WEBB Magazine Summer 2012 edition

WEBB MAGAZINE Summer 2012

Innovators, Disruptors, & Entrepreneurs Webb Alumni Shaping the 21st Century

Matriculation List

Bard College, NY Barnard College, NY (3) Boston College, MA (5) Boston University, MA (3) Bowdoin College, ME Brown University, RI Bryn Mawr College, PA (2) California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, CA Carleton College, MN (2) Carnegie Mellon University, PA (2) Chapman University, CA Colgate University, NY Columbia University, NY Cornell University, NY (5) Davidson College, NC Duke University, NC Florida Atlantic University, FL Fordham University, NY George Washington University, DC

Georgetown University, DC (3) Harvard University, MA (2) High Point University, NC Johns Hopkins University, MD Kenyon College, OH Loyola Marymount University, CA McGill University, Canada Mills College, CA New York University, NY (4) Northwestern University, IL (2) Occidental College, CA (3) Pepperdine University, CA Pitzer College, CA Pomona College, CA (3) Rhode Island School of Design, RI Sciences Po-Columbia University, France/NY Scripps College, CA Skidmore College, NY Smith College, MA Southern Methodist University, TX (3)

congratulations class of

Stanford University, CA Trinity University, TX Tulane University, LA (2) University of California, Berkeley, CA (3) University of California, Los Angeles, CA (3) University of California, Merced, CA University of California, San Diego, CA (3) University of Glasgow, Scotland University of Michigan, MI University of Missouri - Kansas City, MO University of Notre Dame, IN University of Redlands, CA (3) University of Richmond, VA (2) University of San Diego, CA University of San Francisco, CA University of Southern California, CA (8) Vassar College, NY Washington University in St. Louis, MO Wellesley College, MA (5) Willamette University, OR

2012

WEBB

A D M I N I S T R AT I O N Taylor B. Stockdale Head of Schools Peter Bartlett Director of Student Life

MAGAZINE

Summer 2012

Donald, L. Lofgren, PhD Director, Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology Leo G. Marshall Director of Admission and Financial Aid Hector Martinez Director of College Guidance

FEATURES

2 4 12

From the Head of Schools Innovators, Disruptors, & Entrepreneurs Living in the Webb

WEBB TODAY

18 20 22 24 26 30 31 32 33

Al Alvarez Students Sports Arts Quest Faculty Affiliates Campaign Update Giving

36 43

Alumni Profiles WSC and VWS News In Memoriam Final Word

Brian Ogden Dean of Faculty Janet K. Peddy Director of Finance, Planning and Operations Theresa A. Smith, PhD Director of Academic Affairs Joe Woodward Director of Institutional Advancement BOARD OF TRUSTEES 2012-2013 Paul M. Reitler ’54, Chairman of the Board Claire H. McCloud, 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 Janel Henriksen Hastings, PhD ’87 David Loo ’79 Roger J. Millar ’61 Timothy C. Moore, ’59 Susan A. Nelson, Head Emerita, ex officio Mickey E. Novak ’70 Janet K. Peddy, Director of Finance, Planning and Operations, assistant secretary, ex officio RJ Romero Miles R. Rosedale ’69 Mary A. Schuck Laura Skandera Trombley, PhD Taylor B. Stockdale, Head of Schools, ex officio Ralph D. Young ’63

LIFE TRUSTEES Hugh H. Evans, Jr. ’49 Anne Gould H. Earl (Bud) Hoover II ’52 Murray H. Hutchison Robert Stragnell, MD Volume 16, Number 2 On the cover: All-terrain vehicle designed at Alchemy Labs, founded by Gray Holland ’82 and designed by his business partner, Kevan Hollenback.

NEWSNOTES

54 56

From the Head of Schools

The Measure of Our Success This spring a series of ranking lists for U.S. high schools once again set the news media abuzz. The three most prominent rankings released 2

were compiled by U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek’s The Daily Beast and The Washington Post.

A

mong these three news outlets, only

The Washington Post attempted

to rank private schools in addition to

public schools. The Post’s list placed

Webb in the top 10 private schools

in the nation. Webb was the top

boarding school to appear on their list. Of course, we at Webb took great pride in this national notoriety, but we also realized that the ranking criteria used was (as were all of them) remarkably reductive and simplistic.

One only need look at the U.S. News and World Report phenomenon at the college level to see how unintended consequences of such rankings can lead to distraction and flawed goal-setting in higher education. What started out as a project to objectively rank colleges and universities according to like criteria, including incoming SAT scores, admission selectivity, endowment levels, etc., has now morphed into a national obsession. Colleges and universities, rather than focusing their resources and efforts on deepening their individual distinctive qualities as learning institutions, are now consumed with keeping or improving their “ranking.”

These unintended consequences could hardly have been foreseen years ago when U.S. News launched its initial effort.

Similarly, the federal mandate No Child Left Behind had unintended negative results as well. While not a ranking per se, NCLB attempted to quantify school success largely through national test scores. Few could have seen that this would lead to

The Webb Magazine • Summer 2012

the stripping away of arts and co-curricular classes and even a rash of state-wide cheating scandals still being investigated today.

While many have asked me about the Washington Post article and how we might “use it” to promote Webb, I have been extremely cautious about doing so. To me, the true measure of our success is so much more than a ranking of this type.

Just as with U.S. News and NCLB, my fear is that by subscribing to this game we will begin to chase the wrong goals. Rather than focusing on our mission of graduating honorable leaders who will go on to lead lives of service and true meaning, we will chase our tails by encouraging more and more students to take courses that are most easily comparable to a national norm.

Furthermore, while we take great pride in and continue to build a robust academic program, it is my belief that the entire Webb experience, from classes to Peccary trips, athletics to the arts, chapels to leading in the dorms, is what we need to foster and strengthen over time.

To me, the ultimate measure of our success rests with our alumni. As a 90-year-old institution, we now have a firm track record of Webb and Vivian Webb alumni who are living out the educational qualities we seek to instill.

In this spirit, I hope you will enjoy this edition of WEBB, which does a fine job of illustrating the breadth of our curriculum and the care we take to ensure that each student finds her or his voice while striving to lead a life of purpose. In particular, I hope you will take good notice of our article “Innovators,

Disruptors, and Entrepreneurs.” This article does an excellent job of highlighting one key measurement of the Webb experience, that of graduating innovators—people who are capable of thinking creatively, collaborating effectively, communicating meaningfully, and solving problems. To me, these are far more relevant skills than AP scores and SAT averages.

When reviewing Webb’s history and its curriculum, it becomes clear that we are a school community built to produce innovators. Almost a century ago, Thompson Webb visualized a world-class boarding school in the middle of nowhere, and based on that vision, bought an abandoned, dilapidated campus, sight unseen, with no money down. What better example of an innovator than he? Today, as I interact with our students and our alumni around the nation and the world, I see innovators all around me. They are 14. They are 91. They are in all walks of life: medicine, business, film, education. And they all enjoy a spirit of learning that comes from a place that looks way beyond the test scores to measure its success.

Enjoy the magazine, and I look forward to hearing your ideas for how we can continue to foster innovators, disruptors, and entrepreneurs in the years to come.

Sincerely, Taylor B. Stockdale Head of Schools

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

3

Innovators

Yes. Disruptors

Entrepreneurs

4

Building up, tearing down, shaping and creating: Webb alumni are defining the new paradigm of the 21st century professional.

Forget the status quo or the popular trend. To be at

the vanguard of a rapidly changing global workplace, today’s professionals increasingly need to exhibit broad conceptual abilities, as well as technical skills.

They are lawyers, filmmakers, and designers, but they are also innovators, disruptors, and entrepreneurs.

That takes drive, leadership, and passion. And in the emerging paradigm of the 21st century professional workplace, Webb alumni are showing the way.

Gray Holland ’82,

Take innovator. With over two decades of design experience, Holland is constantly asking, how can something that did not exist before be brought into reality. Holland has worked on design for everything from software to aircraft interiors to sunglasses.

Interested in the automotive industry after graduating from Webb, Holland enrolled in a joint engineering program at Occidental College and Columbia University. However, his real interest was design, not engineering, and he eventually transferred to Art Center College of Design. Fresh out of college, Holland became an automotive designer with GM, where his engineering background came in handy as he worked on the EV1 electric car. At this early stage in his career, Holland challenged the process by using 3D design technology to streamline the design process, giving an individual designer the tools to complete work that had required a team of a half-dozen designers before. “In 1992, such ideas were played with, but not really considered seriously. In six months, I had produced a huge percentage of the EV1’s dashboard. This was rewriting the rules for a designer, and a huge challenge to the status quo. And at GM it was really political suicide, but for me, this was pure freedom. I knew how I was going to spend the rest of my life.”

Capitalizing on this “digital design practice” concept, he founded his own company, San Francisco-based Alchemy Labs, and later moved to Amsterdam to start an affiliated firm, UX-FLO. Holland is quick to credit Webb for giving him the attitude and confidence to make those moves. “The school instilled in me the idea that I could make anything happen if I just worked hard enough,” he says. “Looking back, each of these steps was an impossible dream... but that is the power of belief: it tends to make the impossible possible.”

D

esign trends are less interesting to Holland.

“Movements, memes and paradigm shifts are

what capture my attention. For example, iPads are

a trend; multi-touch interfaces are a movement. Being on

Facebook is a trend; capitalizing on social networking

is a meme. Sustainability is a trend; what changes when

we run low on fossil fuels is a paradigm shift.Trends are

too hard to predict, and you don’t know how long they will

last. But movements, memes, and paradigm shifts can be

seen from far off. You have to be willing to look deeper—

to not get caught up in the trend. Design is not about creating

a cool-looking thing; it is a process for addressing real

needs while creating solutions that transform the ordinary

into something special.”

5

Those ideas form the crux of Holland’s past and current work, and it’s what has pushed him to change the status quo.

At UX-FLO, he currently is working for a client, Maxon, that makes 3D animation software called Cinema 4D.

time behind the camera. “It’s always a balancing act,” she says, between the creative impulse and business practicalities.

“The path, particularly for documentary filmmakers, is coming up with an idea and seeing if there’s a market for it.”

Even within design, Holland points out that a multifaceted background is more important than ever for career success —specifically, software programming skills and design talent.

“This type of multidisciplinary person is incredibly valuable to corporations, because so few of them exist,” he points out.

It’s those people—people who can bring diverse skills, abilities and interests to their careers—who are redefining the paradigm for career and personal success. It’s a new paradigm, but it’s based on an old concept: the concept of the well-rounded individual, a concept that The Webb Schools have been instilling in their students since 1922.

“We are always trying to push the boundaries while paradoxically maintaining a sense of balance. We believe that present and future paradigms are a balance of appropriate crafting of progressive ideas, and sometimes that means maintaining conservative traditions. We really just try to pay attention to what will hold real value—this is the key. If we can do this, we will create timeless value in the marketplace, and this type of design will never go out of style.”

6

Spanning decades, Holland’s career blends entrepreneurship, innovation and disruption. That’s not atypical in creative, artistic fields, but today, the same fluidity that has characterized the creative fields is just as likely to characterize careers in finance, law, film, and hospitality.

Crescent Diamond ’95

is the producer of The Heretics, a documentary tracing the New York feminist art collective that produced Heresies: A Feminist Publication on Art and Politics. Director Joan Braderman, who joined the art collective in 1971 as an aspiring filmmaker, charts the group’s challenges in terms of gender and power and its history as a microcosm of the feminist movement at that time. The documentary reconnects her with the other 28 group members, including writer/critic Lucy Lippard, architect Susana Torre, filmmaker Su Friedrich, and artists Ida Applebroog, Mary Miss, Miriam Schapiro, and Cecilia Vicuña. The Heretics premiered at the MOMA in New York in October 2009 and has subsequently been shown at film festivals around the world.

It was nominated as a 2011 Notable Video for Adults by the American Library Association and was part of the Getty Foundation’s Doin’ It In Public: Feminism & Art at the Woman’s Building exhibition. The Heretics made its national television debut in March 2012.

Diamond is an entrepreneur, too, and has grown accustomed to spending time on the business aspects of the industry— especially the eternal quest for funding—as well as spending

Diamond’s work focuses on the margins of America’s consciousness, people who aren’t typically represented in the media—an interest she traces back to her time at Webb.

Diamond came to Webb her junior year, drawn by the school’s theater program and theater director Michael Kane, who “transformed and adapted plays in odd ways,” Diamond recalls. “It was inspiring.”

Perhaps even more inspiring was the high school exchange program in which she participated during her senior year. The exchange program sent her to a Navajo Nation high school in Window Rock, Arizona. “It was a very eye-opening experience for me,” Diamond says. “It was life-changing.”

The program introduced Diamond to the existence of another country within the United States: a marginalized society most people never see. It also gave her the experience of seeing her surroundings from the minority perspective; she was the only white person on campus. And it gave her an introduction to documentary filmmaking. She captured her experience on video, interviewing and recording tribal elders and healers for a project she completed at Webb.

After graduating, Diamond attended Hampshire College in Massachusetts, where her fellow alumni include acclaimed documentary filmmaker Ken Burns. “It was a really great school

for me because it’s a very innovative school,” Diamond says.

It’s also where she developed a close friendship with professor and filmmaker Joan Braderman. After Diamond graduated and moved to San Francisco, Braderman invited her to produce The Heretics, a documentary examining The Heresies Collective, a feminist art group active from the 1970s to the 1990s. “Historically, women have been left out of art history,” Diamond notes. The Heretics focuses on women working in the arts, and on “how fun and exciting it was to be doing things that challenged the status quo.”

By the end of filming The Heretics, Diamond realized she wanted to follow Braderman into teaching, as well as practicing the art of filmmaking. She’s currently completing her Cinema MFA at San Francisco State University and teaching in the university’s film program. Teachers “change students’ perceptions of the world,” says Diamond.

She’s also continuing to turn the camera’s eye on marginalized populations. Her thesis film, Performing Girl, tells the story of growing up in Lancaster, California, from the perspective of D’Lo, a transgender Sri Lankan-American writer, director, and artist.

Entrepreneurialism is a defining characteristic of the emerging professional workplace. In some fields, that’s a new paradigm. In others, the entrepreneurial use of capital is well-established, even though the capital involved isn’t money.

Hosain Rahman ’93 Jawbone founder and CEO Hosain Rahman made national and international news last summer. First, it was reported that Jawbone, the maker of cutting-edge headsets, speakers, and other mobile device accessories, won a new round of funding, some $70 million from J.P. Morgan Asset Management—this after raising $49 million the previous March.

Second, Rahman, speaking at the TedGlobal conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, announced his company’s first “non-audio device,” called UP. The device is meant to measure “sleep patterns, eating habits and activity to help people become

Alix Rosenthal ’91.

Take She’s built a successful career as an attorney, and she’s an entrepreneur, too, but she’s working with political capital. An innovator and a disruptor, she’s working to reshape the landscape of Democratic politics in San Francisco. The San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee is dominated by an old boys’ network, she says, and she wants to bring in the women.

Recently reelected to the committee, she put together an all-woman slate, All Shades of Blue. “There is a very serious divide between progressives and moderates” in the party, she says, which made it difficult to build a slate based not on ideology, but on gender. “It is our tendency to argue with each other.”

Nevertheless, Rosenthal sees real value in the prospect of greater female representation on the 24-member committee.

“Women simply do get along better than men do,” she explains.

“We don’t fight as much as men do.”

Rosenthal traces her interest in politics to her parents and her time at Webb. “I have always loved public service,” she says, a love her parents instilled in her. Add to that a love of people and problem-solving and politics was inevitable.

healthier.” UP is described as “wearable, hip and waterproof.” The new device is described as a “bold departure” from Jawbone’s core mobile accessory business—even bolder than the company’s launch last fall of its wireless JAMBOX audio system.

Rahman made CNN Money and Fortune Magazine’s Ones to Watch list this past January.

7

W

ebb, Rosenthal says, “gave me my start.

It gave me leadership opportunities.” On her

first day as a freshmen at Vivian Webb School, she met every member of her class and was elected class president that week. “It was invigorating,” she recalls, adding that being at a girls’ school helped give her the confidence to run. “Webb gave me a taste of what it’s like to hold leadership roles.”

Webb also gave her some strong role models, particularly history instructors Dave Fawcett—“he would not stand for mediocrity”—and Margaret Lofgren, who was an example to Vivian Webb students that “it’s a good thing to be strong and assertive as a girl.”

After graduating from Webb, Rosenthal attended Northwestern University—where she was, perhaps predictably, the student body president—before working for California’s Senator Barbara Boxer in Washington, DC. After earning her law degree from the University of Virginia, Rosenthal moved back to California, where she worked for the San Francisco Elections Commission and the Oakland city attorney’s office.

8

Rosenthal now has her own legal practice, focusing on campaign election law. Her blending of legal and political careers exemplifies the workplace trend that blurs distinctions between profession and personal passions. Further erasing that distinction, Rosenthal sits on the boards of directors for the

Black Rock Arts Foundation, which promotes civic engagement by placing interactive public art projects around the world, and the California Music and Culture Association, a nightlife trade group. All of which makes her not only a political entrepreneur, innovator, and disruptor, but a power player, as well.

Geoff Fite ’86

If money is power, is a power player, too: he’s the executive director and chief operating officer of financial analysis and risk management firm Moody’s Analytics.

The company provides banks, insurance companies, non-banking financial institutions, asset managers, and corporations with the data and tools to perform risk assessments.

“It’s a global business in that we have customers in over 50 countries and 2,000 staff” in a dozen cities around the globe, Fite says. Out of those dozen cities, though, Fite chooses to run the company from Singapore. “Part of the reason I live in Asia is that this is a region where we derive most of our growth,” he says. Also, I find that living in Asia is more upbeat and has more positive energy as far as business is concerned.”

As COO, he needs that energy. On any given day, Fite may be involved in setting the company’s profit and revenue expectations, reviewing business strategy, overseeing the design and construction of financial software, and finalizing business opportunities with new clients, not to mention managing the firm’s global staff.

Fite’s position as COO may seem traditional, but he charted his own course to it, starting with his time at Webb, which gave him “an appreciation of and ability to work with people from many different countries and cultures.” From there, he embarked on an academic career both entrepreneurial and innovative. After majoring in political science at the University of California, San Diego, with additional coursework in computer science and math, Fite studied Chinese in Taiwan, an experience that convinced him to pursue his interest in Asian culture. He continued his studies at Columbia University, where he earned a master’s degree in East Asian languages and cultures, again with additional coursework, this time in economics and business.

This gave Fite a broad set of skills, ranging from Chinese language fluency to computer programming, all of which he put to use working for financial consulting firms and dabbling in Internet business applications. A background in both finance and technology was fortuitous. “Technology has become ubiquitous,” Fite says. “Early in my career it was seen as a tool, and there were ‘business people’ and ‘technology people.’

That’s sometimes still the case, but the best business people are very technologically savvy.”

Not just those individuals but also the financial sector itself must be innovative and disruptive, Fite argues. “Irrespective of the public recoil that rightly occurred as a result of the financial crisis, financial products are the engine of everything.

You simply can’t support the world population... without the use of finance. As the world grows and the basic problems of supporting people become more complex, financial services will grow, as well. There will undoubtedly be bumps along the way, but I don’t see a viable alternative to the capital markets as the principal fuel for human activity.”

Fite adds his own specialization is in a period of intense innovation. “The revolution in financial risk management is akin to the changes that occurred in healthcare between the Civil War and today. We’ve learned a bunch and there is still a tremendous amount of change to come.”

Neil Goldman ’00

Twenty years ago, might have been a hotelier. In today’s workplace, he’s a hotelier, an Internet business pro, and a social activist. For each room booked and paid for through Hotels for Hope, the Internet-based hotel room brokerage he founded, the brokerage donates $1 to a portfolio of charities. That contribution is matched by the hotel, for a total of $2 per room. Hotels for Hope brokers large blocks of rooms for corporations, conventions, and other organizations, so the per-room donations add up—the brokerage has donated roughly $80,000 in the last two years. Goldman’s goal is to donate $1 million by 2015.

Hotels benefit from the business Goldman gives them, the organizations that book rooms through Hotels for Hope benefit from discounted room rates, and everyone benefits from the charitable donations. For Goldman, that’s a personal benefit: his motivation is to benefit children in need. “I grew up with a good family who gave me opportunities, and I want to give back,” he explains.

Hotels for Hope’s clients can enjoy the same personal satisfaction, but Goldman is the first to admit that they can also publicize the charitable donation to burnish their corporate image. Goldman is a capitalist, but he, like many 21st century entrepreneurs, is disproving the old notion that capitalism and philanthropy can’t coexist.

W

“ e shift our buying habits based on

social responsibility,” Goldman says

of his Generation X and Y cohorts.

Given otherwise equal choices, consumers will choose the product or brand that exhibits better corporate responsibility. Hotels for Hope gives its clients the chance to do just that.

Jeff Hyman ’89 CEO of Idle Games Jeff Hyman, CEO of Idle Games made history in March 2012, with the launch of his company’s category-killing social media “god game” Idle Worship.

Going way beyond Farmville and similar fare, Idle Worship is setting a new standard, both artistically and technically, in the gaming space by allowing players to play friends and strangers at the same time, in real time, on Facebook, PCs, and mobile devices.

Idle Worship is so unique it required the filing of five new patents on behalf of the company.

Francisco Salanga, video game culture editor at the San Francisco Examiner had this to say in praise of the new game: “Sure, Idle Games’ upcoming Idle Worship picks up on the already-explored theme of player-asgod. The key difference, however, is that it’s not trying to be anything like the recent From Dust or the more dated Black & White. Also, they seem to be treading new ground in the social gaming space, given that the player-as-god concept has not been tried to any avail with social channels built in. Indeed, Idle Worship can be seen as innovative, as they take a new look at what it means to be a social game.”

9

Jon Congdon ’81 Co-Founder and President of Beachbody, LLC Jon Congdon’s company has been among the fastest growing businesses in the United States since it was founded in 1998. Congdon is the co-founder and president of Beachbody, LLC, the company which owns Beachbody, Breakthrough in Beauty, and the wildly popular P90X plan. In recent years, the mega-brand P90X has become a household name and sold millions of units. Beachbody is now a multichannel marketer, with innovative mobile, print, online and radio programs, and products.

10

Congdon’s company now has more than 650 employees and annual revenues of about $600 million. Congdon says he was always entrepreneurial. After graduating from UCLA with a degree in political science, he found himself at Proctor & Gamble which he described as a “little too big and corporate for me.” Though he liked the company, he left after a year to try his hand at a number of occupations—he was a parking valet in Beverly Hills, he traveled to Guatemala to learn Spanish, and eventually, he returned to the states and became a school teacher. After three years teaching, he left to help run a division of Guthy-Renker, one of the world’s largest direct response television companies.

At Guthy-Renker, he met Carl Daikeler, and the two men launched a national computer dating service and built a revenue sharing network of more than 100 radio stations to promote the concept. That unit was later sold to a unit of Cendant, a global leader in consumer and business services. The pair then decided to start their own company.

“We determine a need and try to fill that need,” said Congdon of their progress. In 2005, Congdon and Daikeler were finalists for Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year awards.

To launch the venture, Goldman drew on years of experience in the hotel industry. After graduating from Penn State’s Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management program, he worked at Four Seasons hotels in Philadelphia and San Diego before founding other hotel brokerages. But, he says, “Webb prepared me better than anyone else.” He singles out math instructor Brian Caldwell, who he says taught him to examine problems analytically, a skill he applies to Hotels for Hope every day.

“I think every good entrepreneur should be making a daily decision about taking the company to where it could be purchased,” he says. “That’s about running the company well every day.”

Holland, Diamond, Rosenthal, Fite, and Goldman are just a few of the examples of the innovators, disruptors, and entrepreneurs in our alumni community. They represent well the values of Webb’s educational program. As Head of Schools Taylor Stockdale has said, “Integrity. Moral courage.

Unbounded thinking. Empathy. Our founder, Thompson Webb believed these values would inspire good people to do great things. He understood these values would breed enterprise, leadership, and uncommon achievement. And he was right!

We are as fully committed to these ideals today as Thompson Webb was in 1922.”

(d)* Samantha Ainsley ’07 is currently pursuing her doctorate at MIT in computer software. In the past, she interned at Google as a software development intern, assisting in work related to the Eyes-Free Android and Google Voice Search feature.

Daniel Bay ’06

Other Innovators, Disruptors, Entrepreneurs Throughout history Webbies have been making history as innovators, disruptors, and entrepreneurs. Many of their stories are highlighted in Alumni Spotlight and Notable Alumni in the Alumni section of www.webb.org. If you have a story of innovation to share, please contact the Alumni office at alumni@webb.org.

Thomas Chandler ’30, founder, Chandler School, Pasadena, CA Howell Webb ’35, founding headmaster, Foothill Country Day School, Claremont, CA Art Clokey ’39, developed clay animation, creator of Gumby Robert Hefner ’53, geologist, chairman, GHK Company, natural

is currently an HR associate at Google where

gas exploration

he has been for the past 3 years. While a student

John Trefethen ’62, Trefethen Vineyards, Napa Valley, CA

at University of Southern California’s - Leventhal

Carl Stern ’64, partner and vice chairman, investment banking division,

School of Accounting, Daniel also interned at

Goldman Sachs

Google, serving as a finance analyst in both the

Robert Glenn Ketchum ’66, landscape and nature photographer,

tax/audit and fixed assets departments.

environmental advocate Steven Nissen ’66, cardiologist, whistleblower, chairman of

Christian Bayley ’91

cardiovascular medicine, Cleveland Clinic

is the owner of Olive Studio and CEO of Toast and

Paul Billings, MD, PhD ’70, physician, researcher, clinical geneticist,

Jam Entertainment. One of his clients is Google.

chief medical officer, Life Technologies

Tara Higgins ’92

and technology company

is an instructional designer at Google.

Debbie Lai ’08 just graduated from Brown University. Last summer, she interned at Google as a BOLD intern.

Judy Nam ’96

Zac Bogart ’75, founder and president, ZBE, Inc., an imaging systems Louis Mayberg ’80, co-founder, ProFunds Group Michael McDermott ’83, founder and executive producer, Gung-Ho Films John ’83 and Stephen ’85 Powell, owners, Peter Rabbit Farms Michael Arias ’84, first non-Japanese director of a major Japanese anime film, Tekkonkinkreet Joshua Marshall ’87, editor and publisher, TalkingPointsMemo.com Yassmin Sarmadi ’87, owner and operator, Church and State restaurant Steve Shenbaum ’88, creator and president, game on Media,

does product marketing at Google. Her responsibilities

communications and media training

include managing creative teams responsible for

Yosh Han ’89, perfumer and proprietress, YOSH fragrances,

developing integrated marketing campaigns for

San Francisco, CA

products such as AdWords and AdWords Express,

Jenn Louis ’89, co-owner and chef, Lincoln Restaurant, Portland, OR

as well as the launch of business initiatives

Wendin Smith, PhD ’89, manager, Akhaltekin Consulting, LLC

“Get American Business Online” and “Canada Get

Kim Sperling Fletcher ’91, founding partner, Wf Media Services

Your Business Online.”

Polly Liu ’91, founder, Beau-coup.com, online retailer specializing in wedding industry

Brittan Smith ’05 is a people operations rotational associate at Google.

She started her role at this company as a HR business partner at YouTube, which is owned by Google.

Katherine Wang ’04 is a policy associate at Google.

* Google is recognized as one of the most entrepreneurial of all companies. A good number of young Webb alumni work there.

Tracy Wagner Bybee ’94, pilot, USAF Major Blake Johnson ’95, owner and president, Imperial Meridian Capital Otis Chandler ’96, founder, Goodreads.com, social network for readers with more than 9.5 million members Caroline Adler ’00, deputy director of strategic communications for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Nick Barshick ’00, founding partner, Chuze Fitness, a chain of nine gyms in California and Arizona

11

Living in the Webb Faculty

12

families

on

campus

Boarding school is about something more than academic achievement and college placement, about more than global alumni networks and the individual developing a fierce sense of self. Boarding school is about these things in part, yes, but really these are just rudimentary outcomes—caused to happen by the real success of boarding school—developing a love for learning and serving your community—all caused by students’ mentorships with faculty and staff.

This informal interaction with faculty and their families enriches the Webb experience for both day and boarding students, but what about the families themselves? What’s it like for the roughly 60 faculty and staff who call campus home, and for those raising families on campus?

It’s a spring afternoon and English Department Chair Andy Dahlstrom is walking down from Faculty Field with a group of students. Earlier in the day, he and his students had discovered a Greek column, purpose unknown, in the nearby ravine. Together now, they’re discussing Webb history and campus geography. Director of Academic Affairs Theresa Smith joins them, and the students take the opportunity to ask her about courses and say hello to her young son as they all make their way to central campus.

After dinner, the Dahlstrom and Quick children run outside together. Hilary notes that Harriet and Natalya are in the same class and they look out for each other at school. On campus, faculty children often travel in groups, shuttling between one faculty family house and the next. On weekends, one parent may take a group to the swimming pool, another to Chandler Field or into Claremont Village.

“It’s sort of Norman Rockwell,” muses Hilary Dahlstrom.

“And I love the backyard.”

t

That evening, Andy and his family—wife Hilary, daughter Harriet, and son Ray—are finishing dinner in the dining hall.

Andy’s daughter Ivey, a Vivian Webb School freshman, is at home after finishing track practice. A student stops by to ask Andy a question, while a few others say hi to Ray, who will be a freshman at Webb School of California this fall.

A few tables over, the Quick family—science instructor and Alamo dorm head Kevin Quick, his wife Romana, and daughters Juliana and Natalya—also are at dinner. Their son Christian, a sophomore, is off, busy with Webb athletics. An animated group of students clusters around Kevin: Webb’s coed badminton team is on fire. The students are excited, but none more so than team founder and head coach Quick. He is beaming.

Living on campus means there is a “lack of worry” about children, Hilary says. “Everyone has a family here—it’s common.” he Dahlstrom family are familiar with campus living—the family lived at two boarding schools before moving to Webb—but Andy says Webb offers a unique atmosphere. In addition to its verdant 70 acres, which do indeed make for an unrivaled backyard, Webb is welcoming and authentic, he explains, and that’s a big part of the reason he and his family chose to join the Webb family.

The atmosphere of community and family infuses the Webb experience for faculty families, as it does for students. And just as Webb students have traditions, Webb faculty families have traditions too, like preparing dinners for new parents. Across campus from the dining hall, the Lantz family—math instructor and South Hutchison dorm head Sarah, husband Ray and daughter Lucy—are spending time with the newest addition to their family, daughter Annalise.

The Dahlstrom Family: Ray, Andy, Harriet, Hilary, and Ivey.

“I

t was great to have a week when we didn’t

have to worry about cooking dinners,”

Sarah says, noting that the other families

on campus have added tremendously to her

own family’s experience since they moved on campus. Lucy has a cohort of faculty family children to play with, not to mention a bevy of older “siblings” in the form of Webb students. Sarah enjoys the same easy access to fellow instructors as do Webb students, encouraging the exchange of ideas and teaching methods. Ray, a self-described golf nut, has found a kindred soul in mathematics instructor Chris Paragamian, their next-door neighbor.

14

“Living on campus is very much how I imagined it,” says Sarah. At the same time, both she and Ray say they didn’t really know what to expect when they first moved on campus. Sarah, who originally came to Webb to work in the Development office, was offered a full-time teaching position, as well as on-campus housing and dorm head duties, when she returned from maternity leave with her daughter Lucy in 2010.

“At first, I was a little apprehensive about living at Webb,” admits Ray. “But to think about Lucy growing up here on campus is awesome.” Now, he says, “I love it here; it’s quiet and beautiful.”

of student advisees, then Class of ’11 sophomores, now college students entering their second year. “We stay in close contact,” she says—but that’s not telling the whole story.

“We were always together; we loved each other a lot,” recalls one of Lantz’s advisees, Elena Scott-Kakures ’11, now at Wellesley.

Elena encouraged the group to request Sarah as their advisor.

Elena had reason to think it would be a good match, having known Sarah since she was 5 years old and Sarah was a student at Scripps College, where Elena’s father is a professor.

“Mrs. Lantz blended so perfectly with our advisee group,”

Elena says. “We felt really

open talking to her...

She was really there to

help us with anything

we needed.”

That went beyond academics: Elena recalls one December when Sarah took her advisees to a local mall so an international student could meet Santa Claus. Elena also remembers the morning Sarah told them she was pregnant with her first daughter. “We’d been bugging her for months about having children,” she says. “It was so exciting to hear!”

The Lantz Family: Sarah, Lucy, Ray, and Annalise.

“Here, I know that if Lucy runs off onto Chandler Field, she’s safe,” Sarah adds. “And there is nowhere else in the United States where she could grow up next door to a dinosaur museum.”

Lucy, Sarah says, “likes the freedom to be outside and to wander.”

Conversely, Webb students enjoy opportunities to spend time with the Lantzes, chatting on the porch or saying hello to Lucy as she accompanies her mother on dorm checks.

“It’s a family community,” Sarah says. “The students really like that.”

That sense of community fosters strong bonds between students and teachers at Webb. Sarah recalls her first group

After Lucy was born and

the Lantzes moved on campus, the advisee group met in Sarah’s kitchen each week, watching Lucy grow from baby to toddler while they discussed everything from academics to vacation plans.

“What I really appreciated was the consistency” of Sarah’s mentorship, Elena says. “She was my support system at Webb.

She was always there to help me out. Through the years, she became more of a friend to me, but also always a mentor.

“She’s probably the thing I miss most about Webb.”

Being part of a close-knit advisee group added a lot to her Webb experience, says Elena: although she attended as a day student, she always felt she was a member of Webb’s community.

It’s a community that draws in faculty families as well as students. Webb is a small town, after all—a town with lots of teenagers—and there are plenty of opportunities for faculty family members to become involved, even beyond the involvement that comes with living on campus.

Soon after moving into on-campus housing near the Alamo dorm, the Quick family began a tradition of hosting Super Bowl parties.

“They really know how to throw a Super Bowl party!” enthuses Brandon Lopez ’11, now attending Colgate.

The Quicks “grew up” at Webb with students like Brandon, says Romana Quick—freshmen in the Alamo dorm in 2007, the year the Quicks came to Webb. Like Sarah Lantz and her advisee group, the Quicks formed a bond with these students and still stay in touch.

Brandon met Kevin Quick as his physics teacher, and met his family when Kevin hosted students for physics study sessions. By the time the Quicks threw their first Super Bowl party, Brandon and fellow students were a regular presence in the Quick household, for game nights, birthdays and the chance to watch a little TV; not to mention, Brandon says, water balloon fights and Slip ’n Slide parties when the weather warmed up.

“It really felt like home,” Brandon says.

“They treated us like family.”

16

For Romana, having Webb students in her home was a new experience, but one she enjoys.

“I’ve grown to appreciate teenagers on a different level,” she laughs.

“I didn’t expect the 24/7,” Romana says. “We live in the heart of campus. There’s always a lot going on.” But, she adds, “I like the activity, I like the buzz. It gets very quiet during breaks.”

While she enjoys the hustle and bustle of Webb students in and around her home, Romana, like all on-campus parents, is quick to note that Webb students are respectful of the families’ privacy.

“Respect” is a word that’s mentioned often by faculty families. “Webb is very protective of your personal time,” Andy says. “And the students respect that.”

“W

e wondered about students knocking on the door all the time, and our personal time,” Sarah Lantz says. “But it’s not a problem at all. It helps that Webb students are very independent.”

A year after moving onto campus, Romana took on her own position at Webb, running the student store. “I’m in a unique

position,” she notes, which gives her a lot of contact with students in a non-faculty role. “I can be sort of a mother to them.” That’s an apt description—Romana manages everything from the students’ mailboxes to their dry cleaning, and next year she will be taking on the role of international student

coordinator, as well. She has also been a

student advisor; when Sarah Lantz was on

maternity leave with her daughter Lucy,

Romana advised Sarah’s student group, then

in their junior year.

“Romana was another great advisor,” recalls Elena Scott-Kakures. “She was very comforting and made me feel like I had another home at Webb. Even in my senior year, after she was my advisor, we’d go out for coffee together, just to talk.”

Hilary Dahlstrom says she feels “superconnected” to Webb’s students, too. Although she’s not employed at Webb—not officially, at least—she has volunteered to take on tasks ranging from sewing velvet curtain panels and emergency costume repairs for school plays to serving as the team parent for her daughter’s track team.

“That’s just life,” Hilary shrugs. Her involvement in the Webb community extends well beyond that of an involved parent, though. To give just one example, how many parents would offer a bicycle repair clinic for students?

“I think it’s not necessarily more than I’d do otherwise, but it’s probably different, just because I’m on campus,” she explains.

Hilary, like every member of Webb’s on-campus

families, is much more informally involved with

the Webb community every day, too: from

spending a few hours at Webb’s swimming pool—a favorite of faculty family children—to weightlifting in the gym, flying kites on Chandler Field or even just eating together as a family in the dining hall. It’s a rare dinner there that doesn’t end with a group of faculty family children running around outside, and teachers and students talking together before returning to their dorms and homes.

And that embodies Webb’s community spirit: together, the students and on-campus families form an extended, supportive family.

“I don’t think anybody could explain living on campus to you,” says Romana. “You have to experience it.

“We live in the Webb.”

The Quick Family: Juliana, Romana, Natalya, Christian and Kevin.

Today campus news

Al Alvarez The Man, The Meals, The Memories

18

Al receives a standing ovation from Webb students, faculty, and staff.

The numbers are staggering: more than 50 years and over 42,000 meals—including mountains of mashed potatoes, gallons of gravy, and enough salad to fill a gorge.

Al Alvarez has run his kitchen for more years than many of the great chefs have staffed other great American dining establishments.

Daniel Boulud was the executive chef at Le Cirque for only six years and opened his restaurant Daniel, in 1993. Wolfgang Puck debuted Spago in 1982. And Bobby Flay started at the Mesa Grill in 1991.

More than 50 years ago, in 1961, Al Alvarez was scanning the newspaper want ads when he came across one for a breakfast cook at Webb School of California. Alvarez had learned to butcher and

The Webb Magazine • Summer 2012

bake as a cook in the Air Force where he’d served meals on the base in Amarillo, Texas, and also on a transport ship to England. He got the job at Webb and served as the “second cook” helping the chef.

“I worked for awhile, but it was part-time and it wasn’t paying enough,” said Alvarez who briefly left the school but then returned, eventually becoming a full-time employee in 1968.

Alvarez recalls that back in the 1960s, the cuisine was pretty basic.

“All the meals were sit-down, and there were a lot of casseroles,” he said. “If you didn’t like the casserole, you had to eat PB&J.” It wasn’t until girls arrived on campus in 1981, that requests for salads and more variety changed the atmosphere in the dining hall.

“Girls are thought to be more diet-conscious,” explained Alvarez, “but they like to eat as much as the boys!”

“He comes across as this tough, hardened man, but in reality he is as soft as the middle of his banana bread or ‘blondies.’”

A

lvarez’s daughter, Debbie Crowe, remembers running up the

back steps to the dining hall in her patent leather shoes and lace socks in the 1960s. “It was always home,” she said of her father’s kitchen on campus.

unnerving to stand with Al in his professional kitchen and make my amateur scrambled eggs in my little skillet,” she said. “Al was totally gracious, and the following Sunday, he enlarged the recipe and offered a tray of matzoh brei for breakfast.”

“My mom, Helena, worked at Webb, too, as a seamstress,” said Crowe, whose brother, Michael graduated from WSC in 1980.

Head of Schools Taylor Stockdale remembers a very special morning meal with Al:

“A lot of times, my dad would bring students to our house who didn’t have a place to go on long weekends,” said Crowe. “In the dining hall, my dad always wanted students to feel like they were at home.”

“In 2003, I was the acting head (while then Head of Schools Susan Nelson was on sabbatical) when the Grand Prix Fire swept through the area. We had to evacuate campus at 1 a.m., walking single file down to Taylor Hall in Claremont,” said Stockdale. “I had called Al before we left to let him know what was going on—it was a crazy and traumatic night, the entire school was in Taylor Hall trying to keep each other calm.

c a mrecalls p u sthatb the rie f s was a place where students worked Crowe kitchen off “demerits” by peeling potatoes and washing dishes.

Michael, Al’s son, says, “when I attended Webb, I remember there were always a few freshman who were homesick and my father would make them special dishes that their moms would make.

This made them feel more at home and comfortable. There are so many small things that he did, and still does, to make things all work out in the end.”

Alvarez’s granddaughter, Lindsey Crowe ’10 holds recollections of attending Webb and having her grandfather nearby and close to her heart.

“A lot of my memories revolve around just having breakfast and lunch with him every day for four years,” said Lindsey. “I wasn’t very close to my grandfather until I went to Webb, and he really became a big role model for me while I was there.”

Alvarez went to his granddaughter’s softball games—“even in a heat wave or torrential rain,” said Lindsey. “I think one of the funniest moments was when I was having lunch with him during an Alumni Weekend and an alumnus who had worked for my grandfather when he was a student came back to say hello and was completely stunned to see that my grandfather was still at Webb. The first thing that came out of his mouth was, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe you’re still here. You haven’t changed a bit!’”

Alvarez has outlasted several heads of school and many, many faculty members.

“He comes across as this tough, hardened man,” said English teacher Rick Duque, “but in reality he is as soft as the middle of his banana bread or ‘blondies.’ The first words out of his mouth to me are usually, ‘What do you want?’ or ‘Get out of here!’ I can’t tell you the other words he calls me in Spanish—but they are the same words my father-in-law uses with me!”

Nina Gilbert, choral director and fine arts teacher, lauds Alvarez’s willingness to learn new recipes.

“We’ve had two Passover seders at Webb, with Al and his crew making classic dishes such as brisket and tzimmes (dried fruit and sweet potato compote),” said Gilbert. This year, Gilbert showed Alvarez how to make matzoh brei, a scrambled egg dish. “It was

“Without us even knowing it, Al had gone to campus, picked-up supplies, set-up a kitchen at Taylor Hall, and by 7 a.m., he had a full warm breakfast for everyone. It was the best and most comforting meal I can ever remember. Everyone was so appreciative. It was magical in what it did for morale, and then a few hours later we heard that Webb had not burned after all. I think the thing about Al that is most amazing is that he is always there for the community, no matter what. He cares deeply about everyone at the school and he ensures everyone is well fed and well cared for. He’s the best of Webb.”

Al carves his last turkey dinner at Webb, December 18, 2011. Photo: Rita Lo ’12

Alvarez doesn’t cook that much at home—“cooking for six is a lot different than cooking for 350,” he said. But he does prepare Thanksgiving dinner.

Of his Webb repertoire, Alvarez says that the most-requested recipe is his carrot cake. “I give out the recipe, but people tell me that when they make it, it doesn’t taste the same. My wife says that I must leave out an ingredient. But I don’t!” he said, and then confessed, “Well, sometimes I do throw something a little extra in.”

— If you’d like the recipe visit www.webb.org and type Al’s Carrot Cake in the search bar.

Though he’s enjoyed his long tenure at Webb, especially all the wonderful people he’s come to know, Alvarez says that he is looking forward to enjoying his grandchildren and tending his garden, where he grows chili peppers and tomatoes, and has peach, tangerine, and orange trees.

“My father is truly a remarkable man,” added his son, Michael.

“He is a dedicated father, husband, employee, and friend.”

Claire McCloud, a trustee whose husband, Kimball McCloud ’67, and daughters, Casey Sage ’95 and Ashley Buchanan ’96, all attended Webb and were fed by Alvarez, speaks for many when she summarized Al’s contribution to the spirit and well-being of the community: “Al has always been there for everyone with a big smile, a generous heart, a great sense of humor, and a desire to make everything just right. He has been devoted to his work and dedicated to the students and families of The Webb Schools in so many countless ways. Our family wishes him good health and much happiness in his well-deserved retirement.”

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

19

Today

student news

O

Farewell to the

Class of 2012

n June 2, 2012, The Webb Schools graduated it’s largest class—108 graduates—in a year marked by significant achievements, including the 3oth birthday of Vivian Webb School and the 90th anniversary of Webb School of California.

20

The Class of 2012 faced a most competitive college admission season, and yet 100% of the class was admitted to a selective four-year college or university. Ninety-five percent of the class plans to attend a college ranked in the top 10% in the nation (based on data from The College Board, Fiske Guide to Colleges and U.S. News and World Report on 1600 accredited 4-year colleges and universities in the U.S.).

This year’s commencement speaker for Vivian Webb School was Dr. Janel Henriksen Hastings ’87, assistant vice president for institutional research at Harvey Mudd College, who serves as president of Webb’s Alumni Council and was recently elected to the Board of Trustees. Having asked members of her class what they would have liked to hear during their commencement exercises, Hastings imparted

Vivian Webb School continues to lead the way as one of the top “feeder” schools to America’s most prestigious women’s colleges, with 24% of the Class of 2012 attending a women’s college in the fall. On average, over the past ten years, 20% of Vivian Webb students have chosen to attend a women’s college, according to Hector Martinez, director of college guidance.

The seniors of Vivian Webb School, 55 Daughters Strong along with family and friends, gathered on Faculty Field in the morning to receive their diplomas.

Head of Schools Taylor Stockdale reflected upon the legacy of the class, “You have strengthened just about every aspect of your school,” and expressed to them how much it means to our “special community.”

VWS valedictorian Tiffany Fan ’12 spoke of family as being “more than a biological connection. You can find family anywhere, even in the most unexpected places. So, when life hands you adversity, always remember, your family is all around you.

You just need to look,” citing that she had found extended family volunteering in an impoverished Fijian village; feeding the less fortunate at the Pomona Christian Center; with the badminton team as they forged a program from inception to league championship and CIF Southern Section Division II runners up in just four years; and with her class throughout her Webb career and as they conquered Half Dome at Yosemite during their senior trip.

From top: Dr. Janel Henriksen Hastings ’87; Faculty cheer VWS graduates during recessional; Classmates applaud Jordan Burns (second from left) after his valedictory address.

The Webb Magazine • Summer 2012

“You can find family anywhere, even in the most unexpected places.

So when life hands you adversity, always remember, your family is all around you. You just need to look.” - Tiffany Fan ’12

To listen to this year’s commencement addresses visit www.youtube.com/thewebbschools

WSC Valedictorian Jordan Burns ’12 used a metaphor about how the Colorado River and the streams that flow into it have formed the majestic Grand Canyon as he talked about the effect of parents and others who have influenced the lives of his class, noting, “If we really want to make a difference in someone’s life or improve the world, we need to reflect on what kind of influence we are going to have on those around us. We have all gained so much from Webb, and now it’s time for us to use the tools that we’ve acquired here to affect positive change in the world.”

Upland-based physician Dr. Rahmi Mowjood ’90 served his alma mater as commencement speaker. Mowjood shared the wisdom he has found in being a new parent— to play, listen, learn, and speak:

Left to right: Dr. Rahmi Mowjood ’90; Kevin Quick and Tracy Miller; Andy Dahlstrom and Morgan Kapp.

that information on to the Class of 2012 along with a profile of school namesake, Vivian Webb, noting that Vivian was much more than just a mother or grandmother, she was an “extraordinary and fearless woman” detailing a “rich and storied life of a woman who was truly a force of nature.”

Hastings asked the class to ponder the question, “What would you do if you were not afraid?” stating that, “Whatever you do, whatever path you choose to take in life, always be mindful of the principles of character and honor that have been at the heart of your education here at Vivian Webb School. Nothing— absolutely nothing—will set you apart more clearly and with greater virtue and respect than your genuine ability to demonstrate these values in everything you do.”

Late in the afternoon, 53 boys of Webb School of California assembled with family and friends on the Alamo lawn to receive their diplomas from Head of Schools Taylor Stockdale, who remarked, “In just moments, you will receive

a diploma, which states your graduation number, my signature, and the school crest with our motto: Leaders, not ordinary men.

What it won’t state is something I hope you know in your heart. You have made this place even better and stronger than you found it four years ago. You have upheld our cherished traditions admirably and as such, honor, leadership, and service have never been stronger on this campus.”

Play: “Be a part of the game of life, not the work of life... do things that make you smile in the here and now—do not wait for your joy to evolve.”

Listen: “Stop periodically and reflect... listen to what is going on around you. Have moments where your heart speaks and your mind rests.”

Learn: “Keep your mind open and never turn down an opportunity to better yourself, to broaden your mind, and to learn.”

Speak: “To be a leader, you must speak with intention and clarity of thought. Speak for others when no one else will.

Speak up when others may not dare to. Speak out for those whose voices are silenced. Be clear about what you want and what is important by speaking with thought, reflection, and equanimity.”

Mowjood ended with a quote from Sawney Webb, father of Thompson Webb: “Lead a large life. A large life is no mere piffle, but one that makes the world better because you have lived... when you come to the end, you will find that the only things that are worthwhile are character and the help you’ve given to other people.”

uring the ceremonies, Stockdale presented the following

teaching awards: Thompson and Vivian Webb Excellence in Teaching Award: English teacher Dr. Tracy Miller; Jean E. Miller Excellence in Teaching Award: Biology teacher Kevin Quick; James T. Demetriades ’80 Endowed Prize for Unbounded Thinking: English Department Chair Andy Dahlstrom; and The Laurence McMillin Excellence in Teaching Award: Spanish teacher Morgan Kapp.

D

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

21

Today

gaul athletics

WEBB’S NEWEST SPORTS: A Triple Threat Badminton, triathlon, and boys’ volleyball.

F

irst they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” That rallying cry adorns Webb badminton jerseys, but it just could easily be

the motto for any of Webb’s newest sports teams.

22

This the fourth year for Webb badminton and the third for triathlon and boys’ volleyball, but all three teams have already established themselves as serious competitors. “There hasn’t been a race where we haven’t had someone place on the podium,” says triathlon coach Donald Ball. Kevin Quick, whose badminton team was league champion last year, says, “We’ve played some really good teams, and we really surprised them. We walk in and they say, ‘Wow, this is a team that is legitimately good.’”

Volleyball coach Jack Coberly, whose boys’ varsity team finished 15-5 this season, says the boys are “far exceeding my expectations. Last year, we were in the league, and the league is tough. The level they’re playing at in such a short time is absolutely phenomenal.” That performance hasn’t come at the expense of academics, either.

Boys’ volleyball was one of three Webb teams to win CIF Academic Championships this year. “It’s not only a competitive team, it’s an intelligent team,” says Coberly.

It hasn’t been an easy road. Varsity volleyball player Jake Feldsher ’12 says, “By far our biggest challenge has been our lack of experienced players. Hardly anyone who joins the program has ever played before.” Boys’ volleyball has benefited from the support of the more experienced girls, who serve as team managers, but for the triathlon and badminton teams, it’s been a trial by fire. “The first year was the toughest for us,” recalls badminton player Connie Zhang ’12. “We got ‘bagled’ every time, 0-21, but that brought the team together. [It] became the fuel that drove everyone to work harder.”

The Webb Magazine • Summer 2012

Fortunately, all three teams have highly experienced coaches.

Jack Coberly’s long and illustrious coaching career includes a stint at the University of La Verne, where he took the Leopards to a Division III Men’s National Volleyball Championship in just two years. Donald Ball is a USA Triathlon Level One certified coach, with an additional certification in youth and junior coaching. Kevin Quick was an athletic trainer before becoming badminton coach at Phoenix’s Mountain Pointe High. “We did halfway decent,” he quips, “three state championships in five years.”

Still, building new teams takes hard work. “Our program is designed to take in people who have no experience and ground

“Athletically, Webb is just scratching the surface.”

23

them in the fundamentals,” Ball explains. “First, it’s training to train, focusing on basic skills. Then it’s training to race.”

Quick takes a similar approach. “We spent a lot of time getting them quick feet, good agility,” he says. “Quite a few of our seniors have gone through an off-season strength and conditioning programming. From day one, they’ve stepped up and done everything they could to get to the level they’re at.”

That enthusiasm and commitment has been infectious.

“What the kids bring to the sport is one of the reasons I’m here,” says Coberly. “This is a fantastic group of guys.”

The camaraderie of the badminton players, meanwhile, has

become almost notorious. “Walking around campus, you hear, ‘Oh god, here’s the badminton team,’” laughs Quick.

What’s next? The graduation of their current seniors will mean some regrouping for badminton and boys’ volleyball next year, but both have promising JV teams that look good for the future.

All three coaches remain optimistic—and ambitious. “The new high school triathlon league has a division championship and a league championship. I’d like to see us excel at both,” says Ball. Quick has his eye on a CIF banner. “After we won the championship in water polo [in 2009], it opened everybody’s eyes,” he says. “Athletically, Webb is just scratching the surface.”

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

Today

the fine arts

Blair Maffris: Using shape and texture as a gateway for contemplation More than color, shape, or subject, for Blair Maffris, art is meant to make people stop and think.

Though he has his own ideas and inspirations for putting paint on the canvas or sculpting a piece of rock, the 32-year Webb art teacher wants his work to inspire unique thoughts and reflection in each person who looks at it.

“My pieces are visually complex,” says Maffris “I like to think of my works as objects of contemplation.”

24

“A good painting that just hangs

Maffris’ art incorporates different textures and shapes, often incorporating themes from nature.

He gets much of his inspiration from the textures of rocks, the paths of rivers, and other landforms viewed from high above.

Maffris says his favorite and most frequent source for inspiration is sand, which he uses in almost all of his work.

He uses the material to create textures, layers it in sculptures, and creates receptacles for it out of wood, stone, and bronze and to enhance his installations.

S

and is beautiful. It’s everywhere it’s throughout the

universe. You go to Venus and it’s there,” he says.

“It’s a very elemental thing and it reflects the passage of time.

It’s always shifting and changing and it’s the product of weathering of rock. It’s very primal.”

Maffris also translates the tangibility of artwork into his teaching, stressing the need for both mental and physical engagement with art. Making art is not just an intellectual process.

“I’m a really big advocate of people learning to work with their hands,” he says. “I think there’s a connection between the development of human intelligence and working with your hands. Having young people work with their hands gets them away from the computer and actually doing something.”

Though he has shown in some local galleries, most of Maffris’ work can be found in office buildings, private residences, and even around Webb. Maffris says he likes the idea of art being something people see around them every day—not just in a museum.

The Webb Magazine • Summer 2012

Paintings by Blair Maffris entitled (top to bottom): Convergence, Mesa, After the Rain, and A River Once Flowed

isn’t something over the couch.”

25

“I like the idea that my work affects you just like a piece of music affects you,” he says. “I know hundreds of people are seeing my pieces every day, and it’s a good feeling.

Always stressing art’s physical influence, Maffris says he is especially intrigued by a painting’s relationship with the space around it. He especially enjoys working with his son, who is an architect, to create artwork that becomes part of a building’s makeup.

“A good painting isn’t something that just hangs over the couch,” Maffris says,

“but it alters the space.”

Whether it’s in the hallway of a Webb dormitory or on the side of a building in downtown Los Angeles, Maffris wants his art to begin with his brush, but continue with a life of its own.

“A painting can be more of a gateway to your own thoughts,” he says. “A painting takes on its own life after it leaves the artist. A lot of times people look at it and they see something that the artist doesn’t see.”

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

News from the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology

Q

U

E

S

T

Student research at Webb reaches new heights 26

Scientific research at the Alf Museum is stronger than ever before, with 18 Webb students participating in the Honors Advanced Museum Research class this year.

The ground-breaking results have been distributed to an international audience, both at scientific conferences as well as in peer-reviewed literature. This work builds a more complete understanding of the Alf Museum’s collection and our planet’s history, in addition to providing unique opportunities for students to practice the scientific process. Students work closely with the museum’s highly experienced researchers: Dr. Andrew Farke, the Augustyn Family Curator of Paleontology, who is one of the world’s foremost dinosaur experts; and Museum Director Dr. Don Lofgren, whose research is centered on fossil mammals. Making an original contribution to scientific knowledge by collaborating with a professional paleontologist is an opportunity for a high school student only available at Webb with its nationally accredited museum.

resentations at Scientific Conferences:

In November 2011, Abby Hess ’12 and

Drew Silver ’12 presented their research

on proboscideans (elephants) of the

Barstow Formation at the Society of

Vertebrate Paleontology annual meeting in

Las Vegas. In April, four students presented

their work at CalPaleo, a regional conference

held on the campus of UC Riverside.

Austin Plyley ’12 gave a poster presentation

P The Webb Magazine • Summer 2012

on 15-million-year-old fossil snails from the Barstow and Temblor Formations, and Megan Kilmer ’12 and Sam Woodward ’12 discussed vertebrates from the Kaiparowits Formation of southern Utah. Priyanka Patel ’12 was honored for her poster on a rare fossil bird from the Kaiparowits Formation, judged as one of the top student posters at the conference. Three student co-authored abstracts have been submitted for the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meeting to be held in North Carolina in mid-October 2012. These research projects focus on recent finds in the Kaiparowits Formation, including a new species of alligator (Madi Henn ’13, Sam Woodward ’12); the baby hadrosaur skeleton (Annisa Herrero ’13, Derek Chok ’13, Brandon Scolieri ’13); and dental microwear in hadrosaurs (Jon Gunn ’13, Toshi Nazikian ’13).

Sam Woodward ’12 and Megan Kilmer ’12 present their research at the CalPaleo Conference.

Publishing Research Papers: Presentations at scientific conferences are usually the preliminary results of a research project, which are then written up for submission to a journal for publication. Getting a paper published is the final step of a project, and the most difficult. Papers may be based on recently collected specimens or ones that have been in the museum’s collections for decades. For instance, Rachel Zheng ’12 (co-authored with Dr. Farke and Gy-Su Kim ’10) created a photographic atlas of the foot in duck-billed dinosaurs, based on fossils found in Montana in 1997 that recently appeared in PalArch’s Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, and the rare bird fossil described by Priyanka Patel ’12, found in 2005, will soon appear in the journal Cretaceous Research (Dr. Farke is co-author). In contrast, a paper on the most complete skull of Zygolophodon from North America, found by faculty member Ken Monroe in 1965, was finally published in November 2011 in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology written by Dr. Lofgren and Raj Anand ’10.

back to montana!

nstead of the usual single trip to collect dinosaurs i and other vertebrates in Grand Staircase Escalante

National Monument (GSENM), Utah, summer 2012 saw two trips. From July 8-16, Museum Director Don Lofgren led a small group of students to the Hell Creek Badlands along the shores of Fort Peck Reservoir in eastern Montana. This is the same field area the peccary group used to work in the 1990s that culminated in the collection of the leg and tail of a large duck-billed dinosaur that are currently on display in the Hall of Life. On this trip, analysis and collection of mostly tiny fossils is the focus. The crew included Chloe Soltis ’13, Kristina Oney ’14, Gabe Gosney ’14, and Kevin Terris ’10. Based on this preliminary work, a full crew will return in 2013 to expand the project.

This steady stream of research heightens the profile of the Alf Museum in the paleontological community and, just as importantly, gives Webb students real-world experience in the sciences.

Better yet, many other exciting projects are underway, ranging from the study of teeth of extinct mammals called multituberculates from Wyoming, to the skeleton of the baby dinosaur found in Utah in 2010. Big things are in store!

Recent Publications or In Press Papers (student coauthors noted with *)

27

Compare the Cripe Site Quarry in 2006 (left) and 2011 (right).

Over those five years, tons of overlying rock were removed as dinosaur remains were excavated.

• D. L. Lofgren and R. S. Anand*. 2011. Partial skull of Zygolophodon (Mammalia, Proboscidea) from the Barstow Formation of California, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 31:6, 1392-1396.

• R. Zheng* A. A.Farke, and G.-S. Kim*. 2011. A photographic atlas of the

pes from a hadrosaurine hadrosaurid dinosaur. PalArch’s Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology 8:1-12.

• Farke, A. A., M. J. Ryan, P. M. Barrett, D. H. Tanke, D. R. Braman, M. A. Loewen,

and M. R. Graham. 2011. A new centrosaurine from the Late Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada, and the evolution of parietal ornamentation in horned dinosaurs. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 56:691-702.

• D. L. Lofgren, Abby Hess*, Drew Silver*, and Peter Liskanich*. 2012. A review

of proboscideans from the Barstow Formation of California. Proceedings of the Desert Research Symposium (CSU Fullerton), p. 125-134.

• Farke, A. A. 2012. Exhibit review: Dinosaur Hall, Natural History Museum

of Los Angeles County. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 32:732-733.

• D. L. Lofgren, Brianna Gaytan*, Michelle Pastrano*, Jesscia Rice*, and

Rachel Zheng*. In press. First record of Kimbetohia campi (Mammalia, Multituberculata) from the North Horn Formation, Utah, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

• Farke, A. A., and P. P. Patel*. In press. An enantiornithine bird from the

Campanian Kaiparowits Formation of Utah, USA. Cretaceous Research.

• Farke, A. A., and L. Herrero*. In press. Variation in the skull roof of the

hadrosaur Gryposaurus illustrated by a new specimen from the Kaiparowits Formation (late Campanian) of southern Utah. Submitted to Hadrosaurs: Proceedings of the International Symposium at the Royal Tyrrell Museum.

The second trip visited southwestern Montana and GSENM from July 25-August 8. This is the usual large group led

by Lofgren and Augustyn Family Curator Andy Farke. Focus of the Utah trip was continued excavation of the Cripe Site, a tyrannosaur bone-bed, where part of the lower leg of a mid-sized tyrannosaur, including a beautiful femur, have already been recovered. The Alf Museum tyrannosaur probably represents the newly described species Teratophoneus curriei.

Teratophoneus is based on a skull, and the Alf Museum has a leg, it remains to be seen if they are indeed from the same animal; only further recovery of bones will confirm this.

Before going to GSENM, the group visited the famous Pipestone Springs Site in Montana to collect 35-million-yearold mammals. The crew also gathered additional field data to be included in an 85% complete research manuscript titled “Taphonomy of Pipestone Springs, a middle Chadronian microvertebrate assemblage from southwestern Montana,”

by Rebecca Lai ’11, Dakota Santana-Grace ’11, Danny Ugolick ’08, Lisa Gluckstein ’08, and Don Lofgren. The peccary crew also visited the Museum of the Rockies and searched for new collecting sites in southwestern Montana.

d i s c o v e r

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

Q

U

E

S

T

News from the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology

a foundation of volunteers

28

I

t takes a lot of time to run a natural history museum—even a relatively small one like the Alf. Every fossil that comes in the door needs to be cleaned, repaired, and housed for long-term study, display, and safekeeping. Ongoing field collecting brings in a steady stream of specimens, and Webb student volunteers are essential for keeping on top of things.

Since 1996, 450 Webb students have contributed more than 33,000 hours of time volunteering in the museum.

Most of these have been through the afterschool museum class, offered as part of Webb’s afternoon activity program.

Students learn the basics of fossil preparation, using tools ranging from old toothbrushes to dental picks. Although especially delicate or challenging fossils are cleaned by a professional preparator, the vast majority of fossil preparation at the museum is completed by students.

Without their efforts, many important specimens would still be encased in rock.

Some students specialize in the arduous task of piecing together broken specimens, rather like a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle without the picture on the box.

The Webb Magazine • Summer 2012

Alf Museum Madagascar Bound Madagascar is so much more than a cute animated movie. Although the island is only 250 miles off the coast of Africa, Madagascar is practically a continent in its own right. It has been completely isolated for over 100 million years, resulting in a biologically and culturally complex landscape. The iconic elephants and lions of the Serengeti Plain are absent, and a complex ecosystem of lemurs, chameleons, and exotic palm trees flourish instead. In fact, 95% of the terrestrial life of Madagascar is found nowhere else on earth—it is a biological paradise! And it turns out to be a paleontological paradise, too.

Other students become skilled in using airscribes, tools akin to miniature jackhammers that run on compressed air.

With practice and patience, fossils are slowly extracted from their rocky resting places. Afterward, students ready the specimens for transfer from the lab to the collections, making sure each specimen has its own archival box and label. All of the work is overseen by the Alf Museum’s professional paleontologists.

Fossil preparation isn’t the only thing going on after school. Public outreach events like Fossil Fest or Family Science Discovery Days also take time. Outreach kits need to be assembled, brochures need to be folded, and classrooms have to be set up for the public. There truly is a place for every interest and ability in the program.

The Webb student volunteer program offers students a unique window into life at a museum, as well as an opportunity to genuinely contribute to the scientific process. Just as in the early days with Ray Alf, this truly is a student-built institution!

Led by Augustyn Family Curator of Paleontology Dr. Andy Farke, 19 students, parents, alumni, and friends of the museum made the trek to Madagascar this summer. They explored many aspects of the island’s amazing biodiversity, from the rainforests to the beaches. The crew dug for dinosaurs and other ancient life in northwestern Madagascar, in collaboration with a scientific team from State University of New York at Stony Brook and Madagascar’s University of Antananarivo.

70-million-year-old rocks have yielded a rich bonanza of fossils, including giant frogs, fearsome predatory dinosaurs, and rare fossil birds.

ll of this work is geared towards A understanding more about

Madagascar’s complex past.

How did animals like lemurs and the like get to the island? Fossils from the age of dinosaurs show little evidence of Madagascar’s modern fauna, creating a big puzzle. The current hypothesis is that many of the ancestors of Madagascar’s

new board members

Lance C. Williams ’97 is an expert in marketing communications and strategy, with over 12 years of experience with cross-platform media campaigns for entertainment, fashion, and publishing. While still a student at New York University, Williams was part of the marketing team that launched the recordbreaking musical hit Mamma Mia! He subsequently oversaw the show’s advertising campaigns before becoming a senior marketing manager for Anne Klein New York in 2005. An avid traveler, Williams next joined the popular travel magazine Condé Nast Traveler, which named him Condé Nast “Marketer of the Year” in 2008. He was recently appointed the magazine’s executive director, brand management.

Williams is also a vice president and director of Chicago’s Fred B. Snite Foundation, a family foundation that provides grants for an array of educational, medical, and social causes. Williams has championed the foundation’s support of several causes, including the Breast Cancer Research Fund and the Wildlife Conservation Network. He was also instrumental in securing $240,000 in grants for Webb and the Alf Museum, including leadership gifts for the renovation of the Hall of Footprints and the Hall of Life.

Williams lives in New York City.

Dr. Gloria Stevens, M.D. P ’11, a respected dermatologist, has supported the Alf Museum since 2006. Her son, Peter Liskanich ’11, a two-time Rogers Peccary Scholar, participated in many Peccary trips, and Dr. Stevens herself had her “first real, official tenting experience” on the Gobi Desert as part of the 2008 Mongolia trip. She enjoyed it so much that she signed up for the 2009 Grand Canyon Rafting Trip and the 2010 trip to China, giving her a chance to explore her youthful dreams of becoming an archaeologist.

Although her son has moved on to USC, Dr. Stevens and her husband remain strong supporters of the Alf Museum. “It’s a great opportunity,” she explains.

“We wanted to continue to support them regardless of whether our son was a student there or not.”

Dr. Stevens and her husband, Dr. Ronald Liskanich, practice dermatology at the Aesthetica Spa M.D. and Dermatology Laser Center in Upland, California.

Dr. Stevens received her M.D. from Wayne State University and completed her residency at L.A.’s County-USC Medical Center, where she is now a clinical associate professor of dermatology. She is also a clinical professor of dermatology at Western University, her husband’s alma mater.

Michelle Plyley P ’12 learned about the Alf Museum from her son’s middle

wildlife rafted to Madagascar after the extinction of the dinosaur, on massive mats of vegetation that drifted out to sea during monsoons.

This was Dr. Farke’s fifth trip to Madagascar and his first leading a group from the Alf Museum. The group was in the country for two weeks, visiting sites like the lemur-populated forest of Ankarafantsika, the dinosaur beds near Berivotra, and the beaches of Toliara.

school coach: Jeff Nelson P ’95 P ’97, husband of Susan Nelson, Webb’s former head of schools. At Nelson’s recommendation, Plyley’s son, Austin ’12, entered the paleontology program as a freshman, going on to become a Rogers Peccary Scholar. Plyley credits her son’s paleontology work (and upcoming scientific publication) with helping him earn admission to the University of Richmond, his first-choice college.

Plyley is a full-time mom, but she regularly volunteers with organizations in which her children are involved. Plyley and her husband Don, president of Philadelphia Recycling Mine in Mira Loma, California, have hosted several trustee-alumni trip dinners and contributed numerous peccary dinner sponsorships. Plyley herself joined the 2008 Mongolia trip and 2009’s Grand Canyon rafting trip. When Dr. Don Lofgren asked her to join the board of trustees, she responded enthusiastically.

Plyley says her main goal as a trustee is to help promote awareness of the museum and the paleontology program. “I would like other kids to be more aware as they come in of what Webb and the Alf Museum have to offer,” she explains. “I just think it’s a wonderful organization.”

d i s c o v e r The Webb Schools • Webb.org

29

Today

fa c u lt y

21st Century Inc. Think

Webb Students Prepare for Tomorrow’s Business World

For years

, business leaders and

experts like Harvard’s Tony Wagner (author of The Global Achievement Gap) have warned that American schools don’t adequately prepare students for the demands of modern business. To help Webb students prepare, teacher Donald Ball has launched a new elective course on business and entrepreneurship: 21st Century Inc. Think.

30

“The workforce has profoundly changed,” says Ball. “Employers want you to be entrepreneurial and effective in managing others.

It’s about critical thinking, being agile and adaptive, working as part of a collaborative team, and bringing your imagination to the process so that it’s not just functional, but something unique. Those skills are at the core of the class.”

The course introduces students to the entrepreneurial and managerial aspects of starting and running a business. Students work in teams to design and develop their own original product or service that addresses specific economic or social needs. Ball emphasizes that the object isn’t just making money. “The kids want to make a meaningful, positive impact on the world,” he says.

A big part of the design process is learning how to talk to prospective customers and respond to their feedback—even if that means “pivoting” because your initial idea didn’t fly.

Laura Saltzer ’12, who says her team “pivoted more than any other group in the class,” says those shifts have taught the team a lot about what works and what doesn’t. “The most important parts of our group’s dynamic are remaining optimistic and thinking way outside the box,” she says. “Business requires creativity, and to be successful you need to be able to react quickly to your surroundings, peers, and market alike.”

In the final phase of the class, each team presents its business plan to a panel of experienced business leaders who weighed in on each plan’s investment potential.

“Generally, the kids try to come up with business models that have the potential for scale,” Ball explains.

“They’re getting to the point where if they got investment dollars, they could begin hiring people.”

The Webb Magazine • Summer 2012

he teams are mentored by Webb parents and alumni, who

offer guidance and insights from their own business experience. Luis Faura P ’13, president of C&F Foods, invited the class to tour his plant and even solicited their input on an actual communications issue at his company. Faisal Yaqub ’07, who recently became a software developer at Apple, helped students understand the ins and outs of app development.

Wolfgang Buehler P ’14, who has been a stakeholder in a host of different startups, spoke to the class about dealing with challenging real-life ethical conflicts.

T

The mentors stressed that while they offered suggestions and answered questions, the actual business decisions rested with the students themselves. “It’s not about saying, ‘You need to do this, this, and this,’” explains Buehler. “They need to have a business plan and a budget. I made comments, but the solution and direction were theirs.”

Both mentors and students have responded enthusiastically.

“Even in college, we didn’t really have classes like this,” Yaqub says. “It’s good to see kids starting at young ages, doing what they’re passionate about and finding real-world solutions to problems.” Andrew Pandji ’12 says he now plans to start his own business, perhaps even before graduating from college. “Prior to taking the class, I had no idea what I would do after college,” he says. “Now I do.” Laura Saltzer adds, “Regardless of what I eventually choose as a career, a basic understanding of the way business works is useful. It almost doesn’t make sense not to take this class.”

affiliates news

An Evening of Celebration It was an incredible evening on Saturday, March 24, as this year’s Affiliates event, “Dinner at Tiffany’s,” raised more than $100,000.

The event proceeds will establish a fund for teacher growth and development. The Affiliates’ Fund will support the pursuit of professional growth activities during the year, as well as research and educational projects conducted by teachers during the summer.

The evening started off with a sponsors’ reception and the opportunity for guests to bid on over 130 silent auction items, including jewelry, specialty baskets, trips and electronics all donated by the Webb community and local vendors. The Affiliates gave a warm welcome to many of Webb’s incoming families, and past, present, and future friends of Webb enjoyed an evening of good company, food, live music, and dancing.

The evening would not have been possible without the support of our sponsors, advertisers, underwriters, and auction donors, who helped to make this event such a huge success. We also extend a warm and grateful thank you to our event chair, Ellie Soltis P ’13, and all the volunteers involved.

Dinner at

TIFFANY’S

College Life A panel of young alumni shared their college experiences with about 30 parents at the January Affiliates meeting. Topics included the application and college selection process, college extracurricular life, and their personal suggestions on how parents can help their children make the transition to college.

Many thanks to Jacob Rode ’10 (Johns Hopkins), Lance Morton ’11 (NYU), Sean James ’11 (Carnegie Mellon), Caleb Chu ’11 (Pomona College), Adam Saltzer ’11 (University of Puget Sound), Tami Schonfeld ’10 (Boston College), Katherine Kilmer ’10 (Bryn Mawr), Christine Wheaton ’09 (Bryn Mawr), and Claire Staggs ’10 (USC).

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

31

FULFILLING OUR

PROMISE

Campaign Update Fulfilling our promise with a fighting heart

F

{

“This is an opportunity to be part of something monumental to our school— its place in history and its future.” - Taylor Stockdale

or decades, Ray Alf taught his students to never give up—to have a fighting heart. It’s a lesson as central to the DNA of The Webb Schools as any other.

This is truly an exciting time at Webb, in which that

lesson plays a vital role. Last fall, Alf’s legacy was honored at the grand opening of the renovated Hall of Life at the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology. That project, and indeed many others, are a part of the $40 million Fulfilling Our Promise Campaign, the largest and most ambitious initiative in the history of The Webb Schools.

32

Thompson Webb, upon his retirement exactly 50 years

its place in history and its future,” says Taylor Stockdale, head of schools. “The impact of this campaign on students, teachers, campus buildings, and grounds, is incredibly tangible.

Not as tangible, but equally important, is the building of our endowment. These funds support financial aid to deserving families, teacher development funds to reward and encourage hard-working faculty, and character education programs that are the backbone of our school’s tradition. Webb has already been elevated, energized, and enhanced in all of the ways we had planned and many more. I am forever grateful to those who have given generously these past few years, and extremely hopeful that there is more to come in the final year.”

ago, asked the community of alumni, parents, and friends to “build a fine plant and establish an endowment that will

HIGHLIGHTS

see the school on a sound foundation through all the years to come.” It is the goal of this campaign to realize that vision and fulfill that promise.

Webb had been quietly raising campaign money for key projects since 2005. The public launch of the campaign was held on October 18, 2008— a period marred by the fall of Lehman Brothers and the worst drop in the U.S. stock market in recent history. Yet Webb boldly and strategically chose to continue, and redoubled efforts to reach its goals and fund much-needed objectives. To date, Webb has raised more than $33 million in current gifts and pledges. Additionally, Webb has received deferred gifts in excess of $11 million from donors who have made an estate or life income contribution.

With the end goal in sight, Webb will conclude the Fulfilling Our Promise Campaign on June 30, 2013.

There is much work remaining, and that work will be pursued vigorously and with a fighting heart.

The time is now to make your first gift or add to your existing contributions. “This is an opportunity to be part of something monumental to our school—

The Webb Magazine • Summer 2012

2005-2012

Unrestricted funds have supplemented maintenance of classrooms, technology, campus programs, and more

2006

Quad and turnaround completed on lower campus

2006-2011

Six new vehicles purchased for student transportation

2006-2012 Athletic funds are secured for volleyball, softball, baseball, golf, and more 2008

Grand Opening of the Copeland Donahue Theater and Digital Media Studio

2008-2010 Dormitory renovations 2010

Price Dining Hall renovated

2011

Successful completion of Crean Foundation challenge for financial aid endowment totaling $3 million in new scholarship funds

2011

Grand Opening of renovated Hall of Life at Alf Museum

2011

$2 million museum gift endows Augustyn Family Curator of Paleontology and Augustyn Family Research Fund

2012

Construction begins on Susan A. Nelson Performing Arts Center

Today

giving and volunteering

Former Trustee David Oxtoby elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences

Briana Curry ’03

David Oxtoby, president of Pomona College,

has been elected to the American Academy

of Arts and Sciences. He will be inducted at a formal ceremony in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in October. The Academy elected 220 new members; in addition to Dr. Oxtoby, the group includes Hillary Rodham Clinton, Clint Eastwood, Melinda Gates, Sir Paul McCartney, Mel Brooks, composer Andre Previn, historian David W. Blight, volcanologist Katharine V. Cashman, mathematician Ngô Bào Châu, actor and playwright Neil Simon, and television journalist Judy Woodruff.

As a member of the Pacesetters’ Club, Briana Curry ’03 shows her devotion to Webb year after year. Not only is Briana a Pacesetter, part of our young alumni leadership giving society, but she is also the class agent for the VWS Class of 2003. As such, she helps Webb reach out to her fellow alumnae and encourage them to support The Webb Fund.

The Academy was chartered in 1780 to “cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people.”

Academy members are elected on the basis of their leadership in academics, the arts, business, or public affairs, and have ranged from Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson to such 20th-century luminaries as Margaret Mead, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Akira Kurosawa.

to give back to the institution that helped shape me into a more honest, determined, and confident young woman. I want to contribute to Webb’s

From 2005 to 2009, Dr. Oxtoby was a board trustee for The Webb Schools. He is also the father of a Vivian Webb graduate, Laura Oxtoby ’04. To see an interview he gave back in 2009, visit www.youtube.com/thewebbschools.

Staying Connected and Giving Back

Briana says, “It’s important for me

continuous success.” The tradition of alumni giving is what keeps Webb strong for future generations, and it all starts with our dedicated young alumni.

You can join Briana in supporting Webb and its continued success by joining the Pacesetter’s Club leadership giving society. For more information, visit www.webb.org/support.

Left to right: Head of Schools Taylor Stockdale; Todd Wagner ’98, Paola Padilla; Lupe and Peter Hernandez P ’13, ’15; Jean P ’04, ’14 and Jessica ’04 Franks; Jordan Taylor ’02, Usman Ali ’02.

O

n April 22nd, a group of nearly 70 alumni, parents, and friends, all members of the Head’s Circle, Leadership Society, Pacesetter’s Club and Thompson & Vivian Webb Society, gathered at the home of Taylor and Anne Stockdale to celebrate giving to Webb and the Alf Museum.

The afternoon also honored the 30th anniversary of Vivian Webb School with a brief history given by Taylor Stockdale and archival displays put together by current students. We also gave special recognition to the alumni and parent class agents who volunteer with our Webb Fund efforts.

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

33

The

Fund

HEAD’S CIRCLE Principes Circle ($2,000,000 or more)

Gretchen J. Augustyn & Family The Augustyn Foundation Trust Gold Patron ($250,000 to $499,999)

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 Estate of Mortimer Fleishhacker Capt. & Mrs. Robert M. Hanson, USN ’62 Estate of Wayne Albert Hanson Mr. & Mrs. Wayne L. Hanson ’59 Dr. & Mrs. James F. Vedder ’45 Mr. ChunXian Wei & Ms. Zhi Dou

Patron

34

($50,000 to $99,999)

Mr. Zhonghai Fei & Mrs. Xiaohang Lu Mr. & Mrs. Luis Faura Mr. & Mrs. William L. Fraim ’70 Dr. & Mrs. James E. Hall ’59 Mr. & Mrs. Michael M. Heflin, Jr. ’85 Myung J. Jun Ludwick Family Foundation Mr. & Mrs. Louis M. Mayberg ’80

Principes Society ($25,000 to $49,999)

Mr. & Mrs. Robert L. Adler The Ahmanson Foundation Warren J. Arnett ’43 The Berry Family Foundation Françoise Fleishhacker Mr. & Mrs. Chip Greening ’62 Mr. & Mrs. David J. Kahm ’90 Mr. Chao Jiang & Mrs. Meng Yu Edward A. Middleton, Jr. ’39 Mr. & Mrs. Paul M. Reitler ’54 Mr. Azer Rezk & Mrs. Nivine Basta Mr. & Mrs. R.J. Romero Fred B. Snite Foundation Mrs. Dana Su Lee ’84 & Mr. Greg Lee Lance C. Williams ’97

Pioneers Society ($10,000 to $24,999)

Mr. & Mrs. R. Larry Ashton, Jr. ’70 Mr. & Mrs. Bruce P. Baganz William M. Bauman ’82 Mr. & Mrs. Charles L. Callander ’71 The Capital Group Companies Charitable Foundation Dr. Young Chai & Dr. Theressa Hong

The Webb Magazine • Summer 2012

Mr. & Mrs. Richard H. Clark Mr. & Mrs. Richard P. Clarke ’63 Kenneth J. De Nault ’61 Mr. & Mrs. Jim Drasdo ’63 Jean A. Franks Dr. & Mrs. Wallace G. Gosney June Greening Mr. & Mrs. Philip Guardia Mr. & Mrs. Terry Henn Penny J. Holliday Regina Ip Lau The David B. Jones Foundation Mr. Chongsu Kim & Mrs. Hyunmi Chang Mr. Paul W. Lai ’87 & Mrs. Madeline Siu Mr. Wai Hung Lee & Ms. Stella Leung Dr. Bin Li & Ms. Jie Gu Dr. Ronald Liskanich & Dr. Gloria Stevens Mr. Shian Liu & Mrs. Ping Xu Mr. & Mrs. David Loo ’79 George H. Mayr Foundation Mr. & Mrs. Kimball P. McCloud ’67 Roger J. Millar ’61 Mr. & Mrs. Douglas F. Myles Mr. Yuet Pang & Mrs. Mui Cheung Mr. William Plunkett & Mrs. Valerie Romero Plunkett Mr. & Mrs. Donald J. Plyley Col. & Mrs. John S. Rogers, USAF (Ret.) ’59 Mr. & Mrs. Miles R. Rosedale ’69 Mrs. Richard Romero Robert P. Scripps, Jr. ’37 Dr. & Mrs. Lee Silver Mr. & Mrs. Christopher Soltis Mr. & Mrs. Richard C. Stoker ’56 Mr. & Mrs. Steve Thompson Mr. & Mrs. Bobby Tsai ’79 Mr. Tom Tsao & Mrs. Crystal Wu Mr. Michael Vincent & Mrs. Jessica Govias-Vincent Todd J. Wagner ’98 Mr. & Mrs. Sunny Man Fu Wong Mr. Li Tian Yang & Mrs. Wei Yi Chen Mr. Jaigug Yoo & Mrs. Euncheung Lee Mr. Hao Zhang & Mrs. Ke Chen Mr. & Mrs. Peter F. Ziegler ’63 Anonymous (2)

LEADERSHIP SOCIETY Founders Society ($5,000 to $9,999)

Dr. & Mrs. Carson E. Agnew ’66 Mr. Edward Au & Mrs. Polly Shum Mr. & Mrs. William Baldwin The Harry F. Barnes & Carol H. Barnes Family Foundation Mr. Timofey Belyaev & Mrs. Alena Belyaeva Mr. Zhen Zhong Cao & Mrs. Chen Feng Mr. Robert Chen & Mrs. May Lin Mr. & Mrs. John W. Dey ’69

Mr. David Fawcett ’61 & Ms. Diane Wilsdon Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Fidanque, Jr. ’58 Mr. John Fuelling & Dr. Andrea Brault Fuelling Mr. & Mrs. Jack Greening, Jr. Mr. & Mrs. Douglas C. Gregg, Jr. ’66 Mr. & Mrs. Daniel M. Guggenheim ’56 Mr. & Mrs. Zhen Fa Han Mr. & Ms. Sean Kim Dr. Suchan Lee & Dr. Hye Young Park Mr. & Mrs. Zhenhong Lin Keith W. Loring ’46 Linda Lui Mr. & Mrs. Deron Marquez Mr. Xijun Miao & Dr. Fan Yin Mitsubishi Cement Timothy C. Moore ’59 Maryanne Murphy David C. Myles ’80 Newport Beach Sunrise Rotary Foundation Po Wan Wendy Ngan Mr. & Mrs. Gerald H. Oppenheimer ’40 Gerald Oppenheimer Family Foundation Oremor Management & Investment Company Mr. Dongwan Pu & Dr. Zhongjian Dai Mr. R. Bruce Rule ’62 & Mrs. Janice Brody Mr. & Mrs. Peter C. Sawyers ’68 Mr. & Mrs. Stephen E. Scherer Mr. & Mrs. Edwin G. Schuck, Jr. Daniel K. Seligman ’81 Kathleen Sharpe Kathleen Kelly Sharpe Family Trust Mr. & Mrs. Peter T. Smoot ’62 Mr. & Mrs. Gordon M. Steel ’63 Dr. & Mrs. Charles Steinmann The Hon. & Mrs. John A. Sutro, Jr. ’53 Mr. & Mrs. Thomas Terris Mr. Derek Tien & Ms. Sheila Sung Mr. & Mrs. Pakhung Yip Mr. & Mrs. Johnny Zhang Mr. Edward Zheng & Mrs. Carol Peng Mr. Yi Min Zhou & Mrs. Ya Hong Ye Tammy Zipser

Blue & Gold ($3,000 to $4,999)

Mr. & Mrs. Bret Armatas The Harry G. & Pauline Austin Foundation Mr. & Mrs. Greg Bentley Drs. Najib & Maha Bouz Dr. & Mrs. Robert Cave Dr. & Mrs. Chatchawin Charoen-Rajapark ’78 Mr. Hong Chen & Mrs. Hui Xu Dr. & Mrs. Edward DiGiamarino Mr. Dan Edwards & Dr. Robin Su-Edwards Mr. Zhiming Hao & Ms. Hongxia Shi Mr. & Mrs. Tony Harold Dr. & Mrs. Gregory Hess Mr. Jiancheng Huang & Mrs. Yanhui Chen Mr. & Mrs. Seong Gyun Kim

Today

giving and volunteering

Mr. Xin Liu & Mrs. Yanjun Zeng Dr. David Mirkin ’66 & Mrs. Karen Piacentini Orange Coast Motors Mr. & Mrs. Rodolphe S. Otter Mr. Chan Man Park & Mrs. Ju Haeng Lee Dr. Sunghyuk Park & Dr. Byoungchan Choi Mr. & Mrs. John S. Pettingell ’62 Mr. & Mrs. Ronald C. H. Quon ’55 Mr. & Mrs. Hugh Rose Dr. Irene Sang Mr. & Mrs. Brian R. Scherer Mr. & Mrs. Peter E. Shaver Mr. Richard Tang & Mrs. Lisa Song Mr. & Mrs. Ralph D. Young, III ’63 Mr. Bin Yu & Mrs. Yongmei Wang

Friends ($2,000 to $2,999)

Mr. & Mrs. Alexander H. Bell ’98 The Revs. David Berkedal & Sally Welch BHP Billiton Petroleum Matched Giving Mr. & Mrs. Del Brault Mr. & Mrs. Wolfgang Buehler Drs. Christopher & Laurie Chalian Mr. & Mrs. Deepak Chandrasekhar Yuan-Fei Chang Mr. & Mrs. Michael Chen Songyan Chen Mr. & Mrs. Chris Chon Kenneth L. Colborn ’47 ConocoPhillips Mr. & Mrs. William H. David ’45 Mr. Alexander A. S. Demetriades ’86 & Mrs. Hope L. Demetriades ’87 Mr. & Mrs. Sameer P. Dholakia ’91 Mr. Sanjiv P. Dholakia ’87 & Ms. Melissa Barnes Dholakia ’87 Mr. Li Dong & Mrs. Heidi Peng Mr. & Mrs. Wolcott B. Dunham, Jr. ’61 Dr. & Mrs. Thawat Eosakul Mr. & Mrs. Robert Eras Dr. & Mrs. Tong Fei Mr. & Mrs. Dodd Fischer ’61 Jenna Z. Gambaro ’95 Dr. Daniel Gluckstein & Dr. Akemi Chang Drs. Gerald & Yvonne Gollin Mr. & Mrs. James Herndon Mr. & Mrs. Harley G. Higbie, Jr. ’43 Mr. & Mrs. Leonard Hoffstetter Mr. & Mrs. John F. Holliday ’84 Mr. & Mrs. H. Earl Hoover, II ’52 The Ingraham Memorial Fund Dr. F. Gard Jameson, Jr. ’71 & Dr. Florence Jameson Mr. Ligang Jin & Ms. Qi Gao Mr. & Mrs. Blake B. Johnson ’95 Mr. & Mrs. Sherwood Kingsley ’58 Mr. Chun Kong & Mrs. Lina Zhao Donald Lam

Mr. & Mrs. Frankie P. M. Law ’81 Mr. & Mrs. Henry Leung Mr. Chongxiao Liu & Ms. Jing Shen Mr. Pingsheng Liu & Mrs. Jing Zhou Loma Linda University Medical Center Mr. & Mrs. Blair Maffris Mr. & Mrs. Leo Marshall Julie McGarry Dr. & Mrs. Samuel Mourani Mr. & Mrs. George Oney Mr. Anthony Parker & Dr. Kristine Koh Mr. & Mrs. Charles M. Pasarell, Jr. Edmund L. Piper ’43 Mr. Sergey Popov & Mrs. Natalya Popova Mr. & Mrs. Alexander M. Power ’43 Mr. & Ms. Marc Saltzer Mr. & Mrs. Steven C. Shenbaum ’88 Mr. Carl Stern ’64 & Ms. Holly Hayes Mary R. Tollenaere Ms. Jennifer Tong ’90 & Mr. Christopher Carlisle Eric Tzeng ’99 Mr. & Mrs. Albert V. T. Walsh ’00 Mr. Yingbo Wang & Mrs. Surao Qiu Dr. & Mrs. James Williams Mr. & Mrs. Gary Withey Mr. Charles Work ’58 & Ms. Veronica Haggart John Yeung ’91 Noreen Zanft Mr. Alex Zhang & Mrs. Jeanie Lau

Pacesetters (Classes 1996-2000)

(Classes 2001-2005) Minimum Gift $100

Usman S. Ali ’02 Marisa E. Chai ’02 Benjamin Chen ’02 Briana J. Curry ’03 Alexandra N. Dellerson ’04 Jessica A. Franks ’04 Christian R. Holmes, V ’05 Rebecca K. Hsia ’05 Micol C. Issa ’05 Matthew M. W. Lauria ’01 Pilar T. Mitchell ’04 John P. Morgan ’05 Caleb B. Morse ’03 Tommy C. W. Ngan ’05 Andrew C. Raser ’01 Whitney L. Sevesind ’05 Jana I. Sims ’03 Daniel J. Smith ’03 Daniel B. Suhr ’02 Katherine Sun ‘02 Lorraine Sun ’04 Jordan H. Taylor ’02 Lawrence A. Tollenaere ’03 Jaraad A. Virani ’02 J. Brianne (Brie) Widaman ’01 James G. Withey ’04 Eric C. Yeh ’04 Robert L. Zondervan ‘03

(Classes 2006-2011)

Minimum Gift $250

Minimum Gift $50

Monica Atiyeh Whitaker ’96 Mary K. Baumann ’00 Alexander H. Bell ’98 Damien A. Bisserier ’96 Kathy P. Chen Liu ’99 Patty P. Chen ’99 Jihoon Choi ’99 M. Preston Clarke ’98 Deval R. Dvivedi ’00 Charles C. Hadsell ’98 Jarasa M. Kanok ’96 Jason D. Pasley ’96 Kunal G. Shah ’97 Ryan J. H. Shin ’96 Kelly C. Smith ’00 Eric Tzeng ’99 Todd J. Wagner ’98 Albert V. T. Walsh ’00 G. Gregg Webb ’99 Lance C. Williams ’97 Geoffrey C. Winssinger ’00 Patrick H. Zahn ’97

Angela T. Alexander ’07 Lexus M. Beaman ’08 Stephanie L. Black ’10 Nancy E. Blayney ’09 Gauri Gadgil ’06 Lexington B. Henn ’09 Lucia Herrero ’10 Cynthia Ip ’08 Praneet K. Kalkat ’06 Eunice H. Kim ’10 Madeleine J. Koski ’09 Thomas Y. Lane ’07 Riley T. Lewis ’07 Heidi K. Marti ’06 Juli E. Nokleberg ’10 Michelle J. Pastrano ’07 Nicholas J. Phelps ’06 Gabriel A. Romero ’08 Matthew H. G. Tan ’07 Jeffrey R. Taylor ’06 Kathleen M. Terris ’06 Kevin M. Terris ’09 Francisco J. R. Valera ’06 Jack Wiese ’06 Thomas K. Yu ’06 Jonathan Yuen ’06

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

35

NewsNotes From and for the alumni of The Webb Schools

From adversity to action alumni spotlight

C h r i s t i n e B ag g e r ly Fr e n c h ’ 9 0

The most important moments in our lives are often the ones that challenge us the most, forcing us to look at familiar problems in a new way. That’s been a recurring theme in the life of alumna Christine Baggerly French ’90.

While French once struggled through her Webb biology 36

class, today she is program director of the nonprofit organization GrassrootsHealth, at the forefront of eyeopening new research on the health effects of vitamin D. Test Anxiety

GrassrootsHealth

A day student from Claremont, French knew what to expect when she arrived at Webb: both of her older brothers were Webb alumni (Keith Baggerly ’84 and Derek Baggerly ’86).

Even so, she characterizes her Webb experience as “challenging beyond belief.”

Fortunately, she enjoyed a lot of support from teachers like Joan Presecan, whose “famously difficult” biology exams gave French a bad case of test anxiety. Recognizing that French knew the material better than her scores indicated, Presecan relieved the pressure by giving French extra time—which French ultimately didn’t need. Not only did French pass Presecan’s class, she later decided to become a biology teacher herself, earning her bachelor’s degree from UC Santa Barbara and her teaching credential from Southwest Texas State University.

The latest phase of French’s career has been driven by a more personal challenge: in the mid-2000s, her mother, Carole Baggerly, was diagnosed with breast cancer. “While going through her treatment, she found research that said that up to 50% of breast cancer could be prevented if women had a vitamin D level over 40 nanograms/ milliliter,” French explains. “Then she found more research associating [low vitamin D levels] with different diseases, such as osteoporosis and cancers.”

Startled that the medical community had done so little to publicize those connections, Baggerly decided to found GrassrootsHealth, a nonprofit organization dedicated to researching and publicizing the health impact of vitamin D levels.

After a stint as a student teacher, French realized the classroom was not for her and decided to make a social contribution in a different area. Growing up in droughtprone Southern California gave her a strong interest in water conservation and water management; “we need to do the best we can to protect the resources we have and make sure we use what we have wisely and efficiently,” she says. In 2003, she earned her master’s degree in Environmental Science from UC Riverside and took a job at the University of California’s Center for Water Resources, working on water issues throughout the southwestern U.S. and Pacific islands.

The Webb Magazine • Summer 2012

Council Corner French worked with GrassrootsHealth on a number of individual projects, and after state budget cuts closed the Center for Water Resources in 2010, she decided to join her mother’s organization full time.

“I was aware of this journey that she was going through.

Because it was such a personal message to her, it was also a very personal message for me, so I was happy to work on it.”

rench’s primary role is to analyze

data from GrassrootsHealth’s researchers and translate the trends she finds into messages for the press and public. The data is startling: recent studies have found a strong correlation between low vitamin D levels (which Baggerly describes as a global epidemic) and the risk of everything from colorectal cancer to the common cold.

F

French lives in Redlands, California, with her husband Ross and their two dogs, Mishka and Natasha. She volunteers with both the Boys & Girls Clubs of Redlands and the Redlands Humane Society, using her photographic skills to take pictures of animals awaiting adoption.

Both French’s gift for analysis and her talent for turning challenges into new directions may date back to an exercise in one of Blair Maffris’ art classes at Webb.

“We had an assignment to pick a tree on campus and draw it 14 times,” French recalls. “You could do pastels, you could paint it, but you had to draw that tree 14 times. That one assignment really opened my eyes to looking at things in a different way. ... It goes beyond just objects: [it’s] trying to view things from different angles and different perspectives.”

T

he Alumni Council is grateful for the opportunity to give back to the school that made a significant personal and educational impact on all of us. The Council’s work supports Webb’s mission: graduating men and women of honor and character.

In so doing, we welcomed back to campus and to regional events alumni with professional and personal passions that continue to engage and inspire all members of our community. In February, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Dr. Muhammad Rizvi Mowjood Memorial Collection on Islamic Studies of the W. Russell Fawcett Memorial Library. In April, author John Scalzi ’87 returned to campus to visit with students and alumni en route to his appearance at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.

The Council hosted the 13th Annual Sophomore Career Evening on April 29, featuring alumni in the fields of medicine, entertainment, real estate, building & design, animation, and the military to speak with and inspire sophomores. And on May 25, we welcomed the Class of 2012 into the Alumni Association at our annual Senior Breakfast.

37

Left to right: Chris Waddell ’04, Jillian Chavez ’07, Jesse Albert ’82, Jenn Pan ’04 and a Dreamworks colleague, Lorraine Sun ’04, Stephanie Baron ’96, Kunal Shah ’97, Lisa Shonnard ’97, Dr. Jason Pasley ’96, and Max Nelson ’95

Lastly, we wish to thank outgoing Council members Richard Dukes ’78 and Alex Rapoport ’97 for their many years of service. Your dedication to Webb is greatly appreciated and will be missed. We also welcome seven new members: Chip Greening ’62, Doug Gregg ’66, and Sandra Lee Rebish ’88 have joined as members-at-large; and our new regional representatives are Julia MarciariAlexander ’85 (San Diego), Jason Blackwell ’91 (Portland), Katherine Kilmer ’10 (Philadelphia), and Jimmy Hsieh ’89 (Taiwan).

It’s been a busy, rewarding, and fulfilling year. It is for these and so many other reasons that we return to our beloved alma mater time and again, to give back to the school that gave so much to us.

Janel Henriksen Hastings ’87, President janelhastings@gmail.com

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

NewsNotes

22 and a half minutes with Nils Muiznieks ’82

Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights

Q&A First, the obvious questions: What drew you to Latvia and what has kept you there?

38

Bureaucracies don’t normally conjure up associations with words like liberty, idealism, or human rights. But as Nils Muiznieks ’82 can attest, that’s a bit of a bum rap, at least in his experience.

After graduating from Webb, Muiznieks studied political science, first at Princeton and then at UC Berkeley, where he focused on European security and Soviet/East European politics. After earning his PhD in 1993, he moved to Latvia, where he worked with various bureaucracies—in academia, government, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)—to promote and secure human rights in the young democracy.

In January 2012, he was elected the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights. He began his six-year term on April 1. This Q&A was conducted soon after he took office.

The Webb Magazine • Summer 2012

During my studies, I became interested in transitions to democracy, which is closely linked to human rights. After finishing my doctoral degree, I received a fellowship to study ethnic relations in Latvia, the country from which my parents fled during World War II. I began to delve into issues related to minority rights, anti-discrimination, and racism and intolerance. After moving to Latvia I encountered many Soviet-type bureaucrats who angered me with their stance.

I had been raised to believe I had rights and that the government works for me—a point of view not very common in Latvia at the time.

When my fellowship ended, I was offered two opportunities: running a newly created NGO called the Latvian Center for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies and doing human rights programming for the Soros Foundation—Latvia. My wife and I decided to stay, and the rest is history.

You’ve also been a member of the Latvian government in the capital, Riga. How did that come about?

In 2002, I was offered the position of minister for social integration, responsible for policies towards minorities, anti-discrimination efforts, and the development of civil society. From 2005 to 2012, I ran the Advanced Social and Political Research Institute at the University of Latvia and was also Latvia’s representative to the Council of Europe’s European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance.

Your position as the Council of Europe’ s commissioner for human rights encompasses a broad mandate: to promote human rights awareness and reforms in all member states. What tops your agenda?

The economic crisis has had a serious impact on human rights, especially on those of the most vulnerable groups: children, the elderly, the disabled, and Roma (Gypsies). At the same time, in many countries, national human rights institutions have faced disproportionate budget cuts. My task is to inject a human

The Webb rights voice into austerity debates and draw attention to the plights of the most vulnerable. I also intend to focus on the human rights implications of the information society: how to harness social networking sites and other new media to the benefit of human rights; how to curb mobbing, child pornography, and racism over the Internet; and how to balance privacy with freedom of expression.

Some of the issues at the forefront of civil rights in the U.S. include women’s rights, immigration reform and gay rights. Does Europe face similar challenges?

Women’s rights are well entrenched in Europe through legislation and institutional reforms, though challenges remain: in particular, combating domestic violence, gender discrimination, and human trafficking. The rights of immigrants and lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender persons are newer issues. These are groups that in many countries are targets of discrimination.

Going back to your time at Webb, what was your Webb experience like?

I had a terrific time. My education was fantastic and prepared me well for university studies. In my sophomore year, I spent a semester in France, which broadened my horizons, taught me independence and adaptability, and helped me acquire French.

I also devoted a lot of time to sports, serving as captain of both the football and tennis teams for two years.

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

It’s difficult to name just one teacher or coach. Jeff Fast taught me the wonders of Shakespeare. John Heyes taught me not only literature, but urged me to be ambitious, stressing that “it is not good enough to be merely a nice guy!” Jacques Pauwels introduced me to my love affair with the French language and France. But the teacher with possibly the greatest influence on my intellectual development was Dan White, who taught American history. It is probably because of him that I continued on into the social sciences.

What impact did your time at Webb have on your career and philosophy?

Webb was a springboard to continue my education and a launching pad from which I became acquainted with Europe.

Webb’s focus on honor became deeply embedded in my psyche.

The need to look beyond intellectual pursuits, to be wellrounded, also helped me develop into a more balanced person.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank Webb, the various headmasters, the teachers, the coaches, and my classmates for a remarkable start in life.

Book shelf

New Releases Liebestod: Opera Buffa with Leib Goldkorn (W.W. Norton & Co.) is Leslie Epstein ’56s ninth novel. The story follows the adventures of Leib, a European émigré and meagerly successful musician, who attempts to stage the only opera ever composed by his father, famed 20th century composer Gustav Mahler.

Epstein wrote, “Half of my class of ’56 and half the current administration and staff are cunningly buried in the book.” Epstein is the director of the creative writing program at Boston University, where he has been for more than 30 years.

Redshirts (Tor Books) is John Scalzi ’87s new novel about the adventures of Ensign Andrew Dahl who’s been assigned to a prestigious new post on the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid.

Scalzi is the author of eight novels, including Old Man’s War (which is being adapted for the big screen by Paramount Studios), and president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He’s also written eight nonfiction books (two of which have received Hugo Awards), and his blog, http://whatever. scalzi.com, is one of the most visited personal blogs on the Web, with 5.4 million visits in 2011.

Alive Inside the Wreck (OR Books), is Joe Woodward’s biography of Nathanael West, author of Miss Lonelyhearts and The Day of the Locust. For this book, Woodward combed through personal letters, photographs, unpublished manuscripts and seldomheard taped interviews with family and friends. A two-time winner of a Los Angeles Press Club Award, Woodward is the director of institutional advancement at Webb and the parent of Noah ’10 and Sam ’12.

All books are available on Amazon.com in hardcover or ebook format.

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

39

NewsNotes College Sports Update Rosie Lewis ’09 won the 100m hurdles at the 2012 SCIAC Championships held on April 27-28 at the University of Redlands.

Her other events include the 400m hurdles and the 4x100 and 4x400 relays. - 1

40

Andrew Lantz ’10 had a stellar track season this year, competing against some of the fastest collegiate runners in the nation. He broke four Davidson records (indoor mile, indoor 800m, outdoor 1500m, and outdoor 800m) and was named SoCon Men’s Track Athlete of the Week. Davidson recognized Andrew with the Men’s Track & Field Award for Most Valuable Distance Athlete and the Fred Borch Award for Men’s Cross Country. Andrew still holds the Webb record for the 800m. - 2 Jake Waas ’10 is a defensive lineman with the UC Davis Aggies. In 2010, he earned the George Belenis Award as outstanding redshirt, and he was selected as Scout Defense Player of the Week after San Diego and South Dakota games.

Jake is majoring in exercise biology and planning for a career in sports medicine and athletic training. - 3 During her freshman year at Rice University, Dana Edwards ’11 was a member the women’s volleyball team. Rice competes at the Division I level. - 4 Other Webbies who played college varsity sports this past school year include: Basketball

Christina Duron ’08, Swarthmore College Football

Everett Chu ’11, Pomona College Chris Jusuf ’11, Hamilton College Fencing

Juli Nokleberg ’10, US Air Force Academy

Golf

Gabe Romero ’08, Pomona College Soccer

Lindsey Crowe ’10, Bryn Mawr College

1

Softball

Sasha Wijeyeratne ’08, Swarthmore College Swimming

Christian Woods ’08, Wheaton College Charlotte Wilson ’10, Trinity College Callie Renfrew ’11, Wheaton College Tennis

Neel Kotrappa ’10, Claremont McKenna College

2

Volleyball

Madison Fuelling ’11, Haverford College Sasha Wijeyeratne ’08, Swarthmore College In 2010, Marcelo Leonardi ’94 was named head coach of the women’s water polo team at Cal State Northridge.

During the 2011 season, the team finished the year ranked 15th in the nation. Marcelo also served as an assistant coach with the U.S. Junior National team at the 2011 World Championships in Italy and was named the top Olympic Development Program coach for the Southern Region.

Before arriving at CSUN, Marcelo was the head coach of El Rancho High School’s water polo and swim programs for six years, where the team won two league titles, and a runner-up finish in the CIF Division III championship game.

In 2004, he was named CIF Division III Coach of the Year. Marcelo has a BA from Whittier College and his EdD from Azusa Pacific. - 5

3

4

If your name should be added to this list, please contact the Alumni Office at alumni@webb.org.

5 The Webb Magazine • Summer 2012

Recognition Foodies in the News Jenn Louis ’89 has been named a 2012 Food & Wine Magazine Best New Chef. Jenn is the chef/owner of Lincoln Restaurant and Sunshine Tavern in Portland, Oregon, and although she has been in the kitchen since the 1990s, she has been running her own kitchen for less than five years. Previous winners of the prestigious award include Thomas Keller of French Laundry, Tom Colicchio of Craft restaurants and Top Chef fame, and legendary French chef Daniel Boulud.

This year’s winning chefs were celebrated at an awards ceremony in New York City on April 3rd. In an interview with OregonLive.com, Jenn said that one of the things she is most excited about is meeting Questlove, drummer for The Roots and the house band on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, at the ceremony. While she concedes that Questlove is the better drummer, who makes the best fried chicken is up for grabs.

Silver Award for Young Alumni Program Webb has received a 2012 Silver Award from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education’s District VII in recognition of Webb’s young alumni cookie project. The award recognizes best practices from over 300 universities, colleges, and independent schools in Arizona, California, Guam, Hawaii, Nevada, Northern Mariana Islands, and Utah.

Everyone at Webb knows dining hall director Al Alvarez and his “homemade” chocolate chip cookies. The young alumni cookie project was started by staffer Anne Stewart, who organized close to 90 care packages of Al’s cookies to arrive on 53 college campuses on Valentine’s Day! The cookie packages traveled to 15 states, and one even crossed the Canadian border to reach the University of Alberta. One appreciative alum wrote: “ I do not know why, but I feel that Webbie cookies are probably the best out of the state. Maybe because the cookies have both a sweet and nostalgic taste.”

Andrew Kirschner ’90 left Wilshire restaurant more than a year ago to open his own place. The result is Tar & Roses, a gastropub-style operation, located in Santa Monica, California. Praised by renowned local food critic Jonathan Gold of the Los Angeles Times for its “serious but playful mix of wood-fired small-plate temptations,” Tar & Roses has quickly become a favorite among Westside foodies.

This is Andrew’s first restaurant, and he aims to share a menu that speaks to his travels and his deeply ingredient-focused food philosophy. For a complete menu, photos, reviews, and more check out www.tarandroses.com.

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

41

NewsNotes Regional Events Los Angeles

New York

San Francisco

In February, Webb alumni and friends gathered at the Huntington Library in Pasadena to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Dr. Muhammad Rizvi Mowjood Memorial Collection on Islamic Studies.

42

Claremont Alumni and friends gathered at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco in February.

Washington, DC

In April, alumni, students, faculty, and friends joined author John Scalzi ’87 for a “Meet the Author” lunch in Jackson Library.

Barstow The Webb Magazine • Summer 2012

Alumni Peccary Trip

April in New York: Alumni and friends gathered at the home of David Loo ’79 and his wife Valerie.

Alumni gathered at the Scion Restaurant on July 10, 2012 to celebrate summer in DC.

T H E W E B B SC HO O L S 1940 • We enjoyed catching up with Peter “CJ” Bennett, who

attended Webb for his freshman and sophomore years. He’s living on his ranch in the Fresno area. His granddaughter, Sydney Stewart, will be a VWS freshman in the fall, and he looks forward to visiting campus soon. - 1

1952 • It was nice to see Patrick Muffler ’54, Paul Reitler ’54, Jack Sutro ’53, Renton Rolph ’66, Norm Blackburn and Mike Murray at the alumni gathering in San Francisco last January. - 2

1953 • Members of the Class of ’53 gathered in Newport Beach for another reunion celebration. They also visited Webb on May 20th, that included a museum tour with Don Lofgren and a student-led campus tour.

The day at Webb culminated with lunch on the Webb House patio with Head of Schools Taylor Stockdale. - 3

1

2

3

4

1963 • Tom Butterworth enjoyed seeing Bob Forward ’62 earlier this year. They met up at the Farmer’s Market in Los Angeles, and Tom brought along his daughter Susan. - 4

Bob and Barbara Mixon are preparing for a trip of a lifetime with the Alf Museum, a fossil-finding expedition to Madagascar. Perhaps they were motivated by their previous trip with Don Lofgren and museum friends to the Gobi.

1967 • In February, Daniel Fisher appeared on the PBS Nova special

Ice Age Death Trap, which documented the excavation of a unique fossil site packed with astonishingly well-preserved bones. To watch a video clip from the PBS special, visit www.webb.org and search for “Ice Age.”

43

1969 • Richard Hastings and his sister Carol visited campus to

pay respects to their father, Al Hastings ’42, and his lifelong service to the schools. Richard and Carol visited their father’s senior plaque in Jackson Library and examined files from his years as a student. - 5

1970 • Over the Christmas holidays, Nat Forbes and Joe Thomas caught up over a delicious meal at The Village Grill in Claremont. Nat lives in Singapore, where he’s the director at Forbes Calamity Prevention Pte. Ltd. - 6

5

6

7

8

1971 • It was nice to hear from Todd Dofflemyer. He wrote that he’s “doing well and continues to farm in Tulare County, CA.” Mark Shurtleff and his son Michael visited campus in February.

Mark recently retired from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, where he practiced law out of the Orange County office. - 7

1974 • Robert Donin is on the board of the Los Angeles-Guangzhou Sister City Association.

1975 • Steve Huffman has been a member of the Master Chorale of

Flagstaff for the past three years. The group traveled to New York in March to perform at Carnegie Hall as part of a festival of choirs. They performed Magnificat, a work for choir and orchestra by British composer John Rutter.

While at Webb, Steve sang with the school’s choir, the Claremont Boys Choir, and performed in the musicals Oliver and The Boyfriend, all under the direction of Christopher Trussell. - 8

1977 • Ahmad Akrami and his family visited Webb in March.

They live in Colorado, but were in town for a wedding. - 9

9

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

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

John Hall ’68

I

The Father He Never Knew

n December 2011, John Hall ’68 received a truly special Christmas gift: his first meeting with the biological father he never knew.

44

John was adopted as an infant by Lydia and Francis Hall. John’s adoptive father, who died in 1999, was the CEO of electric guitar manufacturer Rickenbacker, a position John holds today. As John grew older, he became curious about his birth parents. His investigations came up empty until he discovered the name Gary Miller on a legal bill in his adoptive father’s records. John then tracked down Miller’s high school yearbook photos, which revealed a resemblance too close for coincidence.

1981 • Steve Farley is the assistant minority leader of the Arizona House of Representatives. In March, he announced his candidacy for State Senate, which will be decided during the November elections.

Steve is “still doing large public art projects all over the country, including Salt Lake City, Phoenix, and Santa Clarita, CA.” During Alumni Weekend last October, Steve caught up with his former English teacher Lach MacDonald, who taught at Webb from 1956-1982. - 10 Michael Turner started a new commercial insurance brokerage in Las Vegas and Costa Mesa, CA: Miller United Insurance. His sons, Tyler and Jordan, are in business school at Loyola Marymount University. - 11

1982 • Many thanks to Jesse Albert for being a guest speaker at Sophomore Career Evening. Jesse talked with students about his work as a producer of film, television, and digital media. - 12 Bill Bauman is the proud dad of a VWS graduate. Brooke graduated in June and plans to attend Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX, this fall. - 13

1983 • Derek Deskey is enjoying life in Georgia. Last October, Derek and his son, Will, teamed up at a Northwestern University Sailing Team Alumni Regatta. “We were the youngest and oldest competing sailors

10

11

12

13

John and Miller finally connected through the alumni office of Pomona College, of which Miller is an alumnus.

On December 26, John flew to Hayden, Idaho, to meet his biological father face to face.

John learned that his birth mother had been Miller’s high school sweetheart. When she became pregnant, she and Miller agreed that it was best to give the baby up for adoption. While Miller later had other children, he always wondered about his first son. Miller had all but given up hope of ever finding him when John’s note arrived from Pomona College.

Sadly, John’s biological mother passed away in 2006, but John has made contact with her family. Although raised as an only child, he has learned that he has six biological siblings.

John says he and Miller plan to stay in touch, making up for 61 years of lost time.

The Webb Magazine • Summer 2012

and placed fifth out of 11 boats. It’s been fun for me to carry on the family legacy of sailing. It was something that I was introduced to by my father starting at age 7. I also play a decent amount of team tennis (doubles) and even went to the USTA Georgia State Championships at the 4.0 level last May.” Derek is still working at Verizon in a finance role. He hopes to make it to the 30th next year. - 14 Taylor Stockdale caught up with Michael McDermott in Beijing in April. - 15

Many thanks to Ed Ratinoff for conducting a workshop on real estate financing and investing for Webb students during Unbounded Days.

Four students visited Ed’s Century City office, where they examined the process of researching, buying, renovating, managing and selling large apartment complexes using investment pools such as pension funds.

Ed was joined by Webb parent Alex Garcia (Alyssa ’15). - 16 Christopher Riggio and his wife, Jean Bodeau, have moved to China, where they expect to live for the next three years. Jean accepted a Chevron job transfer to Chengdu, China, to become the environmental team lead on the Chongdongbei natural gas projects. Chris will continue his work as contractor on the Wheatstone Liquefied Natural Gas Project, working remotely from Chengdu. Eventually, he plans to change to a rotational position on the same project, with a month-on/month-off at the project site in Western Australia. He and Jean are looking forward to exciting adventures hiking and traveling in Asia during their time off, and also to reconnecting with Webb classmates living in that region.

1984 • Christina Mercer McGinley is the proud mom of a WSC graduate. Tim graduated in May and he is now heading to UC Berkeley.

In August, Christina’s daughter, Corinne, will be attending Vivian Webb School as a freshman.

14

15

16

17

It was great to see Rick Wang and his family on campus in March.

They were in town touring colleges for Rick’s daughter. They visited the new Hall of Life display and had a chance to see the fossil “Linda,” which Rick’s father, James Wang ’51, discovered on a peccary trip as a student at Webb. Rick also met up with three Webb students in Shanghai over spring break. Many thanks to Rick for his hospitality. - 17

45

1986 • Coleen (Leavitt) Martinez’s son Will is attending Webb this fall. - 18

1987 • It was great to see Yosh Han ’89, Adam Bunshoft ’89,

Sanjay Dholakia, Melissa Barnes Dholakia, and Jay Ashford ’88 at the alumni gathering in San Francisco last January. - 19

18

19

20

21

The Board of Trustees welcomed Janel Henriksen Hastings as its newest member at the February board meetings. Read about Janel’s commencement address to the VWS Class of 2012 on page 20.

In March, Paul Lai met up with Mike Kwon and Darren Liang in Shanghai. Paul and his wife, Madeline, are living in Hong Kong. Mike and his family relocated from Portland, OR, to Shanghai last year, and where Mike continues his work as senior designer for Nike. Darren is the director and CEO at International Wood Products Co., which produces furniture. - 20 It was great to see Rob Lawrence and Natasha Kordus back on campus. They came to campus to hear John Scalzi speak. - 21 Many thanks to John Scalzi, who spent a day at Webb on April 19.

John was in town for the LA Times Festival of Books. He spoke with students from AP Language & Composition and Honors English classes about the role of the artist in society. During lunch, he met with about 50 alumni, students, and teachers. He shared stories about his life as a writer, and gave a reading from his new novel, Redshirts.

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

NewsNotes 1988 • In February, Corey Calaycay hosted five Webb students at

the City of Claremont as part of Unbounded Days. Corey gave them an overview of how local government works, and the students got to meet key members of the city’s administration, including City Manager Tony Ramos and Police Chief Paul Cooper. Students also toured the Human Services facilities and the police department. The day ended with the students attending a City Council meeting. Many thanks to Corey for an amazing day. - 22 Many thanks to Scott Preschern for hosting a Webb student at Symantec Corp. as part of Unbounded Days. Sophomore Kareem Albadawi (brother of Nader ’08 and Nadeem ’10) visited the company’s headquarters in Culver City, where Scott, a Symantec program manager, gave Kareem the grand tour and introduced him to the business side of the software development industry. Scott and his wife Kristal are also the proud parents of a new baby girl, Kendall Iris, born February 7, 2012. - 23 Steve Shenbaum was a guest speaker at Unbounded Days in February.

Steve, who’s based out of Florida, gave two presentations and led students through exercises that taught them how to be more effective communicators.

Steve was joined by his wife Jacky and their new daughter, Blake Elizabeth, born on December 7, 2011. - 24

46

22

23

1989 • Jimmy Hsieh visited campus in February with his wife

Dawn and their two children. The family lives in Taiwan, but were in town for the Chinese New Year. Jimmy has his own investment banking firm, Vanon Capital Partners. He stays in touch with several Webbies, including Marvin Hung ’88, Alex Hsu ’89, and Timothy Sun ’89. Jimmy’s son Andre is in first grade, and his daughter Audrey is 7. - 25 Andy Wu writes, “My family and I have relocated from Los Angeles to Shanghai. After nearly seven years working for Disney in the U.S., I have started a new role as CFO of Shanghai Disney Resort, a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company and the Shanghai government. Located in the Pudong district, Shanghai Disney Resort will be home to a theme park (Shanghai Disneyland); two themed hotels; a large retail, dining, and entertainment venue; and an array of recreation facilities. Scarlett and the kids are adjusting quickly to our new home, and everyone now has plenty of opportunities to practice their Chinese.” It was nice to see Andy at our Webb event in Shanghai on April 30. Pictured with Andy is Anne and Taylor Stockdale, Sean Lee ’05, and Simon Ou ’06. - 26

25

1990 • Rahmi Mowjood and his wife Hafsa welcomed their first child, daughter Imaan Zahra, on April 12. - 27 26

27

The Webb Magazine • Summer 2012

24

A lu m n i P ro f i l e

Hewitt Pratt and his wife, Keiko Kanamaru Pratt, welcomed son Oliver Kazuki, on May 24, 2011. He joins his big brother, Asa. Hewitt and his family live in Brooklyn, NY. - 28

Kerry Bensinger ’78

1991 • David Lee is living in Hong Kong, where he’s the managing director and head of Global ECM at Daewoo Securities.

1993 • Jonathan Kelber writes: “In addition to having our second son, Luke (September 2011), our first son, Miles, turned three in May 2012.

After eight years in San Diego, our family will be moving to Los Angeles in July where I have accepted a faculty position in the biology department at Cal State Northridge. My wife Julie continues to enjoy a classroom of two as a full-time mom.” - 29 Josh Nickols is the VP of business development at Device Innovation Group, a medical device company in Nashville, TN. He received his BS from Washington University in St. Louis and his MBA and PhD from Vanderbilt University. He and his wife Hilary have two children, Katie (4) and John (2). - 30 David and Ariel Parrish (Rosenthal) welcomed their first child on November 18, 2011. Elliott Reid was born at St. Luke’s Hospital in San Francisco, and weighed 7 lbs. 12 oz., and was 21 inches long. - 31

O

n December 27, 2011, Governor Jerry Brown

announced the appointment of Kerry Bensinger ’78 to a judgeship in the Los Angeles County Superior Court. Kerry graduated from Yale University in 1982 and the University of Southern California School of Law in 1987. He played varsity football at Yale for three years and was recognized as the ECAC Player of the Week. At law school, he co-founded the Public Interest and Poverty Law Clinic and graduated in the top 15% of his class.

47

28

29

31

30

Upon graduating law school, Kerry joined the Office of the Federal Public Defender as a deputy federal public defender in Los Angeles, where he tried federal criminal cases. In 1991, he left the public defender’s office for the law firm of Quinn, Kully & Morrow, where he handled a wide range of both civil and criminal matters.

In 1995, he became a partner at Bensinger, Ritt, Tai & Thvedt, where his practice concentrated on the areas of criminal defense and business litigation.

Kerry has tried nearly two dozen criminal and civil cases before judges and juries in both the state and federal systems. He has appeared before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals more than a half-dozen times and has been successful in obtaining favorable results for his clients in nearly all of them. In addition to his practice, Kerry taught trial advocacy at Loyola Law School from 1999 to 2000. Please join us in congratulating Kerry, who began his judgeship on February 1, 2012.

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

NewsNotes 1994 • BJ Ahluwalia is in Apple Valley, CA, in solo practice in internal medicine, and specializing in rhematology. “Every day I tell my wife about the great experience I had while at Webb. I hope one day for both my girls to attend Vivian Webb.”

1995 • Two students spent a day with Sayema Hameed, learning about the law as part of Unbounded Days. Belinda Lei ’13 and Alvin Chu ’14 traveled with Sayema to downtown Los Angeles to attend a hearing at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, where they met the Hon. Rita Miller, Judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court. Judge Miller gave the students a personal tour of her courtroom, explained what she does as a judge, and introduced them to her staff. Sayema and her co-counsel then treated the students to lunch at Caltech’s Athenaeum, where they discussed post-trial strategies. Many thanks to Sayema for organizing such an inspiring day. - 32

32

During Sophomore Career Evening, Max Nelson talked with students about a career in real estate. Max’s firm, deasey/penner&partners, specializes in architecturally significant properties and design-centric homes.

1996 • Many thanks to Stephanie Baron and Jason Pasley for doing

48

a session on careers in medicine at Sophomore Career Evening. Stephanie talked about her work as a physician assistant and clinical coordinator at Western University of Health Sciences. Jason gave an overview of life as a trauma/critical care surgeon at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. He’s also a captain in the U.S. Air Force, working towards the rank of major. - 33

34

Taylor Stockdale enjoyed catching up with Rita Forte ’99, Adam Hershman ’96, and Kate (Walsh) Garrett ’02 at the alumni event in San Francisco. - 34

1997 • Paul Matson is finishing his PhD in marine science at

UC Santa Barbara. He’s researching the effects of environmental and climate drivers on marine organisms (namely sea urchins), using oceanographic and ecological approaches. He has conducted experiments around the world, including Antarctica, Moorea in French Polynesia, and Friday Harbor Laboratories in Washington, where he met up with fellow Webbie Dr. Richard Strathmann ’59. Many thanks to Paul for hosting junior Michelle Huber, as part of Unbounded Days. Paul gave her a tour of the Hofmann Laboratory and the REEF interactive aquarium at UCSB. - 35 A big thanks to Kunal Shah and Lisa Shonnard for their building and design session at Sophomore Career Evening. Kunal gave students an overview of electrical engineering and even showed architectural schematics of renovations he did at LAX. Lisa, who works as a LEED certified designer at EIS Studio, showed students one of the models that she had created. - 36

33

36

Lance Williams has joined the Alf Museum Board of Trustees.

See a profile on page 29.

1998 • Jimmy Chang lives in Hong Kong, but travels into China

on a weekly basis, where he advises companies on potential mergers and acquisitions and equity/debt financing. As executive director of Morgan Stanley’s Investment Banking Division, Jimmy covers clients in China, Taiwan, India, and Southeast Asia. He specializes in technology and new media, including Internet, solar, semiconductors, software, and telecom equipment. - 37

The Webb Magazine • Summer 2012

37

35

A lu m n i P ro f i l e Vicki (Ort) Scherwin is an assistant professor at CSU Long Beach in the College of Business Administration. She received her BA from UC Berkeley and her PhD from UCLA.

Jenee LaMarque ’98

Thatcher Woodley and his wife, Michelle, welcomed son Colgate Elson Woodley on June 5, 2012. - 38

1999 • It was nice to hear from Alya Hameed. “I visited India for

the first time this March with my husband, Gautam Sharma (married in October 2010), reveling in the sights, sounds, and the amazing food.

The unforgettable experience in South India (primarily Madras) offered a lot of material for a food blog I keep for fun: Coriander Dreams (http://corianderdreams.wordpress.com). Now, we are planning our next big trip, moving from Maryland to California. I was accepted into the Children’s Literature program within the English graduate department of San Diego State University, where I hope to begin this upcoming fall.” - 39 Kyna (Newcomb) Sanchez and her husband Terence welcomed their healthy baby boy, Alexander John, on March 20, 2012. Kyna currently works for The Disney Store as a merchandise planner and resides in Long Beach, CA, with her family. - 40

C

ongratulations to Jenee LaMarque.

Her short film, Spoonful, screened at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. Jenee wrote and directed the work, which was one of 32 U.S. short films selected from over 4,000 submissions.

Spoonful is about three sisters who return to their childhood home after the death of their father in order to pack up the family house.

2000 • Deidre (Echevarria) Braun is living in Fresno County, CA, with her husband, Lutz. They are the proud new parents of a baby boy, Liam, born last November. Deidre is working for the Fresno County Economic Opportunity Commission, a nonprofit that provides services to lower-income families within Fresno County. She assists with grant writing and state and federal reporting for agency funds. - 41

49

Karen Chui writes, “I work for Digitas and last year I got an internal transfer to their London office, Kitcatt Nohr Digitas.”

38

39

40

41

Now, Jenee is busy working on her first feature film, The Pretty One. The script made the 2011 Black List and was a finalist for the Nicholl Fellowship and Zoetrope screenplay contest. Jenee wrote the script and makes her directorial debut. The Pretty One stars Zoe Kazan (Some Girls and In Your Eyes) and Jake Johnson (the TV show The New Girl opposite Zooey Deschanel, and 21 Jump Street). The film is an offbeat comedy about an awkward but loveable young woman who is mistaken for her deceased “perfect” identical twin and seizes the chance to masquerade as her sister.

But when she falls in love with her twin’s eccentric next-door neighbor, she finds herself wanting to live her own imperfect life and have the truth come out.

The Pretty One is being produced by Robin Schorr and is the first film in production from RCR Pictures.

Production started June 1st in Los Angeles.

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

NewsNotes Vince Rhee and Kay Choi were married in June 2011. Webbies in attendance included (L to R) Kevin Park ’99, Eric Tzeng ’99, Peter Choi ’99, Ralph Gifford, Carson Moore, and Ben Dey. - 42 Congratulations to Albert Walsh and Jordan Shay who were married on March 23, 2012 at the Marigny Opera House in New Orleans, LA. Pictured: Albert Walsh and Jordan Shay with Webbies, Ben Dey, Ralph Gifford, Sam Bailey ’99, Lawrence Tollenaere ’03, Anna Simle ’05, Robert Walsh ’04, George Peake, Carson Moore, and Kate Walsh Garrett ’02. - 43

2001 • Karen Chan is a strategic planner at Dentsu, an advertising

42

agency in Tokyo. She’d love to connect with other Webbies in Japan.

2002 • Jonathan Forney is engaged to Rachel Kelly. The wedding is

planned for September, and Loren Rotner will be in the wedding party.

Jonathan is a co-owner of City Bikes in Portland, OR, a workers cooperative. He also has his punk rock band.

Harason Horowitz is now working at Claremont McKenna College as a development coordinator.

50

Adam Christopher Rhodes was born on April 10, 2012, weighing 8 lbs. 10 oz., to James Rhodes and his wife, Kerry. Mom and dad are thrilled with the new addition to the family. James graduated from The Wharton School with an MBA in May, and he and his family have moved to Dallas, TX, where he joined Deloitte Consulting’s health care practice. - 44

43

2003 • Christopher Forney is in his third year in the Middle East

in advanced Arabic studies. He recently published an academic article “Spaces of Exclusion in Twelfth-Century Santiago de Compostela” in Comitatus, a journal of medieval history sponsored by UCLA. He plans to begin work at Cal State San Bernardino as the first non-native speaker ever hired as an Arabic tutor, and he is beginning applications for PhD work in medieval history.

Caleb Morse has left his role as director of banking operations at Green Dot Corp. and has moved to Uganda to work as a consultant for the company TechnoServe, which builds business solutions for rural poverty. There Caleb will be working on restructuring the agricultural focus of Northern Uganda and finding new markets for 15,000 farmers to participate in. He will return to California this fall to pursue a master’s of business, and a master of science degree in environment and resource at Stanford University, where he intends to focus on entrepreneurship and social innovation. Caleb also continues his work with the nonprofit, World Wide Impact, a 501(c)3 NGO he founded in 2007 that also focuses on building sustainability in developing nations. - 45

2004 • Tara De Silva graduated from Wellesley College in 2008.

She is now living in Los Angeles and was recently accepted into the American Film Institute as a screenwriting fellow.

Alexandra Dellerson is working at a hedge fund in midtown Manhattan and enjoying life in the city.

Frank Fu completed his bachelor’s at Carnegie Mellon, and he’s now attending law school at Boston College. He looks forward to the next alumni event in the area.

The Webb Magazine • Summer 2012

44

Sarah Javaid and her sister, Naila ’06, are medical students in Dubai, India, where in their spare time they help the Dubai Autism Center with its fundraising efforts.

Sarah also enjoys writing and has had several articles featured in Middle East Health magazine.

45

46

Michelle Lo is happy to be back in San Francisco. She’s now the sales operations coordinator at GREE International, a global mobile social gaming company that reaches over 190 million players and offers over 7,500 game applications to users around the world. She met up with one of Jeff Hyman ’89s Idol Worship “mudlings” on the streets of San Francisco. - 46 Chris Oakley finished his second year at Claremont Graduate University, where he is pursuing both a master’s in public health and a master’s of business administration. Outside of the classroom, he helps run the obesity study at the university’s School of Community and Global Health, which aims to develop an intervention strategy to improve nutrition behavior

among adolescents and reduce obesity. As a research assistant, Chris surveys local public high schoolers about their eating habits and takes measurements of their heights and weights. Chris also works for Village Network Africa (ViNA), a nonprofit organization committed to fighting rural village poverty. Last September, he traveled to Terrat ward in northern Tanzania, where he taught a class about disease prevention to the local villagers. He also assists ViNA with the management of their finances and grant writing initiatives.

Jenn Pan, Lorraine Sun, and Chris Waddell were guest speakers at Sophomore Career Evening. Jenn talked about her work as a technical director at DreamWorks Animation. She gave students an overview of the projects she’s worked on: How to Train Your Dragon, Puss in Boots and now Me and My Shadow. - 47 Students heard from Lorraine about her work as a broker at Colliers International. She specializes in commercial office leasing, representing clients in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita Valley.

She also enjoyed catching up with Brian Caldwell when she returned to campus. - 48 Chris gave students a first-hand account of the rigorous academic and training schedule at the Naval Academy. He also shared the highs and lows of life as a naval aviator. He recently returned from a deployment in the Middle East and is now living in San Diego with his wife Emily. - 49

47

49

48

2005 • Matt Burris completed basic training for the Army Reserves, where he’s now a Second Lieutenant and platoon leader for the 307th Chemical Company. Reflection on his time in the Reserves thus far, Matt said, “the values and lessons I learned at Webb have been invaluable to me in this experience. My goal is to be a Principe non Homine.”

51

Rebecca Hsia is now a First Lieutenant in the Army serving at Ft. Drum and welcomes any Webbies going to college in New York. She is attending captain’s school this year.

Sean Lee is working in Shanghai as the human resources manager at Gaopeng (a joint venture between Groupon and Tencent).

While Walter Pettus was at the bottom of the world, he thought of Webb. “It was a bit chilly when I took this photo: minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit with a 25-degree wind chill. In 2009, after graduating from Hillsdale College with a BA in physics and chemistry, I moved to Wisconsin to pursue a graduate degree in physics at UW-Madison. I was recently awarded a Stewardship Science Graduate Fellowship from the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration, which covers my graduate research studies for four years. I perform work on the DM-Ice experiment, a new dark matter experiment deployed at a depth of 2,450 meters in the ice at the South Pole. In January, I had the opportunity to travel to the South Pole to work on the data acquisition for the detector, and so I took the opportunity to proudly wear some Webb gear.” - 50

2006 • Ankit Behl is a ticket sales analyst for the MLB team the

Oakland Athletics. His duties include mining the data that the sales staff uses to communicate with the fans.”Being a member of this team is exciting work, and it is especially interesting to see how sports serve as a unique community-building tool. I enjoy how we can create organizational change with what we do.” Ankit graduated from LMU in 2010, and he just completed his master’s in sports administration from Ohio University, where he also earned his MBA from last year.

50

51

Maggie Kelley-Matthews wrote: “I moved to Joshua Tree about six months ago to run three funeral homes, a cemetery, and a crematory (in the family business). It’s been a pretty crazy learning experience, but I’m having a great time.”

Brittany Loya has completed her first year at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, a graduate school of Middlebury College, where she’s pursuing a master’s in international policy studies with a concentration in trade, investment, and development. She’s focusing her studies on regional and free trade organizations in the United States, Latin American and South East Asia. When not in school, Brittany works for an international trade and business compliance company as an independent international business investment analyst. She has also been interning as a department researcher for the manager’s office of the City of Pacific Grove.

Simon Ou is in Shanghai, where he’s working as a Princeton-in-Asia Fellow at the Institute for Sustainable Communities. It was nice to see him at the Webb dinner in Shanghai. Simon was also in South African recently.

He can now boast that he did the largest bungie jump in the world— and he was wearing his Webb T-shirt. - 51

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

NewsNotes Kathleen Terris has completed her bachelor’s at the University of Houston in Texas, where she majored in anthropology. Future plans include applying to grad school.

2007 • Many thanks to Jillian Chaves for speaking at Sophomore Career Evening. Jillian shared the ins and outs of her work at Electus, a branded entertainment studio that produces television shows like Mob Wives and Fashion Star.

Jessica Dholakia is a project fellow at Pacific Council, a nonpartisan international affairs organization in Los Angeles, where she’s working on the council’s newest task force, the Latino Leadership Project. The task force, which aims to better understand the complex foreign relations issues concerning Latino voters, will make policy recommendations to the 2012 presidential candidates. Jessica graduated from George Washington University with a degree in international affairs. She was vice president of the Indian Student Association, vice president of student activities and a sister of Alpha Delta Pi.

53

2008 • Joey Jaw flew in from China to attend his sister Jessica’s chapel talk. He is attending medical school in Beijing. - 52

Andrew Kunce received his BS in management from Tulane University.

He majored in business management and minored in business law.

52

52

54

A big thanks to Johnson Lightfoote for hosting Terence Tien ’13 and Kareem Albadawi ’14 at USC as part of Unbounded Days. The students toured the campus and got a taste of video game programming classes.

Johnson introduced the students to faculty and students, and Terence and Kareem audited a gaming class. - 53

2009 • Nancy Blayney spent a semester abroad in Buenos Aires,

Argentina. She completed an independent study on the historical, political, and cultural implications of the Argentine tango. She also refined her Spanish-speaking abilities and understanding of Argentina’s dynamic history. “For me, the best part of the whole experience was living an extremely different lifestyle. I hail from Millbrook, NY (pop. 1,400), and go to school in Charleston, SC (pop. 100,000), but suddenly I was thrown into this city of 14 million people. It was the best possible culture shock.

I lived on the 13th story of an apartment building in the heart of the Palermo district in the middle of Buenos Aires, and the hustle and bustle never stopped. I would often hear music playing from apartments around me until 4 in the morning.” Nancy is double majoring in Spanish and Latin American/Caribbean studies and minoring in economics at the College of Charleston. She was recently elected the vice president of her sorority, Sigma Delta Tau. - 54 Danae Gregory has completed her junior year at California Lutheran University, where she’s majoring in English. She is president of the College Life Club, a campus ministry group that teaches high school students about Christianity, and she enjoys tutoring at the writing center and volunteering at her local church. Danae occasionally sings at Camp Pendleton with a youth choir group known as New America Singers. For the past two summers, she’s traveled around the globe with them to amazing places like Hong Kong, China, Australia, and Tasmania.

2010 • Will Baker is living in the Chicago area. As a sophomore at DePaul University, he’s studying screenwriting, public relations, and advertising.

The Webb Magazine • Summer 2012

55

Elle Markell worked as an editorial intern at the Wesleyan University Press this past semester, and in the fall she’s going to Chile to study abroad for a semester.

Jonathon Park is keeping busy at Cornell University. He is part of a BASE Productions dance team, serving as choreographer and a member of the E-Board. He’s also a photographer for the Cornell Daily Sun newspaper.

2011 • It was great to see Chauncy Henn and Nicolette Roger at our alumni event in San Francisco. They had a chance to meet many Bay Area Webbies, including Norm Blackburn ’52. Both Chauncy and Nicolette are enjoying college life. Chauncy is at the University of San Francisco and Nicolette is at Berkeley. - 55 This summer, Emily Kan is traveling to the Bay Area for two internships.

She will work in the ER at San Francisco General Hospital, the only level 1 trauma center in the city, and also serve as a health coach at Veteran’s Hospital. Emily just completed her freshman year at Claremont McKenna, and is considering a major in science and management. In her spare time, she coaches the girls’ JV basketball team at Webb.

TH E W E B B SC HO O L S FO R M E R FAC U LT Y A N D STAF F Diana Baruni writes, “Things are going great here in Boston. We recently bought our first home. Akira will be 3 in June and loves her preschool.

She has a lot to say. My husband, Amar, is working in downtown Boston.

I am loving my job as a French teacher and Language Department chair.

I spent the month of February in Montpellier, France, with my students and a colleague on an extended study abroad and home stay. It was fantastique!

But, oh, how I miss my Webbies. I hope all is well there. Here is a picture of Akira and me in France, February 2012. Please send my love to everyone.” - 56

56

57

Harold Goldston shared an exciting announcement. “My biggest news since leaving Webb is that I got married. On Saturday, December 18, 2010, I married Jennifer Flynn in Lexington, NC. I can only think back fondly on my time at Webb–it really is a special place. Please say hello to everyone, and best wishes to another successful year.” - 57 Robert Robillard sent this update from Virginia: “At North Cross, I’ve been appointed director of global studies, which is a program to inculcate a more worldly perspective in our students and compel them to travel.

I’m also the History chair, run the newspaper and coach tennis. I will be in So Cal this July, so I will make a point of visiting Webb. The photo is from a class trip to Gettysburg, in front of the California Memorial.” - 58

58

53

Gail Lewis writes, “We’ve been spending a lot of time traveling since my retirement: to England, Italy, Malta, and South Africa. I am attaching a photo from our recent trip to South Africa.” - 59 Jessie (Franzetti) Standlea writes, “Nick and I are living in Seal Beach, CA. We have a 2 year old daughter named Izzy (Isabella), and are expecting another baby in October. Nick and I own and operate Test Prep Gurus, which offers SAT/ACT prep and other educational services (for Webb and other private schools). This July, we will be spending a month in Hawaii, teaching an SAT summer school course at Hawaii Preparatory Academy.” - 60

59

60

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

In Memoriam 1933

54

On February 15, 2012, Edward Price, Jr. ’33 passed away at the age of 96. He was the last surviving child of teacher and assistant headmaster Edward T. Price, Sr., and Susan Webb Price, the sister of our founder, Thompson Webb. Ed moved to California when he was just 10. As a Webb student, he distinguished himself academically, excelling in all subjects and making honor roll every year. He was also a varsity baseball player, editor of the Blue and Gold, and a Sigma Alpha Chi member. Ed received his BS in physics from Caltech in 1937.

Following the end of WWII, he attained his doctorate in geography from UC Berkeley. Ed went on to pursue a distinguished career as a professor, similar to those of his father and uncle. He taught at Los Angeles State College and later at the University of Oregon, where he served as department head for 22 years. After his retirement in 1985, Ed remained a professor emeritus there, always working vigorously, publishing a book and articles and participating in department activities. In 1942, Ed married the former Margaret Muckleston; they were married for 55 years and had five children: Larry ’61, Alan ’63, Kenneth ’65, Peggy, and Susan. Ed will be greatly missed by all those who knew him. All of his children (including one using Skype from India) and other close family members were present at the end.

membership in Block W. Following Webb, Al attended Pomona College and spent his career at Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company.

His long history of service to Webb spans more than 50 years, including 38 years as a trustee. In 1962, it was Al who stood next to Thompson Webb at Webb’s retirement celebration and presented him with a Webb

1941 Albert Carnahan Simonds, II ’41 died on February 18, 2012, at his home in Montecito, CA. He is survived by his wife, Hoppie, and children, James, Frederic, and Margaret. At Webb, Al served on the Honor Committee, dance committee, and Big Four. He was also the lovable prefect of Lower Dormitory, who, according to the senior yearbook, “[kept] everyone smiling with his humor.” After Webb, Al attended Stanford, where he majored in English and was an active member of the Zeta Psi fraternity. During WWII, he served in the Navy as an officer and aviator, positions in which he expressed interest even during his time at Webb. Al ultimately became an insurance broker and founded the firm Arroyo Insurance Services in 1983. He was a member of the Valley Hunt Club, where he enjoyed volunteering and cooking. He also enjoyed sailing, serving as an officer and director of the Newport Harbor Yacht Club and Los Angeles Yacht Club. He was a past member of the California Club and Los Angeles Rotary Club, as well as a former trustee for the Santa Catalina Island School for Boys.

Bible. In the early 1970s, when the board was considering the idea of bringing girls to campus, Al recalled an informal board vote on the subject: “There were two votes in favor of a girls school,” he said. “One was Dr. Webb’s and the other was mine.” It was not until 10 years later that vision would become reality. In the late 1970s, Al was instrumental in hiring Headmaster Stephen Longley, and subsequently replaced him six years later, following Longley’s untimely death. Al oversaw the appointment of a new headmaster and appointed Longley’s widow, Ann, as the first headmistress of Vivian Webb School. Around the same time, he introduced Webb to the Lluella Morey Murphey Foundation, which he served as a trustee. Working in partnership with the foundation, Al funded scholarships for minority students.

In 1996, the scholarships were made permanent with the creation of an endowed fund. In a moment of foreshadowing, Thompson Webb evaluated Al in 1942 with the following statement: “I consider Hastings an exceedingly fine character, dependable, trustworthy, and conscientious. He is a boy of ability and I feel sure will measure up to any trust placed upon him.” Al Hastings will be greatly missed and fondly remembered.

1942

1943

The Webb Magazine • Summer 2012

Alfred B. Hastings, Jr. ’42 passed away on April 27, 2012, at his home in Palm Desert, CA. Al was a life trustee and former chairman of the board of The Webb Schools. He is survived by his wife of 33 years, Liz. Al and Liz have a large family from previous marriages, including Al’s children, Jenna, Carol, and Richard ’69; and Liz’s children, Ann, Jim, and Paki. Al lived with the Webbs in their own home during his senior year in 1941-42. As a student, he served as an honor committeeman and enjoyed sports, especially basketball, baseball, and football—earning him

John M. Bryan ’43 died peacefully at his home in Piedmont, CA, on March 31, 2012. He is survived by his wife Florence; their four daughters: Kathryn, Suzanne, Amanda and Anne; and four grandchildren.

John was one of our finest principes non homines. A loyal alumnus, he served Webb as a trustee from 1995 to 2005 and was then appointed a life trustee.

At Webb, John was an enthusiastic participant in the dramatic society, debating society, glee club, camera club, and rifle club. He also enjoyed playing tennis and swimming. After Webb, John attended Stanford, where

A celebration of life

he entered the Navy’s V-12 program. The Navy sent him to USC and Harvard Business School, and then on to the Pacific, where he served as a supply officer on a troop transport. John was a member of Webb’s Legacy Hall of Fame and established the John M. Bryan ’43 Endowed Scholarship Fund in 1995. He exemplified the characteristics of honor, leadership, and service that are the hallmarks of a great Webb education and a life well lived.

1949 George M. Pisk ’49 died on March 30, 2012, following complications from a stroke. He was preceded by his wife, Rita, and survived by his children, Gerald and Camille, and two grandchildren. At Webb, George was an active member of the Blue and Gold and El Espejo committees.

He was also involved in drama, music, debate, football, and baseball.

George attended Yale and then served in the Army, spending part of his time in Germany as a military intelligence officer. In 1958, George married one of his father’s music students, Rita Rae Gurley. While finishing his doctoral dissertation on Renaissance English literature at University of Texas, he taught English and German. Thereafter, he taught English at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX, before returning to Austin, where he lived for the remainder of his life. He taught at Southwest Texas (now Texas State University) until his retirement in 1972.

1952 Douglas Rainger ’52 died on January 7, 2012, due to complications resulting from lymphoma. He is survived by his wife Jean, daughters Pamela and Elizabeth, and sister Susan. According to his senior yearbook, “‘Dynamite Dunghee’ provided many Gauls with laughs and scares during his eventful four-year stay.” His love of firearms and carefree nature made him a campus favorite. He was known for his involvement in the rifle and skeet clubs and his lifelong passion for electronics.

After Webb, Doug served in Korea before working as an electrical engineer, an occupation he held for most of his career. In retirement, Doug enjoyed spending time with the Golden Gate Computer Society.

1953 Alan Hjelm ’53 passed away on April 17, 2012, in Lancaster, CA. After graduating from CSUN, he taught school for 30 years before retiring from Cole Middle School. He was a longtime Antelope Valley resident and an active member of the Lutheran Church of the Master, serving as choir director and president of the Church Council.

At Webb, Alan was an enthusiastic math and science student and distinguished himself on the field as a football and track athlete.

1954 Fred A. Howser ’54 died on September 11, 2011. He is survived by his sons Fritz and Peter, his daughter Donelle, and eight grandchildren.

At Webb, Fred was an honor committeeman, student body president, captain of the football team, a member of the debate team, and founder of Saturday night’s Steak BBQ Feast at the Alamo. After Webb, Fred attended USC, where he earned both a bachelor’s degree and JD. Fred had a 30-plus-year career as an attorney, working as a deputy district attorney for LA County before practicing private law at Howser, Gertner & Brown in Newport Beach, CA. He retired in 2002.

In his spare time, Fred was always planning special occasions for family and friends. For over 50 years, he organized an annual trip to Mexico for his USC classmates, and, throughout their childhood, Fred took his children on “father, son and daughter fishing trips.”

1970 Kelly McCloud ’70 died peacefully at his home in Oakland, CA, on February 14, 2012, after a two-year struggle with complications from surgery. Kelly is survived by his three brothers, Kimball ’67, Mark ’71, and James ’80, and his two sons, Christopher and Paul. While at Webb, Kelly assumed such leadership roles as honor committeeman and second semester student body president. He was also well known for his great athletic abilities in the sports of rugby, baseball, track and soccer, becoming captain of the latter by his junior year. After graduation, Kelly attended the University of Santa Clara, Boalt Hall and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy where he earned his bachelor’s, JD, and Latin for Legum Magister degrees, respectively. During his career, he practiced international law at Bechtel Corporation and CALTROP. Gary D. Part ’70 died on May 15, 2011, after a battle with cancer.

He is survived by his wife Laurie, two daughters, and a brother.

At Webb, Gary was captain of the B football team, captain of the B baseball team, a KWEB disc jockey, and a varsity track member.

Gary also enjoyed performing with the drama club because he felt “that it was a way for him to develop his inner self.” Gary loved education after Webb, so much so that he eventually went into teaching and later ran a Sylvan Learning Center. Before pursuing this profession, however, Gary graduated from USC and managed his family’s business with his brother.

1975 Edward B. Fiock ’75 died on August 20, 2010. At the time, he was living in Scottsdale, AZ, as a retired Watson-Wyatt International employee. Ed is survived by a son, Michael, and a daughter, Kimberly.

For his senior yearbook, Ed included a quote which he composed, “You only have one lifetime, so don’t just exist, live!”

Former Faculty Lachlan MacDonald, who taught history and English at Webb in the late 1950s and early 1960s, passed away at his home in Arroyo Grande on May 4, 2012. He was recently on campus for the Class of 1961’s

50th reunion. Dave Fawcett ’61

remembers Lach as “tough—the kind

of teacher that demanded his students

learn… they, in turn, held him in the

highest regard.” Lach served as an

assistant track coach and taught such

subjects as English I & II, Modern

History, and Driver’s Education.

He also founded the literary magazine

still known as Sage.

a

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

55

Final Word

by Christina Mercer McGinley ’84

We shall never cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time.

W

—T.S. Eliot

hen I closed my commencement

address to the Vivian Webb School

some years ago with this quote,

my intent was to encourage those

amazing young women to go forth but also to return to the school that had given them so much. It also reflected my own history with the school as a Pioneer VWS student returning many years later to serve on the board of trustees. I couldn’t have known that day how many more ways I would learn to “know the place for the first time” in the years to follow!

56

On that morning my kids sat respectfully (if somewhat wiggly) in the front row to watch Mama speak. I was totally immersed in young parenthood and loved it. I also enjoyed working with such an incredibly talented and caring board of trustees.

Meetings out at Webb were a treat—uninterrupted time to work, think, plan and serve. But family was my priority and it was often hard for me to leave my small children. However, my gratitude to Webb and my firm belief in the value of the school’s mission kept me serving not one, but two terms.

Often the Board’s discussions would involve the merits of a boarding school community, and I had a front row seat to the incredible work being done with our students and their remarkable achievements. In theory, I understood the value of boarding: 24/7 immersion in one’s education, lots of extracurricular activities, intimate relationships with on-campus faculty and peers that couldn’t happen any other way. But I had been a day student: in the early days, Vivian Webb School had no boarders. Plus, as a close knit family, we as parents couldn’t imagine sending our kids “off to boarding school.”

But very soon we found ourselves with an 8th grader who just wasn’t going to be best served by our local public high school.

When we enrolled Tim at Webb he became the first child of a Vivian Webb graduate to attend, and with his admission, I once again came to “know the place for the first time.” I began to see “my” school as “his,” with an overlay of new memories, new achievements, new inside jokes, new senior pranks.

My one disappointment: apparently nobody gets thrown into the pond in front of the office any more!

I was particularly impressed with the

improvements in educating Webb kids about

the Honor Code, the more “humane” and

educational role the Honor Committee plays, the increased formality of the senior chapel talks, and all the great orientation activities Webb has developed over the years. Webb is the same amazing place where anything seems possible and the teachers are awesome, but there are so many more opportunities for adventure!

This fall, I will come to know Webb again for the first time when Cori attends as the first daughter of a Vivian Webb graduate.

If her experience is half what her brother’s has been, we will not only fail to hear from her regularly, but we will watch her thrive, grow, learn and bloom in a way we could not have made happen at home, despite all the love and stability (and general awesomeness) we represent. What I have learned is that Webb transcends the insular concept of family to broaden, expand and increase the experiences of Webb students and their families.

I now see Webb with a special kind of double vision—past and present, new and old, are all woven together. I see the new buildings, but remember the old and I enjoy the new additions to the old traditions. But now I no longer just see the schools as the place that made such a huge difference to me. Now I also see the wonderful ways it’s changed and is changing all those who came after me, including, remarkably, my very own children.

= Christina Mercer McGinley ’84 is one of the original VWS Pioneers

who helped to develop Vivian Webb’s school rules, colors, government, and emblem. She was active in student government, on the Honor Cabinet, and in Blue and Gold, yearbook, varsity basketball, theater, glee club, and Chamber Singers. Christina has remained an active member of the Webb community, serving on the Alumni Council, Board of Trustees and in 2002 as the VWS commencement speaker.

She earned her BA from Pomona College and her MA and PhD in English literature from UC Riverside.

Calendar & Credits Editor Vivian Pradetto Marketing Coordinator

See Webb through the eyes of your child.

Contributors Debbie Carini, Andrew Farke, Robert Fass, John Ferrari, Lauren Gold, Don Lofgren, Danielle Mantooth, Vivian Pradetto, Aaron Severson, Laura Wensley Design Michael Stewart • Stewart Creative Photography Phil Channing, Andrew Farke, Linda Lewis, Rita Lo ’12, Don Lofgren, Don Milici, Nancy Newman, Scott Nichols Printing Dual Graphics Nondiscrimination Policy The Webb Schools admit students of any race, color, national or 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 or 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.

Don’t miss

Parents Weekend October 5-6, 2012

Calendar

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.

Orientation 2012-13 New International Students Only August 17, 2012 New Students August 18, 2012 All Students August 19, 2012

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.

find us at:

Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

RSS

YouTube

Parents Weekend

October 5-6, 2012

20th Annual Peccary Dinner

October 26, 2012

Alumni Weekend

October 26-27, 2012

Thanksgiving Break

November 21-27, 2012

Winter Break

December 21, 2012-

January 6, 2013

Please check the website for regional alumni events.

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

Non-Profit Org. US Postage PAID Permit No. 224 Claremont, CA

1175 West Baseline Road Claremont, CA 91711 (909) 626-3587 www.webb.org Change Service Requested

We’ll see you soon!

Alumni Weekend

2012 October 26 & 27

Visit www.webb.org/alumniweekend2012.