UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF NASHVILLE
2000 Edgehill is published by the Alumni and Development Office for the Peabody Demonstration School and University School of Nashville community. Vincent W. Durnan, Jr. Director Anne Westfall Development Director Connie Culpepper Editor Anna Myint ’04 Alumni Director & Social Media Manager Juanita I. C. Traughber Communications Director Jenny Winston Archivist
On the cover A selection of covers from Connie Culpepper’s tenure as editor of 2000 Edgehill. The editor thanks the volunteer writers who contributed to this magazine, with special credit to John TeSelle ’83, who thought of exploring the history of dress at PDS and USN, then interviewed countless alumni and wrote the piece in this issue; all the alumni who shared their recollections with John; archivist Jenny Winston; everyone who submitted class notes and photos; Juliet Douglas, Lynne Mosby ’66, Anna Myint ’04, Lorie Strong, Juanita I. C. Traughber, and Anne Westfall for proofreading and editorial suggestions.
We would love to hear from you about anything you read in 2000 Edgehill, or, for that matter, whatever you have to say about your student days here. Email jtraughber@usn.org or write Juanita I. C. Traughber University School of Nashville 2000 Edgehill Avenue Nashville, Tennessee 37212
University School of Nashville does not discriminate on the basis of color, creed, gender identity and expression, handicap, national origin, race, sex, sexual orientation, or transgender status in the administration of its educational, admissions, and financial aid policies, faculty and staff recruitment and hiring policies, athletics, or other programs or activities administered by the school. University School of Nashville models the best educational practices. In an environment that represents the cultural and ethnic composition of greater Nashville, USN fosters each student’s intellectual, artistic, and athletic potential, valuing and inspiring integrity, creative expression, a love of learning, and the pursuit of excellence. 2000 EDGEHILL 2
The Alumni Magazine of Peabody Demonstration School & University School of Nashville #2/2018
2 0 0 0 Letters to the Editor/Mystery Solved Story Forum
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Has USN Ever Had a Dress Code?
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Gift Honors Dr. Beauchamp 16 Learning to Solve Problems 18 Paint Tells a Story 20 College Counselors See the Other Side 22 Reunion 24 6
20 Telling Stories: A Look Back 34 Class Notes 36 A Life of Engagement 39
Already Distinguished 40
Fourteen Years on Edgehill 46
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In
It seems an unremarkable story—PDS and USN alumni tell us every day that they are continuing to think about this school and the people they came to know here. But this teacher remains alive in memories more than 70 years old. It was a 90th birthday trip to Italy for this alumna, who graduated from PDS in 1946. Mrs. Parsons, the Latin teacher, could not have guessed that her influence on young Katy Anderson would remain green into the 21st century. And the longevity of Mrs. Parsons’ influence differs only in length from the immortality all teachers achieve without thinking. Each group of students appears, each group of students needs to be taught—no time to worry about the future. This has been a magazine about time’s passing. It has been dedicated to preserving the memory of Peabody Demonstration School as well as to celebrating the life of University School of Nashville. But even the photos of this year’s Reunion remind us that, as Mrs. Parsons might have said, tempus fugit. No one at a K-12 school can forget that truth, saying goodbye to beloved seniors each May, then welcoming little children blooming with possibility a couple of months later. Now 2000 Edgehill’s second editor will totter into the sunset, though not because these stories of PDS and USN have begun to weary. In fact, in this issue we indulge ourselves by reminding you of some of our favorites (page 34). We lack the space to list all the favorite people I’ve met because of this school: alumni, students, parents, colleagues. My former students occupy a special place in my heart (if I may be allowed one sentence worth of mushiness). How lucky I’ve been to spend my working life at USN. And so, farewell. It’s time. nn
Connie Culpepper, Editor
was 1979 when University School of Nashville recognized its first distinguished alumnus, Stanford Moore, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He graduated from Peabody Demonstration School in 1931. This year’s Distinguished Alumnus, Marshall Moutenot, graduated from USN 78 years later, in 2009. (See page 40.) So when he spoke to the seniors at Convocation, he also was talking to many of his teachers, and he offered the Class of 2018 an example of what young people can do, something they’ve been thinking about a lot this year. Saying goodbye to the seniors, we always hope to see them again soon, and many of them do stop by whenever they are in Nashville —not just when we give them special invitations. And we come to you—we’ve planned visits to cities where many of our alumni live. When you read this, we will have already begun our tour. So if you live in Boston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago, Denver, or Seattle, expect to see Vince Durnan and me. We can’t wait to catch up with you, and we love introducing you to each other in these far-away cities. By the way, if you’ve just moved to one of these places, be sure to let us know so we can send you an invitation. At this year’s Reunion one of our most engaged classes, 1968, joined the Gold Circle. A look at our Reunion pictures (page 24 and at usn.org/alumni) shows how happy people are to see each other and their former teachers. We’re excited about this year’s Reunion, when we will welcome the class of 1969 into the Gold Circle and see the 9’s and 4’s back here for parties. My class is celebrating its fifteenth. The 2019 Reunion will be May 2-4, a change from our usual April dates, so mark your calendars. If you want to help plan your class party, please email me at amyint@usn.org or call me at 615-732-6714. Remember, you’re always welcome back here at 2000 Edgehill Ave. We’d love to show you what’s going on at USN. Yes, some things have changed, but you’ll see that in many ways the school is just as you remember it. We look forward to seeing you. nn
Anna Myint ’04, Alumni Director & Social Media Manager To see the daily happenings at USN, visit Facebook.com/usn.pds or Instagram.com/usn_pds.
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photo by Claudia Huskey
It photo by Kimberly Manz
this issue’s Class Notes, a PDS alumna recalls a recent visit to Pompeii with her husband. As she gazed at the ruins, she recalled what her high school Latin teacher taught her about Roman life and culture.
Why a Magazine?
Think about it for a minute. We’ve all seen periodical publications in this genre that don’t quite find their way. Some can’t resist enumerating recent accolades so single mindedly that they lack any historical context or ties to the people whose earlier efforts made those very achievements possible. Others languish in the distant past such that current voices get crowded out. And still others embrace thick glossy pages of human interest stories that don’t really tell readers much about why those stories matter or how they connect. I’d submit, having watched and admired her at the forge for quite a while now, that Connie struck the golden mean. Maybe most important, she taught us our own origin story, usually with a smile and a twist, having reaped the benefit of digging deep where few had researched before. Given the parade of fascinating characters who’ve walked this campus, her determination was rewarded by unearthing such good material. But she steered clear of hagiography—she didn’t need to go there. And she almost always found a contemporary connection. Placed end to end, the run of 39 magazines done on her watch, which began with the fourth edition we ever printed, constitutes a remarkable letter to posterity. They predate any formal archives or even the library space that they now call home, not to mention the archivist who now catalogs those documents. At a moment when memories were fading with the swift passage of time, Connie reminded everyone to look to our roots as we considered our future. To her, across the generations it was one continuous story. Such is the case with this edition, too. There’s an homage to Dr. Beauchamp, arguably the finest teacher ever in this building, and certainly the only one praised in a Nobel prize acceptance speech. Then there’s a look at our youngest Distinguished Alumnus ever, Marshall Moutenot, the latest in a line that runs back to
UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF NASHVILLE
Dr. Beauchamp’s best student, Nobel winner Stanford Moore ’31 —and a scientist in his own right, via computer data. And there’s a feature on the way we now teach math to our youngest students, in addition to one on a neighborhood mural that emerged from a fifth grade social studies unit. How does it all connect? That’s the question deep within the way Connie has framed our magazine. Rather than see today’s events as ways to separate us from prior generations, she saw them, she sees them, as manifestations of what has always mattered here, of great teaching and enthusiastic learning and ideas worth pursuing. As much as our school lives in the present tense, we do benefit by understanding our past. Thank goodness that in large measure it’s a tale worth telling. So we’ll keep publishing this biannual journal, old school though its form may be in today’s crowded blogosphere, in the midst of unprecedented digital media noise. Making time to think about what should go on the cover and how to allocate the pages within helps us focus on what messages to share with the kitchen tables of the broader USN community. That exercise must be good for us. It certainly has been for me. Sharing in the effort of storytelling with Connie Culpepper, whether visiting the Rockefeller archives in Westchester or the mountains outside Asheville interviewing Thomas Alexander’s son, or in Franklin looking at Bruce Payne’s diaries, has been a joyfully formative experience for me. I’ve heard the gratitude expressed by her HS English students here from way back when, and I’ve felt it personally. Losing her as colleague and editor induces more than a little worry, but then it’s probably a sign that she knows we can carry on from here. nn Careful not to use an exclamation point,
Vince Durnan, Director
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photo by Kimberly Manz
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his edition marks the end of a quietly important tenure for Connie Culpepper as editor of what we now call 2000 Edgehill. For two decades, she’s prepared and illuminated this canvas with the stories, past and present, that teach us and remind us who we are as a school. Her modesty in that role, matched only by her deep affection for the PDS to USN narrative, traces directly to the culture she so ably described, page by wellcrafted page. Getting the task right was no small challenge.
LETTERS to the EDITOR n You have written a fine article, combining educational theory,
PDS/USN history, and a great PR piece. Needless to say, I am personally flattered beyond belief. To think that so many students still think about those days so positively is just amazing. I am deeply moved by your comments and their memories. The commitment to continuing experiential learning at USN is rare and courageous. I compliment you, Vince, and the other staff members involved. No wonder I feel such a deep connection to the school after all these years. It’s still a wonderful place. I look forward to attending the next two reunions. Paul George, former faculty member
n Very impressed by your “Education: a Process of Living” and “Welcoming Nashville to USN” articles. It’s the “right stuff”to my mind. Would like to see more about this & students involved and impact on those finishing the program. Steve Sternheimer ’60
PDS/USN archives
Mystery Solved Of course Heber Rogers remembers this trip to Valdosta to observe the total eclipse of the sun. He was teaching physical geography, which included astronomy. Seven years before, during a summer workshop at the Fels Planetarium, clouds had spoiled his trip to Maine to see a total solar eclipse. “A total washout,” he said on a visit to USN this summer. He arranged the trip to Valdosta, Georgia in 1970, another eclipse shrouded by clouds. “I finally saw a solar eclipse in Nashville in 2017,” Heber said. Lee Edwards ’71 was the first to respond. “I recognize Peter Ansoff, Roger Cook, Greg the Genius [Williams], Ed Masuoka, Cooper Beazley, Phil Mintz, and Crash Kellogg.” He was less certain about Ben Caldwell and someone named Carlton on the far right. (Note: Ed Masuoka ’70 is Chief of NASA’s Terrestrial Information Systems Laboratory. No surprise that he wanted to go on this trip. Perhaps all of these boys became scientists.) Peter Ansoff ’71 also has clear memories of the March 7 trip and the university dorms. “I shared a room with Greg Williams [next to Peter]. Greg had brought a telescope and camera to observe the eclipse, and spent part of the evening rehearsing the sequence of shots (inner corona, outer corona . . . ).” In the morning the field reserved for observers “was swarming with people setting up exotic-looking equipment; it reminded me of the scene in the old Godzilla movies when the good guys are preparing for the monster’s attack on Tokyo. “ We could see the sun through a thin cloud layer well enough to watch the beginning of the eclipse, but by the time of totality it was heavily overcast. It got dark, the street lights came on and the birds started to sing, but there was nothing for us to see or photograph. Somebody on the field had a portable TV, and we watched the totality broadcast from Mexico.” Peter remembers riding with Mr. Bradley, “the Science Teacher Who Didn’t Believe in Evolution. (He was a really nice guy, however!)” We also heard from someone who missed the eclipse trip: Terry Richardson, “former Peabody College physics prof and PDS/USN instructor of chemistry, precalculus, astronomy and photography from 1973-1975.” Though he had always wanted to see a total eclipse, Terry missed going on this trip because “the astronomers at Vanderbilt [where he was a graduate student in astrophysics] were such grumpy curmudgeons” who gave him too much homework in astrophysics, spectroscopy and photometry for him to make the trip.
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PDS/USN archives
Mystery Photos We recognize many of the people in these photos of the student vs. faculty basketball game back in the early ’80s, no later than 1983. What do you remember about that game? What do you remember about “Doc” Shuffett? Bill Rodriguez when he had hair? Coach Matthews? John Mason?
PDS/USN archives
Remember when the pep band played in the balcony overlooking the Cheek Gym? When watching a basketball game there might mean that your feet extended onto the playing floor if you weren’t careful? And what about that basketball team, some of whom we see watching the action? Did you play on it? Cheer it on? Please let us hear from you. Email jtraughber@usn.org to share your recollections. And if you would like to see the rest of the photos we have of this game, visit usnarchives.omeka.net.
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Shoes or Sandals Must Be Worn A History of the High School Dress Code (or the lack of one) at Peabody Demonstration School/ University School of Nashville By John TeSelle ’83
I have carefully considered the proposal passed on April 21, 1969 by the Student Activity Council concerning the wearing of slacks by girls to classes.
has been a shared ideal for administrators, faculty, and students (and their parents). But a line falls somewhere, always defined by someone’s opinion of good taste.
The letter from Dr. Ed Pratt, Dean of Peabody Demonstration School from 1968 to 1977, is perhaps the earliest available documentation of a dress code, if you can call it that, at the school. This letter offers a good example of how questions about student attire would be managed over the next fifty years at PDS/USN.
It seems reasonable to me to give the S.A.C. proposal a trial. I am, therefore, giving approval to this proposal for the remainder of the 1968-1969 school year.
I have also asked for and received faculty comment on the proposal. The faculty is divided on the issue.
Dr. Pratt did not know, of course, that within two years students would be wearing jeans, shorts, army surplus jackets, embroidered ponchos, and fringed suede shirts. Having left the bag, the cat does not go back in. This should not be interpreted as encouragement of slacks or any particular mode of dress by the school. It is simply a decision by the Dean that the wearing of slacks will probably not disrupt the educative process if parents consider them appropriate for their children.
The school’s administration and faculty have typically turned over slowly, with PDS/USN archives wide variation in age and life experience. Dr. Ed Pratt, Dean of Peabody Demonstration School from 1968 to 1977 Students form a tighter pack whose members and fashions churn yearly. Disagreement is inevitable between these camps, A desire to avoid disruption or distraction and even within them, about what students should wear and who from learning is a recurring concern in discussions about dress should decide. codes, at PDS/USN and at other schools. Like student choice and good taste, avoiding disruption is a goal that most everyone Clothes worn by students should be largely the concern of the student can support. The question of specifically who or what might be and his or her parents. I wish to commend the S.A.C. for suggesting disrupted, and by what, has been a significant one. the criterion of good taste as a limitation on clothing worn to school. It is also significant that the letter from Dr. Pratt is about what Although written rules accumulated over the years form a sort girls were wearing. of dress code, the school more accurately has a dress philosophy, and this statement by Dr. Pratt expresses it well. Student choice
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2000 EDGEHILL
PDS/USN archives
These junior class officers in their 1963 Volunteer photo show what no dress code looked like in the early ’60s (l. to r.): Frances Solin, John Rau, Judy Graves, Don Leslie, Al Lowe, Eddie Tipton, all Class of ’64.
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The upheaval and youthful rebellion of the 1960s arrived late to Peabody Demonstration School. The generally conservative character of Nashville at the time had something to do with it, as did the personalities of Dr. Beauchamp and Director Knox McCharen.
Conforming Most of the Time
Photographs in yearbooks supply our primary evidence of standards of dress in the first years of Peabody Demonstration School. It appears that the girls dressed the same, and the boys did likewise. Alumni recollections tell a similar story. “The girls all wore skirts and the boys wore trousers, usually corduroy—never any denim. There was never any prescribed dress code. There was nothing really to rebel against,” recalls Jack May ’47. “There was something going on at the time called World War II, and there wasn’t much rebellion of any kind.”
Charles Doherty ’69 was Vice-President of the Student Activities Council. He says, “Dr. McCharen had been at the helm for eons and had run a tight ship. Dr. Pratt took charge when the students and faculty of PDS, not to mention the entire nation, were culturally and politically divided. I imagine that the young women in ’69 got tired of being told to wear dresses, garter belts, girdles, and panty hose and decided that if Ted Yeatman and John Justice could come to class wearing Civil War uniforms, then they should damn well be able to wear a pair of ‘slacks’.”
PDS/U SN archives
Schools were racially segregated, but within the white PDS community, May remembers, “what we had then was a real cross-section, there was great class diversity.” But students did not express their diversity through clothing choices. At other Jayne Hillman ‘70’s poem from the private schools or at public schools such as 1968 Gallery, the literary magazine, Pearl (for black students) or Hume-Fogg in her sophomore year (for white students), everyone followed In the 1970s, fashions were changing quickly and stanthe same standard of skirt, trousers, shirt. dards were being challenged. But because of some unusual As May says, “there was a great premium on conformity.” circumstances at the school, administrators gave little attention to these matters. Karen Ward Knox ’66 says that high school students were “fairly conservative” in their dress and “if you had lined them up Dr. Pratt is reported to have been reclusive, and he avoided with people from St. Cecilia and Harpeth Hall, St. Bernard’s, I engagement with students and faculty. Heber Rogers, Associate wouldn’t be able to pick out any of them. It was basically Villager Director, managed the school day-to-day. He recalls, “I was the dresses or blouses and skirts and cardigans and loafers for the front man. I dealt with scheduling—and this was before the days girls. And that was kind of it, really. The guys all wore slacks and of computers of course. I dealt with discipline and I had constant shirts.” contact with parents. I never voiced any opinion about a dress code. In my mind it was not that important.” Shannon Paty ’68 recalls that a dress code “was never written down anywhere. It was just what you wore. Dr. Beauchamp, who Patty Pangle Diehl ’71 recalls that the change from the city-wide was the Assistant Principal at the time, had fairly strict ideas standard for school attire occurred quickly, with African-American about what people should wear. In late spring when it would be students wearing afros by 1970 and girls wearing jeans by 1971. “My getting so hot out, the fashion was shoestring strap dresses— public school friends were so jealous,” she says. “Because we had no little sundresses—and he wasn’t going to have that. It wasn’t official dress code, anything went—we had bellbottoms, we had really pushing limits. These were outfits they could have worn to blue jeans, we had army jackets, we had peasant dresses, we had long church.” What’s more, she adds, “Dr. Beauchamp did not want hair; the girls with curly hair were proud of their curly hair. Nobody boys and girls touching. If he saw people hand holding he would ironed it anymore. And by 1971 there were more options to shop bust it up.” in Nashville. 100 Oaks Mall had opened. That made a difference.”
Minor Turbulence
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A decade after the junior class officers posed on the front porch, these freshman class representatives show the new standards of dress at PDS (l. to r.): Bruce Lustig, Derek Elliot, Mark Fancher, Mickie Foster, Bruce MacMillan, all class of ’76. Right: from the 1974 Volunteer
Connie Heard ’73 came to PDS after Harpeth Hall, where pants were not allowed and the girls wore “an implied uniform” with certain brands and “matching skirts and blouses and knee socks and sweaters. And then I came to Peabody and there were absolutely no rules whatsoever that I remember. At Peabody this was definitely hippie time. I remember wearing sandals that were made by our English teacher’s assistant.” In 1975 it was announced that Peabody Demonstration School would close, and attention focused on how the institution could survive independently. University School of Nashville’s first director, Harold Snedcof, lasted less than a year; his tenure was contentious and rumors of an imminent faculty purge unsettled the school community. Heber Rogers was appointed Interim Director, serving until 1978. Rogers remembers pervasive paranoia and a Board directive to “calm things down. Get people settled. Because they can’t be effective teachers with such anxiety.” In an environment such as this, attention to dress code issues was a luxury. Joe Gallivan ’78 remembers the administrative changes as well as the laid-back attitudes, with Dr. Pratt being the “stickler” and Mr. Rogers less strict. “And then they got Snedcof in there and we ran all over him. And I think that’s when there was no coming back.” Joe recalls, “They used to bust the girls occasionally for showing some midriff and so the girls that did that would always wear a coat and hide it during school and show up out on the campus
PDS/USN archives
across the street in pretty provocative clothing.” Few teachers enforced standards, he says. “They had other things to deal with.” In the ’70s, while Montomery Bell Academy, Battle Ground Academy, and Harpeth Hall were tightening their dress codes or requiring uniforms in response to changes in the larger culture, USN allowed these changes to permeate the school. Administrators and their individual priorities, along with financial struggle and institutional turmoil, resulted in a policy of benign neglect toward student attire. Like Galapagos finches on an island, USN students, once indistinguishable from those at other schools, had by the end of the decade diverged to form their own type.
A Little Dress Code is Born
By the late ’70s, when the school had found its footing and a new administration led by Harvey Sperling turned its attention to a dress policy, relaxed standards and an emphasis on individual expression had become a part of the school’s character. Around this time there may have been some consideration of a high school uniform—not just a dress code, but a real uniform. Memories vary on this question. Any such proposal, to the extent it was discussed, did not have traction. But for the first time, a rule about student dress appeared in the handbook: Clean and neat attire is expected; shoes or sandals must be worn at all times. continued on next page
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John (now Joanne) Mason, head of the High School from 1977 to 1985, recalls of the new rule, “I don’t think it was very rigorous. We were concerned with establishing USN’s image in the community as a respectable school. At the same time, we wanted to keep USN’s character as a liberal school that respected students’ integrity and freedom.”
During my years at USN, 1978 through graduation in 1983, I can’t remember anyone’s clothing being a problem. Surely there were some incidents and I just missed them, but this turns out to It’s ironic that someone selected these three class of 1981 students to illustrate in The Nashville Banner the madness of be a common impression—either that unregulated dress at USN, since Kim Albridge, Ann Meador, and Alicia Mazur were no one’s idea of wild rebellion. there was no dress code at the school But perhaps that was the idea, and the contrast with the Father Ryan students remains clear. Two of the USN kids are wearing blue jeans, after all. or that it was not a concern in everyday life—expressed by both faculty and In 1986 the word “appropriate” was added to the original sentence; students from all eras. An investigation of policy and how it dein 1987 “in good repair” appears. So does a statement that “there veloped has to seek out changes and the questions or challenges is no prescribed school uniform or attire.” That phrase is dropped that led to those changes. And for students who have been the in 1995, and “shirts must be worn at all times” is added, along with object of dress code enforcement, often the memory is vivid even the requirement that “proper attire is expected at all more formal years later. But it is worth remembering that most of the time the gatherings, such as the Cum Laude and Awards Assemblies, and administration and the students have understood the standards trips to TPAC.” One can imagine the circumstances. and each other pretty well.
Counting Words
The student handbook has been updated several times since that first sentence about clothing appeared, with new provisions added to cover previously unconsidered situations. Anita Schmid, Dean of Students and Guidance Counselor from 1989 through 2014, observes that often “every rule has a specific event or name next to it.”
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By this point the one sentence has grown to four, but they still form a compact paragraph. Then in 1997 the number of words expanded by 400 percent.
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility
In March of 1997, when the paragraph in the student handbook was still short, Ed Costello, Director from 1991 through 1998,
2000 EDGEHILL
PDS/USN archives
But about the shoes and sandals: of all the possible offenses that could be regulated, why the emphasis on footwear? Bobbie Grubb, Administrative Assistant to directors from 1977 to 2013, explains, “That was a Health Department rule—that you had to keep your shoes on. We’d have to get after kids sometimes because of that. I guess it was springtime and you get hot and take your shoes back off. But nobody got in trouble for it.”
In general I like to avoid controversy. Why then would I instigate a discussion of student dress standards in the High School? This is certain to be a hot topic, and a potentially divisive one. While I think a closely articulated series of rules or standards would be entirely inconsistent with both the school we are and the school we want to become, I have some questions I would like us to consider. Are our standards comprehensible to our students, kindergarten through seniors, and to our faculty? Are we currently at risk of being misunderstood by the broader Nashville community as a school with no boundaries? Can we distinguish between dress which is idiosyncratic from that which is distracting to others?
PDS/USN archives
The rewrite of the dress code in the summer of 1997 was the first, and so far the only, major revision of this section of the handbook. It was prompted by several factors: a new prominence of the school among Nashvillians, a more diverse and demanding parent body, and changes in popular fashion that unsettled some adults. This attempt at strategic Ed Costello change had mainly tactical effects— some useful in the long term, some not. As Costello summarized it later, “I think the broad culture of the High School wasn’t having it. As usual the kids are the rules no matter what you write.” The concerns that motivated Ed Costello to initiate this discussion were rooted in his affection for the school and its traditions and in his responsibility to help secure its future. “I think we were the best school in the city in terms of what we were able to get kids to do and what we were able to bring to the table. It was a really good school. But if you toured you just saw this mass of ragamuffins in the High School—particularly in the early years before we
renovated and air conditioned. It was kind of a snake pit up there. And I didn’t think we could afford to be misunderstood.” Richard O’Hara, Head of the High School from 1989 through 1997, remembers the mid ’90s as “a time where the needle moved or we turned a corner or something in Nashville. And Rick O’Hara the place started to become a hot school. And it was kind of ‘old Nashville’ who might have seen it as the hippie-progressive too-liberal alternative school—it started to become more mainstream. But that brought with it folks who saw such things as dress code in a somewhat different light and who really had higher expectations for what the kids would look like.” Exacerbating the administrators’ dilemma of the scruffy-looking or scantily-clad yet otherwise admirable student were new fashions that just threw some people for a loop. Two trends, “underwear as outerwear” and “goth,” were ascendant in popular culture. The underwear issue was really two separate trends: “sagging” jeans that expose (usually a boy’s) underwear and sometimes more, and for girls, intentionally displayed bra straps and also camisoles or slips worn as shirts. Goth fashion is probably familiar to most people: lots of black. For girls especially, the goth and underwear trends (sometimes combined) presented a new problem: although the clothing might be clean and neat enough and might provide sufficient coverage, to some people it had sexual or cult connotations. Linda Wallis Sauer served at USN from 1986 through 1998, as Head of High School, Academic Dean, and Interim Head of High School. In her recollection the dress code became a concern “when Lower School parents would see High Schoolers and would feel like some of them were inappropriate in their dress. I Opposite page:their Gabefear and band onstage think it was that their kids would end up with the same This page, fromdidn’t top left: Gabethat.” Dixon; Nick Buda; Vince Durnan with issues andclockwise then they want alumni Gabe ’96 and Nick ’92; the K-12 Situation onstage; Joe Getsi soloing
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PDS/USN archives
wrote a letter in the school newspaper. Some excerpts outline his intent:
Left: Kat Trammel ’99 (l.) and Kate Pantelides ’99. Above: members of the class of ’98 and ’99
“I was a totally normal kid. I just liked to dress weird...”
PDS/USN archives
-Kat Trammel ’99 Sauer continues, “We always felt that it was important that if someone was inappropriate we had to be able to tell them why. We didn’t try to develop a code that had a lot of words. You can just say that’s inappropriate because of such and such and that was it. So I know that was why we began to try to describe what our dress code was. Because we had parents of younger kids asking.” Rick O’Hara remembers a desire to expand student perspectives about community citizenship. “We all love the individuality and the pluralism at USN. I came to feel and came to observe that there was not an equal sense of ‘there are some responsibilities at schools and in life to things that are bigger than us as individuals.’ And that would include some overall level of decorum, respect for others.” In this context, the dress code was revised. Authorship is not confirmed, but Rick O’Hara, who left his post as Head of High School later that year, observes, “I could have written that as my valedictory speech.” Here it is: It is fundamental to University School’s philosophy that learning is best accomplished in a diverse, relatively informal and relaxed setting where all community members respect the rights of others and also accept the responsibilities which come with freedom. Thus, students
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are perennially challenged to find the proper balance between the important need for self expression and the responsibilities of their membership in a K-12 academic community. The following guidelines are intended to draw attention to that delicate balance and to clarify its parameters. The High School should be considered a “workplace” where a certain level of decorum (defined by Webster as “propriety and good taste”) is expected. Clothing should be clean and in good repair, which means there should be no holes in the clothes worn to school. Shoes or sandals must be worn at all times. Shirts must also be worn at all times, except for indoor athletic activity. Current fashion notwithstanding, clothing that appears to be underwear should not be worn on the “outside.” Attire that is revealing, patently offensive, distracting or otherwise counterproductive to the learning process is not acceptable. More formal attire is expected in certain circumstances (e.g. Senior Convocation, trips to TPAC performances), as is the case in the world beyond the High School. Students should understand that it is the responsibility of the adults in the community to discuss with them situations in which the guidelines mentioned above have not been followed. In those cases, students will be asked to change their attire. The code remains general and sometimes vague, but it has new features. The first paragraph is the rationale for the dress code; it introduces the concept of responsibility to the community as a counterweight to individuality. The next section covers specifics, with a general concept of the “workplace” as a standard for clothing and the note about underwear. The final two sentences establish the responsibility of the “adults in the community” to enforce the rules and the consequences for infractions. Only one phrase
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remains unchanged from that first one-sentence rule: Shoes or sandals must be worn at all times. The Health Department says. Ed Costello’s letter in the newsletter clearly lays out his motivation for this effort. At one point he writes, “I believe that making a big deal about dress is fundamentally dumb because dress is superficial.” He had the issue in perspective. Students don’t read the dress code, though, and they probably don’t read letters or articles about it either. Those I have spoken with do not remember discussion about shared goals. They remember someone telling them to change their clothes. Kat Trammell ’99 was one student who expressed her identity through clothing and felt the effects of her choices: “I was a goth kid in High School…black hair, black lipstick, spiked dog collar. I was really into it. There was a small handful of us that got picked on quite a bit by the administration for the way we dressed. This was also to some extent just reflective of the general hand-wringing at the time—‘kids dressing in all black, it’s so scary, are they worshipping Satan?’ Most students didn’t care. Most teachers didn’t care. But it was a bizarre time where it really became very problematic.” She recalls, “I was a totally normal kid. I just liked to dress weird. There were sexual overtones to our dress that were projected onto us. With like the vintage slip tops. There was nothing exposed, there was nothing that wasn’t covered by a normal looking tank top that was permissible under the dress code. But the overtones that were made were that this is provocative. This is sexy.” Trammel remembers being sent home to change clothes and sensing that more than her choice in clothes was being questioned. The students, she remembers, “were united, I felt very well supported by my classmates.” And now, she says, “I go back every now and then and I see goth kids running around. It’s not such of a problem any more. I have no hard feelings. I love USN.” High School history teacher and former Student Council President Matthew Haber ’98, helped mediate concerns about dress with a round-table meeting of parents and High School students. “I just remember the Lower School parents talking about how they felt it was inappropriate for their kids to see butt cracks and underwear as they were walking to school. The kids of course, as they always are, were pretty sensitive and saw their freedom of expression being threatened. I think we had a good conversation but nothing really changed.” The challenges that administrators were facing did not resonate with students. How the Nashville community views the school, why parents worry about what their young children will see
or become, and what messages adults might read into current fashions: these are not questions that trouble teenagers’ thoughts. High school students, especially at a small school like USN, form a subculture with its own values and conventions. As a group they do not see their clothing as a problem; if they did, they would make changes themselves. And like any subculture, they resist restrictions on their appearance when they feel these are imposed as a solution to someone else’s problem. In 1997 the senior chosen by his classmates to speak at commencement was Andrew Brandon, who proclaimed, “USN will never have a dress code lest it lose its soul.” He received an ovation. In the years following, discussion and disagreement about dress policy continued among faculty, as did occasional discipline of students. The intensity of concern about the dress code faded, but the new handbook text remained. Administrators changed, students moved on, and fashions evolved or people got used to them. There were plenty of other things to worry about. Looking back, O’Hara concludes, “More than anything I just chuckle now thinking of all the discussion and all the individual incidents. It almost takes on a life of its own. And the inner voice is always saying, ‘Is this really the heart of education, where we really need to be putting most of our time?’”
Conversations
Steve Robins was hired as the new Head of High School in 1998. He came from a school in Los Angeles where students wore uniforms, and he found the approach at USN “a huge relief.” Here, he says, the process “put confidence in students’ decision-making. And then if there is a problem, a disconnect, then there is an opportunity for discussions.” The word conversation comes up a lot when talking with USN faculty and administrators, past and present. It is one of the unwritten goals of the school’s dress philosophy: that correction should take the form of dialog, not demerits—that teachers or administrators should take time to explain the reasons for their concerns and students should be able to express their views in return. Implicit in this exchange, though, is an understanding that the adult will almost certainly prevail. This may explain why students do not talk about conversations but more commonly refer to being the object of a transitive verb—being “dress coded.” Of course it may also be that true conversations, when done right, are successful enough that students don’t feel the need to talk about them. Robins emphasized this direct communication between students and faculty to head off problems, although he was aware that “the continued on next page
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faculty needs to be working as a community, not as individuals taking it upon themselves to bring purity to their student body.” It was an imperfect system. Some teachers talked to students about attire (with varying degrees of tact) and others didn’t think it was important. It was “a dirty process,” and “messy,” as he characterizes it—but it was good enough most of the time. Students, faculty, and administration settled into a detente. In 1999 the school also found a new director, Vince Durnan. On one of his first days on the job, a student helper reported for work in the front office. “He came in wearing a dress, and I said, ‘If this is really important to you we can talk about it, otherwise I’m going to field a lot of questions that I don’t really have good answers for.’ And he said, ‘all right, I hear you.’”
have spoken with acknowledges this. Why the disparity exists and whose problem it is are questions that have only recently entered the discussion. Another enduring custom at the school: disagreement, and occasional discord, is normal and expected— and there is something to be gained from it. When rules about attire are unspecific and when responsibility for enforcement is distributed, a student (or a teacher) may try something different, sometimes make a mistake, and now and then change direction. A dress code that spells out every guideline and prohibition would be clearer, but it would remove an opportunity for learning. As a student, Ellen Duke Haber ’00 contended with her own choices about dress and the reactions of her teachers. As an adult she reflects on why those things matter:
Quinton P. Walker, Head of High School since 2016
Anna Myint ’04, Alumni Director at USN, has been on both sides of these conversations. In high school, she recalls, “I got in trouble a lot for my outfits. One specific time because I was wearing a one-shoulder shirt and my teacher thought I was being really distracting. I think I was just mad at my teacher. I had worn something similar before and she was the first person to have said something.” Myint continues, “Now as a faculty member I see it and I think, ‘Do I say something?’ I’m pretty familiar with all the High School kids and I’m not shy to say anything—just be aware that your skirt might be a little short.” As she considers the circumstances she adds, “They could be mad at me.”
Wrestling With This Stuff
With a few small changes, the text of the dress code has stayed the same since 1997. A revision is in the works, with the entire handbook, including the section on student attire, being rewritten. Quinton Walker, Head of High School since 2016, outlines the challenge: “Do you write in a way that tells kids, ‘here are things you can’t do.’ Or do you write in a way that says, ‘Here is what we hope for all of our kids?’”
What was so interesting was the dialog between the faculty and the students about what were appropriate guidelines. My class in particular was kind of notorious for giving push-back on dumb rules. And so we felt capable and able and even encouraged to challenge what was being laid out as a norm and an expectation when they tried to impose limitations on dress. We now see girls pushing back saying you have to see me as more than just a body. I’m a person, I’m a whole person. At the same time, we are sexual beings and there is attraction, and that is distracting but I don’t know that it’s bad distracting. It’s just part of being human. It’s part of growing up. There are some schools that shove that all under the rug and don’t want to deal with it, want to pretend like it’s not all there. And there are schools like USN who make space to wrestle with that coming-of-age moment. I’m still connected with so many of the faculty members. They’re still having conversations and still wrestling with this stuff and working on it. I’m proud to be part of an institution that’s always trying to be better, to do what’s right. nn
As much as students and their fashions, and administrators and their rules, have changed at the school, a few facts persist. For one, the dress code has been, and remains, mostly about girls. Much of the rule-making and almost all the enforcement has been directed toward girls. Every administrator, teacher, and student I
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How USN Sees It Now Some current students, teachers, and administrators at the school have shared their views on the dress code. These excerpts from longer interviews do not portray the extent of any of these individuals’ positions and are useful mainly to show the range of opinions at the school. That diversity of thought and the eagerness of the faculty and students to participate in policy discussions about standards are signature strengths of University School of Nashville. Quinton P. Walker, Head of High School since 2016 Are you comfortable with the message you are sending based upon what you are wearing right now? It really kind of gives us a nice conversation window when kids say, ‘Yeah, I am.’ And I say, ‘Let me share what I’m thinking right now.’ School is meant to be a place of self-exploration and discovery and evolution and if kids choose to attach their sartorial choices to that, then great. Have a field day with that. Within a certain pretty wide set of parameters.
Betsy Nolan, Class of 2018 Whenever you hear about somebody getting dress coded, everybody’s like ‘What?’ It’s always something that doesn’t make sense. Every ‘dress code’ feels like an intrusion on our rights here, I guess. I have definitely walked down the hall and thought ‘whoa,’ but nothing to the point where like, ‘well now I can’t take my history test!’
Nicole Jules, Dean of Students since 2017 Previously Girls’ Athletic Director 2007-2017 In the conversations that I’ve had with kids they say, ‘It’s just not clear, what can we wear?’
Janet Schneider, Director of College Counseling; faculty member since 1974 I just believe so much in the idea that they need to try things on and get responses and monitor their own behavior based on real consequences of what they wear. I always hear of a small handful of people that are scandalized by what our kids wear. And the discussion comes up and it goes away.
Our male teachers are very uncomfortable saying something to a female student. And I get that. And so a lot of times it will come through me or through another teacher. A lot of times they are appreciative that we come and say something to them.
Eli Horton, Class of 2018 I have not heard of any other guys talk about being dress coded. But other girls—I’ll hear once a month some girl will say, ‘Oh some teacher made a comment to me about it.’
Emma Yockey, Class of 2020 If someone were to wear something that had a slur or offensive image on it, I think that as a student body we’re pretty woke. There would be a lot of ridicule from peers if someone did that.
I’ve heard about teachers saying that spaghetti straps and clothes that show girls’ shoulders are distracting. People are showing their shoulders all the time and it’s never been distracting to me or anyone that I’ve heard of.
Girls are told to change because something is considered distracting to boys. Dress code regulations for girls are kind of like this sexist ideology that we still have as a society even though we want to say we have moved past it. Because you are never going to see a boy being told, ‘go home and change your clothes because it’s going to be distracting to a girl’s education.’
Juliet Douglas, Director of Admissions since 1996 We’re quite the anomaly now. And I love that we don’t have a uniform. Most families who visit, apply. So it can’t be too much of a turn-off, once they’ve been on campus and seen what the students are wearing.
Ann Wheeler, High School Teacher since 1984 My concern has always been not to focus on girls as seductresses. That we are totally thinking about girls’ bodies as sexual objects. I want conversations to be about individuals.
Vince Durnan, Director since 1999 It is a way for us to show the young people in our care that we are trying to look out for them. Because they are completely at the mercy of whatever is in the store. Historically we’ve tried not to be adversarial about it. Because daring teenagers to take the bait has predictable outcomes.
Acknowledgment Thank you to the individuals in the school community who gave their time, honest recollections and thoughts for this article. Only a fraction of these contributions could be included here, but all were helpful and appreciated. —John TeSelle ’83
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PDS Legend Dr. Robert O. Beauchamp Honored By Connie Culpepper, Editor
In
his chapter of USN’s Centennial book, The Same River Twice, former Director Harvey Sperling tells a story about the inspiring PDS Science Teacher R.O. Beauchamp and his most famous student, Stanford Moore ’31, who won the 1972 Nobel Prize in chemistry:
PDS/USN archives
I recall a dinner we arranged for Stanford Moore during one of his visits to our school. He talked about his distinguished career and related that he had been taught and mentored by some remarkable scholars and instructors, but “not one of them” compared to his High School teacher at PDS, Dr. Beauchamp, for “Dr. Beauchamp was the finest of all those teachers and mentors.” The elderly and frail Dr. Beauchamp sat at a table near the podium and slowly and carefully stood. “You, Stanford, you were the finest student I have ever encountered,” he responded. Both men were crying as they embraced one another.
and retain those who will emulate his dad’s excellence in teaching, educators who can follow in Dr. Beauchamp’s footsteps in leading USN students toward scientific careers.
With this goal in mind, Nicholas looked to Development Director Anne Westfall for practical advice on setting up the endowment fund. Armed with helpful information from her, he next consulted a local attorney so that most of his estate will pass outside probate, thereby making most assets immediately available to USN upon his death.
Dr. R.O. Beauchamp and Stanford Moore ‘31 reconnect decades later
Thus it seems natural that when Dr. Nicholas Beauchamp ’53 and his late wife Eva began to consider how best to honor the legacy of his father, Robert O. Beauchamp, they thought of University School of Nashville, the successor to Peabody Demonstration School, where his father’s influence lasted a lifetime for many students—not only Stanford Moore. Nicholas is establishing The Robert O. Beauchamp Memorial Endowment Fund at USN, a fund that will endow the Beauchamp Chair for an outstanding science teacher or science department chair. He has made an initial contribution, with the major funding to follow from his estate. He hopes this fund will help recruit
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He explains, “I chose to have the fund attract science teachers who exhibit the attributes displayed by Dr. Beauchamp in his classroom at PDS: knowledge of his subject, the ability to impart the subject material to his students in an interesting way, enthusiasm for teaching, and genuine interest in his students—all with the goal of encouraging gifted students to follow a professional career in the sciences. It seemed to me that this gift provides the potential to lead more future students into such careers than would be provided by annual awards affecting only a few students.”
Although Nicholas will not see the benefits of his gift before his death, he feels satisfied in these arrangements, knowing that his contributions will extend his father’s influence on the school. As John Norris ’67 wrote in a paper on Stanford Moore and Dr. Beauchamp that he presented at The Old Oak Club in 2013 (a version of which later appeared in these pages), “It would be difficult to overstate Dr. Beauchamp’s contributions to Peabody.”
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“Dr. Beauchamp was the finest of all those teachers and mentors.”
From the time Dr. Beauchamp came to PDS in the 1920s, these contributions went far beyond his work in the science classroom. John Norris reports, “One yearbook analogized Peabody to an atom, with students and the rest of the faculty as electrons orbiting around the nucleus, Dr. Beauchamp.” “For many years, Dr. Beauchamp taught chemistry, physics and biology. He is rumored to have taught Latin at least briefly. In the early years, Dr. Beauchamp was a Jack of all trades, doing whatever was required to provide the students the best educational experience possible.
— Stanford Moore ’31
“At different times, he played the drums and the tuba in the student orchestra. He assisted the drama club and organized skits, including one in which male students were tempted to abandon their faith in science by Satan, with the help of flappers. The skit ended with the boys singing ‘We believe in science.’”
Nicholas Beauchamp ’53 with his late wife Eva
Director Vince Durnan is grateful for Nicholas Beauchamp’s gift in honor of his father. “This is such a fitting tribute from an alumnus, especially given his own life in scientific pursuits. Dr. Beauchamp’s example reminds us that great teaching can change the course of history. We’re deeply grateful for the opportunity to make a statement to posterity.” nn
In 2004 we included in the magazine a tribute to Dr. Beauchamp written by Lucille Sterling ’38 many years after she graduated from PDS. Here are two excerpts: Mr. Beauchamp’s first, second, and third subtle method of prodding was his show of disappointment in a lesson left incomplete or completely ignored. To let Mr. Beauchamp down implied an unspeakable irresponsibility like failing a member of the immediate family in time of need. In fact, I came to think of Mr. Beauchamp as a kind of second father and even now when I see him (he’s Dr. Beauchamp now) I have that warm feeling of anticipation one experiences when encountering a friend. I remember the day he turned philosopher during a chemistry class. He mused a bit about the various occupations a person might pursue. He said he could think of none more rewarding than teaching. He gave due credit to discoverers, explorers, preachers, doctors, lawyers, but the teacher, he reasoned, had the clay in his hands while it was still malleable and it was he who in good part shaped the ideals, the will, and furnished the tools for all these other pursuits. I can see him yet, long and lean, propped against the lab table with his dark curly hair bushing out from his head. I’m sure I knew even then that I was looking at a master potter who would mould thousands of pots of clay.
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photos by Christy Plummer
We Are Problem Solvers: Empowering Young Mathematicians By Christy Plummer, Lower School Math Coordinator
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parent asked recently, “Has math changed?” The answer is both no and yes. If you read the Common Core Mathematics Standards, most content goals for students in the early grades will feel familiar. Third graders are expected to know from memory all products of two one-digit numbers and to develop strategies for solving multi-digit arithmetic. What feels different for many adults is the path. Instead of rote memorization and copycat procedures, current practice in mathematics education prioritizes problem solving, honors diverse strategies, and builds in structures to support communication and collaboration. The goal is to support learning that is grounded in understanding.
Big Ideas, Embedded in an Interesting Context
An important aim in our work with young mathematicians is to develop a disposition to look and listen for mathematics. In our classrooms, teachers set the stage by raising up interesting prob-
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lems for consideration and posing worthwhile tasks. We strive for just-right challenges, aiming for what Stanford researcher Jo Boaler refers to as “low floor, high ceiling tasks.” Such tasks engage students who are ready to explore more deeply while offering entry points accessible to all. In the words of an excited first-grader, “It’s like a treasure hunt.” As children begin to see themselves as mathematicians and connect mathematical ideas with the world outside of school, they develop a powerful frame of reference for interpreting, analyzing, and asking questions about their experiences. A first grader may notice her sausage patties cut into equal parts and wonder about the number of wholes. A third grader reflecting on the winning times in the men’s 5000-meter Olympic speed skating race may explain that the difference between 6:11.616 and 6:11.618 once seemed “a big number.” A Lower Schooler on the way to the swimming pool muses, “There’s math in the water.” If you listen, the sound is that of children making math their own.
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“…teachers delight in hearing one child ask another. ‘What’s your strategy?’ or ‘How did you think about that?’”
Opposite page: This strategy wall in Betsy Hoffman’s first grade classroom features student-made posters of strategies that emerge during problem solving. The display changes across the year, just like the mathematicians who create it. Above left: In preparation for a whole-class discussion, first graders Sydney Lasher and Layla Jahangir compare their approaches and solutions to a math problem. Above right: Third graders Celeste Green and Ian Smith created this strategy poster to highlight their discovery that mathematicians can use known relationships (like 7x7) to solve what first appear to be “very hard” problems (like 8x7).
Flexible Pathways
Instead of telling children how to approach a task, teachers introduce a problem in which students take the lead in developing, exploring, testing, and defending their ideas. It’s a practice that celebrates the complexity and richness of children’s thinking. As second-grade “storeroom clerks” in our fictional Ball Factory explained their approaches to an inventory task, one wide-eyed student whispered, “So many ways.” Strategy comparisons open the door to conversations about accuracy and efficiency. Through solving problems and taking part in discussions, students develop a repertoire of strategies they can draw on—given the problem at hand. Fostering an awareness that strategy use is situational rather than prescriptive helps to ensure an approach to problem solving that’s responsive rather than static.
Communication, In Community
An essential support for this work is a collaborative mathematical community, where children can talk about things that are worth discussing. Our mathematicians learn the value of “leaving a thinking trail” for ourselves and others. We use numbers, pictures, words, and symbols to represent our thinking in ways
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that allow us to retrace, share, question, and compare our solution pathways. We learn early to find our voice by articulating ideas with partners, small groups, and the class. In the safety of community, we learn that mathematicians have the option to “revise our thinking” in the same way a writer might revise a piece of writing. Whether playing games, investigating number patterns, or solving problems, teachers delight in hearing one child ask another, “What’s your strategy?” or “How did you think about that?” The questions are available to children because teachers have modeled them, but they’re in play because children are curious about one another’s thinking and make the questions their own. PDS/USN founder Thomas Alexander argued that the strength of an education “lies in what pupils are prepared to do when opportunity and difficulty confront them, not alone in what they may happen to know. Our aim is to have our pupils grow power, power in every direction; power to think, to feel, to do, to be.” Lower School teachers have taken a collective step toward a math workshop model that positions problem solving front and center. For our students, it’s a step toward developing and harnessing mathematical power. nn
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New Mural Tells a Neighborhood Story By Emily Holt, Middle and High School Art Teacher
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his is the origin story of our new mural, “A Nashville for All,” in USN’s 21st Avenue garage. This collaborative project, the first in my new role facilitating arts integration into the Middle School’s academic classes, involved coordination between the class of 2025, local painter-muralist Joseph “doughjoe” Love, III, and me.
civic progress that Connie was teaching her students made him an ideal partner.
During the 2017 spring semester, Fifth Grade Social Studies Teacher Connie Fink and I spoke about Nashville’s burgeoning mural art scene. She mentioned her students’ enthusiasm for the murals on Jefferson Street, which they saw on a class tour during their study of change in historically African-American Nashville neighborhoods in a social studies unit called “Nashville Shift.” Connie wondered, “Could the incoming fifth graders design their own mural reflecting USN’s storied location intertwined with Fort Negley and the end of slavery?”
Once Connie’s “Nashville Shift” unit started, her fifth grade students began to research the history of the Edgehill and Jefferson Street neighborhoods. Connie’s curriculum for this unit was thorough, integrating narratives of historically marginalized communities with social issues facing our city today. Her students’ research methods were both immersive and experiential. For example, the students made historical-era sketches of the Edgehill neighborhood to chronicle the changing civic layout. They took a walking tour of Edgehill and journaled their observations. They interviewed North Nashville community leaders, toured Fisk University, accessed primary sources of information from the Tennessee State Library and Archives, and ate lunch at Slim and Husky’s, a local African-American-owned pizzeria.
We had a theme for our mural, but we needed an experienced muralist to help install it. I had recently met doughjoe, a local artist and accomplished muralist as well as an avid student of local history. (He does not capitalize the ‘d’.) doughjoe is a member of the Norf Art Collective, a team of artists who create murals throughout Nashville addressing contemporary social and political issues. So, not only could he help us visualize our mural idea, but he could also offer a crucial community perspective on the histories of Edgehill and Jefferson Street. His background creating murals concerning the very same issues of gentrification and
Once the interactive fieldwork was complete, it was time for the students to sift through their research and begin the work of designing a mural to tell the varied stories of our Edgehill neighborhood and Jefferson Street. doughjoe met with the students for brainstorming sessions to create imagery in support of the thematic inquiry: can Nashville be a safe and welcoming place for all people? The students listed ideas for symbols that would tell the story of these neighborhoods over several generations. The patterns and themes that emerged during the brainstorming sessions decided which symbols would best convey their ideas.
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Top: The completed mural doughjoe’s original sketch for the mural Middle School students Margaret Griffin, Gavin Berman, and Sam Luffman (l. to r.) work on the mural
doughjoe took the students’ notes and sketches to his studio so he could incorporate their ideas into his final design. Connie and I were floored when we saw his sketch of the mural. All the students’ ideas were imaginatively woven into one cohesive design, yet it retained a sense of individual contribution. We had a design, and we were ready to start painting. doughjoe began painting with some of the students, while others cut wooden panels, which he would later attach to the wall to achieve extra dimensionality at certain places on the mural. It took a few weeks of intensive work until the mural was close to the students’ original vision. continued on page 48
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Seeing the Other Side By Janet Schneider and Cristin Viebranz, College Counselors
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igh school college counselors sometimes speak of the “Other Side of the Desk”—people who work in college admissions. And college admissions officers can be equally mystified by their high school counterparts. We decided to try to clear up some of the mystery. For several years, we have been wishing for a deeper understanding of the roles each of us, on both sides of the desk, plays in a student’s college journey. In the fall of 2016, we proposed an idea to John Latting, Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Enrollment and Dean of Admission at Emory University in Atlanta. We would visit each other’s offices during our busiest season to see what it’s really like for our counterparts on the other side of the desk, helping us communicate in the most open and honest ways. This pilot shadowing exchange could then be replicated by other colleges and high schools, we hoped. John was excited about our idea, and we decided to include both private and public institutions on both sides in the exchange. He agreed with us that carving out time away from our offices, sharing meals and discussion, would grant us a deeper understanding of how we all work to support these young people in their college journeys. We included Rick Clark, Director of Undergraduate Admission at Georgia Tech, as well as Brian Ketner, College Counselor at Hillsboro High School. In February 2017, at the height of the application reading season, Brian traveled to Atlanta with us to spend one day in Emory’s admissions office and one in Georgia Tech’s. There we observed applications being read, met staff, talked big picture issues with deans, and became familiar with their systems for reviewing applications. Spending almost every waking hour together, we created bonds that made us comfortable with asking
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“The idea of schools and colleges working to better understand one another is disarmingly self-evident. But in the blur of the search and application calendar, it’s frustratingly elusive. This project provides proof of concept, real-time information, and what should be a replicable model. Can’t imagine better professional development.” — Vince Durnan, Director, University School of Nashville questions about admissions that we might not have had the courage to ask before. We learned that the first readers at these schools, who are also the area representatives who visit our high schools and meet our students, really do evaluate the applications in the context of the high schools. At both Emory and Georgia Tech, two readers look at applications at the same time, each pointing out different aspects of the applications, with thorough discussions leading at last to consensus. Seeing these systems in place for reading applications assured us that our students are being considered as fairly as possible, despite the challenges posed by the large numbers of applications for a small number of spaces. We saw the admissions officers struggle with their inability to accept all the students they have developed relationships with and advocated for in their committee meetings.
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“As educators we should be modeling lifelong learning for our students, especially in a field that is so dynamic. Understanding each other’s perspectives, challenges, goals, and day-to-day work is critical—and like all valuable things it takes time and commitment.” —Rick Clark, Director of Undergraduate Admission, Georgia Tech Last September, during one of the busiest times of year for high school counselors, we reversed roles. Three college admissions officers from Georgia Tech and one from Emory came to Nashville to spend a day observing our office at University School of Nashville and one day at Hillsboro High School. They witnessed a typical day in the life of a college counselor—listening to student concerns, working on applications, proofreading essays, visiting with representatives from other colleges, discussing financial aid, meeting with faculty and administrators, and attending meetings with parents. The admissions officers were surprised by the depth of the emotional support systems provided by college counselors. Farish Jerman, Senior Assistant Dean, Emory University said, “I had never imagined that the counselors were helping students through deeply personal struggles as well as the college search, simultaneously.” The college admissions officers wondered, “What might our profession look like if all colleges/universities partnered with high schools during employee training? That way, each admissions officer would better understand the life of high school counselors and students. Also, we would probably make better decisions about the way we do admissions. We would all do a better job.” Did our pilot program pay off? Were we more knowledgeable, clear about how admissions works, inspired, supported and empowered? You bet! These 48 hours taught us more than we could have imagined—and the bonus was developing close professional and personal relationships with our counterparts on the other side of the desk. For us, the exchange was like the focus mechanism on a camera, allowing us to gain a much clearer picture of the college process from the college side and more confidence in guiding our high school students. And it helped all of us understand that we are on the same side of the desk, helping students find their way to the right college. nn Janet Schneider (top) and Cristin Viebranz working with students
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PDS and USN alumni with graduation years ending in 3’s and 8’s came back to school in April. Reunion 2018’s first event, the All-Alumni Party, filled Rudy’s Jazz Room, which belongs to Adam ’90 and Noah ’98 Charney. Then on Friday and Saturday, alumni gathered for class parties in restaurants, bars, and classmates’ homes. Saturday afternoon at USN, we honored the Class of ’68 as alumni celebrated their 50th reunion, becoming members of the Gold Circle. We look forward to seeing the classes ending in 4’s and 9’s at the next Reunion in May 2019.
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photos by Kimberly Manz
Reunion 2018
APRIL 19-21
Previous page, top to bottom: A full house at the Reunion luncheon on April 21; Class of ’68 came together at classmate Bonnie Magid Small’s house for their class party This page, clockwise from top left: Aubrey Meador ’78 (l.) reunited with former teachers Gracie Allen and Heber Rogers; Kiki Hinze Forsythe, Diane Blackwell Wiles, and Trey Lipman from the Class of ’68 at the Reunion luncheon; the Class of 2008 celebrated their 10-year class reunion at Fat Bottom Brewing Co.; Adrian Moore and Celeste Snow Shepherd, both from the Class of ’88, came back to USN for their 30th reunion; Dee Holder Hicks Bradshaw ’58 celebrated her 60th reunion with her daughter Jo Dee Hicks Prichard ’84
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photos by Kimberly Manz
Previous page, clockwise from top left: David Steine ’68 and David Pilcher ’68 celebrating the start of their 50th class reunion; Kate ’93 (l.) and Claire ’96 Ackerman at the All-Alumni Party; Karen Ward Knox ’66 and R.A. Hurley ’98 at the All-Alumni Party; touring the hallways of USN; Bill Shepard ’68 and Bob Rosenfeld ’68; (l. to r.) Sam Smith ’98, Nathan Terry ’99, Erin Mosow ’98, Benjamin Goldberg ’98, and Katie Sulkowski ’98 This page, clockwise from top left: members of the Class of ’73 at their class party; alumni from multiple graduating classes reminisced with their former teachers at the reunion luncheon; some members of the Class of 2003; Behnaz Barahimi Sulkowski ’01 and James Sulkowski ’01 had a date night at the All-Alumni Party; center: Bryan Kraft ’98 (l.) and Adam Charney ’90
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ommencement
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photos by Kimberly Manz
The graduating seniors elected Eli Horton to speak at Commencement. Speaking of “the impact young people can have in times of social and political unrest,” Eli confessed himself “moved by the solidarity and unity that this group of people had in the face of injustice and inequality. Regardless of any political stance, we’re brought together by our ability to agree to disagree.” UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF NASHVILLE
Opposite page, l. to r.: Shayna Beyer, Callie Sands, Isa Wierum, Mary Niarhos, Denee Stewart Freeman, and Max Komisar This page, clockwise from top left: Ben Maloy and Evan Mukherji; Betty White and Lynn Noel, retiring teachers who spoke at the ceremony; Eli Horton, chosen by his classmates to give the address; Jaran Huggins; Tyler Jacobs, Daniel Lutes, Gabe Faulcon, and Elijah Hong
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photos by Kimberly Manz
Previous page: clockwise from top: Connor Thompson and Josh Twillie in the Hassenfeld Library before Commencement; Jessica Mei and George Owens; Ella Varney, Walter Boero, Abby Varney, and Caroline Knowles. This page, clockwise from top left: Madeline Baxter, Sam Strang, and Maggie Weaver; Zoe Boysen and Dory Rathmell; the Class of 2018 applauding; the reception following Commencement.
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Thanks, USN
Former High School Head Rick O’Hara Speaks at Faculty Reunion Luncheon By Rick O’Hara, former Head of High School In June a group of former PDS and USN teachers got together in the Auditorium, as they do every other year. The luncheon, begun a decade ago by Janet Schneider, has become an important event in the life of the school. This year the speaker was Rick O’Hara, who led the High School in the ’90s. Here are excerpts from Rick’s talk. Of the 41 years I spent in an education career, the very best were the ones spent here, in Nashville, and at USN. Whether we called it “happiness” or something else, there was and there is something of permanence at University School of Nashville. I felt that there was something happening that spoke to the truth, to absolutes—something of real meaning, and lasting significance.
The first people I met [at USN] were a couple of guys named Rogers—one Heber, wearing some kind of Western attire and holding a megaphone, and one Stan, the Athletic Director. And the third was Bill Rodriguez. After about 30 minutes of interviewing with them, they asked if I’d like to go out to grab a beer. I was starting to fall in love with USN. I quickly found something of great value in the people of USN. I’d walk in every day to greet and be greeted by our dear friend, custodian Raymond Nowlin. “Hey, Rick.”—“Good morning, Raymond. How ya doing?”—“I’ll make it.” And on the last day of the week, “How ya doing, Raymond?”—“It’s good ol’ Friday!” with a great smile. I think of those who taught our own children. Their respect for learning and social justice was shaped here at USN long ago. I am thinking of those who are with us in spirit today, among them: Mary Emily Taylor, Kathy Woods, Mike Buhl, Sondra
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PDS/USN archives
Harvey Sperling said, “Richard, if you’re going to be in education, you have to stand for something.”
Zendlovitz, Shafali Lal, Cherrie Farnette, Ann Meacham, and my old bandmates, buddies, and partners in crime, Wiley Eugene Sizemore and Gus Gillette. What an extraordinary impact on kids’ lives they had. We tried to solve all the world’s problems during high level meetings at Sportsman’s Grille on Friday afternoons, with elder statesman Mike Buhl often in attendance, indoctrinating young teachers like Harris Gilbert, Greg Downs, Amy Germuth. Those were times of wry observations on life, love, politics, music, and the school administration, with Gene and Gus seemingly unaware that I was a school administrator.
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Clockwise from top left: Heber Rogers, retired fourth grade teacher Karen Marler, and former High School counselor Rich Perry; three high school heads: Steve Robins, Rick O’Hara, and current head Quinton Walker; Pam Thompson-Guy, Carol Percy, and with her unmistakable back to the camera Mary Ann Pangle; Bill Rodriguez, Laura Rodriguez, and Betty White.
The concept and legacy of the Demonstration School—that truly spoke to us, and informed our work, didn’t it? USN was a place of learning of all kinds for all of us, certainly for me. And I learned from so many of you. Being here helped shape my own concept of what excellence in teaching looked like, what a truly great school was all about, and true to that Dem School ideal, what was required of a school leader to take the school towards the ever higher vision of what it should be. Like the students, I felt encouraged and supported in aiming high, in exploring new educational possibilities. When I was hired, I told Harvey half kiddingly that I would accept his offer only if he would allow us to bring baseball back to USN after, I think, about a 10-year hiatus. He agreed, and so, we did. There are great memories of those baseball pioneers: Jeremy
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Roberts, Chad Schmidt, Adam Glaser, John Chapman, Erik Mash, fellow coaches Brian Knoop and Kevin Baynham, many others. I’ll end by sharing the word that is most on my mind as I reflect on my and my family’s time here, and that is simply “gratitude.” I am ever so grateful for the opportunity to have been a part of University School, its mission, and its legacy; to have served with many of you, and to be connected to everyone else through our common bond; to have met so many true, lifelong friends from the faculty, staff, and student body; and to be with you today in fellowship. nn
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Two Decades of Telling the USN Story By Connie Culpepper, Editor And the story of Peabody Demonstration School, the earlier incarnation of University School of Nashville. Its first issue, edited by Joy Rotondi, appeared in 1995. From the beginning the magazine has aimed to show PDS alumni that they can still claim USN as their school. For more than 20 years, since I became editor in 1996, we’ve found stories worthy of telling and people worthy of being remembered. Jeff Goold and I have worked together to produce the alumni magazine since 1999. With my retirement bringing that partnership to an end, we look back at a few of our favorite stories. (Each of these stories is available in full at usn.org/publications.)
PDS 160, Everybody Else 0 Nearly a century has passed since the legendary PDS football team of 1929: not only undefeated but also unscored upon. In 1998 we talked to two alumni who played on that team, Bruce Henderson ’32 and Harold “Skinny” Huggins ’30.
25 Years of USN: The Transition 2000 marked a quarter century of University School of Nashville, founded by a group of Peabody Demonstration School parents and teachers determined to preserve the school they loved despite the college’s decision to close it. “The Transition” began almost the day that decision was announced in 1974.
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40th Anniversary of Desegregation In 1963, Peabody College decided to base admissions on “competence, character, and merit,” disregarding race. The following year the Demonstration School, led by Knox McCharen, would desegregate.
Before PDS: “Mr. Peabody’s Great Gift” In 2008 the magazine began to investigate the roots of Peabody Demonstration School, discovering that they reached back to the University of Nashville, founded in 1826, and the Winthrop Model School, the immediate predecessor of PDS.
Early Days of PDS: “It was Dandy” Eleanor Brown ’21’s scrapbook, an archival treasure, afforded a glimpse of life in Nashville in 1920 and a picture of a young Peabody Demonstration School.
Our New Building In February 1925, Peabody College President Bruce Payne could at last see the Demonstration School students move into a building of their own at 2000 Edgehill Avenue. The school’s first director, Thomas Alexander, returned to Nashville from Columbia University to speak at the dedication ceremony. all images PDS/USN archives
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CLASS NOTES to providing college scholarships for needy and deserving young women. With a motto of ‘Educate a Woman and You Educate a Family,’ we are proud that since our founding in 1922, we have helped educate over 4,000 Alabama women. For the past 12 years, my artist daughter and I have enjoyed editing the Linly Heflin magazine.”
Katy Anderson Terry ’46 in Italy with her husband of 68 years celebrating their 90th birthdays
1946 Katy Anderson Terry and her husband recently celebrated their 90th birthdays. “When our 10 grandchildren came along, my husband and I loved being heavily involved in their lives.” They have taken these lucky grandchildren “to such destinations as the American and Canadian Rockies, Switzerland (for hiking), England, France, Germany, and Italy.” Birmingham residents, Katy and her husband are active members of the Methodist church, and in 1987 she earned a master’s degree in religion and philosophy from Samford University. She has also volunteered in the Junior League and other community endeavors, including the Linly Heflin Unit, “a group of 100 women dedicated
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Katy says, “I will always be grateful for the four high school years I spent at PDS. Each teacher was exceptional, and I especially remember Miss McMullan (English), Dr. Beauchamp (Chemistry), Dr. Holden (History), Mrs. Shane (Spanish), Mrs. Parsons (Latin), and my piano teacher, Miss Marguerite Meiers. In addition to being marvelous teachers, each member of this group took a personal interest in the students, and became supportive friends throughout their years at Peabody, and often beyond. On a recent trip to Pompeii, Italy, I recalled how Mrs. Parsons made the Latin language and Roman customs and culture come alive for me so many years ago. The overall benefits of attending Peabody Dem School lasted throughout my long lifetime.”
1958 Bob Doochin appeared in The Tennessean this summer in an article about his efforts to save the bobwhite quail from extinction in the wild. The story is called “CEO has made saving bobwhite quail a quest.” He is the owner and CEO of American Paper & Twine.
1960 Marilla Argüelles has “spent the past 35+ years advocating for, developing, and then directing rehabilitation services for young people with post acute brain damage. After our younger son passed away this Feburary
Jim Horner ’65 in Portland, Maine on the 1966 Riva he rebuilt this winter, heading to Miami
I began writing blogs on the need to reclaim and redesign public education.” WholeNewTake.com. Steve and Sue Zager Sternheimer “welcome e-contact with classmates… in the Washington, D.C. area. We both do a lot of volunteer work with the homeless & folks in crisis in Howard County & continue our world-wide travels. Inbetween we usher at many local theaters and provide rides for seniors thru a local organization. Like Proud Mary in the song, we ‘keep on turning.’”
1965 Kenneth Jost completed his 26th year of covering the U.S. Supreme Court as author of the annual series Supreme Court Yearbook (CQ Press) and the 10th year of his legal affairs blog Jost on Justice, recognized by the American Bar Association as one of the country’s top legal blogs. He lives in Washington, D.C. and keeps in touch with events in Nashville by following news in his former newspaper, The Tennessean. Jim Horner, aka “Captain Jim,” is grateful to Terry Rosenblum and Bob Kessler for coming to his mother’s funeral. Jim was in Portland, Maine, on his way back to Miami, and sent a picture of the beautiful 1966 Riva he rebuilt this winter “including new twin 454 engines and all varnish as my father taught me a long time ago.”
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Dick Stelzer ’67 in Italy
The latest by Jackie Hyman ’67
1967 Jackie Diamond Hyman has written more than 100 books. May 2018 saw the publication of The Case of the Desperate Doctor, the third in her Safe Harbor Medical Mystery series, written under the name Jacqueline Diamond. Jackie has been married for 40 years to Kurt Wilson and lives in Orange County, California. See her website, www.jacquelinediamond.net, and her Facebook page, JacquelineDiamondAuthor. In May, Dick Stelzer returned to Italy “for another grand adventure… a week hiking the spectacular and incomparable Amalfi Coast, which was intense and challenging but also a blast. (I had previously hiked Cinque Terre on the Ligurian coast.) The views were, of course, off-the-charts, and I also loved the amazing cuisine (super fresh and delicious vegetables), the great warmth and cordiality of the Italians, and the fun of hanging in places like Capri, Ravello (Villa Cimbrone!) and Positano. Rome, as always, was a kick, with many memorable pleasures like an afternoon performance by a classical pianist at Villa Borghese and cruising the farmers market in Campo di Fiori.”
1968 In May Luther Harrell was recognized at the Mayor’s Service Awards Ceremony for 31 years of service with the Houston Health Department. He writes, “I’ve held multiple positions, including Staff Physician, Health Center Medical Director, Assistant Director, and for the past 19 years, served as Chief Physician
UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF NASHVILLE
Luther Harrell ‘68 with Houston Health Department Director Stephen Williams (l.) and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner (r.)
and Reproductive Health Medical Director.” Luther was PDS/USN Distinguished Alumnus in 2009.
1969 David Wiggins sends “Greetings from Virginia Beach.” He apologizes for not keeping up with classmates, saying “I had a very happy marriage for 23 years to a beautiful lady from Colombia (Maria), which ended tragically with her passing from pancreatic cancer five years ago (no children)…I’ve done a lot of truck driving (yes, 18-wheelers for awhile), landscaping, and factory work…10 years delivering nuclear medicines here in eastern Virginia and North Carolina… I have wonderful memories of my time at PDS, and although I may not be as successful as many, I keep an open mind and a curious attitude toward the world...I had such wonderful teachers and classmates there, you are always in my heart.”
1973 A June, 2018 article in The Tennessean describes Mike Shmerling’s founding Abe’s Garden in honor of his father: “After losing his father, aunt, and grandmother to Alzheimer’s, this man founded a memory care space,” the story begins.
David Wiggins ’69
with Linda Ballentine in June, the first time she and I had seen each other since I got married more than 26 years ago. Augustin is looking for a medical or clinical research job to do while he applies to med school. It’s very nice for a mother hen to have all her chicks back in the nest, however temporarily.” Louise and her family live in London, where her younger son Ambrose is in 10th grade at the American School, which reminds her of USN. “The workload is a lot more intense than in my day, and free time all the more precious. I am taking a
1980 Sculptor John Medwedeff has a public art collaboration project on display at the Kentucky Children’s Hospital. John was PDS/USN Distinguished Alumnus in 2007. Louise Jalink Vannier’s s older son Augustin graduated with honors from the University of Chicago. “Ambrose and I had dinner in D.C.
Louise Jalink Vannier ’80 with her family at her son’s graduation from the University of Chicago
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Ithaca College friends, Leo Catanzaro and Anna Faxon, the children of Class of 1985 friends Mia Mihal Faxon and Kim Collins, “which gives their mothers great amusement”
(Mostly) retired math teacher Debbie Davies with Gideon Yu ’89 at a Golden State Warriors game
1988 Susan Corney Van Allen ’80, Plitvice Lakes, Croatia, June 2018
break from courses this year to do some volunteer jobs with museums and a gallery, all focussing on Asia and/or textiles. Otherwise, I spend a lot of time trying to keep the garden in order, the dog walked and the piles of books under control. I send my best wishes to my classmates and invite anyone passing through London to get in touch.” Susan Corney Van Allen says, “The Van Allen household has been busy in 2018. My daughter Phoebe graduated magna cum laude with a BA in English from George Washington University in May and oldest daughter Kate started law school at American University in August. I visited Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy this past summer with my choir, spent time with my parents and children in Maine, and am planning a winter trip to London, England with my brother Bob Corney ’82 and his family. While there I hope to connect with Sarah Towle. I continue to enjoy working at Comcast (18 years and counting) where I recently became Managing Director of Contract Compliance for Comcast Business.”
1983 “Built into the hillside of LA’s Brentwood neighborhood, the ‘Barrington Residence’ is an architectural masterpiece designed by Eric Rosen. It’s a multi-level home and provides the ideal indoor/outdoor living that Californians can’t get enough of,” begins a story on NBC Los Angeles.
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute has named Ben Ebert an investigator, a prestigious appointment for biomedical researchers.
1990 This spring Akiko Ichikawa wrote an article for Art in America “about a paper craft exhibition that the 1993 Golden Venture migrants were in in New York City. In October, I will have a solo exhibition at mhProjectNYC gallery in the East Village. My Instagram handle is akikoichik.”
1992 In July Jenny Boucek was hired by the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks as an assistant coach, becoming the first woman to hold any coaching position with the Mavericks franchise. After retiring from playing WNBA basketball in 1998, Jenny coached several WNBA teams for close to two decades. She is just the third woman to ever hold an assistant coaching position in the NBA. In addition, Jenny gave birth to her daughter Rylie Hope just two weeks after her Mavericks announcement.
1993 A September article in The Tennessean features this headline about Darek Bell’s company: “Nashville’s Corsair Distillery embarks on $11 million expansion.”
1994 Ben Wright, a glass artist, has works included in the exhibition Early Encounters, on display at Governor’s Island, New York. Ben is Director of Education at Urban Glass in Brooklyn.
Maria Schaffner ’88 wrote a “small world story” about Ben Wright. “I used to be Ben’s babysitter when he was a baby. My boyfriend, Curt Brock, was Ben’s glass professor when he studied at TN Tech’s Craft Center after graduating from Dartmouth. We figured all that out when my children at USN were looking at schools—including Dartmouth. Curt suggested I talk to Ben… and none of us knew the connections at the time.” She adds that her daughter Mary Sophia Reich ’18 is going to Dartmouth.
1997 Roz Helderman was a member of The Washington Post team to receive a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on the Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election. Roz’s career in journalism began at The Edgehill Herald.
2001 Julia Sullivan was named one of Food and Wine’s best new chefs of 2018. Her restaurant Henrietta Red is in Germantown. Courtney Dale and his wife Lauren (along with stepdaughter Ama and baby Oliver) live in Kakamega, Kenya, where Courtney is finishing a master’s degree in environmental policy at Johns Hopkins. Classmate Rick Hodges visited them in January. Stephen Schleicher and his family (wife Magda and three daughters: Sofia, 4; Luli, 2; baby Siena) have moved back to Nashville. Stephen is working as a medical oncologist at Tennessee Oncology. continued on page 42
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A Natural Organizer and Connector
Shannon Paty ’68
By Anna Myint ’04, Alumni Director & Social Media Manager
S
hannon Paty, one of the most active and involved members of one of the most active and involved PDS classes (1968), explains her continuing connection to the school: “To me it only makes sense that I would stay connected to the school because I loved it. I loved being here. I love being here now.” That’s why she says she comes to USN “whenever I’m invited,” showing up for alumni events and Reunion luncheon every year. “And my big surprise is, why doesn’t everybody else? They’re so much fun.” Shannon also serves on the Alumni Board, for “at least the third time.” The Class of 1968 remains a close one, and its members remain connected to the school. Shannon has a theory about that, noting their remarkable teachers, such as Paul George, Hazel Lundberg, and Heber Rogers. But beyond that, the Class of ’68 had each other. “I’ve heard Heber Rogers say that we were one of the smarter classes that came through. Although I’m sure there were many. But we were not real social, so we weren’t dating all the boys at MBA and all the girls at Harpeth Hall and St. Cecilia.” They were “one of the nerdy classes.” As a result, Shannon theorizes, the class became “dependent on one another for amusement. And it made us a really tight class in the end.” Their 50th reunion this year was “total love fest.” When she graduated from PDS, Shannon wasn’t sure what she wanted to do. An aptitude test that took a day and a half to complete pointed her in what proved to be a good direction: film and video production. Her career in that field called on her talents as a “natural organizer” as she became a production coordinator or manager and sometimes a producer, working on “gazillions of country music videos,” among other projects. Shannon “helped organize shoots, making sure that we had makeup and wardrobe, that they had the lights,” making sure of everything. She “did it all.”
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After years of work in pre-production, she went into post-production, taking charge of projects after they were shot, working freelance, often with the Country Music Association on such projects as the CMA Music Festival or the CMA Country Christmas, among her favorites. “I was very proud to work with CMA. I like promoting country music. I like promoting Nashville.” It was satisfying and challenging work, something like “setting up a business that only lasts a couple of days.” Now retired after more than 30 years in the business, she notes that her profession has changed. “Hardly anyone does music videos anymore,” for one thing.
photo by Anna Myint ’04
I asked Shannon why she continued to give back to her school, contributing both financially and as a volunteer. She said,” Pay it forward. It’s just something that makes sense to me that you would invest in the future. I’d like to think that life is getting better for people.” USN makes her think that is possible. Shannon finds it heartening to note on her visits to school that the students aren’t “shy and beaten down” but “will look me in the eye and say hello.” I asked what advice she would offer these young people about to make their way in a world full of challenges. Speaking as one who, in her own words,”floundered around” for a dozen years before finding the work she wanted to do, she calls those few who know what they want to be and do “the lucky ones.” For everyone else, “It’s hard when you’re floundering around. But just keep trying. Bounce on impact.” nn
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An Alumnus Explores the World Marshall Moutenot ’09
By Anna Myint ’04, Alumni Director & Social Media Manager
2018
has been a remarkable year for Marshall Moutenot. The Massachusetts-based company he co-founded, Upstream, was acquired by Natel Energy. He was included on the Forbes Magazine “30 under 30 in Energy.” And he was named USN’s youngest ever Distinguished Alumnus. One of Marshall’s favorite USN memories was in Mr. Holleman’s second grade class. The children were encouraged to role play and make up stories about the imaginary land of Kookamunga. Marshall came to see himself as an explorer. In High School he had an unusual summer job, one that proved quite educational. He taught computer camp for fourth through eighth graders at USN. “I basically employed all of my best friends and we worked with kids. It may have been a predecessor for Upstream.” It showed him that it’s a good idea to employ only people he knows and enjoys working with. The summer-long camp focused on a different topic each week: web programming, game design, engineering, video editing, animation, and robots. The last summer that Marshall led USN’s computer camp, so many kids attended that he was able to donate a third of the revenue to USN’s Annual Fund—after paying his friends, of course. “There was still money left over, so we gave it to USN for the experience of letting us run a small company.” Marshall attended the School of Engineering at Tufts University, majoring in computer science. He interned for Microsoft and Mozilla, then after graduation went to work for Crashlytics (acquired by Twitter), then Drift, a marketing firm. Being at this company showed him how having profit-driven investors can create “misaligned missions” for a company. His response? He and a college friend, Alden Sampson, created Upstream. Upstream takes satellite imagery from NASA, the European Space Agency, and other resources. Marshall and his partner have created algorithms called “machine learning” to automatically analyze this data to detect patterns with natural resources.
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Marshall at the United Nations
“For example, we are able to do things like detect when a farm field is irrigating and what they are growing. We are able to map dams across very large regions and find where dams are. And we are able to tell when water is flowing in rivers and when it is not. There are many, many different applications. We are able to monitor forests for deforestation. And we provide these things in an easy-to-use tool,” said Marshall. This is the work that led to Marshall’s and Alden’s being included on the Forbes “30 under 30 in Energy” list. The ISS Cotton Sustainability Challenge sponsored by Target also recognized Upstream. They plan to use Upstream’s platform to enable Target’s automated monitoring and analysis of cotton agriculture, informing their production-related water use goals for sustainable cotton production. And in May, Marshall represented Upstream at the United Nations ECOSOC session on building resilience with technology. Looking ahead, Marshall plans to grow Upstream from seven to 12 employees, keeping in mind his goal of working with people from different backgrounds—despite the usual lack of diversity in technology companies. Some time in the next decade, he’d like the company to acquire its own satellite. As he said to the seniors at Convocation, it’s important to “try things and not be afraid to fail.” That may be a lesson that he began to learn at USN, perhaps in Kookamunga. nn
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Convocation 2018 By Anna Myint ’04, Alumni Director & Social Media Manager photos by Kimberly Manz
Marshall Moutenot ’09, 2018 PDS/USN Distinguished Alumnus; with Vince Durnan, Class President Madeline Baxter, and High School Head Quinton Walker; show choir performing; with 2005 Distinguished Alumna Amy Kurland ’73
In
May, USN’s youngest ever Distinguished Alumnus, Marshall Moutenot ’09, spoke to seniors and their families. The choice of Marshall expresses the idea that this award need not be limited to those alumni near the end of long and distinguished careers. Alumni can also inspire the seniors with examples of what can be accomplished in the first decade after college. Marshall was recognized for his efforts to create economic forces that drive environmental conservation. Speaking to the crowd in the auditorium, he expressed his gratitude to University School
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of Nashville for the ways it prepared him, and not just for college. Yes, he came to appreciate the writing skills he gained here, though not until he was well into his college career. In science classes he learned the framework of experimentation and testing a hypothesis, and how to do it quickly. His advice to the students less than a decade younger than he? “Try things and don’t be afraid to fail. And look for the intersection of something you like working on and something you care about. For me, that has led to a fulfilling life so far.” We’ll be watching to see what comes next. nn
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Rick Hodges and Courtney Dale, both Class of 2001, in Kenya where Courtney lives Chowning Johnson Aguilera ’01 (l.)and Tobey Beaver Balzer ’02, USN frisbee teammates, at this year’s Paideia Ultimate Tournament
Teddy Ross ’03, Lauren Prince ’03, Lindsey Kever Magner ’02, Tobey Beaver Balzer ’02, and Shelley Dubois ’02 celebrating Tobey’s son’s third birthday in June
2004 Evan Hensley’s band Karmic Link is featured in a story on the Brave Words website that begins, “International dark metal band Karmic Link joins Rockshots Records for a new album release.” It adds, “Evan Hensley (exNightfall, Dark Hound), hailing from Nashville, Tennessee (USA), joined Karmic Link in 2009, taking up both guitar and bass duties.”
The children of Ariel Neaderthal Voorhees ’01
2002 Jennifer Goldstein received her Master of Social Work in May from University of Southern California’s School of Social Work in the Social Change and Innovation Department, where she was a Fellow in Social Innovation. Jennifer moved to New York City, where she works as a Program Manager for the Union for Reform Judaism, providing tools and training to help Reform synagogues better embrace the diversity of their communities. “If you are in NYC, please say hi!”
After a year of working for the Los Angeles County Jail caring for patients living with HIV and Hep C and doing transgender and HIV prevention care, Lauren Wolchok signed on as a permanent, full-time county employee there. “It’s a totally fascinating and meaningful job for me. Check out missionpossible. lacounty.gov to learn more (and see my movie-star recruitment moment).”
Young USN fans, the children of Kever sisters Jamie ’04 and Lindsey ’02: Caleb Magner, Emmett Starnes, and Sadie Magner
2005 Morgan Karr’s alternative-pop album, ’0Vital, has been released. Morgan (Morgxn) performed all over the country this summer, including a set at Lollapalooza in August.
2003 Grant Garmezy has been completing a video series of how he sculpts his glass art pieces. This summer Grant has been teaching his glass blowing techniques in Spain, Italy, Kent State, South Africa, Seattle, and at the Cleveland Institute. You can see the video series on YouTube.
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Graham Manning ’04 at her 2017 wedding Evan Hensley ’04 (r.) of the band “Karmic Link”
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Some of the puzzles being designed by Benny Sachs ’05 and a partner
Morgan Wexler ’08 in 2017
Dash and August Akers, sons of Will ’06
Ella Mathews ’12 and Julia Garrison ’08, both working this summer on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., recreating their past as Book Buddies when Ella was in kindergarten and Julia in fourth grade; Julia is now doing a fellowship at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
Kathryn Berk and Rachel Bubis feature an interview with their classmate Margaret Brittingham on the Congress Club website. Margaret, a counselor, discusses mental health and how therapy can help. Benny Sachs and friend Eric Hoffman have been designing a series of geometric puzzles to encourage people to unplug, create, and learn through physical play. The Waves Puzzle is available on Kickstarter. “Please visit us at modapuzzles.com and sign up for the newsletter to stay up to date. Follow us on Instagram @modapuzzles for an inside look at the design process and architectural inspiration behind the puzzles.”
2006 William Akers has a toddler named Dash, a baby named August, and was featured in Sports Illustrated Kids for creating the bestselling tabletop game Deadball: Baseball With Dice. wmakers.net/deadball.
2008 Dani Wald graduated from Rutgers University’s Medical School in May 2018 with Distinction in Research. She is now a resident in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Emory University.
needed for her class as well as 50 gift cards. Charlotte teaches kindergarten at a Title I school in Chicago. Dillon Goodson ’07 and his wife Abby
2012 2009 In May Mountain Rest, the first film written and directed by Alex Eaton, premiered at the Nashville Film Festival. It was featured in an article in the Nashville Scene. It’s shot on location in North Carolina. The Scene describes it as a “a tense, imagistic drama with an almost somnambulant rhythm and a honeyed, incandescent glow.” It includes music by Lionlimb, the band of Stewart Bronaugh ’08.
This summer Mark Arildsen attended a month-long physics course in Boulder taught by physicists from around the world for advanced graduate students and post-docs with the aim
The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space announced the selection of three projects from its Cotton Sustainability Challenge. One of the selected participants is this year’s PDS/USN Distinguished Alumnus, Marshall Moutenot.
2011 Charlotte Owens submitted her wishlist for her classroom in Chicago to Jonathan Van Ness (@JVN-Queer Eye). Her class was selected by Jonathan, featured on his Instagram, and they received 138 donations of items
Charlotte Owens ’11, happy about gifts her kindergarten class is receiving
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UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF NASHVILLE
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Tobey Beaver Balzer ’02’s daughter Rhea
Oliver Nixon Dale, son of Courtney ’01
Jacob Lundin, son of Ben ’03
Twin children of Lauren Martinez Riley ’03: Beckett and Addilynn Claire
Caitlin Dixon Kavoosifar ’04’s daughter Eva
of fostering an exchange of ideas. In May “Figures of Color,” a show by photographer Marcus Maddox, was reviewed on booooooom.com. Sam Douglas is featured in The Tennessean’s review of this summer’s Shakespeare in the Park production in Nashville, A Midsummer Night’s Dream: “But it’s newcomer Sam Douglas who earns the biggest laughs as the deliciously hammy actor Bottom. Backed by the oh-soearnest Mechanicals, Douglas serves up a seemingly endless array of outrageous, rubberlimbed antics.” Lucy, daughter of Becky Salomon ’04
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Elizabeth, daughter of Katherine Spitz Hale ’01
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Cameron and Caitlin Dixon Kavoosifar ’04, a daughter, Eva Golden, March 10, 2018 Alison and Becky Salomon ’04, a daughter, Lucia (Lucy) Ember, May 3, 2018
Zach Bugalla ’13 in Nanjing, China, where he works as an English language teacher for the Meten School Zack Stern ’14
2013 Evangeline Kennedy is a 2018 Fulbright Fellow in Argentina.
2014 Bob Minton, president of the senior class of Elon College, gave the student address at graduation. He joined the Peace Corps and is serving in Ukraine.
leadership skills and community service,” according to the story in The Tennessean. Courtney Rabb was featured on the Style Blueprint website as one of the high school seniors “making an impact on Music City, and beyond.”
WEDDINGS
Yvonne Reddick and Will Akers ’06, a son, Dashiell, February 8, 2016, and a son, August, February 15, 2018
IN MEMORIAM Note that we include on this list the names of alumni who have died whenever we learn of their deaths, even when some years have passed, as is often the case.
Graham Manning ’04 and Will Bratton, September 1, 2017
Jane Carr Pettey ‘34 July 3, 2013
Dillon Goodson ’07 and Abby Leigh Redfield, September 30, 2017
Mary Jo Carr Ellis ’38 April 10, 2018
When Zack Stern graduated from Amherst College, he received a Fulbright Fellowship to be an English Teaching Assistant in Cyprus.
Morgan Wexler ’08 and Russell Laughlin, October 14, 2017
Jack Bridges ’44 May 24, 2018
2015
BIRTHS
Harriet King Vivion ’46 June 2, 2018
Jenny Boucek ’92, a daughter, Rylie Hope
Ben Wade ’61
Whitley Cargile has been named a Booth Scholar in the graduate business school at the University of Chicago. Booth Scholars work for three years before attending.
William Lippolis has developed an app to help find open study spaces.
2018 Clif Shayne has launched Middleman, an online retail store of rare vintage clothing for men with the principle “a fanatical obsession with tracking down the rarest, slickest clothing they can find,” according to the website Grailed.
Sam and Ariel Neaderthal Voorhees ’01, a daughter, Louisa (Lulu) Josephine, February 23, 2018 Will and Katherine Spitz Hale ’01, a daughter, Elizabeth Leighton, March 19, 2018 Lauren and Courtney Dale ’01, a son, Oliver Nixon, May 16, 2018
Denee Stewart Freeman has been named one of 15 Haslam Scholars, the University of Tennessee’s top academic program.
Michael and Lauren Martinez Riley ’02, a son, Beckett Michael, and a daughter, Addilynn Claire, May 18, 2018
Drew Dibble was one of two Nashville students to receive the Nashville Civitan Club’s Moss-Oliver Award, “given annually to the top high school senior male and female scholar basketball player in Davidson County. It includes athletic ability, academic achievement,
Matt and Tobey Beaver Balzer ’02, a daughter, Rhea Amelia, July 18, 2018
UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF NASHVILLE
Susan Scoggins Moore ’37 April 29, 2018 Norman Frost ’39 April 23, 2018 Hunter Short ’45 April 19, 2018
Jack Gayden ’62 October 5, 2018 Cherrie Forte Farnette ’63 May 9, 2018 Craige DeMoss, Jr. ’64 December 8, 2014 Dean Birmingham ’69 March 20, 2018 Peggy Ann Parker Ball Cason ’72 July 30, 2018 Sara Ellen Cohen Phillips ’73 June 2, 2015 Ty Herrington ’74 July 31, 2018 To read obituaries of most of these alumni and former teachers, please visit usn.org/publications.
Julia and Ben Lundin ’03, a son, Jacob, December 23, 2017
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The PDS Fourteen Year (or More) Club
As
we hoped, we heard from several proud members of Peabody Demonstration School’s “Fourteen Year Club.” And in more than one case, fourteen years on Edgehill Avenue proved to be an underestimate. One alumna claims membership in the select Eighteen Year Club, having crossed the street to Peabody College upon graduating from the Demonstration School. Betsy May Stern ’51 recalls “fifteen happy years” at PDS with her friend Clementina Kuhlman. From nursery school with Miss Fenker, it was “into the big building at the end of the Hall with Miss Newman.” They joined the fifteen year club because “Clem and I went to kindergarten for two years. I’m told I flunked sliding so had to repeat a year. The slide was in the classroom. I would climb up and sit watching what was going on before I would slide down. I don’t know what Clem did that she repeated.” World events deprived Scott Sudduth ’54 of membership in this club. He writes, “Both my (younger) sister, Susan [Hiller ’62], and I attended that nursery school/kindergarten although neither of us completed the entire fourteen years to qualify for club membership.” The Sudduths moved away from Nashville, “a hiatus caused by WW2.” Scott was in fifth grade when they returned. “The brick preschool building on the corner had not been built when I was originally there and the preschool was housed in a white clapboard house a short distance up the campus.” He recalls that the building was “once occupied by the caretaker of the boiler for the entire Peabody campus which was in the building just across the street.” Scott mentions several other faculty children as possible members of the Fourteen Year Club: Nicholas Beauchamp, Margaret Whitaker Olson, and Charlotte Wolfe. Eileen Harap Drath ’56, also a faculty child, claims membership. “I started PDS in nursery school. My 1956 Volunteer says that also in my class were Steven Riven, Charlie Smith, Wallace Wolfe; each of us was at PDS for the 14 years.”
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This 1938 photo of children playing on the jungle gym is from the Ogden Stokes digital collection in the archives.
Cindy Ponder Davis ’58 is in the Eighteen Year Club. “Yes, I was a Peabodian for many years, I spent two years at nursery school being taught by Mrs. Fenker, then transitioned to the Dem School for another 12 years and after graduating from High School went back across the street to the college for four more years. I started nursery school during WW2 and graduated from the Dem School with the Class of 1958 and finished college in 1962. My father, Andrew Ponder, taught in the music department at Peabody College so that makes me a faculty brat also along with Philip Wirth and Vivien Gore, who were my classmates. I really enjoy reading Edgehill and always look forward to new issues….” Emily Magid ’64 spent two years at Peabody College, so “I guess I am in the Sixteen Year Club.” (Her brother Mike Magid ’62 was here for 14 years.) “Brought back great memories of yesteryear.” (Emily’s classmate Al Lowe is the man responsible for raising the question about the “Fourteen Year Club.”)
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Rosemary Zibart ’67 attended the Peabody Nursery School and kindergarten and “has several excellent memories. The teacher made apple jelly—cooking the apples and hanging them in a jelly bag to strain the juice. I imitated that 25 years later to make my own jelly. And there was a rope swing that I adored, really adored. Also my mother reported I came home one day from kindergarten and said ‘I’m in love.’ I had ‘fallen in love’ with a fellow classmate whose parents were from the Philippines. But when the boy fell
UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF NASHVILLE
all images PDS/USN archives
Though Caroline Russell Marold ’66 came to Peabody when she was very young while her mother worked toward her master’s degree, she didn’t return to PDS until sixth grade, missing out on club membership. Two memories stick with her: the day her mother came to pick her up “and found me sitting across the table from a teacher stubbornly not finishing my vegetables. Told my mother I couldn’t leave until I had cleared my plate. And mother said something like you will both be here tomorrow staring at each other and I do not have time for that. Off we went.” Perhaps it was the same teacher who gave any extra dessert to the child with the longest pinky finger. “The same person always won and that was never me. Today my pinky comes just to the knuckle of my ring finger.”
Above: the photo from the archives dates from 1951 or 1952. These may be children in kindergarten, not nursery school. Does anyone recognize them? Jimmy Huggins ‘64 found these greeting cards from the 1949 and 1950 nursery schools and sent these images to our archives. Jimmy’s far-seeing mother wrote the children’s names on the backs of these cards. Visit usnarchives.omeka.net to read them.
down and required stitches on his lip, I fell out of love…I was very fickle at age five.” Bucky Katzman ’69 remembers Gean Morgan, his nursery school teacher, with Miss Newman in kindergarten. Gean Morgan was an alumna of PDS herself—Class of 1931. If you combine the number of years Miss Morgan studied and taught at 2000 Edgehill, the total would far exceed fourteen. nn
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Students, families, and teachers gather to celebrate the mural’s completion. Social studies teacher Connie Fink (l.) and art teacher Emily Holt with artist doughjoe Margaret McKay and Lexi Straus with doughjoe
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Finally, it was time for the students to sign the mural. doughjoe had the students represent themselves as flowers blooming together in a field of vibrant color. We had a launch celebration to share the completed mural with the USN and Nashville community. At this opening, we could hear just how much the students had learned during this process as they explained the meaning behind each visual element to the celebration’s attendees. It was a truly collaborative project that took many hands to complete, and I am forever thankful to have had the opportunity to work with such inspiring people. Please visit the website Connie Fink made to document the learning process, and be sure to stop and enjoy the mural when you visit USN. nn sites.google.com/email.usn.org/nashville4all/home
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A Personal Approach to Giving
A gift in your will is a heartfelt way to support the causes and organizations that are close to your heart. It’s an easy way to support USN’s mission in the future without using any of your assets today. Two special features make this a popular type of gift:
1 Flexibility. A gift in your will lets you balance your charitable goals with the future needs of your loved ones.
Because you aren’t parting with assets today, you don’t have to worry about living expenses and future medical costs should you need the assets during your lifetime. Plus, you can change your mind at any time.
2 Versatility. You can give a percentage of your estate to University School of Nashville. Most people can’t predict the exact size of their final estate; therefore, making a gift by using a percentage amount can be a more effective means of dividing it. This method allows you to benefit loved ones and USN in proportion.
One Sentence Is All It Takes Including USN in your future plans is easy. All it takes is one sentence. Contact Anne Westfall at awestfall@usn.org or (615) 277-7495 to request sample language you can use to include us in your will or living trust. If you’ve already made a gift to us in your future plans, let us know so we can ensure your gift is used as you intend.
This information is not intended as legal or tax advice. For such advice, please consult an attorney or tax advisor.