Westminster Magazine Spring 2018 by The Westminster Schools

THE MAGAZINE FOR ALUMNI, PARENTS, AND FRIENDS | SPRING 2018

LEAD ON. Westminster answers the call to develop leaders for a changing world

Honor Every Wildcat’s Biggest Fan CONTENTS

CONTRIBUTORS Executive Editors Liz Ball Emilie Henry

Managing Editor Erin Dentmon Editorial Staff Justin Abraham

“I don’t think there has been a community quite like Westminster before in my life. Westminster has helped me understand there are people from all different parts of the world who have all kinds of different experiences, but we are all still human. And every class here challenges you in some way. Every time I get challenged in those ways, I learn from it.”

Jennifer Liu Kathleen O’Gara Christy Oglesby “Every young Stacie Davis Rapson ’83 person at Westminster will learn to be kind; will learn to serve others; will learn to make the Contributors worldArmstrong a better place. Jane Lauderdale ’74 That’s what the Westminster experience is about.” Betty Emrey - ScootFEATURES Dimon ’70 Keith Evans Ann Giornelli ’10 Katie Long Laney ’03 Pamela Nye

– Fernando, Class of 2019

Ali Gray Prickett ’05

Cultivating Young Leaders

Wildcats are growing in new, exciting ways as leadership changes throughout society and on campus.

20 DEPARTMENTS 2

From the President

Faculty and Staff

40 Our New Trustees

Wildcat Den Joseph H. “Scoot” Dimon Fund for Student42Experience 12 Models of Leadership

Caroline Rothschild Katie Trainor Bailey Ward

teachers exemplify leadership Scoot Dimon’s impact on our Our community is immeasurable. He made of it his mission to give every at Westminster 46child Wildcat Tracks the gift conscience. Read how they’re taking of feeling known, valued, seen, and celebrated. With every high five, hug, and warm, personal conversation, Scoot radiated advantage of more opportunities Alumni News Art Direction & Design deep care for each member of our community. Scoot embodies thethan veryever. best of Westminster, 54 and his legacy will continue Ridgeto Creative, live on.Inc. Susan Ayres Watson ’83

Be the Catalyst.

On the Forefront in College Counseling

63 Class Notes

Photography Honor Scoot Dimon ’70 and his extraordinary dedication to Westminster by giving to The Joseph H. Scoot Dimon Fund for

NancyStudent Borowick Experience, an endowed fund that supports our students who qualify for need-based aid so they may enjoy all the Paul Burke School has to offer.

You can invest in transformative Westminster experiences that inspire our students to dream big and become game-changers. Your generosity ignites all that is happening in our classrooms, on our fields, and in our studios—helping us inspire leaders who will become a positive force in the world.

Clyde Click Gemshots

Wildcat experiences made possible by the Fund include:

Billy Howard

Patrick• Marcigliano Global travel

Personal Journeys • Athletic uniforms

Unexpected turns have taken these alumni down Matt Spaulding • Musical instruments • Camps, field trips, and other Phillip Spears school-related activities

MAKE YOUR GIFT TODAY BY VISITING WESTMINSTER.NET/GIVING

By balancing care and strategy, our college counseling office is guiding students into the next phase of life in visionary ways.

Paul Ward • Transportation

paths they that deeply • didn’t Debateimagine—ones and robotics competitions impact the world around them. • Books and supplies

Student, faculty, staff, and parent photographers

To make a philanthropic investment and leverage a dollar-for-dollar match*, The Lewis H. Beck Archives at Westminster please contact Lauren Flores, Associate Vice President for Institutional Advancement, at LaurenFlores@westminster.net or 404-609-6438.

Printing

Perfect * AllImage pledges and gifts made to the Fund by December 31, 2018 up to $500,000 will be matched by a generous donor.

COMMENTS TO THE EDITOR: Please address postal correspondence to: Liz Ball Director of Marketing and Communications Westminster 1424 West Paces Ferry Road, NW Atlanta, Georgia 30327 Email: lizball@westminster.net Phone: 404-609-6259

Honor Every Wildcat’s Biggest Fan CONTENTS

CONTRIBUTORS Executive Editors Liz Ball Emilie Henry

Managing Editor Erin Dentmon Editorial Staff Justin Abraham

– Fernando, Class of 2019

Ali Gray Prickett ’05

Cultivating Young Leaders

Wildcats are growing in new, exciting ways as leadership changes throughout society and on campus.

20 DEPARTMENTS 2

From the President

Faculty and Staff

40 Our New Trustees

Wildcat Den Joseph H. “Scoot” Dimon Fund for Student42Experience 12 Models of Leadership

Caroline Rothschild Katie Trainor Bailey Ward

Be the Catalyst.

On the Forefront in College Counseling

63 Class Notes

Photography Honor Scoot Dimon ’70 and his extraordinary dedication to Westminster by giving to The Joseph H. Scoot Dimon Fund for

NancyStudent Borowick Experience, an endowed fund that supports our students who qualify for need-based aid so they may enjoy all the Paul Burke School has to offer.

Clyde Click Gemshots

Wildcat experiences made possible by the Fund include:

Billy Howard

Patrick• Marcigliano Global travel

Personal Journeys • Athletic uniforms

Unexpected turns have taken these alumni down Matt Spaulding • Musical instruments • Camps, field trips, and other Phillip Spears school-related activities

MAKE YOUR GIFT TODAY BY VISITING WESTMINSTER.NET/GIVING

By balancing care and strategy, our college counseling office is guiding students into the next phase of life in visionary ways.

Paul Ward • Transportation

paths they that deeply • didn’t Debateimagine—ones and robotics competitions impact the world around them. • Books and supplies

Student, faculty, staff, and parent photographers

Printing

Perfect * AllImage pledges and gifts made to the Fund by December 31, 2018 up to $500,000 will be matched by a generous donor.

FROM THE PRESIDENT

Dear Friends, It does not take long for Wildcats to get to the heart of the matter. This was especially true for the students taking the JanTerm class I had the honor of co-teaching. We returned from a long break and launched JanTerm 2018 with an array of beyond-thehorizon interdisciplinary courses like Food Chemistry & Global Cultures, Exploring the Holy Land through Documentary Film, and The History & Science of Plagues. Among these was Living Leadership, a course in its second year. The class was rooted in the idea that the best way to learn about leadership is through the stories of other leaders—their successes and their failures, as well as motivations,

miscalculations, and proudest moments.

pursuing answers to questions that may never be fully resolved.

Five experienced leaders and five stories into the class, our students had already begun to formulate some essential questions:

Now picture this class repeated over and again throughout the day at Westminster. You can hear questions arise from a great work of literature in English or the history of a piece of music soon to be performed by a choral group. You can look into a Middle School Chapel Council meeting and see students creating a student-led worship service, or check out Love Hall’s design thinkers identifying needs from the end user’s perspective as they solve a problem. Or sit in on a captains’ meeting in the athletics department, where team leaders learn from each other. Or visit with the technology interns as they imagine how their astonishing technical skills can be of service to Westminster and to schools well beyond our campus boundaries.

· Does a leader need a complete set of leadership skills to be successful, or can he or she rely on a smaller set of strengths? · What must a leader be willing to sacrifice? · How does one develop a leadership style? · What does leadership look like without a position or title? · Is corrupt leadership really leadership? Our speakers did not get far into their respective stories before a hand would shoot up and a student would ask a question that led them to peel back another layer of their experience. Often these questions connected one visitor’s story to another and identified themes between leaders who might work in environments with little in common, at least on the surface. Only a few days into the course, our students had already exhibited many of the non-negotiable traits every leader must possess: insatiable curiosity, listening skills, an ability to synthesize information, and a willingness to live with the ambiguity of

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Westminster is a leadership development organization. This mission was imagined at our founding. It lives and breathes in our classrooms, on our fields and stages, and in the engagement of Westminster alumni, leaders from across Atlanta, and partners from around the world. In this edition of Westminster, you will see examples of how leading with high expectations and a commitment to serving others—in a phrase, leadership of conscience— inspires Wildcats of all generations.

ADMINISTRATION

BOARD OF TRUSTEES – 2017-18

EMERITUS TRUSTEES

Keith A. Evans President

Michael J. Egan ’74, Chair B. Clayton Rolader ’72, Vice Chair Lisa Borders ’75, Secretary Elizabeth Kilcullen Blake Rosalind G. Brewer William Clarkson IV Samuel G. Candler Harold A. Dawson Jr. ’82 Jason Fritz Rebecca Olson Gupta Rand Glenn Hagen Scott D. Hawkins Katharine W. Kelley ’82 David M. Love ’90 Lisa Olivetti McGahan R. Brand Morgan ’94 Joel T. Murphy ’76 Floyd C. Newton III ’73 Thomas Noonan Rahul Patel William T. Plybon Kelly A. Regal S. Stephen Selig ’61 Jeffrey P. Small Jr. ’85 Steven D. Smith Charles Austin Stephens ’93 Charles W. Wickliffe III ’85 Jay Yadav

James S. Balloun Betsy Barge Birkholz ’69 James E. Bostic Jr. David E. Boyd Peter M. Candler ’60 Richard W. Courts II ’55 Ann Draughon Cousins Suzanne LeCraw Cox ’71 Joseph M. Craver F. T. Davis Jr. ’56 Virginia Gaines Dearborn ’56 W. Douglas Ellis Jr. Joseph W. Hamilton Jr. Allen S. Hardin Thomas D. Hills ’62 Ronald P. Hogan Barbara Benson Howell W. Stell Huie L. Phillip Humann M. Hill Jeffries Jr. ’73 E. Cody Laird Jr. George H. Lane III J. Hicks Lanier ’58 Dennis M. Love ’74 Gay McLawhorn Love Margaret Sheffield Martin WS ’44 Carolyn Cody McClatchey ’65 Terence F. McGuirk Larry L. Prince Olga Goizueta Rawls ’73 Margaret Conant Reiser ’73 John W. Rooker ’56 Kenneth S. Taratus L. Barry Teague John A. Wallace D. Scott Weimer James B. Williams George B. Wirth

Toni Boyd Vice President for Finance and Operations Tim Downes Director of Athletics Colleen Glaude Dean of Instructional Technology Emilie Henry Vice President for Institutional Advancement Jim Justice Dean of Academics and Curriculum Whit McKnight Head of Lower School Marjorie Dixon Mitchell ’82 Director of Admissions and Enrollment Services Danette Morton Head of Middle School Thad Persons ’88 Dean of Faculty Bob Ryshke Executive Director, Center for Teaching Cindy Trask Head of Upper School

WESTMINSTER FUND REPRESENTATIVE Matthew F. Tarkenton ’88 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION REPRESENTATIVE Susan Ayres Watson ’83

Keith Evans President

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FROM THE PRESIDENT

miscalculations, and proudest moments.

pursuing answers to questions that may never be fully resolved.

Five experienced leaders and five stories into the class, our students had already begun to formulate some essential questions:

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ADMINISTRATION

BOARD OF TRUSTEES – 2017-18

EMERITUS TRUSTEES

Keith A. Evans President

WESTMINSTER FUND REPRESENTATIVE Matthew F. Tarkenton ’88 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION REPRESENTATIVE Susan Ayres Watson ’83

Keith Evans President

WESTMINSTER | 3

Groups like Service Council give students the opportunity to practice shared leadership and collaborative decision-making. Many such groups have structures that give students greater responsibility as they learn important leadership lessons through experience.

LEAD ON.

Cultivating Young

Leaders by Erin Dentmon Creative Services and Publications Manager

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WESTMINSTER | 5

LEAD ON.

Cultivating Young

Leaders by Erin Dentmon Creative Services and Publications Manager

4 | Spring 2018

WESTMINSTER | 5

“We know for certain our students are going to need deep self-knowledge, a very broad capacity to handle complexity, and very finely tuned emotional intelligence.” -Danette Morton, Head of Middle School

eadership isn’t a role or a title. It’s a mindset. A way of being. Across business and society, expectations around who will be a leader and what those leaders will do are changing. At Westminster, too, student leadership opportunities are evolving. In preparing our students for the world they will inherit, we aren’t letting them wait for graduation before figuring out how to lead in a worldchanging way. “We’re following a societal model toward distributed, collaborative, team-oriented leadership,” says Danette Morton, Head of Middle School. “This is not the world of the singular ‘hero leader’ who must be extroverted and charismatic. We’re embracing the reality that all of our kids will have the opportunity to lead in myriad ways.” Creativity is what more than 1,500 CEOs identified as the most important skill for future leaders in a 2009 IBM study. In an increasingly uncertain and complex world, skills like adaptability, self-awareness, and the ability to span boundaries and collaborate were cited over and over again as valuable for leadership. These skills are developed all over campus at Westminster.

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Chapel Council members are responsible for every aspect of monthly chapel assemblies and the Middle School’s annual celebration of Christian Emphasis Week. These posters illustrated the “Second Chances” theme during a recent assembly.

Another shift, from leadership being held by a select few to being shared, is challenging long-held assumptions about work, society, and social change. Because of the opportunities they have at Westminster, our students are ready to seize the opportunities this change presents. “Leadership is a big part of the ‘so what?’ of the Westminster experience,” Danette says. “Our students have been given this great opportunity and great education, so what are they going to do with it? We can’t hold in our minds what challenges or opportunities they’re going to face, but we expect they will require leadership on their part. We know for certain they’re going to need deep self-knowledge, a very broad capacity to handle complexity, and very finely tuned emotional intelligence.” Each Westminster student will answer the question of “so what?” for themselves after graduation, choosing from innumerable ways to become leaders in the world. In the same way, students are increasingly taking an active role in shaping their educations. Teachers, particularly in Lower School, are turning toward assetbased learning, an approach that uses students’ existing skills and interests to engage them more deeply in learning.

Middle School Chapel Council The Middle School Chapel Council is more than a group that plans monthly assemblies for their division. It’s a place where Middle School Wildcats learn to lead. The group is split into teams that are in charge of different aspects of the chapel assemblies, like music, words, drama, and even a “details” team. Every team has an appointed lead who works with their area team and alongside the other leads. This structure, now being implemented in other leadership groups on campus, allows Chapel Council members to take risks while still being accountable for getting things done. “If you put kids in charge of people, that’s where they really learn leadership. It’s about learning

how to interact, how to take an idea and make it work, and how to root for the success of others,” says Middle School Chaplain and Director of Student Life Tina McCormick. “When a 12-year-old learns to say, ‘I’m going to let someone else’s idea move forward and do everything I can to make it succeed,’ that’s being a leader. A servant leader, even.” Chapel Council members come up with ideas for monthly chapel assemblies and the annual Christian Emphasis Week. They’re also responsible for putting those ideas into action. “Leadership development often doesn’t go beyond asking kids for their opinions. Most of the time, as adults, people ask for kids’ opinions, then we feel like we have

to make it happen. We’re robbing them of the chance to have that experience,” Tina says. One of the most elaborate events Chapel Council has planned in recent years was a carnival for the entire Middle School the last day of a "Fruits of the Spirit"themed Christian Emphasis Week, which Tina describes as “all-out joy,” making it a successful and memorable way to close out the week. What’s the No. 1 takeaway students get from being part of Chapel Council? Confidence, Tina says: “It’s about realizing that your ideas, your opinions, your ability to motivate others can get a lot done; you just need the chance.”

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“Our students are beginning to understand that being ‘in charge’ isn’t about telling people what to do. They learn that true leadership is about empowering others, building relationships, and caring about those whom you’ve been charged to lead.”

Every fifth grader belongs to a leadership club dedicated to improving others’ lives in Love Hall. The MentorCats partner with pre-first, first, and second graders, giving the fifth graders a taste of what it’s like to be looked up to as a leader.

-Whit McKnight, Head of Lower School

“We have to give our students the time and space to actualize their ideas. This way we maximize their full potential and leverage the natural creativity, curiosity and energy they bring to school each day,” says Whit McKnight, Head of Lower School. Fourth graders in the annual Fundance Film Festival know they will create a documentary video, but it’s up to small teams of students to decide what topic they’ll explore and who they will interview. Second graders all learn business principles through Small Mall, but everyone chooses their own product and marketing strategy. “As opposed to teachers telling students what to do and how to lead, they provide avenues for authentic leadership opportunities to develop and happen. What does that mean in the aggregate? Our children have a real sense of empowerment,” Whit adds. As we prepare this generation of students for a new era of leadership, one thing that hasn’t changed at Westminster is the pursuit of leadership of conscience. “It’s part of the Westminster promise,” says Head of Upper School Cindy Trask. “Students are not just going to leave here ready for college. They’re going

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to be ready to lead and take on difficult issues in the world.” Lessons that leadership is ultimately about others are embedded at every turn during the Wildcat journey, starting with experiences like Design Thinking in the Lower School, a method that begins with empathy. “Our students are beginning to understand that being ‘in charge’ isn’t about telling people what to do. They learn that true leadership is about empowering others, building relationships, and caring about those whom you’ve been charged to lead. They get a genuine sense of what the real issues are and how to effectively collaborate with those they serve in order to meet the needs and challenges at hand. From as young as age 5, they are learning about the relationship between great inquiry and great leadership. Instead of coming to the table with solutions and answers, they are working hard to ask the right questions. They are flexing these muscles every day,” Whit says. That leadership muscle grows in myriad ways from the time prefirst students step into Love Hall. Whether it’s meeting with the Head of Lower School to learn what he does as a leader, visiting President Keith

Fifth Grade Leadership Clubs It’s an honor to be in a leadership club. But above all, it’s a service. The Lower School’s leadership clubs engage every fifth grader in improving life in Love Hall. “It’s a key touchpoint with Urban Ed, where they go out into Atlanta and serve. These clubs are a tangible way to do something in this building,” says fifth grade homeroom teacher Taylor Trepte. Students choose a leadership club with a loose theme—the environment, photography, or mentoring younger students, for example—and create an experience that aligns with their own talents and interests while benefiting other students.

“They get really excited to create something. It’s like they’re doing something boundless,” Taylor says of the students who publish a literary magazine in the club she oversees, the LitCats. “The students all come into it brave and adventurous. They don’t hesitate to try something new!” As the year goes on, students learn to rely on each other instead of adults. Processes like peer editing and group brainstorming emerge naturally as they take more ownership of their projects. As each club explores its own area, every student learns more about the way Westminster works and how to make an impact on campus.

One leadership club, the EnviroCats, is teaching their fellow students about recycling and its impact. “We’re teaching everybody to recycle and not waste as much, because, if you’ve ever seen those giant trash mountains, we could cut down on that so much,” says member Stan Watkins ’25. “One less piece of trash per day could make a big difference.” Fifth graders are using skills they’ve built upon every year in Love Hall to apply their passions to make a difference. As our Wildcats know, you’re never too young to lead.

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-Whit McKnight, Head of Lower School

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“Students are not just going to leave here ready for college. They’re going to be ready to lead and take on difficult issues in the world.”

Discovery student leaders have ample opportunity to reflect on their own growth as leaders while helping freshmen get the most out of their experience in Discovery.

-Cindy Trask, Head of Upper School

Evans in his office and building the courage to ask him a question, or growing as empathetic listeners and communicators in Morning Meeting every day, young Wildcats are becoming leaders every day. Research shows that the need to grow is not one that is satiated; growth begets a desire to keep growing. As such, the number of ways to be a leader at Westminster is always increasing. Recently created leadership groups include the Student Athletic Council in Upper School and Middle School STEAM Council. The number of students involved in leadership in Middle School has become so large that the division now holds two separate daylong leadership training retreats for students involved.

leadership in the exact same way. All three divisions are focusing on developing diverse leadership styles. “Some kids think leadership is a position or traits you’re born with, but what they learn is that leadership can be developed. It just means you’re going to do the right thing in a really difficult position. They may feel the fear of the weight of that decision, but you draw on experiences you’ve had and do the right thing. That’s what defines so many leaders. Those skills are developed here,” Cindy says.

As students shape more and more of their educational experiences in the classroom and in co-curricular opportunities, they are becoming more engaged in their own learning. “They have agency, power, and investment. We want students to feel that power and joy of creating their own experiences,” Danette says.

As all our students find their own leadership styles, it’s vital that our faculty know each student’s goals and how to help them along their journey. “Solving real problems, reflection (deepening an understanding of who you are and your impact on others), and leveraging feedback are critical to the development of emerging leaders. Our faculty are experts in providing this type of coaching,” Cindy says, noting that opportunities like debate and Discovery employ comprehensive feedback as an important tool for helping students improve.

Expanding the ways our students think is vitally important. Leaders of the future will need to be able to think in complex ways about complex situations. But every student doesn’t—and shouldn’t—approach

Letting students dream big. Empowering them with the coaching and structures they need to succeed. Celebrating their resilience. It’s all part of how Westminster helps leaders the world needs emerge.

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Discovery Leaders Discovery courses have been expanding the horizons of Wildcats since the 1980s. While every ninth grader learns valuable leadership lessons during Discovery, an even deeper experience awaits upperclassmen who want to make a difference on campus. Sophomores, juniors, and seniors are invited to pursue leadership at three different levels—Assistant Instructor, Instructor, and Lead Instructor. This opportunity to become an experiential educator is rarely found at other schools. Leaders work with students and faculty throughout two weeks of on-campus instruction and an off-campus weekend expedition. A comprehensive structure allows student Discovery leaders to grow as they gain experience. The first leadership position, Assistant Instructor, is considered a training position. Instructors are able to organize and lead group activities during Discovery sessions, including expeditions like camping, caving, and photography. Lead Instructors, having already

served as Instructors, become responsible for leading teams of less-experienced upperclassmen. At all levels, Discovery leaders share responsibility for inspiring freshman participants to grow in the four areas Discovery seeks to develop: environmental awareness, self-awareness, responsibility, and compassion. “I essentially became a leader among leaders and not just to the freshman. In this role I helped other Discovery leaders (and sometimes faculty) develop lesson plans and provided them with feedback with areas for improvement,” says Damaris Zamudio ’18, a Lead Instructor who has spent more than 200 hours planning and leading Discovery activities. Damaris says her role as a Discovery leader has afforded her great autonomy when it comes to making decisions—a privilege based on earned trust from Discovery faculty and developed through a series of reflections and evaluations.

“The student instructors reflect often on areas where they do well and areas for improvement. Based on what they learn and the advice we give them, they grow from whatever challenges or failures they’ve had,” says Discovery faculty member Emily Horne, who oversees the student instructor program. “In evaluations, they’re reminded of what they need to work on. If they work on those areas and we see that growth, they can move up in the system of student leadership.” From her experience planning and executing Discovery courses while helping other leaders around her improve, Damaris says she has learned valuable lessons about leadership: “A leader isn’t only in charge of making sure everything goes well so the task at hand is complete, but also of making sure that every single person they are mentoring is growing in character and having the best possible experience.”

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“Students are not just going to leave here ready for college. They’re going to be ready to lead and take on difficult issues in the world.”

Discovery student leaders have ample opportunity to reflect on their own growth as leaders while helping freshmen get the most out of their experience in Discovery.

-Cindy Trask, Head of Upper School

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LEAD ON.

Models of Leadership Faculty and Staff Never Stop Learning by Betty Emrey and Stacie Davis Rapson ’83, Parent Engagement Manager

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It takes teachers who are not just practitioners, but leaders, to guide students through once-in-a-lifetime Wildcat experiences like filming documentaries in the Holy Land. As we teach our students to be bold, take risks, and care for the people around them, faculty and staff put those same values into action every day.

Faculty and staff at Westminster are models for how to live as leaders of conscience. Pairing bright, motivated students with extraordinary leaders who are dedicated to helping young people grow has been one of Westminster’s priorities from its founding days. And, like our students, our faculty and staff are hungry to keep expanding their abilities. So, the School has evolved, providing ever more opportunities for faculty and staff to take on leadership, backed up by time and resources devoted to helping them grow not just as practitioners, but as leaders. On campus and off, being a Wildcat means being a leader. WESTMINSTER | 13

LEAD ON.

Models of Leadership Faculty and Staff Never Stop Learning by Betty Emrey and Stacie Davis Rapson ’83, Parent Engagement Manager

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Leadership Spotlight NANCY BEANE Associate Director of College Counseling Immediate Past President, National Association for College Admission Counseling Most people at Westminster know Nancy Beane as a beloved and dedicated college counselor and longtime history teacher, but it might surprise some to learn that her college counseling colleagues across the nation look to her as the leader in their field. Nancy has just wrapped up her term as president of the 16,000-member National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), an honor bestowed on her by professionals from across the country who work in college counseling or admissions for secondary schools and universities. Nancy’s association with NACAC began humbly, as she and her co-college counselor Leon Scott volunteered to man the

“Westminster has always been about cultivating leaders; we’re just talking about it in a new way,” says Kelly York Hays ’09, Westminster’s Director of Strategic Projects. “There’s a calling that’s part of this school’s founding— with your education comes an expectation that you will go out and make a difference.” The conversation encompasses not only students, but also the exceptional talent and potential of Westminster’s faculty and staff.

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registration booth for the 1992 annual conference of SACAC, the southern affiliate of NACAC. “We had no idea what we were doing and told the SACAC leadership that we didn’t know much about the computers we had to use to do the job,” recalls Nancy. “They didn’t believe us, and we somehow muddled through what had to be done. Doing registration allowed me to get to know a lot of people in SACAC and led to more relationships at NACAC and the College Board.” As Nancy took on greater responsibility, she realized a calling to make a difference through leadership on a broader scale. The support and encouragement Nancy received

Since 1951, Westminster’s commitment to developing leaders has been a common thread. Over the years, however, the School’s approach has evolved from the traditional topdown model to a system of distributed leadership. In this new model, we recognize the vital role that every member of our faculty and staff plays in leading Westminster to deliver upon its mission. Alignment is essential to Westminster’s leadership initiatives. Bob Ryshke,

from Westminster enabled her to take on the prestigious leadership role at NACAC. “There is no way I could have been president of NACAC when there were only two college counselors,” says Nancy. “The expansion of our office from two to five counselors, the naming of Steve Frappier as director, and the opportunities to attend multiple conferences allowed me to reach higher.” Gregarious and seemingly omnipresent at student events and performances, Nancy was not always so outgoing. “When I was a young person, I honestly was shy. I was a good student, played clarinet in the band, was a Girl Scout, and was in youth fellowship in my church. I was not

executive director of Westminster’s Center for Teaching, explains, “All high-functioning organizations are clear about their strategy and unified in how they communicate. Westminster’s president, Keith Evans, plants seeds for us to consider around what good leadership looks like and asks that we infuse those qualities into the running of our individual departments and programs.” Faculty and staff create goals that fit within the bigger umbrella of the School’s overall mission and strategy.

a leader outside those arenas, and I often felt awkward around my peers and large crowds. The determination and grit to succeed that I developed when things did not come easily to me became part of my fabric, and I truly hope we help equip our students to believe in themselves far more than I ever did in my formative years.” Nancy gratefully shares: “I’ve received so much support in my life from family, friends, and colleagues and feel strongly that it is my responsibility to give back to my communities in and out of school. Along the way, I’ve gained far more than I’ve given, but I hope both my students and the School feel that I’ve been there for them.”

Westminster has instituted a variety of formal structures to cultivate leadership in faculty and staff. Leadership expert Nick Petrie of the Center for Creative Leadership, Reed Deshler, author of Mastering the Cube, and school transformation coach Elena Aguilar have visited campus to lead intensive group sessions for a large cross-section of faculty and staff. Many off-site conferences and workshops faculty and staff attend address how to lead effectively. It’s important to note that Westminster leaves ample room for

As a college counselor, Nancy Beane has inspired countless students to chase their dreams. As president of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, she led a group representing more than 16,000 members of her profession.

individual creativity when it comes to adults on campus growing as leaders. “Westminster hires extraordinarily passionate and inventive people,” says Dean of Faculty Thad Persons ’88. “Lately, we have deliberately shifted away from seeing leaders as supervisors to creating an environment where leaders function more as coaches who excel in fostering engagement, innovation, and excitement. These leader-coaches become catalysts for others’ growth and support everyone in our community to be audacious in reaching their goals.” Westminster

faculty and staff are basically grown-up versions of the kinds of students the School attracts—retaining that level of talent requires providing ongoing opportunities that both challenge and support continuous learning and growth. “There’s a philosophy in some schools that if you want to grow, you have to go,” says Laura Kopp, director of teaching and learning for third through fifth grades in the Lower School. “That’s not the way it is here. Westminster cultivates an environment of lifelong learning for WESTMINSTER | 15

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Leadership Spotlight GARY JONES Middle School Science Teacher; Football, Basketball, and Track & Field Coach Member of the Georgia Works! Board of Directors A heart for helping the homeless led Middle School faculty member Gary Jones to a meaningful leadership position with Georgia Works!, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending chronic homelessness in Atlanta. Georgia Works! was founded in 2013 by Gary’s close friend, Bill McGahan ’80, and Gary was honored to be appointed as a founding member of the organization’s board of directors. Georgia Works! takes men directly off the streets of Atlanta and enrolls them in a six to 12-month residential program aimed at helping them achieve self-sufficiency, including a full-time job and permanent housing. Upon entering the program, each man is required

everyone and puts its resources into its people. Westminster completely changed my outlook on what a teacher can be. We are all recognized and cultivated as leaders—we’re all in this together, walking side by side. It hasn’t been difficult for me to grow at Westminster, and that’s the reason I’ve been happy here for so long.” The number of opportunities for faculty and staff to expand their leadership capacities is burgeoning. Some initiatives are tailored to the

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to be clean from alcohol and drugs, to not take handouts, and to work. Georgia Works! staff help each client overcome personal obstacles, provide assistance with obtaining driver’s licenses and GEDs, and guide them in developing job skills. Gary’s involvement with Georgia Works! has impacted him deeply. He shares: “Learning about the struggles of Georgia Works! participants naturally enhances my sense of perspective, empathy, and compassion. These positive attributes are very valuable to share with others, whether they are broken homeless men or fortunate Westminster students.”

needs of individual departments or programs, while others focus on collaboration and team building across divisions. The Office for Institutional Advancement uses a series of team retreats to build their capacities. Professional Learning Communities provide a forum where teachers can collaborate to advance student learning. And Community of Practice groups address challenges, read common articles, and explore exercises designed to help members transcend their normal ways of thinking.

To date, Georgia Works! has “graduated” around 400 men from the program and houses another 150+ who are working toward self-sufficiency. The program has an impressive track record of effectiveness and efficiency. In fact, more than 80 percent of graduates continue to remain clean, housed, and employed.

and action.” Gary’s character and ethics stem from his deep faith. “I attempt to help the participants of Georgia Works! in their tumultuous journeys through life,” he says. “For any success they achieve, God gives the increase, and to God be the glory.”

Gary’s thoughts on leadership inform both his Westminster work and his position with Georgia Works! “True leadership,” he says, “means ultimate responsibility as opposed to ultimate authority. A true leader is typically the first one to arrive and the last one to leave and serves as a strong example of character and work ethic in word

“There is a dimension of leadership development that is very personal,” says Danette Morton, Head of Middle School. “You’re never just leading a thing; you’re leading people, which requires you to think about where you are in relation to those people. As we set goals, we push ourselves to look in the mirror to explore what is it about ourselves that might get in the way. That takes courage, and we’ve committed to the idea of public learning. Our leadership potential is growing exponentially because while

Gary Jones brings his whole heart to all he does, whether he is teaching science, coaching Wildcat sports, or serving as a board member for Georgia Works!.

we’re all engaged in our own growth process, we are also learning from the growth of others.” While many members of the Westminster community find leadership roles on traditional paths, like becoming grade or department chairs, others take advantage of opportunities to lead by owning a particular initiative, whether it’s a new academic course, a co-curricular program, or professional development for other faculty members. Division

heads have taken on individual mentoring. There are faculty-organized reading groups. And one-on-one conversations have sprung up all across campus in support of the larger discourse. Through this never-ending commitment to growth, Westminster’s faculty and staff model the qualities our students need to thrive, reach their potential, and go on to become leaders of conscience.

are leading this work,” says Danette Morton. “Our faculty and staff show up here every day, completely convinced that Westminster is the place—more than anywhere else— where they can create the absolute best experience for students.”

“At the end of the day, there is an allin-ness about the team of folks who

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16 | Spring 2018

Gary Jones brings his whole heart to all he does, whether he is teaching science, coaching Wildcat sports, or serving as a board member for Georgia Works!.

“At the end of the day, there is an allin-ness about the team of folks who

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Leadership Spotlight SCOTT STEWART Upper School Instrumental Music Faculty Director, Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony If you are an NPR listener, you may know Upper School instrumental music teacher Scott Stewart’s voice better than you know his face. A frequent on-air personality on Atlanta’s NPR affiliate WABE 90.1 FM, Scott hosts radio show “Strike up the Band” and appears regularly on “City Lights with Lois Reitzes.” You might think that is enough extracurricular activity to keep this passionate musician occupied, but he also finds time to flex his leadership muscles as Music Director and Conductor of the prestigious Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony (AYWS). AYWS is an honor ensemble comprising 92 students from approximately 60 different high

schools in the metropolitan area (including eight students from Westminster). The symphony rehearses weekly, presents concerts throughout the school year, commissions new works of music, records, and tours. Membership is highly competitive by audition. Scott has been director of the group since 1999, and AYWS has grown and flourished under his leadership. The group has performed in prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York City and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. As director of AYWS, Scott has the opportunity to mentor and inspire young musicians from more than 20 counties. Scott sees AYWS as

“fulfilling an ambassadorial function for Atlanta—a highly visible symbol of active arts education in our city and state.” In addition to benefiting the city, Scott’s leadership of AYWS benefits Westminster. Scott explains, “The advanced nature of AYWS, which has some of the nation’s top high school musicians, keeps me ‘on my toes’ with new and challenging musical repertoire, and these standards and teaching techniques return to Westminster to energize the music program.” To Scott, music is more than just an art form. “The world needs creative problem solvers, emotionally intelligent leaders, and peace— laudable but tough common goals. I am convinced that there is no

pathway to these goals in the absence of artistic experiences, especially during formative years. In the world of arts education, this translates into serving as a role model for creating and teaching meaningful and impactful music, with the intent of providing positive, transformational change in the world through art.” Scott credits a mentor, saxophone professor Eugene Rousseau, with “advising me to surround myself with the best musicians—so that I would rise to their level—and the best people—so that I would always exude kindness, respect, inclusivity, and good cheer. At Westminster and with AYWS, I believe I have found both!”

At Westminster and through the Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony, Scott Stewart uses music as a way to help young people expand their creative abilities while performing pieces that challenge them as musicians.

Reed Deshler, center, is one of several leadership experts who have led Westminster faculty in intensive workshops designed to encourage more shared leadership on campus.

Collaboration is everywhere among Westminster’s faculty and staff. Professional Learning Communities are one way our faculty share leadership, coming together to improve everyone’s teaching practice, leading to more fulfilling classroom experiences for students.

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Reed Deshler, center, is one of several leadership experts who have led Westminster faculty in intensive workshops designed to encourage more shared leadership on campus.

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LEAD ON.

On the Forefront in College Counseling Counseling

5. 5.

by Justin Justin Abraham Abraham by Digital and and Media Media Strategies Strategies Manager Manager Digital

get get accepted! accepted!

The College: TheRoad Roadtoto College:

1.1.

Meet college Meetwith with college counselor counselorand and attend fairs. attendcollege college fairs.

Workwith withcounselor counselor theACT ACTand andSAT, SAT,collect collect Work to to Take Take the selectdesired desiredcolleges. colleges. recommendations, select recommendations, andand compose college essay. compose college essay. 20 || Spring Spring 2018 2018 20

Strategize and Strategize and Submit applications. Submit applications.

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LEAD ON.

On the Forefront in College Counseling Counseling

5. 5.

by Justin Justin Abraham Abraham by Digital and and Media Media Strategies Strategies Manager Manager Digital

get get accepted! accepted!

The College: TheRoad Roadtoto College:

1.1.

Meet college Meetwith with college counselor counselorand and attend fairs. attendcollege college fairs.

Strategize and Strategize and Submit applications. Submit applications.

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T T

he college admissions he college admissions process as previous process as previous generations knew it no generations it noof longer exists. Gone areknew the days exists. Gone are the days alonger universal “ideal applicant” whoof a universal “ideal applicant” who must check off boxes for standardized must check off boxes for standardized testing scores, recommendations, testing scores, recommendations, and extracurricular activities. Now, and extracurricular Now, colleges carefully andactivities. individually colleges carefully and individually evaluate each applicant so the evaluate each applicant so the to school receives a top candidate school receives a top candidate fit their evolving programs whileto fit their evolving programs while the student receives admission to a the student receives admission to a college that will meet their academic college that will meet their academic and extracurricular needs. To help and extracurricular needs. To help students and their families navigate students and their families navigate this process, Westminster’s team of this process, Westminster’s team of five college counselors uses the latest five college counselors uses the latest admissions analytics, blending the admissions analytics, blending the care seniors have always received with care seniors have always received with a specific, data-driven strategy. a specific, data-driven strategy.

Class meetings, case studies, and Class meetings, case studies, and college fairs all help acclimate college fairs all help underclassmen and acclimate their families to underclassmen and their familiesgrade to the complex process. Eleventh the complex grade students are process. assignedEleventh to a counselor, students are assigned a counselor, who ensures they aretocomfortable who ensures they are comfortable with Naviance, an online program with Naviance,students an online program that provides with college that provides students with college planning tools and insights. Town planning tools and insights. Town halls with counselors help juniors and halls counselors helpthemselves juniors and theirwith families familiarize their families familiarize themselves with the admissions process. By senior with admissions process. By senior year, the counselors meet regularly with year, counselors meet regularly with students to help them craft a list of students to help them craft a list of potential schools. Counselors work potential schools. Counselors work closely with each senior to collect closely with each senior to collect faculty recommendations, provide faculty recommendations, provide feedback on college interviews, and to feedback on college interviews, and to refine admissions essays. “We put all refine admissions essays. “We put all of that together, but credit should be of that together, but credit should be given to all parts of the village,” Steve given to all parts of the village,” Steve

college and collegecounseling counseling and admissions fields admissions fields

Collegecounseling counseling formally formally begins College in a student’s junior year, but but college in a student’s junior year, admissionsare arepart part of of the the academic academic admissions planningthat thatstarts starts between between students students planning and their advisors in ninth grade. and their advisors in ninth grade. “Collegecounselors counselors replace replace students’ students’ “College academicadvisors advisors their their senior senior year, year, academic and we are the capstone advisor and we are the capstone advisor towardthe theend endof of their their Westminster Westminster toward experience,” explains Steve Frappier, experience,” explains Steve Frappier, director of college counseling. director of college counseling. Counselors bring strategy with them Counselors bring strategy with them by pairing that relationship with data by pairing that relationship with data to make sure students are pursuing to make sure students are pursuing options that will give them the options that will give them the college experience they’re looking for. college experience they’re looking for. 22 | Spring 2018 22 | Spring 2018

says, says, referring referringto tothe theWestminster Westminster faculty who write recommendations faculty who write recommendations and and help help proofread proofreadessays. essays. “Our “Our schedule scheduleisistotospeak speaktotoeach each senior at least once per senior at least once perrotation rotationand andbebe as accessible as possible to discuss as accessible as possible to discussthis this complex complex process,” process,”says saysSteve. Steve.“During “During these these close closeconversations conversationswith withboth both the the student studentand andtheir theirfamily, family,we wehelp help students students assemble assembletheir theirlist listofofschools, schools, providing data to families so they can providing data to families so they can make the right decision together.” make the right decision together.” Steve and the college counseling team Steve and the college counseling team are no strangers to data. Steve serves are no strangers to data. Steve serves as a statistician for the Association of as a statistician for the Association of

College Counselors in Independent College Counselors in admissions Independentdata Schools, diving into Schools, diving into admissions data and acceptance rates so counselors and rates so canacceptance guide students to counselors make can guide decisions. students to make smarter smarter decisions. “We share a wealth of information “We a wealth information withshare students. Forofexample, we with students. For example, we can estimate how many Southern can estimate how many Southern students—male and female—a students—male and female—a certain university will admit to certain university willthrough admit toearly its business school itsdecision,” business school through early may Steve says. “Colleges decision,” Steve says.a“Colleges may only be admitting certain quantity only be admitting a certain quantity or type of student, and even more or type of student, and even more important is choice of major. We can important is choice of major. We can show numbers and the headcount show numbers and the headcount of spaces at a particular school. That of spaces at a particular school. That truly helps to inform students and truly helps to inform students and their families.” In an era of increasing their families.” In an era of increasing selectivity, Westminster students selectivity, Westminster students apply to an average of six colleges apply to an average of six colleges each,a anumber numberthat that remained each, hashas remained steady for about a decade. steady for about a decade. Whenit itcomes comes numbers, When toto numbers, Westminster’s college counselors Westminster’s college counselors have their own. The five counselors have their own. The five counselors share8787years yearsofof experience share experience in in thethe collegecounseling counseling and admissions college and admissions fields,a level a levelofof knowledge about fields, knowledge about thethe admissions process that is unmatched. admissions process that is unmatched. “Weallallhave haveatatleast least years working “We 1515 years working collegecounseling counseling and education,” inincollege and education,” Steve team is able to to Stevesays. says.“Our “Our team is able integrate in in college integrateour ourexperiences experiences college admissions with understanding admissionsoffices offices with understanding the students to to prepare thedesires desiresofofour our students prepare them for that process.” them for that process.” That of of each Thatdeep deepunderstanding understanding each student and their needs helped Ashley student and their needs helped Ashley Daniels ’16 land at the University Daniels ’16 land at the University ofofSouthern Ashley—a SouthernCalifornia. California. Ashley—a human biology major with anan human biology major with emphasis performance andand emphasisininhuman human performance minors in dance and classics—says minors in dance and classics—says USC never crossed her mind until USC never crossed her mind until Sarbeth Fleming, associate director Sarbeth Fleming, associate director of college counseling, mentioned of college counseling, mentioned the school to her as an alternative the school to her as an alternative to her desired school, University of to her desired school, University of California, Los Angeles. California, Los Angeles.

College counselors, including Anthea Economy, have multiple meetings with every student to help each one decide where to apply and guide students through essays, interviews, standardized tests, financial aid, and more.

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college and collegecounseling counseling and admissions fields admissions fields

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remember remember us us as as individuals individuals and and things things that that are are unique unique to to us.” us.”

Ashley AshleyDaniels Daniels’16 ’16credits creditsher hercollege college counselor, counselor,Sarbeth SarbethFleming, Fleming,with withhelping helping her herfind findaacollege collegethat thatwas wasthe theperfect perfectfit fit for forher. her.

“I“Iremember remembergetting gettingan anemail emailfrom from her her ininlate lateNovember Novembersaying, saying,‘There’s ‘There’sthis this school schoolcalled calledUSC, USC,IIthink thinkyou youshould should check it out and apply,’” Ashley recalls. check it out and apply,’” Ashley recalls. “I“Ilooked lookedititup uponline, online,rushed rushedto toput put my myapplication applicationtogether, together,and andsent sentitit in. in. IIdidn’t didn’thave haveany anyattachment attachmentto toit, it, but but IIgot gotaccepted acceptedininJanuary Januaryand andwent went to to visit in February. The first time I drove visit in February. The first time I drove on oncampus, campus,my myjaw jawdropped. dropped.From From that thatmoment momenton, on,USC USCmoved movedto to number numberone. one.Everything EverythingIIexperienced experienced was wasamazing, amazing,and andIIkept keptthinking, thinking, ‘Wow, ‘Wow,how howdid didMs. Ms.Fleming Flemingknow know this thisschool schoolwas wasfor forme?’” me?’” Theconnection connectioncounselors counselorsestablish establish The withstudents, students,combined combinedwith withtheir their with vastknowledge knowledgeofofthe theadmissions admissions vast processand andthe theofferings offeringsatatspecific specific process colleges, allows them to cultivate colleges, allows them to cultivate aa listofofschools schoolsbest bestsuited suitedfor foreach each list studentand andfamily, family,based basedon onacademic academic student interests,geography, geography,and andbudget. budget. interests, thinkthat thatall allofofthe thecounselors counselorsas as aa “I“Ithink wholehave haveone oneobjective: objective:to toget getthe the whole studentinto intothe thecollege collegethat’s that’sbest bestfor for student them,” Ashley says. “They use all of them,” Ashley says. “They use all of theireffort effortand andconnections connectionsto toget get the the their studentinto intocollege. college.They Theyeach eachhave have student 40kids, kids,yet yetthey theyall allconnect connectto toeach each of of 40 us. Mr. Frappier recently visited USC, us. Mr. Frappier recently visited USC, andhe heremembered rememberedall allof ofus. us.They They and

To To continue continue providing providing the the most most accurate and beneficial advice, accurate and beneficial advice, counselors counselors spend spend 10-15 10-15 percent percent of their time traveling of their time traveling to to college college campuses campuses and and participate participate on on association association and and college college advisory advisory boards. boards. Members Members of of the the team team serve serve on the college advisory boards on the college advisory boards of of the the University of Georgia, University University of Georgia, University of of Michigan, Michigan, Furman Furman University, University, and Southern Methodist and Southern Methodist University, University, among among others. others. The The advisory advisory boards boards offer offer counselors counselors aa privileged privileged view view into into campus campus life life and and allow allow them them to to provide provide feedback feedback to to the the schools. schools. “As “As we we volunteer volunteer to to provide provide observations, observations, we we might might get get aa new new impression impression of of the school,” Steve says. “It “It might might have have changed recently, and we’ll find what’s we’ll find what’s new and attractive for our our students.” students.”

governance and and nominating nominating governance committee in in addition addition to to his his advisory advisory committee role with the Association of College role with the Association of College Counselors in in Independent Independent Schools. Schools. Counselors “We’re all all leaders leaders in in the the field, field, on on both both “We’re aa regional regional and and national national level,” level,” Steve Steve says. “It’s “It’s such such aa dynamic dynamic industry, industry, says. and we’re we’re able able to to really really appreciate appreciate and the true professional development the true professional development opportunities that that Westminster Westminster opportunities supports. We’re able to obtain, obtain, supports. We’re able to provide, recalibrate, recalibrate, and and tailor tailor our our provide, advice based on what we learn off advice based on what we learn off campus and through our experience.” campus and through our experience.” As the the admissions admissions process process becomes becomes As less formulaic and more focused on less formulaic and more focused on aa student’s student’s unique unique achievements— achievements— “Colleges now now are are celebrating celebrating ‘pointy ‘pointy “Colleges students,’ students students with with very very angular, angular, students,’ specific interests interests and and well-explored well-explored specific passions,” Steve says—the says—the guidance guidance of seasoned counselors counselors helps helps steer steer the the of leaders leaders to to colleges colleges next generation of

totocollege college campuses campuses across country acrossthe the country In addition addition to to the advisory boards, In Westminster’s counselors serve on Westminster’s industry association association boards. Associate industry Director Nancy Nancy Beane recently Director finished her her tenure tenure as the president finished of the the National National Association for of College Admission Admission Counseling, an College organization with a membership organization with of 16,000 16,000 high high school and college of counselors and and college admissions counselors officers from around the the world world officers from around (see page 14 for more about her (see page 14 for more about her experience). Steve Steve currently currently presides presides experience). on the the Southern Southern Association Association for for on College Admission Counseling’s College Admission Counseling’s

where they’ll continue continue to to challenge challenge themselves. Ashley Ashley isis just just one one example example of a recent Wildcat Wildcat thriving thriving on on an unexpected campus campus thanks thanks to to Westminster’s college counseling college counseling team. team. “I wouldn’t have have gotten gotten into into the the college that I truly wanted without truly wanted without their help. I look look back back and and am am amazed at my college college counseling counseling process,” she says. says.

Each college counselor, like Juan Acosta, works with approximately 40 members of the senior class, a low ratio that allows counselors to know their students well and provide them with continual one-on-one guidance.

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remember remember us us as as individuals individuals and and things things that that are are unique unique to to us.” us.”

24 | Spring 2018

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Journeys Personal

LEAD ON.

Stories from Westminster Alumni by Erin Dentmon Creative Services and Publications Manager

The twists and turns of life take many of us to places we’d never expect. Westminster has left an indelible mark for all who count this place as a step along life’s journey. While the paths of the Wildcat Nation are woven together in many ways, each member has a personal story to tell. Here, read conversations with five alumni who have embraced the unexpected along life’s road. Interviews have been edited for clarity and brevity.

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Journeys Personal

LEAD ON.

Stories from Westminster Alumni by Erin Dentmon Creative Services and Publications Manager

26 | Spring 2018

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Journeys Personal

Pat Battey ’71 CEO, Piedmont Atlanta Hospital As the son of a physician, Dr. Pat Battey was surrounded by role models in the medical field from a young age. But no physician has ever held the role he does now—CEO of Piedmont Atlanta Hospital. A vascular surgeon for 32 years, Pat continues to see patients while overseeing Piedmont Healthcare’s flagship hospital.

What has your career path been like? I started practicing in 1985. I’ve always been involved in medical staff leadership roles, including being on the Piedmont Atlanta Board of Trustees and then the Piedmont Healthcare board. As I was asked to take on the chairmanship of the board in 2012, our CEO began having some health problems and passed away. When he was not doing well, I went to the executive committee and said we should appoint an interim CEO. The executive committee thought about it and came back to me. They said, ‘We agree with your suggestion, and we would like for you to take on that role.’

Pat’s Advice I go back to the Yogi Berra saying that when you get to a fork in the road, you should take it. You have to keep your eyes open to opportunities when they present themselves. If you look at the Venn diagram of something you love, something you’re good at, and something you can see a way to make a living doing, when you hit the center of that, you need to go for it. 28 | Spring 2018

In any leadership position, and in the clinical world as well, it’s all about team building. It’s all about trust with the people you work with, being able to deal with the necessary conflict that arises and making sure everyone can work through that, and being able to accept and define accountability and follow through.

The committee said my role at that point would be 90 percent administrative and 10 percent clinical. That’s a big ask for someone who’d never really considered an administrative role, but I thought about it and decided it came to me for a reason, so why not give it a chance? For nine months, I served as chairman of the board and interim CEO of Piedmont Healthcare, then worked closely with the new CEO as he came on. When I rotated off the board, he asked if I’d like to take the CEO position at Piedmont Atlanta.

Now I’m 80 percent administrative with a 20 percent clinical role. I still do rotations in vascular surgery as part of the Piedmont Heart Institute, including taking call on the weekends. Seeing patients is what I love to do. The interaction we have with our patients is something you don’t get in any other field or on the administrative side of medicine.

What’s been surprising or exciting in your switch to the administrative side of health care? I had to stop thinking like a surgeon. Every decision for the hospital is a lot more complicated than it looks on the surface. Having that necessary discussion and deliberation can help you avoid jumping into something you may have to unwind later on. What’s exciting is that we are in the middle of a major campus expansion. We’re building a 16-story, 900,000square-foot expansion, which will be home to the Marcus Heart and Vascular Center. This is a once-in-alifetime opportunity.

Were there feelings of apprehension or fear around taking the step to administration? I had a lot of uncertainty about my qualifications in terms of financial analysis, insurance, strategic partnerships, and some of those things. I expressed those to the board, but they said, ‘Don’t worry about it. We will help you.’ They assured me the team around me would support me so I could make the decisions I needed to make. In this role, you can’t know everything about everything. In the operating room, I’m supposed to know everything about a patient’s situation so I can handle anything that comes up. It’s completely different in administration. You

have to be okay saying you need to research something a little more.

What initially inspired you to become a physician? Six generations of my family have been involved in medicine. My father was the first cardiologist in Augusta. My brother is a cardiologist on staff here. I grew up seeing my dad spend days and nights sitting by the bedsides of his patients. It wasn’t something I did just because there was a legacy in my family; I could see early on how rewarding it is both personally and technically. I don’t think I could have been as happy doing anything else. There are not many professions where you can have the same kind of an intimate relationship with someone at a time of crisis in their lives and hopefully be a positive force in that situation. I was a boarding student at Westminster starting my junior year of high school. Westminster was a rigorous academic environment.

How did you picture your adult life while you were a student at Westminster? I really didn’t picture myself becoming a doctor. I went to college up in New England and took minimal science courses. I know now that I didn’t understand what it would mean to get involved in medical school and residency. I went into it with a little bit of blind trust—if people in my family seemed so satisfied and fulfilled by it, it seemed like a good thing to pursue. When I came up to Westminster, I was sort of a year behind a lot of my class in taking sciences and language. It taught me a lot of humility. Those were two of the best years of my life. Without that discipline and that rigorous academic curriculum, I might not have chosen medical school.

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Journeys Personal

have to be okay saying you need to research something a little more.

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Journeys Personal

Corliss “Peaches” Blount Denman ’73 Executive Director, Office of the Deputy President & COO at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center

After boarding at Westminster for three years as one of Westminster’s first African-American students, Corliss Blount Denman ’73 thought she’d pursue a medical career. After a few twists in the road, she’s come full circle into hospital administration as the Executive Director of the Office of the Deputy President & COO at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center.

What was your journey coming to Westminster like? How did that time influence the rest of your life’s path? It was such an interesting time to be at Westminster. The whole purpose of the Stouffer Scholarship, which I received, was the integration of the prep schools in the South. Leaving home and going to boarding school was like a TV experience to me. I’m the fifth of six children, and nobody else had ever gone away to school. It was a total adventure. I knew it was such an amazing opportunity. People have asked me over the years if I felt pressure or anything, but it was just an adventure. I was 15; I didn’t have a sense of carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders or anything.

Corliss’s Advice I always talk about learning wherever you are and making the most of every situation. If you apply yourself in any situation, it will come back to you. Flexibility and being willing to try new things are so

30 | Spring 2018

important. Be coachable. Be open and try to take advantage of opportunities wherever they make themselves available.

The students were mostly just curious. I didn’t go through any kind of hazing or anything. I made lifelong friends. I sang in the chorale, and we sang at the opening of Walt Disney World. I had such a good, positive experience. Unfortunately, all the Stouffer Scholars can’t say that. In April 2016, we had a Stouffer Scholars reunion (with Stouffer Scholars from around the U.S., held at Westminster), and I got to meet a lot of the students and hear their stories. Some of them had a really hard time.

I think being one of the first black students at Westminster prepared me well for my current assignment. Health care is still pretty much a white male-dominated field, especially in administration. This job was an opportunity for the first person of color to work in our executive offices. I’ve had to be “the only one” in the room a lot of times, so it’s not hard for me.

What did you think your life would look like while you were a student at Westminster, and how does it look different from that? If you’d asked me then what I wanted to be when I grew up, the answer was hands-down a physical therapist. I applied my senior year to UPenn early decision because they were one of three schools that offered undergraduate degrees in physical therapy. Between the application and when I was accepted, I went to visit, and I hated Philadelphia. It was gray. The campus was nothing like Westminster—it was all concrete. Racially, the lines were very clearly drawn there. I went home and asked my mom what I should do, and she told me that if I didn’t like it, I shouldn’t go. I got some applications in at other places, and I was accepted at Harvard. I ended up majoring in psychology and changing my career goals at that point.

What has your career path been like? I had a grant at Duke to do a doctoral program in clinical psychology, but I only stayed there one semester. My mom was in a bad car accident, and I decided it would be logical for me to go help my mom out. I then came to work in the Texas Medical Center, which is where I am now, in a parttime receptionist role. When I went to work full time, I worked as a social worker here in Houston for a couple years, which was grueling work.

I told my dad I wasn’t satisfied, and he agreed to help me out financially while I decided what I wanted to do next, under one condition: that I go to the telephone company and talk to them about a job. His rationale was that they had great benefits. AT&T offered me a job in sales and marketing, and almost doubled my salary. So, life was great. I stayed 11 years. I’d been able to keep several hospitals as clients, and when I came back to work after staying home with my children for a time, it was at Texas Medical Center. I’ve held three official roles at MD Anderson and several interim assignments, one being with radiation oncology. The division head for that area was then named our deputy president and COO last February, so he extended the invitation to work with him in my current role, which is kind of like being his chief of staff.

Throughout your career, did the longing to be in health care stay with you? I was always drawn to helping people. AT&T was satisfying financially and had a lot of perks. Working with the hospitals as my clients, I kind of kept my toe in that world. There was always a desire to move back over, and I think that was my hesitation when I was offered opportunities for promotions within AT&T. It just didn’t feel right. Curiously, I have a 31-year-old son who did his undergrad at Harvard, even though I had never taken my children to visit. My 28-year-old daughter is finishing her internship at Vanderbilt, and she will march in May with her doctorate in clinical psychology. I never tried to influence that. It wasn’t until recently that she even knew about that part of my life. I think God has a bigger plan, and maybe that wasn’t meant for me to do, but it was meant for her to do.

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Journeys Personal

Corliss “Peaches” Blount Denman ’73 Executive Director, Office of the Deputy President & COO at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center

30 | Spring 2018

important. Be coachable. Be open and try to take advantage of opportunities wherever they make themselves available.

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Journeys Personal

Dr. Jimi Crawford ’81 Founder and CEO Orbital Insight

Dr. Jimi Crawford ’81 is a pioneer in the artificial intelligence field. Jimi’s company, Orbital Insight, uses AI to scan and analyze millions of satellite images to enable better decision making across industries, like predicting crop yield, monitoring supply chains, and even seeing the spread of poverty.

Tell me about your career journey. As an undergraduate at Rice University, I started out as a physics major, and then I became more and more interested in artificial intelligence. This was in the ‘80s, but even then, there were researchers doing AI. I then went to the University of Texas in Austin to do a PhD in artificial intelligence. After that, I spent the next 10 years in academic research, but I got steadily pulled into more applied work. I moved to California around 2000 to take over as head of robotics and autonomy at NASA’s Ames Research Center, which is a research group but does a lot of work with the NASA missions. From there, I started working for various startups and spent three years working as the head of Google Books. That was a big AI pipeline that took scans of every page of 20 million books and put them into Google search.

Jimi’s Advice The most valuable quantity you have in life is time. Nobody you work for can ever actually pay you for the true value of your time, so you should be doing things you love. That’s the only way you’re ever going to get proper payment. The proper payment for your time is the experience you get from doing something you really love doing. 32 | Spring 2018

Don’t be afraid of not being able to find a job. The good people can always find a job. The main thing is to find something that’s worthy of your time.

About four years ago, I knew there were about a dozen companies launching constellations of private satellites, but nobody was really thinking of what to do with the imagery after it came back to earth. From what I’d done with Google Books, I knew that after you’d taken the picture, there was a lot of work still to do, especially when you’re taking millions and millions of pictures. I went to some venture capitalists out here and pitched a company that uses AI to process satellite imagery. That’s what we’ve been doing for the last four years. We’re now up to 120 people, we have government agencies as customers, hedge funds, investment banks, insurance companies. Our most recent funding round, we raised $50 million.

We pull imagery from satellite companies all over the world together and see what it adds up to. The mission of the company is to understand what we’re doing on and to the earth by using all this imagery and other data sources. Some are problems for investors, and some are more humanitarian. We do some poverty mapping for the World Bank, using imagery to understand where there’s poverty and how it’s changing.

How did you realize there was a problem you could create a company to solve? I knew there were companies that did image analysis, but I had this idea that maybe they weren’t really leveraging AI. The kind of stuff we did with Google Books and image processing in NASA is not a widely developed skill. I found again and again that companies analyzing satellite imagery were all ultimately relying on humans looking at a relatively small number of images.

What have been some of the challenges along the way? The hardest part on a personal level was not having a job for a little while. From the day I finished my PhD until the day I started working on this company, I was getting a reliable paycheck every month. With a wife and two kids, having to say, ‘I don’t know when I’m going to have income again’ was a big challenge. And I think that first step off the edge of the cliff keeps a lot of people from doing startups. In our case, knock on wood, it lasted a very short period of time.

What do the next steps in your journey look like? We’re working toward the point where we can see the major parts of the world’s economies as a real-time picture and give a lot more clarity to managers and investors. Think about the major supply chains in the world—the auto supply chain starts with people mining iron ore, and then smelting it into steel, making the steel into parts, making the parts into cars, then selling the cars— really every step can be monitored with the right kinds of imagery and other geospatial data.

On the humanitarian side, things like deforestation are very visible from space. You can see indicators of poverty from satellite imagery, whereas in many parts of the world with extreme poverty, the government data is generally poor. Empowering the people who are working to fix some of the world’s big problems is something we’re really excited about.

What did you think your adult life would look like while you were a student at Westminster? I really thought I would be in the academic world, since I was very interested in fundamental questions. I saw myself more as a university professor type, but I’ve been more on the commercial side for a lot of my career. These days, a lot of excitement and creativity is coming out of the startup community. The oversimplified way I looked at it when I was in high school was that all the new ideas were thought up by deep thinkers and people at universities, and the business world took those ideas and implemented them for profit. It’s obviously quite different now. People say being in Silicon Valley now is like being in Venice in the middle of the Renaissance.

How did Westminster influence your path? I was very active in debate. It turned out to be incredibly good preparation. I do a ton of public speaking, and I often go through a pretty long Q-and-A with smart people trying to trip me up. That goes back more to the things I learned in debate than anything else. I was able to take a really large number of AP classes, so I was taking almost completely sophomore and junior classes as a college freshman. I was able to get a lot of breadth and cover not only the physics classes, but also the computer science classes. I ended up doing a double major in computer science and math, which was all possible because of the breadth of AP classes I had.

WESTMINSTER | 33

Journeys Personal

Dr. Jimi Crawford ’81 Founder and CEO Orbital Insight

Don’t be afraid of not being able to find a job. The good people can always find a job. The main thing is to find something that’s worthy of your time.

WESTMINSTER | 33

Journeys Personal

Lauren Smith Brody ’95

Author, consultant, and founder, The Fifth Trimester After rising in the magazine world to a role as Glamour’s executive editor, Lauren Smith Brody ’95 felt a pull to help other women—specifically, working moms. In April 2017, she released The Fifth Trimester (Doubleday), a book to help new mothers navigate the return to work. When writing the book, she interviewed more than 800 mothers from all walks of life and a variety of jobs. Now, Lauren, a mother of two, uses that research to help new mothers and their employers. She’s done talks at Google, Facebook, Turner, and many law firms to help transform workplace culture and improve retention of women. Find out more at thefifthtrimester.com.

What was it like to switch from the magazine world to striking out on your own as an author? In some ways, it has been the most natural progression. I didn’t realize that until I was already in it. Everything that has come since the book, which is a lot of public speaking and consulting in creating this movement, comes back to having been part of a team in publishing.

Lauren’s Advice When you think you’ve maxed out on what you want to learn in a career or an industry, figure out what you do have left to learn that might apply in other adjacent fields, and start feeding that, then go from there. I had someone tell me in my last year at Glamour that I needed to go have 100 lunches. I thought, ‘Are you kidding me?’ It took leaving before I could 34 | Spring 2018

do that, but ironically, that networking became my job. In the year between writing the book and its coming out, I spent a lot of time making connections, for what’s now my business. I had probably 200 coffees, lunches, meetings, and phone calls. I had to rethink my definition of work to include those meetings and conversations.

At Glamour, I ran a staff of 75-80, mostly women, mostly from their 20s through their 40s. As I came back to work after each of my sons, I felt differently about my job. As we were doing fewer and fewer pages about things that really mattered to me, like women’s health, I realized what I was going to learn from my job in that moment was how to be

a manager and how to help other people with transitions in their lives. My own return to work after maternity leave had been rocky but ultimately worthwhile to me and to my workplace. I realized it had been a whole other developmental phase, which I came to call the fifth trimester.

What was surprising about making the transition? I interviewed and surveyed more than 800 new moms who had just come back to work—single moms, adoptive moms, moms in more traditional families—about their approach to work. After so many years of being at a desk in my office, it was really striking to me how many people worked in a wider variety of ways than I knew possible. Despite that, they had a lot in common and a lot they had learned from having returned to work before they were physically and emotionally ready to be there. Absent any paid federal leave, both hourly workers and executives had hard-earned advice that applied all around.

What have you learned about yourself since leaving the magazine world? I had a lot of preconceived notions about what it meant to be a working mom that were kind of blown apart by my research. I’ve learned to check my judgement of moms who stay home. There’s a tendency to think your choices are the right choices, but I’ve learned that all mothers have something in their lives they consider work, whether it’s for a paycheck or not. It all counts.

I’ve also learned that there’s transition at every stage of life and parenthood. You learn things from the transition of going back to work that you will be able to apply at dozens of other times of transition in your life.

What did you think your adult life would look like while you were a student at Westminster? How did your time at Westminster impact you? I wanted to be a magazine editor. My father was a newspaper publisher, so I’d always had a lot of respect for journalism. I was really grateful for how important writing was at Westminster. I felt like we were always writing, even in math classes. It taught me how to organize my thinking, express myself, and take a stand. All of that, I started learning at Westminster. When I was a freshman, Westminster changed its hiring policy to be inclusive of non-Christians. I’m Jewish, and looking back on it, that was an earth-shifting moment for me. I found myself as an awkward, shy 14-year-old standing up in math class, talking about why that change was important to me. I’m grateful for the challenge of that moment. It really helped me. Even now, I’m talking about being open and honest about motherhood in the workplace, and I had to be open and honest about my identity when it was not the most comfortable thing for me. My teachers, the administration, and eventually my classmates were truly supportive.

WESTMINSTER | 35

Journeys Personal

Lauren Smith Brody ’95

WESTMINSTER | 35

Journeys Personal

Sasheenie Moodley ’13 Doctoral candidate, University of Oxford

Sasheenie Moodley’s childhood in South Africa has influenced her at every turn, from her time at Westminster to her current doctoral research in public health and HIV/ AIDS prevention. Working to combat HIV/AIDS has been a goal of hers since adolescence, but she didn’t picture herself pursuing a PhD.

What has your personal journey been like? I was born in South Africa in 1994, which was an interesting time as the country was coming out of apartheid and Nelson Mandela was coming into the presidency. My mom actually has a picture of me at the polling place in that election. When I was a junior in high school, my family contemplated a temporary move to Atlanta for my dad’s job. In the span of a month, we picked up everything and moved from Johannesburg to Atlanta. It was a whirlwind of culture shock. Being able to attend Westminster and be part of such a cohesive, welcoming community was an incredible, incredible thing.

Sasheenie’s Advice Have courage, have kindness, and have community. My mum and I often talk about the proverb, “He who hesitates is lost.” That’s been a guiding statement to my life. Putting yourself out there and signing up for clubs, applying for grants, submitting PhD applications to any and all programs and any and all positions, that has been my motto. Along the way, build a sense of community. 36 | Spring 2018

Remember who you are and the people who love you. I got together with some of my Westminster classmates recently, and we talked about how different our lives are now, but it’s so important to remain close to those core values that Westminster teaches.

I had never heard of the University of Virginia before I started working with Ms. Economy (college

counselor Anthea Economy), but I was really eager to apply and to apply for the Jefferson Scholarship. I went to interview for the scholarship, and I came back absolutely knowing I would never get it. I was the most surprised when I did. I majored in global development study and also finished a master’s degree in public health there. My thesis looked at access to care, gender norms, and relationships between people who have HIV/ AIDS. Now, I’m looking at the relationship between mothers with HIV/AIDS, their unborn babies, and the fathers of those babies, all based in South Africa.

How did you develop an interest in HIV/AIDS research? It called me as a field because of the injustice of it. I spent a lot of time in South Africa volunteering in HIV/AIDS orphanages. People who would come to the orphanages would treat my friends differently because they had HIV or they had AIDS. That didn’t make sense to me, that someone with a different type of blood would be treated with less respect than me. I don’t feel like I have a choice, almost. It chose me. Whatever I can do to bridge the gap in understanding, that’s my goal.

What did you think your adult life would look like while you were a student at Westminster? When I was a Westminster student, I saw myself working at this point. What I envisioned was working for an NGO in the United States or South Africa, working in activism. I did not envision doing a PhD in a million years. So, the next step is completely up in the air. I’ve surprised myself up until now, so I might surprise myself again.

What do you think your path looks like from here? My goal is to continue learning. It’s the idea of the “lifelong student,” which is also one of the core values of Westminster, which have stayed with me and dictate my life in a very good way. All my work now still centers on community and citizenship and striving for excellence. Those things were definitely nurtured and enhanced and encouraged at Westminster.

WESTMINSTER | 37

Journeys Personal

Sasheenie Moodley ’13 Doctoral candidate, University of Oxford

I had never heard of the University of Virginia before I started working with Ms. Economy (college

WESTMINSTER | 37

Catching Up

with Retired Faculty and Staff: “They Made Westminster Work” by Jane Lauderdale Armstrong ’74 To drive through the gates of Westminster is to be awestruck by the splendor of the grounds and the grace of the buildings and facilities. Our campus is a place of breathtaking beauty. It is also a place that hums with activity beginning well before daybreak and extending long into the night. The care of the grounds and athletic fields, the preparation of food, and the security of campus require a dedicated team. Each generation of Westminster students can recall the people who prepared lunches, kept the buildings running smoothly, readied the athletic courts and fields, patrolled the campus to ensure everyone’s safety, and would unlock a building on Sunday afternoon to help a forlorn student retrieve a forgotten textbook. No words can fully express the gratitude of Westminster’s alumni for their selfless efforts. Robert Nash, retired Director of Auxiliary Services, succinctly describes the contributions of countless staff members: “They made Westminster work.” Realizing that the limitations of this format preclude paying individual tributes to each of the dedicated staff who have worked at Westminster through the years, it is this writer’s hope that sharing the stories of two individuals will serve as a heartfelt thank you to all.

Gardening is one of many hobbies keeping Betty Norman busy in retirement.

Betty Norman started working at Westminster in 1959. Over the course of her 36 years at the School, she worked in all facets of food services, including for dorm students and special events.

In her interactions with students, she partnered her nurturing concern with quick wit. Her presence was cherished by faculty and students alike. With only a glance, she could inspire even the most mischievous student into repentance because her approval was so highly prized. One of her favorite aspects of her work was getting to know the dorm students. “I got to know people from all over the world,” she says. Betty’s appreciation for all things beautiful found expression across campus. Encouraged by Food Services Director Sara Lewis, Betty studied floral arrangement at Atlanta Technical College and became the point person for beautiful event decorations. She recalls graduation as the biggest undertaking of the year, requiring coordination across all areas of school staff.

38 | Spring 2018

She also remembers how much Dr. William Pressly and his wife Alice enjoyed hosting events for students at their home. Mrs. Pressly would often join in serving the students because she liked interacting with them. “Everyone respected them, and that goes a long way,” Betty says. Since her retirement in 1995, Betty has been busy—very busy. Upon learning that she wanted to try her hand at golf, the School gave her a set of clubs for her retirement. In addition to golfing, she has become an accomplished potter and painter. She has also learned to play bridge and plays regularly with her friends. For 20 years, she sang in the Atlanta Symphony Gospel Choir and performed at a number of major events, including a Final Four college basketball game and an Atlanta Falcons game. She has actively served at her church for more than 50 years, singing in the choir, arranging the flowers, and, after becoming CPR certified, leading the Nurses Guild. Her garden is her sanctuary, where she grows lilies, peonies, irises, and her spectacular roses. In addition to flowers, the garden has a prolific fig tree, the source for her tasty fig preserves. Betty stocks birdfeeders around the yard, making it a favorite gathering spot for woodpeckers, bluebirds, doves, and cardinals (her favorite). Betty was married for 43 years to Milton Norman Jr., a Korean War veteran who worked for Mead Products Paper Company for 31 years. Unfortunately, he became ill several years after retiring; Betty was his faithful caregiver until his death in 2002. Milton and Betty have one daughter, Patricia, who says of her mom: “She knows how to lead and to serve. She is my inspiration.” Betty Norman is an inspiration, indeed!

thedecorated shortbreads, the fruit bars, or perhaps the Mississippi Mud Cake.

Mary Harris still makes delicious treats as a volunteer at her church, where she stays active in several ways.

Mary Harris was born just outside of Madison,

Georgia, in a small community called Bostwick, and moved to Atlanta when she was three years old. As a young woman, Mary moved to Ohio and later to New Jersey, but she returned to Atlanta to be near her family. a number of years, Mary worked for Mathews Market, For a local grocery renowned for their prepared foods and specialty items. The market closed due to a fire in 1985, and a number of Westminster parents who knew about Mary’s culinary skills encouraged her to apply at the School. With an eye for spotting talent, Sara Lewis hired her instantly. For the next 27 years, Mary was a part of the Westminster community. Robert Nash worked closely with Mary, imparting to her his baking expertise. Mary was a quick study, and soon she added her own special touches and techniques. Mary would start baking in late November to have everything ready for the whirlwind of parties and receptions that came with the holidays at Westminster. Every alumnus can recall the huge spread of confectionary treats that filled the tables at special events, and each has his or her own favorite indulgence—

Her responsibilities afforded her the opportunity to work closely with Norma Gaebelein and Lucile Clarkson for special events at the president’s home. Mary’s mouthwatering cheese straws were an essential ingredient in the hospitality visitors received. “Mary Harris was one of the most committed, dependable, and positive people at the School,” says former President Bill Clarkson. “Never did she fail to offer a smile and a positive word to whomever she encountered—a joy to be around!” During her tenure at Westminster, Mary served in a number of capacities including as Supervisor of Housekeeping, but after several years she decided to return to her first love— baking! Mary retired from Westminster in 2012 and still keeps up with several faculty and staff members. Mary is involved in a weekly Bible study and praise singing on the first Saturday of each month at New Springfield Baptist Church. Certainly, it is no surprise that she also volunteers in the kitchen there. Mary also spends much of her time as a caregiver within her family, especially for her son, James. Whether with Westminster, her church, or her family, Mary has always been able to build a special sense of community, partnering food for the body and kindness for the soul. How many tons of flour, sugar, and butter Mary has used over the course of her career is beyond calculation, but the special component that only she can slip into her baking is the goodness she intends for the recipients. That is Mary’s secret ingredient!

MARY HARRIS’S MISSISSIPPI MUD CAKE For cake:

1 teaspoon vanilla

For topping:

1 cup butter or margarine, plus some for greasing the pan

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 box powdered sugar

½ cup cocoa powder

dash salt 1 ½ cups chopped nuts

¾ cup cocoa powder

2 cups sugar 4 eggs, slightly beaten

Package of miniature marshmallows

½ cup whole milk ¼ cup softened butter or margarine

Melt butter and stir in cocoa powder. Remove from heat and stir in sugar and eggs. Mix well. Add vanilla and stir. Add flour, salt, and nuts to the batter. Stir. Spoon batter into a greased 9 x 13 baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Check to see if it is done; a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean. Cover top with marshmallows. Return to oven to allow marshmallows to slightly melt (just a few minutes). For topping, combine powdered sugar, milk, cocoa powder, and butter or margarine. Mix well with a whisk or electric mixer until smooth. Use this chocolate frosting to cover the marshmallows and cake. Let sit to harden a bit. Ready to serve.

WESTMINSTER | 39

Catching Up

Gardening is one of many hobbies keeping Betty Norman busy in retirement.

Betty Norman started working at Westminster in 1959. Over the course of her 36 years at the School, she worked in all facets of food services, including for dorm students and special events.

38 | Spring 2018

thedecorated shortbreads, the fruit bars, or perhaps the Mississippi Mud Cake.

Mary Harris still makes delicious treats as a volunteer at her church, where she stays active in several ways.

Mary Harris was born just outside of Madison,

MARY HARRIS’S MISSISSIPPI MUD CAKE For cake:

1 teaspoon vanilla

For topping:

1 cup butter or margarine, plus some for greasing the pan

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 box powdered sugar

½ cup cocoa powder

dash salt 1 ½ cups chopped nuts

¾ cup cocoa powder

2 cups sugar 4 eggs, slightly beaten

Package of miniature marshmallows

½ cup whole milk ¼ cup softened butter or margarine

WESTMINSTER | 39

New Trustees

NEW TRUSTEES

by Christy Oglesby Web Development and Strategy Manager

Rosalind G. Brewer

William Clarkson IV

Floyd C. Newton III ’73

Dr. Jay Yadav

Rosalind Brewer began demonstrating her commitment to Westminster and its mission soon after her son, John ’13, entered Love Hall. Fifteen years ago, she volunteered as a class caller for The Westminster Fund and worked in that capacity twice more in later years. In 2006 and 2009, she served on the Board of Trustees as a member of the finance and buildings and grounds committees, respectively.

Bill Clarkson is a familiar face to many Wildcats—he served as Westminster’s president for 23 years before retiring in 2014, and he hopes that experience will benefit the School.

Floyd Newton ’73 recalls moving into the dorm at Westminster as the beginning of a transformation. “I grew up in a small town with a public school system that did not challenge students,” he says of his boyhood home in Griffin, Georgia. “My parents sent me to Westminster to be challenged, and that experience motivated me and gave me opportunities and skills which I otherwise would not have had.”

Adaptability. Ask Dr. Jay Yadav what compelled him to accept an appointment as a Westminster trustee, and that’s the answer: the School’s adaptability. It’s a trait he champions as a life-saving cardiologist and medical device inventor, and it’s one he appreciates as the father of two Wildcats.

Roz, as she prefers to be called, is married to John. Their daughter, Camryn, is a freshman at Westminster. Their son, John Brewer III, is a 2013 graduate. She began her third term as a trustee just as she started on a new path professionally. After five years as the president and CEO of Walmart’s Sam’s Club chain, Roz became the first female chief operating officer at Starbucks Corporation. She is known for building strong teams and mentoring networks, as well as being passionate about improving communities. In addition to serving on Westminster’s board, Roz is a trustee for her alma mater, Spelman College, where she earned a bachelor of science in chemistry. Roz served as board chair during Spelman's historical campaign, which raised $157.8 million for scholarships, academic initiatives, and campus renewal. Roz was listed among Fortune magazine’s “50 Most Powerful Women in 2011.” In 2013 and 2014, Forbes magazine named her as one of the “World’s 100 Most Powerful Women.” Her other professional and nonprofit affiliations have included board memberships with Walmart’s President’s Global Council of Women Leaders, Lockheed Martin Corporation, the Woodruff Memorial Arts Center, the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, and the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation.

40 | Spring 2018

“I hope one of the advantages of my having served the School is the institutional history I have and knowing those who care about and are committed to the School,” Bill says. Ideally, those connections will allow him to nurture relationships with people who care about Westminster’s future, he adds. Early in his career, Bill, an Episcopal priest, knew exactly what he wanted to do with the masters of divinity he earned from General Theological Seminary in New York City and the doctorate of ministry and pastoral care he received from Southern Methodist University. He wanted to work in schools, not sanctuaries. He worked as a chaplain at the University of Texas and at St. Mark’s School of Texas before becoming an assistant headmaster and headmaster at Potomac School in McLean, Virginia. But his longest service to students was at Westminster as its fourth president. Bill, a Texas native, brings an abundance of knowledge about Westminster and its community to the Board of Trustees. While he hopes understanding the School’s past will be beneficial, that wasn’t what excited him most about the invitation to join the Board. “My primary reason for being grateful to have been asked is to have a deeper opportunity to support Keith,” Bill says with admiration for current President Keith Evans. “I love this school, and over the course of my term, I want to further the School’s future.” Since retiring from Westminster, Bill has been engaged in executive coaching for heads of schools and boards around the country. He leads the executive coaching practice at Carney Sandoe & Associates in Boston. In his spare time, he enjoys playing golf and traveling with his wife, Lucile, to visit his four grandchildren who live throughout the United States.

Building on his Westminster foundation, Floyd received his undergraduate degree in economics from Princeton University before earning his law degree from the University of Georgia. He works as a partner in the finance department of King & Spalding, where he has represented Piedmont Healthcare and Emory University in bond deals approaching a total of $800 million. Floyd has shared his finance expertise with the School as a class volunteer for The Westminster Fund and during his first term on the Board of Trustees as a member of the finance committee. “I was excited to have the opportunity to rejoin the Board this year and once again to chair the finance committee. We have a multi-year project under way to restructure the finance committee and its operations to match up with Westminster’s plans and ambitions,” Floyd says. Serving Westminster has been a family endeavor for the Newtons. His wife, Katrina, is a former PAWS president, and together they supported the tennis, softball, and basketball teams of their three daughters, Stephanie ’07, Amanda ’10, and Natalie ’12. “My involvement with Westminster really deepened when my three daughters were there,” Floyd says. “Our family's experiences reinforced my already strong feelings about Westminster and led to a much greater commitment on my part.”

“I have had two of my children go to Westminster and was pleased with their educational experience,” says Jay, founder and CEO of MiRus, a medical device company. “I was impressed by the willingness to change and adopt best practices to foster excellence.” Jay’s life is a testament to how changing a predicted course can yield profound results. The doctor treating Jay for typhoid fever while he was a small boy growing up in India warned of possible brain damage from the disease; Jay enrolled in Yale University at 15. Territorial tensions between medical fields hindered his attempts to modify a heart treatment for use in the brain; Jay persisted and invented angioplasty for the brain, pioneering the minimally invasive use of expanding balloons to widen arteries in the cerebrum. Jay serves as the chairman of the Atlanta branch of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneur), an organization that cultivates and supports entrepreneurs. He generously shares his expertise in innovation with the School and invited students in the Living Leadership class to MiRus. “I have been pleased to work with Keith Evans during JanTerm,” Jay says. “We had the class at our office for several hours discussing the process of innovation and also had them meet with some of our engineers and receive a demo of some very cutting-edge technology for spine surgery.” Jay is the father of one daughter, Priya, and three sons, Nevin, Chethan ’16, and Daven ’20. He’s married to Marshalla, who he met while completing his residency at Duke University Medical Center. As a family, they enjoy skiing and traveling, while Jay spends the bulk of his personal spare time attending his sons’ tennis tournaments.

WESTMINSTER | 41

New Trustees

NEW TRUSTEES

by Christy Oglesby Web Development and Strategy Manager

Rosalind G. Brewer

William Clarkson IV

Floyd C. Newton III ’73

Dr. Jay Yadav

Bill Clarkson is a familiar face to many Wildcats—he served as Westminster’s president for 23 years before retiring in 2014, and he hopes that experience will benefit the School.

40 | Spring 2018

WESTMINSTER | 41

Wildcat Den

Fall/Winter 2017-18 by Katie Trainor, Assistant Director of Athletics National Signing Day Nineteen Wildcats signed letters of commitment with college teams at our National Signing Day ceremony on February 7. Oliver Babb Crew, Columbia University Bronte Bacchetta Track & Field, U.S. Naval Academy Gabi Dolan Volleyball, Georgia Tech Joe Egan Football, Lafayette College Will Floyd Swimming, Colorado College Alex Gracey Football, Stanford University Delaney Graham Soccer, Duke University Paris Howland Track & Field, Cornell University Truman Jones Football, Harvard University Raegan Kelley Soccer, Vanderbilt University Julian Mason Lacrosse, Hampton University Ryan Miller Baseball, Georgia Tech Santiago Morales Diving, University of Florida Vishan Patel Squash, Columbia University Peter Rooney Football, University of Connecticut Ella Shamburger Soccer, Vanderbilt University Malcolm Strickland Football, University of Pennsylvania Sam Woodhouse Track & Field, University of Pennsylvania Peter York Football and Baseball, Rhodes College

Volleyball The VolleyCats competed for the state championship for the fifth year in a row, battling the Pace Knights to five sets before falling short of the title. The Cats were no strangers to challenging matches, earning a spot in the championship after defeating Lovett in a thrilling five-set semifinal. Gabi Dolan ’18 headlined the postseason honors with Area MVP accolades. Four additional players—Maggie McSwain ’18, Mary Emily Morgan ’21, Lexi Saulny ’18, and Claire Zhou ’20— were recognized as all-area players.

Softball The BatCats completed the season with an outstanding 19-7 record. The team earned a berth in the state tournament for the sixth straight year, falling short in a first-round game against Bremen. Season highlights included big wins over rivals Lovett, Blessed Trinity, and Decatur. The team will graduate four

42 | Spring 2018

seniors, but the BatCats have a bright future as 19 players return, nine of whom were freshmen on this year’s squad.

Boys Cross Country The boys cross country team was crowned the state champion for the first time since 2013 and for the 26th time overall. Led by the second-place finisher, Will Wallace ’19, as well as Peter Huff ’19 and Zach Roe ’20 (who finished sixth and seventh, respectively), the team had an average course time of 17:21 at the state meet. For his efforts this season, Will earned Atlanta Track Club’s third team all-metro honors. Coach Joe Tribble was named the All-Metro AAA Coach of the Year.

Girls Cross Country There’s no stopping the Sisterhood! The girls cross country team won its fifth consecutive state championship this fall. The team cruised to the program’s 30th title with five runners finishing in the top 10. Naima Turbes ’19, Delaney Graham ’18, Bronte Bacchetta ’18, Olivia Tordella ’20, and Katherine Vuckovic ’20 paced the Cats with an average course time of 20:31. Naima earned Atlanta Track Club’s first team all-metro honors, and coach Amy Eubanks was inducted into the Georgia Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Football Our football team had another stellar season and earned a bid to the state tournament for the 12th straight year. After opening the season against some of Georgia’s toughest teams, the Cats found their stride during a memorable overtime win at Pace and used that momentum to spark a 5-1 record to end the regular season. The Cats made the most of their postseason bid and upset North Murray in the first round, followed by a narrow high-score win against East Hall in the second round before falling in the quarterfinals against Peach County. Seven players— Joe Egan ’18, Alex Gracey ’18, Charlie Ham ’19, Nance Hill ’19, Truman Jones ’18, Peter Rooney ’18, and Malcolm Strickland ’18—received all-region honors.

WESTMINSTER | 43

Wildcat Den

42 | Spring 2018

seniors, but the BatCats have a bright future as 19 players return, nine of whom were freshmen on this year’s squad.

WESTMINSTER | 43

Football Cheerleading

Girls Squash

The CheerCats kept the energy and spirit high on the sidelines all season long! The squad worked hard all fall to create entertaining sideline and halftime performances for the Wildcat faithful. A highlight for the team was the combined halftime performance with the Lovett cheerleaders during the “Battle of Buckhead.” The squad cherished their extended season as they supported the GridironCats all the way through the state quarterfinals.

The SquashCats traveled to the City of Brotherly Love for the 2018 US High School Team Squash Championship. Following several dominating performances, the Cats were narrowly defeated in the finals, becoming the Division IV runners-up. Claire Bergman ’18 and Lara Jones ’21 both went undefeated in all matches at the tournament.

Girls Swimming and Diving The Wildcats are 2018 GHSA A-AAA state champions! Westminster’s talent and depth led them to a commanding win at the state championship, earning the girls team their 22nd state title. The Cats had three gold medal-winning swims: Eliza Normark ’19 in the 50-meter freestyle; Sam Bertschi ’21 in the 500-meter freestyle; and Amy Zhao ’21, Kelsey Yao ’18, Sam, and Eliza in the 400-meter freestyle relay. The Wildcat divers were led by Tori Penn ’20 and Emme Payne ’21, who finished sixth and 10th in the state, respectively.

Boys Swimming and Diving The boys team also clinched the 2018 GHSA A-AAA state championship! Westminster dominated the state meet and had three gold medal-winning swims: Jack Stone ’18 in the 100-meter butterfly; Jack, Grayson Harralson ’19, Bryan Weselman ’18, and Dylan Vroon ’19 in the 400-meter freestyle relay; and Cole Hinkes ’20, Connor Hinkes ’20, Chris Staley ’18, and Jack in the 200-meter freestyle relay. The 200-meter freestyle relay team earned All-America honors with their swim. A quartet of Wildcat divers finished in the state top 10: Santiago Morales ’18, Charlie Greene ’18, Grady Thomas ’19, and Max Graves ’20 finished second, third, sixth, and ninth, respectively.

Boys Squash The SquashCats won the Division II national championship at the 2018 US High School Team Squash Championship in Philadelphia. The team defeated Saint Ann’s School of New York in the final to take home the title. Highlights of the championship weekend included Thomas Rankin ’19 and Zach Hay ’18 both going undefeated in their matches and Vishan Patel ’18 and Zach both winning semifinal matches 3-2 to clinch a berth in the championship match.

44 | Spring 2018

Wrestling The Wildcats were represented in the GHSA 3-AAA state tournament by Jack Polhemus ’18, who finished fifth overall in the 145-pound weight class. Jack ended his Wildcat wrestling career with 142 wins, the sixth-highest in Westminster wrestling records. Charlie Dourron ’19 joined Jack in representing Westminster at the GHSA sectional meet in the 182-pound weight class. With a strong group of underclassmen, next season looks promising for the Cats.

Girls Basketball The Wildcats fought hard throughout the season and saw marked improvement over the course of the campaign. The Cats finished sixth in Region 5-AAA and posted big region wins against McNair and Towers and a season sweep of Redan. A highlight for the Cats was a win over rival Woodward Academy, when the team scored a season-high 61 points. Hallie Schiff ’21 earned GHSA 5-AAA all-region honors.

Boys Basketball The Wildcats finished the season ranked fourth in Region 5-AAA. The Cats’ postseason hopes came to a close after Redan hit a full court buzzer-beater in the first round of the region tournament. A major highlight for the Wildcats was a season sweep of rival Lovett. Paris Howland ’18 and Carter Oesterling ’19 earned all-region honors.

Basketball Cheerleading The 2017-18 varsity basketball cheerleading squad featured 12 seniors and included several first-time cheerleaders. Led by senior captains Avery Shiver, Lily Chubb, and Alex Pirouz, the team trained hard throughout the season and was dedicated to creating entertaining halftime shows while cheering on the boys and girls basketball teams. A highlight of the season was the pep rally prior to the Lovett game, which showcased stunts the squad had perfected and included dances choreographed by the seniors.

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Football Cheerleading

Girls Squash

44 | Spring 2018

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Wildcat Tracks

WILDCAT TRACKS

One Night Only! Middle School Faculty Help Expecting Mothers

Upper School visual arts students traveled to Toronto in October to attend Nuit Blanche, a one-night citywide celebration of contemporary art that takes place from sunset to sunrise.

Middle School physical education instructor Amanda Barksdale—a Houston native— collected donations from fellow faculty members for a a pregnancy crisis center in the Houston area after Hurricane Harvey.

DONATED TO HURRICANE HARVEY SURVIVORS:

2,000+

Cats Build 26th Habitat for Humanity Home

diapers

The Westminster community helped dedicate the School’s 26th Habitat for Humanity home alongside several area schools this fall.

4,000 wipes

A BRIGHT START TO THE SCHOOL YEAR On August 21, students and faculty experienced the historical solar eclipse all across the Southeast. Middle School students traveled to Dahlonega, Tallulah Falls, and Greenville, South Carolina, to witness the moment of totality, while Lower and Upper School students donned their eclipse glasses to watch the event on campus.

containers of baby formula

bottles of baby soap and lotion

Wildcats Band Together for Hurricane Relief Throughout the fall, the Westminster community banded together to provide relief for those in need following the devastating 2017 hurricane season. In the Lower School, faculty sent a large supply of masks to Houston to aid in cleanup and relief efforts. First grade students, with the help of our FLIK Dining staff, baked chocolate chip cookies to raise money for the families of faculty and staff impacted by the hurricanes. Middle School students raised money to donate to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. Upper School students held a bake sale and a raffle to benefit the Salvation Army and Greater Houston Community Foundation.

WESTMINSTER | 47

Wildcat Tracks

WILDCAT TRACKS

One Night Only! Middle School Faculty Help Expecting Mothers

Upper School visual arts students traveled to Toronto in October to attend Nuit Blanche, a one-night citywide celebration of contemporary art that takes place from sunset to sunrise.

DONATED TO HURRICANE HARVEY SURVIVORS:

2,000+

Cats Build 26th Habitat for Humanity Home

diapers

The Westminster community helped dedicate the School’s 26th Habitat for Humanity home alongside several area schools this fall.

4,000 wipes

containers of baby formula

bottles of baby soap and lotion

WESTMINSTER | 47

WILDCAT TRACKS

Young Scientists in the Making Eighth graders wowed students and parents at the annual science fair. Students presented on a number of ideas including a bacteria-eliminating straw, a robotic tennis ball sorter, and new ways to use renewable energy.

Case Closed: Mock Trial Team Places Fourth at Competition The Upper School’s Mock Trial team placed fourth at the Empire Mock Trial, a selective competition between 25 of the top teams in the nation. Bridgette Boggs ’18 was ranked as the top witness in the entire competition.

A Ghoulish Good Time at the Halloween Parade Lower School students and teachers showed off their costumes at the annual Halloween Parade as WCAT broadcast the parade live on Facebook for family and friends. Following the parade, first graders continued the spooky celebrations by carving pumpkins with their dads and special friends.

MathCats Have Stellar Performance at State Tournament The Upper School math team—Dylan Vroon ’19, Aaron Yu ’21, Anup Bottu ’20, and Johnny Fang ’20—finished second at the University of Georgia’s High School Math Tournament. Led by Upper School math teacher Lina Ellis, the team competed against 400 students from more than 50 schools.

COULD YOU MAKE THE TEAM? Consider a 5 x 5 grid of points, as pictured at right. How many squares can be drawn with all four corners on the grid? (A) 30 (B) 40 (C) 48 (D) 49 (E) 50 Solution can be found on page 50

48 | Spring 2018

Westminster: a Winter Wonderland

Seniors Named National Merit Semifinalists

For the first time in three years (and right before the holidays!), Westminster was blanketed in snow.

Seventeen seniors were named National Merit Semifinalists. Our Wildcats are among approximately 16,000 semifinalists nationwide—that’s less than 1 percent of all U.S. high school seniors!

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WILDCAT TRACKS

48 | Spring 2018

Westminster: a Winter Wonderland

Seniors Named National Merit Semifinalists

For the first time in three years (and right before the holidays!), Westminster was blanketed in snow.

Seventeen seniors were named National Merit Semifinalists. Our Wildcats are among approximately 16,000 semifinalists nationwide—that’s less than 1 percent of all U.S. high school seniors!

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WILDCAT TRACKS

SOLUTION:

WILDCAT TRACKS

Freshman Breaks into the Finals of Worldwide Competition

A video by Yash Kadadi ’21 was one of 15 finalists for the global Breakthrough Junior Challenge prize. The competition—started by the founders of Google and Facebook—aims to celebrate the best scientific work and inspire the next generation of scientists.

Consider smaller subsets of the 5 X 5 grid and find the number of squares you could draw for each subset. If you have a 2 X 2 grid, there is only one square that can be drawn. There are 16 2 X 2 grids that can be found within the 5 X 5 grid. Therefore, there are 16 squares that can be drawn using 2 X 2 grids.

If you have a 3 X 3 grid, there are 2 squares that can be drawn (see below). There are 9 3 X 3 grids that can be found within the 5 X 5 grid. So, there are 9 * 2 = 18 squares that can be drawn using 3 X 3 grids.

WCAT Wins National Award The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences—the organization that presents the Emmy Awards—honored Bennett Porson ’17, William Turton ’19, and the WCAT staff this past fall with the 2017 National Student Production Award for Sports/Live Event for their coverage of the Wildcats vs. Savannah High School in the second round of the 2016 GHSA football playoffs.

If you have a 4 X 4 grid, there are 3 ways to draw a square. There are 4 4 X 4 grids that can be found with the 5 X 5 grid. So, there are 4 * 3 = 12 squares that can be drawn using 4 X 4 grids.

Apple Honors Westminster with Prestigious Recognition Finally, there are 4 squares that can be drawn on the 5 X 5 grid.

Greek Parade Takes Over Campus

So, the total number of squares that can be drawn on the 5 X 5 grid is 16 + 18 + 12 + 4 = 50.

50 | Spring 2018

Fifth graders put their mythology knowledge on display during this classic Westminster tradition. The young gods and goddesses paraded through Love Hall then presented a living museum for parents, students, and faculty outside Pressly Hall.

Apple has recognized Westminster as a Distinguished School for 20172019. The designation is reserved for programs that exhibit visionary leadership, innovative learning and teaching, ongoing professional development, compelling evidence of success, and flexible learning environments. Westminster first received this distinction in 2013.

WESTMINSTER | 51

WILDCAT TRACKS

SOLUTION:

WILDCAT TRACKS

Freshman Breaks into the Finals of Worldwide Competition

If you have a 4 X 4 grid, there are 3 ways to draw a square. There are 4 4 X 4 grids that can be found with the 5 X 5 grid. So, there are 4 * 3 = 12 squares that can be drawn using 4 X 4 grids.

Apple Honors Westminster with Prestigious Recognition Finally, there are 4 squares that can be drawn on the 5 X 5 grid.

Greek Parade Takes Over Campus

So, the total number of squares that can be drawn on the 5 X 5 grid is 16 + 18 + 12 + 4 = 50.

50 | Spring 2018

WESTMINSTER | 51

Inspiring the Community Born from an idea by Dickson Bowman ’20 and organized by students, TEDxTheWestminsterSchools—an event to share new ideas, inspire, and inform— took place in early September. The TEDx student team gathered speakers from the community, including Sam Montag ’25, Fielding Kidd ’07, and Upper School physics teacher Akwetee Watkins.

View every talk from TEDxTheWestminsterSchools at westminster.net/tedx.

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work Eighth grade students and faculty traveled to the Nantahala Outdoor Center in North Carolina for a three-day retreat in October. Through various team-building activities including zip lining and rafting, students strengthened their leadership skills and stretched their comfort zones.

Lower and Upper School Students Combine to Erupt Volcanoes Who doesn’t “lava” a good volcano experiment? Tenth grade chemistry students studying chemical reactions partnered with pre-first students, who were learning about volcanoes and how to conduct science experiments, to create erupting volcanoes!

A Perfect Shot for Charity

Take a Bow for a Great Fall Season!

Riley Sager ’23 sank the free throw in the Houston Rockets’ “First Shot for Charity” tradition. With her free throw, $5,000 was donated to the Clutch City Foundation, which provides help, hope, and inspiration to those who are in need.

It’s been another superb season in Kellett Theatre with the Westminster Players and Junior Players. The house was packed for the Upper School’s fall musical, Les Miserables, while everyone wanted to be a part of their world and see the Middle School’s productions of The Little Mermaid Jr. and Junie B. Jones is Not a Crook.

JanTerm18 Extends Around the Globe

Albert Zhang Named Wendy’s High School Heisman Winner Senior Albert Zhang was named a Wendy’s High School Heisman State Winner for excelling in class, in sports, and in the community. He was also selected as one of Atlanta INtown’s “20 Under 20” finalists for serving the community.

From Atlanta to Antigua, Guatemala, and from Savannah to the Sea of Galilee, the fourth year of JanTerm was its most extensive yet. Upper School students chose from nearly 50 interdisciplinary and engaging courses, including 16 that were new this year and 16 with overnight travel. To see more of JanTerm, visit westminster.net/janterm.

52 | Spring 2018

WESTMINSTER | 53

View every talk from TEDxTheWestminsterSchools at westminster.net/tedx.

A Perfect Shot for Charity

Take a Bow for a Great Fall Season!

JanTerm18 Extends Around the Globe

52 | Spring 2018

WESTMINSTER | 53

Alumni News

ALUMNI NEWS

ALUMNI AWARDS

Dear Alumni, It’s springtime in Atlanta, and that means it’s time for Westminster reunions! As you know, each class celebrates every five years, but alumni from all classes are invited to gather on campus Friday, April 27, for barbecue, beverages, and camaraderie.

Some of you will travel far to return to Westminster, and others live just around the corner. Some of you may already feel connected with old classmates through social media and wonder if it’s worth the effort to attend a reunion. Some of you have had it on your calendar for months. Some may simply feel too busy. I want to encourage each of you to make the time to spend a couple of days renewing old friendships and catching up with classmates and teachers, whether this year or another.

I am very excited to be celebrating my 35th reunion as a member of the Class of 1983. Although time passes and some memories fade, it is always important to revisit the shared experiences of our youth to better understand our present. And while each of us has a unique Westminster story, these stories are woven together in the tapestry of our formative years. The Alumni Board is focused on enhanced reunion experiences as part of our current Strategic Plan. We recognize the value of connecting face to face in this digital world and learning more about what your classmates are up to around the globe in a way not possible on Facebook. We are also eager to share with you the incredible things happening on campus. Reunions are a chance to remember who we were and celebrate who we have become. We have each developed lives extending far beyond the gates of Westminster. We are the same people, yet so much has changed. It’s powerful to reconnect with our Westminster family and touch the roots that gave us wings. As musician Ed Sheeran suggests in his song, “Castle on the Hill,” “…these people raised me and I can’t wait to go home.” Finally, I want to recognize the extraordinary efforts made by our fellow alumnus Matt Tarkenton ’88. Matt has devoted much time and energy sharing his passion for Westminster while encouraging fellow alums to support The Westminster Fund. Specifically, as Alumni Giving Chair, Matt has raised the bar for reunion giving, which now represents a full 30 percent of alumni contributions, one of the highest percentages among day schools across the country. We hope your reunion celebration will include a contribution in recognition of your fellow classmates, former teachers, and overall Westminster experience. We look forward to welcoming you home soon! Susan Ayres Watson ’83 Alumni Board President

54 | Spring 2018

2017-18 ALUMNI GOVERNING BOARD

2017-18 YOUNG ALUMNI COUNCIL

Susan Ayres Watson ’83 President

Catherine Humann Callaway ’03 Nellie Black Brewer ’04 Beau Allen ’05* Mary Lauren Schoen Garrison ’05 Mary Lowell Downing Pettit ’06 Dorothy Padgett ’07 Hannah Grady Jones ’08* Matt Lunati ’08 Ross Conway ’09 Carolyn Candler ’10 Ross Erskine ’10 Ginger Abblitt ’11 Saharsh Chordia ’11 Chapman Wilkinson ’12 Grace Caswell ’13

Sarah Hawkins Warren ’00 President-Elect Matt Tarkenton ’88 Alumni Giving Chair Wab Kadaba ’87 Recording Secretary Alan Elsas ’58 Martha Garrett Massey ’65 Bruce Bryant ’72 Ellen Hale Jones ’81 Karen O’Leary Taylor ’85 Billy Levine ’88 Charlie Henn ’91 Anna Driver Wick ’95 Chris Suh ’95 Dominique Holloman ’97 Wade Rakes ’98 Kennedy Hicks ’01 Beau Allen ’05 Hannah Grady Jones ’08

*Denotes Co-Chair and Alumni Board Member

John Jones ’74 Honorary Member and Board Historian

THE THOMPSON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY HALL OF FAME The Thompson Science and Technology Hall of Fame is an opportunity for Westminster to recognize alumni who have made significant contributions to a professional field related to the sciences, medicine, and/or engineering. One individual will be eligible to receive this honor annually provided individuals nominated meet and/or exceed the criteria upon which the honor is based. The awards will be on display in the Warren Lecture Room, Robinson Hall. The criteria by which nominees will be considered for this recognition will be based on accomplishments achieved during his/her professional career. Qualified recipients will be individuals who have:

Each year during Commencement ceremonies, the Westminster Alumni Association presents two awards to outstanding alumni: the Alumni Service Award and the Distinguished Alumni Award. Graduates of North Avenue Presbyterian School, Washington Seminary, and Westminster are eligible to receive the awards. Current members of Westminster’s Board of Trustees, faculty, and staff, as well as members of The Westminster Alumni Association Governing Board, are not eligible. ALUMNI SERVICE AWARD This award honors an alumnus who has consistently provided exemplary service to Westminster, enhancing the mission, success, stature, and well-being of the School. The recipient must be able to accept the award in person at Commencement. DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD This award honors two alumni who have provided extraordinary service to the community or who have achieved outstanding personal, business, or professional success. Each recipient must be able to accept the award in person at Commencement. Send nominations to: Office of Alumni Engagement Westminster 1424 West Paces Ferry Road, NW Atlanta, GA 30327 alumni@westminster.net

• Earned national and/or international recognition for his/ her professional contribution to science, medicine, and/or engineering. • Demonstrated values pertaining to the philosophy statement of Westminster, namely “…personal excellence, responsible citizenship…and lifelong learners caring for and serving the world.” Send nominations to: Office of Alumni Engagement Westminster 1424 West Paces Ferry Road, NW Atlanta, GA 30327 alumni@westminster.net

WESTMINSTER | 55

Alumni News

ALUMNI NEWS

ALUMNI AWARDS

54 | Spring 2018

2017-18 ALUMNI GOVERNING BOARD

2017-18 YOUNG ALUMNI COUNCIL

Susan Ayres Watson ’83 President

*Denotes Co-Chair and Alumni Board Member

John Jones ’74 Honorary Member and Board Historian

WESTMINSTER | 55

ALUMNI NEWS

Events From the east coast to the west coast, Wildcats love to get together! With the help of volunteers, we hosted 24 alumni and community events last fall, including our new Alumni in the Garden evening and a wreath laying at Arlington Cemetery. Faithful traditions like the Fried Chicken Dinner were as popular as ever. With gratitude, Westminster honored generous donors with events at the President’s Home and the Atlanta History Center. We hope you’ll join us for an upcoming gathering, wherever you are! Alumni Events 1.

New Alumni Parent Reception Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Young Alumni Happy Hour Thursday, August 31, 2017

Washington, DC, Chapter Event: Braves vs. Nationals Game Thursday, September 14, 2017

Washington, DC, Chapter Event: Westminster vs. Lovett Watch Party Wednesday, October 18, 2017

10.

Homecoming and Alumni Fried Chicken Dinner Friday, October 27, 2017

11.

12.

Young Alumni Pressly Reception Tuesday, October 3, 2017

NYC Alumni Reception Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Breithaupt Athletic Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Breakfast Saturday, October 28, 2017

NYC Chapter Event: Braves vs. Mets Game Wednesday, September 27, 2017 Chicago Alumni Reception Thursday, September 28, 2017

Washington, DC, Chapter Event: Arlington National Cemetery Wreath Laying Saturday, December 16, 2017

13.

College Holiday Lunch (Classes of 2014-2017) Monday, December 18, 2017

Alumni in the Garden Thursday, October 5, 2017

56 | Spring 2018

WESTMINSTER | 57

ALUMNI NEWS

New Alumni Parent Reception Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Young Alumni Happy Hour Thursday, August 31, 2017

Washington, DC, Chapter Event: Braves vs. Nationals Game Thursday, September 14, 2017

Washington, DC, Chapter Event: Westminster vs. Lovett Watch Party Wednesday, October 18, 2017

10.

Homecoming and Alumni Fried Chicken Dinner Friday, October 27, 2017

11.

12.

Young Alumni Pressly Reception Tuesday, October 3, 2017

NYC Alumni Reception Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Breithaupt Athletic Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Breakfast Saturday, October 28, 2017

NYC Chapter Event: Braves vs. Mets Game Wednesday, September 27, 2017 Chicago Alumni Reception Thursday, September 28, 2017

Washington, DC, Chapter Event: Arlington National Cemetery Wreath Laying Saturday, December 16, 2017

13.

College Holiday Lunch (Classes of 2014-2017) Monday, December 18, 2017

Alumni in the Garden Thursday, October 5, 2017

56 | Spring 2018

WESTMINSTER | 57

ALUMNI NEWS

Events Alumni Events

Community Events

14.

18.

15.

19.

16.

20.

17.

21.

Class of 2012’s Five-Year Reunion Friday, December 22, 2017 Wrestling Alumni Night Wednesday, January 3, 2018 Basketball Alumni Night Tuesday, January 9, 2018 Los Angeles Alumni Reception Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Emeritus Trustee Luncheon Wednesday, September 13, 2017 Pigskin Picnic Friday, September 15, 2017

Pressly Dinner Tuesday, September 19, 2017 Sixth and Seventh Grade Grandparents and Special Friends Day Friday, October 13, 2017

22.

Halloween Parade Tuesday, October 31, 2017

23.

Cornerstone Society Reception Thursday, November 9, 2017

24.

Veterans Day Celebration Friday, November 10, 2017

25. 21

Messiah Reception Friday, December 15, 2017

58 | Spring 2018

WESTMINSTER | 59

ALUMNI NEWS

Events Alumni Events

Community Events

14.

18.

15.

19.

16.

20.

17.

21.

Emeritus Trustee Luncheon Wednesday, September 13, 2017 Pigskin Picnic Friday, September 15, 2017

Pressly Dinner Tuesday, September 19, 2017 Sixth and Seventh Grade Grandparents and Special Friends Day Friday, October 13, 2017

22.

Halloween Parade Tuesday, October 31, 2017

23.

Cornerstone Society Reception Thursday, November 9, 2017

24.

Veterans Day Celebration Friday, November 10, 2017

25. 21

Messiah Reception Friday, December 15, 2017

58 | Spring 2018

WESTMINSTER | 59

School Days:

ALUMNI NEWS NAPS

WASHINGTON SEMINARY

1921: NAPS was one of the places Girl Scout troops began to form; this photo was taken the same year the Atlanta Girl Scout Council was originally founded. The yearbook documents that there were two troops at the school of eight girls each. Miss Jane Harwell was the Captain, and Miss Margaret Bland was the Lieutenant this year. (1921 Napsonian yearbook)

1928: The Senior Round Table was organized in 1918, and the most representative girls of the senior class were chosen for this honor by the faculty and the members of the Round Table of the previous year. Seen here from left are Susella Burnett, Elinor Memminger, Eugenia Naff, Martha Mizell, Hazel Stamps, and Hannah Sterne. (1928 Facts and Fancies yearbook)

1934: School officers included the Red Cross representative and the secretary of the Athletic Association, students who took an active part in a leadership role at the school. Front row from left: President Elizabeth Barge, Secretary Anne Daughtry, Vice President Jacqueline McPherson. Second row: Treasurer Mary Calhoun, Red Cross Representative June Moore, Athletic Association Secretary Barbara McGaughy. (Life at N.A.P.S. Scrapbook #2)

1942: In December 1941, students began a Junior American Women’s Voluntary Services group at the school to help with the war efforts at home. Front row, from left: Laleah Sullivan, Vice President; Raiford Ragsdale, Chairman of Public Speaking; Mrs. Ed Branch, Director of Junior A.W.V.S.; Caroline Smith, Chairman of Bicycle Brigade; Jean Mathewson, President. Second row: Betty Howell, Chairman of Publicity; Tracy Horton, Chairman of Secretarial Work; Lucia Fairlie, Posters; Dot Spratlin, Sewing; Ann Burckhardt, Miscellaneous Activities. (1942 Facts and Fancies yearbook)

1948: The girls on the Athletic Board led the school in sports. As the seasons for each sport came up, the girl who represented that sport stirred up interest and encouraged as many as possible to participate in it. Pictured are Dottie Smith, Joan Jordan, Peggy McTyre, Nan Frankel, Mary Thompson, Frankie Bostick, Betty Jo Hammond, Jean Armstrong, Jane Gatewood, Abbie Alexander, and Betsy Forman. (1948 Napsonian yearbook)

1950: The establishment of the first Honor Council, led by Stella Wellborn (at front right). Do you know the others in the photo? (1950 Facts and Fancies yearbook)

Leading Ladies At both Washington Seminary and North Avenue Presbyterian School, the idea of students contributing to their communities through leadership and service was a given. As the 1936-37 NAPS catalog states, student organizations “provide training along executive lines and give opportunity for practice in the management of affairs….A disciplined, broad, and generous spirit has developed from the organizations within the school and

from membership in larger organizations without.” Students at both schools were able to show their leadership abilities in academics, in athletics, in performing arts, and in extracurricular activities. If you would like to contact our archivist regarding more stories or have photos or memorabilia you'd like to donate from your time at Washington Seminary, NAPS, or Westminster, please contact Pamela Nye, CA, at archives@westminster.net.

Be on the lookout! If you’re a Westminster grad, you might find yourself or your classmates in a future School Days spread! Starting this fall, we’re expanding the School Days section to include alumni from throughout our history while still bringing you memories from Washington Seminary and NAPS.

60 | Spring 2018

Both NAPS and Washington Seminary had robust student newspapers. NAPS’ newspaper, Senior Reader, won first place in its class in the Athens Banner-Herald’s Georgia Scholastic Press Association contest in 1936. Washington Seminary’s The Missemma won the trophy at right in the contest in 1946.

WESTMINSTER | 61

School Days:

ALUMNI NEWS NAPS

WASHINGTON SEMINARY

1950: The establishment of the first Honor Council, led by Stella Wellborn (at front right). Do you know the others in the photo? (1950 Facts and Fancies yearbook)

60 | Spring 2018

WESTMINSTER | 61

Class News 1952

Dr. Patricia Griffin Emerson writes that she is having fun in her 83rd year by volunteering at Zoo Atlanta’s Petting Zoo and walking 5Ks. She loves the petting zoo because she’s up close to both the children and the animals, and she was even recognized as the most outstanding team member. In her first 5K, for the Oakhurst Cooperative Preschool, she won in her age group (80+) because she was the only one participating!

1957 “Westminster students leave here being able to think on their own thanks to real world and life experience…not everyone has that advantage. It is inspiring when we think about our friends from Westminster and the leaders they have become. Westminster is creating people who are able to pursue their dreams, whatever they may be. Including Westminster in our estate plans was vital in continuing and perpetuating our gratitude for the School.” – Billy ’88 and Julie Levine P ’20, ’22, ’25 Cornerstone Society members

Your Legacy. Their Future. Westminster is honored by those who commit to sustaining a bright future for our students and faculty by including Westminster in their estate plans, like the Levine family. Through gift planning, you can choose a method of giving that protects your family’s needs and offers greater tax savings. A few ways you can support Westminster are: A gift in your will | Retirement plan assets | Life insurance

Bruce Beveridge writes, “Kate Kelley Beveridge ’59 and I have downsized to an apartment near our daughter’s family. Good to do in our 70s; otherwise (& fortunately) very well.”

Richard Courts ’55, Laurie Ford Nord ’56, Lynda Bradbury Courts ’59, and Mason Lowance ’56

Mary Wayne Courts Dixon ’57 and Laura Smith Spearman ’57 pictured together at an event last April

1959

Jerry Smith Gentry writes, “Happy for my Dawgs! One of our granddaughters married last March and turns 25 this year. We have three additional grandchildren who are 16, 9, and 7. We are very blessed!”

1960

Fran Milton Patterson and her husband, Tom, had a wonderful time at the birthday celebration for Ann Jernigan Chalmers ’60. The lovely party was held at the home of Ann’s older son, Alex, and his wife, Anna, in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Alex is Fran’s godson, and Alex’s godfather is Parker Hudson ’65. Parker was a close friend of Ann’s late husband, Rives Chalmers ’65. Ann has recently moved back to Atlanta from California, where she and Rives raised their family. Fran is so happy to have her back!

Westminster graduates and friends, Mason Lowance ’56, Susan Coltrane Lowance WS ’51, Margaret Rains Howell ’60, and Henry Howell ’56 together on a trip

Parker Hudson ’65, Alida Hudson, Fran Milton Patterson ’60, Ann Jernigan Chalmers ’60, and Tom Patterson ’60 pictured at Ann Jernigan Chalmers’s birthday celebration in South Carolina.

We are here to help! Please contact us to learn more about The Cornerstone Society and how to support Westminster's future through gift planning.

OFFICE FOR INSTITUTIONAL ADVANCEMENT | 404-609-6438 | WESTMINSTER.PLANMYGIFT.ORG WESTMINSTER | 63

Class News 1952

Bruce Beveridge writes, “Kate Kelley Beveridge ’59 and I have downsized to an apartment near our daughter’s family. Good to do in our 70s; otherwise (& fortunately) very well.”

Richard Courts ’55, Laurie Ford Nord ’56, Lynda Bradbury Courts ’59, and Mason Lowance ’56

Mary Wayne Courts Dixon ’57 and Laura Smith Spearman ’57 pictured together at an event last April

1959

1960

Westminster graduates and friends, Mason Lowance ’56, Susan Coltrane Lowance WS ’51, Margaret Rains Howell ’60, and Henry Howell ’56 together on a trip

Parker Hudson ’65, Alida Hudson, Fran Milton Patterson ’60, Ann Jernigan Chalmers ’60, and Tom Patterson ’60 pictured at Ann Jernigan Chalmers’s birthday celebration in South Carolina.

We are here to help! Please contact us to learn more about The Cornerstone Society and how to support Westminster's future through gift planning.

OFFICE FOR INSTITUTIONAL ADVANCEMENT | 404-609-6438 | WESTMINSTER.PLANMYGIFT.ORG WESTMINSTER | 63

CLASS NEWS

1962

Laurie Lee Humphries writes, “Professionally, I continue to serve as a consultant to the Nebraska Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee. At home, my grandchildren, Asa, 3, and Miriam, 7, are a constant source of joy.” Lindy Howell Rogers writes, “I am retired now for 10 years, but I still do carpool and help my daughter, Callie Bishop Fuller ’92, in other ways with my three grandchildren. I enjoy classes at the Benson Center, my book club, and my dinner group. This past summer, my husband Jack and I visited several national parks from Arizona to Wyoming and South Dakota and also spent two weeks in Alaska. Our second daughter, Cindy Bishop ’88, works for MIT in Boston, and our son Ken works for General Dynamics in Michigan.” Martha Ritter Rosette writes, “Robert E. Rosette, my wonderful World War II Navy Veteran husband, went to be with the Lord on September 1, 2015. I am recuperating from multiple fractures resulting from automobile accidents (while being driven by my caretaker), but I send my best greetings to all of you. Please call if you happen to be in Charlottesville or Southern Virginia.”

1963

Cotten Alston writes, “Our daughter, Honour Thornton ’06, recently received her Masters of Science in Nursing (nurse practitioner) from Duke. Her older sister, May Carr ’04, is at Stanford Hospital as a registered dietician. We empty nesters are beyond proud.”

64 | Spring 2018

CLASS NEWS

Richard Both ’64 pictured with his fiancee Ulla Marjatta Vonhalloran Otama

Dana Brooks Brown ’65 and Mary Neely Moak ’75 competing at the US Masters Summer Nationals in Minneapolis last August

Margaret Heyman Cohen writes, “I’m happily retired, doing yoga, gardening, painting in pastels, volunteering with various arts groups, and resettling refugees. Also, I am auditing classes at Rutgers, mostly in Jewish studies. I still have time to veg out.”

Chatty Harris Stover writes, “Living with my husband, Bobby, in Suches, Georgia. Still riding horses, hiking, and am blessed to have seven grandchildren ages 7-17. My husband has eight, so 15 altogether! Come see us!”

Nan Pendergrast Marshall writes, “Summer (Susie) Brenner ’63 and her husband visited me in Savannah. Our classmate remains as beautiful as when we selected her to be Cleopatra on our Mardi Gras float. Summer is an award-winning poet and author and lives in Berkeley, California.”

In August 2017, Dana Brooks Brown ’65 (swimming for the Palmetto Masters) and Mary Neely Moak ’75 (swimming for Palm Beach Masters) competed at the US Masters Summer Nationals in Minneapolis.

Johnny Martin writes, “Enjoying semi-retirement—can’t quite quit! I work in the Stephens County Health Department and at the Good News Clinic in Gainesville.”

1964

Richard Both sends this “bucket list” news update since the 50th reunion: He and his significant other, Ulla Marjatta Vonhalloran Otama, who is from Helsinki, have recently announced their engagement. Richard says, “With the years flashing by, we’ve decided to ramp life up while we’re still young enough to enjoy it and not risk taking the future for granted. We are now living in Europe, splitting our time between Ulla’s home in Helsinki and my place in Orselina, Switzerland, overlooking Lago Maggiore, which borders Italy. We expect to eventually establish a new homeport somewhere in the states, but that will probably no longer be New York City as it has been in the past.” Cindy Perryman writes, “Spending glorious time painting, gardening, having quiet family time with my husband, Randy Beard, away from the city, and traveling primarily to France for inspiration, with future plans for Portugal and Spain.”

1965

1966

Mark Pendergrast writes, “I actually had four books released in 2017! City on the Verge, Memory Warp, The Repressed Memory Epidemic, and The Most Hated Man in America. Check them out at markpendergrast.com.”

1969

Joe Brogdon writes, “I retired in April from private practice in neurology after 36 years. I won the Senior Division of the World LeftHanded Golf Championship in Melbourne, Australia.”

Margaret McEver Cobb writes, “My husband, Ike Cobb, retired a few years ago after more than forty years of practicing real estate law here in Atlanta. His retirement enabled us to answer the call when our daughter, Emily Hart Cobb Breece ’03, and her husband became the proud parents of Margaret Rose Breece in November 2016. We took on the task of being ‘Maggie’s’ daycare every weekday, and it has been a glorious year. We both feel 20 years younger—and 20 years older at the same time! Hopefully, someday Maggie will also be a Wildcat! Emily Hart is now in private practice with the firm Nelson Mullins. Her husband, Brad, is also an attorney and is with Troutman Sanders. Our generation told our daughters that they could do anything, but we didn’t tell them how to raise their children with the same one-on-one 24-hour care that they had within a loving family and close community.” Georgia Hightower Patterson writes, “My husband, Richard Patterson ’69, has retired from Athens Academy after 40 years of

SUBMIT YOUR CLASS NEWS The deadline for Class News for the fall 2018 issue of Westminster is July 20, 2018. Please submit Class News at westminster.net/classnews. You may also send class news to: Westminster Attention: Class News 1424 West Paces Ferry Road, NW Atlanta, GA 30327 or email: classnews@westminster.net This issue reflects submissions received before February 15, 2018.

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CLASS NEWS

1962

1963

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CLASS NEWS

Richard Both ’64 pictured with his fiancee Ulla Marjatta Vonhalloran Otama

Dana Brooks Brown ’65 and Mary Neely Moak ’75 competing at the US Masters Summer Nationals in Minneapolis last August

In August 2017, Dana Brooks Brown ’65 (swimming for the Palmetto Masters) and Mary Neely Moak ’75 (swimming for Palm Beach Masters) competed at the US Masters Summer Nationals in Minneapolis.

Johnny Martin writes, “Enjoying semi-retirement—can’t quite quit! I work in the Stephens County Health Department and at the Good News Clinic in Gainesville.”

1964

1965

1966

1969

Joe Brogdon writes, “I retired in April from private practice in neurology after 36 years. I won the Senior Division of the World LeftHanded Golf Championship in Melbourne, Australia.”

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CLASS NEWS

teaching (first three years at Lakeview Academy). In May 2017, Richard was presented with several awards, including Teacher of the Year and the Faculty Award for Professional Excellence. The Athens Academy yearbook was dedicated in his honor. In addition, the Spartan Award, which is presented annually to an Athens Academy senior girl and senior boy who loyally exhibit school spirit, was renamed ‘The Richard J. Patterson Spartan Award.’ He was very pleased!”

1975

1970

Richard Parker writes, “We welcomed our grandson, Samuel ‘Sam’ Sampson Skyes III, on October 7, 2017.”

Helen Funk McSwain writes, “I am enjoying my retirement but miss seeing all of my patients. Enjoying living next to my five grandchildren and painting and having time to breathe.”

M.J. Young Thorne writes, “Enjoyed an expedition to the Len Foote Hike Inn with some friends from the Class of 1975!”

1976

Ben Joel writes, “I just celebrated my 30-year anniversary with Morgan Stanley and its predecessor firms Shearson, Lehman, Robinson Humphrey, Salomon, Smith Barney, and Hutton Brothers.”

1977

1980

Charles Bowen writes, “Robin and I were married Valentine’s Day 2017. The Wheelers continue to rock and roll!”

1982

Randy Steinbrenner writes, “Hello from Dallas! Our daughter Caroline is headed into her junior year and is first chair in the band. Stop by if you visit Dallas!”

1992

David Cochran writes, “My wife, Chantelle, and I welcomed our fourth child into our family February 3, 2017, with the birth of our son, Burton MacKay Cochran. Burton joins his other siblings: sisters Brantley, 10, and Lila, 6, and brother Nash, 2.”

Friends from the Class of 1975 (Ann Clay Adams left, Cary Cox, Susan Allgood Heberton, M.J. Young Thorne, and Carolyn Saffold Wilson) enjoy an expedition to the Len Foote Hike Inn!

Scott Morris ’72 Links Faith, Health, and Community Scott Morris ’72 is the founder of the Church Health Center in Memphis, Tennessee. As a leader in the medical field and the nonprofit arena, Scott credits Westminster with pointing him to where he is today. The academic challenges at Westminster helped Scott focus on his future; Ron Frase, who taught his senior religion course, challenged him to get out of his comfort zone theologically. Taking advice from David T. Lauderdale, Scott became a Virginia Gentleman, headed to Charlottesville, and majored in history. Following UVA, Scott earned his Masters in Divinity at Yale and became an ordained United Methodist minister, attended medical school at Emory, and completed his residency in family medicine at The Medical College of Virginia. While a student at Westminster, Scott read the Bible and realized that a third of the New Testament has to do with healing the sick. Unfortunately, Scott did not see that happening in his church—or in most churches. When he got to Yale, Scott recalls that he spent all his time looking at what the church has done historically to connect faith and health. “There is a reason hospitals all across America have church names on them; only, we forgot the reason,” he says.

privately funded health center for the working poor in America, with a patient roster topping 70,000. Church Health has 19 staff providers and more than 1,000 physicians who volunteer and can care for any problem someone might have, “from the cradle to the grave.” In addition to family medical care, Church Health offers dental and eye care, runs a wellness center with the YMCA, runs a school, publishes a magazine called Church Health Reader, partners with Tulane Medical School's Goldring Center to focus on nutrition issues, runs a family medicine residency, and so much more, all sustained through charitable donations. Church Health is making an impact in Memphis far beyond its patient base. It is an anchor tenant in Crosstown Concourse, a mixed-use development near downtown Memphis that focuses on arts, education, and healthcare. Church Health was one of eight founding tenants that committed to leasing space in Crosstown Concourse, a former Sears, Roebuck & Co. distribution center that was abandoned in 1993 and reopened as a purposeful community hub in 2017. For students at Westminster, Scott advocates, “learn to read and write very well, find a passion for life, understand the difference between happiness and joy, and open your life to listen to what God has for you and what is possible in God's imagination.”

While in the chaplain’s office at Yale, Scott picked up a pamphlet titled "How to Start a Church-Based Health Clinic." From there, he knew what his life’s work would be. “Over the next few years, I realized that many people care about the link between faith and health, so I met as many of them as I could, took the best ideas, and merged them with my own,” he says. “When I was about to finish my residency, I read that Memphis was the poorest major city in America, so I said, ‘I’m going to Memphis.’ I did not know a soul. I was 33 years old and was too young and too dumb to realize that what I wanted to do had no chance to succeed.” Or so he thought. The Church Health Center, now just Church Health, opened in Memphis in 1987 to provide health care for working people without health insurance. Church Health saw 12 patients the first day it was open and is now the largest faith-based

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1975

1970

Richard Parker writes, “We welcomed our grandson, Samuel ‘Sam’ Sampson Skyes III, on October 7, 2017.”

Helen Funk McSwain writes, “I am enjoying my retirement but miss seeing all of my patients. Enjoying living next to my five grandchildren and painting and having time to breathe.”

M.J. Young Thorne writes, “Enjoyed an expedition to the Len Foote Hike Inn with some friends from the Class of 1975!”

1976

Ben Joel writes, “I just celebrated my 30-year anniversary with Morgan Stanley and its predecessor firms Shearson, Lehman, Robinson Humphrey, Salomon, Smith Barney, and Hutton Brothers.”

1977

1980

Charles Bowen writes, “Robin and I were married Valentine’s Day 2017. The Wheelers continue to rock and roll!”

1982

Randy Steinbrenner writes, “Hello from Dallas! Our daughter Caroline is headed into her junior year and is first chair in the band. Stop by if you visit Dallas!”

1992

Friends from the Class of 1975 (Ann Clay Adams left, Cary Cox, Susan Allgood Heberton, M.J. Young Thorne, and Carolyn Saffold Wilson) enjoy an expedition to the Len Foote Hike Inn!

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1996

Bobby Rashad Jones ’97 pictured with his wife, Lauren, and their two daughters, AmyMarie and Josephine

Katie Stembler Bockstedt writes, “We moved back to Atlanta and have a new baby, Margaret Anne Bockstedt! She was born October 15, 2017, just one day after her mom and dad’s birthday!”

1997

Commander Bobby Rashad Jones is currently stationed at Military Sealift Command on staff duty. He has been selected for Command at Sea and is slated to command Coastal Riveron Squadron FOUR, homeported at Joint Expedition Base Little Creek in Virginia. His wife Lauren and daughters AmyMarie and Josephine have settled with him in the Hampton Roads but visit Atlanta frequently!”

Virginia with baby brother Hugh, children of Katie Plomgren Lavelle ’99 and Nate Lavelle

2002

When Alexandra Stieber Brown met her now husband, David Brown, neither of them imagined the journey ahead, but after only having known each other for four months, the two quit their jobs and left on a yearlong, round-the-world adventure. They wrote a manuscript upon their return, partly as a catharsis and partly to answer all the questions about how they did the trip. This September, Chronicle Books is publishing A Year Off —one part memoir, one part travel essay collection, and one part guidebook. This inspiring book is for all the dreamers and practical professionals looking to scratch the travel itch.

Although a planner at heart, Fielding Kidd ’07 says it’s the moments when she has decided to deviate from the plan that have resulted in some of the best decisions she’s ever made. As the Director of Business Partnerships for Entrepreneurial Engagement under Comcast’s Strategic Development team, Fielding took a risk by taking a job that would require her to leave her new home city of New York and spend half her time in Philadelphia. By taking this chance, Fielding became one of the youngest directors at Comcast; she is now shaping how Comcast engages and works with startups. A leader in her industry, Fielding was named one of Broadcast & Cable’s Emerging Tech Leaders to Watch. In her career, she has launched NBCUniversal’s first Amazon Alexa experience and built an immersive experience in Rockefeller Center that showcased the cutting-edge technology used in the Rio Olympics, seen by almost 3,000 people. She has filed two patents, one of which was recently granted. Now, she is building Comcast NBCUniversal’s first program dedicated to giving entrepreneurs access to Comcast NBCUniversal’s network of partners, brands, and mentors to foster rapid innovation.

As a proud alumna of Westminster and Yale, Fielding sits on Westminster’s NYC Alumni Chapter Council, has hosted the NYC chapter at the Rio Innovation Lounge, and has given a TEDx talk to students and faculty on campus. At Yale, Fielding serves as one of the youngest members on the Yale Lacrosse Board, has interviewed prospective students, and co-chaired her fifth year reunion. Fielding credits Westminster with teaching her how important presenting oneself can be. She says: “It wasn’t something we studied in the classroom, but I still caught on through interactions with teachers, coaches, and classmates. You have a split second to make a first impression, especially in a business environment. If you want others to respect you, you must respect yourself first. Dress appropriately, hold your head up high, pull a seat up to the table, and speak clearly and thoughtfully.”

Alexandra Steiber Brown ’02 and husband David Brown’s book, A Year Off, expected to be published in September 2018

YEAR OFF A Story About Traveling the World—and How to Make It Happen for You

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Fielding Kidd ’07 Fosters Innovation at Comcast NBCUniversal

Alexandra and David Brown

Watch TEDxTheWestminsterSchools, including Fielding’s talk, at westminster.net/tedx. Technology Overwhelm | Caroline Ivey ’23 #adulting | Fielding Kidd ’07 The Fastest Way to Get Around Atlanta | Akwetee Watkins (faculty) Taking Responsibility | Sam Montag ’25 Storyscreens: Tomorrow’s Narrative Classroom | Stephen Addcox (faculty) Why We Need Grit | Albert Liang ’18 A Few Life-Saving Poems | Steve Frappier (faculty) Escapism vs. Avoidance | Anup Bottu ’20 Devil’s Gate to Devil’s Slide | Mario Chard (faculty)

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1996

Bobby Rashad Jones ’97 pictured with his wife, Lauren, and their two daughters, AmyMarie and Josephine

Katie Stembler Bockstedt writes, “We moved back to Atlanta and have a new baby, Margaret Anne Bockstedt! She was born October 15, 2017, just one day after her mom and dad’s birthday!”

1997

Virginia with baby brother Hugh, children of Katie Plomgren Lavelle ’99 and Nate Lavelle

2002

Alexandra Steiber Brown ’02 and husband David Brown’s book, A Year Off, expected to be published in September 2018

YEAR OFF A Story About Traveling the World—and How to Make It Happen for You

68 | Spring 2018

Fielding Kidd ’07 Fosters Innovation at Comcast NBCUniversal

Alexandra and David Brown

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2004

Scott Sherrill writes, “Started a new position as a senior planner with the City of Concord, North Carolina. We welcomed our first child, Robert ‘Robbie’ Carlyle Sherrill, January 29, 2017.”

2008

Mary Katherine Callaway recently graduated with distinction from the University of Michigan, where she was an Allied Health Scholar in the Master of Social Work program with a concentration in Mental Health and Clinical Practice.

CLASS NEWS

Wils Sugrue, son of Bonnie Gibson Sugrue ’04 and Ryan Sugrue ’04

Mary Katherine Callaway ’08 pictured with her brother Chris ’04 at her graduation from the University of Michigan

2015

Mary Coffin writes, “I’m in my third year at the University of Georgia: double major in finance and accounting. I will intern for PwC in New York City this summer. Go Cats and GO Dawgs!” Alex Puskas ’10, Ross Erskine ’10, and Michael DeSalvo pictured together in Bogota, Colombia, last September

Kimberly Hall ’00, Elizabeth Oswald ’03, Kelly Golson Troutman ’03, Cristina Hall Ackley ’03, Fielding Troutman ’03, Kendall Mayhew, Anna Hartrampf, Austin Keeble ’04, and Caroline Hagedorn ’03 pictured at the wedding of Cristina Hall Ackley and David Gardner Ackley

Kate Armstrong ’10, Jarrett Davis ’12, and Mark Schwade ’13: Harrison Scholars, Medical College of Georgia A strong desire to serve others through medicine led Kate Armstrong ’10, Jarrett Davis ’12, and Mark Schwade ’13 to the Medical College of Georgia. As applicants, their exceptionally strong academic and leadership skills led the school to award all three the Dr. J. Harold Harrison Scholarship. Since being fully funded in 2015, the prestigious scholarship has counted a Wildcat among its 12 recipients each year.

Kate Armstrong ’10

Kate, Jarrett, and Mark reconnect regularly at Harrison Scholars events, including monthly meetings with distinguished faculty members. Kate even serves as Jarrett’s mentor within the program. All three scholars point to their Westminster experiences as the beginning of their paths toward medicine. “In any kind of professional setting, whether it was communicating with professors or trying to apply for internships, I felt totally comfortable because Westminster gave me the tools for that,” Mark explains. He also credits his “world-class teachers,” like Ken Gibson and Akwetee Watkins, with pushing him to explore his interests and develop his intellectual curiosity. Kate, too, remembers a specific Westminster teacher who sparked her passion for medicine. “The switch flipped when I took AP Biology junior year with Eric Brannen,” she says.

Jarrett Davis ’12

Jarrett, recently elected to MCG’s Honor Council, credits Westminster’s Honor Code with creating “a culture of trust, respect, and honor that was instilled firmly in all of us. Especially in the medical profession, those values are incredibly important,” he says. Kate puts it even more simply. At Westminster, she explains, “Teachers encourage students to put service first. And carrying that into my medical career is my goal.” Mark Schwade ’13

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2004

Scott Sherrill writes, “Started a new position as a senior planner with the City of Concord, North Carolina. We welcomed our first child, Robert ‘Robbie’ Carlyle Sherrill, January 29, 2017.”

2008

CLASS NEWS

Wils Sugrue, son of Bonnie Gibson Sugrue ’04 and Ryan Sugrue ’04

Mary Katherine Callaway ’08 pictured with her brother Chris ’04 at her graduation from the University of Michigan

2015

Kate Armstrong ’10

Jarrett Davis ’12

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Marriages 1

1997

2009

Pierson Bridges and John Thornton ’01, May 20, 2017

William Kitchens ’97 and Marcella Duca celebrate with Westminster alumni

2001

Sarah Crosier and Drew Kaplan, June 24, 2017

Noble Stafford ’01 and Ryan Coventry celebrate with Wildcat alums

Marcella Duca and William Kitchens, June 24, 2017 Ryan Coventry and Noble Stafford, July 16, 2017 Pierson Bridges ’09 and John Thornton, May 20, 2017

2003

Cristina Hall and David Gardner Ackley, April 29, 2017 Caroline Head and Kyle Garcia, October 20, 2017 Ashley Rapson and Adam Cronk, November 14, 2017

2004

Jessica Hayes and Matthew Brown, July 15, 2017

2006

Martha Wright and Charles Wilson, April 1, 2017

2010

Louise Cook and Gus Morgan, August 12, 2017

2011

Jojo Olsen and Sam Higgins, October 22, 2016

Community, Faculty, and Staff Carolina Matheson ’08 (Middle School faculty) and Ben Mares, July 29, 2017

1. 2.

Pierson Bridges ’09 and John Thornton ’01 celebrate with fellow WIldcats

Cristina Hall ’03 and David Gardner Ackley

Kyle Garcia ’03 and Caroline Head

Ashley Rapson ’03 and Adam Cronk

Jessica Hayes ’04 and Matthew Brown

Taylor Trepte (Lower School Faculty) and Daniel Stegall, October 14, 2017

2008

Carly Grace Hinchman and Patrick Michael Milyo, June 17, 2017 Carolina Matheson and Ben Mares, July 29, 2017 Allison Purow and Tommy Noonan, August 5, 2017 Page Zakas and Brendan Burdette, June 17, 2017

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Marriages 1

1997

2009

Pierson Bridges and John Thornton ’01, May 20, 2017

William Kitchens ’97 and Marcella Duca celebrate with Westminster alumni

2001

Sarah Crosier and Drew Kaplan, June 24, 2017

Noble Stafford ’01 and Ryan Coventry celebrate with Wildcat alums

Marcella Duca and William Kitchens, June 24, 2017 Ryan Coventry and Noble Stafford, July 16, 2017 Pierson Bridges ’09 and John Thornton, May 20, 2017

2003

Cristina Hall and David Gardner Ackley, April 29, 2017 Caroline Head and Kyle Garcia, October 20, 2017 Ashley Rapson and Adam Cronk, November 14, 2017

2004

Jessica Hayes and Matthew Brown, July 15, 2017

2006

Martha Wright and Charles Wilson, April 1, 2017

2010

Louise Cook and Gus Morgan, August 12, 2017

2011

Jojo Olsen and Sam Higgins, October 22, 2016

Community, Faculty, and Staff Carolina Matheson ’08 (Middle School faculty) and Ben Mares, July 29, 2017

1. 2.

Pierson Bridges ’09 and John Thornton ’01 celebrate with fellow WIldcats

Cristina Hall ’03 and David Gardner Ackley

Kyle Garcia ’03 and Caroline Head

Ashley Rapson ’03 and Adam Cronk

Jessica Hayes ’04 and Matthew Brown

Taylor Trepte (Lower School Faculty) and Daniel Stegall, October 14, 2017

2008

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MARRIAGES

11.

14.

12.

15.

Charles Wilson ’06 and Martha Wright celebrate with Westminster alumni Carly Grace Hinchman ’08 and Patrick Michael Milyo

10.

Wildcat alumni celebrate the marriage of Page Zakas ’08 and Brendan Burdette Sarah Crosier ’09 and Drew Kaplan ’09

Taylor Trepte (Lower School faculty) and Daniel Stegall Jojo Olsen ’11 and Sam Higgins ’11

13.

Louise Cook ’10 and Gus Morgan

Tommy Noonan ’08 and Allison Purow

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MARRIAGES

11.

14.

12.

15.

Charles Wilson ’06 and Martha Wright celebrate with Westminster alumni Carly Grace Hinchman ’08 and Patrick Michael Milyo

10.

Wildcat alumni celebrate the marriage of Page Zakas ’08 and Brendan Burdette Sarah Crosier ’09 and Drew Kaplan ’09

Taylor Trepte (Lower School faculty) and Daniel Stegall Jojo Olsen ’11 and Sam Higgins ’11

13.

Louise Cook ’10 and Gus Morgan

Tommy Noonan ’08 and Allison Purow

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Births 1992

Burton MacKay Cochran, February 2, 2017, son of Chantelle and David Cochran

1996

Margaret Anne Bockstedt, October 15, 2017, daughter of Katie Stembler Bockstedt and Jesse Bockstedt

1998

Margaret "Greta" Reynolds Woods, November 12, 2017, daughter of Anna Margaret Griffin Woods and Matthew Woods

1999

Holland McLain Gaddis, November 30, 2017, daughter of Chesley Phillips Gaddis and Owen Gaddis Nathan Fitzhugh "Hugh" Lavellle, January 25, 2018, son of Katie Plomgren Lavelle and Nate Lavelle

2000

Elizabeth "Ellie" Bell Cannon, December 14, 2017, daughter of Liz Strickler Cannon and Quint Cannon Kenneth "William" Franklin, September 20, 2017, son of Alison and Kenneth Franklin Lucy Day Summers, September 11, 2017, daughter of Laura and Trammell Summers

2001

Owen Wilkening Ross and Julian Reeves Ross, June 25, 2017, sons of Kathleen Poe Ross and Jon Ross James “Wayland” Williams, December 15, 2017, son of Peyten Dobbs Williams and Stan Williams

2002

Emma Cleo Brown, June 23, 2017, daughter of Alexandra Steiber Brown and David Brown Margaret “Margot” Gregory Griffith, December 17, 2017, daughter of Liz Olmsted Griffith and Carter Griffith

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Gloria Tighe Veatch, August 19, 2017, daughter of Jennifer Veatch (Middle School faculty) and Jason Veatch Betts Bailey Kraft, January 25, 2017, daughter of Catherine Love Kraft ’03 and Kenny Kraft Frances "Frankie" Branch Stelling, September 28, 2017, daughter of Ginny Branch Stelling and Ed Stelling

2003

2004

Joseph Lloyd Salimi, November 24, 2017, son of Annie Heller Salimi and Neema Salimi Robert "Robbie" Carlyle Sherrill, January 29, 2017, son of Eleanor and Scott Sherrill

Suzanne "Suzy" Elaine Adams, December 23, 2017, daughter of Leigh Baker Adams and Sam Adams

Ryan William "Wils" Sugrue, August 9, 2017, son of Bonnie Gibson Sugrue and Ryan Sugrue

Virginia "Grace" Brown, May 13, 2017, daughter of Laurie Meyer Brown and Taylor Brown

Ravi Krishan Warnick, October 11, 2017, son of Shikha and Derek Warnick

Andrew Taylor Bryan, April 28, 2017, son of Katharine Solms Bryan and Beau Bryan

2005

Virginia "Dare" DiOrio, December 13, 2017, daughter of Morgan Shaw DiOrio and Mike DiOrio Amelia James Edwards, September 1, 2018, daughter of Emily and Clayton Edwards William "Will" Lane Holby Jr., January 19, 2018, son of Addie and Lane Holby Betts Bailey Kraft, January 25, 2017, daughter of Catherine Love Kraft and Kenny Kraft ’02

Andrew Beaumont “Beau” Allen Jr., December 1, 2017 son of Allison Sheats Allen and Beau Allen Blake Wardlaw Armstrong, December 9, 2017, son of Marjorie Schwahn Armstrong and Stuart Armstrong William Valley Grandstaff, October 30, 2017, son of Caroline Williams Grandstaff and Kyle Grandstaff Clement "Chandler" McDavid Jr., September 29, 2017, son of Stirling Douglas McDavid and Clem McDavid

2006

Miles Wing Ho Yee, January 13, 2018, son of Ny-Ying Lam and Philip Yee

Robert Griffin Bara, September 25, 2017, son of Erin Callahan Bara and Dan Bara

Collier Samuel McEver, November 16, 2017, son of Courtney Van Winkle McEver and Taylor McEver

Jane Camilla Diehl, October 1, 2017, daughter of Mary Boyce Hicks Diehl and John Diehl

Virginia Katharine "Kate" Parrish, October 14, 2017, daughter of Frances Howell Parrish and Jack Parrish

2008

Jackson Gehrig Sridhar, January 28, 2018, son of Kristin Cargill Sridhar and Michael Sridhar Lawrence Lee Washburn V, September 5, 2017, son of Rachael Goldstucker Washburn and Lawrence Lee Washburn IV

Vivian "Annie" Catherine McConnell, February 1, 2018, daughter of Emily Cook McConnell and Alex McConnell

Beau Alexander Hight, September 30, 2017, son of Brooke Hight (Lower School faculty) Joseph Lloyd Salimi, November 24, 2017, son of Annie Heller Salimi ’04 (Lower School faculty) and Neema Salimi (Upper School faculty) Livingston Claire Lancaster, November 30, 2017, daughter of Emily Lancaster (Lower School faculty) and Pierce Lancaster Virginia "Dare" DiOrio, December 13, 2017, daughter of Morgan Shaw DiOrio ’03 (Upper School Faculty) and Mike DiOrio James “Wayland” Williams, December 15, 2017, son of Peyten Dobbs Williams ’01 (Middle School faculty) and Stan Williams Renee Ann Frederick, February 12, 2018, daughter of Rebecca Colborg Frederick (Lower School faculty) and Nick Frederick

Margaret "Greta" Reynolds Woods, daughter of Anna Margaret Griffin Woods ’98 and Matthew Woods

Holland McLain Gaddis, daughter of Chesley Phillips Gaddis ’99 and Owen Gaddis

Nathan Fitzhugh "Hugh" Lavelle, son of Katie Plomgren Lavelle ’99 and Nate Lavelle

Kenneth "William" Franklin, son of Alison and Kenneth Franklin ’00, along with his parents and proud big sister Charlotte

Channing Grace Milyo, January 19, 2018, daughter of Carly Grace Hinchman Milyo and Patrick Milyo

Owen Wilkening Ross and Julian Reeves Ross, sons of Kathleen Poe Ross ’01 and Jon Ross

Community, Faculty, and Staff

James “Wayland” Williams, son of Peyten Dobbs Williams ’01 and Stan Williams

Josef McKendree Good, July 7, 2017, son of Liesel Good (Upper School faculty) and Michael Good

Emma Cleo Brown, daughter of Alexandra Steiber Brown ’02 and David Brown

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Births 1992

Burton MacKay Cochran, February 2, 2017, son of Chantelle and David Cochran

1996

Margaret Anne Bockstedt, October 15, 2017, daughter of Katie Stembler Bockstedt and Jesse Bockstedt

1998

Margaret "Greta" Reynolds Woods, November 12, 2017, daughter of Anna Margaret Griffin Woods and Matthew Woods

1999

Holland McLain Gaddis, November 30, 2017, daughter of Chesley Phillips Gaddis and Owen Gaddis Nathan Fitzhugh "Hugh" Lavellle, January 25, 2018, son of Katie Plomgren Lavelle and Nate Lavelle

2000

2001

Owen Wilkening Ross and Julian Reeves Ross, June 25, 2017, sons of Kathleen Poe Ross and Jon Ross James “Wayland” Williams, December 15, 2017, son of Peyten Dobbs Williams and Stan Williams

2002

Emma Cleo Brown, June 23, 2017, daughter of Alexandra Steiber Brown and David Brown Margaret “Margot” Gregory Griffith, December 17, 2017, daughter of Liz Olmsted Griffith and Carter Griffith

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2003

2004

Joseph Lloyd Salimi, November 24, 2017, son of Annie Heller Salimi and Neema Salimi Robert "Robbie" Carlyle Sherrill, January 29, 2017, son of Eleanor and Scott Sherrill

Suzanne "Suzy" Elaine Adams, December 23, 2017, daughter of Leigh Baker Adams and Sam Adams

Ryan William "Wils" Sugrue, August 9, 2017, son of Bonnie Gibson Sugrue and Ryan Sugrue

Virginia "Grace" Brown, May 13, 2017, daughter of Laurie Meyer Brown and Taylor Brown

Ravi Krishan Warnick, October 11, 2017, son of Shikha and Derek Warnick

Andrew Taylor Bryan, April 28, 2017, son of Katharine Solms Bryan and Beau Bryan

2005

2006

Miles Wing Ho Yee, January 13, 2018, son of Ny-Ying Lam and Philip Yee

Robert Griffin Bara, September 25, 2017, son of Erin Callahan Bara and Dan Bara

Collier Samuel McEver, November 16, 2017, son of Courtney Van Winkle McEver and Taylor McEver

Jane Camilla Diehl, October 1, 2017, daughter of Mary Boyce Hicks Diehl and John Diehl

Virginia Katharine "Kate" Parrish, October 14, 2017, daughter of Frances Howell Parrish and Jack Parrish

2008

Vivian "Annie" Catherine McConnell, February 1, 2018, daughter of Emily Cook McConnell and Alex McConnell

Margaret "Greta" Reynolds Woods, daughter of Anna Margaret Griffin Woods ’98 and Matthew Woods

Holland McLain Gaddis, daughter of Chesley Phillips Gaddis ’99 and Owen Gaddis

Nathan Fitzhugh "Hugh" Lavelle, son of Katie Plomgren Lavelle ’99 and Nate Lavelle

Kenneth "William" Franklin, son of Alison and Kenneth Franklin ’00, along with his parents and proud big sister Charlotte

Channing Grace Milyo, January 19, 2018, daughter of Carly Grace Hinchman Milyo and Patrick Milyo

Owen Wilkening Ross and Julian Reeves Ross, sons of Kathleen Poe Ross ’01 and Jon Ross

Community, Faculty, and Staff

James “Wayland” Williams, son of Peyten Dobbs Williams ’01 and Stan Williams

Josef McKendree Good, July 7, 2017, son of Liesel Good (Upper School faculty) and Michael Good

Emma Cleo Brown, daughter of Alexandra Steiber Brown ’02 and David Brown

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BIRTHS

Margaret “Margot” Gregory Griffith, daughter of Liz Olmsted Griffith ’02 and Carter Griffith, being held by big brother Griff with big sisters Georgina and Eleanor

9. 10

Betts Bailey Kraft, pictured with big brother Hodge, children of Catherine Love Kraft ’03 and Kenny Kraft ’02

10.

Frances "Frankie" Branch Stelling, daughter of Ginny Branch Stelling ’02 and Ed Stelling ’02

11.

Suzanne "Suzy" Elaine Adams, daughter of Leigh Baker Adams ’03 and Sam Adams ’03

12.

Virginia "Grace" Brown, daughter of Laurie Meyer Brown ’03 and Taylor Brown, with big brother Tay

13.

Andrew Taylor Bryan, son of Katharine Solms Bryan ’03 and Beau Bryan

14.

Virginia "Dare" DiOrio, daughter of Morgan Shaw DiOrio ’03 (Upper School faculty) and Mike DiOrio

15.

Amelia James Edwards, daughter of Emily and Clayton Edwards ’03

16.

17.

Collier Samuel McEver, son of Courtney Van Winkle McEver ’03 and Taylor McEver

18.

Virginia Katharine "Kate" Parrish, daughter of Frances Howell Parrish ’03 and Jack Parrish

19.

Jackson Gehrig Sridhar, son of Kristin Cargill Sridhar ’03 and Michael Sridhar, with his parents and proud big brother Emerson

20.

Lawrence Lee Washburn V, son of Rachael Goldstucker Washburn ’03 and Lawrence Lee Washburn IV

21.

Joseph Loyd Salimi, son of Annie Heller Salimi ’04 and Neema Salimi

22.

Ryan William "Wils" Sugrue, son of Bonnie Gibson Sugrue ’04 and Ryan Sugrue ’04

23.

Ravi Krishan Warnick, son of Shikha and Derek Warnick ’04

24.

Blake Wardlaw Armstrong, son of Marjorie Schwahn Armstrong ’05 and Stuart Armstrong

25.

Andrew Beaumont “Beau” Allen Jr., son of Allison Sheats Allen ’05 and Beau Allen ’05

William "Will" Lane Holby Jr., son of Addie and Lane Holby ’03, with big sister Keller

78 | Spring 2018

WESTMINSTER | 79

BIRTHS

Margaret “Margot” Gregory Griffith, daughter of Liz Olmsted Griffith ’02 and Carter Griffith, being held by big brother Griff with big sisters Georgina and Eleanor

9. 10

Betts Bailey Kraft, pictured with big brother Hodge, children of Catherine Love Kraft ’03 and Kenny Kraft ’02

10.

Frances "Frankie" Branch Stelling, daughter of Ginny Branch Stelling ’02 and Ed Stelling ’02

11.

Suzanne "Suzy" Elaine Adams, daughter of Leigh Baker Adams ’03 and Sam Adams ’03

12.

Virginia "Grace" Brown, daughter of Laurie Meyer Brown ’03 and Taylor Brown, with big brother Tay

13.

Andrew Taylor Bryan, son of Katharine Solms Bryan ’03 and Beau Bryan

14.

Virginia "Dare" DiOrio, daughter of Morgan Shaw DiOrio ’03 (Upper School faculty) and Mike DiOrio

15.

Amelia James Edwards, daughter of Emily and Clayton Edwards ’03

16.

17.

Collier Samuel McEver, son of Courtney Van Winkle McEver ’03 and Taylor McEver

18.

Virginia Katharine "Kate" Parrish, daughter of Frances Howell Parrish ’03 and Jack Parrish

19.

Jackson Gehrig Sridhar, son of Kristin Cargill Sridhar ’03 and Michael Sridhar, with his parents and proud big brother Emerson

20.

Lawrence Lee Washburn V, son of Rachael Goldstucker Washburn ’03 and Lawrence Lee Washburn IV

21.

Joseph Loyd Salimi, son of Annie Heller Salimi ’04 and Neema Salimi

22.

Ryan William "Wils" Sugrue, son of Bonnie Gibson Sugrue ’04 and Ryan Sugrue ’04

23.

Ravi Krishan Warnick, son of Shikha and Derek Warnick ’04

24.

Blake Wardlaw Armstrong, son of Marjorie Schwahn Armstrong ’05 and Stuart Armstrong

25.

Andrew Beaumont “Beau” Allen Jr., son of Allison Sheats Allen ’05 and Beau Allen ’05

William "Will" Lane Holby Jr., son of Addie and Lane Holby ’03, with big sister Keller

78 | Spring 2018

WESTMINSTER | 79

BIRTHS

26.

William Valley Grandstaff, son of Caroline Williams Grandstaff ’05 and Kyle Grandstaff Clement "Chandler" McDavid, son of Stirling Douglas McDavid ’05 and Clem McDavid

Westminster

1937

1956

1942

1958

Joan Tate Wallace, November 22, 2017

1960

Betty Grace Spinks Laird, September 15, 2017 28

1946

Robert Griffin Bara, son of Erin Callahan Bara ’06 and Dan Bara

Carol Burch Tooke, August 8, 2017

29.

Jane Camilla Diehl, daughter of Mary Boyce Hicks Diehl ’06 and John Diehl

30.

Vivian "Annie" Catherine McConnell, daughter of Emily Cook McConnell ’08 and Alex McConnell

31.

Channing Grace Milyo, daughter of Carly Grace Hinchman Milyo ’08 and Patrick Milyo

NAPS Mildred Jessie Rand Lines, December 1, 2017

27.

28.

In Memoriam

33.

Beau Alexander Hight, son of Brooke Hight (Lower School faculty)

Grigsby "Grig" Hart Wotton Jr., August 26, 2017

Margaret Smith Buford, October 13, 2017

1962

1951

Lynne Rudder Baker, December 24, 2017

Patsy Rosser Wallace, October 20, 2017

George Arthur Howell Bird, January 12, 2018

Frankie Wells Wickham, September 15, 2017

Allan Barrett Johnson Jr., April 12, 2017

1940

Alice Johnson Fessenden, October 26, 2017

1941

Dottie Groom Nelson, December 7, 2016

34.

1944

Livingston Claire Lancaster, daughter of Emily Lancaster (Lower School faculty) and Pierce Lancaster

Frances Arnold Richardson Franklin, January 9, 2018

35.

Renee Ann Frederick, February 12, 2018, daughter of Rebecca Colborg Frederick (Lower School faculty) and Nick Frederick

1946

Julia Brewer Ballard, August 25, 2017 Beverly Griffith Dobbs Mitchell, September 11, 2017 Sarah Ann Bankston Waters, December 18, 2017

1949

Catherine "Kitty" Beck Branson, January 9, 2018 Toccoa Bailey Wise Switzer, August 5, 2017 Marilyn Jenkins Whitcomb, August 24, 2015

80 | Spring 2018

1965

Richard Hollis Pugmire, February 5, 2018 Emily Hightower Redwine, January 4, 2018

1966 Mark Owens McCrackin, January 16, 2018

1972

Isaac Clark Jr., July 26, 2017 William "Bill" Sebrell Craighill, October 17, 2017

1988

Steven “Scott” Selig, October 27, 2017

1994

Emily Hill Ferguson, January 20, 2018

Westminster Families Jutta M. Amberg, August 28, 2017, mother of Scott Lauffer ’82 Lynne Rudder Baker, December 24, 2017, sister of Cathy Rudder ’65

1950

Julia Brewer Ballard, August 25, 2017, mother of Julie Ballard Haralson ’69 and Helen Ballard ’72

1951

George Arthur Howell Bird, January 12, 2018, father of George Bird ’88 and Ann Bird Carvell ’92

Mary Ann Edmondson Bresee, October 1, 2017 Ann Stewart Hawley, October 16, 2017

1961

Nancy Alexander Bailey, December 8, 2017

Barbara Wilber Gerland, January 24, 2018

Gloria Tighe Veatch, daughter of Jennifer Veatch (Middle School faculty) and Jason Veatch

Hamilton Gray Skelton Jr., January 5, 2018 Dudley Gatewood Pearson, August 21, 2017

1939

32.

Carol Littlejohn Norton, January 31, 2018

1949

Washington Seminary

Geoffrey “Geoff” Churchill, March 17, 2017

1953

Margaret Chappellet Brazones, July 31, 2017

Frances “Fran” Ward Bondurant, December 12, 2017, mother of Ward Bondurant ’78 and Rhea Bondurant Oberholtzer ’83 WESTMINSTER | 81

BIRTHS

26.

William Valley Grandstaff, son of Caroline Williams Grandstaff ’05 and Kyle Grandstaff Clement "Chandler" McDavid, son of Stirling Douglas McDavid ’05 and Clem McDavid

Westminster

1937

1956

1942

1958

Joan Tate Wallace, November 22, 2017

1960

Betty Grace Spinks Laird, September 15, 2017 28

1946

Robert Griffin Bara, son of Erin Callahan Bara ’06 and Dan Bara

Carol Burch Tooke, August 8, 2017

29.

Jane Camilla Diehl, daughter of Mary Boyce Hicks Diehl ’06 and John Diehl

30.

Vivian "Annie" Catherine McConnell, daughter of Emily Cook McConnell ’08 and Alex McConnell

31.

Channing Grace Milyo, daughter of Carly Grace Hinchman Milyo ’08 and Patrick Milyo

NAPS Mildred Jessie Rand Lines, December 1, 2017

27.

28.

In Memoriam

33.

Beau Alexander Hight, son of Brooke Hight (Lower School faculty)

Grigsby "Grig" Hart Wotton Jr., August 26, 2017

Margaret Smith Buford, October 13, 2017

1962

1951

Lynne Rudder Baker, December 24, 2017

Patsy Rosser Wallace, October 20, 2017

George Arthur Howell Bird, January 12, 2018

Frankie Wells Wickham, September 15, 2017

Allan Barrett Johnson Jr., April 12, 2017

1940

Alice Johnson Fessenden, October 26, 2017

1941

Dottie Groom Nelson, December 7, 2016

34.

1944

Livingston Claire Lancaster, daughter of Emily Lancaster (Lower School faculty) and Pierce Lancaster

Frances Arnold Richardson Franklin, January 9, 2018

35.

Renee Ann Frederick, February 12, 2018, daughter of Rebecca Colborg Frederick (Lower School faculty) and Nick Frederick

1946

Julia Brewer Ballard, August 25, 2017 Beverly Griffith Dobbs Mitchell, September 11, 2017 Sarah Ann Bankston Waters, December 18, 2017

1949

Catherine "Kitty" Beck Branson, January 9, 2018 Toccoa Bailey Wise Switzer, August 5, 2017 Marilyn Jenkins Whitcomb, August 24, 2015

80 | Spring 2018

1965

Richard Hollis Pugmire, February 5, 2018 Emily Hightower Redwine, January 4, 2018

1966 Mark Owens McCrackin, January 16, 2018

1972

Isaac Clark Jr., July 26, 2017 William "Bill" Sebrell Craighill, October 17, 2017

1988

Steven “Scott” Selig, October 27, 2017

1994

Emily Hill Ferguson, January 20, 2018

Westminster Families Jutta M. Amberg, August 28, 2017, mother of Scott Lauffer ’82 Lynne Rudder Baker, December 24, 2017, sister of Cathy Rudder ’65

1950

Julia Brewer Ballard, August 25, 2017, mother of Julie Ballard Haralson ’69 and Helen Ballard ’72

1951

George Arthur Howell Bird, January 12, 2018, father of George Bird ’88 and Ann Bird Carvell ’92

Mary Ann Edmondson Bresee, October 1, 2017 Ann Stewart Hawley, October 16, 2017

1961

Nancy Alexander Bailey, December 8, 2017

Barbara Wilber Gerland, January 24, 2018

Gloria Tighe Veatch, daughter of Jennifer Veatch (Middle School faculty) and Jason Veatch

Hamilton Gray Skelton Jr., January 5, 2018 Dudley Gatewood Pearson, August 21, 2017

1939

32.

Carol Littlejohn Norton, January 31, 2018

1949

Washington Seminary

Geoffrey “Geoff” Churchill, March 17, 2017

1953

Margaret Chappellet Brazones, July 31, 2017

Frances “Fran” Ward Bondurant, December 12, 2017, mother of Ward Bondurant ’78 and Rhea Bondurant Oberholtzer ’83 WESTMINSTER | 81

IN MEMORIAM

Harold Jenkins Bowen Jr., January 4, 2018, father of Catherine Bowen Stern ’84

Richard Hollis Pugmire, February 5, 2018, father of Austin Pugmire ’93

James "Jim" Jordan Bynum Jr., December 8, 2017, father of Carlisle Bynum Bruce ’94

Robert E. Rosette, September 1, 2015, husband of Martha Ritter Rosette ’62

Eleanor Clay Calhoun, December 21, 2017, mother of Clay Calhoun ’67

Ray Moody Seigler Jr., January 12, 2018, husband of Virginia Davis Seigler ’84

Sheldon Bradley Cohen, November 9, 2017, father of Steve Cohen ’74, Bruce Cohen ’76, and Andrea Cohen ’79

Scott Selig, October 27, 2017, son of Steve Selig ’67 and brother of Mindy Selig Shoulberg ’87

Rex A. Deaton, January 19, 2018, father of Mimi Deaton Arnold ’80

Thomas "Tom" Otis Sturkie, November 3, 2017, father of Lisa Sturkie Greenberg ’76, Bill Sturkie ’79, and Carter Sturkie ’85

Elaray "Pam" Griggers Flournoy, September 13, 2017, mother of Matt Flournoy ’72 Frances Arnold Richardson Franklin, January 9, 2018, mother of Fran Howell Grant ’69 and JoJo Howell Nelson ’77 Clifford Clarke Glover, August 25, 2017, father of Laura Glover Thatcher ’73 Caralice Fears Henderson, January 3, 2018, mother of Jim Henderson ’69, Ginger Henderson Craft ’72, and Betty Ann Henderson Abblitt ’76 Jane Osbun Chapman Jackson, September 26, 2017, sister of Kathy Chapman ’70 Elizabeth "Beth" Cooley Jordan, October 11, 2017, mother of Brian Jordan ’08 and Rachel Jordan ’10 Mildred Jessie Rand Lines, December 1, 2017, mother of Alva Rand Lines ’60 and Marianna Lines ’62 John "Jack" Brook Lyle, December 1, 2016, son of Ann Pegram Howington ’55 Fred Nelson McGranahan III, November 5, 2017, husband of Margaret Payne McGranahan ’80 Beverly Griffith Dobbs Mitchell, September 11, 2017, mother of Bev Mitchell Ellithorp ’73 Floyd Childs Newton Jr., February 1, 2018, father of Jennie Newton ’71, Floyd Newton ’73, and Godfrey Newton ’76 William "Bill" A. Parker Jr., December 12, 2017, father of Bill Parker ’71, Ibby Parker Mills ’74, and Richard Parker ’77 Walter Catesby Perrin II, November 26, 2017, father of Timmi Perrin ’80, Catesby Perrin ’00, and David Perrin ’06

82 | Spring 2018

for his active role in making the library a beloved haven for students. “Every period of the day, and before and after school, we’re packed. This is a library specifically designed to have spaces available for quiet study, group study, and relaxing. There’s always a place to go.” After serving in the United States Navy and graduating from Emory University, Bill spent 32 years with Beck and Gregg Hardware Company, including 15 years as president. When Beck and Gregg merged with Genuine Parts Company, he additionally served as vice president and director of Genuine Parts. Bill was a member of boards for several companies and nonprofits during his lifetime.

Richard A. Sugarman, September 2, 2017, father of Sarah Sugarman ’99 and Rebecca Sugarman ’01

He is survived by three children: William Anderson Parker III ’71, Isobel Parker Mills ’74, and Richard Carlyle Parker ’77, in addition to his widow, Jean Jorgenson Parker.

Richard Wayne Wolfe, November 22, 2017, father of Brandon Wolfe ’00 Grigsby "Grig" Hart Wotton Jr., August 26, 2017, brother of Jack Wotton ’63

Community, Faculty, and Staff Jutta M. Amberg, August 28, 2017 (retired faculty) Jorge A. Perez-Cisneros, August 31, 2016, father of Jorge A. Perez-Cisneros Jr. (Middle School faculty) Laura Jean Emrick Etzel, November 2, 2017, mother of Sue Davenport (Lower School faculty) James "Jim" Jordan Bynum Jr., December 8, 2017, husband of Jean Bynum (retired faculty) Helen Johnson, January 11, 2018, mother of Cheryle Kirk (Middle School staff) Peter Evans, January 19, 2018, father of Keith Evans (President) Elizabeth “Betty” Fisher Egan, February 10, 2018, mother of Kristin Domescik (staff)

Bill Parker in the Parker Board Room among the Donn M. Gaebelein Christian Scholarship Collection, made possible by the Fraser-Parker Foundation, during the re-dedication of the library in 2014.

William A. “Bill” Parker 1927-2017

The world lost a true servant leader on December 12, 2017, in William A. “Bill” Parker Jr., a dear friend to Westminster. A devoted Christian, a leader in business, a loving husband and father, an active philanthropist, and a caring friend, Bill Parker was one of a kind. Bill joined Westminster’s Board of Trustees in 1960, serving as chairman from 1979 to 1984. As a trustee, a parent, and a friend to the School, Bill made many extraordinary contributions to Westminster. Bill was particularly dedicated to the Carlyle Fraser Library, which was originally envisioned and provided by Isobel and Carlyle Fraser, parents of Bill’s wife of 53 years, Nancy Fraser Parker WS ’48. When the library was reimagined and expanded in 2014, the new Parker Board Room was named in honor of Bill and in memory of Nancy. It houses the Donn M. Gaebelein Christian Scholarship Collection, made possible by the Fraser-Parker Foundation. “Bill wanted the library to be a living, breathing part of campus—a hub of intellectual activity. He wanted kids in here.” says Director of Libraries Liesel Good, praising Bill

While Bill was well known as a successful businessman, he was equally considered a kind friend with a deep sense of compassion, graciousness, and a sense of humor. One of Bill’s special touches was writing letters to those he cared about, often including funny jokes or interesting news clippings. “Bill had a remarkable way of sending you an unexpected note or personalized gift just when you needed it most,” says Vice President for Institutional Advancement Emilie Henry. “Words of support and friendship, a good laugh in the form of a printed joke, or flowers to brighten a rainy day, he modeled for me what it means to put others first. His letters always concluded with, ‘I’m for you’ or ‘Devotedly’–both were perfect, because he was just that, for me and for others, and I never doubted it. In addition to his remarkable generosity, which was a direct expression of his deep faith, he was one of the best people I’ve ever known. I’ll miss him and am grateful for the drawer filled with his letters that serve as a strong reminder of the kind of person I want to be.” President Keith Evans describes Bill as a “true Westminster hero” whose steadfast loyalty to the School has made a lasting difference. “He has been a source of leadership, encouragement, and inspiration for decades, and virtually every part of the School bears his fingerprints,” Keith says. “He was a great friend to our students and faculty, always a gracious presence, and always offering a kind thought or comment. We miss Bill and may never see another like him.”

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