WEBB Magazine Fall 2013 edition

WEBB M A G A Z I N E

inside

Fall 2013

The boys are alright.

a look at

Our Moment In Time

how webb’s

Agents of Change

community model

Endowment

HELPS BOYS

robotics

BECOME men

campaign: A PROMISE FULFILLED

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ongratulating American Academy of Dramatic Arts, NY Babson College, MA Bard College, NY Barnard College, NY (2) Bond University, AUS Brown University, RI Bryn Mawr College, PA Case Western Reserve University, OH (2) Chapman College, CA Colorado College, CO Colorado School of Mines, CO Columbia University, NY (3) Cornell University, NY (2) Dartmouth College, NH Davidson College, NC Dickinson College, PA Emory University, GA George Washington University, DC Georgetown University, DC (4) Harvard University, MA Harvey Mudd College, CA Haverford College, PA Johns Hopkins University, MD Lewis and Clark College, OR Loyola Marymount University, CA (3) Middlebury College, VT New York University, NY (2) Northwestern University, IL Oberlin College, OH Occidental College, CA Pepperdine University, CA Pitzer College, CA (2) Scripps College, CA (3) Skidmore College, NY Smith College, MA (2) Southern Methodist University, TX Southern Utah University, UT Stanford University, CA (2) Swarthmore College, PA Universidad de Chile, Santiago, CHILE University of California, Berkeley, CA (2) University of California, Riverside, CA University of California, San Diego, CA (2) University of California, Santa Barbara, CA (2) University of Chicago, IL (3) University of Colorado at Boulder, CO (2) University of La Verne, CA (2) University of Michigan, MI University of Notre Dame, IN (2) University of Puget Sound, WA (2) University of Redlands, CA (2) University of San Diego, CA University of Southern California, CA (10) University of Washington at Seattle, WA Washington University in St. Louis, MO (3) Wellesley College, MA (2)

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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

M A G A Z I N E

Fall 2013

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

FEATURES

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Hector Martinez Director of College Guidance

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Brian Ogden Dean of Faculty

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Janet K. Peddy Director of Finance, Planning and Operations Theresa A. Smith, PhD Director of Academic Affairs

WEBB TODAY

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BOARD OF TRUSTEES 2013-2014

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Paul M. Reitler ’54, Chairman of the Board Claire H. McCloud, Vice Chair, Secretary

Hugh H. Evans, Jr. ’49 Anne Gould H. Earl (Bud) Hoover II ’52 Murray H. Hutchison Robert Stragnell, MD Volume 17, Number 2 Cover Photo: Johnny Vitale ’16 Photo Credit: Scott Nichols We have intentionally chosen the non-standard usage of all right (alright) to best compliment the cover photo and story inside.

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Joe Woodward Director of Institutional Advancement

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 John Holliday ’84 David Loo ’79 Christina Mercer McGinley, PhD ’84 Roger J. Millar ’61 Timothy C. Moore ’59 David Myles, PhD ’80 Susan A. Nelson, Head Emerita, ex officio RJ Romero Miles R. Rosedale ’69 Mary A. Schuck Taylor B. Stockdale, Head of Schools, ex officio Ralph D. Young ’63

LIFE TRUSTEES

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30 32 33 35 NEWSNOTES

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From the Head of Schools From Boys to Men: Principes non Homines Agents of Change Endowment: What It Means To Educational Success Commencement 2013 Robotics Sports Arts The Alf at Webb Faculty Affiliates Campaign: A Promise Fulfilled Giving & Volunteering Alumni Profiles WSC and VWS News In Memoriam Final Word

From the Head of Schools

Our Moment in Time Early on in his quest for fossils, our beloved Ray Alf set up a small museum in the basement of the 2

Jackson Library with the purpose of telling the story of life.

He created a time spiral made out of heavy wire along which were marked various events in the history of the planet.

F

irst, an oxygenated atmosphere created

a basic prerequisite for life. Then came

nucleated cells and sea creatures, followed

by amphibians, dinosaurs and eventually

mammals. At the very tip of his spiraled wire, he imagined a speck of dust that he would pretend to blow away at the conclusion of his many explanatory tours.

“That,” he would tell his audience, “represents the entire time of recorded human history.” When his permanent museum was later built, an enlarged replica of this time spiral was installed there. Alf taught his students that life is short. Indeed, given his mentality of deep time, each of us exists for but a moment.

Yet each moment offers opportunity to contribute. Regularly, he would challenge his students: “What are you going to do with your moment in time?”

To me, this question goes to the heart of what Webb is all about.

What will each of our students do with their moment in time as students and as graduates? How will they make their time count? And how can we instill in them the values of moral courage, inner strength, fire and drive, and empathy to make them the kind of honorable leaders who typify our great school.

Looking forward to our institution’s approaching centennial celebration in 2022, it is time again to reflect on Alf’s seminal question. Here at Webb, what are we going to do with our moment in time? Recently the Webb Board of Trustees ratified The Centennial Strategic Plan—a vision for Webb and the Alf Museum that will chart our course. New habits of mind, those that make us capable of accessing, connecting and engaging with the global community, will be required.

Webb Magazine • Fall 2013

As a former Latin teacher, I find it especially appropriate that our institutional mascot is the Gaul. Similar to Caesar’s Gaul, The Webb Schools are divided into three parts—Webb School of California for boys, Vivian Webb School for girls and the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology. The third component is what makes us most distinctive.

It is incredible to me that Webb is the only secondary school in the world with an accredited museum of paleontology, honoring a discipline that is just now blossoming into new and exciting subfields.

The potential this represents is awe-inspiring.

Our little museum on the hill is booming. The most recent Hall of Life renovations, the new research lab, coupled with a major gift to support the research program through the museum’s endowment, have catapulted it into one of the exceptional museums in the Western Region. What it represents to our students is a resource like no other in terms of the study of earth science, original research, and the habits of mind so critical for thoughtful leadership. Dr. Alf’s passion was always in fostering adventurous ways of thinking—what we call “unbounded thinking.” His mind was devoted to what might be termed macro-history, or what he himself termed “total biology.” Today, that construct is referred to by others in his field as deep time. Here at Webb, it is often synonymous with deep thinking, both scientific and spiritual. Alf’s creed was not written in words, but rather in the grand laboratory of nature. Alf had a reverence for life, and not just human life.

He appreciated the interconnectedness of all life forms that included even those long extinct.

Today this scientific and spiritual inquiry continues thanks to our museum. When freshmen go out to Barstow and spend the day finding fossils 15 million years old, and then later that night, looking into the mobile telescope on a large industrial ladder at stars 15 million light years away, or more, they can’t help but begin to consider Ray Alf’s seminal question: What are you going to do with your brief moment in time? It is the deepest of questions for all of us. How do we make our brief time here count?

While the museum has historically been viewed as an addition to the Webb community, I see it differently. I see the museum as the nucleus in our atom. To me, the museum represents how we do everything at Webb—how we approach every discipline— with an adventuresome spirit, and the willingness to get a little dirty. We don’t just memorize facts, we actually do things, and

through original student research, we actually create knowledge.

In doing so, we challenge conventional thinking, and learn to think differently—boldly and creatively. There are so many examples of alumni who exemplify this in their lives, regardless of their chosen discipline. At Webb, we learn to look at the world differently, and to have the courage to act on our beliefs.

Ray’s museum has been all about this since its inception.

Thinking back to our classical roots, Thompson Webb’s father, W.R. “Sawney” Webb, favored an intense study of Latin at his Bell Buckle school in Tennessee. He believed in mental discipline— the conquest of the difficult by the alert, well-organized mind.

When once offered a text book entitled Latin Made Easy, Sawney trumpeted, “I would not teach Latin if it were easy.

I would teach something else that was hard.”

Mastering paleontology is hard, but Ray Alf also showed it could be fun. If you haven’t done so, I encourage you to join us in Barstow each May for our Alumni Peccary Trip. There you will see that Ray’s tradition of teaching continues today with Doc Lofgren and Andy Farke. It’s the very best of Webb.

Webb’s new strategic plan calls for increasing and enhancing the capacities of the Alf Museum to create a world-class paleontology research and exhibit facility. The goal is to make Webb a nationally recognized center for innovation in science education. We will build on our strengths and in the process our entire program will be strengthened. In his day, Sawney Webb focused on Latin and Greek, but his school generated more Rhodes Scholars than any other secondary school in the United States. And to become Rhodes Scholars, his students had to know much more than just Latin and Greek. So it will be in our case as well. With the growing prominence of Alf’s living legacy, all of our academic ships will rise.

The past twenty years have prepared us. Thanks to the strong foundation undergirding our institution, we are well positioned to excel as never before. Let Ray Alf’s legacy and seminal question be our guide as we build a center of learning for high school students that is unparalleled.

Now is our moment. The next great advance in our development is about to begin.

Sincerely, Taylor B. Stockdale Head of Schools

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

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From Boys to Men: Principes non Homines Webb’s community model for boys, in and out of class

Boys will be boys. It’s a cliché, but like so many clichés

there’s some truth to it. People may differ on exactly how boys are different from girls—in how they develop, learn and interact—but no one denies that they are different.

The Webb Schools embrace those differences, letting boys be boys—and letting boys explore what it is to be a leader and a man.

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“What boys and girls need is very different,” notes Director of Academic Affairs Theresa Smith. Entering high school, boys tend to be self-oriented and individualistic. “Girls come from a place of being rule-followers ... boys need to be taught about working together. What a boy needs to unearth is how to take his idea and think it through and effectively communicate it to other people.”

In single-sex classes, “there is the opportunity to tailor some of the content to the shared interests” of either boys or girls, Smith continues, adding that single-sex classrooms are more comfortable environments for boys and girls when discussing personal or gendered topics.

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“The noise, the movement,

keeps the boys’

attention and engages them.

They feed off my energy, and I feed off theirs.”

Webb’s educational model is unique, transitioning from single-sex classes in ninth and tenth grades to co-educational classes in eleventh and twelfth grades, in a community that encourages boys and girls to interact appropriately while still maintaining distinct traditions and activities for each. The model is anchored in Webb’s founding as a boys’ school in 1922. The Vivian Webb School, founded in 1981, brought girls to campus and to the classroom, but without diluting Webb’s character or the school’s commitment to single-sex education.

It’s a model that benefits Webb’s male students in and out of the classroom, as they learn everything from English and math to their own roles and responsibilities.

In Rick Duque’s English class, those topics include leadership, teamwork and relationships between men and women; topics highlighted when his class reads The Natural, Bernard Malamud’s insightful portrayal of a baseball team. It’s a loud class, loud as only a room full of freshmen boys can be, and that suits Duque, who admits to being loud himself. Rambunctiousness comes naturally to boys, and in a single-sex classroom environment that can be an advantage. The noise, the movement, keeps the boys’ attention and engages them, Duque explains. “They feed off my energy, and I feed off theirs.”

Compared to the girls’ classes he has taught, “the energy level is just so different,” Duque says. “It seems to be with the boys, just constant energy. ... My tone, in my boys classes, I’m a lot louder. They’re loud too—it’s okay for them to be loud in the class setting.”

Duque also mentions that in a single-sex classroom environment, boys feel more free to discuss and question gender roles and relationships. In high school, and especially as freshmen and sophomores, “you’re still developing who you are and who you’ll want to become,” Duque says, and that’s a big part of the Webb experience, in and out of the classroom.

It was certainly a big part of the Webb experience for Jason Brooks ’99. Currently studying at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Brooks recalls that Webb’s single-sex communities, in the classroom and in the dorm, allowed him to have frank conversations about masculinity that “would not feel emotionally safe in a co-ed environment.

“There’s something really powerful about taking a look at masculinity and your maleness,” he says. Webb helped Brooks define his own sense of masculinity and his own interests.

Outside the classroom, the African-American freshman who came to Webb discovered he could broaden his musical

interests beyond rap and his extracurricular interests beyond sports. “It was a place where those stereotypes could be confronted,” he recalls. In class, the single-sex environment was “a safe place to make mistakes, a safe place to explore ... and I think I would have been distracted” in a co-ed classroom.

At Webb, “you have those two precious years” of single-sex classes. In a single-sex environment, Brooks says, boys aren’t pushed into boxes. At the end of his first two years at Webb, Brooks says, “I had a stronger sense of who I was.”

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he all-boys classroom environment fosters an open, engaging dynamic that Smith has seen again and again at Webb. “There are a lot of conversations about social norms, what it means to be a man,” she says, noting that pressures to conform to stereotypes don’t affect girls exclusively. Single-sex classes allow boys to openly examine those stereotypes and social roles in a way and a depth that

“There’s something about single-sex education that encourages you to be who you are.

You get the impression that it’s aimed at you”

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wouldn’t happen in a co-ed environment. Co-educational schools may take actions to empower girls, but boys’ needs can go unaddressed, Smith says. In a single-sex educational setting, those issues gain visibility and attention.

There’s also a universal benefit to single-sex education, says Webb parent Gregory Hess: a higher degree of self-confidence.

Hess, former vice president for academic affairs, and a professor of economics at Claremont McKenna College, became the 16th president of Wabash College, a liberal arts college for men in Indiana, in July. That self-confidence allows boys (and girls) more latitude to develop their own academic interests, Hess says. “When they find their passion they have a much stronger attachment to it. ... There’s no back row. There seems to be a higher degree of student engagement.” Coming from a single-sex educational environment, students are “more able to handle the transition to a college environment,” he says, not just academically but also socially.

“There’s something about single-sex education that encourages you to be who you are,” agrees Christina McGinley ’84. “By its very nature, you get the impression that it’s aimed at you.”

McGinley brings a unique perspective: a member of the Vivian Webb School’s first graduating class, her son Tim graduated from Webb School of California in 2012, and her daughter is currently a Vivian Webb sophmore.

Brooks, who taught at the all-boys McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tenn., for eight years, says there’s power in a community of boys becoming men together. “It’s helpful to be in a classroom full of people going through the same things,”

he notes. In their freshmen and sophomore years the students are more boys than men, but by the junior year they have begun to define themselves as men and are ready for leadership roles.

“I was really blessed to have leadership roles at Webb,” recalls Brooks, who was Webb’s student body vice president and football team captain.

In the process of becoming leaders and men, Webb’s boys are guided by the male faculty. Webb’s faculty “literally walk with you on that journey,” Brooks says, recalling coach and math teacher Brian Caldwell, and Spanish teacher Javier Valera as two of the faculty role models whose guidance and mentorship still have a strong influence on him.

“There’s a sense of the values they want the boys to have as they head out into the world”—especially leadership, says Smith of Webb’s faculty. The male faculty “are really great examples of the various lives men can lead.” With a strong sense of community and mutual respect, the male faculty are also “kind of an example of what you want the boys to be ... the faculty lead the way for them.”

Webb’s faculty taught Brooks the simple, profound lesson that “a man shows up and does what he’s supposed to do,” without expectation of reward. That, he says, is the difference between a boy and man. From the faculty and his own experiences at Webb, Brooks also learned the value of the servant-leader model of leadership, “10 years before it became cool pop-culture.”

Male role models—peers, faculty, coaches—are important in any boy’s life. “Boys need a strong male figure in their life,” notes Raymond M. Alf Museum Director and Honor Committee Advisor Don Lofgren. At Webb, “boys will find that role model, whoever it is ... and it’ll be somebody who has a big influence on them.”

Wabash College President Hess believes that single-sex education enhances character development. Webb’s honor code,

in addition to its single-sex educational model, was one of the reasons he chose to enroll his children—both daughters—in the Vivian Webb School. The Webb Schools place an “emphasis on the honor code and broader development of students, not just the hard skills but also the soft skills—everything that’s involved in character development.” As parents, Hess, says, “we want our children to be responsible, self-sustaining, humane individuals. ... Honor codes are part of that.”

Webb’s honor code helps boys understand the importance of “being a good person in the world, having your actions grounded in ethical decision-making,” says Smith.

As boys mature into leadership positions, the Honor Committee exemplifies the school’s emphasis on character development.

Serving on the Honor Committee is “basically about leading the school daily,” says Lofgren. A student elected to the Honor Committee is “somebody that everybody respects, and who respects others ... a person that people trust.”

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nd Webb’s juniors and seniors are boys—becoming men—the freshmen and sophomores can look up to as role models. From the day boys enroll at Webb, they begin bonding within their grade level and becoming members of the student community.

“I think the boys become really cohesive,” says Smith.

“They are a cohesive group that clearly appreciates everyone.

They learn to value the special gifts that each person brings to that community, and they all find a way of contributing.”

As they mature together in the classroom, says Duque, “the boys figure it out. ... Those people who are a little more at the back learn how to come to the front.”

Boys are “more comfortable being boys with a bunch of boys,” notes Lofgren. “They don’t want to look stupid in front of the girls.” That’s a simple truth, but one that too often can be forgotten or overlooked in a co-ed environment. “There’s no doubt in my mind that single-sex education for ninth graders helps both boys and girls.”

In the end, Webb’s single-sex classes and the shared studentfaculty male community on campus create a bond, a shared experience, between the boys. “They go through the process together of becoming men,” says Smith. And for that unique opportunity, adds Brooks, “I can’t express how thankful I am to Webb.”

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agents of change

Encouraging students to play an active, positive role in their community is at the heart of Webb’s educational mission. Webb alumni of all generations have done just that, whether in their own neighborhoods or on a national or global scale. With this in mind,

a commitment to service

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we asked a few alumni what it takes to make a lasting contribution.

Bob Sears ’71 believes that effective service requires commitment.

“People can make a difference,” he says, “but the success of that effort is based on continual investment and energy.” Sears, whose day job is vice president of marketing and business development for Vulcan Materials, is president of the nonprofit Haiti Healthcare Partners, which finances a medical clinic in a rural area of southeastern Haiti. Founded in 2006, the clinic has already outlasted many similar operations in Haiti, which an acquaintance of Sears’ once described as the place “where good intentions come to die.”

There are no quick fixes to problems on this scale. “You essentially build off of that which has worked in the past and look for ways to replicate that,” says Holmes, “as well as supporting innovative approaches and new science and technology applications that might effect large-scale, breakthrough change.”

“A lot of people start efforts and don’t follow through,” Sears says.

“We live in a world that’s driven from tragedy to tragedy and we lose sight of areas that may not be on the radar, but still have very important needs.”

serving outside the box

“god is god and i am not”

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Each year, the organization’s tiny clinic in the village of Cherident serves 5,000 to 6,000 patients who would otherwise have no access to healthcare, many of them pregnant women. The group is now planning to expand the clinic’s facilities to better handle patient needs. “We’re taking it to the next level,” Sears says.

Service also demands humility, especially if you’re involved with an issue too big for any one person to resolve. Katy Carr White, M.D., MPH ’87, struggles with that on a regular basis. White is the chief medical officer of Los Angeles Christian Health Centers, which serve low-income and uninsured patients throughout Los Angeles.

“There are just too many people who need care and not enough doctors willing to come to the inner city and work amongst the poor,” she says. “People’s lives are hard and many don’t get better.

I have to constantly remind myself that ‘God is God and I am not.’”

Christian Holmes ’64 faces challenges of even greater magnitude.

As global water coordinator for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), he is responsible for developing and implementing U.S. strategy on water-related issues, including sanitation, food security, and the impact of climate change on water resources. “Right now there are about 2.5 billion people without adequate sanitation and about 800 million without adequate water,” he explains. “About 5 million people die every year of waterborne disease.”

Opposite page, top row: Christian Holmes ’64, Tami Schonfeld ’10, Bob Sears ’71 Middle row: Rob Seltzer ’80, Katy Carr White ’87, Gabe Bouz ’10 Bottom row: Aviana Gracial ’07, Mark Anton ’74, Catherine Enders Carlton ’97

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“It helps me to have a community focus on health, rather than just an individual focus,” adds White. “I’m interested in seeing better health in whole communities.”

A willingness to try new approaches is another vital aspect of service. Since the late ’90s, Los Angeles CPA Rob Seltzer ’80 has been doing charity bike rides, which provide not only an opportunity to help others, but also an enjoyable adventure. However, he became increasingly bothered by how much of the money was consumed by organizational overhead. “Less than 10 percent of the amount I raised went to the beneficiaries,” he says. “That left a bad taste in my mouth.”

Rather than give up, Seltzer found a different organization, Charity Treks. “They were unique from my experience,” he says.

“One hundred percent of what you raised went straight to the beneficiaries. It really felt good in every aspect.” Since becoming involved with Charity Treks in 2003, he has raised more than $50,000 for AIDS research. “You could see that the things we did could be responsible for an actual breakthrough,” he says.

“It’s very inspiring.”

Dana Su Lee ’84 has gone a step further: in 2005, she and a group of other Las Vegas-area women established their own nonprofit, Nevada Women’s Philanthropy (NWP). Modeled on Los Angeles’ Everychild Foundation, NWP is a pooled-fund philanthropy, combining member contributions to fund a sizable annual grant— typically $350,000—to local organizations like the Clark County Rape Crisis Center.

“We wanted the grant to be substantial enough so the nonprofit could use it to seed or grow a program: in a sense, venture philanthropy,” explains Lee, who also sits on the board of several other local organizations, including Communities in Schools Nevada. “I love

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beautiful moments

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visiting the nonprofits that NWP has funded the past seven years and noting how our funds provided much needed capital to allow them to better serve clients.” she says. “I am also quite grateful for the ways in which NWP has changed the nonprofit arena in our valley. Our process, scrutiny, and focus on sustainability have led nonprofits to think and behave [in a] more business-like [way].”

Service can be just as meaningful on a smaller, more personal scale. Aviana Gracial ’07, who graduated from Claremont McKenna College in 2011, works for Dream Street, which gives children with serious and chronic illnesses the opportunity to go to summer camp. Her job, she says, “is to make sure that these children get to be just that—children.”

Gracial understands first-hand how much Dream Street’s programs can mean to campers. “I was a camper in 2001 after being diagnosed with Stage 4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma,” she explains. “After I was treated and the cancer was gone, I loved Dream Street and what it had done for me in such a difficult time.” She became a volunteer in 2004 and recently became the organization’s director.

Gracial calls camp “definitely the most exhausting week of my year,” but says seeing the kids makes it all worthwhile.

“Many of these children have never ridden a horse, gone swimming, or had cotton candy,” she says. “I get to make all of these wonderful childhood memories happen.”

Anton has since joined Operation Smile missions to Haiti, Kenya, and Bolivia, and he now hopes to do another each year. “I happen to be a plastic surgeon and I can give back in that way,” he says, “but everyone can get involved as a writer or a photographer or organizational help.”

Sometimes, opportunities to serve can come from unexpected directions.

Catherine Enders Carlton ’97 intended to become a reporter, but found herself working as a writer for gas and electric utility companies in Albuquerque, N.M., and the DallasFort Worth area. As part of that work, she became a leader of those companies’ community outreach efforts and helped to launch First Choice Power’s FoodFirst hunger program, which has provided more than 1.3 million free meals since 2010.

“Many of these children have never ridden a horse, gone swimming, or had cotton candy.

I get to make all of these wonderful childhood

Jeff Taylor ’06 also understands the value of smaller moments. Since graduating from Webb, he has volunteered with Pomona Hope, an after-school program for at-risk grade school students in Pomona; helped to establish a community service program at Harvey Mudd College, his alma mater; and worked for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Los Angeles.

He then served a year and a half in the Peace Corps, stationed in the Commonwealth of Dominica. While his official responsibility was building cooperation between groups, he says “The most important work that I did was to open my door for kids who needed a place to play, study, and relax after school.”

memories happen.”

“As with anything, the key [to service] is to find something that you care about and enjoy doing,” Taylor says. “Volunteerism isn’t something that you can force—don’t do it because you think you should; do it because it’s something you enjoy.”

skill, interest and opportunity

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Effective service is also about finding opportunities to apply your unique skills. Mark Anton, M.D., FACS ’74, a respected

“When I was in college, I did not

think I’d be writing about gas

pipelines and powerplants,” Carlton

laughs. “But it turned into these amazing programs like FoodFirst. From journalism to P.R. to community outreach to helping people—that’s how I summarize it.”

many rewards

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Newport Beach plastic surgeon, found such an opportunity during a facial surgery fellowship at the Eastern Virginia School of Medicine in 1989. One of his mentors during that program was Dr. Bill McGee, cofounder of Operation Smile, which performs plastic and reconstructive surgeries for children with facial deformities. Anton decided to join the Operation Smile surgical team for a mission to Liberia, then in the throes of civil war.

“When we went to Liberia, there were a lot of other, non-cleft/lip palate issues that needed to be surgically addressed, such as significant burns, open wounds, scars and fractures that needed surgery,” he recalls. “We’d basically all be working and taking care of as many patients as we could: 10–12-hour days.”

Like many alumni, Carlton points out that service can have significant personal rewards. “It’s a great way to get involved, meet people, network, or practice new skills,” she says. Her volunteer work also led to her current job as a communications director for MHMR of Tarrant County, her region’s leading mental health provider.

Tami Schonfeld ’10, a junior at Boston College, has taken on a major service commitment each year, usually working with young children through programs like Jumpstart. That work will undoubtedly help her future career as an elementary school teacher, but there are also more immediate benefits.

“The smiling faces, warm hugs, ‘thank yous,’ and ‘I love yous’ made the countless hours completely and totally worth it,” she says. “It was in many ways life-changing.”

letting the community set the agenda

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“All that I’ve done in terms of community service has made me a better person, a better human being,” adds Gabe Bouz ’10, a pre-med student at USC who has made three trips to Honduras as part of USC Global Medical Brigades, supporting healthcare clinics in medically underserved regions. “I cherish seeing how my and the other students’ hard work and kindness light up the faces of men and women.”

While service can be gratifying, Sasha Wijeyeratne ’08 cautions that it is very important “to be critical about how you engage with communities that are not your own.” Wijeyeratne, a 2012 graduate of Swarthmore College with a degree in sociology and anthropology, is a program coordinator for Philadelphia’s University Community Collaborative, offering workshops in leadership development and political/media literacy for high school students. She says that being conscious of privilege and power dynamics is vital to ensuring “that you’re not doing more harm than good.”

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ervice has always been central to the Webb mission and

today’s students generously give of their time and talent in helping others. Here is a select accounting of Webb students in service.

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“Follow your passion,” adds Lee. “You have the energy, the intelligence, and the gumption to do anything. If there is an issue that moves you, do something. You can all be change agents.”

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Hours spent at Sunrise Assisted Living.

Bob Sears says Haiti Healthcare Partners was very conscious of that issue, which is why their doctor and clinic staff are all Haitians. “We wanted ultimately to have a charity run by Haitians for Haitians,” Sears explains. “We didn’t want to be Americans telling Haitians how to do this.”

“If you’ve got even a glimmer of an interest in service, in helping others in need, it’s important to respect it and pursue it,” offers Christian Holmes. “My glimmer was one that had been shaped by individuals I had read about as a young boy, especially Albert Schweitzer. I pursued that, which led to my leading international disaster relief efforts.”

3,564

Units of food and personal hygiene supplies the sophomore annual holiday food drive donated to the Council of Churches and to the BETA Center. The BETA Center helps an average of 47 homeless persons each day.

Even with those caveats, “community service is a deceptively powerful tool,” says Will Kelland ’11, a student at the University of Richmond’s Jepson School of Leadership Studies who is currently in Australia, working with Aboriginal high school students. “I really believe people can make a difference in others’ lives, especially when working with younger people.”

$2,000

Raised in one evening by Webb’s Red Cross chapter for Hurricane Sandy Relief. Red Cross also benefited from 100 hours of service and 36 pints of blood were collected during the annual Blood Drive.

The solution, she suggests, is “relinquishing control and allowing those you’re working with to set the agenda. ...

[T]hose most affected should be setting the agenda and telling you how to go about service work.”

the power of service

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Students on the school’s Service Council. The Council staffs 13 committees consisting of 5-10 students each. Some of the local agencies with which Webb students have an ongoing relationship include: Habitat for Humanity, Global Citizens Corps, Global Children’s Relief, Red Cross, Project Earth, Prison Library Project, Leroy Haynes Center, HOPE, St. Mark’s Preschool, CLASP-after school tutoring, and Sunrise Assisted Living.

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The number of years that Webb students have been tutoring, mentoring, providing music classes and hosting the Leroy Haynes boys on campus.

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School sponsored international service travel opportunities were offered this year – Argentina, Thailand, Costa Rica and Africa.

600

Toys provided to three local charities—Council of Churches, Foothill Family Shelter, and San Antonio Community Hospital—through the efforts of the WSC annual holiday toy drive.

1005

Hours spent working at the Prison Library Project preparing books to send to inmates. Students also donated more than $800 from t-shirt sales and hundreds of books.

1,160

Volunteer service hours working on a Habitat for Humanity build in Thailand.

480

Hours spent tutoring elementary school children through CLASP (Claremont After-School Program).

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Webbies and 2 teachers participated in the Inland Valley Hope Partners Walk for the Hungry. The group raised $305 to donate to food pantries in the area.

In addition to the 15 local agencies that Webb volunteer service groups have a deep and ongoing relationship with, five new ventures will be added in 2013-2014.

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Claremont, California, is worldrenowned for its academic institutions – The Webb Schools and the Claremont Colleges, which include four liberal arts colleges ranked in the top 25 by U.S. News & World Report. Pomona College is currently ranked as the 4th best liberal arts college in the nation. Students journey from all corners of the globe and from every economic background to study here. And there is one reason why Pomona—and in a smaller way Webb—are able to offer their high-caliber, highly-sought-after educational opportunities to almost any bright student who seeks to gain knowledge at the elite level—endowment.

The 2013 annual ranking of U.S. News & World Report also categorizes Pomona College as “most selective”; its endowment stands at approximately $1.7 billion. The three schools preceding Pomona in the ranking were founded years before—Williams in 1793, Amherst in 1821, and Swarthmore in 1864—and have enjoyed decades, and in one case, nearly a century, to raise and invest their endowment funds. In a 2008 interview in the Pomona College Flame with Carlene Miller, the then vice president and treasurer of Pomona College, attributed the endowment’s remarkable growth to “smarts!” She then went on to explain: “I think our investment committee is very savvy, and we have a smart consulting firm, Cambridge Associates [Webb uses the same firm], that has advised us since 1980.

They helped us think about how we could conserve the tremendous gains we made in the ’90s. We could have made a lot of money and then lost it, which is what happened to some colleges. But we did very well and lost very little because Cambridge advised and our investment committee listened.”

Webb shares a similar tale of catching-up with like institutions—many of them founded hundreds of years ago and prospering from connections with America’s founding families and the wealthy industrialists who oversaw the country’s expansion through the 19th and early 20th centuries.

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n d o w m e n t

Peer School Average of $6.8 million annually

Webb wasn’t classified as a non-profit until the mid-1950s (prior to that, it was a familyowned business), so there were no tax advantages for alumni and friends of the school when making gifts during the years prior to that date. The first Board of Trustees was formed in 1955 and fundraising was in its infancy through the rest of the decade; fundraising for endowment was even less of a priority as the board sought to build other programs, including the Annual Fund.

Peer School Endowments in millions: Phillips Exeter Academy $982 $380 Hotchkiss School Lawrenceville School $333 Middlesex $170 Thatcher School $115 $72 Cate School Brooks $64 Webb $30 Stevenson $24

The importance of an endowment cannot, however, be overrated. An endowment fund is most commonly established by a tax-exempt organization and is a permanent fund that uses its earnings to advance the mission of a non-profit organization for which it was established. The principal stays intact, while part of the earnings are utilized by the organization each year to fund projects—at Webb, this would include financial aid, faculty development, and other programs designated by donors to the endowment. A percentage of

Total Contributions Total Giving 2005-2010 Webb: Average of $4.9 million annually

W h at I t M e a n s to E d u c at i o n a l S u c c e s s

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the earnings are generally left in the fund to increase the fund principal. As the principal increases, the earnings available for use each year also increases.

In addition to its contribution to the annual operating budget and specific programs, a school’s endowment also serves as a resource pool for innovation and planning, allowing an institution to evolve to meet the changing needs of the students it serves.

Dr. David Oxtoby, president of Pomona College, president of the Overseers of Harvard University, parent of Laura ’04 and a member of Webb’s board of trustees from 2005-2009, says,

“A strong endowment provides stability to an institution and, perhaps paradoxically, also permits healthy risk taking. It allows a school or college to plan beyond the particular revenue issues of a given year and to undertake opportunities that will pay off in the longer run.

An institution with too small an endowment is always ‘catching-up’ with its peers, and is less able to move out in front with ambitious plans.”

According to Tina Paredes, Webb’s director of asset management, the primary objective for Webb’s endowment investment is “to preserve the purchasing power of the endowment’s corpus, at the same time providing a stable, growing source of funding for spending.”

On June 30, 2003, Webb’s endowment market value stood at $14,401,561 (in 1994 it was only $3 million) and today, with generous gifts to the Fulfilling our Promise campaign and well-managed returns, the endowment is valued at $30,151,535 (as of March 31, 2013).

Webb’s three-year annualized return at the end of fiscal 2012 was 8.9% and net of management fees 8.5%.

Webb’s endowment is managed under the careful advisement of the schools’ investment committee, which includes Head of Schools Taylor Stockdale and Webb’s Director of Finance Planning and Operations Janet Peddy; Trustees Larry Ashton ’70, Mickey Novak ’70, David Loo ’79, Paul Reitler ’54, and Ralph Young ’63; and Ralph Shaw P ’00.

In recent years, as the endowment grew beyond the $20 million mark, the schools’ leadership realized that a more sophisticated approach was warranted and contracted the services of Cambridge Associates.

The company is a leading investment advisor to foundations and endowments, private wealth, and corporate and government entities.

Their clients are nationwide and include major institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and colleges and universities including Pomona College.

“We have good minds on our investment committee, and with Cambridge, we have a more sophisticated asset allocation,” said Peddy. “We have access to funds we never had in the past, when our endowment was smaller.”

Cambridge Associates provides comprehensive advisory services including investment managers; proprietary databases delivering information on capital markets and partnerships; and comparative peer performance and quarterly and annual surveys of investment and financial data. There are also numerous reports and working papers on investment and financial issues, quarterly investment performance measurement reports, and an investment planning review.

“The investment committee is made up of good thinkers with different opinions,” said Peddy.

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2012, endowment funds provided only 10% of our financial aid budget. One of the largest gifts to this endeavor was the $1 million Matching Gift Challenge that was issued by The Crean Foundation, made possible in part by parent and Crean Foundation board member Susan Thomas P ’05, ’09 as part of the Fulfilling Our Promise campaign. For every $2 raised for scholarship endowment from alumni, parents and friends, the foundation contributed $1 resulting in a $3 million addition to endowment for financial aid.

Today, Webb offers approximately $3.5 million annually in financial aid to students. According to Director of Institutional Advancement Joe Woodward, an endowment three times our current value would be needed to completely support that number.

“Endowment also helps us hold down the cost of tuition.

As the endowment grows, the take-out increases and so tuition dollars do not have to support as much of the operating budget,” said Woodward.

“We ask them to step out of their norm as a business investor. Our endowment is for perpetuity so they have to look at it differently and these people have the ability to do this. They have an amazing, collective intelligence even though they come from diverse backgrounds,” she added, citing their collective personal experience working in the stock market, with investment portfolios and in international markets.

Peddy characterizes the committee members as thoughtful, thoughtprovoking and conscientious and says that even Cambridge Associates have told her that the group has demonstrated significant courage in a difficult market.

When Thompson Webb retired in 1962, he shared his aspiration for the continuation of everything he had accomplished: “I sincerely hope that we may build a fine plant and get an endowment that will see the school on a sound foundation through all the years to come.”

“These are smart people who care passionately about the school.

They have stepped out of their own financial biases to take on this fiduciary responsibility and help our endowment thrive in this difficult time,” said Peddy.

To undergird the achievements made during the Fulfilling Our Promise campaign, the school will continue to cultivate endowed funds to support and sustain Webb’s beautiful campus facilities—to preserve their use for future generations.

“We’ve outpaced our investment bench marks and we continue to do a good job in a difficult market,” she added. “For a portfolio of our size, we have diverse holdings. Our access through Cambridge allows us to buy-in and buy-up to certain opportunities that we normally wouldn’t be able to and we’ve done well for the school.”

“Webb, like the majority of schools, had been unable to set aside enough money to take care of the physical plant,” said Peddy.

“It’s been the elephant in the room—especially at a place like Webb with our infrastructure built in the 1920s. We’ve had to build a war chest. Now we want to be more thoughtful. We use the acronym PPRRSM to guide our efforts—Provision, Plant, Renewal, Repair, Special Maintenance.”

Webb’s 4% endowment distribution rate helps to insulate the endowment from anticipated market volatility that may include lower investment returns and high inflation. It also ensures continued, steady support of the school’s operations and programs—including funding for financial aid, faculty enrichment, academics, and arts and athletics programs.

The biggest benefactor of endowment at Webb is financial aid, which helps bring social and economic diversity to the school. However, in

Peddy cites the new Copeland Donahue Theater construction and the Alf Museum’s Hall of Life renovation as good examples of capital projects that both included endowments to insure the long-term upkeep of the structures and to cover the costs of ever-changing technology within. Investment in Webb’s infrastructure is arguably one of the most effective ways of investing in the long-term future of the school.

Mary Stuart Rogers Scholars Program Nears 20th Anniversary “Endowment for future projects needs to include funding to help take care of the building or structure,” said Peddy. “We should build nothing today that we can’t care for in the future. It’s an unfair burden for future Webbies.”

In recent years, faculty have benefited greatly from endowed funds, most notably the Les and Barbara Perry Faculty Enrichment Fund, which provides opportunities for teachers’ professional growth and renewal.

Col. John S. Rogers ’59 says his mother, the late Mary Stuart Rogers, first established her foundation in 1983, but even her children were unaware of it until her death in 1993. “I didn’t know anything about it until the reading of the will,” says Rogers. However, as his mother’s will directed, Rogers became the foundation’s president, a role he has held ever since.

And, the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology has advanced its mission with endowment funding for infrastructure, faculty and students. For example, the Raymond M. Alf Peccary Society Chair was established in 1999 by Col. John ’59 and June Rogers and the Mary Stuart Rogers Foundation to provide Webb students with unique educational opportunities in paleontology and scientific research, and to support the museum director’s work with students in the field; and a $2 million gift from the Augustyn family in 2011 endowed the Augustyn Family Curator of Paleontology and the Augustyn Family Research Fund.

“Our goal in the long term is to support a substantial part of our operating budget through endowment so it isn’t primarily tuitiondriven,” said Woodward. “Endowment helps keep down the price of education and it helps the school stay true to its mission without having to follow trends and fads.”

As the school moves forward, increased endowment contributions will be critical to achieving the financial flexibility required to continue to make vital investments in the school.

“As Webb approaches its 100th year, now among the oldest boarding schools to continuously thrive in the Western region, it is very clear to me that we must secure an endowment at least four times our annual operating budget. This means we must grow our endowment to $75 million or more in the not too distant future. This is the only way we can expand our educational excellence, which is already widely acknowledged across the country and around the world.”

—Taylor Stockdale

Endowment funding links past, present and future generations, and provides the resources that will shape the future of The Webb Schools by supporting the faculty, programs and facilities that exemplify and enhance the Webb experience.

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Rogers’ mother left no doubt about the foundation’s mission. “My mother believed in helping people to help themselves,” Rogers explains. “She was very interested in education. Everything we do has the impetus of helping students or other nonprofits that help schools. That was her charter; I just carried out her wishes.” Under Rogers’ leadership, the foundation has established endowed scholarship programs and annual gifts for schools throughout the West Coast at the elementary, high school, and college levels.

The Mary Stuart Rogers Scholarship Program at Webb was established with generous gifts from the foundation and from Rogers and his wife June.

To date, the program has helped 176 Webb students at a rate of about 20 per year. Rogers says his goal is “to support students who have shown the ability to help themselves” and need financial assistance.

“The one thing I dictate,” he says, “is that they have to show that they’ve made an [academic] accomplishment and they have a need.

That’s really what it’s all about.”

student news

Today

WEBB

A day to celebrate the accomplishment, and reflect on the opportunities ahead.

Commencement 2013

On Saturday, June 1, The Webb Schools graduated 94 seniors from Vivian Webb School and Webb School of California in two separate

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v

ivian Webb School seniors

were honored by faculty, ceremonies on campus. The Class of 2013 celebrated numerous achievements

friends, family, and fellow

classmates in a beautiful in academics, as well as athletics, in their time at Webb. morning ceremony on Faculty Field. Forty-three young women received diplomas from Head of Schools Taylor Stockdale during Most notably is their record of matriculation into the the school’s 30th commencement exercises.

nation’s top colleges in the most selective year faced by students to date.

Rachel Sang ’13 spoke eloquently in her valedictory address about what it means to balance your own self-view against the expectations of others: “Your strengths or your passions may not coincide with what is especially valued by others, and they may not coincide with what other people expect of you. But just because your strengths and your contributions may not be recognized with a formal award, that doesn’t mean that those gifts are any less valuable or crucial. What kind of place would the world be if the only thing people were really good at was writing papers? Or if everyone were the star athlete? Success isn’t defined by accomplishment in just one category, and it doesn’t have to be quantified in terms of a GPA or a number of wins or a placement in a competition. Success is when you have met the goals that you have set for yourself; when you look back and feel that you have spent your time working toward something or becoming someone that makes you proud.”

Vivian Webb School alumna Alix Rosenthal ’91 gave the keynote address. Rosenthal currently serves as vice chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party, as well as running her own private legal practice focused on political law. She reflected on her first foray into politics when she ran for class president her freshman year at Webb.

Her advice to the Class of 2013 drew from a dramatic loss against a popular incumbent in her early political career in San Francisco: “In my campaign for supervisor, I learned to handle losing with grace. I learned that I was terrible at raising money, and so I

Webb Magazine • Fall 2013

“None of our achievements would

“Success is when you have met the

have occurred without putting in the

goals that you have set for yourself;

hard work required, every day, every

when you look back and feel that you

hour, and every second. So please do

have spent your time working toward

not forget your own perseverance

something or becoming someone that

and strength.” - derek chok

volunteered to fundraise for other local candidates so that I could practice making calls. I got involved in powerful local organizations, so that I could understand their issues better the next time I ran. ...

My point is this: the sweetest victory is the one that’s the most difficult to achieve; the one where you took the most risk; the one that required you to work the hardest, without knowing, until it’s over, if all your hard work will pay off. And hey—life is messy.

You WILL screw up. The real beauty is in how you handle your mistakes ... hopefully you will handle them with grace, introspection, creativity and resolve.”

Later in the day, as the sun began to descend over the western roofline of the Alamo dormitory, the 51 Webb School of California seniors assembled in front of family and friends for their ceremony. Head of Schools Taylor Stockdale once again presented the diplomas.

WSC Valedictorian Derek Chok ’13 started his speech with a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.” He then turned this quote towards his fellow classmates the following way: “Personally, I have been greatly inspired by the courage of my classmates. This year, doctors told Jordan that he would not recover from his knee injury in time to play baseball. Yet he ripped the ‘I can’t’ out of the dictionary and said ‘I can and will.’

Not only did he play, he thrived. This is because he gave it his all every day, no matter the triviality of the rehabilitation exercises.

Or look at Mason. He hates running, but he’s a star runner.

Not because of raw talent or genetics, but rather because of his consistency in waking up to run every single morning. Freshman year, Daniel’s persistence in trying to convert an idea of his into action has allowed for Webb Appreciation Day to become a legacy.

These people had the right attitude and mentality. Yet these accomplishments are in all areas. Prince would not be such a great violinist without the numerous hours spent practicing.

Albert would not be such a great painter if he never painted.

None of our achievements would have occurred without putting in the hard work required, every day, every hour, and every second.

So please do not forget your own perseverance and strength.”

makes you proud.” - Rachel Sang

H e challenged the class to take on the big challenges with confidence and said, “Be a true unbounded, out-of-the-box thinker and doer. Another lesson I learned at Webb is you can’t always compete head-to-head with the smartest person or the best athlete.

I, myself, worked my derriere off just to be in the middle of my class! And do you know what? I was proud just to make it to the middle. But later at university I realized that being in the middle at Webb—or even just graduating from Webb—already propelled me—as it will you—to the upper range within the population. You get an artificial sense when you attend Webb that everyone works hard, everyone studies hard, and everyone wants what you want, and it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there. In some ways this is true but what I generally found was I was prepared. And as such, I could make my dreams come true. How, though, do you compete with those that have perfect SAT scores, perfect grades, all AP courses, great athletes, etc.? The answer is you compete on your own terms.

You compete with your own strengths. My failures at Webb made me develop my other senses more acutely. And those senses are more important than all of the other things I mentioned.”

During the Commencement ceremonies for both VWS and WSC, Head of Schools Taylor Stockdale presented the following teaching awards: Thompson and Vivian Webb Excellence in Teaching Award: math teacher and South Hutchinson dorm head Sarah Lantz; Jean E. Miller Excellence in Teaching Award: science teacher John Lawrence; James T. Demetriades ’80 Endowed Prize for Unbounded Thinking: humanities teacher Donald Ball; Laurence McMillin Excellence in Teaching Award: chemistry teacher Andrea Chou.

Mickey Novak, WSC Class of 1970, was the keynote speaker during the boys’ ceremony. He’s been a tireless member of the Webb community throughout the years, serving as a trustee to the schools and helping organize class reunions. Mr. Novak began his entrepreneurial ventures producing digital wrist watches, and later founded an international manufacturing and retail goods importing company.

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

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WEBB

Today

student news

Have Robot, Will Travel

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Webb Robotics Team Takes Design, Engineering and Programming Skills to FIRST World Championships

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Call them the Gaulbots: a team of nine dedicated Webb students whose engineering skills took them all the way to the “Olympics of robotics” in April. That would be the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Tech Challenge, founded more than 20 years ago and now a worldwide series of competitions leading to an annual world championship tournament where the very best student-designed and -built robots compete for the laurel wreath.

Traveling to St. Louis, Missouri, the Gaulbots pitted their robotic creation against 63 other robots in their division. It was the first time the Webb robotics team advanced to the world championships, and while they didn’t bring home the trophy they did finish in the top 5 percent of the 2,800 teams worldwide.

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“Of course, we wanted a better result, but we learned a lot and are ready for next year,” said faculty advisor and Math Department Chair Will Walker.

“It’s a wonderful culmination of four months of solid work by the team.

I’m extremely proud of their efforts and dedication.”

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6

1

Webb Magazine • Fall 2013

3

1 Chassis / drive train – Electrical engineering, circuit design.

Speed or torque? Energy allocation? Each year the FIRST Tech Challenge is different, and the Gaulbots must design and build a robot that’s up to the challenge.

2 Lifting device – Mechanical engineering, math.

Durable or lightweight? Simple and robust or capable of more finesse? For this extendable component to work without toppling the robot, correctly locating its center of gravity was vital.

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Webb’s robotics team is an afternoon activity: during fall and winter seasons, team members spend hours each day designing, building, testing, and revising their robot – especially during the early design stage when they’re brainstorming ideas, noted team member and former captain Jonathan Gunn ’13.

Last September, FIRST Tech Challenge unveiled its challenge for the year, a complex series of tasks built around a seemingly simple goal: moving colored rings from a pole to an upright tic-tac-toe grid (using a robot, of course). For some portions of the challenge the robot operated autonomously; during others it was controlled remotely by a team operator. Points were awarded for, among other tasks, winning at tic-tac-toe, and differentiating between normal rings and slightly heavier rings, all while three other robots also buzzed around the small arena, intent on winning and blocking their competitors.

Horizontal translator – Design theory.

Where to add extra capability, without compromising the robot’s basic design? This component allows the ring grabber to move from side to side, removing the need to position the robot exactly in front of the rings. An example of creative design thinking, it earned the Webb team this year’s Rockwell Collins Innovate Award at the Los Angeles Regional Championships.

4 Grabber – Physics.

Beginning in January, the Gaulbots fielded the robot they designed and built specifically to tackle the challenge, competing in a series of qualifying events that culminated with the best teams facing off at the world championships.

Building battling robots. It sounds like fun, and it is, but it has an educational purpose. “The program is all about growing engineers,” says Walker. This year’s Gaulbots, from freshmen to seniors, brought a range of skills to the challenge. While some Gaulbots brought three years’ experience on the Webb team, new team members contributed their own diverse experiences and expertise.

Kuwin Sui ’15, for example, added the skills he honed building custom RC cars. From math and mechanical engineering to innovative design thinking and computer programming, the FIRST Tech Challenge encourages Webb students to develop, use and combine a variety of disciplines.

Who knows what they’ll be building this year...

How closely to match the grabber’s design to the target rings?

Too close, and capturing the rings could be almost impossible.

Not close enough, and the rings might just fall off.

5 Protection – Basic engineering.

They’re not fancy, but these plastic shields, used to protect the robot from others competing in the arena, are vital for success. Robots must be built using a standardized assortment of parts, although the rules allow teams to add some other materials.

6 Sensors – Programming, systems integration.

The robot must be able to operate autonomously, as well as via remote control. To compete and win, it must be able to sense its surroundings, identify target rings, and maneuver. To “teach” and control the robot, Gaulbots learn Robot C, an educational version of the ubiquitous C programming languages.

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

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WEBB

Today

gaul athletics

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Fenton, Ramos, DiGiamarino, Olszewski, Gollin

5 stars

Webb athletes to play at the college level

At a ceremony held in Jackson Library in February, five graduating Webb seniors — Aaron DiGiamarino ’13, T.J. Fenton ’13, Nick Gollin ’13, Carly Olszewski ’13, and Ashlynn Ramos ’13 — made formal commitments to the colleges where they will continue their athletic careers.

It’s a distinguished list: Four of those students will be playing in Division 1, the highest level of NCAA competition, and three will be playing in the Pac-12 conference, which boasts some of the division’s top teams.

“The fact that we are sending three students to play at Pac-12 schools would be brag-worthy for any high school in the country, much less a 400student college preparatory boarding school.”

Webb Magazine • Fall 2013

— Steve Wishek, Athletic Director

As happy as they are about this opportunity, none of the five

S T R I K I N G A B A L A N C E

seniors was willing to sacrifice academics for athletics.

“I had a few D1 offers,” says Gollin, “but my decision came down to academics and I found Wash U to be the best fit. They play D3 baseball, but I was forced to think about what school would provide me with the most opportunities.” Fenton admits that football was his first priority, but chose SUU in part because of their strong physical therapy program, which will be great preparation for his career goals. “SUU was a great fit for me academically as well as athletically,” he says.

For each of these seniors, playing at the collegiate level is the next step in a journey that began in grade school, if not earlier. Aaron DiGiamarino, who will be a pitcher and shortstop for the USC Trojans, has played baseball since the age of 4, while Gauls pitcher and first baseman Nick Gollin, who is attending Washington University in St. Louis, started at age 7. Gauls football quarterback T.J. Fenton, who has a full-ride athletic scholarship to Southern Utah University, started playing football at 6.

Each senior has played extensively both at Webb and in clubs and travel teams.

VWS varsity soccer goalie and co-captain Ashlynn Ramos, also USC-bound, has already competed at the national level as part of the Eagles Soccer Club. Her teammate, Carly Olszewski, was invited to the U.S. Women’s National U-18 team training camp in 2011. Olszewski joined the top-ranked Stanford Cardinal women’s soccer team, which has four consecutive Pac-12 championships and made it all the way to the final four last season.

Olszewski and Ramos also say their choices offered the best of both worlds.

“I am thrilled about going to Stanford,” says Olszewski, who plans to go pre-med.

“I love this school because not only does it have an outstanding soccer team, but it also has a strong academic reputation.

I am definitely a little nervous, but I’m very excited.” Ramos echoes those sentiments.

“I’m interested in a great education at a school where I can put my soccer skills to good use,” she says. “USC is pretty much the perfect fit for me.”

There’s no doubt that all these Webb athletes will continue to be fierce competitors at the college level. “I don’t like to lose,” says DiGiamarino, who is considering the USC Marshall School of Business, but has ambitions to eventually play professional baseball. “That is a big reason I chose ’SC.” “We are thrilled for the opportunity these young men and women have to compete athletically at the collegiate level,” says Steve Wishek. “They have all put tremendous time and effort into their athletic pursuits while maintaining stellar academic records. They are true studentathletes, and I look forward to watching their continuing athletic exploits at the next level.”

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

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WEBB

Today

the arts

The Art of the Well-Rounded Student The study of history provides a sense of time beyond the present. The study of literature enhances the appreciation of history’s complexities.

The study of mathematics explores the concepts of pattern and structure, and the study of science broadens one’s 24

understanding of the natural world. Students at Webb excel in all of these disciplines, but it is the study of the arts that truly helps students uncover realities that cannot be communicated in words or numbers. At Webb, students enjoy opportunities to discover their passions and develop their skills outside of the classroom.

Landen

Taflinger ’13

As a much valued athlete on Webb’s varsity football and track teams, Landen Taflinger ’13 is accustomed to having all eyes on his performance.

But it wasn’t until his junior year, during a theater arts class with teacher Stefanie Hamlyn, that he realized his full potential in front of an audience.

Taflinger was encouraged to audition for the comedy show, a funny take on Hamlet called Shreds and Patches.

“It was an absolutely wonderful experience that surprised both myself as well as family and faculty at the school,” said Taflinger.

The young thespian describes acting as another way to communicate, “It’s an outlet for inner feelings, expressions, and desires.”

Taflinger describes himself as someone who is usually seen by his friends as serious and straight-forward and acting has provided an outlet for him to release some “quirkiness.”

Last season he had the lead, Seymour Krelborn, in Little Shop of Horrors and enjoyed the opportunity to flesh-out a full character.

“When a scene starts and I have to be this dorky orphan ... I give myself thoughts of what he would be going through, how has his life been up to this point? It’s way more than just reading lines,” he said.

In addition to the balancing act he performs with sports and the stage, Taflinger is also president of the Paintball/Shooting Club, a student prefect, and a volunteer with the Explorer Program of the Claremont Police Department.

Webb Magazine • Fall 2013

“I’m looking forward to all the different choices!”

At Dickinson College, which he will attend this fall, Taflinger plans to study Political Science and International Relations with a focus on Security Studies, but he also hopes to stay involved in theater.

“It—theater—provides a good way to realize that you can just be yourself and not worry about what others think of you,” said Taflinger.

Storm

part of any set is making brick walls. My first show was Shreds and Patches, and the only thing I did that entire season was outline and color (with chalk) bricks that covered the entire Copeland Donahue,” said Sprague. “I learned two things: I hate bricks. But I like scaffolding.”

“I have to thank Dr. Nelson, Ms. Silva, Mr. Champion and Dr. Gilbert for making my musical experience at Webb so worthwhile,” she said. Lei most enjoys playing classical music spanning many different time periods and prefers performing romantic and contemporary pieces.

She has worked on sets for several productions; as for the future, Sprague says she would like to continue to participate in technical theater so that she can build and design tangible things.

Lei is also an International Liaison, co-chair of the Global Citizens Corps, and was instrumental in helping to plan Dies Mulieris and TEDx events. Last year, she was the recipient of the Claremont Rotary Club’s Scholarship in American Heritage Award, which is given to 11th- and 12th-grade students.

SPRAGUE ’14

When Storm Sprague ’14 was little, she used to think that taking art classes was “cheating.”

“I thought that art was more authentic when it came from raw talent and practice,” she said. “The one or two times in middle school that I gave art classes a chance, I wasn’t an easy student. I remember walking into a classroom, and the teacher told the students, ‘Here is a painting of a sunset. In front of you are watercolors and paper. Copy it.’ I was angry—I wanted to do my own thing, not copy someone else!”

At Webb, Sprague has had the opportunity to express herself in many ways.

“I really enjoy sculpture, but before my class last year with Mr. Maffris, I wouldn’t have called it that. I loved the inflatables project we did; both of my 3D models were chosen by the class to build,” said Sprague. “I got to walk around inside a 10-foot-tall inflatable whale that I’d designed. It only got better when I borrowed the fog machine from theater and made a real blowhole. I wouldn’t have had that opportunity without Mr. Maffris’s guidance.”

Sprague joined the Robotics team as a freshman (and designed their logo), and friends from that activity suggested she might enjoy technical theater. After fulfilling her sport requirement on the softball team, she made a poster for the theater production of The Seagull.

She quickly found that show business isn’t entirely glamorous. “The most annoying

“I could also, maybe, be a playwright, so that I might be able to incorporate my philosophies and stories and even science or math,” she said. “Because in stories, an audience’s willing suspension of disbelief is the only limit.”

Belinda

Lei ’13

The flute is one of the earliest known instruments; it is classified as an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening.

“The unique sound of the flute won me over,” said Belinda Lei ’13.

Earlier this year Lei applied to and was accepted at the prestigious Yale-NUS— a landmark collaboration between Yale University and the National University of Singapore; and the first liberal arts college in the island-nation.

Though she was impressed and intrigued by its merging of eastern and western traditions, Lei ultimately decided to enter the class of 2017 at another impressive institution, The Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, where she also intends to continue with her music.

“I’ve already begun looking at the different music ensembles at Georgetown,” said Lei. “I’m looking forward to all the different choices!” 

Music is a “constant blessing” in Lei’s life, and at Webb she has valued her experience working with supportive teachers.

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

25

the

ALF WEBB at

News from the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology at The Webb Schools

Back to the Gobi 26

— search for dinosaurs and experience the wonders of Mongolia in 2014!

The Alf Museum led trips to the Gobi Desert for the Webb community in 1995, 2006, and 2008, and each was a great success. It is time to return.

The Gobi Desert has a great air of mystery because it lies in the rarely visited heart of Asia, an area that yielded some of the most important fossil discoveries of the 20th century.

We will explore Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, especially its impressive natural history museum, and then fly to the Gobi. Our first stop will be the Three Camel Lodge, a magnificent ger camp with first-rate, western-style facilities operated by our tour group, Nomadic Expeditions. Travelers will sleep overnight in gers, the traditional tents of nomadic herders, made of a latticed wood structure covered with layers of felt and canvas. Then we will explore parts of the Gobi, including the legendary “Flaming Cliffs,” named for Above: Lunch break in the Gobi Desert. Right (from top): The Flaming Cliffs with camels in the foreground; Dwight Morgan ’65 points to a large dinosaur bone; view of Mongolian steppe and gers.

Webb Magazine • Fall 2013

d

i

s

c

o

its sandstones that glow brilliantly at sunset. It was here in 1922, that Roy Chapman Andrews and his team from the American Museum of Natural History found the world’s first dinosaur eggs. A stop at Tugrigiin Shiree is a must because this site is famous for its exceptional “Fighting Dinosaurs” specimen (Protoceratops and Velociraptor locked in combat). We will also work with a Mongolian paleontologist for a few days at an active dig site where participants will prospect for fossils. There is more to see in the Gobi other than dinosaurs, and we will visit Hongoryn Els (“Singing Sands”) Sand Dunes, an area with dune fields that extend for more than 80 km and exceed 750 meters in elevation.

v

e

r farke names new dinosaur species A discovery announced by the museum’s Augustyn Family Curator of Paleontology, Dr. Andy Farke, has helped fill a 95-millionyear gap in the fossil record.

The carnivorous dinosaur Dahalokely tokana, which lived about 90 million years ago in what is now northernmost Madagascar, was named by Farke and colleague Joe Sertich (Denver Museum of Nature and Science) in the journal PLOS ONE. They discovered the fossils in 2007, on an expedition to learn more about Madagascar’s Mesozoic paleontology.

The rewards of visiting a seldom-explored country require traveling with flexibility, a spirit of adventure, and a

27

willingness to accept local standards of amenities and services because Mongolia is a developing country in terms of infrastructure. Accommodations are comfortable and clean and include first-class hotels in Ulaanbaatar, traditional nomadic gers in the Gobi, and tents in remote locations. Meals are hearty, meatbased and simple. Transportation in the Gobi is by 4-wheel-drive vehicle on unpaved roads.

The trip will take place July 8-20 2014.

The cost is $5,350, not including round trip airfare from the USA to Ulaanbaatar. Details of the trip will be posted on The Webb Schools website (www.webb.org). The trip roster is limited to 20 participants.

Museum Director Dr. Don Lofgren will lead the trip. Please contact him at dlofgren@webb.org or 909-482-5242 if you have questions or if you wish to reserve a space.

Dr. Farke at the discovery site for Dahalokely

Dahalokely is important because it is the most informative dinosaur fossil currently known from Madagascar for the time spanning 165 and 70 million years ago. This previous gap in the fossil record has hampered an understanding of how the island’s unique fauna and flora evolved. Interestingly, Dahalokely lived at a time when Madagascar and India were joined but isolated in the middle of the Indian Ocean; thus, the new dinosaur was potentially ancestral to dinosaurs from both land masses. The name—which means “lonely little bandit”—reflects the animal’s remote habitat.

In addition to a temporary exhibit now on display at the Alf Museum, the discovery received global attention, including a live radio broadcast on BBC World Service.

Perhaps more importantly in the long term, the discovery of Dahalokely fleshes out the story for one of our planet’s most fascinating and unusual regions.

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

News from the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology at The Webb Schools

Museum Outreach: Becoming Known

I

n February 2000, I saw an ad in the

local newspaper announcing that the

Raymond Alf Museum of Paleontology

on the campus of The Webb Schools

was looking for a tour guide. I grew

up and lived in Claremont most of my

life and knew of the schools but had

never heard of the Alf Museum. When

I came for my interview, I was shocked

to see such a significant museum on

a high school campus. I got the job

and seven years later was promoted to Director of Outreach and I’ve been working to elevate the museum’s status as a destination and source for education in paleontology ever since.

28

Directing the outreach activities of the Alf Museum is exciting.

The public is visiting the museum in greater numbers and the Hall of Life was recently renovated. One of our continuing challenges is visibility within our local community.

But when they do visit, our museum leaves a lasting impression, as visitors are delighted

by Kathy Sanders

reaching more than 6,000 students, teachers and parents from schools in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. Also, we hosted visits from special education, preschool, senior citizen, home school, scouting, and college groups. To meet this growing demand, two new staff members, Miles Bennett and Monique Gonzales, were hired joining forces with veteran educators, Sheana Wijeyeratne and Phyllis Eschleman.

Classroom Science Connections Loan Kits:

To meet the needs of schools that have eliminated field trips due to budget cuts, we provide fossil loan kits. These kits bring the Alf Museum into local classrooms and give educators the tools they need to teach paleontology to their students. Grants from the David B. Jones Foundation have allowed us to provide Classroom Science Connections Loan Kits to local schools without charge. Also, Jones Foundation funds were used to lower our tour fee 50 percent for elementary school groups, and provide free tours for special education and special needs groups. In the last year alone, Jones Foundation grants benefitted 2,620 students, 151 teachers and 478 parents from 46 different elementary schools.

local science teachers with a hands-on introduction to paleontology. Teachers then take the lessons and materials back to their schools to share with their students.

We cannot offer these outreach programs without the help of Webb students, Webb parents, and museum docents. The assistance of students is essential. They bring their budding expertise and tremendous energy to their work. Webb parents also provide strong support and are volunteering in greater numbers thanks to the efforts of

Webb students help make plaster casts for young visitors during Fossil Fest.

Family Science Discovery Days and Fossil Fest:

Webb Affiliates Museum Liaison Sonja Dominguez P ’11, ’15. Finally, museum docents generously give their time and talents to provide enriching experiences for our visitors. Our most dedicated docents are:

Visitors leave not only knowing more about the history of life, but also about the remarkable community of The Webb Schools.

These special outreach events are offered one Saturday per month November through May. Craft projects based on specimens from the museum’s collections are one highlight of these family-focused events.

Simply put, our museum is a unique resource for paleontological education. We provide quality experiences, which include:

Carol Jorden (27 years of service), Marky Katib (11 years), Bill Hanlon (8 years), Ellen Goldman (5 years), and Maureen Anapoell (3 years).

Junior Paleontologist Program: Second

For a museum of our size, we are a growing resource for the public, and we expect the popularity of our outreach programs to continue to grow as the word spreads about our unique museum. With strong support from the Webb community and our dedicated volunteers and staff, we continue to serve a wider audience as we strive to fulfill our mission—“to expand the knowledge of the history of life and inspire students of all ages to explore the fossil record.”

with the museum’s state-of-the-art interactive exhibits, and are amazed that Webb students are involved in every aspect of our program.

Walk-in visits: For drop-in visitors, staff

members are available to answer questions, discuss exhibits, or provide educational materials as needed.

through fourth graders become “Fossil Detectives” through an after-school enrichment program that gives them a unique hands-on experience working with real fossils.

Paleontology for Educators Workshops:

Guided Museum Tours: Our elementary

school tour program is expanding. In the last year, we gave a record 126 tours,

Webb Magazine • Fall 2013

Two day seminars, developed and implemented by Dr. Andy Farke (Augustyn Family Curator of Paleontology), provide

Alf

raymond m. Alf museum of paleontology

the Webb schools

THE BUMPY RIDE TO PUBLICATION

Current Research Projects

It’s not enough for the museum to just find a cool fossil—we want to share it with the world.

Papers published or in press over the last twelve 12 months (Webb students in bold) include:

This process is multi-faceted; designing an exhibit and sending out a press release are certainly the most visible to the general public. But, publication in an academic venue is essential in order to receive long-term recognition and credibility in the eyes of the scientific community. Few outside the scientific community know what this entails, so come along for the ride to publication!

The next step is peer review, as the editor for the publication chooses recognized experts to evaluate our research and provide feedback. Based on the review, the editor makes a recommendation. If the paper isn’t deemed of sufficient interest for the journal or if the reviewers felt there were major flaws in the research, the paper is rejected.

More often, the paper is returned with suggested revisions. This is sometimes

painful but constructive feedback

inevitably improves the paper.

In other instances, the reviewers want

additional comparisons with other

fossils, or suggest alternative

interpretations. Once the manuscript

is revised, it is sent back to the

editor, and if he or she is satisfied,

it’s ready for the next step.

Production staff at the journal turns

the word processing files and raw

images into a formatted document.

They may do some slight edits, so Dr. Andy Farke, Annisa Herrero ’13, Derek Chok ’13, and Brandon Scolieri ’13 press the button to submit their

“page proofs” are sent to us for one paper on a baby dinosaur for peer review.

final check. Once that’s clear, it’s

finally time for publication. Where Scientific journals constitute a permanent hard copies of journals were once the norm, record of new discoveries and interpretations, electronic-only formats are on the ascent. accessible to the world through libraries If publications are “open access,” it means and the internet. Scientists—including Alf Museum paleontologists in collaboration that they are freely accessible anywhere by anyone with an internet connection. with Webb students—submit their work In order to improve dissemination of our for consideration to journals in a process research, Alf Museum publications are called “peer review.” The first step is to increasingly using this option. research the topic, write the manuscript and prepare illustrations showing the new Once a paper is officially published, we’ll find. This can take weeks, months, or even help to promote it by emailing copies to years, depending on the complexity of the colleagues and posting it on Twitter or project. We delve into the previous literature Facebook. In turn, the paper is cited by to place our finds into broader historical other researchers in their own work. and scientific context—for instance, our Sometimes it can lead to collaborations recent paper on a 75 million-year-old alligator or a visit to our collections. Our recent from Utah references papers published paper on a flying reptile bone resulted in a between 1789 and 2013. We then choose collections visit request within days after which journal to send the paper to, out of publication. For a museum like the Alf, numerous options. Depending on the topic, there are few things better than having this may be a journal of international other scientists read and build upon the scope, a regional publication, or perhaps work that we do. a chapter in a book.

•

Lofgren, D. L., B. M. Gaytan, M. Pastrano, J. E. Rice and R. L. Zheng. 2012.

First record of Kimbetohia campi (Mammalia, Multituberculata) from the Paleocene part of the North Horn Formation, Utah.

Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 32:1214-1217.

•

Farke, A. A., and J. J. W. Sertich. 2013.

An abelisauroid theropod dinosaur from the Turonian of Madagascar. PLOS ONE 8:e62047.

•

Farke, A. A., and C. A. Wilridge. 2013.

A possible pterosaur wing phalanx from the Kaiparowits Formation (late Campanian) of southern Utah, USA. PalArch’s Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology 10:1–6.

•

Gonzalez, B., and D. L. Lofgren. 2013.

Review of Megahippus and Hypohippus from the middle Miocene Barstow Formation of California. p. 78-89, in R. E. Reynolds (editor), Raising Questions in the Central Mojave Desert, Field Guide and Proceedings from 2013 Desert Symposium Proceedings, California State University Desert Studies Consortium.

•

Plyley, A., D. L. Lofgren, and A. A. Farke. 2013.

Nonmarine gastropods from the Temblor and Barstow formations of California. p. 68-72, in R. E. Reynolds (editor), Raising Questions in the Central Mojave Desert, Field Guide and Proceedings from 2013 Desert Symposium Proceedings, California State University Desert Studies Consortium.

•

Williamson. T. E., and D. L. Lofgren. In press.

Late Paleocene (Tiffanian) metatherians from the Goler Formation, California. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

29

WEBB

Today

fa c u lt y

History teacher DR. Wendy maxon spent her summer at Stanford University. She attended the Hana-Stanford Conference on Korea for U.S. Secondary School Teachers, which brings together teachers from across the U.S. and Korea for sessions on a wide assortment of Korean studies-related topics ranging from U.S.-Korea relations to history, and religion to popular culture, and the Stanford Program on International and CrossCultural Education, for teachers interested in incorporating Korean studies into their curricula by providing opportunities to exchange ideas on topics ranging from Korean history and economics to U.S.-Korean relations, North Korea, and Korean culture.

What I did over

30

Brett Potash, dean of students, WSC, attended the Stanley H. King Counseling Institute for Independent Secondary Schools at the Brooks School in North Andover, MA. The Counseling Institute offers a model of teaching counseling and listening skills to teachers, advisors, administrators, and other school personnel. Participants learn how to listen deeply and to respond in ways that promote learning, meaningful relationships, and responsible behavior.

Spanish teacher Morgan kapp utilized her 2012 Laurence McMillin Excellence in Teaching Award to travel the Basque region of Spain by bicycle observing how Basque and Spanish cultures co-exist, blend, and influence the local culture. She documented all aspects of the trip and brought back artifacts to bring her classroom to life and instill a sense of travel and adventure in her students. She also enrolled in two different online courses: “The Mexican Immigration Experience in the U.S.” through Oregon State University and “An Introduction to Blended Learning” through the Online School for Girls.

Webb Magazine • Fall 2013

English teacher DR. Tracy miller was in Monterey, CA, at a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute exploring novelist John Steinbeck—a three-week immersive experience that allowed her to study the author within an interdisciplinary context and exchange ideas with top teachers from around the country. The program emphasized situating Steinbeck within his environment and considering the myriad ways in which his work emerged from and was in response to the topographies and geopolitics of the Salinas/Monterey area.

Linda silva, instrumental music teacher, spent the summer in Colorado at the Aspen Music Festival and School. While at the music festival, which offers more than 350 musical events including symphony, chamber, opera, choral and family concerts during an eight-week season, she attended concerts, master classes and arts education events that are sure to enhance her programming and pedagogy.

Science teacher Steve sittig was selected to attend the Physics of Atomic Nuclei Program of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory on the campus of Michigan State University. The program is designed for high school chemistry and physics teachers wanting to incorporate nuclear topics into their curriculum or to just deepen their knowledge of this important field.

In preparation to teach AP Calculus AB this fall, Mathematics teacher Brian caldwell attended an Advanced Placement Summer Institute sponsored by the College Board.

Sarah lantz, mathematics teacher and VWS freshman dorm head, attended the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools Annual Conference, “Launching Future Leaders: Preparing Today’s Girls to Shape Tomorrow’s World,” in Boston. The conference served to augment the enormous strides already taking place in developing a program for VWS freshman residents. The goal of the conference was to “provide educators with strategies to develop girls with the confidence, skills and convictions to become the next generation of female leaders.”

Spanish teacher Sonsoles cardalliaguet enrolled in a two-week course through the University of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain, that allowed her to explore the Spanish Pilgrimage route in the north of Spain. Along the way the history, art, geography, literature, gastronomy, language and the riches of Spanish culture were revealed—riches she’ll bring to her classroom.

summer vacation.

History Department Chair Donald ball participated in the Price-Babson Symposium for Entrepreneurship Educators, an intensive immersion program lead by instructors at Babson College. For the 20th year, Babson’s MBA program has been ranked #1 in entrepreneurship by U.S. News and World Report.

Ball will use the experience to further shape his Inc. Think course and expand education in entrepreneurship at Webb.

History teacher Jessica fisher was selected as a Choices Teaching Fellow—one of 20 educators from across the country participating in the Choices Leadership Institute held at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University.

During the week-long intensive program, teachers learn from scholars and from their peers while engaged in best practices workshops.

Will walker was in New York at Adelphi University attending a week-long intensive training program sponsored by Program

by Design in preparation for the new computer programming course added to Webb’s curriculum in 2013-14.

Finally, we have a number of teachers that have applied for and received summer Perry Curriculum Grants. More details on these to come.

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

31

WEBB

Today

affiliates

Under the

t

Tuscan Stars his year’s Affiliates event, “Under the Tuscan Stars,” raised close to $100,000. The proceeds established the Affiliates Athletics & Afternoon Activities Fund.

Every student and teacher on our campus is fully engaged every day in either team sports or some equally passionate pursuit— visual and performing arts, robotics, outdoor adventures, and more. In an effort to provide our hardworking students and their teachers with enhanced resources to pursue these endeavors, the Affiliates benefit supported a number of capital projects in athletics, as well as provided additional operating support for afternoon activities.

32

The evening started off with a sponsors’ reception and the opportunity for guests to bid on more than 120 silent auction items ranging from jewelry and specialty baskets to trips and electronics, all donated by the Webb community and local vendors.

The Affiliates welcomed many of Webb’s incoming families, and past, present, and future friends of Webb enjoyed an evening of good friends, food, and live music and dancing.

C a l e n d a r All meetings are held in Jackson Library at 7:00 p.m. unless otherwise noted.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013 Special night and program The NCSA presents “College Recruiting Simplified.”

The organization provides benchmarks used in letting students know the realistic expectations of playing collegiate athletics.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013, Alf Museum A private tour of the Alf Museum followed by an open

discussion with museum curator Dr. Andy Farke.

Tuesday, January 14, 2014 A panel of young alumni will share their college experience.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014 Details TBD Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Details TBD Tuesday, April 15, 2014 Hector Martinez, Director of College Guidance Tuesday, May 6, 2014 Appreciation Dinner The Affiliates is Webb’s parent organization.

The group’s purpose is to further the interests of Webb and the Alf Museum. This vital organization promotes fellowship among members and assists the schools and museum as needed for special events, athletic and arts programs as well as many other programs.

The evening was made possible through the support of our sponsors, advertisers, underwriters, and auction donors who helped to make this event a huge success. A sincere and grateful thank you to our event chair, JoAnne Williams P ’15, and all the volunteers involved.

Save-the-Date for next year’s benefit: March 22, 2014

Webb Magazine • Fall 2013

For information on becoming a member of The Affiliates, or for any other parent questions or information needs, please contact Anne Stewart, director of parent relations and special events at astewart@webb.org or (909) 482-5245.

c a m p a i g n

u p d a t e

33 A

P r o m is e

F u l fi l l e d

In 1956, shortly after Thompson and Vivian Webb turned their school into a nonprofit corporation with no outstanding debt on record, the Webb School of California began planning its most ambitious master plan to date. The master plan would call for the expansion of the facilities and the establishment of a scholarship endowment fund while maintaining the current operation of the school. This massive effort was led by Millard Sheets, chairman of the building committee, and T. Kirk Hill, chairman of the board of directors, alongside Dr. Webb. The master plan architect chosen was Allen G. Siple (who designed the model home for Tahquitz River Estates in Palm Springs) and the landscape architect was Edward Huntsman-Trout (who was also the landscape architect for the entire Scripps College campus).

“Our aim is to supply the school with the buildings and the plant that are essential first for its present needs and then for its expansion,” wrote Mr. Sheets. “We are determined that, in doing

this, we must conceive and build a campus which will be as expressive of the ideals of the school as is the academic program and will thus be a continual inspiration...”

The plan had five phases costing more than $2 million. The first two phases called for new dormitories and masters’ apartments (MacLeod, Reynolds, and Kirkhill) and a common room (the Ruddick Room).

It called for a new dining hall (Price Dining Hall). It called for a museum (Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology) and science classrooms. And it called for new faculty homes. Phase three called for a new swimming pool (Sutro Pool), while phase four called for a new auditorium and classrooms (Mudd Auditorium), among others. The campus was built anew.

—Continued on the next page

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

WEBB

Today

giving and volunteering

A

P rom i s e

Fulfilled

— continued

Sixty years later, beginning in the 2005-2006 school year, The Webb Schools, now with the addition of Vivian Webb School, once again embarked on a highly ambitious master plan, this time supported by the Fulfilling Our Promise campaign. Interestingly, it harkened the past and renewed many of the ideals set forth by Dr. and Mrs. Webb and the board of trustees so many years ago.

Today, more than 200 dorm rooms (including MacLeod, Reynolds, and Kirkhill) have been renovated and a fund established to support the Ruddick Room.

Price Dining Hall has been restored with modern kitchen equipment and upgraded serving areas. The Hall of Life at the Alf Museum has been completely transformed and a museum endowment has been greatly enhanced to support the program for years to come. Faculty homes have been purchased and renovated.

The pool has been rebuilt into a CIF-regulation aquatic center. And Mudd Auditorium reopened this fall as the Susan A. Nelson Performing Arts Center complete with new state-of-the-art classrooms. The endowment has doubled in size and scholarship support has grown considerably.

34

The aim in 1956 was to build a campus that would meet the present needs of the school and allow for its expansion while serving as a continual inspiration to its students. Today, the voices of our past continue to inform, enlighten, and uplift the schools in numerous and inspirational ways. With every graduating class we grow stronger—stronger still because we stand on the shoulders of giants. Dr. Webb, Mr. Sheets, and Mr. Hill prepared us well for the future and we in turn have been able to expand in ways they could only have imagined, but hopefully would appreciate.

As we conclude the Fulfilling Our Promise campaign, we salute our forefathers for their wisdom, courage, and tenacity. Our accomplishments are a promise fulfilled to Thompson Webb when he called for us to “build a fine plant and establish an endowment that will see the school on a sound foundation through all the years to come.”

CAMPAIGN HIGHLIGHTS $50 million in total giving

• Webb Fund

• Capital

• Endowment

• Planned Gifts More than 200 events across the country and around the world Increased participation and giving from every constituency: Alumni Parents Friends Foundations

Webb Magazine • Fall 2013

Received largest gift in school history Recorded three largest consecutive years of giving in school history Received largest amount of international philanthropy in school history Doubled the endowment from level prior to campaign

Heads Reception On May 19, a group of more than 70 alumni, parents and friends, all members of the Head’s Circle, Leadership Society and Thompson & Vivian Webb Society, gathered at the home of Taylor and Anne Stockdale to celebrate giving to Webb and the Alf Museum.

Col. John Rogers ’59, who endowed the Rogers Scholar and Rogers Peccary Scholar programs, and his wife June were in attendance. They are the proud grandparents of WSC sophomore Tylor Bell-Rogers ’16.

We also gave special recognition to alumni and parent class agents who volunteer with our Webb Fund efforts.

Webb@Work Helps Young Alumni Find Summer Internships The Classes of 1950 through 2012 went head-to-head for bragging rights in the first Webb Fund March Madness Challenge. During the 6-week competition, alumni were awarded points for making gifts to The Webb Fund, with extra points given for upgraded gifts, first-time gifts, and gifts to the Leadership Society or Pacesetter’s Club.

The competition between classes heated up during the playoff rounds in April, with 2002 and 2008 tied for first place in the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight Rounds.

But in the Final Four Round, the mighty Class of 1967 came from behind to claim the top spot! Led by class agent Fletcher Strickler ’67, 21 members of the class participated in the March Madness Challenge with a total of 61 points for the win! The remaining top 10 classes include:

Class of 2002: Class of 2007: Class of 2008: Class of 1997: Class of 2000: Class of 1990: Class of 2006: Class of 1961: Class of 2011:

54 points 48 points 38 points 35 points 30 points 27 points 26 points 25 points 24 points

More than $70,000 for The Webb Fund and 145 alumni gifts were recorded during the Challenge, doubling last year’s participation and dollars raised between March 1 and April 15.

Every gift was also matched dollar-for-dollar by trustee, alumnus, and alumni parent Bill Bauman ’82, P ’12.

Many thanks to all who made a gift in support of the challenge and for the hard work of our class agents and volunteers who helped lead their classes into the playoffs!

The Alumni Office is excited to launch WEBB@WORK, a new program that shares summer internship or “shadow day” opportunities with young alumni in college.

Fifteen alumni and students secured summer internships through our new program, and since January more than 60 internships have been posted on the WEBB@WORK job board.

Many thanks to our 2013 Webb@Work Partners.

Dr. Paul Billings ’70, Life Technologies, various locations Michael Heller ’76, Sag Harbor Press, Long Island, NY Kip Konwiser ’81, 5678: A Kenny Ortega Company, Los Angeles Frederick Cooper ’82, Western Funding, Inc., Las Vegas Harry Oei ’84 Sanjay Dholakia ’87, Marketo, San Francisco Jason Blackwell ’91, Portland Center for the Performing Arts Dr. Robert Connolly ’89, Connolly Counseling & Assessment,

Claremont

Lawrence Rhee ’89, TCW, Los Angeles Dr. Rahmi Mowjood ’90, Cucamonga Valley Medical Group,

Rancho Cucamonga Sameer Dholakia ’91, Citrix, San Francisco Dr. Jonathan Kelber ’93, CSU Northridge Hosain Rahman ’93, Jawbone, San Francisco Blake Johnson ’95, IMCA Capital, Los Angeles Preston Clarke ’98, Matador Network James Chang ’04, Creative Artists Agency, Los Angeles Carolyn Asuncion ’06, Yelp, San Francisco Brittany Loya ’06, City of Pacific Grove, Pacific Grove Marcus Paredes & Michelle Lamon-Paredes P ’11, LPL Financial

Do you have a summer internship program at your office?

Here are some ways you can you help: • Serve as a resource for young alumni applying for the internship program at your company • Take an active role in facilitating Webb alumni applications through your company’s selection process • Host a young alum to “shadow” you for a day at your workplace.

• Create or help to arrange an internship specifically for a Webb alumnus/a.

For more information, please contact Laura Wensley, director of alumni relations, at lwensley@webb.org, (909) 482-5277, or visit www.webb.org/webbatwork

Alumni celebrate the March Madness Challenge at Tavern in Brentwood before the playoff rounds.

There are 900 members worldwide in The Webb Schools LinkedIn network. This is a special networking group for

alumni and parents of Webb. We also have networking

groups for Webb in Asia, Webb in New England, and

Women of Webb. Join one of our LinkedIn networks.

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

35

WEBB

Today

giving and volunteering

New Board Members

36

Christina MERCER-McGINLEY ’84

DAVID MYLES ’80

Christina Mercer-McGinley, Ph.D. ’84 has been part of several important Webb milestones: She was part of the first-ever VWS graduating class and was the first alumna elected to the board of trustees. Her son, Tim ’12, was the first VWS legacy to graduate from Webb and her daughter, Corinne ’16, is the first daughter of an alumna to attend VWS.

David Myles, Ph.D. ’80 bridges the separate worlds of academia and business: After completing his Ph.D. at Yale and a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard, he became an assistant professor in UCLA’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. He subsequently turned to private industry, first with Chiron Corporation, later as executive director of Kosan Biosciences and cofounder and chief operating officer of Epiphany Biosciences.

McGinley attended Pomona College, where she met her husband Todd. She earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in English literature from UC Riverside, where she taught literature and writing for seven years. After her son was born, she decided to focus on parenting full time, but later founded her own jewelry design business, getrealdesigns. She and her family live in Ojai.

This is McGinley’s third term on the board; she previously served from 1999 to 2009. “I knew even as a student that I wanted to remain involved and give back,” she says. “This is a board committed to making Webb a relevant, vital place while at the same time retaining our traditions. I am excited to be a part of the implementation of the strategic plan and to do my small part in making sure Webb is both unique and excellent.”

Webb Magazine • Fall 2013

Myles is now executive vice president of drug development for San Francisco-based Olema Pharmaceuticals, focusing on the treatment of breast cancer. Although he sees himself “more as an entrepreneur than as a pure scientist,” he has at least 80 peer-reviewed papers and 17 issued patents to his credit, with more in process.

Myles, who lives in Berkeley with his three children, first learned about Webb during a field trip to the Alf Museum in the sixth grade. He says Webb’s emphasis on independent thinking and personal integrity has served him well throughout his career.

This is Myles’ third term on the board and he is pleased to see some of the long-term plans that originated in his earlier terms come to fruition. “It’s an unbelievable honor to be asked to serve again,” he says.

JANEL HENRIKSEN HASTINGS ’87

JOHN HOLLIDAY ’84

When Janel Henriksen Hastings, Ph.D. ’87 arrived at Webb as a sophomore, the VWS boarding program did not yet exist. “For my sister and me to be able to attend VWS, our parents purchased a small townhouse in Claremont,” Hastings explains. She remained a day student until graduation, staying at what she and her sister dubbed “The Condo.”

Like many day students, John Holliday ’84 came to Webb from Foothill Country Day School. He now serves on the boards of both schools, as well as other local civic organizations. “My mother set a great example of service for my sisters and me,” Holliday explains, “so it has been natural for me to be involved in organizations that have touched my life.”

Although Hastings says “Webb was academically challenging, to say the very least,” she was inspired to pursue a career in education, earning her M.A. in higher education from Stanford and her Ph.D. in that discipline from UCLA. She is currently the director of admission at Foothill Country Day School.

Holliday’s family has been a pillar of Southern California in a very literal way: The family business, Holliday Rock, has been a leading concrete/aggregate producer for 75 years, supplying construction and public works projects like Rancho Cucamonga’s Victoria Gardens mall and the Route 30/210 and 57/60 interchanges. Holliday started working full time with his father in the late ’80s, after attending the University of Denver, and is now the company’s president, working alongside his sister Aimee.

Hastings joined Webb’s Alumni Council in 2006, and in 2009, became the first VWS alumna elected Alumni Council president. She is excited to begin her first term on the board of trustees. “The ability to work with such a talented, diverse, and engaged group of individuals, for whom Webb has meant so much in so many ways, is truly a gift,” she says.

Holliday lives in Upland with his family, including his son, Adam ’15, a current WSC student. Holliday hopes to bring his experience with independent schools to the Webb board. “As a trustee,” he says, “I want to insure Webb has the resources and vision to continue its mission of graduating the next generation of morally courageous leaders.”

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

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NewsNotes From and for the alumni of The Webb Schools

From Crisis to HOPE

alumni spotlight

J o r d a n Rya n ’ 6 9 crisis prevention & recovery bureau, united nations development programme

New stories about the aftermath of wars and disasters usually focus on the immediate human cost, but just as important — and far more difficult — is the recovery process: helping devastated nations rebuild, reestablish the rule of law, and address deep-rooted social issues.

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Supporting that challenging task is the mission of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Crisis Prevention & Recovery Bureau, led by Jordan Ryan ’69. “We’re the part of the U.N. that is focused on developing countries that are prone to natural disasters or conflicts,” Ryan explains.

“We work with those countries to cope with those crises and assist that population to get back on their feet.”

As its name suggests, the bureau is also concerned with helping nations identify and mitigate crises before they happen. “Our work is trying to prevent conflicts or alleviate tension before things explode,” says Ryan. That includes helping countries prepare for disasters like earthquakes. “You never can prevent a natural disaster, but you can do a lot more these days to know where the risks are and be prepared,” Ryan explains.

Redefining the Mission Ryan was appointed the bureau’s director in 2009 following a three-year assignment as the resident coordinator and U.N. secretary-general’s deputy special representative for the mission in Liberia, a West African nation recovering from 14 years of civil war. While in Liberia, Ryan focused on the restoration of national authority at the local level and introduced a team approach that fostered greater collaboration and coherency across the entire U.N. presence. He also played a key role in persuading the World Bank to work with the U.N. on the construction of new roads, using local workers, military engineers from the multinational U.N. peacekeeping force, and UNDP’s project management expertise.

“Liberia had no roads six months out of the year,” Ryan explains. “Once the roads were in, markets came up, people had access to hospitals. Life changed.”

Webb Magazine • Fall 2013

Ryan’s first day at the Crisis Prevention & Recovery Bureau included an unwelcome surprise. “I got a letter from our biggest donor that said they were going to stop funding my bureau,” he recalls. “I was thinking I should just get back on the plane.” He took the letter as a call to action, launching “a long and difficult process of transforming a bureau that had been formed ... for a different environment into one that was a little more relevant to the time.”

One step of that transformation process was codifying the bureau’s philosophy and goals, which Ryan describes with the acronym HOPE: “H” stands for health— “not just in a World Health Organization sense,” he explains, but “a healthier society that deals with conflict without resorting to violence and that respects human dignity.” “O” stands for opportunities,

The Webb

Book shelf

New Releases

which Ryan calls “the stable foundation on which a society can survive.” “P” stands for protection: ensuring people’s safety and physical security. Last and perhaps most importantly, “E” stands for empowerment, which is at the root of everything the bureau does.

“The whole idea is to empower individuals to take charge of their lives when crises happen,” Ryan says. “We’ve seen this blossom and turn communities around and ultimately nations around.”

Even an unhappy donor was eventually convinced, deciding the bureau’s vital work was worth funding after all. “Development is quite frankly much cheaper than peacekeeping,” says Ryan. “It’s a good investment. ... You’d much rather put a shovel in a young man’s hands than a gun.”

Fulfilling a Dream Ryan has always wanted to live an international life.

“Even when I was at Webb,” he says, “I always thought it would be wonderful to live and work overseas.” After graduating from Yale and receiving his J.D. from George Washington University, he joined a law firm based in Saudi Arabia. In the late ’70s, he earned his M.A. in international relations from Columbia University and became a legal advisor for a firm operating in Beijing.

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n China, Ryan finally got the opportunity he

had long been seeking. “I had always wanted to get into the U.N., but never had any luck,” he says.

After getting his foot in the door by completing a decidedly unglamorous temp assignment, he joined UNDP in 1991. “One thing I learned at Webb,” he says, “is you just roll up your sleeves and do what you have to do.” Ryan has now been with the U.N. for two decades.

As an assistant secretary-general, he is not subject to the U.N.’s mandatory retirement age and he says he still “can’t imagine retiring.”

When he does move on, he’ll be able to look back on a career of dramatic accomplishment. “What makes me most proud is when I go out into the field to meet with the women and men we have supported through our projects,” he says. “To see firsthand how people have been able to change their lives and to know that we have played a small role in that through what we’ve been able to do—that’s the ultimate satisfaction.”

The Human Division (Tor Books), is John Scalzi ’87s ninth novel. Following the events of his 2008 NY Times bestseller, The Last Colony, Scalzi tells the story of Lieutenant Harry Wilson, the Colonial Union, and the fight to maintain the unity of the human race. Scalzi’s 2012 novel, Redshirts, won the 2013 Hugo Award for best novel.

Too-Tall Foyle Finds His Game is a children’s book co-written by Shiyana Valentine-Williams ’95 and Adonal Foyle, the former NBA’er who played for the Golden State Warriors and Orlando Magic. Shiyana is executive director of Adonal’s Kerosene Lamp Foundation. She received a B.A. in History and Peace Studies from Colgate University, and an M.A. in International Development from American University.

Curiosities: An Illustrated History of Ancestral Oddity is a storybook about two children who inherit an old house full of heirlooms and oddities. This is Jonathan Ying ’07s first release with illustrations by his sister Victoria Ying and her husband Mike Yamada, both visual development artists at Disney Feature Animation and Dreamworks. The project was funded via Kickstarter and raised nearly $46,000. Jonathan graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 2011.

Child of War: A Memoir of World War II Internment in the Philippines (iUniverse Inc.) is a memoir by Curtis Tong (husband of Jinx Tong, former Dean of VWS) about his three years as a child prisoner of the Japanese Imperial Army. His parents were American missionaries living on the Philippine Islands when Japan attacked in 1941. Tong shares his family’s difficult journey through several concentration camps and prisons.

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

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NewsNotes

22 and a half minutes with media master Mackenzie Khristov ’93

McCann executive talks about how social media is changing the face of advertising

Q&A

What are the most pressing issues facing the advertising industry today?

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The chasm between old-school traditional advertising and where consumers actually are: TV commercials versus social media and digital advertising, which are changing the interactivity of advertising. Consumers and brands are engaging in a conversation about products instead of consumers being shouted at. This makes marketing and advertising more complex and forces brands to be more creative and authentic in how they reach customers.

Advertising executive Mackenzie Khristov ’93 has always had “a passion for imagery.” That interest led her to earn a degree in photography from the prestigious Art Center College of Design, followed by stints as a professional photographer in London, Los Angeles, and New York. Eventually concluding that her real calling lay “in producing shoots and cultivating talent,” she became a photo editor for Photo District News, where she launched the highly influential “30 under 30” feature, spotlighting each year’s most talented young photographers.

In 2000, Khristov decided to take her talents to Madison Avenue, joining ad agency JWT. After working freelance for various agencies, Khristov joined the interactive agency R/GA as senior photo producer, managing art and photography production teams. More recently, she moved to McCann, where she is now senior project manager and operations lead for the agency’s new Always On unit, focusing on social media campaigns for some of the world’s largest brands.

Who do you think is the most influential figure/brand in today’s marketplace?

Oreo is pretty huge right now. Nike is always doing groundbreaking work. However, those two are pretty easy slam dunks because of the brand recognition they both have.

I think it’s much more difficult to craft clever, poignant or impactful messaging for brands that are smaller and less recognizable. A good example is Duluth Trading Company and their Ballroom Jeans and “plumber’s butt” Longtail T-shirts. The company’s ads take a humorous view and have very clear messaging about a problem that most guys knew they had, but never talked about.

You’ve worked with some of today’s most popular brands.

Are there any that stand out and why?

I’ve worked on just about every major brand out there, including Nike, Apple, Microsoft, Walmart, General Mills, MasterCard, L’Oreal, Revlon, Lexus, etc. I think each brand has an individual story, but Walmart was a brand that surprised and educated me. There’s so much misinformation out there—our job was to try and educate consumers about some of the better things the brand does.

Do you have a favorite social media campaign that you have worked on?

I’ve worked on a ton of really fun campaigns. My favorite ones are probably the ones I learned the most on, but weren’t

Webb Magazine • Fall 2013

necessarily the most successful. For instance, I worked on a Grey Goose Vodka campaign that was very involved: Instagram, event planning, researching influencers, coaching nonprofessional photographers, etc. Here at McCann, we live-tweeted the Oscars for Chex Mix and more recently launched a Tumblr called #LuckyToBe for General Mills Cereal, celebrating LGBT [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual] Pride Month.

What role do you think social media plays in today’s world?

Social media is part of our culture and lexicon now. It’s fully integrated into everything that we do and incorporated into our lifestyles. For me, it enables me to stay connected and involved with people I don’t see as often as I want to, including my 93-year-old grandmother. Social media have also enabled me to stay in touch and feel connected to so many folks from Webb. Even if we haven’t seen each other in many years, keeping up with what they’re doing helps you feel connected and involved in a way that wouldn’t have been possible before.

Stepping back a little, what was your Vivian Webb experience like?

I would say high school was fairly torturous for me.

I wasn’t a good student, I felt fairly awkward, and at that age your judgment is questionable. Fortunately, I was in an environment that encouraged individuality and cared for students in ways that made it safe for me to test out who I was. I had teachers who were interested in me as a person and who I would become, not just how well I did on tests.

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

could get me to do something that I didn’t want to do, encouraged me to follow my gut and own the decisions I made and make.

• Dave Fawcett’s term paper on government; mine was on the National Endowment for the Arts and the controversy of funding photographers like Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano, which taught me about art and got me deeply interested and involved in photography, a passion that has fuelled much of my career.

Mostly, the care, interest, and involvement that every teacher took in me was wonderful and helped shape my character.

What is the one dream for your life that you most look forward to achieving?

I think my biggest goal is to be happy and content in whatever situation I find myself in. That sounds slightly pompous, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve realized that your goals and dreams are constantly evolving. Being able to be content and find the silver lining in whatever situation you’re in is an admirable skill that breeds good mental health.

What are you reading right now?

I read rather voraciously, frequently reading three or four books in a weekend. I love romantic historical fiction and just read two books about South Africa in the 1920s. But the two favorite books I’ve read in the last couple of years have been The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern, and The Rules of Civility, by Amor Towles. Both books are really well written with a story that truly transported me into the narrative.

Mackenzie lives in Manhattan with her husband Robert, whom she met at R/GA, and their two dachshunds, Gaston and Penny. In her spare time, she has her own crafts store on Etsy.com.

I had a number of amazing teachers and mentors at Webb and each one had an impact on my life in ways that I’m not always directly aware of. A couple of examples: • Tim Quinn, by telling my mom in passing that no one The Webb Schools • Webb.org

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NewsNotes Events and Highlights A l u m n i , pa r e n t s , a n d f r i e n d s r e c o n n e c t o n c am p u s a n d a t r e g i o n a l e v e n t s .

Re gi on a l E ven ts Interested in having a regional event in your area?

Contact the Alumni Office at alumni@webb.org or the regional rep in your area.

Pasadena

The Alumni Council’s Latinos of Webb Affinity group held its first event in June at Mijares Restaurant. Thank you to Steve Lesse ’76 for sponsoring and Jose Govea ’74 and Renee Polanco ’94 for organizing it.

San Francisco Jessica Anand ’05

Philadelphia Katherine Kilmer ’10

Los Angeles Lisa Miller ’89

Boston Lily Chen ’04

Portland Chip Greening ’62 Jason Blackwell ’91

New Orleans Albert Walsh ’00

New York Tim Tzeng ’06 Washington, DC David Ivey-Soto ’82 Aminah Teachout ’04

Hong Kong Joseph Poon ’88 Keating Leung ’98 Taiwan Jimmy Hsieh ’89

Orange County

Alumni and friends joined Head of Schools Taylor Stockdale at The Winery Restaurant in February. Many thanks to Mona Shah ’93 for her help in organizing the event.

42 Los Angeles

The Alumni Council held a private tour of the Caravaggio exhibit at LACMA in February. Many thanks to Lisa Miller ’89 for organizing the event.

Barstow

Annual May Peccary trip to Barstow with alumni, parents, family and friends.

San Diego

Young alumni, joined by Alumni Council member Doug Gregg ’66, gathered at the Tower 23 Hotel for a Webb15 event.

San Francisco

Taylor Stockdale enjoyed seeing alumni and friends at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, thanks to museum trustee Matt Barton ’85.

Webb Magazine • Fall 2013

Washington, DC

In January alumni gathered at The Hamilton with Regional Reps David Ivey-Soto ’82 and Aminah Teachout ’04.

New York

Webb trustee David Loo ’79 and his wife Valerie hosted a Webb reception with Taylor Stockdale in April.

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Council Corner

t is my great honor to be your new Alumni Council president, and I look forward to serving our alumni community.

We are pleased to welcome eight new Council members in 2013-14:

Bikram Ahluwalia ’94, Jessica Dholakia ’07, Whitney Sevesind ’05, Kunal Shah ’97, Kathy Sun ’02, Jordan Taylor ’02, Tim Tzeng ’06, and Keating Leung ’98. We also thank outgoing president Janel Henriksen Hastings ’87 for her four years of leadership, Andy Chai ’97, who steps down as our New York regional representative, John Hamilton ’84, and past president Steve Lesse ’76.

The Council will continue its mission to connect Webb alumni in many ways.

In the last two years, we have expanded regional programming and doubled the number of regional representatives on the Council. The new Affinity groups are helping to further connect alumni from different years. Last summer saw the first meetings of the Women of Webb and Webb15 Affinity groups. This year, our third group, Latinos of Webb, carried out a successful launch in Pasadena.

The event was met with enthusiasm and promises to be another effective way to unite our ever-growing alumni base.

The Council also looks forward to working with our young alumni. We are here to help you stay connected to your roots at Webb, and to help as you embark on your chosen career paths. Please don’t hesitate to frequent the Online Directory or WEBB@WORK website for opportunities to connect with alumni in your chosen fields—who knows, there may be a job waiting there for you!

Lastly, we now begin the countdown towards Webb’s 100th anniversary in 2022, and in support of this landmark, the Alumni Council has begun discussions about preserving and highlighting the decades of students, teachers, and staff that have passed through Webb. Please keep an eye out for upcoming events, including the reprinting of a beloved book by one of Webb’s most prominent teachers—but that’s too much news spilled already! Look for it at this year’s Alumni Weekend!

All the best for the start of the new school year!

Sincerely, Rahmi Mowjood, ’90, D.O.

Claremont

Young alumni Holiday Mixer in Price Dining Hall.

Boston

Dinner for young alumni at John Harvard’s in Cambridge with Hector Martinez and Anthony Shin ’99 from the College Guidance Office.

Alumni Director Laura Wensley with Council members Coleen Martinez ’86, Steve Lesse ’76, Janel Henriksen Hastings ’87, Rahmi Mowjood ’90, Doug Gregg ’66, and Lee Lee Choi ’90.

Sophomore Career Evening The Council hosted the 14th Annual Sophomore Career Evening on April 28. Left to right: Noreen Barcena ’05, Laura Klein ’91, Bob Connolly ’89, Tom Kendall ’84, Emily LaMarque ’97, Bikram Ahluwalia ’94, Dack LaMarque ’97, Jon Kelber ’93, and Gauri Gadgil ’06.

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

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NewsNotes FO R M E R FAC U LT Y & F R I E N D S We are happy to share an update from Jerry Gems, former faculty member (1979-1994).

“My experience at Webb inspired me to seek my own potential and I left the schools to pursue a PhD, which I obtained from the University of Maryland. For the past 25 years, I have been a faculty member at North Central College in Naperville, IL, where I am a full professor.

I am a past president of the North American Society for Sport History, and served as a Fulbright Scholar to Scandinavia in 2011-2012. My ninth book, Sport and the Shaping of Italian American Identity, will be published this spring by the University of Syracuse Press and a tenth, a social history of boxing, is forthcoming from Scarecrow Press.

Amy Likover sent this update. “Life is rewarding and interesting. There’s time to swim, do international folk dance, vegetable and flower garden, do local and national politics, volunteer as a French tutor at local high schools and most importantly spend time with my husband Joe and our families. Work-wise, I have a French, Spanish and ESL tutoring business, and I oversee a tutoring program in Kent. I am also a student at UC Berkeley, getting ESL certification. I hope to see everyone soon as we come to Claremont several times yearly (usually weekends) and love seeing Webb and Claremont.” Madame Likover shared this photo of her and Joe in Nice, France, where they visited former French teacher colleagues last December. - 1

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David W. Oxtoby has been elected president of Harvard’s Board of Overseers for 2013-14.

Dr. Oxtoby has served as president at Pomona College since 2003. He is the father of Vivian Webb graduate Laura Oxtoby ’04 and served as a board trustee for The Webb Schools from 2005 to 2009.

It was nice to see Curt and Jinx Tong on campus in February. They are living in Williamstown, MA. Jinx was the VWS dean from 1991 to 1996. She taught biology and also served as director of residence from 1983 to 1991. Her husband Curtis recently released a new book, Child of War. Read more about it on the Webb Bookshelf, page 39. - 2

T H E W E B B SC HO O L S 44

1940 • Peter Bennett and his family visited campus over winter break. His granddaughter Sydney Stewart is a sophomore and grandson Spencer, a freshman. Peter enjoyed his tour of Jackson Library, the Alamo and the Old School House, where he recalled Mr. Sumner throwing erasers and chalk at kids who were not paying attention. - 3

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1945 • John Davis writes, “We have been living in Charlottesville, VA, for the past decade and, as an old Cold Warrior, I keep my hand in at the Miller Center at UVA and the local chapter of the Council on Foreign Relations. Happily our three children and nine grandchildren all seem to be flourishing. It is gratifying to see how Webb has continued to prosper and grow and I have hopes of being able to come to our 70th reunion if enough of us are spared to have one.”

Ken Dole regularly calls upon his English classes at Webb as he serves others in his community. In retirement from his medical practice, Ken began tutoring elementary school students in the Palo Alto area. He finds it an inspiring activity and enjoys keeping his mind active by recalling lessons from Mr. Wilson.

1947 • Ken Colborn spoke in Juli James’ honors English class. The students were studying the novel A Separate Peace, about WWII as experienced at Phillips Exeter.

Ken attended Webb from 1943 to 1947, and he shared his experiences about campus life during the war. He recalled “smudging” (working in the orange groves during a frost), “hashing” (server duties during meals), and lights-out drills. - 4

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1949 • In December Guil Babcock and Bill Ruddick reunited for a long overdue reunion.

They enjoyed a museum tour with Don Lofgren and stopped by Jackson Library to reminisce over their class photo. - 5 Marc Stragier and Joe Jayne recently reconnected in Escondido, CA. Marc then returned home to Scottsdale where he visited with Bob Fass from the alumni office before packing up to explore the Grand Canyon. Arizona is a far cry from Marc’s native Alaska, where he spent summers away from Webb with the likes of Joe and Bill Ruddick.

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1950 • Bob Brown and his wife, Madeline shared some 2012 highlights: Bob turned 80 and says “life continues its rewarding ways.” They’re planning the next move—to a senior living apartment, but their condo near downtown Bethlehem, PA, suits them wonderfully.

They traveled to China in the spring and Russia in the fall. They were busy almost every day in December with church celebrations, volunteerism, and two wonderful days in NYC eating at their favorite restaurants, a carriage ride through Central Park, lunch at Trump Tower, tree viewing at Rockefeller Square, and their first time at the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall. - 6

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Webb Magazine • Fall 2013

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1952 • It was nice to see Bud Hoover, Paul Reitler ’54 and Bill Bailey ’55 on campus in February. - 7 1953 • Class of ’53 will celebrate its 60th reunion at Alumni Weekend, so save the dates of September 20-21. Cleve Baker, Jack Sutro, Wick Stephens, Benny Benjamin, Ron Rohrer, and Scott Evans are on the planning committee.

Jack Sutro is retired from the bench, but staying busy. Aside from attending a recent Webb event in the Bay Area, he serves on the Legal Services Trust Fund Commission for the State Bar of California, which makes grants to nonprofit organizations that provide free civil legal services to low-income Californians. He is also on the Board of Visitors for the Santa Clara University Law School. - 8

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1954 • Paul Reitler is the proud grandparent of a Webb graduate. Chason Bridges graduated on June 1 and is attending the University of San Diego. Paul and his brother William, class of ’72, attended commencement. - 9 1958 • Sherwood Kingsley never misses an alumni peccary trip or the chance to lend a hand to novice paleontologists. A museum trustee, he proudly wears his Eagle Scout bandana on expeditions, taking time from his accounting practice in Los Angeles to commune with nature alongside fellow alumni in Barstow. He looks forward to seeing classmates at the 55th reunion.

1960 • It was nice to see Brien Benson at our event in Washington, DC. He is a research associate professor at George Mason University’s School of Public Policy, project director of the Enterprise Risk Management Training Program, and director of the Transportation & Economic Development Research Center. Brien’s father was the founding president of Claremont McKenna College, so academia is in his blood.

The Chapel Council invited Bill Ripley to give a Sunday chapel talk. - 10 1963 • Can it really be 50 years since this bunch of teenagers graduated on the Alamo lawn? Egad, yes, so all classmates should plan to attend a mighty celebration on campus at the 50th Reunion during Alumni Weekend 2013. The dates are September 19-22 for this Conclave of Coots where Rusty Gauls will relive, revamp, and redact history. Get details from the school website and Dale Boller emails. - 11

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Bob Mixon and his wife Barbara returned from their peccary trip to Madagascar, where they enjoyed a boat ride amongst the crocodiles on Ravelobe Lake in Ankarafantsika National Park. - 12 1967 • Jim Reese joined California Manufacturing Technology Consulting (CMTC) in February. CMTC is a non-profit consulting firm that helps small manufacturing companies develop best-in-class business operations so they can compete in the global marketplace.

Jim is assisting manufacturers improve productivity, reduce energy costs, and reduce environmental impact. His work includes managing a Continuous Energy Improvement Program sponsored by So Cal Edison and So Cal Gas that guides customers in the development of a long term plans to manage energy use and meet sustainability goals.

1968 • Class of ’68 will celebrate is 45th reunion on September 20-21. Chris Jobe is the reunion chair. We hope to see you there!

Hugh Pitcher is part of a legacy dating back to the beginnings of Webb. He recently sat down in Denver with Bob Fass from the alumni office and traced his lineage to his father, Robertson Pitcher ’27, who was one of Thompson Webb’s first students having entered the school in 1926, only five years after it was founded.

1969 • Randall Lewis met up with Bob Sears ’71 and George Erving ’71 to watch their daughters compete at a college track meet. Rosie Lewis ’09 just graduated from Claremont McKenna and Ellyn Erving attends Scripps. - 13 1972 • It was nice to see Tom Ruge in San Francisco. He’s working at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, an award-winning ad agency that specializes in creative digital, print, broadcast, and integrated media planning. - 14

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1973 • It’s the big 40th reunion celebration for the class of ’73. Many thanks to Stuart Stevens for chairing the reunion.

We enjoyed seeing James Watts in San Francisco in January. He is an artist and sculptor, whose work includes a collection of bronzes, mixed-media sculptures, broken paintings on slate, and digital images. James has also illustrated 24 published children’s books. To view his work, visit www.jameskmwatts.com - 15

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

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

Col. richard downie ’72 After nine years at its helm, Richard Downie, Ph.D., stepped down on March 29, 2013, from his position as director of the Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies. Dr. Downie was appointed in 2004 by then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. The Center, which is located at the National Defense University, is one of the five Department of Defense regional centers. Dr. Downie is regarded as an expert in Latin American security affairs and is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Dr. Downie is a graduate of West Point and holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in International Relations from USC. His numerous awards and decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Joint Service and Army Commendation Medals, the Army Achievement Medal, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, and the Inter-American Defense Board Medal. He also has been decorated with a number of foreign awards, including the Orden del Gran Caballero (Colombia) Orden de Mérito Académico (Colombia), the Bosnia/Former Yugoslavia NATO Medal, the Order of Military Merit (Mexico), as well as the Order of the Peruvian Cross (Peru).

Dr. Downie is now a partner at Delphi Strategic Consulting. Danielle Gordon from the alumni office enjoyed a visit with Dr. Downie in January.

46 1974 • Jose Govea tied the knot with Carolyn Kinel on January 5, 2013, at St. Vincent’s Catholic Church in Los Angeles. In attendance were Ian Rosenberg, Dave Brady and Robert Donin. The happy couple honeymooned in Belize. Jose is a member of Webb’s Alumni Council and cofounder of the Latinos of Webb affinity group. - 16 Walter Ogier writes, “My company, Acetylon Pharmaceuticals (www.acetylon.com) is continuing to develop new drugs for cancer as well as for neurodegeneration, sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia, and malaria. Our lead drug candidate is in clinical trials for multiple myeloma, a challenging type of blood cancer affecting about 80,000 people in the US. ... I am staying busy with fundraising for Williams College and serving on governance committees for the regional United Church of Christ and our local church in Winchester, as well as playing lead guitar in my classic rock & roll band SIX (www.ilikesix.com) and performing at local charitable events. Getting back to my rock and roll roots takes me back to Webb days – schoolmates (you know who you are) rocking on the Alamo lawn, filling the chapel with ‘electronic noise’ (R. Alf) in lieu of giving a chapel talk and staying up late in the dorms listening to the latest Pink Floyd record.”

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1976 • Tom Prendiville ran the Boston marathon in April and we were glad to hear he and his family were safe. Tom wrote, “I finished the race a few minutes before the attack.

Family is safe. Sick over the whole thing. Downtown Boston a ghost town.” - 17 1979 • Blair Brown, David Baer and Paul McDonald had a mini-reunion at our Webb event in San Francisco in April. - 18

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1980 • Webb’s 10th grade history class ran into Jonathan Brown and Len Unkeless ’79 during a field trip to the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust last March. They are both doing IT work for the museum and were happy to see current Webbies. - 19 1981 • Sushil Da Silva is leading a new startup as chief technology officer of Enfatica, offering cloud solutions to the retail industry. The most exciting news is the arrival of his third child, Sitara Uma Da Silva, born on March 21, 2013.

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Webb Magazine • Fall 2013

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1983 • It’s the Class of ’83s 30th reunion this year! Everyone save the date September 20-21.

Derek Deskey (coming from Georgia), Michael McDermott and Chris Riggio (coming from China), John Powell and Ed Ratinoff are on the reunion committee. Plans are underway for a special class mixer on Friday night at Casa 425.

Richard Warren writes, “I was an English Speaking Union Scholar that attended Webb from January to July 1983. So whilst not a fully fledged student, I feel both privileged and honoured to be included in the Class of ’83. I now live in London, UK, but did live in New York between 1994 and 1998. I am married with three kids and run an advertising agency in London.”

1984 • It was great to have Tom Kendall back on campus to speak at Sophomore Career Evening. Tom talked about his career as an attorney, specializing in family law.

1985 • Many thanks to Matt Barton, who helped organize a regional event at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, where he serves on the board of trustees.

Matt is the director of tax at BrightSource Energy in Oakland.

Charlie “Tigger” Kindel is the winner of a 2013 GeekWire Award in the “Hire of the Year” category. On April 1, Amazon hired Charlie to work on an undisclosed project—possibly something phone related. Rumors are flying on what this secretive project could be. Charlie, who recently built several tech startups and was previously a Microsoft exec, says he’s excited to be part of the Amazon team and very thankful to all the Webbies who voted for him. - 20 Congratulations to Julia Marciari-Alexander for being named the new executive director of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, MD. The Walters is recognized as one of the most important art institutions in the city. - 21 1986 • Bay area Webbies Matt Olsan, Faye Karnavy Sahai, Robert Fukuda, Gin Meyer, and Matt Barton ’85 attended our event at the Contemporary Jewish Museum. - 22 1987 • May 17 was an exciting day for Sanjay Dholakia. As chief marketing officer of Marketo he was in New York to see the company’s IPO open on NASDAQ. Marketo (MKTO), headquartered in San Mateo, CA, is a leading marketing automation software developer.

In 2011 the Silicon Valley Business Journal ranked Marketo as the fastest growing private company in the valley. Last year it was ranked #7. - 23

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Josh Saltman is back at Disney working as associate general counsel. He and his family visited Israel this summer.

1988 • Class of ’88 celebrates its 25th reunion on September 20-21. The reunion committee includes Karen Greene Robinson, Claudia Hackethal, Sandra Lee Rebish, and Lionel Yang.

Claudia Hackethal is “looking forward to seeing everyone at the reunion, including Rachel Kaufman and Karen Greene. Both my daughters, Isabel and Cassie, love spending time at Camp Webb.” - 24 1989 • Ed Arpawong, Tommy Oei, and James Wu ’97 competed in the Laguna Niguel Sprint Triathlon. The course consisted of a 5k run, 17-mile bike, and 175-yard swim.

Tommy finished in 1:09:26 (1 hour, 9 minutes, 26 seconds), good for a top third finish.

Jimmy finished in 1:21:55 and Ed finished in 1:23:35, both good for top two-thirds.

Congratulations, gentlemen! - 25 Many thanks to Bob Connolly for speaking at Sophomore Career Evening.

Bob talked with students about psychology and the ins-and-outs of owning your own practice. This summer he was a Webb@Work host providing a marketing internship for Rachel Zheng ’12 (Bowdoin College). He also hired Chad Pharnichyakul ’06 as a counselor.

Yosh Han was in Dubai for two trade shows (Beauty World and Elements Showcase) and a VIP media event at Saks Fifth Avenue. She also went to Kuwait for a VIP media event with Parfums d’Exception (her retail partner there). “I got to meet the brother of a VWS friend who lives in Kuwait. We’re everywhere!” - 26 Ung Joo “Scott” Lee is on the cutting edge of design and function as part of the architectural firm Morphosis Architects. One of his current projects is the new Cornell University campus on Roosevelt Island in New York. They are planning a platinum LEED building that is attempting a net zero energy certification, meaning it will generate its own resources such as electricity and have zero carbon emissions.

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The Webb Schools • Webb.org

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

henry kapteyn ’80

1990 • Chris Gamel and his family are moving to Costa Rica, “The move has been eight years in the making. My wife Noemi and I wanted to live in another country for a year to experience another culture and to learn another language. The timing has finally worked out, and we are headed to Costa Rica in June. We will be in Monteverde for the next year.

Depending on how we like it, we might stay longer. While in Costa Rica I will continue working for Laureate Education, Inc. developing online courses for universities. Noemi will take time off to be a mom and work on some personal projects. The kids (Kara and Tristan) will attend a bilingual school.”

Andrew Kirschner and his Santa Monica restaurant Tar & Roses were nominated for the prestigious James Beard Award. Tar & Roses was nominated as a semifinalist in the “Best New Restaurant” category, and Andrew was nominated in the “Best Chef: West” category.

Please join us in congratulating Rahmi Mowjood on his new role as president of the Alumni Council! To read more, visit the Council Corner section on page 43.

1991 • Jennifer Ishiguro is enjoying being back in CA, and living in Hermosa Beach with her husband Warren and daughter Elise. As managing counsel for Toyota Financial Services, she is the lead attorney for the company’s funding-related work. She also serves on the board of directors of Los Angeles Team Mentoring, a non-profit organization that provides a teambased mentoring approach to middle-school students in challenging urban environments, as well as on the board of the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles. - 27

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The National Academy of Sciences (NAS), an advisory body to the U.S. government on matters related to science and technology, has elected Dr. Henry Kapteyn ’80 as a new member.

Laura Klein spoke at Sophomore Career Evening. She is the co-founder of Organic Authority, LLC, a new media company that publishes OrganicAuthority.com and EcoSalon.com. Organic Authority.com has over 1 million unique visitors each month, and EcoSalon.com has more than 203,000 followers across Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+. - 28

As a research physicist, Kapteyn is recognized as a world leader in the development of a new generation of lasers which make it straightforward to produce a light pulse of less than 10 femtoseconds duration. Earlier this year, he was recognized by Harvey Mudd College with one of the college’s most prestigious honors, “HMC Outstanding Alumni” for his contributions to science.

1992 • It was nice to see Josh Klein and his wife Lindsay at the March Madness event at Tavern. Josh is now a federal prosecutor at the US Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, working in their Violent and Organized Crime section. - 29

Dr. Kapteyn credits much of his success to a unique collaboration—working with his wife, Margaret Murnane.

Both are professors at JILA, a top research institute in the physical sciences located on the University of Colorado’s Boulder campus. The pair met doing graduate work at UC Berkeley and have conducted research together ever since, working at Washington State University and University of Michigan before arriving in Colorado in 1999.

Attending Webb for two years was another big plus for Henry. He went on the Alf Museum’s peccary trips and took many Advanced Placement classes. “It was an environment where you could do what you wanted and pursue your interests,” he said. He notes that young people today might look at all the books in the library and wonder if there’s anything left to explore in the sciences. His answer: There’s plenty. Advances only open up new fields of inquiry.

“The most important thing is to make sure that you’re doing something that you’re excited about,” he says. “It’s the excitement that really fuels progress in the work.”

Thanks to Edmond Ng for sending this photo. He writes, “I am in Saudi and just met a ’96 alum – Saleh Kuba.” - 30 1993 • Forrest Beanum, Tina Dutta-Ladva, Heidi Froehlich, Chris Harmon and Mona Shah Anderson have signed on to chair the Class of 1993 20th reunion. There will be a party on Friday, September 20, hosted by Jonathan Kelber, and a full day of activities are planned for Saturday, September 21, at Webb.

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Dr. Henry Kapteyn graduated from Harvey Mudd in 1982 with a B.S. in physics, Princeton with an M.S. in physics, and received his Ph.D. in physics from UC Berkeley in the field of x-ray and short-wavelength laser physics.

Webb Magazine • Fall 2013

Jonathan Kelber and Bikram Ahluwalia ’94 shared their perspectives on the medical profession at Sophomore Career Evening. Jonathan talked about his work at Cal State Northridge where he conducts research on cancer cell proliferation and the survival role of stem cells in development and disease. Two Webbies worked with Jonathan in his lab this summer as part of the Webb@Work internship program: Jacqueline Lee ’12 (Carnegie Mellon) and Alex Chang ’12 (Pomona College). - 31 1994 • Bikram Ahluwalia is an internal medicine physician specializing in rheumatology, with his own practice in Apple Valley, CA. His presentation at Sophomore Career Evening included a message on the importance of the honor code in the life of a physician. Bikram joined the Alumni Council on July 1, as a member-at-large.

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Stephanie Baron ’96 joined Renee Polanco and Stephanie Becerra on campus at the Rick Whyte ’57 VWS Basketball Tournament in December. - 32 Eddie Chai married Lisa Rattivat on April 27, at Smoke Tree Ranch in Palm Springs.

Ed Lin ’93 presided over the ceremony and members of the wedding party included best man Andrew Chai ’97, groomsman Will Allan ’94 (best friends since Holt dorm freshman year), and bridesmaid Marisa Chai ’02. Other attendees included Michael Tan ’92, Kevin Lee ’93, Kevin Hsieh ’93, Pat Kouwabunpat ’93, Em Arpawong ’93, Patty Lin, Vanessa Dell ’99, and Bryant Priromprintr ’04. The couple live in Long Beach. Eddie practices general pediatrics in Santa Ana and neonatology at Children’s Hospital of Orange County, and Lisa works as a graphic designer. - 33

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Tony Chen visited the Webb campus in May. He moved from Boston to San Francisco with his family. Tony is looking forward to the 20th reunion celebration next year. - 34 1995 • It was great to see Verhan Henderson, Max Nelson and Tito Tarin ’97 at the March Madness mixer at Tavern in Brentwood. - 35 1996 • Members of the Class of 1996 had a mini-reunion in April. Stephanie Baron, Noreen Huang Weinberg, Douglas Lee, Jason Pasley, and Brian Zipser met up at Best Fish Tacos in Ensenada in Los Angeles. A great time was had by all! - 36

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William Marshall married Francine Cunniffe on March 16, 2013, in Santa Rosa, CA. - 37 Nicole Wyskoarko was promoted from vice president of business and legal affairs at Island Def Jam Music Group to senior vice president of that same division. Nicole was awarded ASCAP’s Women Behind the Music award in 2012 and is a founding member of the non-profit advocacy group Black Women in Entertainment Law.

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1997 • The Alumni Council gives a heartfelt thanks to Andy Chai for his 11 years of service as the New York Regional Rep. Andy was instrumental in starting the annual Young Alumni Holiday mixer, which is now in its fifth year. - 38 Heather Hamm Rohrer shared this photo of her two children, Juliet and Isabel Christina. - 39 We enjoyed having Dack and Emily LaMarque back on campus for Sophomore Career Evening. Dack talked about his work as an equity analyst at del Rey Global Investors, and Emily spoke about her work as an interior designer and the perks of owning your own business. They are the proud parents of Quinn, now 2, and are excited to be moving into a new home in Pasadena. - 40 Kunal Shah joins the Alumni Council as a member-at-large this year. He shared a photo of his daughter Maya, a future member of VWS Class of 2030. - 41 1998 • Preston Clarke, Niti Gupta, Danny Shapiro and Sarah Shpall are co-chairing the 15-year reunion. See you back on campus this fall!

Congratulations to Jenée LaMarque. Her first feature film, The Pretty One, debuted at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival in April. Jenée was also one of eight filmmakers to be nominated for the Nora Ephron Award, given to “a woman writer or director with a distinctive voice.”

The Pretty One features Zoe Kazan (It’s Complicated, Ruby Sparks) and Jake Johnson (of the Fox hit series The New Girl).

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

NewsNotes Robbie Bedi visited Hong Kong in January and had lunch with Keating Leung, who wrote, “We had great fun catching up. Robbie just finished a residency in Scottsdale, AZ, and officially became a spine doctor.” The Alumni Council welcomes Keating as a new member effective July 1. Keating will serve as our young alumni regional rep in Hong Kong. - 42 1999 • Arthur Chang is the new class agent for WSC Class of ’99. These days Arthur splits his time between Taiwan and Southern California. He and his wife Jasmine are expecting their first child.

Kathy Chen Liu sent in this cute photo of her 2-year-old son Kyle. - 43

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Sarah Raser and Doc Lofgren met for coffee during his recent visit to Minneapolis. Sarah is co-chairing her 10-year Macalester College reunion committee. She married Mac grad Ben Sherwood in 2010 and has worked in fundraising for the YWCA of Minneapolis since 2007.

Congratulations to Zee Wolters for being awarded a one-month research fellowship to Oxford and the Huntington Library, courtesy of the Huntington, to complete the research for her dissertation. The focus is on the history of medicine in 17th century England and how the struggle of medicine as a philosophy versus medicine as a practice played out in the public sphere.

2000 • A raw diet for dogs? That’s what Noa Martinsen says brought his rescue pup, Batman, back to good health. Using detoxification techniques to improve his own health, Noa applied these to his rescue pup, and the results were so convincing that he’s offering his services to others. Noa uses a simple hTMA lab test to identify toxins and mineral imbalances.

He then develops a clinical nutrition guide to detoxify the animal and resolve its health issues.

To learn more, visit www.animalelite.com - 44 Vincent Rhee and his wife, Kay welcomed a baby daughter in September 2012.

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Kelly Smith and Caroline Adler caught up with Jason Pasley ’96 at the alumni mixer at The Hamilton in Washington, DC, in January. Jason has signed on to represent the Class of 1996 as a class agent. - 45 2001 • Chiara Issa is the front of house manager at LA Spice Café in Culver City. Chiara relocated back to Southern California from New York last fall. Both a catering kitchen and a café, LA Spice opened in February 2013. Brie Widaman, Dorothea Buford-Levels, Jessica (Dunn) Shepard, Angela Scaletta and Aji Abiedu caught up with Chiara over brunch in March. Chiara encourages any alumni on the Westside to stop in and say hello! - 46

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2002 • Melissa and Michelle Fabregas are excited to announce their new business, Dribble Dots Edible Oils. “Our first line of products includes six flavored cooking oils and potato chips. We are co-branding this season with several reputable names, including David Guetta, Pacha, and Ushuaia (a hotel comparable to the Wynn in Las Vegas).”

Kathy Sun, marketing manager for Natural Balance Pet Foods, got to snap a photo with SFC Eric Pazz before he reunited with his family. His surprise reunion was a highlight of the 2013 Rose Parade. Kathy joins the Alumni Council as a member-at-large this year. - 47 Jordan Taylor also joins the Alumni Council as a member-at-large this year. He has been involved as a Webb volunteer by chairing his 10-year reunion and speaking at Sophomore Career Evening.

2003 • Briana Curry, Lauren Martinez, Griffin (Gunderson) Miller, Daniel Smith and Robert Zondervan are co-chairing the Class of 2003 10-year reunion. There will be a party just for 2003 on Friday, September 20 and a full day of activities scheduled on September 21, at Webb.

Chloe Lewis lives in San Francisco and is an institutional program manager-global expansion at Fisher Investments. She recently attended her cousin’s graduation at Pitzer. - 48 Lauren Martinez has enthusiastically signed on to the Class of 2003’s 10-year reunion committee. She and her fiancé Clinton live in Houston, TX. The couple will be married in Oregon in July 2014. Lauren looks forward to reconnecting with her classmates at the reunion.

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Caleb Morse returned to campus for Men in the Arena. This year’s theme was Leaving Your Legacy and Caleb spoke to the WSC students about his experiences after leaving Webb. He founded a non-profit company World Wide Impact in 2007 and has been traveling to Africa to oversee projects that will help to create a sustainable economy in countries like Kenya. Now at Stanford Business School, Caleb continues his outreach work throughout the year. - 49

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Webb Magazine • Fall 2013

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Lawrence Tollenaere and Michael Shelton caught up with Hector Martinez at the Webb15 mixer in San Diego. Lawrence works in real estate with Coldwell Banker in the Pacific Beach neighborhood of San Diego and Micheal owns a parking company that manages several parking lots in downtown LA. - 50 2005 • Congratulations to Noreen Bárcena for opening her own practice, Noreen L. Bárcena Law in Monterey Park, CA. She’s specializing in immigration, criminal, and family law. Noreen spoke at Sophomore Career Evening. - 51 Tommy Ngan and Joseph Lifschutz have an exciting new business, Ice Cream Lab, which opened in March in Beverly Hills, CA. Tommy and Joseph have appeared on FOX’s Good Day LA, and they’ve even had some celebrity visitors including Cedric the Entertainer and Nas the Rapper. If you’re in the neighborhood, stop by and visit them. - 52

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Whitney Sevesind will join the Alumni Council as a member-at-large this year. She has served as the class agent for the Class of 2005 since 2011.

Brittan (Smith) Berry kicked off the TEDx day at Webb with a talk about her year as a Rockefeller Fellow in South Africa. The fellowship gave her an opportunity to tour rural townships and immerse herself within the communities she traveled to, photographing and writing about the plight of the children and orphans affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

To hear her TEDx talk, go to TEDxTheWebbSchools on YouTube. - 53 2006 • It was nice to see Carolyn Asuncion at the alumni event in San Francisco.

Carolyn is an account executive at Yelp. She caught up with regional Alumni Council rep Jessica Anand ’05. - 54 Katie Pourroy married Turner Dahl on May 18, in Lake Forest, CA. Webbies in attendance included Maggie Matthews, Sarah Lewis, Gauri Gadgil, Jeff Taylor and Katie’s brother James Pourroy ’09 and uncle Walt Linaweaver ’81. - 55 Gauri Gadgil spoke at Sophomore Career Evening. She talked about her work with the International Rescue Committee, an organization that provides services and programs to help refugees get established in the US. Gauri, who completed her undergrad at Wellesley, heads to Johns Hopkins in the fall for graduate studies in international relations.

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Cooper Johnson finished his second year at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles and is working for the offices of Shernoff, Bidart, Echeverria & Bentley in Beverly Hills, CA. Brittany Loya graduated magna cum laude from The Monterey Institute of International Studies in May with an MA in International Policy Studies with a focus in trade, investment, and development. - 56 Chad Pharnichyakul received his masters in clinical psychology with an emphasis in marriage and family therapy from Pepperdine in May. He has now joined the counseling team at Connolly Counseling & Assessment with Bob Connolly ’89.

Timothy Tzeng joined the Alumni Council as the regional representative for New York.

He looks forward to welcoming Webbies to the city and fostering connections in our alumni network. Tim also served as the class agent for the Class of 2006 for the last six years.

Jack Wiese married Megan Tryon on April 13, 2013.

2007 • Walton Chan is a strategic procurement analyst for Maine Pointe, an operations management and implementation firm that specializes in global supply chain transformation.

Walton received his bachelor’s in economics from Carleton College in MN. He’s currently based in Texas.

Jenny Choi will attend Harvard Law School this fall. She recently worked at Google as a legal assistant.

Jessica Dholakia has joined the Alumni Council as a member-at-large. She is working for Independence Bank in Orange County as a sales & marketing specialist.

Chris Gregory graduated in June 2012, with a degree in landscape architecture from Cal Poly Pomona. He’s living in San Marcos, CA and recently became engaged to his longtime girlfriend Devin Lafferty.

Adam Karevoll is attending Midwestern University to earn his masters in biomedical sciences in preparation for medical school. In the meantime, he took time off to train and run in the Los Angeles marathon, and to prepare for a 3-month backpacking trip through Central America.

Michelle Pastrano graduated from USC with an MS degree in gerontology on May 17, 2013.

2008 • Becker Jung stopped by campus in April to visit with teachers, sit in on some classes, and see the new building construction. For Becker the biggest change on campus was the food. “I wish we had a noodle bar when I was at Webb!” Becker completed a two-year enlistment with the Republic of Korea Army, where he served as a junior non-commissioned officer in the prestigious KATUSA program. Becker is now a senior at Carnegie Mellon majoring in economics. - 57

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

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

Christina Durón ’08

Mollie Mackenzie was accepted to Des Moines University in IA. She matriculates this fall to the Master of Public Health-Global Health degree program.

The Nelson family (Emily and Henry ’10) are featured on Animal Planet’s show Treehouse Masters. Their father, Pete Nelson is a world-renowned treehouse designer and builder. The eight episodes follow Pete and his team as they design and build the most extraordinary treehouses you can imagine. - 58 Abhi Sinha is an up-and-coming actor! He appeared in the movie The Social Network and will soon be seen in a new series, Chasing Life, on the ABC Family Channel. The 10-episode series will debut in early 2014.

Taj Tucker will attend Columbia Law School in New York this fall.

Christian Woods completed his first season as assistant coach with Pomona-Pitzer men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams. He is a recent graduate of Wheaton College, where he majored in economics. Christian set two Wheaton records in the 1000 and 1650 yard freestyle, and was a top conference finisher in both events. He helped Wheaton to four straight NEWMAC championships. - 59 2009 • Rosie Lewis, who graduated from Claremont McKenna in May, set a new Claremont-Mudd-Scripps record in the 100m hurdles during the March 23 home dual meets against Chapman, Occidental and Pomona-Pitzer. She attended Davidson her freshman year, where she made the All-League and All-Freshmen teams. At CMS, she was a conference champion in the 100m hurdles and a national qualifier in the 4x400m relay. - 60 Stephen Manning graduated from George Washington University in May with a BA in political science and a minor in journalism. He stayed in the DC area for an internship at NewsiT, a start-up that aggregates social media information. In the long-term, Stephen aims to pursue a career in broadcast journalism. “My time at George Washington was an enriching experience and I am happy to be staying in DC. I love the city, it is full of culture and history.” - 61

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Kevin Sack graduated from the US Air Force Academy with a BS in civil engineering.

Doug Hernandez and Greg Heaston attended the commissioning ceremony. - 62

Webb’s First Teaching Fellow Christina Durón ’08 returned to the Webb campus in August as the first Teaching Fellow in mathematics.

Christina’s working closely with master teachers in the math department, and having the opportunity to shadow faculty and receive constructive feedback on her classroom techniques and curriculum development.

Additionally Christina will be fully integrated into the residential and afternoon program, living in Appleby and coaching basketball and cross country.

Webb’s new Teaching Fellow Program aims to promote the field of education among recent college graduates by recruiting talented early-career teachers for a one-year period. Director of Academic Affairs Theresa Smith says that, “our faculty are among the best in the nation and we have an exemplary learning environment. To share our knowledge and educational philosophy with the next generation of teachers is something we need and want to do. As a young alumna, Christina already knows the Webb experience, both inside and outside the classroom, so she will bring a special and unique perspective to our current students.”

Christina received her B.A. in mathematics from Swarthmore College in 2012 and completed her M.S. in applied mathematics from the University of Washington in 2013. She has been teaching Applied Linear Algebra and Numerical Analysis to undergraduates at the University of Washington.

Webb Magazine • Fall 2013

William Tong graduated from Dartmouth with a major in economics and minors in government and Chinese. He will be in Boston at least for the next year working in finance.

2010 • Caitlyn Durning stayed in Nashville last summer to work for Vanderbilt’s Admission Office, giving tours and writing blog articles for the university’s website.

Caitlyn is double majoring in medicine, health, and cognitive studies.

Eunice Kim spent nine months studying abroad in Chile and Argentina. Last summer she attended the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies in Santiago. She then spent a gap year in Buenos Aires, where she worked for Start-Up Chile, an accelerator program funded by the Chilean government, and Design with Benefits, a startup news and curated product website. She also reported news for The Santiago Times, an English-language newspaper. Eunice returns to Harvard this fall and will focus on her concentrations: Romance Languages and Literatures (Latin American Studies) and psychology. - 63 Davidson senior Andrew Lantz topped the podium twice on April 21, winning the 800m and 1500m events at the 2013 SoCon Outdoor Track and Field Championships in GA. Andrew becomes Davidson’s first ever two-time 800m run champion and the fourth 1500m run champion. - 64 Juli Nokleberg had a busy summer assignment as the Mission Support Group Commander, in charge of 700 cadets and leading a staff of 30. She now holds the rank of cadet colonel, the highest rank a cadet can hold. Many thanks to Juli for sharing this photo with Kevin Sack ’09 and Kelly Dualan ’11. - 65 Eshaana Sheth studied abroad in Australia at the University of Melbourne.

A creative writing and anthropology double major at Barnard, Eshaana continued her pursuit of playwriting and screenplay writing by taking a film course and music cultural studies course which exposed her to the local music scene in Victoria. She writes, “I’ve attended some great venues. There’s a really cool arts culture, and a huge 90s revival.

Hopefully this can translate into research toward my BA thesis next year.”

2011 • Kelly Dualan finished a rigorous year at the US Air Force Academy, and this past summer she spent three weeks in the JUMP program, where she “jumped out of perfectly good airplanes and parachuted,” followed by mandatory survival training. “Freshmen year was difficult to get through, but it was a good challenge. We had a lot of rules at first. We could only walk on certain paths, we could only wear our uniforms, we had to carry our backpacks in our left hands, and we had several other rules to follow. I joined the women’s water polo team and was fortunate to make the traveling team. We had tournaments in San Diego, Phoenix, and all around Colorado. In March, we had Recognition, which I passed. Now I can wear my back pack on my back! Recognition was tough but so rewarding. The Academy is great and I am excited for all the opportunities that the school and this career will afford me.”

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Harrison Holmes was named to the Hudson Valley Men’s Athletic Conference Volleyball All-Conference team, capping off an incredible season. An outside hitter for the men’s volleyball team, Harrison led Sarah Lawrence to a third-place finish and the team’s first-ever berth in the HVMAC Championship tournament. - 66 Tyler Madrid finished his first season as assistant varsity coach for the WSC wrestling team. He was back for the spring season as the JV coach for Webb’s swimming and diving team. He writes: “It’s a great experience because Webb was so special to me. I’m just hit with waves of nostalgia when I walk through the campus. I’ll see some students just hanging out or laughing in the dining hall and think, I remember when that used to be me!

I love Webb, so I’m happy to be back.” - 67 Dakota Santana-Grace was a mentor at the Harvard Crimson Summer Academy, a 6-week program for high-achieving high school students. This school year, he’ll be a Peer Advisor Fellow and work in the freshman Dean’s Office to advise members of the incoming class.

2012 • Shiraz Belblidia (Barnard) had a summer internship at USC with Dr. Toshio Miki at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research.

She writes, “I worked with induced-pluripotent stem cells, focusing specifically on iPS differentiation into hepatocytes.”

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Amara Berry (Brown University) had a summer internship with the Hispanic Black Gay Coalition for Boston’s New Leaders Institute.

Ben Geleris and the Chapman University’s men’s volleyball team were the Silver Flight Champions at the National Collegiate Volleyball Federation’s national tournament in April.

The team qualified by making it to the finals of the Southern California Collegiate Volleyball League tournament in Anaheim in March. The Chapman team, which formed just one year ago, was ranked fifth in the nation for NCAA Division II club volleyball. - 68

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Rita Lo had a summer internship in Hong Kong working at Jebsen and Co., where she used her background in photography and design to help with corporate rebranding. Rita, the former lead photographer for the Webb Canyon Chronicle, was the design editor for the Duke Chronicle this year. - 69 Tim McGinley enjoyed his freshman year at UC Berkeley, and he has a fun campus job working for Cal’s football team. He’s one of 10 students who manage the equipment including everything from clothing to practice equipment. He went back to campus in late July to help run summer practices.

Lisa Pangilinan (Occidental) was a summer fellow in the Caltech SURF research program, alongside Prof. Jacqueline Barton, who is recognized for pioneering the application of transition metal complexes to probe recognition and reactions of double helical DNA. Connie Zhang enjoyed her freshman year at USC. She also did an internship with the nonprofit organization, Art of Giving Back. She helped plan 15 events in Los Angeles and New York, while also managing their presence on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and Instagram.

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

In Memoriam

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Louis S. Osborne ’40 passed away on January 22, 2012.

At Webb, Louis was a member of the California Scholarship Federation and class valedictorian. He belonged to the Dramatics Club, Glee Club, and choir. Louis was also involved with El Espejo as a writer, contributor, and assistant to the editor. He received his B.S. from Caltech, where he studied under Nobel Laureate Robert Millikan. Upon graduation, he served in the U.S. Navy, tending radar on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific. Louis received his Ph.D. from MIT and conducted research in the Laboratory for Nuclear Science. He performed some of the pioneering experiments to measure the photoproduction of mesons from nuclei and developed many of the experimental techniques that are now standard practice in high-energy physics. In 1959, he joined the faculty at MIT where he was granted a Fulbright Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Minna-James-Heineman Fellowship. He was a fellow of the American Physical Society and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Louis is survived by his wife Barbara and their children.

Edmund “Ed” L. Piper ’43 passed away on October 30, 2012.

He was a longtime resident of Exeter, NH. During his time at Webb, Ed was an exceptional track athlete and a member of the California Scholarship Federation and the Adiabats.

While his tenure at Webb only lasted a year, he wrote that it was the most meaningful and rewarding year of any school year: “Webb showed me windows and doors, and let me look out, walk through, and explore.” After Webb, Ed received his degrees from Loyola and Yale Medical School. After spending time serving in the U.S. Navy, he went on to practice dermatology.

While he practiced for most of his career in the Portsmouth area, he spent eight years in Bermuda as a consulting dermatologist. Ed was a generous friend and dedicated alumnus. He established and endowed the Thompson and Vivian Webb Excellence in Teaching Award, an award given annually to a teacher who has made an outstanding impact on the schools in service of three years or less for professional growth activities.

1941 William “Bill” D. Young ’41 passed away on March 10, 2013.

Bill, or rather ‘Red’, was famous for talking in puns and verse.

He was a pole vaulter and valuable member of the track team.

He was also described as the football team’s hardest running “ball-toter” in his position as halfback. Bill was involved in drama and a member of both the choir and glee club. A native of Shanghai, his room was adorned with Chinese objects and his ever-present gramophone. Bill attended Occidental College.

During WWII, he returned to China as a weather observer in the Army Air Corps. He met and married Virginia after the war.

In his early career, Bill was a commercial builder in Southern California. In 1976 the family moved to the Bay Area where he designed and built homes. Throughout his life, Bill pursued his many and varied interests. There were many an Alumni Weekend where we would enjoy seeing Bill and his family visiting us on campus, most recently in 2010. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Virginia, four children, and seven grandchildren.

Webb Magazine • Fall 2013

1945 Newton Russell ’45 died on May 18, 2013, at the age of 85 from lung cancer. He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Diane, three children and eight grandchildren. Newt was a prominent Republican, who earned bipartisan praise during his service in the State Legislature. He was once the Republican whip and third-ranking Republican in the California State Senate, served in the Assembly for a decade and then the Senate for 22 years before he retired in 1996. His 21st Senate District included the cities of Pasadena, Burbank, and Glendale. Classmate John Davis shared this, “Newt, Hughes Porter, and I became close friends at John Burroughs Junior High School, went on to L.A. High together and then to Webb for our junior and senior years.

Newt and I enlisted in the Navy after graduation and were later fraternity brothers at USC. Newt developed a keen interest in public service and, in the early 1950s, took a summer course at Georgetown to prepare for the Foreign Service Examination.

He asked me to take the exam with him and I agreed. Ironically, I got in and he just missed. Perhaps I had paid closer attention in Mr. Price’s history class—I still remember the final exam question: ‘Write a brief history of the U.S. from 1870 to 1914.’

We last met at our 50th reunion and I regret that we subsequently lost touch with one another. He was a good friend, and a man of principle upon whom one could always rely.”

A celebration of life 1948

1964

Edmund “Bill” Callander, II ’48 passed away on November 7, 2012, in Medford, OR. “Wild Bill” played a large part in school activities during his three years at Webb. He was a member of the Camera Club and wrote for both the Blue and Gold and El Espejo. He was described as a faithful “soda jerker” and served as the projectionist for the Saturday night movies.

His hobbies included coin collecting and dogs. Bill attended the University of Redlands and earned a degree in chemistry.

He went on to Stanford University for graduate work in chemical engineering. Following his Army service, Bill worked as a defense contractor in micro-electronics. In retirement, he was active in the Mended Hearts program, visiting people who had heart surgery or were about to have surgery. He is survived by his wife Arlene, their children, and grandchildren.

Larry B. Porter ’64 died on December 25, 2012, of esophageal cancer. Larry was an active member of the Webb community.

He was captain of the track team and lettered in football.

He was president of the Drama Club, photographer for the newspaper, and a member of the athletic honor society. During his senior year, Larry was president of the student body for the first semester and a member of the Honor Committee. Larry went on to Colorado College, then settled down in Orange County and worked for Christina Bahr Accountancy. He had a small collection of vintage Mercedes Benzes and enjoyed sailing.

He resided in Newport Beach for the majority of his life. Larry will be greatly missed by all who knew him. We always enjoyed seeing him at local alumni events and on campus for reunions.

1951 Richard F. Chapman ’51 died on October 21, 2012, after decades of living with multiple sclerosis. At Webb, Dick was an Honor Committeeman, president of the Debating Society, Drama Club committeeman, and a member of the California Scholarship Federation. He was a varsity letterman in tennis and played saxophone and clarinet in the orchestra. He went on to Yale University and received his M.D. from Northwestern University in 1959. Following his internship at Highland Hospital in Alameda County, CA, Dick took his residency training in psychiatry at the Menninger School of Psychiatry.

He served as a captain in the U.S. Army at Fort Sill where he developed a group mental health consultation program used by U.S. forces in Vietnam. He moved to the Bay Area in 1966 and helped to found one of the first approved psychiatry training programs within a community mental health center. He later became a clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford, served as president of the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute, and became the dean of faculty at Palo Alto University. He leaves behind his children, Karen and Eric, and three grandchildren.

1981 Todd W. Schmeltz ’81 passed away on March 21, 2013, after a two-year battle with cancer. At Webb, Todd was on ASB and was senior class president. He was known for his down to earth personality and his love of music. His wife Kathy said that “he spoke often of his years at Webb. He loved learning and Webb certainly provided the academic stimulation that his active and inquisitive mind required.” Todd attended the University of San Diego and received his B.A. He then pursued a masters at the American Graduate School of International Business Management in Phoenix. Realizing business was not his passion, Todd left early to become a Honda factorytrained mechanic. Along with his wife, Todd opened an automotive repair business in Oak Harbor, WA. He was known to the community as a well-learned individual, able to talk fluently on politics, philosophy, art, music, and history. He played the bass guitar and his customers would often find him plugged in between appointments. Todd is survived by his wife and two daughters.

• As we were going to press we learned of the passing of Rick Whyte ’57, Robert Hanson ’62 and Bill Agnew ’66.

Information can be found at www.webb.org under Alumni News. We will print remberances in the next issue of Webb magazine.

The Webb Schools • Webb.org

55

Final Word PROF I LE

Ken Colburn ’47

The Embodiment of Thompson Webb’s Ideal of Honor and Service

W

hen Ken Colburn ’47 was a student at Webb,

he and his friends watched from the hills

as anti-aircraft guns fired from the nearby

Pomona Ordinance Depot (the site, currently,

of the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds).

He remembers the searchlights combing the skies for enemy aircraft and recalls,“they never hit anything! They did more damage to houses and cars!”

World War II had many effects on Webb during those years—rationing, blackouts, students working as farm-hands at nearby citrus groves— not the least of which is that Colburn, who would go on to serve the schools’ alumni council for more than 44 years, rarely met an alumnus.

“They were all off fighting the war!” he said.

In the not too distant future, Colburn would himself also end up in uniform.

56

But before all that, Colburn was a resident of Pasadena. “My parents were moving to Palm Springs,” said Colburn, “and we looked at schools along the way, and Webb had football!”

Thompson Webb’s chapel was rising on the hill as Colburn became an underclassman. He played football and tennis, was an Honor Committeeman, sang in the choir, worked on El Espejo, and served on the Student Council and Dance Committee. He kept a horse in stables on campus, and recalls riding through the nearby hills, which were virtually unpopulated.

He remembers with great fondness his teachers and mentors including Les Perry, who coached the football team.

“It was 11-man football and we had 22 guys who showed up to play, so we had one guy to replace each person if we were all healthy,” he said.

Nearby competition was so scarce, that Colburn recalls playing against the prisoners at Chino Institute for Men. Among the many memorable teachers of his day, Colburn cites Werner Marti, who was handicapped by blindness.

“Mr. Marti had the lower dorm and his guide dog would walk beside him during evening check-ins. I was always listening to my radio under my pillow and Mr. Marti, who had a heightened sense of hearing, would yell, ‘Colburn, turn that radio off!’”

In 1948, he joined the Naval Reserve and in 1949, he

transferred to his father’s alma mater, the University of

Southern California. It wasn’t long before duty called and

Colburn left for Officer Training School in Newport,

Rhode Island. In 1951, he took classes in engineering at

the Great Lakes Naval Training Center just north of

Chicago and then saw action in the Korean conflict.

In the years that followed, Colburn served as the chief engineer and commander on a destroyer during the Vietnam War. After leaving the Navy, he stayed active with military groups and in 1997 was sworn in as president of the Pasadena Council of the U.S. Navy League.

Colburn then entered the burgeoning aerospace industry. “Back then, we worked without computers,” he said. “I was still using my slide ruler!”

He married, had two daughters and one son, and today is the proud grandfather of seven.

And through the years, he’s kept a strong bond with his Webb family.

Colburn currently serves as a class agent, and has been a past president of the Alumni Council three times. He takes great pride in sharing that he was one of the early few who voted to bring women on board at the school, “I knew it was a necessity,” and says that he campaigned to elect the first VWS alumna, Janel Henriksen Hastings ’87, president of the Alumni Council.

Colburn has volunteered with the Tournament of Roses and has put his woodworking skills to use building benches and other structures at Arlington Garden in Pasadena. For Webbies, he has crafted dozens of furniture pieces, from the Adirondack-style chairs that grace the dorm areas and other public spaces to his very special gift of a pintsized seat for every child born to a faculty member.

Colburn says that the lessons he took from his alma mater have been lifelong. “There was no question that we were closer—students and teachers—than any other high school group could be. We were together 24 hours a day, we ate meals together, worked around the campus together.”

As to what advice he would give to Webb students today, Colburn chuckled and answered, “I would question my ability to keep up with the kids today!”

There were the infamous “white glove” inspections by Mrs. Webb, which also landed Colburn in some hot water.

But he credits the school with one of the most important lessons that he has carried through life:

“I was keeping a snake in the top of my closet and it surprised her during one of her checks,” he said.

“I learned how to learn at Webb!”

When it came time to choose a college, Colburn remembers, “Dr. Webb took three or four of us down to meet George Benson, the founding president of Claremont Men’s College’s (today known as Claremont McKenna College) and he said to Dr. Benson, ‘these boys are going to be in your class.’ No questions asked!” said Colburn.

= Ken Colborn ’47 is the first recipient of the newly established Colborn Distinguished Alumni Service Award.

Calendar & Credits Editor Vivian Pradetto Marketing Coordinator

Parents Weekend

Contributors Debbie Carini, Andrew Farke, Robert Fass, John Ferrari, Danielle Gordon, Don Lofgren, Scott Nichols, Vivian Pradetto, Kathy Sanders, Aaron Severson, Laura Wensley

October 4 and 5 2013

Design Michael Stewart • Stewart Creative Photography Phil Channing, Andrew Farke, Linda Lewis, Don Lofgren, Don Milici, Nancy Newman, Scott Nichols Printing Dual Graphics

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Nondiscrimination Policy– The Webb Schools admit students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin, sexual orientation or any other characteristic protected by state or federal law 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, color, national or ethnic origin, sexual orientation or any other characteristic protected by state or federal law in administration of their educational policies, tuition assistance, athletic, and other school-administered programs, or any other basis in law.

Memberships National Association of Independent Schools; Western Association of Schools and Colleges; Boy’s Schools: An International Coalition; National Coalition of Girls Schools; California Association of Independent Schools; College Entrance Examination Board; Educational Records Bureau; National Association of College Admissions Counselors; Council for Basic Education; Council for the Advancement and Support of Education; Council for Religion in Independent Schools; National Association of Principals of Schools for Girls; and the Cum Laude Society.

Publication Information Webb magazine is the official publication of Webb School of California, Vivian Webb School, and the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology.

Published for families, friends, and alumni by The Webb Schools.

Calendar Parents Weekend

October 4 - 5, 2013

October Break

October 5 - 9, 2013

Fall Play

November 10 - 12, 2013

Thanksgiving Break

Nov 23 - Dec 1, 2013

Candlelight Concert

December 15, 2013

Winter Break

Dec 21, 2013 - Jan 5, 2014

Please check the website for regional alumni events.

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The mission of The Webb Schools is to provide an exemplary learning community that nurtures and inspires boys and girls to become men and women who: • Think boldly, mindfully and creatively, • Act with honor and moral courage, • Lead with distinction, • Serve with a generous spirit.

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Webb Celebrates

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$50 million

Campaign Completion

More on the story and photos from the celebration at www.webb.org