer on Steven Soderbergh’s 1989 sex, lies and videotape, the surprise winner of the Palme d’Or at that year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Getting the viewer to understand what they’re describing is an important aspect of their work today; Gifford and Moore are members of the writing staff for the popular television show The Closer, starring Kyra Sedgwick. The two have written an episode of the popular crime drama and spend up to 12-hours a day during production brainstorming story ideas, and interacting with the cast and crew. Gifford says that his favorite aspect of the job is “when it clicks, and you know you’re writing something original, especially when you know that that original thing will be relatable too. And the fact that a lot of people will end up seeing, and maybe enjoying my work, I think that excites me the most.” Gifford and Moore both graduated from New York University and headed west together to pursue their writing careers. They both agree that Webb prepared them for the work load and level of dedication that it takes to be successful in the entertainment industry.

“Every day, I get to work

with a puzzle—but with story pieces,” said Moore. “You spend days, weeks, even months trying to get

Television Writers

Ralph GIFFORD ’00 and Carson MOORE ’00 not only

found each other at Webb, they found their inspiration for becoming writers in Jim Kingstone’s English class. “Mr. Kingstone was a fantastic teacher. He really took the time to help me develop my own writing,” said Moore. “Mr. Tipton was the first English teacher I had at Webb,” said Gifford. “He certainly didn’t let anybody get away with disrespecting the language. And Mr. Kingstone was even more influential toward the end of my time at Webb. I remember him emphasizing the importance of getting the reader to see what you’re describing.”

those story pieces to ﬁt in a way that makes everyone happy. When you ﬁnally do, it’s extremely satisfying.” When asked where he sees himself in ten years, Moore replied, “at odds with Ralph’s wife!”

Science Fiction Writer

John Scalzi ’87,

For writer the thing that “pulled the switch” at Webb, was a story he wrote for John Heyes in Freshmen English Composition, a piece he describes as “Twilight-Zonish.”

“The teachers at Webb gave you the encouragement to do stuff that overall enriched your experience—that put you in a better stead than what your SAT scores may have been. There’s more to a Webb education than scores—the teachers gave you the tools to learn how to learn,” said Scalzi. He clearly remembers taking Individual Humanities with Larry McMillin. “It was a college-level classics course,” said Scalzi, who also recalled McMillin’s admonishment to him one day when he was gooﬁng around in class: “Mr. Scalzi, I don’t think you’re taking this very seriously. Perhaps you should come back when you’re ready.” “That just really made me want to do better,” said Scalzi. “All of my teachers encouraged us to ask questions, to learn to evaluate the information we were given—they challenged us and we were allowed to challenge them back, and they took us seriously.” Scalzi says that work ethic has facilitated his long and successful writing career. He won the 2006 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. His other novels include The Ghost Brigades, The Last Colony, Agent to the Stars, The Android’s Dream, Fuzzy Nation, and Zoe’s Tale.

“The idea is to publish once a year—either hardback or paperback,” said Scalzi whose novels have been translated to German, Spanish and Japanese. Old Man’s War recently went on sale in Romania—“that’s just cool,” said Scalzi. “I did it, and I got an A,” said Scalzi. “When I was writing it, it kind of flowed, and people really liked it. At age 14, I thought, here’s this thing—writing—that seems pretty easy. The great irony is that as you get older you realize it isn’t easy!” Scalzi is an award-winning author and currently serves as president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He is best known for his Hugo Award-nominated science fiction novel Old Man’s War (2005) and for his blog, “Whatever.” He has also written a number of non-fiction books.

He encourages all creative people to keep working at what they love. “I was 36 when my first novel was published,” said Scalzi. “That same day, 100 other science fiction novels came out! My first non-fiction book (about online finance) flopped miserably. I got bumped from a lot of interview shows because it was right in the aftermath of the Bush-Gore election. Then the Internet bubble burst! I was fortunate to get another chance. Public taste comes and goes; if you really want to work, you just have to keep on writing.”

At Webb, Scalzi wrote a collection of short stores for his senior English project. He was also the editor of the school’s newspaper, The Blue and Gold.

Spring 2011

Today student news

Honor Symposium Poses Ethical Dilemmas in the Real World

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Students apply Webb’s principles of honor to ethical questions in the realms of the environment, medicine, the law and popular culture.

t Webb, the Honor Code is deeply ingrained, it is a daily reminder of what makes the community a safe and rewarding place to be. For example, when a student can leave his or her backpack on the ground outside of the dining hall, and not worry that anything will happen to it or its contents, that is a small, but very visible, beneﬁt of living in an honorable community. Webb students have enjoyed, and lived by, the principles of the Honor Code since the school’s founding. Each year, the Honor Committee and the Honor Cabinet present a day-long exploration of the Honor Code at work. This year, planners decided to take the Honor Code to the real world —to discover how it applies to every-day life, especially in the work world, in the environment and in popular culture. The day consisted of three components: workshops conducted by Honor Committee and Honor Cabinet members, an assessment of the moral reasoning of the Webb student body, and an alumni panel discussing ethical dilemmas in their businesses or studies.

“This is mission-centered work. The symposium was the beginning of a series of initiatives that will further formalize ethics training at Webb,” said David Fitzgerald, director of activities and student leadership programs. During the ﬁrst session, Honor Committee and Cabinet members ran workshops on diﬀerent ethics case studies. The topics ranged from bioethics to ethics in cartoons,

including sessions such as LeBron James’ Free Agency Decision, Ethics Behind the Dolphin and Whaling Industries, and Ethics in the Movies (Harry Potter) to name just a few. “We had to research a topic, talk to our peers about it and then decide on ethical solutions,” said Honor Cabinet member Ivie Tokunboh ’12. “The focus was really on applying the ethics of the Honor Code to the real world,” added Jordan Burns ’12. Integrated within each session was an “ethical decision making model,” which helped students to analyze multiple perspectives of the issue. Tokunboh and Burns facilitated a workshop on stem cell research and gene therapy entitled “Ethics in Progressive Medicine.” They researched the topic by talking to their science teachers, Kevin Quick and David Fitzgerald, who gave them information and case studies. The duo then created a PowerPoint presentation featuring a summary of their research. “We went through the ethical decision making model, identiﬁed the stakeholders and the possible solutions and then participants expressed their opinions,” said Tokunboh. The second session of the day featured an assessment tool: a Deﬁning Issues Test by James Rest. The DIT is a component model of moral development devised by Rest in 1979; the University of Minnesota formally established

campus briefs

Ivie Tokunboh ’12 and Jordan Burns ’12 research their topic for the Honor Symposium presentation.

29 the Center for the Study of Ethical Development as a vehicle for research around this test in 1982. Rest was inspired by the work of Lawrence Kohlberg who taught at the University of Chicago and Harvard University, and is best known for his theory of stages of moral development. The DIT helps determine the moral reasoning abilities of the student body. According to Fitzgerald, students who took the test last year demonstrated increased “moral growth” over their previous scores. The workshop also covered Kohlberg’s cognitive development model and moral stage theory as based upon the principles of justice. In the afternoon, an alumni panel convened. Gabe Romero ’08, Blake Johnson ’95, Max Nelson ’95, Rita Forte ’99, Jasmin Iskandar ’06 and Heidi Marti ’06 discussed moral dilemmas they have faced in their own lives or in business, and how living with the ideals of Webb’s Honor Code has helped them make the right choices in life. “Each person on the panel, in their own way, validated the lessons of the Honor Code with experiences from day-today life,” said Assistant Head of Schools Taylor Stockdale, adding that students in the room were deeply moved by the stories. Burns and Tokunboh were impressed with panelist Max Nelson’s experiences as a real estate broker.

“He talked about staying faithful to his clients, even when opportunities arose to make more money, and even though his clients eventually went somewhere else. By doing the right thing, he knew he could sleep at night,” explained Tokunboh. Panelist Blake Johnson spoke about investment fraud and choosing the moral path even though it meant passing up on opportunities to make money sometimes. “He did end up going on to make millions of dollars, but he did it through a lot of hard work and started many of his own companies, the moral way. He didn’t end up going to jail like some of the people he was telling us about,” said Burns. Cliﬀord S. Heinz Jr. ’37 was also a special guest at the Honor Symposium where he shared dinner with the VWS Honor Cabinet and the WSC Honor Committee. Heinz is one of the country’s leading benefactors of ethics education and has founded Heinz Fellowships in Ethical Education at both the Polytechnic School and The Webb Schools. Organizers received good feedback on the events of the day and Tokunboh and Burns agree that one strong lesson (among many) learned is “if you follow the Honor Code you will be able to sleep at night.” Spring 2011

Today

student news

At week’s end... Purposeful and pleasurable activities provide a fun, relaxing balance for the hard work of the school week.

There’s never a shortage of things for students to do on weekends at Webb—whether they’re hiking to the top of nearby Mt. Baldy for a magnificent view of the San Gabriel and Pomona Valleys or boarding an early morning van to go surfing in the Pacific Ocean. On weekends, Webb students may be cheering on their peers at a game or playing in one, participating in community service, or taking a Webb van into Los Angeles for a performance of some sort, or to downtown Claremont for dinner and a movie. A special type of education happens when learning occurs not only in classrooms, but also in the surrounding communities. According to David Fitzgerald, director of activities and student leadership programs,

the Webb weekend program has taken on a new, more purposeful signiﬁcance with a shifting philosophy that now focuses on four meaningful components: outdoor adventure, Los Angeles (“the greatest city in the world,” as Fitzgerald describes it), clubs, and community service. Fitzgerald is assisted in his duties by Webb faculty and administrators; there is even a Weekend Program Commissioner on ASB (Associated Student Body)—Kyle Smith ’12. Students can email Smith with ideas about weekend opportunities and he will relate them to Fitzgerald. “My job isn’t for me—it’s for other people,” said Smith. “The information comes through me and then I organize it all.” Outdoor adventure is literally at the front door of The Webb Schools, which is nestled in the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains. Brett Potash teaches history, but on Saturdays and Sundays, he oversees the outdoor component of the weekend program. “The weekend program is designed to develop leadership, so it dovetails nicely with the school’s mission,” said Potash. “Our goal is also to expose kids to the outdoors and help them develop a greater awareness of the environment.” Fitzgerald described the “tremendous array” of outdoor adventures including skiing, sailing, kayaking, hiking, biking and more — “it’s been incredibly well-received,” he added. Many students are challenging themselves to join the 10,000 ft. club with hikes to the peaks of Mt. Baldy, Mt. San Gorgonio and San Jacinto. There are also mountain biking excursions, for experienced and beginning riders. Potash described the experience of one student, Lauren Gronna ’11, who had never been cycling in the hills before: “She told me, ‘Mr. Potash, I’ve done a hundred things today that I never thought I could do!’” Other teachers help organize and chaperone adventures, including Bill Harris and Nikki Schnupp who take students rock climbing, John Lawrence who has gone snorkeling with students, Morgan Kapp who guides a

mountain biking group and Donald Ball who takes students cycling locally, including a 45-mile bike trip along the Santa Ana Bike Trail to Newport Beach. “Our program caters to students of all skill levels,” said Potash, “but most importantly, it encourages an adventurous spirit and gives students the opportunity to be responsible risk takers.” A new theme for the weekend programs takes advantage of the school’s close proximity to one of the most exciting and naturally beautiful cities in the world: Los Angeles.

“The Explore LA program capitalizes on our location in Southern California,” said Fitzgerald. “We live in the most famous, most exciting, and most

naturally gifted city in the world. The diversity and opportunities in urban LA are endless, and the natural environment is incredible. Where else can you go skiing and surfing in a single day?” Recent trips have included a tour of Santa Monica, and shopping on famous Melrose Avenue followed by a trip to the culturally-diverse neighborhood of Echo Park. Fitzgerald even devised an Amazing Race-like event which had students utilizing only a Metro pass to find clues around the city. The quest brought students to Los Angeles’ world famous Grand Central Market, to the Angels Flight (a landmark funicular railway in the Bunker Hill district of downtown LA), to Little Tokyo and Mariachi Plaza on Olvera Street. Finding Michael Jackson’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was the finish line. Spring 2011

Today

student news

At week’s end — continue d f rom page 31

Community service opportunities and club activities round-out the remaining weekend pursuits. Juli James, dean of faculty, is the Service Council Advisor, and she wants to give students the chance to make a real diﬀerence in the local area and even abroad. Each month, the Service Council organizes student volunteers to get “hands on” in the community: working in neighboring animal shelters, packing books for inmates at the Prison Library Project or painting houses for Habitat for Humanity. There is no community service requirement at Webb, but students eagerly sign up, none-the-less. The Service Council leadership group is comprised of approximately 50 students who are actively volunteering as tutors for local children (in an after-school program at Claremont Presbyterian Church), with the local Red Cross chapter, at Project Hope (Helping Out Pets Every Day), by donating food and blankets, with Habitat for Humanity, by working on building projects for families in need, and by walking to raise support and awareness for people with AIDS and multiple sclerosis. “Being a community volunteer isn’t just a resume-builder... it’s about doing,” said James. In 2009, she took a group of students on a 17-day work trip to remote villages in the Andes Mountains of Peru. She has also traveled with students on service trips to Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands and Fiji. In a unique combination of outdoor activity and service learning, a group of eleven students accompanied the San Gorgonio Trail Builders on a service trip in the San Bernardino hills. The main goal was to restore hiking paths after winter storms had nearly washed them away. Students also recently “adopted” the Bear Flats trail on Mt. Baldy where they will work on trail maintenance. Clubs provide another outlet for student participation on weekends; for example, the golf club recently sponsored a driving range. From athletics, to the arts, to community service, to movies at the student activities center, life after class and during the weekends at Webb is as diverse and interesting as the classroom curriculum. “As our philosophy shifted, we began creating more exciting weekend experiences,” said Fitzgerald. “Our trips are more purposeful.” And students are learning from and contributing to society, getting involved and making a diﬀerence ... not a bad way to spend the weekend.

Growing Up at Webb Bailey Stockdale ’11 and Sean James ’11 Reminisce about their School, Home and Friendship More than 4,000 alumni have called The Webb Schools home since its founding in 1922, but very few have had the privilege to reside on campus for their entire lives. For as long as they can remember, Bailey Stockdale ’11 and Sean James ’11 have been residents of the hillside learning community—and for both young men, it has been quite an adventure, in friendship and education. In their earliest memories, they liken the school to a large park. Bailey had a go-cart and Sean had a scooter. “Webb is pretty big, especially when you’re a little kid,” said James who remembers motoring everywhere.

“There are some freedoms that go away, like being able to have a car, but it’s great to have the connections with people,” added Stockdale who enjoys the camaraderie of his friends. “Sometimes we go from completing school work to utter ridiculousness.” Living “at home” with his parents, James enjoys the freedom to use the Internet whenever he wants to and also doesn’t have to think about “check-ins” at night. They both agree that now that they’re students, the empty campus during summer has lost a lot of its appeal. “Without students, there’s no energy,” said Stockdale. Once he became a student, Stockdale realized that there were places on campus that he didn’t even know existed, like classrooms in the museum. The pair also have something most high school students would be mortiﬁed to divulge—parents who are part of their daily learning experience. But they don’t seem to mind. “Our parents always know what’s going on,” said James. “And it’s nice that my parents know all my friends, and they trust all my friends.” Stockdale is the son of Taylor Stockdale, the assistant head of schools, and soon-to-be head of schools. “Sometimes my friends show up at our house, unannounced, but my Dad knows them on a more personal level, so he can have conversations with them without it getting awkward,” said Stockdale. “I’ve always known Bailey’s dad, Mr. Stockdale, as Bailey’s dad—more like ‘that’s my friend’s dad.’ We know each other’s parents as parents,” added James. The life-long friends have cheered each other through many accomplishments. Stockdale has had an amazing run as a leader of the Gaul’s cross country team and has competed in the California State Championships. James is already a published author with his programming book 3D Graphics with XNA Game Studio 4.0; he also has a programming blog at www.innovativegames.net. In the fall, they will live far apart for the ﬁrst time in almost two decades. Stockdale is headed for Colorado College and James will continue to study computer science at Carnegie Melon University. But they’ll always carry the memories of their friendship ... and their common experience of calling The Webb Schools home.

“It was like a big playground,” added Stockdale, “the ﬁelds seemed unending, I would mistake the pool for an ocean, and running around the gym proved a challenge. Pairing these facilities with the safety of the campus gave us an unbeatable childhood.” When they were very small, Webb students were their babysitters. James was especially fond of Paul Cote ’02 who went on to graduate from the United States Air Force Academy. They both remember going to formal dinners, joining the fun on Webb Day, and getting treats from Mrs. Hogarth in the Student Store. Stockdale and James attended St. Mark’s School in Upland. Sean’s mother, Juli James, a Webb English teacher and the school’s service council advisor, was their Cub Scout den leader. Stockdale says it was an “ongoing realization” that growing up on campus was diﬀerent from living like their classmates in the neighboring suburbs. “Living at Webb is not like living in a traditional neighborhood,” said Stockdale. The two say that, as they grew older, they became more aware of the fact that the students on campus would soon be their peers. “I would walk through Holt dormitory and the kids looked so old to me, but I knew they would be my classmates in a year,” said Stockdale. The friends’ paths diverged slightly when Stockdale decided to become a boarder at Webb, while James elected to live at home with his parents on campus. “I like the independent aspect of it and I like the idea of being surrounded by my friends, and to be able to interact with them all the time,” said Stockdale of being a boarder.

Spring 2011

Today

student profiles

Making a Difference

Initially, Abigail Bereola wasn’t even interested in looking at boarding schools as she wrappedup eighth grade and started looking into the next stage of her education. Today, it hardly seems that Webb could do without her. She’s been co-chair of Honor Cabinet, helped plan Dies Mulieres, participated in the activities of SMART and Global Citizens Corps, served on the Community Service Council, is president of the Black Student Union and has served as an academic outreach tutor. She also covers sporting events for Webb’s sports blog. Bereola is from Oakland, California, and she attended an independent school there as an A Better Chance scholar. A Better Chance is an organization whose mission is to increase the number of well-educated young people of color who are capable of assuming positions of responsibility and leadership in American society. The mission is carried out through the organization’s College Preparatory Schools Program which annually recruits, refers and supports about 500 A Better Chance Scholars at more than 300 of the nation’s leading boarding, day and public schools, including The Webb Schools. Last May, Berola received the organization’s Excellence Award for academic achievement, leadership within the school community, and steadfast determination to succeed.

Abigail Bereola ’11 As co-chair of the Honor Cabinet, Bereola appreciates the opportunity to experience the administration’s point of view on community matters. Her involvement with SMART—Students Maintaining and Reaching for Tolerance—gives her special insight into the community’s diﬀerent ethnicities and cultures, and the school’s Gay Straight Alliance. As a member of Global Citizens Corps, Bereola has participated in several important events, including World Cancer Day and World Education Day. On World Food Day, members of the Global Citizens Corps, including Bereola, demonstrated the “plenty” that Webb students enjoy by conducting “hunger banquets”—taking away the “extras” in the dining hall, including juice, coﬀee, breads and peanut butter and jelly.

“We wanted to raise awareness about how much we have and how much we should be grateful for,” said Bereola. On World AIDS Day, the group provided information about AIDS and STDs in the Health Center. In helping to plan the VWS Dies Mulieres, Bereola took part in the Independent School Gender Project (ISGP) which was held at The Hotchkiss School in Connecticut. “There was a global focus on women’s issues and we learned what we can do to help,” said Bereola who returned to campus with information that she then incorporated into Dies Mulieres conference planning.

“I visited Webb twice, and I thought the people were friendly and I liked the proximity to Los Angeles,” said Bereola.

Extending a helping hand to others is simply second nature to the friendly Bereola. She tutors others on campus, and as part of the Community Service Council she’s traveled as far away as Peru to teach English and work on building projects in rural and urban areas. She is also co-president of Webb’s Black Student Union (with Jared Jackson ’11). The organization promotes cultural awareness through events such as Black History Month.

Not only has Webb proved to be academically challenging and engaging for Bereola, but she’s also taken full advantage of all the other opportunities a Webb education provides, especially leadership and volunteer roles.

With an eye on the future, Bereola says there are lots of things she wants to do. Just as she has at Webb, Bereola is looking forward to experiencing new and interesting ways to make a diﬀerence for others.

THE

ARTS

Musically-inclined Ben Davis ’11 has already played a big part

in Webb’s Alumni Weekend—and he hasn’t even graduated from high school yet! The talented Mr. Davis and his band, The Davis Trio, entertained alumni and guests with an eclectic mix of rock, country, jazz and folk music during last fall’s Alumni Weekend event. And he dreams of continuing on with his music—writing songs and playing for people —through college and into a career.

“The biggest eﬀect has been the Honor Code,” said Davis. “I really cherish those values.” Davis credits his teachers with helping him to manage a busy, creative life. “I just love my teachers, they’ve made the biggest impact on me here at Webb,” said Davis, adding—“they know how to be there for you; they understand the emotions a student is going through.” Davis will be studying music at USC in the fall.

“Ideally, I would love to tour the world playing music,” said Davis. The young musician was inspired on his journey by an early encounter with the 2003 movie School of Rock about a substitute teacher at a private school who inspires his students to form a rock band. Davis’ mother also had a hand in his early musical development. “My mom made my older brothers play piano when they were little and they both hated it,” said Davis who instead was encouraged to become interested in the trumpet. He found his true passion though, playing the guitar.

“I was really horrible in the beginning, but I kept playing,” he said, explaining that he was spurred-on by his love of music and inspired by the talents of artists such as former Stray Cat Brian Setzer. Davis, who hails from Redlands, joined his junior high school’s jazz band. He has also tried other instruments including the drums, the bass and even the bagpipes (for good measure, he can also play the ukulele and the banjo, and he plays the French horn in Webb’s concert orchestra). At Webb, Davis has expanded his horizons considerably. He has attended a music camp every summer, at Idyllwild, Stanford University, and last summer, at USC for a four-week guitar seminar. Davis and his band have also played in some of the area’s top jazz venues including the Jazz Bakery, the Catalina Bar and Grill and The Mint in Los Angeles. “I know that being a musician would mean having a 25-hour day,” said Davis who says he feels prepared for the rigor of a musical career thanks to his experience at Webb where he serves on the Honor Committee and the Student Curricular Advisory Committee, and has played varsity water polo for three years. Spring 2011

Today

gaul athletics

Coach Ray Fenton

Teaching his players that “honor is better than honors”

re there rewards to a 3-6-1 football season?

If you ask Webb’s new football coach, Ray Fenton, he will tell you that there are plenty. First of all, Fenton says that his inaugural 2010 season at Webb is actually the best start in any of the coaching positions he’s ever held—this from a man who has experienced a wealth of success, leading high school teams to playoﬀ appearances and league titles.

Second, he praises his players’ work ethic—one that is all the more impressive to him when he considers the high level of academic rigor in which they engage each day. And third, he lauds his players’ leadership skills—their commitment, confidence, composure and character— all well-known attributes of a Webb student and a Webb athlete. Ray Fenton joined the Webb family last year as the new football coach and assistant athletic director; he also serves as an assistant coach for the track team. He was previously the football coach at Cypress High School where he led the Centurions to a CIF Southern Section championship in 2007, as well as two Empire League titles and four playoff appearances in his last five years as head coach. Among his achievements, Fenton was named both Orange County Coach of the Year and State Coach of the Year in 2007. His “Line Six” mantra of believing the team is a family stretches across three states (including Arizona and Nevada) and four different schools. Fenton says that budget cuts in Orange County led to his discovery of the opening for a football coach at Webb. “I talked to (athletic director) Steve Wishek and then I met with Taylor (Stockdale) and Susan (Nelson) and I was overwhelmed by what Webb is offering young people,” said Fenton. “It just fell in line with who my wife and I are as parents, teachers and coaches—the

character of the school, the emphasis on making good choices, the work ethic and the accountability.” Fenton’s wife, Kerri, teaches dance at Webb, and his son T.J. enrolled in WSC as a sophomore and is the team’s quarterback. “There’s a ﬁne line when you have your son playing for you—how much pressure he’s under, carrying the same last name—but he’s handled it really well and the kids on the team have accepted him for who he is, not just being the coach’s son,” said Fenton. As assistant athletic director, Fenton says he helps Wishek, the athletic director, “keep the ball rolling— no pun intended!” Fenton loves to coach and says, “I got into teaching so I could coach ... and now I coach so I can teach.” But he acknowledges that he has a lot of fun coaching football at Webb—taking some of the kids who were as inexperienced as they were and shaping them into a varsity football team. “There are things you just take for granted as a coach—like how to put your pads on—and we’re teaching kids those things here,” he said. “We’re teaching a very accelerated course in football and we don’t overlook anything.”

Football is a pretty amazing sport, according to Fenton, who says that the game involves high emotions and low valleys. Throughout the season there are many teaching moments that parallel life.

“This game prepares young men for life— for careers and personal relationships with families. The principle that we have in our football program—that everything matters— these young men can take this principle into business, into their lives.” Fenton feels that it is especially important for him to communicate and connect with the seniors on his team since they are the leaders of the program. He requires all incoming seniors to read The Winners Manual: For the Game of Life by Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel. The book shares Tressel’s “Big Ten” fundamentals for success: attitude, discipline, faith, handling adversity and success, excellence, love, toughness, responsibility, team, and hope. It is also the source of one of Fenton’s favorite maxims to the team: “honor is better than honors.” As the team completes a chapter, Fenton brings them together to discuss the study questions that are listed at the end of each chapter—he says it gives him a good opportunity to really get to know his players.

“Everything that I stand for really fits here at Webb,” said Fenton of the fact that “honor” is ingrained in every aspect of campus life. As for 2011, Fenton says that his team had really “figured it out” by the end of the last season—not just football technique, but the work ethic as well. He expects to “hit the field running” with the group of athletes he coached last year. By way of example, Fenton explains that when he worked in Arizona, he took over a team that was 2-8 and by the end of his second year there, they were 9-0; in Nevada his team was 1-8 the first year, but they turned it around a year later to head to the state semi-finals. And, of course, there is his success in Cypress, where, prior to his taking the helm, the team had gone to the playoffs only twice in 30 years. “It really takes a year to put the entire program together,” explained Fenton. The coach knows that his players have the preparation and dedication to make headway on the field because of everything they learn at Webb. “The discipline it takes to be a great student transfers over to whatever we do on the football field,” he said. “Webb sees the value of having a well-rounded student —not just in mental work, but physical work as well. I love the fact that our kids are challenged in the classroom, and don’t just fly through. We realize that we are here as educators and coaches getting people prepared for life.”

Steve Wishek Honored with Norm MacKenzie Award The California State Athletic Directors Association and the CIF Southern Section have selected Webb’s Steve Wishek to receive the Norm MacKenzie Award for his exceptional work as athletic director. The award is presented to directors who have one to four years of service. There are more than 570 public and private schools in the Southern Section. According to Taylor Stockdale, head-elect, Mr. Wishek is being recognized for his “outstanding leadership and for his complete devotion to Gaul athletics.” Wishek has been the athletic director at Webb for 3 years.

New Community Partners Program The Athletics Department is pleased to launch a new Community Partners program in which parents, alumni and friends can sponsor banner advertising that will be displayed at sporting events on campus. Proceeds will support our great Gauls in action. For more information contact Athletic Director Steve Wishek at swishek@webb.org. Spring 2011

Today

fa c u lt y

Introducing

Andy Dahlstrom English Department Chair

ebb’s new English department chair, Andy Dahlstrom, has had many adventures in teaching—from working at a school in the woods of Vermont to teaching English on an island in The Bahamas—but he says he is most happy to be at his new home, The Webb Schools.

Dahlstrom joined the Webb community in the fall of 2010; he lives on campus with his wife, Hilary, and three children, a daughter, 14; son, 13; and another daughter, 9. He brings to Webb a distinguished background in private secondary education, having taught at several of the most remarkable programs in the United States and beyond. His story also embraces a love for cycling that features the 1992 Olympic trials and the Tour de France. After graduating from Middlebury College with a Bachelor of Arts (he also holds a Master of Arts in Fine Arts and Education from the University of Montana), Dahlstrom was awarded a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. The Watson Fellowship was founded by Mrs. Thomas J. Watson, Sr., in honor of her late husband, the founder of IBM. The one-year grant provides support for independent study and travel outside the United States so that participants can “enhance their capacity for resourcefulness, imagination, openness, and leadership and to foster their humane and eﬀective participation in the world community.” Dahlstrom studied the sport of cricket and its impact on, or use in, international relations.

When he returned to the states, he worked at a newspaper in Seattle and pursued another interest: cycling. Dahlstrom is an avid cyclist and still rides today. Last fall, he finished 4th place in his age category at the Urban Cyclocross in Palos Verdes Estates. In 1992, Dahlstrom was an Olympic contender, riding overseas for the US National Team and then placing 4th in the trials in the Team Pursuit where only the top two finishers went on to compete in Barcelona, Spain. He was also one of the first people to post a blog about the competition at the Tour de France as part of the press corps in 1996. Dahlstrom was still working at the newspaper when a fortuitous meeting with a head of school at a political caucus brought him to the Northwest School in Seattle where he taught for eight years. From there, he moved to The Mountain School of Milton Academy, an independent, semester-long program that provides high school juniors with the opportunity to live and work on an organic farm in Vershire, Vermont. Each semester, the school draws students from all over the country and this year, for the first time ever, Webb will have two applicants to the program. “Students take five classes in the program and everything is threaded through where they are—the animals, the wood lot, the gardens,” said Dahlstrom. “Within days of reading Robert Frost’s Mending Wall my students would find themselves actually mending a wall on campus.” After two years, Dahlstrom and his family returned to the Seattle area and he took up work at his alma mater, The Bush School, Seattle’s oldest K-12 independent, coeducational day school. Dahlstrom liked founder Helen Taylor Bush’s mantra that a child’s education should make him or her functional in his or her neighborhood. After six years there, he once again found himself (and his growing family) on another educational adventure, this time to the Island School in The Commonwealth of the Bahamas. The Island School was founded in 1998 with strong support from The Lawrenceville School, a distinguished New Jersey boarding school. The Island School immerses students in study of the ocean while introducing them to another culture—students come from more than 250 schools in the United States, Canada and The Bahamas.

The Dahlstrom family lived in the tiny village of Cape Eleuthera. “It was small enough that your behavior almost had to be excellent all the time,” said Dahlstrom. “You couldn’t act badly in your car and then drive away—there was no place to drive away to!” Dahlstrom describes the small town atmosphere as fascinating to someone who grew up in a big city. “I’d read about small town life in literature, but I never really lived it until The Bahamas,” he added. “The two policemen on the island are your neighbors, and it’s extraordinary to know everyone and wave hello at everyone.” The family purchased an “island car,” a 1991 Toyota, and Dahlstrom said that neighbors would often hail him for a ride. Upon returning to the United States, Dahlstrom said the hardest part was readjusting to the volumes of people and the anonymity of city life. He interviewed at Webb and liked it immediately.

“It was notable that the faculty seemed really content and the students were happy in a sensible way,” said Dahlstrom. He also felt that the school’s administration was forwardlooking while at the same time, very much connected to the founder, Thompson Webb, and his language. Dahlstrom teaches three sections of AP Literature. He arrived on campus in the second year of the school’s new humanities venture—coordinating opportunities between the English, history, science and ﬁne arts departments. There has also been an eﬀort to improve continuity within the program. “Everyone here is excited and eager to make the program ‘tighter,’” he said describing the undertaking to look at the entire four years of education and pull together a more cohesive and coordinated learning experience. “There are measurable achievements at Webb,” said Dahlstrom, “but I’ve been most impressed by the fact that this is a place that is always looking to improve itself.”

Spring 2011

Today

museum news by Andy Farke

or paleontologists, every day is a little diﬀerent. Some are spent in the museum collections, others in the classroom, and yet others hiking around badlands looking for fossils. Even with all this variety, it’s still an unusual time when you have to hire a helicopter to wrangle a dinosaur.

Everything began back in 2009, on a museum peccary trip to southern Utah. Webb students have been making amazing discoveries for years, but nothing could prepare us for what Kevin Terris ’09 turned up.

On the second-to-last day of our summer trip, Kevin found the toe bones of a little dinosaur poking out from the side of a boulder. Quick investigation revealed part of a skull on the other side of the rock—meaning that the rest of the animal had to be in between! After securing permission

Preparator Mike Stokes, hard at work on the specimen. The syringe is holding glue that is used to stabilize the fossil.

to excavate from the United States Bureau of Land Management, we returned in the summer of 2010, with collecting equipment and a crew of Webb volunteers. Although it only took two weeks to completely “jacket” the specimen, we still faced a big problem. Our dinosaur weighed an estimated 1,000 pounds and was two miles from the nearest dirt road. Even with a whole team of students, we couldn’t safely carry the fossil that far across the steep, treacherous terrain. Impossible as it sounds, the dinosaur had to fly out. With the generous support of the David B. Jones Foundation and the Terris family, we were able to secure a helicopter out of Salt Lake City. So, during the first week of October, we drove back to Utah, accompanied by a crew of Webb students, faculty, staff, and volunteers. It ended up being the adventure of a lifetime—our first attempt to retrieve the specimen was scrubbed due to bad weather. On the second day, several students (along with museum director Don Lofgren) were flown out to the site, where they

then rolled the massive specimen into a cargo net. Moments later, the whole package was picked up by the helicopter and ďŹ&#x201A;own to another crew of students and volunteers, who gingerly guided the dangling specimen into the museum truck. It was an exciting moment, once the precious cargo was safely landed. Back in California, the fossil is being conserved by a professional fossil preparator, who is carefully removing 75-million years worth of sediment (work supported by museum trustee Gretchen Augustyn and family). We now know that our fossil is from a plant-eating, duck-billed dinosaur, only 20 percent grown. It is one of the best specimens of its kind ever found in southern Utah and has already generated considerable interest in the scientiďŹ c community. As the icing on the cake, the parts of the skull uncovered so far show what may be a bony crest on topâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;suggesting the specimen is a rare crested duck-bill. Our little fossil has had an exciting story, from discovery to its aerial adventures, and the best is yet to come.

The skull in the main (big) block. We are looking at the inside view (as if the skull was split in half), so the animal is laying on its left side. The top shows the specimen as it looked last week. The bottom view shows an overlay of a specimen from Alberta, showing the rough position of most of the skull bones as I interpret them now.

The skull in the original discovery block. Most of what we are looking at on the front half of the skull are impressions of bone (they had eroded loose before we found it). As before, the bottom image shows an approximation of what parts of the skull are represented.

Spring 2011

museum news

Hall of Life Renovation

Scheduled for Summer 2011

At the end of his dynamic tour, “From

Stars to Early Civilization,” Raymond Alf would challenge museum visitors with these words: “the two billion years of earth history we have just traversed reminded us of our time spiral, where those two billion years are represented by an iron rod twenty feet long. On this we saw that the last eighth of an inch represented the age of man, and the dust on the tip represented the entire time of recorded human history. We were shocked into the realization that we have on earth but a moment. What are you going to do with your moment in time?” Soon, these important words will again fire the imagination of Alf Museum visitors as Ray Alf will utter them on video in the concluding exhibit of the redesign of the Hall of Life. Final plans for the renovation have been approved and installation of exhibits began on May 1, 2011. The museum will be closed for five months to accommodate the renovation. Unveiling of the new design will occur on Alumni Weekend (October 21-22, 2011) as part of the 19th Annual Peccary Society Dinner on Friday, October 21. It all started in 2005, when the Peccary Society gathered at the 13th Annual Peccary Dinner to honor the legacy of Ray Alf in a centennial celebration of his birth where the decision to renovate the Hall of Life was announced. The motivation for the project was provided by the successful Hall of Footprints renovation in 2002. After the redesigned Hall of Footprints was unveiled, the often-asked question was, “the Hall of Footprints looks terrific, so when are you going to do the Hall of Life?” Think Jacobson & Roth, the firm which did a stellar job on the Hall of Footprints, was retained for the project.

A committee composed of trustees and staff developed an exhibits concept plan that conveyed a dynamic and personal story of the history of life in the spirit of Alf’s “From Stars to Early Civilization” tour. The plan merged Alf’s vision of telling a story with modern exhibit techniques and the most recent scientific information, combined with student-designed temporary exhibits that will feature current museum research and collecting activities. Design highlights include fourteenfoot murals showing ancient environments and fieldwork photos and a time line depicting important episodes in the history of life. Floor space is divided into six sections. The first will describe Alf Museum history and three basic scientific principles (plate tectonics, evolution, and superposition) to guide visitors’ thinking while they view the history of life. Following that will be exhibit areas that match the major divisions

Concept images of the Hall of Life.

Students Present with Top Scientists Society of Vertebrate Paleontology welcomes Webb Researchers of geologic time (Precambrian, Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic), separated by extinction alert dividers. The ﬁnal area will encompass student exhibits, awareness of the current mass extinction, and Alf’s moment in time challenge. Renovation of the Hall of Life is a big challenge with a price tag of $1.8 million. As of February 2011, 95% of the funding had been secured. Structural and electrical work is scheduled from May to June and exhibit installation from July to September. It’s exciting to be close to completion of this extremely important project which will elevate the museum’s overall exhibit program into one of the best in North America. Come see it for yourself during Alumni Weekend, October 21-22.

Rebecca Lai ’11 and Dakota SantanaGrace ’11 were among the more than 1,100 vertebrate paleontology professionals from 31 countries helping the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) celebrate 70 years of advancing vertebrate paleontology through science, education, preservation and conservation. The meeting was hosted by Carnegie Museum of Natural History and was held October 10-13, 2010, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The gathering is billed as a meeting of “rock stars”—professionals who are “constantly digging-up new clues to the history of life.” The Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology group had an important contribution and as Museum Curator Andy Farke described it:

“Our students were right in the thick of things, in an exhibit hall ﬁlled with posters by researchers from other museums and universities.” Lai and Santana-Grace presented a poster with information about their work on a site with many small vertebrate fossils in the Pipestone Assemblage of Montana. The pair started their work about a year-and-a-half before they made the presentation, studying microvertebrates (“really tiny fossils” as they are described by Lai) of small mammals including rabbits, rats and squirrels. They were looking at the taphonomy of the samples—taphonomy is the study of decaying organisms over time and how they become fossilized.

“We classiﬁed each fossil into what kind of skeletal element it was,” said Lai. Then the pair looked for other evidence such as bite marks, acid marks, and corrosion. “If we ﬁnd a lot of bite marks, that might indicate that some kind of larger animal ate the specimen before it fell to the ground and became a fossil,” said Lai. “The interesting thing about Pipestone is that there is such a high density of bones,” said Santana-Grace. In collaboration with Museum Director Dr. Don Lofgren, they have hypothesized that the bones may have been the left-overs from meals of ancient predators including mammalian carnivores and owls.

“There are different characteristics for each of those types,” said SantanaGrace, “but it can also be a combination of the two.” In order to participate in the SVP event, the pair first had to submit an abstract of their research to the Society, and then once it was accepted, they were able to move on and prepare the poster which listed their data. The next step is to take the information from the poster and put it into text so that it can be submitted for publication to a scientific journal. The two are finishing a picture segment, expanding the details of their poster and looking at the requirements for different journals so that they can make a submission before they graduate in May. Santana-Grace has been involved with the paleontology program at the Alf Museum for four years, as has Lai. “Paleontology is just such a unique thing that we have at Webb,” she said. Spring 2011

Today

affiliates

Brown Bag Lunch 44

Informative Speaker Series Helps Students Explore Career Possibilities While the days of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches may be a distant childhood memory for some students, the brown bag lunch is once again becoming a popular ﬁxture at The Webb Schools. Webb’s Brown Bag Lunch series was inspired by a similar program at San Diego’s High Tech High which Juli James, dean of faculty, visited in September of 2009.

At the informal—brown-bag—lunches, guest speakers, mostly parents, talk to students about what they do and how they got into their line of work. They discuss their educational backgrounds and share insights about their particular career choice. Webb’s series of Brown Bag Lunches provide a mini, mid-day think tank for students. Recent speakers include Dr. Elias Tarakji (father of Albert ’14) who specializes in gastroenterology and internal medicine, Deborah Hoﬀstetter (mother of

James ’13) who is the CEO and cofounder of Entech Medical, a company which provides nutritional products and equipment to hospitals and long-term care facilities, and Melinda Herndon (mother of Lauren ’13) who is the founder of escuba.com. Herndon talked to students about starting up the ecommerce business which combines her love of scuba diving with her focus on success. She talked about the importance of following one’s dreams to make career goals come true and, even more importantly, to enjoy a happy life. For more information on the Brown Bag Lunch program, or if you would like to participate, contact Juli James at jjames@webb.org.

Affiliates Liaisons There are many opportunities for parents to support the Webb community in providing a rich and varied educational experience for Webb students. The Affiliates, the parent organization of The Webb Schools, offers an exciting array of volunteer opportunities to help make the school community feel like an extended family. The Affiliates liaisons help to make the connection between various groups at Webb and Webb parents, and are appointed officers to The Affiliates Board. There are liaisons to the Athletics and Fine Arts departments, the Museum, and the Development and Marketing Office. This year, two new and important positions were added—Liaison to ASB (Associated Student Body) and Liaison to the Service Council, the sixty-plus member group that promotes and engages in volunteer opportunities in the community.

According to Anne Stewart, director of parent relations and special events, the new liaisons will provide general support to ASB and the Service Council. The ASB liaison will work with the ASB faculty advisor and will help with activities related to the general student body, such as dances, leadership activities and related ASB events. The service council liaison will work with the service council faculty advisor to find new and compelling ways to continue this group’s efforts to make a difference, not only at Webb, but in places near and far. Service Council groups have traveled as far away as Peru to provide community service, and as near as the Leroy Haynes Center, a local nonprofit organization providing therapeutic, residential and special education programs for boys, which is located right down the road from Webb in La Verne.

Save the Date for Parents’ Weekend 2011 Parents’ Weekend 2011 is a special time for Webb families to join their students and share the Webb experience together. Mark your calendars for

October 7th and 8th and plan to enjoy this wonderful opportunity to visit your children on campus, see how well they’ve adjusted to the Webb community, meet their friends and share their experiences.

For more information on The Afﬁliates of The Webb Schools, contact Anne Stewart at astewart@webb.org. Spring 2011

FULFILLING OUR

PROMISE

Campaign Update THE CREAN FOUNDATION — $1 MILLION GIFT RECEIVED

$3 Million Crean Foundation Challenge Complete! Webb is pleased to announce the successful completion of a $3 million Matching Gift Challenge for ﬁnancial aid endowment from The Crean Foundation of Newport Beach, CA.

For every two dollars raised by Webb for scholarship endowment from alumni, parents and friends, The Crean Foundation contributed one dollar. Webb has now fulﬁlled the challenge with more than 85 gifts and pledges and successfully raised a total of $3 million for ﬁnancial aid endowment. The Otis Booth Foundation of Los Angeles has made a capstone gift of $250,000 to assist The Webb Schools in completing the match. The Crean Foundation, established by Donna and John Crean of Newport Beach, is a stalwart supporter of charitable endeavors including a select group of educational institutions. Webb is pleased beyond measure to be worthy of the family’s loyalty, commitment, and support and proud to have the foundation’s partnership in making a Webb education more accessible to all. The Otis Booth Foundation is a legacy of Otis Booth, Jr. ’40, an alumnus of Webb School of California who passed away in 2008. Otis was the great-grandson of General Harrison Gray Otis, founder of the Los Angeles Times. A successful newspaper executive, investor and rancher, Otis Booth was also a noted philanthropist. Foundation co-trustees Palmer Murray, Lynn and Loren Booth made this gift to establish the Otis Booth ’40 Endowed Scholarship Fund. A number of key leadership gifts helped make possible the matching funds totaling more than $2 million. At the top of that list is Life Trustee, John Bryan ’43, whose early $500,000 contribution was announced in 2008 and inspired many future gifts. One more recent gift of $250,000 came from Louis Mayberg ’80 and was featured in the cover story of the Fall 2010 Campaign Update newsletter. Other passionate supporters include

Susan Thomas (P ’05, ’09), trustee of The Crean Foundation, being recognized at the Campaign Kickoff Celebration.

Ron Quon ’55 who to date has contributed $136,000 toward ﬁnancial aid endowment in addition to $50,000 for the Alf Museum’s Hall of Life renovation. Additional gifts of $100,000 were made by Chip Greening ’62, the Class of 1959 (led by Skip Hanson ’59, John Rogers ’59, and Tim Moore ’59), and an anonymous alumnus.

Left to right: Otis Booth ’40, John Bryan ’43, Louis Mayberg ’80.

Major New Schol arship Gifts $1 million $500k $250k $250k

– The Crean Foundation – John Bryan ’43 – Louis Mayberg ’80 – The Otis Booth Foundation

International Gatherings

Global Philanthropy Grows During Fulﬁlling Our Promise Campaign International philanthropy contributed by parents and alumni has risen dramatically during the Fulﬁlling Our Promise campaign. In fact, more than $3 million has been contributed by alumni and parents since the start of the campaign. This giving has supported The Webb Fund, dormitory renovations, faculty housing, athletics, the new Performing Arts Center and more. Each year Susan Nelson, head of schools, and Joe Woodward, director of institutional advancement, head to the Far East in the fall and spring semesters. During these trips, they meet with parents and alumni as far north as Seoul and Tokyo and as far south as Indonesia, and nearly everywhere in between. These visits serve to bring news from campus, tighten bonds, and allow for an opportunity to make a case for support. This winter a number of leadership gifts were pledged by parents:

Mr. Henry Zhang and Mrs. Nancy Wang (P ’12) – The Zhang family of Shenzhen, China, made an unrestricted gift to The Webb Fund of $100,000 in January, 2011. Their gift will be used to help support the overall operating budget, which includes academic departments, athletics, extracurricular activities, and more. Mr. Shian Liu and Mrs. Ping Xi (P ’13) – The Liu family of Shanghai, China, joined forces with other alumni and parents to support the renewal of the Mudd building into the new Performing Arts Center. The family’s gift of $50,000 brings their campaign giving total to $100,000. Mr. Hao Zhang and Mrs. Ke Chen (P ’14) – The Zhang family of Shenzhen, China, have pledged $50,000 to The Webb Fund. These funds will be available to support the operating budget as well as other capital projects as they arise on campus.

Dr. Fung Tsui and Ms. Chiu Fai Wong (P ’13) – The Tsui family of Guangzhou, China, recently made a gift of $200,000 to support athletics. $50,000 of their gift will be used to purchase and install new state-of-the-art practice equipment for the golf program, including video swing-analysis and a new putting green. The additional $150,000 will be used to begin an endowment for the golf program. Early on this fund should generate approximately $6,000 annually for the program without invading Susan Nelson and Joe Woodward with Mr. Shian Liu and Mrs. Ping Xu with Susan Nelson and families in Shenzhen, China. the principal. Joe Woodward.

Mr. Chao Jiang and Mrs. Yu (P ’14) – The Jiang family of Beijing, China, recently made a pledge of $100,000 in support of the Performing Arts Center.

Spring 2011

Today Volunteer Spotlight Jeff Schiffris

Jeff Schiffris (P ’11) knows the meaning of dedication. The parent of a Vivian Webb School senior, Jeff has volunteered as a Parent Class Agent for the past four years and has been the program’s chairperson for three of those years. An integral part of the Webb community, the parent class agents reach out to other parents to gain support for The Webb Fund. “None of the wonderful programs that Webb offers would be possible without the funds raised through parent and alumni support for The Webb Fund,” says Jeff, “And I am proud to lead the charge.” Through Jeff’s leadership, parent support has grown at Webb. Last year, nearly 75% of parents made a gift to The Webb Fund, raising more than $500,000. “Parent giving to The Webb Fund is at a decade-high and I am so grateful for all of the hard work that Jeff and all of the parent class agents put in throughout the year,” says Danielle Mantooth, assistant director of The Webb Fund and alumni relations.

Jeff’s daughter Rachael ’11 is also committed to supporting Webb and volunteers every week to contact alumni as a phonathon caller. She is looking forward to attending Lehigh University in the fall. While this may be Rachael’s last year at Webb, Jeff knows that his family’s commitment will not end on graduation day. “It amazes me how many alumni and alumni parents continue to give to Webb after graduation,” shares Jeff. “That is a strong testament to what a deeply meaningful experience these families have had here.” This is certainly the case for Jeff and his family. From Rachael’s first day at Webb, Jeff knew that this was a very special place, and he has devoted countless hours to ensuring the future success of Webb.

Reunion Giving Highlights

Afﬁliates Event

Reunion classes in 2010 generously gave more than $433,000 in gifts and pledges in honor of their reunions. Leading the pack was Class of 1980 with more than $257,365, the third largest class gift of all time and a new Webb record for a 30th reunion. They were followed by Class of 1970, which raised $140,107, a new 40th reunion record, in support of the Alf Museum’s Hall of Life project. Our youngest reunion class, Class of 2005, set a Webb record for highest participation for a 5th reunion. Kudos and thank you to all of our reunion classes for their generosity. The full list of class gift records can be viewed on the website. The annual Aﬃliates event was held on March 12, 2011 at the South Hills Country Club in West Covina. The event, Martinis & Moonlight, was chaired by Dawn Henn (P ’09, ’11, ’13). Close to 200 guests attended, and the event raised nearly $100,000 to support the weekend and leadership programs as well as the purchase of vehicles for student transportation. Thank you to the many generous event sponsors and auction donors, and to everyone who participated in the live, silent and online auctions.

The

Fund

LEADERSHIP DONORS Gifts for the period July 1, 2010 – April 11, 2011 (Does not include pledges)

HEAD’S CIRCLE

LEADERSHIP SOCIETY

($1,000,000 or more) The Crean Foundation The Crean and Thomas Families

($5,000 to $9,999) Agron, Inc. Mr. & Mrs. R. Larry Ashton, Jr. ’70 The Harry F. Barnes & Carol H. Barnes Family Foundation Mr. Timofey Belyaev & Mrs. Alena Belyaeva Mr. & Mrs. Greg Bentley Anthony F. Crocker ’70 Mr. Sanjiv Dholakia ’87 & Ms. Melissa Barnes Dholakia ’87 Mr. & Mrs. Luis Faura Mr. David Fawcett ’61 & Ms. Diane Wilsdon Mr. John Fuelling & Dr. Andrea Brault Fuelling Dr. & Mrs. Bruce N. Goldreyer Mr. & Mrs. Jack Greening, Jr. Mr. & Mrs. Terry Henn Mr. & Ms. Sean Kim Roger J. Millar ’61 David C. Myles ’80 Po Wan Wendy Ngan Peter C. Sawyers ’68 Mr. & Mrs. Stephen E. Scherer Mr. & Mrs. Edwin G. Schuck, Jr. Kathleen Kelly Sharpe Family Trust Kathleen Sharpe Mr. & Mrs. Christopher Soltis Mr. & Mrs. Gordon M. Steel ’63 Mr. & Mrs. Thomas Terris Mr. Tom Tsao & Mrs. Crystal Wu Mr. & Mrs. Ya Ping Wang Mr. Guobin Wu & Mrs. Xiujuan Jiang Mr. Guocheng Wu & Mrs. Lan Ju Mr. David Yip & Ms. Jenny Chan Dr. & Mrs. Roland Yoshida Mr. Chengguo Zhang & Mrs. Xiaohong Li Mr. Yi Min Zhou & Mrs. Ya Hong Ye

Principes Circle

Gold Patron

($250,000 to $499,999) Otis Booth Foundation Mr. Ming Chung Liu & Ms. Yan Cheung

Blue Patron

($100,000 to $249,999) Mr. & Mrs. Blake H. Brown ’68 The John M. Bryan Family Fund Mr. & Mrs. John M. Bryan ’43 Dr. Fung Tsui & Ms. Chiu Fai Wong Anonymous

Patron

($50,000 to $99,999) Mr. & Mrs. Jim Drasdo ’63 Mr. & Mrs. William L. Fraim ’70 Mrs. David Huntington Mr. Shian Liu & Mrs. Ping Xu Keith W. Loring ’46 The Mayberg Family Charitable Foundation Mr. & Mrs. Louis M. Mayberg ’80 Mr. & Mrs. Kimball P. McCloud ’67 Mr. & Mrs. Paul M. Reitler ’54 Mr. Henry Zhang & Mrs. Nancy Wang

Principes Society

($25,000 to $49,999) The Augustyn Foundation Trust Gretchen J. Augustyn The Berry Family Foundation Mr. & Mrs. Mortimer Fleishhacker ’50 Mr. & Mrs. Michael Heﬂin, Jr. ’85 Mr. Chao Jiang & Mrs. Meng Yu Edward A. Middleton, Jr. ’39

Principes Society

($25,000 to $49,999) Mr. & Mrs. Robert L. Adler The Ahmanson Foundation Mr. & Mrs. Carlton R. Appleby ’41 William M. Bauman ’82 Mr. & Mrs. Wolfgang Buehler Mr. & Mrs. Michael Chen Mr. & Mrs. Richard P. Clarke ’63 Mr. Dan Edwards & Dr. Robin Su-Edwards Dr. & Mrs. Wallace G. Gosney Mr. & Mrs. Jack W. Greening Mr. & Mrs. Leonard Hoﬀstetter Penny J. Holliday Dr. F. Gard Jameson, Jr. ’71 & Dr. Florence Jameson The John B. and Nelly Llanos Kilroy Foundation Mr. Chongsu Kim & Mrs. Hyunmi Chang Mr. Dae Hong Kim & Mrs. Myung Shin Lee Ie Sook Kim Dr. Su Chan Lee & Dr. Hye Young Park Dr. Ronald Liskanich & Dr. Gloria Stevens Mr. & Mrs. Deron Marquez George H. Mayr Foundation Mitsubishi Cement Timothy C. Moore ’59 Mr. & Mrs. Brook B. Morris ’76 Mr. & Mrs. Douglas F. Myles Mr. & Mrs. Harry D. Nelson, Jr. Mr. Yuet Pang & Mrs. Mui Cheung Mr. William Plunkett & Mrs. Valerie Romero Plunkett Mr. & Mrs. Ronald C. H. Quon ’55 Col. & Mrs. John S. Rogers, USAF ’59 Mrs. Richard Romero Mr. & Mrs. R.J. Romero Mr. & Mrs. Miles R. Rosedale ’69 Robert P. Scripps, Jr. ’37 Dr. & Mrs. Lee Silver Mrs. Dana Su Lee ’84 & Mr. Greg Lee Ms. Jennifer Tong ’90 & Mr. Christopher Carlisle Mr. Yingbo Wang & Mrs. Surao Qiu Mr. Jaigug Yoo & Mrs. Euncheung Lee Mr. Hao Zhang & Mrs. Ke Chen Mr. & Mrs. Peter F. Ziegler ’63 Anonymous (2)

Founders Society

Blue & Gold

($3,000 to $4,999) Mr. & Mrs. Bruce P. Baganz BHP Billiton Petroleum Matched Giving Mr. & Mrs. Del Brault Dr. & Mrs. Robert Cave Dr. & Mrs. Chatchawin Charoen-Rajapark ’78 Mr. & Mrs. John W. Dey ’69 Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Fidanque, Jr. ’58 Mr. & Mrs. Chip Greening ’62 Mr. & Mrs. Wayne L. Hanson ’59 Mr. & Mrs. Bret Hartman Mr. Michael Hernandez & Ms. Diana Illarraza Dr. & Mrs. Gregory Hess Mr. Shyh-Nan Kan & Mrs. Yao-Ling Wu Dr. Seok Ho Kwon & Mrs. Lee Joo Linda Lui Mr. Sunghyuk Park & Mrs. Byoungchan Choi Mr. & Mrs. Donald J. Plyley Mr. & Mrs. Frank Rapoport Mr. & Ms. Marc Saltzer Dr. Irene Sang The Elsie Sang Charitable Trust Dr. & Mrs. Charles Steinmann Mr. & Mrs. Steve Thompson Mr. Nieco Tsai & Ms. Susie Chen Michael B. Wray ’69

Friends

($2,000 to $2,999) Mr. & Mrs. Jeﬀrey Augustyn Mr. & Mrs. Alexander H. Bell ’98 The Revs. David Berkedal & Sally Welch Drs. Najib & Maha Bouz Mr. Robert Chen & Mrs. May Lin Mr. & Mrs. Chris Chon Mr. & Mrs. Richard H. Clark Mr. & Mrs. M. Randel Davies ’70 Dr. & Mrs. Edward DiGiamarino Mr. & Mrs. Wolcott B. Dunham, Jr. ’61 Dr. Daniel Gluckstein & Dr. Akemi Chang Mr. David Gordon & Ms. Mary Lane Mr. & Mrs. Douglas C. Gregg, Jr. ’66 Mr. & Mrs. Philip Guardia Mr. & Mrs. Alfred B. Hastings, Jr. ’42 Mr. & Mrs. Courtlan C. Hazelton ’61 Mr. & Mrs. James Herndon Mr. & Mrs. Harley G. Higbie, Jr. ’43

Mr. & Mrs. H. Earl Hoover, II ’52 The Ingraham Memorial Fund Lisa Kelland Mr. & Mrs. Seong Gyun Kim Mr. & Mrs. John R. Lynas ’55 Mr. & Mrs. Leo Marshall Dr. & Mrs. Samuel Mourani Mr. Anthony Parker & Dr. Kristine Koh Mr. & Mrs. John S. Pettingell ’62 Mr. & Ms. Jeﬀrey Schiﬀris Mr. & Mrs. Dion Scott-Kakures Mr. Robert B. Seung ’90 & Ms. Boyeon Han Mr. & Mrs. William R. Stead ’47 Mr. Carl Stern ’64 & Ms. Holly Hayes Mr. & Mrs. Page W. Thibodeaux Mr. Michael Vincent & Mrs. Jessica Govias-Vincent Mr. & Mrs. Peter Wang Mr. Anlong Xu & Ms. Yanfang Cheng Noreen Zanft

Pacesetters

(Classes 1995 – 1999)

Minimum Gift $250 Monica Atiyeh Whitaker ’96 Alexander H. Bell ’98 Kathy P. Chen Liu ’99 Patty P. Chen ’99 Jihoon Choi ’99 M. Preston Clarke ’98 Jenna Z. Gambaro ’95 Charles C. Hadsell ’98 Jason B. Howard ’95 Blake B. Johnson ’95 Andrew M. Kaplan ’98 Maxwell B. Nelson ’95 Jonathan E. Reed ’95 Julie M. Schaﬀner ’95 G. Gregg Webb ’99

(Classes 2000 – 2004)

Minimum Gift $100 Caroline E. Adler ’00 Vicenta Arrizon Maffris ’00 Benjamin Chen ’02 Briana J. Curry ’03 Marcus B. Dey ’00 Andrew G. Dualan ’01 Khaled M. Hassan ’00 Timothy M. Lin ’01 Kevin M. Maffris ’00 Hayes Shair ’00 Renee L. Shaw Barron ’00 Daniel J. Smith ’03 Daniel B. Suhr ’02 Katherine T. Walsh ’02 Geoffrey C. Winssinger ’00 James G. Withey ’04 Eric C. Yeh ’04

(Classes 2005 – 2010)

Minimum Gift $50 Nancy E. Blayney ’09 Eric C. Eng ’07 Gauri Gadgil ’06 Lexington B. Henn ’09 Lucia Herrero ’10 Rebecca K. Hsia ’05 Cynthia Ip ’08 Eunice H. Kim ’10 Madeleine J. Koski ’09 Ivan C. H. Lam ’09 Riley T. Lewis ’07 Heidi K. Marti ’06 Tommy C. W. Ngan ’05 Jeﬀrey R. Taylor ’06 Kathleen M. Terris ’06 Kevin M. Terris ’09 Francisco J. R. Valera ’06 Thomas K. Yu ’06

Spring 2011

NewsNotes From and for the alumni of The Webb Schools

Going Global with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton alumni spotlight

C a ro l i n e A d l e r ’ 0 0

Caroline Adler describes her job as “around the clock” and “around the world.” As Deputy Director of Strategic Communications for Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, Adler is enjoying a front row seat to history in the making. Not that she gets to sit down very often in the State Department. Adler’s team manages Secretary Clinton’s media, including planning media on foreign trips and managing interview requests and overall press relations. She interfaces with embassy personnel from around the world and says she’s grown used to fielding midnight phone calls. “It’s always somebody’s workday, somewhere,” she said. During Clinton’s historic run for president in 2008, Adler served as War Room communications manager and press aide to Howard Wolfson, the Clinton campaign communications director. When the Clinton campaign ended, then-Senator Clinton endorsed candidate Senator Barack Obama and campaigned for him, keeping several staffers on board, including Adler. With President Obama’s extraordinary win, Clinton accepted the Secretary of State post and Adler was among the staff members who moved to the State Department. Today, Adler travels the world as Secretary Clinton meets with heads of state and other important dignitaries. “My job is working for someone who inspires me,” said Adler of Secretary Clinton. Adler recently returned from a whirlwind tour of China and Southeast Asia where she clocked 300+ hours and 30,000 miles of travel. Adler flies aboard a reconfigured US Air Force Boeing 757 that is outfitted with a cabin for the Secretary, seats for the staff and security,

and a communications section for continuous information anywhere in the world. The airplane basically functions as a mobile oﬃce. At her home base in Washington, DC, Adler communicates with the State Department Correspondents Association. “The Bullpen (cluster of reporters’ desks) is right outside my oﬃce. I work with reporters oneon-one and really get to know them —we travel together too,” said Adler. “Secretary Clinton is only one person,” said Adler of her active boss. “And successfully getting her

message out depends on others at the State Department also being on point.” In addition to managing Secretary Clinton’s media, the Strategic Communications team also engages senior leadership at the State Department to ensure their media activities align with Secretary Clinton’s core messages.” A recent project for Adler was working with a team from National Geographic to film a special documentary entitled Inside the State Department for the National Geographic channel. The series chronicles the “inside story” on important topics and events like U.S. efforts in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Adler followed her brother Joe ’96 to Webb where, she said, she was eager to distinguish herself. Adler was the first Vivian Webb School student to receive the Raymond M. Alf Laudate Deum Award, she was also honored with the Ann Longley prize for Distinguished Leadership and the Distinguished Sportsperson Award.

Adler cites several Webb teachers and administrators who had an impact on her life including Susan Nelson, Dean Jean Hill, Jo-Anne Kingstone, and especially her class leader, the late Joy Luscombe. “She was tireless,” said Adler of Luscombe. “Her energy was contagious. There were 27 girls in my class and she really got us to do things.” Adler says Dr. Don Lofgren was also a

“great inspiration.” Even though she doesn’t have time for paleontology today, Adler looks back fondly on being involved in peccary activities. “It was something so unusual and awe-inspiring,” she said, “and he made it accessible for us.” The California native made her next big change with acceptance to Harvard where she experienced not only an outstanding education, but the four seasons as well. It was during a summer break at Harvard, that she first served an internship in Senator Clinton’s office through the school’s Institute of Politics. After college, Adler went to work for a management consulting firm and says she enjoyed the troubleshooting and problem-solving for private sector clients, but said she longed to do something more meaningful which led to her work with the Clinton campaign.

Today, even with her busy, globetrotting life, Adler still ﬁnds time to read—she’s immersed in Bob Woodward’s Obama’s Wars—and to stay connected with Webb friends. She sees classmate Kelly Smith ’00 who also lives in DC, and is a lawyer at the law ﬁrm of Arnold and Porter. Adler also loves running and would like to learn another language but says, “it’s rare to be in town for two weeks.” For now, Caroline Adler is happy to be on the go—helping to make a positive impact on the world—and to continue to live up to the principles of Laudate Deum—to exhibit enthusiasm and leadership in every challenge she faces.

Spring 2011

NewsNotes

22 and a half minutes with Jeffrey Pfeffer ’64

You could say that alumnus Jeﬀrey Pfeﬀer ’64

Professor and Author

network, developing the resources you need to achieve your goals, and dealing with opposition. It draws on the latest social science research, as well as concrete examples drawn from modern business and politics, to create what author Jim Collins has called “an indispensable guide” to organizational power.

Q&A

wrote the book on organizational politics 52

—in fact, he’s written 13 books and more than 125 articles, including a controversial 2002 story on the value of business education, entitled The End of Business Schools? Jeffrey Pfeffer’s academic career is as impressive as his bibliography. After graduating from Webb, he went on to Carnegie Mellon University, where he earned both his BS in Administration and Management Science and his MS in Industrial Administration in only four years. He earned his PhD in Business Administration from Stanford University, where he is now Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior in the Graduate School of Business. He has also been a visiting professor at Harvard Business School, London Business School, Singapore Management University, and Barcelona’s IESE Business School. Dr. Pfeffer’s newest book, Power: Why Some People Have It—And Others Don’t, was published by Harper Collins in September 2010. Based on his popular Stanford MBA elective, “The Paths to Power,” Power presents practical lessons in how to establish a power base, including creating an effective

How do you deﬁne power?

The ability to get your way in contested situations. Most organizations have politics; it’s ubiquitous in social situations. It’s an inevitable part of life in a world where people have diﬀerent ideas of what to do, and where there are scarce resources, so not everyone can get their way. You have to make decisions, and those decisions are based on who has the most power. Power has become a very loaded word for some people, with a lot of potentially negative connotations. Your book, however, talks about power as something necessary and vital.

It’s part of life, even if people think it’s evil. I guess Americans are prone to avoid subjects that make them uncomfortable. I think in the social sciences, my job is to describe and tell people about the world—not how it ought to be, but how it is. Who do you hope will read this book?

Anybody who works in an organization, which is basically most people. It’s not just for business people; this is for people in colleges and universities and prep schools and government agencies. Power is a part of working life in most places.

You need to understand that the world is not always a just and fair place, and that people don’t always get what they deserve. You need to sort of get over that.

Who do you think has the most to gain from it?

The people who have the most to gain are people who are earliest in their careers. If you have a longer career ahead of you, you have more to gain than someone who’s about to retire. If you have intellectual curiosity about the subject, though, it’s never too late. Some of the most interesting aspects of the book are the observations that seem almost counterintuitive, like your point that superior job performance doesn’t necessarily translate into outstanding success. What are some of the principles of seeking power that tend to take people by surprise?

That’s one of them. Another is the one that you don’t have to be liked to be successful. People will put up with a lot to be around a successful athletic program, a successful institution or organization, a high-powered person or company. Likeability may not bring power, but power will bring likeability. People will like you if you have power. What role do you think ethics should play in the path to power?

The same role ethics should play in how one lives one’s life. Power is a set of tools. Ethics is mostly not about how the world works, it’s about how the world should work, which is a big distinction. I think it’s important in any context for people to make the distinction between what is and what should be. Let’s talk about your time at Webb. What was your experience like?

It was an extremely formative experience. I would say it was a positive experience, in the same way as if you were to talk to someone who went to the military academy or the Marines. I learned a lot about life.

Who was the most important person in your life at Webb, and why?

There was a math teacher—I actually ran into his son at a conference recently—named Tom Peters. I bonded with him and his wife. He was a very kind human being. He provided a lot of social, moral and emotional support. What impact did your time at Webb have on your career and philosophy?

Webb was good academic preparation for my college experience. It permitted me to learn a lot. Webb was an experience that caused you to grow up. At 13 or 14 years old, you live a pretty sheltered life. I grew up at Webb.

One of the things we talk a lot about at Webb is leadership development—what principles or lessons about power do you think would be most valuable for high school students?

That you need to understand power dynamics. Basically, you need to understand psychology and the social psychology of power. You need to understand that the world is not always a just and fair place, and that people don’t always get what they deserve. You need to sort of get over that. What are you reading now?

The most recent ﬁction book I read was Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections. The other nonﬁction book I recently read was Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman, which tells a very nasty story about the U.S. Army. It’s a very good book. What is the last movie you’ve seen?

The Kids Are All Right. And Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, the documentary. To read more with Jeffrey Pfeffer ’64 visit www.webb.org/readmore

Spring 2011

NewsNotes

Bringing Berries to Your Table alumni profile

Garland Reiter ’72

Garland Reiter ’72 is a third

generation farmer and the President and Chief Executive Oﬃcer of Reiter Aﬃliated Companies (RAC), a forward-thinking business that has expanded the berry’s popularity world-wide and made it a year-round treat.

In fact, RAC and the well-known berry giant Driscoll’s are closely linked—J. Miles Reiter, Garland’s brother, is Chairman and CEO of Driscoll’s and Garland is Vice Chairman of the board of directors at Driscoll’s. Garland Reiter grew up in the small town of Los Altos, California, and chose Webb School of California for his high school education. He then went to his father’s alma mater, Santa Clara University. He spent his junior year abroad in Vienna, Austria, where he met his wife, Brenda. Shortly after graduation, a family tragedy hastened his entry to the family business—in 1977, both of Reiter’s

parents perished in a plane crash in the Canary Islands. He moved to Oxnard to start a new farming eﬀort, allowing the brothers to focus on two separate regions apart from their original location in the Bay Area. Once there, he started working to expand their interests and explore new methods to extend the growing season and improve the viability of the delicate berries. Through breeding and genetic breakthroughs, the company has expanded the market for berries. According to Reiter, since the late 1980s, the growth rate of the company has doubled every ﬁve years for 20 years. In 1985, when the brothers committed themselves to focusing on the advancement of raspberries, RAC produced about 250,000 units a year. Today RAC produces almost four times that amount per year. Reiter says that he enjoys the fact that people enjoy what he produces and that it’s a wholesome product. “It has required a lot of learning and dedication,” said Reiter of farming.

Council Corner “There’s so much you can’t control,” he added citing weather conditions and pests. Throughout the years, Reiter says that “a conscious shift of leveraging the academic approach of research and development to a more commercial knowledge and innovation application has brought a commercial application and implementation to today’s world of fast-paced, new technology.”

Reiter says that a large part of the company’s success are the values of honesty, fairness and respect— principles that were reinforced during his time at Webb. “You have to have an entrepreneurial spirit and you have to stay honest,” he said.

A friend recently asked me, “What is the Alumni Council?” We are a group of 22 members who span from the Class of 1947 through 2005. As the primary alumni leadership group for the schools, we represent 4,000 alumni overall—3,000 WSC alumni and 1,000 VWS alumnae. The Webb network reaches far and wide, with alumni in 48 states and 44 countries. Each year, more than 150 alumni volunteer as trustees, Council members, regional representatives, reunion chairs, class agents, guest speakers, event hosts, college mentors, chapel speakers... the list goes on and on. I invite you to learn more about the Alumni Council and to get involved with our alma mater. Please be in touch with me or the Alumni Relations Oﬃce for more information. Janel Henriksen Hastings ’87 — President drskuter@msn.com

The Alumni Council has had a busy year organizing local and regional events, recruiting volunteers, and enthusiastically engaging our fellow alumni with Webb activities and programs.

“Humility,” “passion,” and “integrity,” are also words that Reiter does business by, and connects to his Webb experience. “Integrity was a core value to my parents and Webb deeply strengthened that,” he added. Reiter is still motivated to expand the berry market. “We’re working on providing a ‘delightful’ experience,” he said. The company is an innovator in growing and shipping methods. They developed the plastic “clam shell” which protects the berries far better than the old-fashioned cardboard and rubber-band box, pioneered new plant species, and developed new geographies. They are expanding into markets such as Portugal and Morocco for farming. “These crops are daylight sensitive and need lots of water in the summer time,” he said. So the direction of the world-wide climate is another issue the company has focused on. With the potential for year-round harvesting and sophisticated electronic tracking, the berry basket has grown to such a degree that it has overtaken popular produce items such as lettuce and bananas as a top seller. Driscoll’s has been in the European market for a number of years and is eager to increase its presence, supplying Europe with the same quality berry basket experience by producing in Northern Europe, Iberia and North Africa.

Jim Hall ’59, Janel Henriksen Hastings ’87, Lisa Miller ’89 and Dwight Morgan ’65 welcomed freshman alumni from the Class of 2010 at the annual Seniors Breakfast, sponsored by the Alumni Council.

Recent Alumni Council sponsored events included a walking tour of LA and a whale watching trip.

Spring 2011

NewsNotes

Webb Names Three New Trustees The Webb Schools Board of Trustees is pleased to announce the election of three new trustees. Bill Bauman ’82, Sanjay Dholakia ’87, and Jenna Gambaro ’95 were elected October 20, 2010 for ﬁve-year terms.

Bauman

Dholakia

Gambaro

56 Bill Bauman ’82 (P ’12) has been

Sanjay Dholakia ’87 has strong

Jenna Gambaro ’95 is one of Vivian

a very active part of the Webb community, as an alumnus, a member of the Campaign Committee, and a parent—his older daughter, Brooke ’12, is a VWS student. After earning his BA from Willamette University, Bill became one of the top commercial real estate brokers in Southern California, and a partner in The Seeley Company (later sold to Colliers International). He is currently executive vice president of Studley, heading the brokerage’s growing retail unit. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of Pasadena’s Chandler School, where his younger daughter, Taylor, is currently a middle school student. Bill says his goal is to spread the word about the value of boarding education, and about “just how unique and terriﬁc the Webb experience is.”

family ties to Webb. Both his brother, Sameer Dholakia ’91, and his wife, Melissa Barnes-Dholakia ’87, are also alumni. Sanjay has “a keen sensitivity for what education can do.” He serves on the Board of Trustees of Lighthouse Community Charter School in Oakland, and he and his family endowed Webb’s Pravina Dholakia Scholarship Fund. Sanjay received his BS in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and his MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. From 2008 to 2010, he served as chief marketing oﬃcer for Lithium Technologies and is currently CEO of the social marketing ﬁrm Crowd Factory. As a trustee, Sanjay hopes to use his marketing and strategic planning expertise to “help Webb become an institution that endures and thrives for centuries.”

Webb’s most committed and passionate alumnae. She has been a class agent every year since graduation and served as reunion chair for her ﬁve-, 10-, and 15-year reunions. “Webb shaped me,” she says. “Right up front, I was willing to give back in any capacity I could.” Jenna earned her BS in Business and Marketing from Portland State University and her JD from Southwestern School of Law. Since 2004, she has been a business aﬀairs executive in the Motion Picture Talent and Literary Department of Hollywood’s Creative Artists Agency. Jenna sees becoming a trustee as “an amazing opportunity to be involved with the school in a really meaningful way.” Her goal is to help Webb strengthen its ties to our younger alumni.

events

and highlights

Webb alumni, parents and friends gathered on campus and around the world at more than 30 events this year. REUNIONS

REGIONAL EVENTS

Alumni Weekend 2010

New York

Alumni traveled from as far away as Indonesia, Chile and more than 20 states to participate in Alumni Weekend 2010.

NY Webbies thank David Loo ’79 and his wife, Valerie, for graciously hosting an alumni reception each spring for the past seven years. Here is a photo from last year’s event. ▼

Los Angeles More than 200 alumni enjoyed two days of activities and fun. Celebrating their 20th reunion, the class of 1990 had the largest turnout. To see more photos, visit www.webb.org/reunion2010

Bill Bauman ’82, parent of Brooke ’12, hosted an event at the Jonathan Club on February 22, 2011. ▼

▼

Chicago

Staff met up with Webbies near the University of Chicago in January.

▼

The Class of 1970 celebrated their 40th reunion in Las Vegas in July 2010 with many coming from faraway places like Singapore, Ohio, Utah, Washington, and Oregon. In honor of their reunion, the class presented Larry Ashton, chairman of the Alf Museum board, with a class gift of more than $140,000 in support of the museum’s Hall of Life project.

Washington, DC

Brian Ogden, Peter Bartlett and Taylor Stockdale took time out

▼ from a conference to enjoy dinner with DC Webbies.

Boston Class of 1994 Bostonians held a mini-reunion dinner in September. ▼ ▼

Claremont

Local Webbies gathered for a young alumni mixer at the Harvard Square Café in February.

Spring 2011

NewsNotes THE WEBB SCHOOLS FO RM E R FAC U LT Y

W E B B SCHOOL OF C A LI FO R N IA

John Akers (Spanish teacher from 1973-1978) told us that after 30+ years, he had the pleasure to see Lenny Magier ’77 and Gabe Sanchez ’77 in Los Angeles in 2009. He performed on the classical guitar for classes at the Brentwood School where Lenny teaches. Oliver Everett shared the following with us: “Sue and I were at Webb from 1966 to 1968. I was a history teacher and Sue tutored several students. We have fond memories of our two years there and have kept in touch with Bank and Sue Greene who also taught there.” Since leaving Webb, former faculty member (1979-1985) Jerry Gems writes: “I’ve earned a PhD, become a full professor, authored eight books, been elected president of the North American Society of Sport History, and traveled globally as an international scholar and speaker. My Webb experience helped to lay a foundation for future success.” Jean Miller (VWS Headmistress 1984-1987) wrote: “Among my volunteer roles, I am president of the board of the Dorset Theatre Festival. We presented a Vermont premiere of The Novelist by Theresa Rebeck, which will open at the Mark Taper Forum on September 9, 2011. Save the date!”

Coach Dan Pride is enjoying life in Ohio. He’s back at his old stomping ground, Ironton High School. He’s been coaching football for the past two years as the lineback coach, and he’s been the assistant coach for girls’ basketball for the past three years. He misses everyone at Webb, but is enjoying his retirement.

1937 • Cliff Heinz visited the Webb campus in October to attend the Honor Symposium, an annual event made possible by the Clifford S. Heinz ’37 Ethical Education Fund. Cliff enjoyed visiting with members of the Honor Committee and Honor Cabinet, and hearing about their experiences.

1946 • Keith Loring is enjoying life in Georgetown, TX, where he lives in a Del Webb Active Adult Retirement Community. He fondly remembers his Webb days and long chats with his mentor, coach, and teacher Ray Alf. Keith writes, “I owe much to Webb: schooling excellence, principles and values, code of honor, extra-curricular activities, athletics, and on and on. Webb allowed me to work my way through school doing many different tasks, since my family had no assets; and I learned a great deal from the ‘opportunity’ I had of earning my tuition and making Webb values a lifetime foundation for me. I should add that my stepfather, Harold Baxter, had a sister named Edith Tyndall who was Dr. Webb’s secretary, and I think Edith had something to do with my campus work in lieu of paying tuition. Thompson, along with various teachers, was the main developer of my lifetime ethical values and my development as a Christian, a Conservative, and an ‘over achiever.’ No ego there – just my gratitude for what Webb did for me.” In appreciation for Webb’s assistance 68 years ago, Keith has been a long-term yearly donor to Webb and the Alf Museum and is currently planning to provide present and future funds to create a growing scholarship fund in his name for students.

Kathy Simon (Hasse) and her daughter, Claire, stopped by Webb at the end of their two-week vacation in Australia. Kathy wanted to show Claire where she had once lived and worked. The night before they got together for dinner with several former faculty: Joan Presecan, Lucia Dick, Clara Soto Ivey, and Diyette Fast.

1948 • Bill Montgomery attended the Webb event in Boston last September. Bill lives in Hanover, NH, but he was in town to spend the day on his boat that is based in Boston Harbor. Pictured: Bill (center) with David Wright ’65 (L) and Director of Admission Leo Marshall (R).

A lu m n i P ro f i l e

1950 • Henry Keil III is still active as a ﬁnancial consultant.

Arthur “Bill” Bailey ’55

Congratulations to Charles Neff, who published a new thriller, Hard Cache, set in the Central Cascades. He’s been keeping busy with author readings and signing events and if you are lucky enough you may also catch him playing music on his cornet, accompanied by a jazz pianist, before his readings.

1952 • John Kinzer’s grandson, Cole Herbkersman, is a freshman at Webb this year. 1954 • Paul Reitler will be the new Chairman of the Board of Trustees for The Webb Schools, effective July 1, 2011. 1956 • Ted Harwood wrote: “I had dinner with Dick Stoker in mid August at Loch Ober’s in Boston, with my partner Alice accompanying me. We had a great exchange of conversation over a bottle of California Pinot Noir. Dick was about to leave on a cruise up the eastern coastline with the intellectuals of the Weekly Standard magazine. I hope I remembered to tell him that he was in the best possible company.” Bob Koster lectures on the history of cinema, radio and TV at CSU Channel Islands. He writes, “Just think – I get paid to watch Sid Caesar and Jackie Gleason! And after all these years I ﬁnally learned how to adjust the color and contrast. My son, Kevin, followed me into the biz, and now works on Private Practice. Elder son, Chris, works at UCLA Medical Center managing a lab, and during off hours is a composer and performer at local nightclubs. Not being half so talented, I listen and tap my feet, sometimes in time to the music. Thank goodness for Gordon Wilson and the Classical Music Club at Webb, where I learned to tap my feet properly. Greetings to the rest of the 1956 Gauls from sunny Camarillo, CA.”

1957 • Joe Nakhosteen is now retired and living back in the US. After graduating from Harvard, he worked as an investment banker for Chase Bank in Singapore and throughout southeast Asia. After spending time in India, Hong Kong and Iran, Joe returned to the US in May 2009 and is now enjoying life in Boston. He purchased an apartment on the Harvard campus, which allows him to enjoy college amenities, such as the Faculty Club and even classes. Joe recently enjoyed dinner with Les Epstein ’56, and he hopes to visit Webb in the coming year.

While at Webb, Arthur “Bill” Bailey ’55

was an avid peccary man and the chief photographer of the El Espejo yearbook, taking almost all of its pictures. One of these photographs is currently displayed in the top ﬂoor of the museum. Before graduating from Webb, Ray Alf asked Bill to donate his favorite peccary trip pictures. As a thank you for his generosity, Ray named the Arthur E. Bailey Award in Biology after him. Bill has also won several awards for his work including the People’s Choice Award from the Oregon State Fair committee. Bill lives in Portland, OR, and uses a Nikon D300 to take most of his pictures.

1958 • Chuck Work and his wife, Roni, had a busy 2010. They celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary and Chuck’s decade birthday. They hosted their ﬁrst open house last summer at their home overlooking the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland for 90-plus new neighbors, then celebrated with their new friends again at Christmas. They played golf on the Algarve, took a 2-week cruise from Lisbon to Rome, enjoyed several weeks of snow and cold avoidance in the Turks and Caicos, then had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family in San Francisco.

Spring 2011

NewsNotes 1959 • John Rogers and his wife, June, had an action-packed summer. They spent time at the beach with three of their grandsons, and also took a trip back to the ranch in Colorado and to their “ﬁshing cabin” on the Kalama River in Washington. John and his son, Jeff, practiced their Spey casting on the Babine River in British Columbia, and managed to hook a good number of native steelhead. John is still involved with his three Toastmaster clubs, playing golf, and the Knights of Columbus at St. Anthony’s Church. John says, “Except for the few growing pains of getting a year older, God has blessed all of our family with good health and a quality of life that can’t be beat.”

Pieter Speyer is currently hosting an internet radio Spanish language talk show on Univision’s www.MiUnicast.com.

Congratulations to John Tuteur who in June 2010 won re-election for his fourth term as Napa County assessor-recorder-county clerk with 73.9% of the votes cast. Eric Wuersten is living in Colombia for two years doing social work with the San Gabriel Mission in Santa Elena in the mountains (8,500 ft.) above Medellin and has a wonderful wife, Amalia, helping with all of their projects.

Twenty members of the Class of 1960 set a new Webb record for the most alumni attendance for a 50th reunion.

1960 • Kim Gaynor passed away in 2003, but Chris Reynolds ’61, originally a member of the Class of ’60, sent in this fond remembrance after returning to Webb in October for his former classmates’ 50th reunion. With the weekend still a glowing memory, he wrote, “Kim is one of the main reasons I loved my Webb experience so much. He was the ﬁrst person to welcome me onto the campus (by lobbing a perfectly thrown water balloon from the deck of Terry White’s room in the Lower Dorm). He was my neighbor in the Tin Shacks that ﬁrst year, and in our junior year he was my roommate in a tiny room at the top of Alamo. He was our class president, a fantastic athlete, and a hard-working student. He was our cheerleader, choirmaster, social director, and he became a lifelong friend.” Pictured: Chris Reynolds ’61, Steve Geremia, Kim Gaynor, Dan Ketchum ’59 and Terry “T” White (in front) Bill Ripley and Robert Hall caught up with each other last spring at the wedding of Robert’s son. Bill also enjoyed seeing everyone at the big 50th reunion gathering in October.

1961 • Dodd Fischer attended his 45th Yale reunion, and is looking forward to his 50th at Webb in October. He recently had lunch with Bill Birdsey at Roadwise, Bill’s machine and tool company in Newark, CA. Bill, who back in 1960 used to operate a milling lathe in his Alamo room (no kidding), has an exciting array of sophisticated milling machinery to manufacture all varieties of metal parts and devices, using the math and trig formulas learned in Fred Hooper’s classroom as a Webb teenager. Pictured: Dodd met up with Webb staffer Bob Fass in Portland last October.

Larry Price, great nephew of Thompson Webb, visited the Webb campus in April 2010 with his cousin Nancy daSilveira. Larry lives in Illinois and was in Claremont for his 40th reunion at Pomona College. Larry is the son of Thomas Price ’33, and grandson of Ed Price, one of the early “masters” at Webb School of California.

1964 • Christian Holmes has been named the Global Water Coordinator for the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Chris is the senior represenative within USAID responsible for coordinating the implementation of key water policy initiatives, including USAID’s water strategy. He recently supported missions in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Ghana on water and food security matters.

Chris Reynolds, John Erving and Tim Kearns (not pictured) came to Alumni Weekend in October. All were originally members of the Class of ’60, so they returned to campus to help their friends celebrate their 50th reunion.

1962 • Nick Blaisdell has been working with clay for more than 45 years. His clay pots are handcrafted and hand thrown in unique designs and glazes. He and and his wife, Sandy, are the owners of Dalton Ranch Pottery in Durango, CO. Visit his website: www.nickblaisdell.com.

Richard Power, Tor Krieger and Peter “B.” Wright met up for breakfast in Sebastopol, CA, in May 2010. Tor and B. had not seen each other since graduation.

John Trefethen had lunch with David Ivey-Soto ’82 and his wife, Lisa, at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone. John also gave them a tour of the Trefethen Vineyards.

1965 • Dwight Morgan, Bill Vestal and David Speyer enjoyed

dinner at Alumni Weekend. Bill is the artistic director of “Sundays Live,” a classical music program at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. This is his 25th year running the program. It was nice to see David Wright at the alumni event in Boston last September. David is a music journalist, and his wife, Pamela, is a librarian at Wellesley College. See photo on pg. 58.

Robert Wu wrote: “Sorry to have missed our 45th reunion. I retired early from Bank of America in 2001, after being assigned since 1971 to Korea and Hong Kong, and twice to Taiwan. I joined Bank SinoPac in 2001 in Taiwan covering corporate banking and traveled each month to San Francisco, Los Angeles and Vietnam for 10 years. Retired again in 2009 and now travel for leisure to China, Hong Kong, and the US from Taiwan. My wife, Frecia, is still working and our son, Michael, age 17, is a senior in Taiwan St. Ignasius High School. I hope to make our 50th Webb reunion.”

Spring 2011

NewsNotes

1966 • David Ivey-Soto ’82 visited the Laurel Glen Vineyard and saw Patrick Campbell.

Cleveland Magazine named Dr. Steven Nissen one of the most interesting people of 2011. Steven is chair of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. Back in 2007, he ﬁrst raised a warning about the controversial drug, Avandia, in a New England of Medicine article. In February 2010, a 342-page paper further illustrated the importance of outside scrutiny of the pharmaceutical companies by people like Steven and the need to make the US Food and Drug Administration more accountable to the public.

1967 • Frank Alley began a 5-year term as chief judge of the US Bankruptcy Court for Oregon in October.

In 2010, American Photo magazine featured Robert Glenn Ketchum in their Masters series making him only the ﬁfth photographer they have recognized this way in 20-years of publishing. Of the ﬁve honored, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton and Annie Liebovitz, Robert is unique because his imagery is based almost exclusively in the natural world. He is also the recipient of the Palm Beach Photographic Centre 2011 Mentors Award for his many years of teaching. Photo credit: Mallorie Ostrowitz

The January 8th tragedy in Tucson, AZ, hit close to home for Fletcher Strickler and his wife, Becky. They have been ardent volunteers for Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. Fletcher writes, “She always has a smile, a hug, and time to chat with us when we meet, which is often. Her staff have become our friends as well, and we mourn the loss of Gabe Zimmerman, who was an absolutely ﬁne fellow, soon to be married. You cannot know the impact Saturday’s rampage has had on this community. Tucson has been laid low. President Obama’s service started the healing process, and continued encouraging news about Gabby’s early recovery buoys our spirits enormously.”

In addition to his continuing activities as publisher of Starhaven (www.starhaven.org.uk), Stoddard “Chip” Martin has been nominated Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of English Studies, University of London, and member of the editorial board of Quarterly Review (www.quarterly-review.org) to which he contributes on a regular basis. David Mirkin is now a trustee of the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology. He is a principal with Milliman Inc. where he works as a senior health care consultant for clients in the US and internationally in the UK, Europe and Asia. He has been active in sports medicine and worked as a volunteer at the US Olympic training center in Colorado Springs, CO.

1968 • Chris Jobe returned to campus to be a guest speaker at the Men in the Arena symposium on February 28, 2011.

1973 • Stuart Stevens recently moved to Rancho Cucamonga, CA, and set up a home office so he could be near his mom and still work. “I have been alternating between working at an office in Roseville and the home office.” He looks forward to hearing from his classmates.

1969 • Michael Wray is the proud dad of another Webb graduate. Michael’s son, Thomas Wray, graduated with the Class of 2010 in May, and he’s now attending Johns Hopkins University. Michael’s nephew, Henry Nelson, also graduated with the class and is enrolled at the University of Oregon. This is not his first time being a Webb parent: daughter, Molly Wray Halligan graduated in 1995 and son, Sam Wray in 1993. 1970 • Gene Gregg and his wife, Dodie, became proud first-time grandparents in 2010, when their oldest daughter, Becky, and her husband, had their first child, Charlotte.

1971 • Bill Alley has authored a new book entitled Aviation in Southern Oregon. “Medford, Oregon, pioneered aviation in Southern Oregon and has long enjoyed a reputation for being an air-minded city. When the City of Medford built Newell Barber Field in 1920, it established the ﬁrst municipally owned airﬁeld in the state.” To read more about Bill’s book or to order it, go to www.arcadiapublishing.com.

1975 • Jim Boyce and Greg Lynch caught up with one another at the reunion dinner in October. Jim is a teacher at Roscomare Road School in Bel Air, and Greg is a partner with the law ﬁrm Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith, LLP in Los Angeles. 1976 • Alfred “Fred” Yen is a Professor of Law at Boston College Law School, Law School Fund Scholar, and Director of the Emerging Enterprises and Business Law Program. He is a nationally-known scholar who has published numerous articles about copyright law, the Internet, Asian-American legal issues, and law teaching. Fred resides in historic Concord, MA, with his wife and two children.

1978 • Michael Mills’ son, John, is a freshman at Webb this year. 1979 • Blair Brown wrote: “To all my classmates, we either recently have or are about to turn the Big Five-O. So, happy birthday to all. Life takes many turns. I have left one rat race for something completely different. I am now the COO of a synagogue that is walking distance from home. With two kids in college and happily married these past 21 years, I ﬁgured to take life as it comes. Hopefully I’ll see many of you at our 35th in 2014. If you’re ever in the SF Bay area, give us a call.”

1980 • Ronald Saxton wrote: “My main interests are my family, hotels

Robert Arnott visited the Webb campus in January with his daughter, Sydney, and wife, Marina. Rob and his family live in Corona Del Mar. He is chairman of Research Afﬁliates, a Newport Beach company that provides indexing and asset allocation strategies for institutional investors around the world.

and motels. I enjoy NHRA drag races. I’m still a big KISS fan and have become a collector of the band’s memorabilia. I also collect wolf art and anything connected with wolves. We are in the process of ﬁnding investors to buy some motels in the Lake Tahoe area. Feel free to contact me at timberwolf_rls@yahoo.com. It would be great to hear from you.”

Dick Cook visited Whistler, BC, last spring with his wife, Susi, and son, Matt. Dick is the managing director for Marsh Risk & Insurance Services in Los Angeles. He keeps in touch with Bob Sears, as they both live in Westlake Village, CA. The Class of 1980 celebrated their 30th reunion in Mammoth, CA.

Spring 2011

NewsNotes

1981 • Kip Konwiser visited campus as part of Sophomore Career Evening and spoke to students about a career in the entertainment business.

1983 • John Powell and his wife Klysta, are the proud parents of a Vivian Webb alumna. Their daughter, Nicole, graduated in May 2010, and she’s now a freshman at Santa Clara University. Pictured are Klysta, Jake, Nicole and John at commencement last May. Chris Riggio is now working for Swift Worldwide Resources as a contract engineer at Chevron in Houston, TX. He is working on the Western Australia Wheatstone Natural Gas project, with hopes of moving soon to Australia and living there for a couple of years. He and his spouse, Jean Bodeau, moved from Alaska in early 2009 and have enjoyed birding and caving in Texas, but dearly miss the big open country of Alaska (but not the long winters).

1984 • Kevin Berne and his wife, Alessandra, recently celebrated their 5-year wedding anniversary and traveled to Patagonia last February. Kevin is still a commercial photographer in the San Francisco Bay area.

1982 • Last summer, David Ivey-Soto and his wife, Lisa, took a California road trip to visit Webb friends and vintners. “We flew from DC to Sacramento and then headed down the coast. Our first stop was dinner with Eric Ratinoff ’84. We then drove to Sonoma County and saw Patrick Campbell ’66 at Laurel Glen Vineyard. We had a nice chat and reminisced about Webb. Next we had lunch in Napa with John Trefethen ’62 at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone and later visited him at Trefethen Vineyards. Heading south, we stopped at Craig Shannon’s ’85 Per Bacco Cellars in San Luis Obispo. Unfortunately Craig was not at the winery, but the experience was awesome and the wines were very nice. We finally made it to Claremont and had lunch with Robbie Warner. We took a drive up to Webb with my mother, Clara Soto Ivey. Our last stop was Anaheim for the National Convention of the American Culinary Federation (AFC).” This is David’s second year as National Secretary for the AFC. Mark Tuckerman is a professor of chemistry and mathematics at New York University. In addition to teaching and advising graduate students, Mark conducts research, publishes articles and books, and circles the globe as a lecturer, panelist speaker and jurist for grant applications. Mark has more than 100 articles published, and his first book, Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Molecular Simulation, was released in 2010. His current fields of research include theoretical condensed matter physics, theoretical chemistry, and applied mathematics.

John Hamilton spoke at Sophomore Career Evening in April 2010 where he shared his insights on architecture. The USC graduate started his ﬁrm, Hamilton Architects, in 1998, and designs custom homes, development projects, commercial tenant improvements, and retail. This is John’s 5th year on the Alumni Council, and he’s currently serving as director of regional events for Southern California. He encourages all Webbies to join us at one of our regional events. John is married and has a 5-year-old daughter, Josie – all three seen here dancing at a recent family wedding.

1985 • Charlie Kindel, known as “Tigger” when he was at Webb, is the general manager for the Windows Phone 7 App Platform at Microsoft in Redmond, WA. He joined Microsoft in 1990 after graduating from the University of Arizona. Charlie loves anything that moves electrons or makes noise, all-mountain skiing, wakeboarding and wakesurﬁng, anything to do with soccer, restoring cars, and a myriad of other hobbies. He has two amazing teenage children, Christine, 17 and CJ, 14, a wonderful wife, Julie, and lives in Bellevue, WA. It was great to see Charlie back on campus for his 25th reunion. Rod Rehnborg and his family are living in Hong Kong. Rod manages an equity investment fund.

David Shernoff is a professor of educational psychology at Northern Illinois University and a published author and researcher in the field of education and human development. Among his publications is The Individual Maker: A Master Teacher and his Transformational Curriculum written about former Webb teacher Larry McMillin. In late 2009, David appeared in Newsweek discussing his research about flow and teens. He most recently authored The Experience of Student Engagement in High School Classrooms: Influences and Effects on Long-Term Outcomes and also co-authored Good Mentoring: Fostering Excellent Practice in Higher Education. He had two additional books accepted and under contract related to his research on learning behaviors. David and his wife have one child, Spencer, who bears the middle name Laurence in honor of the Webb teacher who forever changed David’s life and gave him his passion for Individual Humanities.

1986 • Merrill Christenson visited the Webb campus with his three children last April. He attended the 20th reunion celebration at the Sycamore Inn, but he hadn’t been back to Webb in more than six years. Merrill lives in Orange County with his wife, Leah, and family. He has fond memories of his Webb days, especially wrestling, baseball, football and other sports. He says hello to Dave Fawcett ’61 and his classmates. Mark D’Arcy has been predominantly based in Asia spending the last 5 years working in Tokyo. Recently Mark relocated to London where he serves as the global head of operational risk management for Goldman Sachs.

Simon Jones and Christine Helmbrecht were married in the Vivian Webb Chapel on November 6, 2010. Several classmates were in attendance including Lydia Charles from Washington, DC, Tom Monroe from Switzerland, Mark D’Arcy from London, Jan Mitchell Johnson from Texas, and Simon’s brothers James Steinmann ’98 and Ed Jones ’88. Rich Martinez visited the Webb campus in November. He’s living in Kentucky with his wife and three sons. Rich is a principal at Saint Mary School, a pre-K to 8 Catholic school in Paris, KY. He was last back on campus for the 10th reunion.

Spring 2011

NewsNotes A lu m n i P ro f i l e

Jeﬀrey Hyman ’89 Social Game Changers

Jeffrey Hyman’ 89 has teamed up with legendary Silicon Valley investor Rick Thompson to found Idle Games. In the wake of popular Facebook games like Farmville, Jeff hopes to offer Internet users a better social game. According to Jeff, “Idle Games believes that Facebook games could and should be something more. More entertaining, actually social, better looking and most importantly...more fun.”

Kevin O’Hearn and his family are living in Hong Kong. He is the vice president of sales for FedEx Express in Asia.

1987 • Last May Sanjay Dholakia became CEO of Crowd Factory, a San Francisco-based social marketing company that powers brands like HBO, McAfee, Nielsen and Sony. Sanjay was also elected to Webb’s Board of Trustees in October. Ken-ryu Han and his wife, Michelle, have been in Phoenix since 2004 with their four children: Addison, 5, and triplet boys, Chayce, Evan, and Greyson, now 3 years old. Josh Saltman is excited about his new venture, Vodvil, an upscale entertainment concept in Los Angeles on Fairfax. Vodvil will open in May and features themed “game nights,” food, drinks, karaoke, and private party rooms. Find out more at www.vodvil-la.com, or email Josh at josh@vodvil-la.com.

66 James Sun passed the UCLA Theta Chi torch from one Webb ASB President to another, Matt Abrams ’10.

For the last two years, Idle Games has been busy creating its ﬁrst title “Idle Worship.” Set in a fantasy world reminiscent of the works of Dr. Seuss, Idle Worship is a massively multiplayer, ‘polytheistic’ god game where all players are gods vying for the belief and worship of their minions, friends and strangers.

1989 • David Barra and his wife, Heather, welcomed Cole David Barra on May 25, 2010. The little bundle of joy was 8 lbs. 4 oz. and 21.5” long. He joins his sister, Keila, 9, and brother, Kai, 8.

Idle Games currently has 48 employees with team members coming from some of the most successful and innovative companies in the industry, including LucasArts, Dreamworks Interactive, Sony, Apple, Adobe, IMVU, Linden Labs, Netscape, BEA, Current TV, and many others. Jeﬀ is co-founder, CEO and the executive creative director of Idle Games. Prior to co-founding Idle Games, he spent the last decade leading his own highly successful interactive advertising agency, where he produced numerous commercials and interactive campaigns. His work has been recognized more than 15 times by the CLIOS, Cannes Lions, One Show and National Addys.

1990 • In July, Raj Dayalan transferred to the New York ofﬁce of UBS Investment Bank. As executive director of TMT Investment Banking, he travels extensively but enjoys the change. Raj was disappointed to miss the 20th reunion, but he caught up with Hewitt Pratt at the New York holiday mixer in December.

Andrew Kirschner was one of 10 chefs to compete on the Food Network’s The Next Iron Chef. In October, he hosted a party for his classmates to celebrate their 20th reunion. Andrew will be opening his own restaurant, Tar & Roses, in Santa Monica, CA.

Rahmi Mowjood is the newest member on the Alumni Council. Rahmi is a family practice physician with ofﬁces in Upland and Fontana, CA. He shares his practice with alumnus Kyle Smart ’92. In October, Rahmi gave a Chapel Talk, where he discussed the impact the honor code has had on his life and how present day students can incorporate the honor code into their lives after Webb. Visit the website to hear Rahmi’s Chapel Talk.

1991 • After working at the San Francisco Ballet for 10 years and living in the Bay Area since graduating from Webb, Jason Blackwell has moved to Portland, OR, where he continues his work in performing arts on stage and in management with the Portland Center for the Performing Arts. He and his wife, Michelle, have a 6-year-old son, Miles. Jason writes, “It was great to see Sameer Dholakia, his wife, Laura, and their two kids over the Thanksgiving holiday. We are all really looking forward to coming to Webb in the fall for my 20 year reunion.” It’s been an exciting year for CEO Sameer Dholakia. His company, VMLogix, was acquired by Citrix Systems, Inc., a publicly traded company known for its webinar services. Through the acquisition, Citrix has expanded its presence in open cloud computing and Sameer has been retained as VP of marketing in the data center and cloud division to oversee the transition.

1993 • Kevin Hsieh has moved to New York. His wife, Maya, has started a radiology residency at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn. Their daughter, Hanna, is now 6 months old.

1995 • Jason Howard lives in Deerﬁeld, IL, with his wife, Lisa, and their three children, Natalie, 6, Ethan and Julia, 4. He is currently the owner and CEO of Malcolite, a nationwide manufacturer of lighting and energy savings products. He will complete his MBA at University of Chicago Booth School of Business in June 2011 and sits on the executive committee for the Hillel Board at Northwestern University, where he graduated in 1999, as the ﬁnance chair.

Blake Johnson was on campus in October to take part in the annual Honor Symposium. He was part of a 6-member alumni panel and talked about how the honor code has helped guide him through the challenges of business. Blake is president of Imperial Meridian Companies in Los Angeles, which owns and operates IMC Capital Access, IM Capital Access, Accurise, Kava Residuals (a $30 million portfolio of residuals), and CBJ Enterprises.

Max Nelson married Jen Bush on May 8, 2010, in Palm Springs, CA. They ﬁrst met when they were in elementary school. In attendance from the class of 1995 were Blake Johnson who served as a groomsman and Jenna Gambaro. Max and Jen spent two weeks honeymooning and unwinding on the French Riviera. They are keeping busy and have moved to Paciﬁc Palisades this spring. Max continues to work in the luxury housing market in Los Angeles.

1996 • Adam Hershman and his wife, Karen, are the proud parents of Ezra Michael, who was born on October 29, 2009. Adam got a job promotion and he and his family moved to San Ramon, CA, last summer.

Spring 2011

NewsNotes A lu m n i P ro f i l e

Brett Kennedy ’92 Brett Kennedy ’92 is a group supervisor in the Mobility and Robotic System Section at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. At JPL he divides his time between research and space ﬂight robotics. Brett conceived and led the development of the bio-inspired Lemur series of robots, which stands for Limbed Excursion Mechanical Utility Robot. Lemur is an especially versatile robot that can ﬁt into many places that the astronauts themselves cannot. Brett and his team developed Lemur by borrowing characteristics from an octopus, crab and a primate to form the six-limbed robot. He says that “Lemur could be an astronaut’s pet monkey.” It can even repair the inside and outside of a space shuttle and scamper over rocks on Mars.

Jason Pasley is back in Southern California after finishing a 5-year general surgery residency with the US Air Force at Wright Patterson Air Force Base/Wright State University in Ohio. He currently holds the rank of captain and will be a major next year. Jason is now working on a 2-year sponsored fellowship at USC/LA County, in trauma surgery and critical care. Pictured with his parents at his USAF graduation in June 2010. Abhi Patwardhan left New York in June to join First Pacific Advisors as an equity and fixed income manager. He’s currently living in West Hollywood.

1997 • Aman Ahluwalia wrote: “I got married Thanksgiving weekend in Toronto in the company of loving family and friends, and am looking forward to married life.”

Brett is also overseeing the design of the robotic arm on the next Mars rover “Curiosity.” He highlights the importance of the latest rover by saying, “With that arm, we’re able to take new tools, in particular a drill that’s able to take samples out of the inside of rocks and look for things in that sample with a bunch of new instruments, some of which are roughly the equivalent of the instruments you’d ﬁnd in laboratories on Earth.” The rover is due to launch in November 2011.

Congratulations to Andy Chai who ran the New York Marathon in November. Jimmy Wu and sister Marisa Chai ’02 were there to cheer him on. This is Andy’s 9th year on the Alumni Council, where he serves as a regional representative. Webbies new to New York or anyone looking to network should contact him at andrew.e.chai@gmail.com.

Brandon Hoshiko sent us this cute photo of his son, Sam. Brandon is enjoying fatherhood and spends much of his time in a Teach For America fellowship with his local school board and volunteering with community organizations like the Boy Scouts, Brown Alumni Association, and Suicide & Crisis Services.

A lu m n i P ro f i l e

Forrest Beanum ’93

Dack LaMarque received his MBA as a Palmer Scholar from The Wharton School last spring. Dack, who served as president of the Investment Management Club at Wharton, has returned to Los Angeles where he works as an investment professional at the private equity ﬁrm Theorem Capital, and resides with his wife, Emily Golden LaMarque, in Pasadena.

Accelerating the Use of Electric Cars

Alex Rapoport and his wife, Sarah, are proud to announce the birth of Adam Preston Rapoport, born July 2, 2010, in Newport Beach, CA.

. Forrest Beanum ’93 is the global vice president of governmental aﬀairs and communications for CODA Automotive, headquartered in Santa Monica, CA. CODA designs, manufactures and sells electric vehicles. Forrest’s job is to “accelerate the adoption of all-electric vehicles” and propel CODA’s mission. The company plans to begin delivering cars in the second half of this year and sell more than 10,000 in its ﬁrst year of production with plans to go public in early 2012.

In recent months, Beanum has worked with key employees of NASA and the White House to promote CODA and likens the race for the electrification of vehicles as something akin to the “New Frontier,” which called for the exploration of uncharted areas of science and space in the early 1960s. Before joining CODA, Beanum was the national press secretary for US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Bill Clinton, Henry G. Cisneros. He has also worked on projects with former UN Secretary Kofi Annan, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Mexican President Vincente Fox. Beanum graduated from Pomona College and also completed The Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs and the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship of Public Policy and International Affairs at the Graduate School of Public Policy at University of California, Berkeley.

1998 • For the second year in a row Preston Clarke participated in the Nautica Malibu Triathlon to raise money for The Children’s Lifesaving Foundation, a non-proﬁt dedicated to transforming the lives of LA’s at-risk homeless youth and families. This year the CLF raised over $30,000 and Preston’s team’s combined time was 1:54:1. They placed 35th out of 164 teams. For information, visit www.childrenslifesaving.org.

At Webb, Beanum enjoyed classes with Kathy Davis and Joy Luscombe. He also asserts that the writing skills he learned—especially using proper grammar and syntax—have made a huge diﬀerence to him as he composes speeches and press releases. Above all, he learned the core elements of a strong work ethic and the importance of honor and integrity of character.

Congratulations to Drew Doyle and Paige Wilson who were married on August 14, 2010 in Lakebay, WA. Drew’s sister, Felicity Doyle ’04 was a bridesmaid.

“When I think back, in addition to my mother, Webb reinforced the values that I ﬁnd so important in my life and in business today,” said Beanum who served as co-chair of the Honor Committee. “I would not be where I am today without the countless positive inﬂuences of Webb’s teachers and the value system they instilled in me.”

Thatcher Woodley is living in Brooklyn and working at Poly Prep Country Day School. He married Michelle Smart in June, whom he met while attending Union College.

Spring 2011

NewsNotes 2002 • Ben Chen graduated from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service in 2006, with a major in International Economics. He then worked as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong. He’s now in New York working as an associate at the private equity ﬁrm Global Infrastructure Partners. Ben wrote, “Webb is not an easy place. It requires independence, self-discipline and perseverance. But the character-building process is invaluable and like most worthwhile experiences, one can only taste its sweetness in hindsight.”

1999 • Arthur Chang married Jasmine Cheng on January 1, 2011, in Taipei with many Webbies in attendance. The groomsmen were Boris Chang ’00, Shinkun Kim, Matthew Lim, Nirav Shah, and Eric Tzeng. Arthur is involved with his family’s business making automotive electronics, and Jasmine is a pilot for China Airlines ﬂying 747s. Pictured: Shinkun Kim, Anthony Shin, Matt Lim, Eric Tzeng, Kyna Newcomb, Nirav Shah, and Patrick Okamura. Front row: Patty Chen, Jasmine Cheng, Arthur Chang, and Kathy Chen.

Jordan Taylor completed his bachelor’s at Cornell, then received his JD from University of Notre Dame Law School. He is back in Los Angeles working as a clerk and research associate in the LA Superior Court where he’s drafting tentative rulings, proposed opinions, and advisory memoranda.

Nirav Shah got married on June 6, 2009. Lots of Webbies were in attendance. He’s now doing an orthopedic surgery residency in Albany, NY, which goes until 2013.

2000 • Nick Barshick’s company, Chuze Fitness, is planning to open its fifth gym location in the San Diego area; Bonita, specifically. This location joins others in Carlsbad, Santee, Escondido and Mission Valley. Chuze has also launched “Chuze F.I.T.” group classes this year. Aaron Heidari is the new class agent for WSC Class of 2000. He reconnected with classmates at their 10th reunion in October 2010. Aaron is now in Dubai working for a private equity firm and will attend business school when he returns to the US. Mel Tajon organized the 2nd annual Featured Acoustic Playlist benefit concert in San Diego, which showcased some top indie music sensations from YouTube. All proceeds went to the Children’s Hunger Fund.

Former faculty member Greg Lawson shared this photo that he took in April 2010 of Geoff Winssinger, Andrew George and Paul Tipton (also a former Webb teacher). They all took in a game during Spring Training in Arizona. Andrew is an editor for a large entertainment website and living in Los Angeles, and Jeff is in Phoenix, working for a business accounting ﬁrm after ﬁnishing his MBA.

2004 • Kyle Davis-Hammerquist was recently in South Korea teaching English at Peniel High School in Busan. He’s now in Dallas, TX, to resume training in the hammer throw. He hopes to qualify for the national team and compete in the Olympics. During his undergrad at Stanford, Kyle earned a 10th place finish in the hammer throw at the Pac-10 Championships in 2007. Kent Ellis finished his last year at Naropa University in Boulder, CO, graduating with a BA in interdisciplinary studies. His work focused on the intersections between the following fields: psychology, neuroscience, meditation, community building, technology and social media, and peace studies. Stanley Eosakul is a 2nd-year med student at Tufts School of Medicine. He is president of Tuft’s Family Medicine Interest Group and co-president of Tuft’s Anesthesiology Interest Group. George Le is a financial advisor with TD Bank in Boston. He still remembers Mr. Dahler’s crème brulèes.

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Josh Geleris ’03 CEO Edge Targeting On June 5, 2010, Erle Pettus married Bethany Johnson at Amo Methodist Church in Storden, MI. They live in Twentynine Palms, CA. Erle is the Marine Corps, and recently shipped out to Afghanistan.

As the CEO of Edge Targeting, Josh Geleris ’03 has developed transformative technology for political campaigns. Campaigns and Elections Magazine named him one of their 2010 Rising Stars at the Art of Political Campaigning Conference in Washington, DC. He was specifically recognized for developing the mobile phone application, Walking Edge, which uses GPS technology to guide campaign volunteers and field staffers to targeted voters as they walk the streets. Walking Edge has been credited with winning some highlycontested races and has won praise from CNN Politics, FOX Business and The Atlantic just to name a few. Josh created Edge Targeting out of the success of Walking Edge and has worked with campaigns of all sizes, including a few national organizations during the 2010 campaign cycle. In addition to developing new features that will enhance the ability for campaigns to message voters directly, Josh and his team are currently preparing for the 2012 Presidential campaign and preparing for the challenges that a campaign of that size brings. The company is expanding quickly with new products such as Calling Edge and Watcher Edge, a phone bank database and a mobile poll application to check in voters on Election Day respectively. Visit Josh’s website www.edgetargeting.com.

James Withey is in his third year at USC Keck School of Medicine. This year he is hospital bound with clerkships in trauma/surgery, OB/GYN, pediatrics, psych and family medicine. Medical school is intense and rewarding and he is still deciding on a specialty. He says he is still having fun with his Webb friends.

Eric Yeh is a management consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers based out of Madison, WI. He was working in New York when he had dinner with Laura Wensley and Hector Martinez last December.

2005 • Robert Bennett is an associate analyst at Harvard Management Company (HMC) in Boston. HMC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Harvard University which manages the school’s $27.4 billion endowment and provides nearly a third of the university’s operating budget. Robert is grateful to Webb for teaching him the values of hard work and integrity which helped prepare him for a career in finance. John Morgan studied electrical and computer engineering at Olin College in Needham, MA. Now he’s working as a systems engineer in the computer security field. Flying is his biggest hobby. He earned his private airplane license after graduating from Webb. Since moving to Boston he’s earned commercial privileges in airplanes, helicopters, and gliders and learned to fly aerobatics. When not at his engineering job he’s busy managing helicopter operations at a local flight school and working on his helicopter flight instructor certification.

Spring 2011

NewsNotes John Patrick Withey is graduating summa cum laude this May with an MBA at Holy Names University in the Bay Area. He is ﬁnishing a master’s paper on Netﬂix, studying for his LSAT this summer, and pursuing a law internship in a corporate or judicial venue. His goal is to be accepted into Notre Dame Law.

Aaron Harris ’06, Chad Pharnichyakul ’06, Jonathan Veiga ’06, Alex Greening ’06, and Riley Lewis ’07 were part of an alumni panel at Men in the Arena, a day-long symposium held in February. They shared stories with the WSC Class of 2011 about their college experiences.

2008 • Gabe Romero was on the alumni panel for the Honor Symposium in October. Willie Wang is serving on USCs Undergraduate Student Government. He is one of 12 senators for the 2010-2011 school year.

2006 • Brian Gans graduated from USC with a BS in kinesiology.

He’s now working as a clinical research coordinator at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he manages the Complex Genetics Initiative, a study that aims to better understand the relationship between the genetics of the cardiovascular and metabolic phenotypes.

2009 • Michael Gallagher is a Midshipman 4th Class at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. He reports that “all is well here at Canoe U!” He’s studying ocean engineering with a civil engineering focus. He’s on the Varsity Heavyweight Crew, a Division 1 NCAA team, and a member of the Dolphin Club, which raises awareness about submarines. He spent a prep year at the New Mexico Military Institute where he received the Commander Robert R. Zastrow ’52, USNA, Memorial Scholar Athlete Scholarship.

Nick Phelps is at Bentley University in Waltham, MA, working towards an MBA. Jeff Taylor is serving a 3-year stint with the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic. Jeff recently worked at the Alf Museum as an assistant curator where he assisted in managing the museum’s collections by processing loans, accessioning and cataloging specimens, entering locality data, and conducting specimen inventories. Jeff graduated from Harvey Mudd College with a major in physics. Tim Tzeng graduated from Columbia University, and received the Garrett Mattingly Prize, an award given by the History Department for “a senior thesis of superior distinction in any historical ﬁeld and period.” His history thesis entitled, “Eastern Promises: The Role of Eastern Capital in the Development of Los Angeles, 1900-1920,” was a year-long effort. Jack Wiese graduated cum laude with a bachelor of economics degree from Wharton at the University of Pennsylvania. He was a varsity swimmer for UPenn all 4 years, as well as president of the Penn Athletic Association. He helped set the swimming record for the 400 relay, swimming the butterﬂy leg. Jack is now working at comScore, Inc. in San Francisco and invites friends to visit him if they are in the area.

Dylan Sittig is the new class agent for WSC Class of 2009. He is a sophomore at Occidental College and has been named the campus cultural liaison. Dylan promotes and attends classical music events in the LA area and hosts his own show on the Oxy television network online. He recently caught up with Lisette Gracial and other Webbies at the young alumni mixer in Claremont.

2010 • Gabe Bouz is the new class agent for WSC Class of 2010.

Thomas Yu told us that he ﬁnished college playing music all four years and earned a minor in french horn performance.

He is currently in his ﬁrst year of the pre-med program at USC, and he’s joined the Trojan Knights, a school spirit and service organization.

2007 • Josh Lau is at Northwestern University where he’s majoring in

Jacob Rode is at Johns Hopkins University and taking part in many activities. He’s joined the tutoring program Save the Future, which teaches Baltimore high school students about ﬁnancial literacy and gives them basic ﬁnancial advice. He’s also involved with PSA After School Sports, where he travels to underfunded Baltimore elementary schools and runs an afterschool sports program. Jacob is also playing club volleyball.

materials science and engineering. He’s working on a research project for Northrop Grumman that focuses on “modeling failure modes in the interconnects of avionic components used by our Air Force. This will help keep our pilots safe by allowing mechanics to more accurately predict when certain components need to be replaced.” The former KWEBer is still deejaying on the airwaves at Northwestern.

VIVIAN WEBB SCHOOL 1984 • After 5 years as a Webb trustee, Dana Su Lee has stepped down. We are grateful for her many years of service and leadership. Dana is a founder and past president of the Nevada Women’s Philanthropy.

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Jenn Louis ’89 A Taste of Success

VWS SYMPOSIUM Dies Mulieres, March 1, 2011 Alumnae came to campus as part of the Dies Mulieres symposium on March 1, 2011. Kristin Ebbert ’84, Christy Armstrong ’85, Gail Leavitt-Payment ’84, and Coleen Martinez ’86 shared stories of Vivian Webb School’s early days. Dr. Sandra Rebish ’88, a dermatologist with a private practice in Upland, CA, and Brie Widaman ’01, founder of Revolution of Real Women, gave workshops on beauty, self-image, and self-conﬁdence.

1986 • Christine Helmbrecht married Simon Jones in the Vivian Webb Chapel on November 6, 2010. See which classmates attended on pg. 65. Simon and Christine live in Pasadena, CA. Photo credit: James Steinmann ’98

Faye Karnavy Sahai had a busy year with many family adventures that included a trip to Panama with the Earth Train Foundation to help preserve local rainforests, a vacation on the island of Lana’i in Hawaii, and a trip to Australia where they explored Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane and the Barrier Reef. Faye is the executive director of innovation & advanced technology for Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, CA. Pictured: Avanish, Alex, Michelle, and Faye in the Blue Mountains in Australia.

CNN and Food & Wine magazine have recognized Jenn Louis ’89 as one of the Best New Chefs of the Northwest. She’s one of 10 nominees in the Northwest region, all noted chefs who have run their restaurants for ﬁve years or less. Jenn is executive chef and co-owner of Lincoln Restaurant in Portland, OR. Since the restaurant opening she has received two James Beard nominations for Best Chef Northwest, been named one of “Fifty Top New Restaurants In North America” by Conde Naste Traveler, and been noted as a top chef by The Oregonian. She and husband David Welch are opening a new restaurant, Sunshine Tavern, this year. Jenn’s successful catering business, Culinary Artistry, is going on its 12th year. She and David have also made news with their newest program at Lincoln called Bar Camp, where they teach Oregonians the ﬁne art of the American cocktail. Stephen Boyer ’64, his wife Priscilla Butler, and Bob Fass dined at Lincoln in October.

Spring 2011

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Polly Liu ’91 W

hen Polly Liu ’91 was planning her wedding, she scoured dozens of magazines and visited countless vendors in search of the perfect wedding favor. She soon realized that everything looked the same, which gave her an idea. In 2002, out of her own apartment, Polly started the company Beau-coup.com which has quickly grown into a highly successful business with 50 employees to date.

1987 • It doesn’t get much cuter than this. Future Webbie – Melissa Barnes Dholakia and Sanjay Dholakia’s son, Kai, 1 1/2 years old.

“We knew there was a real need online for a one-stop wedding favors shop that oﬀers unique and high quality items,” says Polly, “We also knew how stressful and emotional planning a wedding can be. Beau-coup’s mission is to help make the process a little less stressful, even enjoyable, by oﬀering the most exceptional customer service and an unmatched selection of quality guest favors at competitive prices.” With these principles, Beau-coup has experienced tremendous growth. The site received more than 10 million visits in 2010. The company started out as a wedding favor supplier, and over the last 9 years has grown into a party destination site that sells favors, supplies, gifts and decorations for all of life’s special occasions. In addition to unique items for purchase, the website also has ideas and tips on how to make your event exceptional as well as true stories from other patrons of the site. Polly and her husband, Ed, met at Stanford Business School, and they now live in the San Francisco Bay area with their two children. Visit www.beau-coup.com.

Megan Heinze wrote: “I am a busy mom of three wonderful children – Andrew, 10, Elizabeth, 8, and Spencer, 3 – married to Chris Benecchi, coach girls soccer, lead Girl Scouts, sit on a manufacturing company’s board of directors, and am the senior vice president, North America (NA) One HSBC & Change Delivery Program Management Ofﬁce (PMO). Hence, one of the predictions from the yearbook came true: I am a soccer coach. However, I never thought I would have the longest corporate title. I basically manage the prioritization and resourcing for HSBC North America’s portfolio of information technology and change management projects. Annually, over 400 projects are initiated with total IT, project management and consulting plan spending of $500MM, requiring resourcing of 4800 FTEs. I have worked in Chicago at HSBC, one of the world’s largest banks, for 11 years and would like anyone visiting Chicago to drop me a line at meganheinze@yahoo.com.”

1989 • Last May, Adriana LaCorte Maher organized a visit to the San Diego Wild Animal Park for Webb students in the GREEN Club. Students spent the morning working for the San Diego Zoo’s Institute of Conservation and Research. They collected cactus pads that were used to propagate new cactus as part of a native habitat restoration project. Adriana then took the students behind the scenes to meet some of the animal ambassadors that she uses in her education programs. Among the animals they met were a pair of endangered New Guinea Singing Dogs, an endangered Hyacinth Macaw, and a South African Crested Porcupine named Pocahontas.

1990 • Last year, Lee Lee Choi (Chou) and her family enjoyed the Great Wall of China and a trip to Korea to visit family.

Mackenzie Khristov (Green) is a photo producer at the advertising agency R/GA in New York, and she volunteers with the Junior League. Pictured: Mackenzie met with Laura Wensley from the alumni ofﬁce.

1994 • Renee Polanco has joined the Alumni Council. A graduate of Columbia University, Renee received her masters in education from USC and is currently pursuing her doctorate in special education in a joint program at CSULA and UCLA. Renee works for the LA Uniﬁed School District as an itinerant teacher for deaf and hard of hearing students. Renee says, “I am very excited to join the Alumni Council, as I hope to use this experience as an opportunity to contribute to a special place that was my home for four years; Webb not only helped to set a foundation for my academic and professional endeavors, but it is where I met some of my dearest friends today. For these things, I am grateful to Webb and I look forward to serving our community.”

1992 • Jennifer Steeley (Keagle) is now the chief marketing ofﬁcer at Triple Aught Design, a San Francisco company that produces outdoor apparel and equipment by blending innovation, classic design and modern technology.

1993 • Angèle Fauchier and her husband, Jonah Keri, announced the birth of their twins, Ellis Maxwell Fauchier Keri and Thalia Iraina Fauchier Keri, on October 3, 2009. Angèle conducts psychological research at the University of New Hampshire, and she writes at NofTwo.com about the twins through the lens of child development. Jonah is a sports and business writer whose book, The Extra 2% was published by ESPN Books in March 2011.

1995 • Molly Halligan (Wray) wrote: “Hello Webb friends. I am writing to update you all on my wonderful life in Longmont, CO. I am in my 6th year as a registered nurse at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins. I was promoted to a patient care coordinator on the Women’s Care Unit three years ago. My husband, Jason, works as an analyst with JBS in Greeley. Our son, Oliver, was born on September 18, 2009. We are really enjoying being parents. We travelled back to Webb in May to watch my younger brother, Thomas Wray ’10 graduate.” Spring 2011

NewsNotes

1997 • Ruchika Chandiok Rastogi and her husband, Bobby, are the Sayema Hameed returned to campus on January 16, 2011, to give a Sunday Chapel Talk.

Julie Schaffner is the global marketing brand director for Oakley, which owns several other prominent brands. She is in charge of the Icon Sports Division and travels all over the world for photo shoots, events and product promotion. She is currently in charge of re-launching the sportswear sunglass brand Revo and travelled to the Bahamas for work in December.

1996 • Jarasa Kanok wrote, “I graduated with an MBA from Harvard Business School in 2008, returning to work as a consultant at Monitor Group in Cambridge, MA, where I am specializing in issues of organizational behavior and leadership. My husband, David Cox, is a neuroscientist currently running a visual neuroscience lab at Harvard. Our daughter, Sirisa, just turned 2 this January; we are tickled to see her emerging paleontology skills as she learns to distinguish Stegosaurus from Triceratops and Allosaurus from T-Rex, and we hope to take her to visit the Alf Museum soon.”

Mahta Shafieha is busy juggling school and family life these days. Now in her 8th year of teaching, Mahta is a teacher in the Newport Mesa Unified School District, a job she loves! She is also a happy mom of two girls, Kimia, 4, and Leili, now 18 months. She shared this family photo from Leili’s first birthday. Mahta sends her best to everyone at Webb and she’s looking forward to seeing her classmates at the 15th reunion.

proud parents of twin girls. Shreya and Ashali were born on April 22, 2010, both weighing 5 lbs. 11 oz. Ruchika is now living in Chicago, working at Oliver Wyman as a healthcare consultant. Any Webbies in the Chicago area should feel free to contact her at rchandiok@gmail.com.

1999 • Kathy Chen Liu is married and living in Hong Kong. She left Goldman Sachs last August and has joined RCM (part of Allianz Global Investors) as a senior research analyst looking at Asia, ex-Japan Internet, and telecom sectors. She enjoyed seeing several Webbies at Arthur Chang’s wedding in Taipei in January. See photo on pg. 70. Rita Forte participated in the alumni panel at the Honor Symposium in October. After graduating in 1999, Rita went on to Williams College where she continued to run and break records on their track and ﬁeld team. Since then she has been deejaying, a career that has taken her to BET’s Rap City, Taiwan, The Bahamas, Florida and New York. Rita currently resides in Oakland, CA.

Laura Stanley married Nicholas Hollot at St. James Episcopal Church in New London, CT, in December. Laura works in Philadelphia as the director of annual giving for the Children’s Museum of Philadelphia. She graduated cum laude from Smith College and received a master’s degree in education from the University of Pennsylvania.

Julia Salas Woertink received her PhD in chemistry from Stanford in March 2010. After graduation, she and husband, Jason Woertink ’97, moved to the Boston area, where Julia is now working for The Dow Chemical Company as a senior chemist. “I’m working on electronic materials research and development at the Marlborough, MA, site. Jason and I had identical twin girls a couple of years ago, and they’ll turn three in June. Things have been very busy with the move and our new jobs, but we both enjoy our work and love spending time with the family.” Zohra “Zee” Wolters (Izhar) is working towards her PhD in History from Claremont Graduate School. In March, she took her ﬁnal exams and

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Zohra “Zee” Wolters (Izhar) ’99

has begun writing her dissertation. In her spare time, Zohra helps Webb’s Alumni Ofﬁce catalogue its vast archives and volunteers at HOPE animal shelter.

2001 • Sue Ann Hong married Joseph Gonzalez in August 2010. They are living in Pittsburg, PA.

Zohra Wolters ’99 knows a lot about Webb’s history. She’s spent the past several months surrounded by Webb memorabilia – scrapbooks, yearbooks, photos, videos, diaries and much, much more.

Brie Widaman is the founder of Revolution of Real Women, a global movement advocating the empowerment of females in reclaiming their freedom of individuality, self-esteem and unique beauty. Fueled by Brie’s involvement in various aspects of media relations, the company aims to offer transparency to young women and debunk stereotypes. She has done work with the Dove Real Beauty campaign and was a guest speaker at Webb’s Dies Mulieres symposium in March.

Wolters is a PhD candidate in history at Claremont Graduate University, but in her spare time, she is helping to organize The Webb Schools archives in a professional manner. So far, she has come across President Ronald Reagan’s signature on a program and an autographed photo of Neil Armstrong addressed to Thompson Webb. There are a group of diaries from the 1930s that may have been a class assignment. Chuckling, Zohra relates the contents of one: “A young man who was a junior at Webb wrote in his diary, that he and his friends ‘were going to take over the school.’ He seemed very sure of himself.” While a student at Webb, Zohra says that she was exposed to a variety of opportunities that sparked her curiosity. “I was able to try-out and learn new things,” she said, citing her experience at the Alf Museum, participating in sports (“some of which I never would have dreamed of trying”), acting in plays, and taking as many different types of English courses as she could. After graduating from Scripps College with a degree in psychology, Zohra taught at City of Knowledge, a private school in Pomona. “My teachers were just amazing. When I taught, I pulled from what my Webb teachers taught me – especially the way that our teachers were there for us when we needed them.” At CGU, she’s taken several classes on how to archive materials and has spent many hours in that institution’s archives, she’s also written curriculum for adult basic education at Mt. San Antonio College, and served as a research assistant to Dr. Andre Wakefield, a Pitzer College history professor. Zohra who is interested in pursuing an academic career added, “By helping Dr. Wakefield with his work publishing articles and writing a book I gained insight into what it entails to be a professor.” As for Webb’s archives, Zohra says she hopes her work will be helpful to future users who are conducting research ... or alumni who want to remember their years at a school with a great history all its own.

2002 • Erika Blaska (Torres) is a government affairs assistant at the Irvine Ranch Water District, where she works on government policy, social media outreach, and water conservation efforts. She also celebrated her one-year wedding anniversary to Eric Blaska on April 2. Eric is a pararescuer with the US Air Force. They reside in Newport Beach, CA, with their dog, Bentley.

In October, Emily Carrigan returned from a two-year stint in Japan, where she taught English through the JET program. She enjoyed her time there immensely, and though she’ll miss the friends and places she left behind, she’s happy to be back in the US. She’s now working on a PhD in cognitive science at the University of Connecticut, studying language and the brain. Her research will look at the foundations of language, and the evolution of a newly emerging language in a naturalistic setting in Nicaragua.

Spring 2011

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Dominique Nong ’01

As a staﬀ attorney at the Alabama oﬃce of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Dominique Nong ’01 deals with unfortunate issues facing children on a daily basis. As part of the Children at Risk initiative, she engages in litigation, community outreach, education and mobilization, and legislative advocacy in order to improve the life chances of Alabama’s most vulnerable youth. One of the biggest obstacles that Dominique and her clients face is the so-called “school-to-prison pipeline.” Many children, who are disproportionately African-American and Latino, are being needlessly pushed out of school and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems.

2003 • Briana Curry is the new class agent for VWS 2003. She’s now living in New York and working at a PR ﬁrm. Briana enjoyed reconnecting with Nihar Shah ’04, Sarah Silberg ’04 and Erin Smith at the holiday happy hour last December. Amanda Hedges married Blake Epp in September. Kelsey Dickson ’04 and Lauren Martinez were her bridesmaids. Her husband, Blake, is an administrator for a retirement home in Lincoln City. Amanda graduated from Portland State University, and hopes to pursue a career in counseling. Erin Smith’s study about sports behaviour was noticed by the Wall Street Journal. Erin, a PhD candidate at NYU’s Stern School of Business, co-wrote a paper that shows increased attendance helps teams play well; it’s not just a matter of good teams drawing more fans. Erin’s study, which was published last year in the Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, uses a two-stage regression model to account for a team’s ability, stadium size, and reverse causality (the phenomenon that likely wins might attract more fans). By doing this, she found that a 48% increase in fan attendance makes a baseball team score an extra run every game.

Through her work at SPLC, Dominique has helped to expose these tragedies and make a diﬀerence by, among other things, replacing juvenile detention with community-based alternatives in order to reduce the number of imprisoned children. Since February 2010, she has been working on a case out of Jackson, MS, that uncovered barbaric living conditions and rampant abuse of the inmates by the staﬀ at a youth correctional facility. Dominique began her work at SPLC in September 2009, after earning her law degree from the University of Chicago Law School. Dominique lives in Montgomery, AL, and would welcome any Webbies interested in touring the South and exploring its rich history.

2004 • After graduating from Boston College in 2008, Maddy Black did a work-study program for a couple of years before applying to veterinary school. She is now a ﬁrst-year student at Tufts School of Veterinary Medicine, one of the top veterinary programs in the US, and concurrently working on an MPH at Tufts Medical School.

Mimi Issa has been in Haiti since October, working for the nonprofit organization, HELP (Haitian Education and Leadership Program). She teaches introductory and elementary English to university students, who are on full scholarships, and also maintains a new waste management system that aims to eliminate the students’ waste production by teaching them how to compost, recycle, and live more sustainably. Kate Oakley received an MS in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, San Diego. While pursuing her master’s degree, she was a researcher at the J. Craig Venter Institute. Kate now works as a research associate and lab manager in the UCSD Department of Medicine. Anna Rachlin graduated from Harvard in 2009 with a BA in Molecular and Cellular Biology and a minor in French. She spent a semester at the Sorbonne in Paris working as an assistant researcher at the Pasteur Institute in the Plasticity of the Bacterial Genome Unit. She has also worked as a volunteer researcher designing, organizing, and running a 6-week pilot study on the sleep patterns of Harvard undergraduates. Anna is currently a researcher in the Behavioral Genetics Laboratory at McLean Hospital in Boston, MA, where she studies sex differences in the neurobiology of cocaine addiction. Brittan Smith gave a chapel talk to VWS students at her 5-year reunion. She spoke about the importance of following one’s dreams and reflected upon her time at Webb, difficulties and triumphs at Harvard, and the yearlong journey in South Africa. To hear her Chapel Talk, visit our website.

Last May, Barbara “Nori” Bownds organized a gathering in the Vivian Webb Chapel for friends and family of Lindsay Leonard to mark the 6-month anniversary of Lindsay’s passing. Pictured: Adriana Alejandro, Stan Bownds, Nori Bownds, Steve Sittig, Michelle Lo. Sarah Silberg is living in New York and working as an assistant art director for Condé Naste. She graduated from NYU in 2008. It was nice to see her at the holiday mixer in December.

2005 • Jessica Anand is Webb’s new regional representative in Boston. After graduating from Wellesley, she stayed in the area, and is now working for the law firm Skadden. She welcomes Webbies in the area to contact her. Noreen Bárcena is a second year law student at the University of La Verne College of Law. Last summer she clerked for the LA County District Attorney’s Office. She is currently the president-elect of the University of La Verne’s law student chapter of the Hispanic National Bar Association. Sara Cohen is a first year medical student at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland, OH. She graduated from Barnard College in 2008, with a major in math statistics and a minor in chemistry. Last year, she traveled to Freiburg, Germany, where she worked as a research assistant in a laboratory studying targeted therapies for leukemia. On November 1, 2010, Rebecca Hsia was promoted to 1st Lt. in the military police stationed at Ft. Drum, NY. She served in Iraq in the first half of 2010.

2006 • Jasmin Iskandar graduated from Vassar College with a BA in art history. She then did a summer internship at the LA Municipal Art Gallery in their education and curatorial departments. Currently, she’s taking classes at Art Center College of Design and pursuing a career as an artist, painting large-scale oil paintings which usually depict images of women and scenes of nature. Spring 2011

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Kristen Priddy ’05 On the Campaign Trail

Kristen Priddy ’05 has just experienced her 80

first taste of electoral politics while working for Dr. Ami Bera, a US congressional candidate for the CA-03. “It was intense. We had a very large district that stretched from Sacramento all the way to the Nevada border. That’s a lot of ground to cover and a lot of different voters contained within the district.” Kristen’s job was that of a field organizer and her duties made her responsible for volunteer recruitment and voter mobilization on Election Day. Kristen was hired through the League of Conservation Voters. The Bera campaign had no financial support from the national party, and relied on grassroots organizations to fill in the gaps. She made phone calls, knocked on doors and oversaw the phone bank staff, and when Election Day came, managed over 3,500 volunteers working on the campaign. Kristen graduated from the University of Southern California with a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and English. She’s recently joined the 2011 Herrero for Mayor campaign as an organizer.

Heidi Marti is working in the Alumni Ofﬁce as an advancement fellow and helping to reach alumni through online networks, regional events, and volunteer programs. Heidi graduated from Davidson College last May with a BA in religion.

2007 • Samantha Ainsley is a 2010 recipient of Google’s Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship, one of the most prestigious scholarships in engineering. Samantha, a student at Columbia University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, received a $10,000 award for the 2010-2011 academic year and she attended a summer retreat at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, CA. Samantha writes, “I am the ﬁrst Columbia student to win the scholarship in the seven years it has been offered. I am majoring in computer science with a focus in vision and graphics and a minor in art history. My dream is to work in 3D animation.” Last summer Lilly Amirhekmat interned at Goldman Sachs. She is a math major at Bryn Mawr College and loving it; she says it is thanks to the wonderful education and encouragement she received at Webb. Christina Herring continues her winning streak with the Lewis & Clark Pioneers. A starter since sophomore year, the 5’6” guard has helped lead the women’s basketball team to ﬁrst place in their Northwest Conference. The team is now ranked among the best in the NCAA Division III West Region.

Samina Lutfeali and Asaama Midley joined Webb staff for dinner in Chicago recently. Both are in their ﬁnal year at University of Chicago. Samina is doing a double major in economics and biology. Asaama is an anthropology major.

2010 • Stephanie Black is the class agent for VWS 2010. She is a freshman at the University of Texas at Austin and is very excited to stay connected to her classmates and Webb. Lucy Herrero is the ﬁrst Webb student to be the principal author on a peer-reviewed article for a research journal. Museum Curator Dr. Andy Farke mentored Lucy during her junior and senior years at Webb, and she excelled. Lucy is a freshman at Stanford University. To read her article which appeared in PalArch’s Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, visit our website. Elle Markell wrote: “Wesleyan has been amazing and my ﬁrst semester went smoothly. I’m doing a lot here: copy editing the school newspaper, working events sponsored by the English Department, tutoring local kids, and a lot more.”

For the past two summers, Michelle Pastrano has visited Israel to excavate artifacts from the biblical site of Megiddo. On her last 7-week stay, Michelle uncovered several ovens called tabuns from the Late Bronze Age to the early Iron Age, as well as pottery, wall fragments, oil lamps and animal bones. She also explored many of Israel’s most famous sites. Michelle is in her senior year at Lycoming University where she is double majoring in sociology and archeology of the Ancient Near East.

2008 • Last summer, Christina Duron and Webb teacher Juli James embarked on a remarkable 23-day expedition to northern India. Read about their adventure at www.webb.org/readmore. Cynthia Ip is a member of the Undergraduate Assembly, known as “the College,” representing the School of Arts and Sciences at University of Pennsylvania. Cynthia was appointed to the 5-member executive committee where she serves as secretary. Of UPenn’s four schools, the other three being Wharton, Engineering, and Nursing, the College is by far the largest with more than 6,300 students. Cynthia ran against 22 other candidates and was one of 16 students elected to the Undergraduate Assembly.

Juli Nokleberg is the ﬁrst VWS alumna to attend the US Air Force Academy. She’s taking a strenuous 6-course semester load and fencing for the NCAA Division I team. She practices 5 days a week for 3 to 4 hours a day, and travels most weekends to compete in national tournaments. She was recently in Dallas, TX, for the North American Cup, and soon she’ll be in Notre Dame, IN, for an NCAA meet. Juli loves serving her country and feels honored to be a part of the Air Force family. Tami Schonfeld is enjoying freshman year at Boston College. She’s doing a double major of elementary education and human development in the School of Education, and keeping busy with service activities, undergrad government, and admission greeting. She misses Webb and the warm weather.

2009 • Makhala Greene-Robinson is serving on USCs Undergraduate Student Government. She is one of 12 senators for the 2010-2011 school year. Lexington Henn is the new class agent for VWS Class of 2009. She is a sophomore in the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, majoring in Finance and International Business and is a member of Alpha Kappa Psi, a co-ed professional business fraternity. She holds the position of chairman of fundraising and was awarded brother of the semester for fall of 2010. Last year, she played women’s rugby for Georgetown and continues to be involved with Relay for Life, Georgetown’s largest fundraiser for cancer.

Spring 2011

In Memoriam

A celebration of life

F o r m e r Tr u s t e e

F o r m e r Fa c u lt y & S ta f f

David Alexander

Robert “Bob” Connolly passed away on April 18, 2010, at the age of 80. He died peacefully surrounded by family. Bob, along with his wife, Sylvia, taught in Webb’s math department from 1982 to 1991 and lived on campus. He is the father of WSC alumnus Robert ’89 and VWS alumnae Sara ’90 and Veronica ’93. During his nearly 10 years at Webb, Bob touched the lives of many students. Brookie Best ’90 wrote, “Mr. Connolly touched my life (I use calculus to this day in my work), and I have very fond memories of his eﬀectiveness and enthusiasm as a teacher. I’ll never forget his demonstration of limits by walking halfway to the wall, and halfway again, and again, etc. I am grateful to have known him, and send my condolences to his family.”

Past Parent, Trustee of The Webb Schools and President Emeritus of Pomona College John David Alexander, former president of Pomona College and a stalwart supporter of The Webb Schools, died Sunday, July 25, 2010, in Claremont. He was 77.

Alexander served on The Webb Schools Board of Trustees from 1971 to 1972, and again, from 1995 to 2005. His insight as a college president and school leader helped the board devise a strategic plan, Direction for the Future, which revitalized the school’s boarding programs. He also helped guide the board through the successful Building Character campaign 1995-1999, which surpassed all expectations when it raised more than $21 million. During his tenure as president of Pomona College, from 1969 to 1991, Pomona’s endowment increased from $24 million to $296 million, faculty grew from 130 to 156, 15 major buildings were built, and the ethnic diversity of the student body increased significantly. For 17 years—from 1981 to 1998—Alexander, a Rhodes Scholar himself, also oversaw the selection of Rhodes Scholars from the United States. He was the author of “The American Scholarships” in The History of the Rhodes Trust and served as the editor of the American Oxonian, the magazine of the Associations of American Rhodes Scholars. For his service to Oxford, he was decorated Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1998 and two years later, named a Distinguished Friend of Oxford University. Alexander was also the 16th president of Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, from 1965 to 1969. He was the first alumnus to serve as Rhodes president, and at age 33 at the time, the youngest sitting president of an American college. His children are John Alexander ’78 and Julia MarciariAlexander ’85. He is also survived by his wife, Catharine Coleman Alexander of Claremont, another daughter, Kitty Alexander, and five grandchildren.

Many of you may remember Pat Sullivan who tirelessly worked in Webb’s business oﬃce from 1974 to 1991. She passed away on January 26, 2011 with her friends, Clara Soto Ivey, Mimi Pauwels and Clare Troxell by her side. Kathy Simon (Hasse) wrote: “I have wonderful memories of Pat and of our great lunchtime conversations around the large, round faculty table in Price Dining Hall, about ﬁlms, books, and PBS miniseries, notably The Jewel in The Crown. Pat and I shared a love of our Irish heritage and of Democratic politics—we always had a lively conversation about elections, candidates, campaigns, policies, and people.” She will be missed by her many friends and family.

eﬀectiveness of anti-aircraft weapons. In 1965, Jack became a member of the Joint Science Department of Claremont McKenna, Scripps, and Pitzer Colleges, where he taught courses such as Science and Human Values, Environmental Issues and Physics. Jack’s father, Earl “Fuzz” Merritt, was a football coach at Pomona College, and had the pleasure of coaching Jack there; and he also helped Les Perry with Webb varsity teams during the 1970s. Since Jack lived nearby, we enjoyed his frequent visits to campus, whether it was to give a Chapel Talk, attend Alumni Day, or to speak to students about honor and ethics.

Christopher Trussell directed Webb’s Fine Arts Program from 1967 to 1985. Janel Henriksen Hastings ’87 remembers him as “a gentleman through and through. He expected and demanded the very best of his students. Of all of the teachers at Webb who impacted me so positively, Mr. Trussell was second to none. He instilled in me my life-long love of the state and of music.” During his time, he founded the Claremont Boys Choir, Claremont Girls Choir, and many other musical groups that are still in existence today. In 1985, he moved to Washington where he eventually earned two master’s degrees in religious studies and spirituality. In 1992, Christopher became an ordained Catholic priest. After his ordination to the priesthood for the Diocese of St. Cloud, Christopher taught at the Cathedral High School in St. Cloud, MN. Three years ago, Christopher was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. On November 11, 2010, he passed away after suﬀering a stroke brought on by his illness. He is survived by a son, Gavin Trussell, and two grandchildren, Alexander and Abigail. A detailed obituary, written by Clare Troxell and Cameron Troxell ’80, is on the website. Visit the Alumni Spotlight blog to share or read comments. www.webb.org/spotlight

a Webb School of California

1935 Jack Merritt ’35 died on August 11, 2010. He was 92. At the time, Jack lived with his son, Mark Merritt ’74 in Claremont. He received a bachelor’s degree from Pomona College and a PhD from UC Berkeley. He worked for a government regulatory agency for nuclear weapons and dedicated 20 years to “trying to save the world” through regulation and research. During WWII, he was a research project oﬃcer in the Bureau of Ordinance with the US Navy and was awarded a commendation ribbon for helping develop a radar device that added to the

1936 Charles Gedney Barclay ’36 died June 29, 2010, at the age of 90. He attended the University of Washington and the University of Oregon Medical School. He served as a naval oﬃcer in WWII and the Korean War. He practiced medicine in Coeur d’Alene, ID, for more than 40 years. Dr. Ged, as he was known, also served with Hope Ship, where he shared medical training with Peruvian doctors and treated Peruvians who had no medical services available.

1937 Richard “Dick” P. Ament ’37 died on December 19, 2009

in Chelsea, MI. He was 90. Dick grew up in Claremont and attended Pomona College and UCLA. He was a meteorologist at Westover Field, MA, during WWII. He received a math degree from Cornell University and a master’s from University of Michigan. He worked as a statistician for the Commission on Professional and Hospital Activities in Ann Arbor for most of his career. Dick loved classical music; he was a concertgoer, pianist and composer. He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Naomi Ament, and many family members. Chester “Terry” C. d’Autremont ’37 died on December 6, 2008, after a battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 88. His wife of 63 years, Ruth, died in October 2009. Terry attended Harvard University and Harvard Medical School, where he trained in neurology and child psychiatry, and he worked at Boston Children’s Hospital. Terry volunteered with his church, Harvard Medical School, Decordova Museum, and the Walker Home where he helped improve residential treatment for mentally ill children. He was fond of Webb and stayed connected by attending reunions, regional events and lunches with Susan Nelson whenever she visited. Terry and Ruth are survived by their ﬁve children.

Spring 2011

In Memoriam

A celebration of life

1939 his wife of 53 years, Marilyn. He is survived by his sister, Barbara Hager of Mt. San Antonio Gardens, where John lived as well; and his ﬁve children.

Alexander D. Thorburn ’42 died on July 8, 2010 at the age of 85. Alex was a loyal Webb donor and volunteer for over 5 decades. He served as a Class Agent, Alumni Association Vice President and Alumni Fund Chairman. After graduating from Pomona College; he worked for Hughes Aircraft and retired in 1992. Alex enjoyed ﬁshing, golf and gardening and his Webb friendships, such as the one he and Al Hastings shared.

William “Bill” R. Webb IV ’39 passed away on November 6,

2010. He was 89. Bill was the third, and last surviving, of Vivian and Thompson Webb’s four sons including Thompson Jr. ’35, Howell ’35, and John (Jack) ’41. Bill was one of several namesakes of his paternal grandfather, William “Sawney” Webb. In addition to following in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps and making one of his careers as a teacher and administrator, Bill was the owner and operator of Westcott Bay Sea Farms on San Juan Island. He was born on August 26, 1921, a year before his father, Thompson, founded Webb School of California in Claremont. Bill always thought fondly of and returned many times to the Webb campus that had been his home for so many years. He continued to attend Alumni Day and Peccary Society celebrations until his health prevented him from taking long trips from his home in Seattle. Bill remained good friends with classmates including Art Clokey ’39, Ted Middleton ’39 and Dick Strathmann ’59, and with his teachers. Bill’s wife and business partner Doree passed away in 1992. Bill is survived by four daughters, Robin Bleeker, Nancy Webb, Joanne Webb and Sally Webb; grandchildren Cassidy Bleeker, Madeline and Liam (William) Cole and three great grandchildren.

1942 “Everybody liked him and he liked everybody.” This was a tribute from a friend of John L. Ilsley ’42, who died on August 12, 2010. He was 86. John was born in Calais, ME, but grew up in Claremont. He attended Colby College, received his MD at the University of Rochester, then completed his internship and residency at Baltimore City Hospital. He returned to Claremont where he practiced medicine for the next 50 years. Commissioned as an oﬃcer in the California National Guard in 1952, he rose to the rank of Colonel and served as Division Surgeon for 10 years. He also served on the Pilgrim Place Corporation for 20 years, and as a physician and board member at Claremont Manor. He was active with Claremont’s Rotary Club and maintained perfect attendance for 54 years. He also volunteered medical services at Webb and Claremont High for 20 years. John was predeceased by

We recently learned that John J. Wertheimer ’42 died on June 9, 2006. He was 81. He served in the Army Air Force during WWII, then graduated from Georgetown University and attended graduate school at the University of Maryland. He was a stockbroker and enjoyed attending events at the University of Maryland where he was a member of the Terrapin Club. After retiring, he volunteered with the American Red Cross and participated in disaster relief eﬀorts. In 2000, he moved from the Washington, DC area to Corona, CA. John is survived by his wife Kathleen, a son, and two grandchildren.

1943

Louis Fleming ’43 died on March 27, 2011. Lou was one of the Los Angeles Times’ ﬁrst foreign correspondents and established bureaus for the newspaper at the United Nations and in Rome. He covered the 1978 deaths of Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul I. At Webb Lou was co-editor of the Blue & Gold, operator of the LBF broadcasting station, and a school news and sports announcer. He received a BA from Stanford and developed his career at the San Gabriel Sun, Pomona Progress-Bulletin and Pasadena Star-News. In 1971 he was named chief editorial writer of The Times. He is the co-author of Children of the Atomic Bomb: An American Physician’s Memoir of Nagasaki, Hiroshima and the Marshall Islands. Lou is survived by his wife of 63 years Jean, his brother John Fleming ’43, and four children.

1944 Frank C. Dazey ’44 died on April 1, 2008. At Webb he was known for his easy-going manner and ready smile. He lettered in track for two years and played varsity football. Frank graduated from the California Maritime Academy. He began his career as an advertising artist and throughout his life he wrote, illustrated and produced many books and magazine articles. Frank often told us how much he valued his Webb experience and how Gordon Wilson and Glenn Vedder opened intellectual realms in writing and science. He was the father of three children.

1947 G. Bradford Parker ’44 died on February 9, 2008.

Robert “Tony” S. Wright ’47 passed away on May 25, 2010.

Brad had polio at the age of 2, which left him without the use of his legs. Nonetheless, he crossed the Sierras on horseback, swam religiously, traveled Europe, and explored back roads in the US, Canada and Mexico in his hand control equipped Jeep. He became acquainted with Franklin Roosevelt while at the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation in the 1930s (and played with FDR on his “Water Polio Team”). He attended Pomona College and worked 35 years as a reporter, copy editor, and city editor for the Monterey Herald.

Tony taught elementary school in Bristol, CT, for 25 years and retired in 1992. He was active with the Episcopal Church as an organist and choirmaster. When he suﬀered a stroke in 1995, Tony moved to Wahiawa, HI, to live with his daughter, Caroline. Roland Joslyn ’47 remembered this about his classmate: “Tony and I took piano lessons from Lee Pattison, professor of music at Scripps College. Tony loved the piano and practiced much more diligently than I, although I think I was better at it than he. I met Tony at several reunions and I was happy that he continued with music; it was so much a part of him. But beyond that, Tony was a kind soul, a genuinely nice fellow.”

1945 Reese Hale Taylor Jr. ’45 died peacefully April 16, 2010, in Las Vegas, with family at his side. He was 81. Reese attended Stanford University, where he received his BA with distinction. He graduated from Cornell University Law School in 1952 and became a member of the Order of the Coif. During his distinguished career as an attorney and public servant, Reese worked tirelessly promoting fair and equitable policies specializing in the areas of labor, public utilities and transportation. He began his career in Los Angeles with the firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Upon his move to Nevada, he practiced with Wiener, Goldwater and Galatz of Las Vegas, chaired the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada in Carson City, and later served as a partner in the law firm of Laxalt, Berry and Allison of Carson City. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan appointed Reese chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission, where he served until 1985. Returning to California, Reese practiced with the law firm of Keesal, Young and Logan of Long Beach until retirement. He was an active Republican and served as the 1976 Nevada chairman of Citizens for Reagan, Nevada delegate to the Republican National Convention, 1980 Nevada chairman of the Reagan for President Committee, and the 1980/1981 Republican National Committeeman for Nevada. Reese is survived by his wife of 39 years, Jolene; his sister; two daughters, and three sons. He is predeceased by his sons, Reese Hale Taylor III and Curtis Taylor; and brothers, Waller Taylor ’43, Frank Taylor ’50 and James Marshall Taylor ’66.

1946

1949 Lloyd Aubert, Jr. ’49 died on November 16, 2010. At Webb Lloyd was an avid member of the Camera Club, a member of the football team, and a writer for the Blue and Gold newspaper. He also loved the great outdoors, and participated in hunting, camping, and sailing. He attended USC where he met his wife and joined the Beta Theta Pi Fraternity. In 1960, Lloyd began working at Bank of California where he served in a variety of managerial and credit positions. In 1976, Lloyd bought a small food processing company, Mele-Koi, which produced a host of popular cocktail mixtures. He expanded his entrepreneurial ventures and raised cattle in southwest Colorado for 15 years. Lloyd was actively involved with the United Way, Girl Scout Council of Orange County and the Assessment and Treatment Services Center. He is survied by his wife, two daughters, and ﬁve grandchildren.

We just learned that Edward D. Titus ’49, president of the Southern California Psychiatric Society died on June 23, 2003. Until his retirement in 2001, Edward was chief psychiatrist at Parole Outpatient Clinic, Region III California Department of Corrections. For 25 years prior to that, he had been a partner in the Hacker Clinic in Beverly Hills and Lynwood. Edward is survived by his wife, Catherine.

1951 The Webb community was saddened by the death of

Edward “Ned” N. Chapman, Jr. ’46 passed away on

William B. “Bill” Blanchard ’51 on June 29, 2010.

December 13, 2009. Ned enlivened the Webb campus with his ready smile and his music, and he was often heard playing the organ, piano, or cello at any hour. Ned distinguished himself in the choir and on the tennis court, and manned the counter as a waiter in the dining hall. Ned attended Yale University and pursued music. He later moved to New York and studied with the famous Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau. For many years he lived in Brooklyn and owned and operated a bookstore.

Bill died after his vehicle was struck during a high-speed police chase in Upland, CA. Bill was captain of Webb’s track team, a member of the Drama Club and C.S.F., but he was most famous for his musical abilities which included writing and directing the scores for two school musicals, For Land’s Sake and Well Why Not, written by Webb master John Pettley. He attended Pomona College and the Eastman School of Music. He directed the Webb choir and Glee Club for six years, and

Spring 2011

In Memoriam

A celebration of life 1954

was a member of the Army band in Korea. Later he taught music and math at Chaffey College for 28 years. In 1971 he received his flying credentials at Cable Airport in Upland, CA, and eventually became a flight instructor and Chairman of the Safety Committee. His love of music continued with the Bill Blanchard’s Little Big Band and the Ontario/Chaffey Community Show Band. In 1986, the Blanchard family donated the William G. Blanchard Memorial Organ to the Vivian Webb Chapel. Bill is survived by his mother, his wife Arlene, his two sisters, and five children.

Richard “Dick” M. Estes ’51 passed away peacefully on

March 2, 2010 at the age of 76. At Webb, Dick was feature editor for Blue and Gold, secretary of the Debating Society, a Block W member and Honor Committeeman. He won two letters as a varsity fullback and three as a distance runner. It was said that his phenomenal alto sax disrupted the sleep of many a ’Moite and gave him membership in Bill Blanchard’s Musikats! Dick had a deep love for his Webb teachers and Thompson Webb in particular. He received a BA from Yale, LLB from Columbia and LLM from New York University. He served in the US Army as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Artillery. He was a founding partner of Christy & Viener and worked there for almost 29 years. He went on to become counsel for Warshaw Burstein Cohen Schlesinger & Kuh, LLP before retiring in 2008. He was a founding trustee and staunch supporter of the NYC Police Foundation. Dick is survived by his wife, Pamela and three children. Dick and his wife hosted a number of New York receptions for Webb and had fond memories for his alma mater.

1952 Robert “Bob” Potter ’52 died on July 11, 2010. He attended

Trowbridge “Toby” W. Kirk ’54 passed away on January 1, 2010 in Rancho Mirage, CA. He leaves behind two sons and a daughter. At Webb, Toby lettered two years in football and basketball and three years in baseball. He was captain of the baseball team in his senior year and All-League for three years. He won the school badminton tournament four years in a row and played against Les Perry often. He was vice president of the Glee Club and circulation manager of the Blue and Gold. Toby owned his own manufacturing company for 35 years. He split his time between Rancho Mirage and Lake Arrowhead and was a life member of the Lake Arrowhead Yacht Club. Toby once told us that Webb was the foundation for his success and happiness in life. In honor of his 50th reunion, he established the Trowbridge W. Kirk ’54 Scholarship Fund. He wrote, “Webb gave me so much to make life better. It is a pleasure to give a little bit back to Webb. Time goes so fast— today I am 65. Yesterday, it seems, I was at Webb.”

1958

Pomona College and Claremont Graduate University. Bob taught at University of California Santa Barbara for 36 years, retiring in 2001. As a proliﬁc playwright, his 30-plus works stretched from Where Is Sicily? in 1969 to The Last Days of Empire in 2008. Family and close friends will soon publish a volume of his favorite pieces entitled Six Plays. In 2007, Bob and his wife became involved in the Obama campaign, organizing a rally in Santa Barbara that drew more than 16,000 people. He is survived by his wife, Ellen Anderson, his ﬁve children, a step-daughter and brother.

Gary L. Quiggle ’58 died on September 16, 2010. Gary was involved with almost every activity at Webb: business manager for El Espejo, manager of the soccer team, and charter member of the Trap Club. He was an ardent debater in the Lincoln Debating Society and years later arranged for the top two debate teams from University of Redlands (where he earned his BA) to put on an exhibition debate for Webb students. After

1993 graduation, he continued to go on several summer trips with Ray Alf. He worked for the California Employment Development Department for 36 years, and was inﬂuential in establishing legislation and training programs for veterans. He organized the annual Long Beach Stand Down events and was honored by US Small Business as Veterans’ Advocate of the Year in 1999. He was on the Board of Conservation Corps of Long Beach, and was active in raising funds for families of deployed National Guard and Reservists. Gary was a loyal alumnus and supporter of the Alf Museum. He attended peccary dinners, reunions, and the 2008 campaign kick-oﬀ dinner. He lived in Newport Beach, CA and is survived by his wife of 38 years, Bonnie.

1959 Sterling W. Kingsley ’59 passed away in his sleep on November 17, 2010. He was 69. Sterling only attended Webb for a year. He attended USC and USC law school during the 1960s. At the time of his death, he was living in Gardnerville, NV, after a successful career as owner of an aluminum anodizing company in the Pomona Valley. He also managed an industrial park in Pomona, CA. Sterling enjoyed hunting, ﬁshing, and the outdoor life. He was a lifelong bachelor and is survived by his brother, Sherwood Kingsley ’58.

1977 Darren Callaway ’77 passed away on April 28, 2010 at Pomona Valley Hospital following a sudden illness. He was 51. He was the fourth generation member of his family to own and manage F & H Tire Company in Pomona, which was founded in the early 1930s by Darren’s great-grandfather. Darren is survived by his wife, Lorraine, his sons, David and Steven, and three grandchildren.

David R. Lewis ’93 died on June 24, 2010. He was 36. David was a dedicated alumnus and recently took part in Sophomore Career Evening, where he spoke to students about careers in development and real estate. He was a member of the football and wrestling teams, worked on El Espejo, attended peccary trips, and was a member of the Cum Laude Society. David attended UCLA graduating cum laude with a BA in business economics and accounting. He received a master’s in real estate development from USC. David was a VP at the Lewis Group of Companies, a board member of the Baldy View Chapter of the Building Industry of America, and a member of the Urban Land Institute. David is survived by his wife Rachel, son Ralph, mother Laurie Petras, father Richard, stepmother Rebecca, and sister Jennifer ’90.

1997

1985 Lionell Dozier III ’85 died on November 15, 2009 at the age of 42. After graduating from Webb, Lionel went to Tufts University and then worked at LaunchPad Communications supervising sales. Both at school and at work Lionell was known for his smile, perpetually motivating positive attitude, and unequalled style. Lionell’s friends valued his input as well as being around his joyous demeanor. He is deeply missed by those who were fortunate enough to have met him.

Mark D. Vinson ’97 passed away on July 7, 2010 after a long battle with colon cancer. He was 31. Mark is survived by his parents, Don and Virginia Vinson, and his sister Katie. Mark came to Webb in his junior year. He was a boarder in Jameson and Holt, a member of the track and ﬁeld team, and a drummer for Godspell. Mark studied communications and business at Tulane University, and then received an MBA in International Business from Peking University. Last October a group of Mark’s friends ran the New Orleans Half Marathon in his honor to raise money for the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where he was treated.

a Spring 2011

Final Word by Taylor Stockdale

Daughter Strong

ach year, The Daughters Strong Award is given to a member of the Vivian Webb School graduating class who, throughout her career at the school, has demonstrated a genuine love of the school and a commitment to the values exempliﬁed in the school’s motto Sapientia, Amicitia, atque Honor—Wisdom, Friendship, and Honor. When I consider those words—wisdom, friendship and honor—I am immediately struck by the fact that they have most been epitomized at Webb by one extraordinary woman: Susan Nelson. By now, we all know Susan’s remarkable legacy and I have been fortunate to work with her, and learn from her, in many of these endeavors. I look back in awe of her accomplishments, and I remember how she has been so beloved by students from the beginning of her time on campus. She is the only person I can remember who has had an El Espejo yearbook dedication in her ﬁrst year of service to the school.

Susan and I started at Webb in the summer of 1988, she as Headmistress of Vivian Webb School, and I as a member of the faculty. Susan settled into the Longley House with her husband Jeff, and their two young sons, Max ’95 and Damien ’97, and I moved into the small apartment below the Webb House. From there, we each forged our own Webb paths given our respective positions, but we shared a vision of what this place could be, and how we might take even better advantage of Webb’s distinctive qualities as a top-notch boarding school community. After several years, the Nelson family moved into the home at the top of the hill, and the Stockdale family (grown to include my wife Anne, and our children Bailey ’11 and Claire ’14) moved into the Sharpe Home, right next door. We’ve been next-door neighbors for more than 15 years. As I reflect on Susan’s time at Webb, I find myself not only considering how well she has represented the office once occupied by Thompson Webb, but also, how she has influenced my life as a mentor and friend. Many of my fondest memories of Susan are of her as a mother and a daughter. As a mom, her living room was always busy with her sons and their friends. As young parents ourselves, Anne and I observed firsthand what good, loving parents should be: thoughtful, dedicated and encouraging. Susan and Jeff never pushed their children into roles or toward a specific direction; instead, they encouraged each of their sons to find his own path, as each of them has done, quite successfully. As a daughter, Susan demonstrated the same love and thoughtfulness. I will never forget the year Susan brought her ailing mother to California from New York so that she could spend her final days being cared for by Jeff and Susan in their campus home. Susan’s mom died within days of a Webb graduation several years ago; you probably don’t remember

it, and that’s because through tremendous strength and a commitment to having the day focused on the senior class, Susan managed her way through two ceremonies, and board meetings. Despite her personal grief, she set an example that fully demonstrated her inner strength as a person and her devotion to the students. As a mother and daughter, Susan exemplifies our school’s mission and motto, and her partnership with Jeff has provided her with the bedrock of support needed to function at such a high level for such a long period of time. Though Jeff has his own work as Director of Athletics at Foothill Country Day School, we have all seen him on the sidelines of Webb events supporting the Gauls. He has also been there, by Susan’s side, and by extension, the side of the school, through literally hundreds of contests, formal dinners, ceremonies and countless events. I have also seen him step in at the right moment to protect and care for Susan as she performs her myriad responsibilities as Head of Schools. Susan’s strength as a person and as a leader is extraordinary. In my work with her throughout the years, I have had an opportunity to witness the behind-the-scenes efforts that make her tireless work on behalf of Webb so effective. I remember her long meetings with board members in Los Angeles followed by an equally challenging parent or faculty meeting late into the evening. The scope of her labors is incredible. She has logged literally hundreds of thousands of miles of travel to meet with alumni, parents and friends of The Webb Schools in her efforts to promote the institution, its mission and good works. She has represented the school vigorously and brought new, and well-deserved, recognition from the global community. And amid all of these competing priorities, when a faculty or staff member asks that famous question, “do you have a minute?” Susan always has had the time not only to listen, but to have a real conversation. She looks a person directly in the eyes and conveys a strong level of attentiveness to issues, whether she is attending to personal or professional exchanges. Quite simply, at Webb, Susan found the perfect working balance for all the aspects of her life, from faculty meetings to chapel talks, from alumni receptions to teaching class, from cheering on the Gauls, to being a loving wife and mom. And, she has done it all with remarkable grace and thoughtfulness. She always left us—her family, her colleagues and the Webb community—with the feeling that at the end of the day, everything would be okay. Susan Nelson has been a true “daughter strong”—and as the incoming Head of Schools, I am deeply grateful for her mentorship, humbled by her legacy, and motivated to build upon her leadership and vision.

Calendar & Credits

Embrace your inner social butterﬂy. Staying connected with The Webb Schools is easier than ever before. Read, see and hear the latest student and Aﬃliate programs and happenings. Check on NewsNotes and alumni information. Or just check in and let us, and the whole Webb family, know what you’ve been up to. And there’s always www.webb.org for complete Webb information.

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CALENDAR Commencement

May 28, 2011

2011-12 Orientation International Students New Students All Students

August 19, 2011 August 20, 2011 August 21-22, 2011

Parents’ Weekend

October 7-8, 2011

19th Annual Peccary Dinner

October 21, 2011

Alumni Weekend

October 21-22, 2011

Reunions for the 50-Plus Club and Classes of ’61, ’66, ’71, ’76, ’81, ’86, ’91, ’96, ’01, and 2006

Editor Vivian Pradetto Marketing Coordinator Writer Debbie Carini Contributors Andy Farke, Don Lofgren, Danielle Mantooth, Aaron Severson, Laura Wensley Design Michael Stewart • Stewart Creative Photography Phil Channing, Andrew Farke, Linda Lewis, Don Lofgren, Scott Nichols, Nancy Newman, Vivian Pradetto, Jim Simmons Printing Dual Graphics Nondiscrimination Policy The Webb Schools admit students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the schools. The Webb Schools do not discriminate on the basis of race, national and ethnic origin in the administration of their educational policies, admission policies, ﬁnancial aid and loan programs, athletic programs and other school-administered programs or any other basis in law. Memberships National Association of Independent Schools; the Western Association of Schools and Colleges; Boy’s Schools: An International Coalition; the National Coalition of Girls Schools; the California Association of Independent Schools; the College Entrance Examination Board; the Educational Records Bureau; the National Association of College Admissions Counselors; the Council for Basic Education; the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education; the Council for Religion in Independent Schools; National Association of Principals of Schools for Girls; and the Cum Laude Society. Publication Information Webb magazine is the ofﬁcial publication of Webb School of California, Vivian Webb School, and the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology. Published for families, friends, and alumni by The Webb Schools. Postmaster: Send address changes to: The Webb Schools 1175 West Baseline Road Claremont, CA 91711 (909) 626-3587 / FAX (909) 621-4582 email: alumni@webb.org www.webb.org

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Alumni Weekend 2011 October 21 & 22