Westminster Bulletin Fall 2009

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WESTMINSTER

Celebrating the Class of 2009 at 121st Commencement A Close Look at College Admissions Developing New Learning Skills Building Grit and Grace Campaign Supports People and Programs For Alumni, Parents & Friends of Westminster School

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WESTMINSTER BULLETIN FALL 2009

Published by:

Westminster School 995 Hopmeadow St., Simsbury, CT 06070 (860) 408-3000 This magazine is produced twice a year by the Marketing & Communications Office.

Address Class Notes to:

Beth Soycher Westminster School P.O. Box 337 Simsbury, CT 06070-0377 Or submit via e-mail: alumninotes@westminster-school.org E-mail for address change ONLY: salexander@westminster-school.org Westminster School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, sex, national origin or sexual orientation in administration of its education policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.

EDITOR Darlene Skeels editor@westminster-school.org DIRECTOR OF MARKETING Ken Mason PHOTOGRAPHY David Barragán, Richard Bergen, Newell Grant ’99, Ken Mason, Chip Riegel ’90, Darlene Skeels, Scott Stevens and David Werner ’80

The Armour Academic Center at dusk. Photo by David Werner ’80.

CLASS NOTES COORDINATOR Beth Soycher

Cover photo:

DESIGN John Johnson Art Direction & Design Collinsville, Connecticut

The ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Armour Academic Center on the first day of classes.

TRUSTEES 2009–2010 John S. Armour ’76 Chairman of the Board Palos Verdes Estates, California Susan Werner Berenson ’82 Bethesda, Maryland C. Andrew Brickman ’82 Hinsdale, Illinois Daniel Burke III ’87 Winchester, Massachusetts Trinette T. Cheng P’08, ’11, ’13 Kowloon, Hong Kong Abram Claude, Jr. ’46, P’71, ’80, ’84, GP’02 Emeritus North Salem, New York W. Graham Cole, Jr. H’09 Headmaster Ex officio Simsbury, Connecticut John H. Davis P’05 Longmeadow, Massachusetts William C. Egan III ’64, P’92, ’95, ’00, ’02 Emeritus Skillman, New Jersey Jerome T. Fadden P’05 New Canaan, Connecticut

Colin S. Flinn ’82 Sanibel, Florida Anthony J. Francoline P’96 Salisbury, Connecticut Joseph L. Gitterman III ’55, P’86, ’90 Emeritus Washington Depot, Connecticut David E. Griffith ’72, P’06, ’10 New Hope, Pennsylvania Bernhard L. Kohn ’92 Los Angeles, California George C. Kokulis P’07, ’12 Simsbury, Connecticut Heather Kreitler P’10, ’13 Ex officio Fairfield, Connecticut

Charles B. Milliken P’77 Emeritus Bloomfield, Connecticut

John Sherwin, Jr. ’57, P’83, ’89 Emeritus Waite Hill, Ohio

Anne K. Moran P’06, ’09, ’12 Unionville, Pennsylvania

N. Louis Shipley ’81 Andover, Massachusetts

John C. Niles ’81 Marblehead, Massachusetts

C. Evan Stewart ’70, P’11 New York, New York

Brien M. O’Brien P’09 Chicago, Illinois

George N. Thompson ’72, P’93, ’98 Washington Navy Yard, District of Columbia

James S. Offield ’69 Harbor Springs, Michigan Moyahoena N. Ogilvie ’86 West Hartford, Connecticut J. Pierce O’Neil ’76, P’10, ’12 New Canaan, Connecticut

Samuel Thorne ’46, P’74, ’76 Emeritus Manchester-By-The-Sea, Massachusetts

C. Bradford Raymond ’85 New York, New York

John M. Kreitler P’10, ’13 Ex officio Fairfield, Connecticut

Gregory F. Ugalde P’05, ’07, ’10, ’12 Burlington, Connecticut

Timothy I. Robinson ’85, P’10 Ex officio Hampton Falls, New Hampshire

Danielle Virtue P’11 Rye, New York

Peter B. Leibinger ’86 Schwieberdingen, Germany

Allan A. Ryan IV ’78, P’06, ’07, ’12 Palm Beach, Florida

Michael C. Lobdell ’75, P’07 Vice Chairman New Canaan, Connecticut

Christopher K. Seglem P’06, ’09 Colorado Springs, Colorado

Susan Wilcox White ’74, P’05 Wellesley, Massachusetts D. Scott Wise P’11 New York, New York

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From the Headmaster. . . . . . . . . .

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Sticking to a Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Hill Headlines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Making History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Athletics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Guitar Making Gives Perspective . . 64

Reunion ’09 Weekend. . . . . . . . . . 10

Reflections of a Schoolmaster. . . 67

121st Commencement . . . . . . . . . 20

Supporting Westminster . . . . . . . 70

College Admissions . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Martlets on the Move . . . . . . . . . . 76

Learning Theories Seminars . . . . 38

Class Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Armour Academic Center . . . . . . 40

Closing Thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

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From the

Armour Academic Center Opens

Hill Headlines

Page . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Headmaster Page . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

College Admissions

Martlets on the Move

Page . . . . . . . . . 32

Page . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Reunion ’09

Supporting Westminster

Page . . . . . . . . . . 10 Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Commencement Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Class Notes Page . . . . 78

Reflections of a Schoolmaster Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

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Dear Members of the Westminster family, As you will soon read, this edition of our Bulletin quite appropriately puts the spotlight primarily on our magnificent new Armour Academic Center, a building which gives brilliant, elegant, physical expression to our emphasis on community and learning and will be, in my view, transformational for our school. We should take great pride and joy in this splendid facility and should give abundant thanks to those who did so much to make it a reality through their vision, hard work and generosity!

Over these last months, as I watched construction workers put the finishing touches on the Armour Academic Center and then the demolition crews raze Baxter, it struck me that these two projects represented in a very powerful way the importance of both change and constancy in a community. Indeed, healthy, vital institutions should always be balancing these elements carefully, moving ahead, becoming better versions of themselves while simultaneously preserving and fostering that which makes them meaningful and strong.

In a larger sense, sustaining that balance also lies at the core of our Strategic Vision and capital campaign, “Building Grit and Grace.” Given the ferociously competitive environment in which we operate and given the high expectations of our various constituencies to provide the very best possible educational experience for our students, we needed to build a new academic center, to enlarge our financial resources in support of our faculty and students, and to “tell our story” more effectively and broadly through marketing. Undoubtedly, the steps taken to meet these important institutional priorities will entail change. Yet as Satchel Paige once famously remarked, “don’t look back because someone might be gaining on you.” Put simply, institutions that do not adjust are doomed to perish. To remain in the top rank of this nation’s boarding schools, we need a first-rate academic facility, we need to offer competitive salaries and such benefits as attractive faculty housing and abundant opportunities for professional growth, and we need to bulk up our financial aid coffers to bring to us students of promise.

Yet at the same time, we must also manage change by faithfully anchoring ourselves to our core values and our mission. Community, Character, Balance and Involvement must ever be Westminster’s constants, and we regularly test our decisions against them. In my view, the new Armour Academic Center embodies the best and most enduring qualities of our school. I can say this because we know what kinds of young people thrive here, what qualities of mind and body, spirit and character make us a happy and successful community and what kinds of faculty best create our intentionally broadly gauged educational experience and best build the Grit & Grace for which we have long been renown. Yes, we have changed, but it is and will be such a familiar face!

As we launch the public phase of our comprehensive capital campaign, I take enormous pride in what we have achieved thus far, confident that we will not only achieve our monetary goal but that we will have taken huge strides forward in making us a better version of ourselves and in building a stronger foundation of Grit & Grace for Westminster’s future.

Happy reading and remember, change and constancy!

…we must also manage change by faithfully anchoring ourselves to our core values and our mission.

Community, Character, Balance and Involvement must ever be Westminster’s constants, and we regularly test our decisions against them.

With Grit & Grace,

W. Graham Cole, Jr. H’09, Headmaster

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Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony Marks Opening of 122nd Year Westminster School marked the opening of its 122nd school year on Sept. 15 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Armour Academic Center and some traditional activities.

Before heading off to their first classes in the academic center, students and faculty gathered on Commencement Lawn in front of the building. “We gather this morning to begin the new academic year and to open this fabulous new academic center in a formal, official way with a ribbon-cutting and a few remarks from your Head Prefect, speaking on behalf of the student body, and Mr. Marco, the Director of Studies, for the faculty,” said Headmaster Cole. “In a few weeks, we will have another ceremony right here in the presence of the school’s Board of Trustees, alumni, parents and people who were responsible for making this center a reality through their giving and hard work.

“But today, before we hold our first classes in the Armour Academic Center, it seems very appropriate to gather as a community and to consider what a privilege it is for us to occupy this very special space. I hope that many years from now, you will remember that you were present at this event, which is, after all, a very historic moment for Westminster.”

Head Prefect Cris Gomez said he wanted the summer to pass quickly so that he could begin studying in the new center. “I hope you recognize that this is a very special day for the school,” he said. “When I see this building, I see opportunity. Not everyone has the opportunity to study in a building like this. I am sure we will all make Armour Academic Center our new home.”

Greg Marco also commented about how fortunate everyone is to be able to study and to teach in the center. “We waited a long time to occupy this building,” he said. “I put out a challenge to all of us to elevate our own efforts to match this splendid facility. There is energy and excitement in this building, and we have to use it.”

Head Prefect Cris Gomez addresses students at the first assembly in the Armstrong Atrium of the Armour Academic Center.

After their remarks, the speakers cut a large black and gold ribbon signifying the opening of the center.

Later in the morning, students and faculty gathered in the Werner Centennial Center to hear addresses by Headmaster Cole and Head Prefect Gomez. Following the addresses, all new students participated in the signing-in ceremony and Sixth Formers assembled on the Senior Lawn for the pin ceremony.

Westminster welcomed 392 students to campus for the 2009-2010 academic year, including 127 new students. Students represent 38 Connecticut towns and cities, 26 states and 21 countries.

The school’s 45 international students are from Afghanistan, Australia, Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, China (Hong Kong and Macau), Colombia, the Czech Republic, England, Germany, Ghana, Japan, Mexico, Senegal, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Thailand and Vietnam.

“This year’s student body is a wonderfully talented, diverse group of boys and girls from across the country and around the world,” said Director of Admissions Jon Deveaux. “We look forward to watching them develop academically, athletically, artistically and personally during their time at Westminster. It’s exciting to realize that these children, who will work, play and live with us for the next few years, will go on to become the global citizens and leaders of their generation.”

On the first day of school, Headmaster Graham Cole, Director of Studies Greg Marco and Head Prefect Cris Gomez cut a large ribbon signifying the opening of the Armour Academic Center.

Westminster welcomed 37 legacies to school this fall.

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Student Recognized for Contributions to Race Relations Tiffany Liu ’10 was awarded a certificate of accomplishment in this year’s Princeton Prize in Race Relations for Connecticut, which recognizes high school students for their efforts to increase understanding and cooperation among people of different racial backgrounds. She was among six students recognized at an awards ceremony in April at the Graduate Club on the Yale University campus.

Tiffany was selected for the award for “promoting racial awareness and diversity at Westminster School” through her work as editor of the Multicultural Student Union’s newsletter, and her involvement in Martin Luther King Jr. Day activities and annual Chinese New Year’s Day celebrations. This year, she also produced a moving 10-minute video documenting progress in the United States toward achieving racial equality.

“Getting the award wasn’t the biggest part of my experience,” said Tiffany. “It was working with other people who are as passionate as I am in promoting culture that really kept me motivated to work even harder.”

More than 80 people attended the awards dinner, including State Senator Toni Harp and State Representative Lonnie Reed, who both spoke passionately about the important work to which the six students have committed themselves.

Sponsored by Princeton University, the Princeton Prize in Race Relations was created in 2003 to recognize high school students for outstanding work in their schools or communities to advance the cause of race relations. Students in 23 cities around the United States are eligible for the prizes.

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Diversity Issues Explored at “A Day of Difference” Westminster School held “A Day of Difference” in April where students and faculty explored the relevance of diversity in people’s lives through a series of group discussions and guest speaker presentations.

The day kicked off with keynote speaker Kip Fulbeck, an art professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, discussing his books “Part Asian, 100% Hapa” and “Permanence.”

Kip speaks nationally on identity, multiraciality and pop culture, mixing together spoken word, stand-up comedy, political activism and personal stories. He has been featured on CNN, MTV and PBS, and has performed and exhibited in more than 20 countries.

After the keynote presentation, students attended group discussions Top, student facilitators for “A Day of led by student facilitators from the Difference”; center, guest speaker Kip Fulbeck; Fifth and Sixth Forms, and the faculty and, below, guest speakers Deacon Art Miller met with Kip and then heard and Toni Williams with Director of Multicultural Affairs Melinda Wright. presentations by Toni Williams, director of diversity and dean of student affairs at Miss Porter’s School, and Deacon Art Miller, director of the Office for Black Catholic Ministries for the Archdiocese of Hartford. Deacon Miller emphasized the importance of “preparing students at Westminster for the world out there.”

The day concluded with everyone gathering in the Werner Centennial Center to hear student facilitators share some of the topics that were discussed in their group meetings, and Kierra Jones ’09 summarize the day’s goals. She ended her remarks by reminding everyone that “our differences need not divide us.”

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Ninth Westminster Poet Shares Love of Poetry and Life “You don’t know what it means to a poet to know that everyone in the audience has read at least one of your poems.” Those were the words of poet Dorianne Laux as she began a poetry reading to the Westminster community in April during her two-day visit as the ninth Westminster Poet.

Known for her emotional honesty and for her deft command of imagery and narrative, Dorianne read poems from each of her four acclaimed books of poetry and talked about what inspired her to write them. The next day, she visited students in their English classes.

Dorianne is the author of “Facts About the Moon,” which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the recipient of the Oregon Book Award, and short-listed for the 2006 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. She is also author of “Awake,” “What We Carry,” and “Smoke.”

A member of the faculty at North Carolina State University where she serves as a poet-in-residence, Dorianne has received two Best American Poetry Prizes, a Pushcart Prize, two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Learning More about Poetic Inspiration Prior to her Westminster visit, students had studied poems from one of Dorianne’s books in their English classes. When she visited their classes, they took advantage of the opportunity to ask her about what inspires her writing and how she shapes a poem.

“The more you write, the more you get in touch with your subconscious and put pieces of the puzzle together,” she said. “I work pretty hard on each poem. There are not a lot of rules I am following. It is instinct you are working with.”

Dorianne said that becoming a poet is not something a person decides. After she found herself writing a lot, she decided to publish her work.

“I am delighted that people in high school would read my poems,” she told the students.

“One of the purposes of poetry is to remind you life is worth a lot. Live your life!”

English teacher Tim Quinn ’96 said that for students in his English classes, “It was simply amazing for them to interact with a living poet whom they have studied. Given the nature of some of her poems, many were nervous to meet her, but this anxiety turned out to be unfounded.”

“The students were very eager to ask about certain poems, ones they had read in preparation for her visit,” added English teacher Amy Stevens. “They wanted to find out the circumstances which led to various poems —

Above, Dorianne Laux gives a poetry reading in the Werner Centennial Center and, below, discusses poetry with students in an English class. whom she was writing about, why she chose a certain topic and what did she mean when she said one thing or another. She was very forthcoming with the students in answering their questions. Her easy nature and candid replies helped them to think about writing as a profession and as a passion.”

“Hearing a poet read his or her work is always remarkable,” said Kathryn Brady ’10, who read “What We Carry” in her Fifth Form English class. “One can really gain a sense of the emotion poured into the work just by hearing it and listening to certain phrases that she emphasizes.”

Nora Edmonds ’11, who read “Smoke” in her English class, said having a chance to meet a poet she had studied in class gave her new insight into the poetry. “I really enjoyed how some of her poetry, which I could relate to, was realistic and for the most part, straight forward,” said Nora. “I’ve always had a love of poetry and, if anything, she has enhanced that.”

“In general, students found Dorianne to be an accessible poet in terms of narrative and language, but a challenging poet in terms of subject matter and poetic techniques,” said English Department Head Michael Cervas, who coordinates the Westminster Poetry Series. “In short, her books proved to be perfect vehicles for generating great discussions in English classes.”

The Westminster Poetry Series has included visits by several U.S. poets laureate, a Maryland State poet laureate, a Connecticut State poet laureate and a number of Pulitzer Prize winners. Dorianne Laux’s visit was made possible through support from the FordGoldfarb Fund, which was established in 2005 by former trustee Maureen Ford-Goldfarb and her daughter Kirsten Ford ’00 to support English Department enrichment.

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Helping Others in North Carolina Eleven students and two faculty members left Westminster School very early one morning on their March break to drive 17 hours to Newfound, N.C., a small town about an hour away from Asheville, to volunteer for a week with Habitat for Humanity.

“We were greeted by the Habitat for Humanity family, and we were welcomed into the community center, where we would be sleeping during our stay,” explained Whitney FitzPatrick ’09, one of the student volunteers. Besides the students from Westminster, there was a smaller group from Providence College.

The Westminster volunteers worked as painters, landscapers and roofers on a house that was already standing. They painted the entire interior of the house and fertilized and planted grass in the yard. “A few of us were in charge of putting the roof shingles on the shed, and some put the flooring in the house,” added Whitney. “We also were able to meet the recipient family and see who all of our hard work was going to help.”

Those who participated in the trip included faculty members Whitney Jackson ’96 and Shelley Killeen, and students Kyle Zinn ’09, Mike Curran ’09, Tyler Papa ’10, Mike Maurer ’10, Nabi Hassanzoy ’10, Kathryn Griffith ’11, Katie Polio ’11, Margot Lieblich ’09, Whitney FitzPatrick ’09, Erin Wallace ’10 and Ben Sharaf ’10.

New Trustee Joins Board

Students Named Semifinalists in 2010 National Merit Scholarship Program

The Westminster Board of Trustees welcomed D. Scott Wise P’11 as a new trustee at its fall meeting. Scott is a partner in the law firm of Davis Polk and Wardwell, where he specializes in litigation. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law. He is the incoming president of the Board of Trustees of D. Scott Wise Eaglebrook School.

Scott’s wife, Linden, served as general counsel for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and is the president of the Board of Trustees of The Chapin School. They live in New York City and are the parents of Harry ’11 and Lucie (Chapin ’14).

Scott will rotate through the committees of the Board, attending the Committee on Faculty and Students in the fall, the Business Committee in the winter and the Development Committee in the spring.

Westminster Sixth Formers Anne Cervas and Suchi Mandavilli have been named Semifinalists in the 55th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. These academically talented students have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 8,200 National Merit Scholarships that will be offered next spring.

Semifinalists represent less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors and include the highest-scoring entrants in each state. They must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition.

More than 1.5 million juniors in about 22,000 high schools entered the 2010 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2008 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

During Anne’s Westminster career, she has earned summus every term and was named an AP Scholar with Honor. She is president of the student organization Serving Our Neighbors, the literary editor of The Martlet and a Day Prefect. She also is co-captain of the varsity crosscountry team and has played on Westminster soccer, lacrosse, track and squash teams.

Suchi also has achieved summus every term and was named an AP Scholar with Distinction. She is the editor in chief of Westminster News, a member of the Chamber Choir and a participant in Cabaret. She also participates in cross country and has played on Westminster field hockey, tennis and squash teams. Outside of school, she serves as a volunteer at Hartford Hospital.

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Anne Cervas ’10

Suchi Mandavilli ’10

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Journalist Discusses Climate Wars Award-winning journalist Eric Pooley P’10 visited Westminster School in April to give a talk about the debate over global warming he titled “Climate Wars.”

He surveyed audience members about their views on global warming and explained that while reporting for Fortune and Time magazines, he saw a shift in the debate of the issue from science to politics. He then presented scientific data about climate change and explained how carbon dioxide emissions stay in the earth’s atmosphere for 50 to 200 years. “Even if we stopped now, it would still be a problem,” he said.

He pointed out that a seven- to 10-year time span exists to reverse global warming, but the problem will be hard to fix because “it is hard for people to deal with future threats,” and it will be expensive. “We can solve it, but it will take some work,” said Eric.

Following his presentation, Eric met with students in AP Environmental Science classes where he discussed capturing and storing carbon dioxide, cap and trade agreements, and nuclear power. “There are no perfect answers here,” he said.

A graduate of Brown University, Eric began his journalism career as a freelance reporter in East Germany. He later became a writer and political columnist for New York magazine and then joined Time magazine in 1995 as its White House correspondent. He went on to serve as chief

Eric Pooley P’10 discusses climate change.

political correspondent and national editor at Time, editor of Time Europe and managing editor of Fortune. His work has been recognized with numerous awards.

Eric was a featured commentator in “Heat,” a PBS global warming documentary, and is writing a book about the politics and economics of climate change.

Students Visit Peru and Help Orphanage During March break, eight Westminster students and Spanish teachers David Barragán and Nancy Hendryx visited Peru. They spent a day in and near the city of Lima, flew to Cusco and visited Machu Picchu, Ollantaytambo, Moras Moray and Sacsayhuaman. Everyone marveled at the masterful masonry work of the Incas.

Another highlight of the trip was a visit to an orphanage just outside of Cusco. The Westminster students and teachers brought the children who live in the orphanage school supplies as gifts.

After returning home, the Westminster students raised $500 for the orphanage through a bake sale.

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Community Supports Ninth Annual MS Walk Hundreds of walkers turned out for the ninth annual MS Walk into Simsbury town center and back, which was hosted by Westminster School in April.

After the walkers assembled at the Jackson Hockey Rink for registration, group photos and refreshments, Headmaster Graham Cole welcomed them to campus and introduced Eliza Mandzik ’09, who sang the national anthem. Simsbury First Selectman Mary Glassman then expressed appreciation to everyone for participating and making a difference in MS locally and around the country, and State Representative Linda Schofield thanked the volunteers, Westminster School and the walkers.

Among those walking were 80 people supporting Team Dixie, who walked in honor of Shannon O’Donnell, a Simsbury resident who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 10 years ago. Other large groups of walkers turned out from Westminster School, Avon Old Farms School and Ethel Walker School.

Westminster faculty, staff and students coordinated the day’s set-up, operations and cleanup.

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Above, MS Walk volunteers Len Berman and Shannon O’Donnell cut the ribbon to start the MS Walk.

Left, faculty member Jill Loveland, Simsbury First Selectman Mary Glassman, State Representative Linda Schofield and Headmaster Graham Cole.

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Westminster Wins Class A Western New England Softball Championship and Founders League Title For the second consecutive year, the First Softball team captured the Western New England Championship. After winning the Class B title in 2008, the team competed in the Class A division in May and defeated Miss Porter’s School and Choate Rosemary Hall en route to the 2009 championship. The team posted a 16-1 record for the season and also won the Founders League title for the third year in a row.

After an undefeated championship season in 2008 and the graduation of key infielders, this year’s squad successfully rose to the challenges behind the strong pitching of Brittany Sutton ’11 and the experience of captains Avi Greene ’09 and Sara Ugalde ’10. Westminster began the season by winning the first 11 games before a loss against Miss Porter’s broke the team’s 29game winning streak. However, Westminster bounced back a week later to defeat Miss Porter’s 5-1 in the tournament semi-final game.

In the Western New England final against Choate, Brittany Sutton struck out 15 batters, and the Westminster defense played flawlessly en route to a 7-4 victory. Corinne Werner ’10 and Sara Ugalde each had three hits and two RBIs, while Brittany Sutton tripled and Amanda Boulier ’11, Rachel Farrel ’11 and Tori Pizzuto ’10 added run-scoring singles. Though Choate rallied in the sixth inning to tie the game, the Martlets responded with a four-run outburst in the bottom of the frame to secure the win.

Overall, the 2009 Westminster team combined excellent pitching, strong fielding, and offensive firepower. For the season, Westminster limited opponents to less than three runs per game, and Brittany Sutton pitched three no-hitters and averaged 11 strikeouts per contest.

“The team played well in every facet of the game,” noted Head Coach Mitch Overbye. “They showed unique balance, determination and team cohesion in winning the last five games against strong opponents to secure both the Class A Western New England Championship and the Founders League Title.”

Westminster has compiled a record of 34-1 over the past two seasons. With eight returning starters, the Martlets have high hopes for continued success in the future.

Martlet Brings Home Bronze Medal

Art Johansen, second from the left, with former athletic directors Scott Berry and Peter Newman ’80 and current athletic director Dennis Daly.

Art Johansen Retires Art Johansen, who served as the long-time equipment manager for Westminster athletic teams and as a school custodian, retired in June after 28 years of service to Westminster School. The Upper Athletic Equipment Room has been named “Art’s Cage” in his honor, and a plaque was mounted on the door of the room to recognize his years of dedicated and loyal service to the Athletic Department.

Oscar Ladd ’11 returned to the Hill in April with a bronze medal from competing in the inaugural World Deaf Ice Hockey Championships in Canada. He was one of 18 selected for the United States team, composed of males 16 and older, after participating in a national American Hearing Impaired Hockey Association camp in Chicago.

The games will take place every four years in order to prepare for the Deaf Olympics. Over the course of 12 days, the team trained together and played each of the participating teams in a round-robin format. The four other countries that sent teams to the championships were Slovakia, Russia, Finland and Canada.

After the initial games, the medal rounds commenced at the AHL rink in Manitoba, and the American team earned the bronze medal by defeating the Russian team.

For Oscar, who played on Westminster’s Second Boys’ Hockey team this past winter, this was an entirely new experience. At the championships, athletes were not permitted to use hearing aids, so they had to really know the game and anticipate each other’s play. The game turned out to be faster and more precise.

In addition to enjoying the time on the ice, Oscar appreciated getting to know new people and learning from the older players, who served as role models for the rookies on the squad. Oscar hopes that this will be just the first of many similar experiences as he prepares for Olympic tryouts in 2010 for the 2011 Deaf Olympics in Slovakia.

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Weekend

REUNION ’09

MAY 1–3

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ore than 200 alumni from 13 classes spanning 1939 to 2004 returned to the Hill for reunion weekend May 1-3.

They began their celebrations Friday night at class gatherings at five restaurants in Simsbury. On Saturday morning, they attended a coffee in Keyes Study, an open house in the archives, and a faculty and student panel discussion.

During the panel discussion, Sixth Formers Liz Cole, Kieran McDonald and James Lord, and faculty members David Pope and Kathleen Devaney talked about current life on the Hill. They also responded to questions about the use of technology on campus, how day and boarding students interact, stickball, athletics and whether students ever compare their Westminster experience with students at other schools. The last question stimulated some discussion.

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others is our tightknit community,” responded Liz. “This is one of the great things about Westminster.”

“I’ve had help from teachers that my friends at other schools haven’t had,” added James.

“And that is the way it was when I was here,” commented Ed Cosden ’64. “Things haven’t changed.”

Following the panel discussion, English Department Head Michael Cervas gave a poetry reading and talked about the Westminster Poetry Series and writing poetry. “My poems come from my life — what I read, my experience and my family,” he explained.

Sixth Form Alumni Induction and Memorial Service At the Sixth Form induction into the alumni association in Andrews Memorial Chapel, Tim Robinson ’85 talked about his family’s long association with Westminster, 11

thanked alumni for attending reunion and pointed out how different the campus looks today than it did 24 years ago.

“There are always physical plant changes, but the core values haven’t changed,” he said. He encouraged the Sixth Formers to build on the relationships they had formed on the Hill. “Get involved with the people you see here today,” he said.

During the alumni memorial service, Alan Brooks ’55 read the names of 25 alumni who died during the past year, and Eliza Mandzik ’09 and Hannah Ford ’11 sang “Pie Jesu” by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Among those attending reunion were Kirk Jewett ’44 and Jim Goodenough ’44, who were celebrating their 65th reunion. They are lifelong friends, who both attended Yale, worked together early in their careers in New York City and get together regularly. “The friends I made at Westminster have been the most lasting in my life,” commented Kirk.

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Rich Trapnell ’69, who lives in Australia and owns a wholesale nursery called Rosebud Farm, traveled the greatest distance to reunion. Last on the Hill for his 20th reunion, he said he was struck by the improvements to campus buildings. “It seems more like a university than a boarding school,” he observed. Other alumni traveled from as far away as Ecuador and Great Britain.

Grand March The grand march of alumni and their families began at the Sixth Form Lawn and ended at the reunion tent, where everyone gathered for lunch. Following lunch, Headmaster Graham Cole gave brief remarks in the atrium of the Armour Academic Center about some of the year’s achievements. He added, “I’ve now been here so long that there are three classes here that I had as headmaster — 1994, 1999 and 2004.”

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Before leading everyone on a tour of the new center, Director of Studies Greg Marco outlined some of the main features of the building. “You will be amazed by the space and the utilization of light,” he predicted.

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classmates to cement the class’s place in Westminster history. With his $25,000 challenge and a generous response among members of the class, the class exceeded its goal of $50,000 and set the standard for reunion giving. However, the record did not stand for long. The Class of 1950 broke it the following year and, more recently, the Class of 1964 and the Class of 1955 have claimed the award.

Also recognized at the dinner were members of the Class of 1949 for their 100 percent participation in their reunion gift. Once again, an anonymous donor had issued a challenge to his class to match dollar-for-dollar up to $30,000. The class not only met but exceeded its goal.

“The friends I made at Westminster have been the most lasting in my life.”

At the Black and Gold Reunion Dinner held under the reunion tent, special recognition was given to the Class of 1969 for taking over the Top of the Tower Award, which recognizes the class that has raised the most money for the school, including annual and capital gifts. For their 40th reunion, members of the Class of 1969 gave $5,304,515.

The Top of the Tower tradition began in 1999 when an anonymous member of the Class of 1949 challenged his

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Weekend

REUNION ’09 14

“There are always physical plant changes, but the core values haven’t changed.”

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REUNION ’09

Weekend M AY 1 – 3

1944 Kirk Jewett, Betty Jewett and James Goodenough

1949 Back row, left to right, Chuck Kellogg, Dave Martin, Mike Jackson, Tim Smith, Was Denham and Phil McKee.

Front row, left to right, Pem Hutchinson, Pro Lyon and Bruce Taylor.

1954 Back row, left to right, Peter Cooper, Stuart Richardson, Richard Cuyler, Greg Neal, Tim Clark, David Hubby and Bill Childs.

Front row, left to right, Tom LaMotte, Jim Brown and Bart Miller.

Inset, Jim Draper

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1969 Back row, left to right, Richard Porth, Peter Platt, Andrew Cort, Mike Monagan, Robert Clemens, John Dunbar, Rich Trapnell and Bob Bynum.

Front row, left to right, Mark Roberts, Arondel Jones, Caleb Rossiter and Buzz Hartshorn.

1974 Michael Spalding, John Hugens, Andy Lazarus, Win Hotchkiss and Dave Bartram.

1979 Back row, left to right, Charlie Baxter, Pete Test, Emily Bissell Laird, Hendon Pingeon, Tim Rogers and John Cloud.

Front row, left to right, Pamela Klipstein Smith, Tim Willard and Cal Groton.

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1984 Back row, left to right, Peter Naylor, Elisabeth Andresen Massey, Steve Boeschenstein, Ned Burns, Rich Fronapfel, Hiram Bingham, Liz Grant Schroeder, John von Stade, Alden Bourne, Whitney Robinson Dimmitt and Dave Howe.

Front row, left to right, Susan Doran, Maxine Brereton, Tom O’Connor, Warren Dibble, P.J. Bowers and Nick Stevenson.

1989 Standing, left to right, Corey Sullivan, Brett Moyer, Mary Hampton-Sirianni, Kerry O’Malley Hanson, David Newman, Nancy Richards Cavanaugh, Rob Horsford, John Mechem, Will Beckford, Randy Richardson Beckford, Steve Young, Jason Usher, Rich Mugler, Ed Naylor, Sean McCarthy, Dan Keating, Matt Vendetti, Jamie Peterson, Stu Winkler, Aishling Watterson Peterson, Sloane Andrews Bergien and Natasha Raymond.

Front row, left to right, Sarah Alford, Dinah Steward, Suzie Lowry Bailey, Steve Bailey, John Raymond, Cara Burnham Herdeg and Fell Herdeg.

1994 Steve Reeves, Emily Fuller, Martha Payne Zacharek, Maritza Torres, Darcy Halsey and José Ruiz.

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1999 Back row, left to right, Lauren Polo, Jeff Scarcella, Nick Lillo, Kevin Cawley, Jeff Fransen, Chris Reigeluth, Sean-Michael Hodge-Bowles, Dan Farrelly, Brian Mitchell and Newell Grant.

Standing front, left to right, Torrey Trzcienski, Joe Miller, Matt Wu, Sarah Smith, Kate Fuge, Conway Walthew Bate, Talbott Randall Fall, Matt Zimmerman, Anne Boenning, Abbie Wold, Bryce Petty, Barrett Mully, Jillian Geissler and Helena Grant.

Below in front, left to right, Liz Bauer, Emily MacDonald, Susie Bruderman and Ali Cohen.

2004 Back row, left to right, Form Dean Peter Briggs ’71, Brett Willis, Steve Thomas, Andres Altgelt, Keith McConnell, Drew Malbin, Luke Brindamour, Nate Boucher, Tami Couch, Chris Wacker, Fred Dirkes, Rob Martin, Caroline Graham, Chris Oetting, Maddie Brooks, Chelsea Cipolla, Ted Levine, Emily Gailun, Andrew Kvam, Derek Milkie, Michael Reddy, Peter Lorimer, Patrick Flaherty, Shane Spinell, Tyler Young, Steve Frechette, Robert Turnquest and Lee Anderson.

Front row, left to right, Greg Devlin, Allison Snow, Ashley Castle, Emily DeClue, Elizabeth Torres, Emily Ginnel, Lindsey Armstrong, Teddy Wertheim, Elliot Byrd, Kiley Murphy, Rebecca Ferrel, Scott Carleton, Mimi Pitney, Charles Hu and Ahmed Al-Sulaiman.

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JU N E 1 2

Class of 1959 Celebrates 50 years!

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Members of the Class of 1959 began their 50th reunion weekend June 12-14 with a Friday night dinner at the 1820 House in Simsbury. On Saturday, they visited the archives, attended a memorial service in the chapel and viewed renovation plans underway for Keyes Garden, which the Class of 1959 Fund supported. They also took a tour of the Armour Academic Center and the Werner Centennial Center led by their classmate Graham Gund ’59, whose architecture firm, GUND Partnership, designed both buildings.

“I have never seen anything like it,” said Charley Zimmer ’59, following the tour of the new academic center. “It is state of the art. As an alumnus, I am proud of the school and the direction it Back row, left to right, Ben Kuckel, Art Gilliam, Charlie Gummey, Charlie Dilks, Dick Elliott and Sherwood Willard. has taken.”

And Wis Silver ’59 thought the new Middle row, left to right, Peter Coe, John Atlee, Phil Kerr, Lee Dunham, center was beyond expectations. “It was Phil Sayres and Tim Stevens. mind-boggling,” he exclaimed.

Front row, left to right, Peter Kellogg, Charley Zimmer, Ben Day, During lunch, Director of Wis Silver and Graham Gund.

Development Scott Stevens and Assistant Headmaster Nancy Spencer updated everyone on the school, and after the meal, class members visited areas of campus that were of special interest to them with student guides.

That evening, cocktails were held in Fearn Hall and the traditional 50th Reunion Dinner was held in Hinman Reading Room. Phil Kerr ’59, who served as the master of ceremonies, kept the evening’s stories going and everyone had a great time.

Members of the Class of 1959, top, visited the Armour Academic Center; below, Keyes Garden; and, left, the archives.

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121st Commencement Marks Achievements of Class of 2009

With eager anticipation on their faces, 98 members of the Class of 2009 processed into the commencement tent on the quad for Westminster’s 121st commencement ceremony on May 24. They were surrounded by hundreds of family members and friends who were there to celebrate the class’s achievements and witness its leave of a community in which it had played such an important role.

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H

eadmaster Graham Cole opened the ceremony by congratulating the class on its accomplishments and saying, “U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes once referred to commencement as ‘the day for which all other days were made.’” He then expressed his appreciation to the class for bringing him on the Sixth Form Lawn at the prior evening’s Lawn Ceremony. “I have been in this business for almost 40 years now and have enjoyed many special moments along the way, but being brought onto the lawn with your class ranks among my own best, not just that I can now walk on the lawn, which I have not done these last 16 years, but that I will always be a member of the Class of 2009,” he said.

The Salutatory Address In his salutatory address, Head Prefect Mike Curran ’09 talked about the little things he will remember about Westminster. “For the past four years, we have been shaped and molded, often without even realizing it,” he explained. “Not in a conformist kind of way, but almost in a way that lets us manipulate ourselves subconsciously. We have been shown a path, and all the doors along the way have been opened, but it is a wide road.”

He then discussed how Head Prefect Mike Curran. alumni, who are spread across the professional world, are each special in their own way. “Perhaps it is CCBI — community, character, balance and involvement, the four core values which have been taught to and expected of us in our time here,” he said. “No matter where we end up, we will always feel a connection to the people and place around us, and we will feel a responsibility to better the community we share.”

He then expressed gratitude for Westminster becoming his home. “No doubt there will be more places that I call home in the future, but I am positive that this place will always come to mind when I need comfort,” he said. “To everyone who has made this place so special, I thank you.

Thank you for not only teaching me what you love in the classroom, but for teaching me how to live my life through example.”

Presentation of Awards and Prizes Members of the faculty and students were then presented awards and prizes recognizing various achievements and contributions to the school.

(Please see the complete listing starting on page 27.)

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Outstanding Scholar Address Josh Zalinger ’09, who graduated having completed 10 AP classes and who received the Excellence in Science Prize, the Excellence in Chemistry Prize, the Excellence in Biology Book Prize, the Harvard-Radcliffe Book Prize, and the Design Award for Service and Achievement in Technical Support, was selected by the faculty to receive this year’s Outstanding Scholar Award. He focused his remarks on the importance of maintaining balance in life.

“Life has way too much momentum for you to be able to keep everything going exactly the way you want,” he explained. “Make the smaller changes that will keep you pointing in the right direction, but don’t sweat it if you end up on a different road than you were expecting.”

He encouraged his classmates Josh Zalinger delivers the when they are faced with bad luck to outstanding scholar address. brush themselves off and try something again. “Because when it comes down to it, life is more about taking risks that sometimes pay off than it is about playing everything safe,” he said. “So try taking that hard class that looks really interesting. Try out for the varsity team. Play a couple of songs at a coffeehouse.

Audition for the musical. I’ve heard that some people consider the phrase ‘may you have an interesting life’ to be a curse. I can’t think of anything more wrong. So go make your life interesting.”

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The Keynote Address In his keynote address, Westminster faculty member Bill Philip P’06, ’09, H’06 talked about the people in the Westminster community.

At Westminster, Bill has taught many history courses; coached swimming, baseball, and lacrosse; supervised dormitory corridors in Memorial and Andrews; and served as director of College Counseling, director of studies, associate headmaster and senior development director.

“Under this tent, in the shadow of our magnificent new academic center, it may seem an odd assertion, but Westminster is about people,” said Bill.

Keynote speaker Bill Philip.

He explained how the people who make up the Westminster community extend beyond the students, faculty and staff on the Hill to the parents and alumni he has visited in his role as senior development director. He then shared the accomplishments of three alumni with remarkable and unpredictable career paths. “These stories and so many others from alumni are almost always punctuated with attributions to this special school — the lessons, the relationships, the values and the people who define our school community,” he said.

He encouraged members of the graduating class to draw strength from the security of this wider Westminster community and to remain open to new possibilities and

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opportunities. “Enroll in that class outside your major, in a subject you know nothing about, but you understand is taught by a fabulous professor. At those moments when life turns in surprising directions, draw on all that you have learned here at Westminster: that it is important always to engage enthusiastically, with ‘a fire in your belly,’ that who you are as a person is so much more important than your personal awards or professional promotions and that what is important in life has less to do with yourself and more about making a difference for others.”

Presentation and Passing of Diplomas In his closing remarks, Headmaster Cole congratulated the graduates and credited them for a very successful school year. “Certainly the Class of 2009 will go down as one of our most successful with its college placement — and not just where you will be matriculating, which is very impressive, but how your college counselors describe you as one of the best groups to work with they can remember,” he said. He also praised members of the class for their school spirit; their leadership; their kindness and friendship on corridors, clubs and teams; and their impressive talents. He closed by reading a poem written by Frederick Buechner titled “Remember.”

As is tradition at Westminster, following the commencement ceremony, the Class of 2009 walked to the Sixth Form Lawn to participate in the passing of their diplomas. They formed a circle, and at the signal of the Head Prefect, passed the diplomas they received randomly during the commencement ceremony until they received their own diplomas.

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Class agents for the Class of 2009 Back row, left to right, Kirby Zdrill, Ashley Jeffress, Taylor Gould, Abby Stevens, Jeremy Zelinger, Alie Philip, E. J. Nisbeth and Whitney FitzPatrick.

Front row, left to right, Kieran McDonald, Liz Cole, Mike Curran, Hannah Dimmitt and Oliver DeClue.

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The Lawn Ceremony Following Westminster tradition, Fifth Formers gathered the night before commencement on the walkway which bisects the Sixth Form Lawn for the Lawn Ceremony. Members of the graduating class then brought members of the Fifth Form onto the lawn. In a surprise move, Headmaster Graham Cole was also invited onto the lawn as an honorary member of the Class of 2009. It was the first time he had walked on the lawn in his 16-year tenure. The last student left in the circle was Cris Gomez, the new Head Prefect.

Other members of the Prefect Board for 2009-2010 are Junior Prefect Will Smith, Eddie Gentle, Sean Kelley, Tiffany Liu, Ben Mandell, Maddie McPhee, Charlotte O’Herron, Steven Seymour and Adam Susaneck.

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Commencement Prizes and Awards FACULTY PRIZES

STUDENT PRIZES

The O’Brien Award

Gretchen Hupfel ’82 Art Purchase Prize

This award is presented annually in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Junie O’Brien, parents and trustees who devoted their lives in service to young people and to schools.

It recognizes a member of the faculty who has, over the course of the year, been especially selfless and generous with time and care in the nurture and support of students and whose extraordinary, ongoing personal commitment to young people sets an example to the Westminster community.

Named for Gretchen Hupfel ’82, this prize celebrates the life of a very talented Westminster graduate and provides funds to annually purchase a piece of student art. Through the generosity of the Class of 1982, the school recognizes outstanding student art and adds to the school’s art collection.

Foster Powell Baker ’09

Cowing Art Award Chanler Murphy ’09 Annie Ulrich ’09

Betsy Heckman Tanzosh

Excellence in Dance The Swayze Award Presented annually in honor of distinguished alumnus, trustee and former Chairman of the Board of Trustees Townsend Swayze ’55, this award is given to a member of the faculty for outstanding contributions to the life of the school.

Bill Sistare

Jaime Ferrari-McComb ’09 Natalie Perkins ’09

Edward Scull, Jr. ’71 Award for Excellence in Architecture Chris Eckerson ’09 Charles Corsi ’09

Excellence in Science Josh Zalinger ’09

20-Year Pin This award honors faculty members who have given 20 years of service to Westminster School.

Excellence in Chemistry Josh Zalinger ’09

Greg Marco

Excellence in Physics Sarun Atiganyanun ’09

Excellence in Mathematics Jae Kyung Ahn ’09

Dramatic Award for Service and Achievement in Acting Andrew Overbye ’09

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Design Award for Service and Achievement in Technical Support Josh Zalinger ’09

J. Lawrence Gilman Award for Achievement in Music and Participation in Musical Activities

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Burdett Prize for Achievement in the Study of French This prize for the study of French language carries the name of one of Westminster’s legendary teachers and finest human beings, Bruce Burdett. A passionate and exacting teacher of both French and Russian, he served the school from 1951 to his retirement in 1988.

Eliza Mandzik ’09

Eliza Mandzik ’09

Moncada Prize for Excellence in Spanish Gordon McKinley Award for Excellence in English This award is given each year in honor of Gordon McKinley, a former chair of the English Department, who served on the faculty from 1958-1986 as a master teacher.

Eliza Mandzik ’09

Nicolás Barragán ’09

Class of 1941 Peter Mars Memorial History Prize Christopher Shimamoto ’09

Sixth Form Prizes for General Scholarship

Brian Ford Writing Prize This prize is given annually to an underform student who, in the view of the English Department, best exemplifies a passion for the craft of writing. The prize comes in the form of a handsome stipend and the winner is asked to present a new piece of writing to the English Department in the fall.

Third in the Sixth Form:

Charlotte O’Herron ’10

First in the Sixth Form:

Josh Zalinger ’09

Second in the Sixth Form: Eliza Mandzik ’09

Sarun Atiganyanun ’09

Jake Medina ’12 with Third Form Dean Bill Sistare

Vanessa Larracuente ’11 with Fourth Form Dean Nancy Urner-Berry ’81

Cris Gomez ’10 with Fifth Form Dean Charles Griffith

Butler Bowl

Fourth Form Bowl

Wilbraham Bowl

This award is presented by the faculty to a member of the Third Form for character and leadership.

This award is presented annually by the faculty to a Fourth Former who shows outstanding personal qualities and concern for the community.

This award is presented annually to a member of the Fifth Form who best embodies the qualities of Geoffrey Wilbraham, who gave distinguished and loyal service to Westminster from 1958 to 1994: high personal standards, consistent respect for others, unswerving commitment to the common good, steady insistence on fair play and abiding human decency.

Jake Medina ’12

Vanessa Larracuente ’11

Cris Gomez ’10

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Taylor Gould ’09

Liz Cole ’09

Josh Zalinger ’09

Keyes Bowl

Paul Winship ’35 Alumni Book Prize

Outstanding Scholar Award

Established by the Class of 1966 and recognized as the school’s most prestigious commencement award, the Keyes Bowl is presented annually to a member of the Sixth Form and recognizes the qualities of loyalty, courage, leadership and humility that were exemplified by Headmaster Francis P. Keyes (1956 to 1970).

This book prize is awarded to a Sixth Former who has made an unusual commitment in both breadth and depth to the school’s programs and activities. It is awarded in honor of Paul Winship ’35, former director of the alumni program, whose vision resulted in many of the buildings on the Hill.

Taylor Gould ’09

Liz Cole ’09

This award is presented to the Sixth Former who, in the opinion of the faculty, is the outstanding scholar of the class. The award is not necessarily determined by rank in class but is based, rather, on the attributes of the true scholar: curiosity, imagination, power to associate new observations with prior experience, thoroughness, appetite for ideas rather than for grades as an end in themselves and the ability to move easily in the realm of concepts.

Josh Zalinger ’09

Emily Walsh ’09 and Kieran McDonald ’09 with Director of Athletics Dennis Daly

Eliza Mandzik ’09 with Sixth Form Dean Peter Briggs ’71

Brian T. Bruyette ’77 Senior Athletic Award

Richard K. LeBlond II Honor Award

This award is given annually to the Sixth Form boy and girl who best exemplify excellence in athletics and who contributed to the character of the team. It is given in memory of Brian T. Bruyette ’77, who in his enthusiasm, sportsmanship, effort and skills, represented all that is best in his school.

This award is given annually to a member of the Sixth Form who exemplifies dedication to academics and loyalty to the school.

Eliza Mandzik ’09

Kieran McDonald ’09 Emily Walsh ’09

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The Westminster School Class of 2009 Matriculation Jae Kyung Ahn University of Pennsylvania

Michael Abbott Cahill Claremont McKenna College

Joseph Patrick Ascioti Colgate University

Joseph Campanelli Bentley University

Sarun Atiganyanun California Institute of Technology

Tsz Yan Chan University of Southern California

Alexander K. Baker Lake Forest College

Philip Jae Ho Cho Georgetown University

Oliver Frank DeClue Union College

Avignon Trudy Greene Agnes Scott College

Kendall Hanna Deflin University of Richmond

Aaron Samuel Halfon Rollins College

John Anthony DePasquale III Franklin and Marshall College

Michael Davitt Hallisey College of the Holy Cross

Hannah Monroe Dimmitt Vanderbilt University

Aimee Jessica Hannah University of Rhode Island

Gabriel Michael Dudley Wesleyan University

Timothy Joseph Hickey Wheaton College

William James Durand, Jr. University of Delaware

David Huntington Hovey III St. Lawrence University

Christopher W. L. Eckerson University of Utah

Amanda Elizabeth Humphrey Trinity College

Foster Powell Baker Colgate University

Kelsey Elizabeth Clarke University of North Carolina at Wilmington

Nicolรกs Samuel Barragรกn Columbia University

Elizabeth Anne Cole Lafayette College

John James Enright St. Lawrence University

Ashley Taylor Jeffress St. Lawrence University

Mikaela Bengtsson Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden

Claire Talley Corroon Hamilton College

Bree Auld Evans Boston University

Kierra Amber Jones Cornell University

Charles Albert Corsi Dartmouth College

Alfonso Gustavo Fernandez Trinity College

Charles Kimball Keegan Boston College

Robin Rebecca Cotter Wesleyan University

Jaime Ferrari-McComb University of Exeter

Christopher Matthew King Connecticut College

Michael Jude Curran Colorado College

Juliette Ferrari-McComb University of Surrey

James Jeffrey Kingsbury Bucknell University

James Douglas Curtiss Bucknell University

Whitney Gilmore FitzPatrick Boston College

Lindsay Stafford Laird University of Vermont

William Ingersoll Danforth College of Charleston

Taylor Briggs Gould Connecticut College

Adam Michael Lederer Lake Forest College

Anna Doherty Boborodea University of Vermont Alison Hillary Bragg Bates College Calvin Brownridge American International College Stephen Douglas Buskey II St. Lawrence University

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Class of 2009 Jeannie Haijin Lee Rhode Island School of Design

Emily Francesca Minella University of Vermont

Rosalie Davis Philip Bates College

Dylan John Spevacek Chapman University

Andrew Steven Lemnios College of Charleston

Caroline Emily Moran Union College

Abigail MacCrimmon Stevens University of Vermont

Torrey Alvord Leroy Yale University

Frances Chanler Murphy Occidental College

Abigail Lauren Pribble Washington University in St. Louis

Margot Clare Lieblich Tufts University

Kelsey Bridget Murphy College of Charleston

James Franklin Lord United States Coast Guard Academy

Errol Lamar Nisbeth Amherst College

Eliza Rose Mandzik Providence College William Joseph Manning III Colgate University Nicholas John Marenakos University of Colorado, Army R.O.T.C. Colby Brewster Mauke Hobart and William Smith Colleges Kieran Moore McDonald The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Meghan McGunigle Canisius College Elizabeth Fairchild Melhado University of Richmond

Harry Christopher Radovich Hobart and William Smith Colleges Zachariah A. Reitano Columbia University

Annie Farrington Ulrich Middlebury College Emily Ann Walsh University of Vermont William Huson Wierzba Lake Forest College

Mary Catherine O’Connor Trinity College

Elena Marie Ridenour University of North Carolina at Wilmington

Danielle Courtney Williams Cornell University

Miguel Geronimo Osio The George Washington University

Kyle Robert Riffe Connecticut College

Isabella Valentina Wragg University of Virginia

Jaclyn Elise Savage Union College

Joshua Bestor Zalinger Bowdoin College

Evan Burns Schlosser College of William and Mary

Kirby Frank Zdrill Yale University

Kristen Elizabeth Schultz Lafayette College

Jeremy Aaron Zelinger Tufts University

Caroline Flagg Scott University of Vermont

Kyle Jacob Zinn New York University

Catherine Alice Outerbridge Davidson College Andrew Donald Overbye Colorado College Joong Hyun Park University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Dean F. Pastor College of the Atlantic Roger Alexander Peikin University of Richmond Natalie Anne Perkins University of Richmond

Christopher Yuji Shimamoto University of Pennsylvania Julia Cooke Simons Colby College

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A Close Look at College Admissions The 2008-2009 college admissions cycle was one of the most unpredictable in years due to the uncertain economy and its varying impact on college and university admission decisions. Despite this challenge, Westminster had one of its best admission years on record with 84 percent of the Class of 2009 admitted to Barron’s “most competitive” and “highly competitive” colleges.

The following is a close look at the college search process of nine students and how their hard work in the classroom, on the playing fields and in extracurricular activities gained them acceptance into the freshman class of some of the nation’s most prestigious colleges and universities.

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Josh Zalinger ’09 BOWDOIN COLLEGE

A proud member of the four-year club at Westminster, Josh Zalinger, a day student from Simsbury, was named the Outstanding Scholar in his class. He received the Excellence in Science Prize, the Excellence in Chemistry Prize and the Excellence in Biology Book Prize. He also was named a National AP Scholar and a Commended Student in the National Merit Scholarship Program.

In addition to his achievements in the classroom, Josh left his mark on the athletic field and in the theater. He served as captain of the cross-country team and competed in track.

In the theater, he served as president of Dramat and received the Frances Laurel Hopkins Award, and the Design Award for Service and Achievement in Technical Support.

“Josh challenged himself in all areas of school life at Westminster,” said Joyce Wilson, his college counselor. “He was completely involved in the community and was unselfish, dedicated and loyal.”

Josh set his sights on attending a smaller liberal arts school in the Northeast with strong academics and a good theater program. “My biggest concern, even fairly early on, was that I couldn’t narrow my list down enough,” he said.

“There were too many schools that I knew I

would be happy at, and every one of them looked great.”

He credits Joyce with helping him narrow his college list to a reasonable number of schools. “Some looked too challenging academically, or had requirements that I didn’t like,” he said. “A few were in very remote locations, or didn’t have high-quality theater arts programs. Mrs. Wilson did convince me to add an early-action safety school to my list, and I’m very glad she did, even though I didn’t need it.”

One thing that turned out to be easier than he expected was completing the

applications. “The application sections that weren’t essays were surprisingly quick to complete, especially since five of my colleges used the common application,” he explained.

Josh feels great about the results of his search. In the end, he had to make a choice between Wesleyan University and Bowdoin College, and he selected Bowdoin.

“Bowdoin will offer him a challenging academic program, a good cross-country team and a wonderful theater program,” said Joyce.

“Its size and scope will allow him to stay involved and to pursue new talents he develops in the next four years.”

Annie Ulrich ’09

and Pennsylvania. I’ve never liked cities, so I tended to like more rural schools.”

Annie’s major concern throughout the process was how she was going to decide which college to select. “I loved almost everywhere I visited,” she said. To help narrow her search, she decided to think about all the things that she wanted to do in college and which colleges had strengths in those areas.

“I also went with my gut,” she said. “Some places simply didn’t feel right when I visited.”

Annie credits her college counselor, former Director of College Counseling Kate Caspar, with guiding her through the process.

“Generally, she made me feel less stressed about the whole process,” said Annie.

Annie finally decided to apply early decision to Middlebury and was accepted. “I couldn’t think of a more perfect place for me,” she said. “I like everything — the change of scenery, more free time, playing squash, my dorm room, new people and the food. It would probably be easier to list what I’m not excited about!”

MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE

Annie Ulrich successfully blended her academic and artistic interests at Westminster.

She ranked in the top 10 in her class, was named an AP Scholar with Honor, participated in cross country and squash, and won the Cowing Art Award.

She visited 13 colleges and applied early decision to Middlebury College. Her father, who is head of Westminster’s Mathematics Department, and her mother, who works in the Westminster Admissions Office, are both Middlebury alumni.

“Going into the process, I had no idea what I wanted, but gradually I found that a smaller liberal arts college was the most appealing to me,” explained Annie. “I didn’t want to be close to home, but squash, which I decided was really important to me, is only offered as a varsity sport in the Northeast. I looked at schools in Maine, Vermont, New York

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Kieran McDonald ’09 UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA, CHAPEL HILL

Kieran McDonald, a boarding student from Rye, N.Y., arrived at Westminster as a Fifth Former. During his two years on the Hill, he served as a school prefect, dorm proctor and member of Black and Gold. He also was a significant contributor to lacrosse, football and basketball. He was elected captain of all three sports for the 2008-2009 school year, a rare feat. It was on the lacrosse field, however, where he truly set the standard, earning AllLeague and All-America honors two years in a row. He also received the Brian T. Bruyette Senior Athletic Award.

“For his speed, field sense, athletic IQ and leadership, Kieran is one of the best defensemen to have ever worn the Westminster lacrosse uniform,” said Peter Newman ’80, his lacrosse coach and college counselor.

One of Kieran’s college goals was to play lacrosse in the Atlantic Coast Conference. “Mr. Newman was very helpful in letting me know what to say in e-mails to coaches, and he

talked to the coaches individually for me,” said Kieran. “He also gave me guidelines for what tests to take and what I would need to do in order to qualify for certain schools. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without him.”

What surprised Kieran the most was just how interested coaches were in him. During the summer of his sophomore year when he was playing for the Hudson Valley Empire State Team, he met Ohio State lacrosse coach Joe Breschi, who would subsequently become the lacrosse coach at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). The following summer, when Kieran attended one of the top recruiting camps in the country, Coach Breschi recruited him for his team at UNC. Kieran was thrilled by the possibility of attending UNC and applied early action and signed a letter of intent.

Kieran calls UNC his “dream college.” “I was looking for the best combination of academics and athletics, and UNC definitely excels in both areas,” he said.

“Anytime someone is as excited about a school as he is and has the talent he has going in, it is the right formula for success,” said Peter. “I think Kieran will be terrific, not only as a lacrosse player but also as a student and a leader.”

Whitney FitzPatrick ’09

challenge me academically, so the academics weren’t a prime concern when I was narrowing down my choices. I was also lucky enough to be accepted early action to one of my firstchoice schools, so then I only applied to my other three favorite schools.”

Whitney did not encounter any major problems during her search. “Now that it is over, I have really figured out the things that

are important to me,” she said. “I had a lot of trust in the College Counseling office, and it proved to be extremely helpful.”

Whitney received news last December that she was admitted to Boston College. “I love Boston College and am proud to go there!” she said. “I like meeting new people and finding things I am really interested in studying.”

BOSTON COLLEGE

Looking for a college with school spirit was a huge part of the college process for Whitney FitzPatrick, a boarding student from Greenwich, Conn. “When I visited college campuses, I was looking to see who was proud to attend the school,” she said.

She also sought a medium-sized school with a liberal arts curriculum. “I didn’t want to be too close to home, and the closest school I ended up applying to was three hours away,” she said. “I looked primarily at schools that would challenge me academically and were known for having great school spirit.”

During her three years at Westminster, Whitney was an excellent student and was named an AP Scholar. She also was a member of the John Hay Society, served on student council her Sixth Form year, and played field hockey, squash and tennis.

“I visited an insane number of schools and narrowed them down by size and how happy the people looked, essentially,” she explained. “I only looked at schools that would

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Mike Curran ’09 COLORADO COLLEGE

Having three older sisters who went through the college process before him helped Head Prefect Mike Curran with his college search. “I was able to take suggestions from them and my parents,” he explained.

Mike, a day student from Simsbury, visited 10 schools and applied to three. His college counselor advised him to interview wherever he could. “He is very impressive with adults,” said Kate Caspar, his counselor. “He had a balanced list of schools, a good attitude and great leadership skills.” At Westminster, Mike was a member of student council and the John Hay Society, and a diver for the Swimming and Diving team.

Colorado College was at the top of Mike’s college list. He was attracted to the school’s geology program, its outing program and the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains. “I had heard many good things about the school through my sisters,” he said. “As I learned more about it, I was more and more drawn to it. By the time I stepped onto the campus, I knew I wanted to go there. Also, I was known for riding my unicycle around Westminster, so it was a bit of a deal-closer when I saw someone roll by on a ‘uni’ during my tour.”

Mike is grateful for his college counselor’s help in making sure he met all deadlines and was doing everything he needed to do. “What helped me the most was being able to go to her when I was stressed out and have her convince me I was all right,” he said.

“Her most valuable advice was not to worry.”

Just as his counselor predicted, the easiest part of his search turned out to be the interviews. “I was expecting really abstract and difficult questions,” he explained. “But,

thankfully, I was not pressed with anything like that. All my interviews were basically conversations with the interviewer and turned out to be helpful in getting to know the school better.”

The hardest part of his search was waiting on Colorado College’s decision. “My decision letter was two weeks late, so it got pretty nerve-wracking” he said. “I am very happy with the results since Colorado College was my absolute first choice!”

Jae Kyung Ahn ’09 WHARTON SCHOOL OF BUSINESS, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

A t Westminster, Jae Kyung Ahn, a boarding student from Korea, was founder and president of the Model United Nations, an AP Scholar with Distinction, president of the Tutor Club, editor of Westminster News, vice president of student council, a student officer, and a member of the Chamber Choir and the Asian Awareness Association. She also received the Excellence in Mathematics Prize.

Her college goal was to find an East Coast medium-sized school in an urban setting.

“There were a lot of schools I wanted to apply to for different reasons but physically it was impossible to apply to all of them,” she said. She eventually narrowed her search by location, majors and school ambiance. She also talked a lot with her college counselor, Kate Caspar, about where she should apply. Kate suggested she apply to a number of reach

schools, which Jae did. “Mrs. Caspar helped me with my college essays and standardized tests,” said Jae. “She also comforted me when I needed it and answered many of my questions.”

Jae was very pleased with the results of her efforts. She was accepted early decision at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania where she is a business major “enjoying a bigger world, interactions with people, and being able to explore many different fields of study.”

“The college process enabled me to look back on my life and figure out what has been really important to me,” added Jae. “Although it required alot of energy and effort, I was able to rediscover myself through the process. It was one of the most valuable experiences in my life.”

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E.J. Nisbeth ’09 AMHERST COLLEGE

E.J. Nisbeth, a boarding student from New Haven, Conn., enjoys music and soccer, and dreams of possibly becoming a physician one day.

At Westminster, he was a recipient of the Butler Bowl, was named an AP Scholar, served as a drummer in the jazz band, and was a member of the John Hay Society, and Black and Gold. He also spent his Fifth Form year at School Year Abroad France, where he achieved strong grades and became fluent in French. As an athlete, he played First Boys’ Soccer and Third Boys’ Basketball and ran track. To get more exposure to the medical field, he completed an internship with the chief of cardiovascular surgery at Yale the summer before his Sixth Form year.

E.J.’s college search centered on finding a small, academically strong college with a good music program that is close to home. He did not want an urban setting. “I wanted a small

Molly O’Connor ’09 TRINITY COLLEGE

Finding a college with an atmosphere similar to Westminster’s was high on Molly O’Connor’s list of criteria for a college. “I wanted a school on the smaller side, with anywhere from 2,000-5,000 students,” she

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community with easy access to professors and the freedom to create your own curriculum,” he explained. He decided to visit seven colleges.

After receiving acceptances from the schools where he applied, he narrowed his final choices down to Amherst College and Williams College. In the end, he chose Amherst.

He is happy things turned out the way they did. “It was a smooth process, and I don’t think I was too nervous,” he said. “Amherst has a good medical school advisory program, and I especially like the five-college consortium there. The soccer coach also told me I would be a good addition to the team.”

said. “Location wasn’t as important to me. I looked at schools as close as Trinity College and as far as the University of Richmond. The most important factor in my search was to find a school that had great academic and internship opportunities, as well as a place I would feel comfortable calling my home.”

A day student from Burlington, Conn., Molly came to Westminster her Fourth Form

year. Her major activities on the Hill included serving as president of Dramat, co-president of the Student Activities Committee, a writer for the Westminster News, a member of the softball team and a participant in numerous Dramat productions. She also was named an AP Scholar.

At the beginning of her college search, Molly had some concerns about selecting a subject for her college essay, keeping her grades up and improving her SAT scores. She visited 19 schools. “I was able to get a good feel for them and then imagined where I could be for the next four years,” she said.

Her college counselor, Joyce Wilson, encouraged her to apply early decision at Trinity, which turned out to be a very good option for her since her fate was decided by December. “Once I decided on my first choice of schools, applying for early decision made the process easier than I expected,” said Molly.

“Mrs. Wilson was always there to answer any question I might have and was very insightful as to what colleges would be a good fit for me.”

Molly is thrilled about attending Trinity. “I look forward to continuing my education, while exploring all the opportunities available,” she said. “I also look forward to growing more as a person and learning more about myself.”

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Torrey Leroy ’09 YALE UNIVERSITY

A day student from West Hartford, Torrey Leroy has always held herself to high standards in the classroom and on the playing field. A true student-athlete, she arrived on the Hill her Fifth Form year with a strong transcript and an extensive soccer resume.

As a Martlet, she placed first in her class her Fifth Form year, was named an AP Scholar with Distinction, received the Yale Book Prize, served as a writer and editor for Westminster News, and was a member of the Chorale. She also had a major impact on First Girls’ Soccer, making crucial contributions to Westminster’s appearance in the New England Class A tournament two years in a row.

Torrey’s soccer achievements were recognized not only at Westminster but at the regional and national levels. She served as captain of her Connecticut Football Club teams and was named to four All-State teams and the Hartford Courant All-State team. Last year, she was selected to participate in the United Soccer Leagues Super Y-League National Olympic Development Program player pool.

Torrey wanted a college with great academics and a competitive soccer program,

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ideally at the Division I level. “Also, it was important that I liked the school, since I would be there for the next four years,” she said. As a Fifth Former, she knew that Yale was where she wanted to go. She had become acquainted with one of Yale’s soccer coaches and had been identified early as someone Yale wanted to pursue.

“Torrey is a very high achiever academically and a hard worker athletically,” said Peter Newman, her college counselor.

“After a lot of communication, Yale asked her to apply early action and gave her a ‘likely letter,’ which is as close as they get to a letter of intent.”

“Mr. Newman, helped me pull together all my materials early, which was required by Yale for purposes of the athletic program,” said Torrey. “All my materials had to be together by Sept. 1, 2008, to be reviewed by the admissions office for recruits, therefore, it was necessary for my teachers’ recommendations to be written, and my material put together in the summer.”

“Torrey was very conscientious and did everything she needed to do,” added Peter. “It went very smoothly because she is so hard working.” Torrey says his most valuable advice to her was to keep working hard, in and outside the classroom, even though she

already knew the school she was hoping to attend.

Torrey was excited and relieved when she finally received her formal acceptance to Yale.

She is undecided about her major but is looking forward to “a great education and good soccer.”

In the College Counseling Resource Room, students can browse shelves of view books, catalogs and resource guides; complete applications; or surf Web sites for current information on colleges, scholarships and deadlines.

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Success Linked to Good Strategies and Strong Effort who have a mindset that their intellectual ability is Do you succeed in school because you those something they can develop, do better because they seek

think you are smart or because you believe your mind can be enhanced?

That was the question Director of Studies Greg Marco posed to Third Formers at the first meeting of a series of learning theories seminars held during the 2008-2009 academic year.

By helping students determine whether they have a fixed mindset about intelligence or a growth mindset, he wanted them to think about how they approach learning and to be receptive to new strategies.

“Sometimes you may fail at something and that may have never happened before,” Greg advised the students. “The problem with a fixed mindset is that you always want to look smart and only seek out opportunities where you will succeed. With a growth mindset, you persist in the face of challenges and effort is everything. It is about the process of each class. My goal is to influence you to have a growth view and to take intellectual risks.”

The two mindsets described to the students are based on research by Stanford University professor of psychology Carol Dweck and are believed to have a major impact on a student’s success in the classroom. According to her research,

challenges and focus on effort.

The idea to teach students about current learning theories was an outgrowth of professional development workshops Greg and Form Dean Bill Sistare attended during the summer of 2008. The workshop Greg attended focused on applications of cognitive science, and the one in which Bill participated was on the brain and learning. They decided it would be beneficial to present what they learned to Third Formers who were just beginning their Westminster careers.

“The most important times in your educational life are the transitional times, so that is why the seminars are being provided to you as new students,” Greg explained to the Third Formers. “We will provide you with some skills that will make your adjustment from middle school easier.”

“You need to be thinking about how to be more effective as an active learner. Ask yourself what you can do to make your experience more effective.”

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Developing New Learning Skills The seminars, which lasted for 20 minutes on Wednesday mornings, required no homework and covered learning theories, the brain, study skills, perception, attention, memory, strategic reading, textbooks, planners and exam preparation. They were taught by Greg, Bill and math teacher Jill Loveland.

In discussions about how the brain functions, Bill explained to the students how regions of the brain process information. He used group exercises related to pattern selection and the use of reading cues to demonstrate key points. “Learning is not a passive process,” he advised the students. “You need to be thinking about how to be more effective as an active learner. Ask yourself what you can do to make your experience more effective.”

When studying perception, the students learned through other exercises that perception does not always match reality.

And when they explored memory, they learned the importance of grouping information, prior knowledge and sleep. “The goal is not to study more but to study more efficiently,” stressed Greg.

One strategy the students learned for improving their reading comprehension was to use the PQ4R method — preview, question, read, reflect, recite and review. Jill also taught them how to apply the strategy more specifically to their math textbook.

“Most students do not know how to read a textbook,” said Greg. “They have to approach it in a completely different way than they do pleasure reading.”

Later in the year, the seminars focused on the use of planners and the importance of breaking large projects into manageable parts. “Using a planner and maintaining

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organization is important for school and the rest of your life,” said Bill. “It may seem like extra work, but a planner actually saves you time and makes you more efficient.”

The students even met in groups to develop suggestions for revising Westminster’s student planner.

“One of the most important things I learned was how to use my student planner more effectively because it was one of the things that I never even thought about using at the beginning of the year,” commented Cory Latour ’12.

The final seminar of the year focused on exam preparation. “For many of you, this will be the first time you have taken a real exam,” explained Greg. “Some exams will be cumulative for the whole year, so you can’t start preparing the night before. Develop a schedule for your study plan and don’t focus on one topic for more than 60 to 90 minutes. Material learned in small chunks over an extended period of time is retained more effectively than material crammed over a short period of time.”

He also reminded the students to select a good place to study, to be prepared with necessary materials and to make sure they get eight or nine hours of sleep a night. “If you sleep less than five hours a night, you won’t retain anything,” he emphasized.

Applying New Strategies Many Third Formers reported they readily applied what they learned in the seminars to their schoolwork.

Ellie Baker ’12 found the seminars on methods to study more efficiently an important result of her participation. “I

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Faculty members Jill Loveland, Bill Sistare and Greg Marco.

have altered the way I do my reading assignments,” she said.

“I have found that I can read in less time and more thoroughly than I used to.”

Michael LeBlanc ’12 also found the discussions about the process of reading the most interesting. “I feel as though I am more productive and efficient when doing my homework.”

And Meaghan O’Herron ’12 thought the most important thing she learned is that no one is born with a certain amount of knowledge. “It is just a matter of applying yourself, being eager to learn and using useful study skills,” she said.

The seminars turned out to be such a success, that they are being offered again this year to all Third Formers and all new Fourth Formers. “I’m committed to having the seminars have a long-term future,” said Greg. “They are not burdensome on the students and do not require extra work. What we want is for the students to take some time each week to think about how they approach learning and to take advantage of some proven strategies. We hope a few things stick.”

“The goal is not to study more but to study more efficiently.”

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Armour Academic Center Opens

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After years of planning and 18 months of construction, Westminster’s spectacular new 85,000-square-foot Armour Academic Center opened for classes on the first day of school, Sept. 15.

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Above, students arrive for classes in the Armour Academic Center and, below, gather in the Armstrong Atrium for assembly.

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uilding a first class academic center was the most important statement we could make about the importance of Westminster’s academic program,” said Headmaster Graham Cole. “This building will have a powerful effect on the school in every respect — pride, reputation, recruitment and retention.”

The Westminster School Board of Trustees authorized construction of the fourlevel center as its top strategic priority in fall 2007. The building was completed on time and within budget in June.

“One of the things that impressed me throughout the project was the high quality thinking, planning, strategizing and executing that was involved,” said Headmaster Cole. “Everything went so smoothly, and many people should receive credit for their wisdom and effort to make this happen, including the trustees, our donors, our faculty and the construction committee. It truly was a community project and that makes it very satisfying.”

Graham Gund ’59, president of GUND Partnership, an award-wining architecture firm in Cambridge, Mass., and the firm’s principal, John Prokos, designed the center following extensive consultation with members of the campus community. (Please see related story on page 52.)

“This building breathes Westminster,” emphasized Headmaster Cole. “It looks like it has been here forever in the way it was designed, and it fits so well with our campus architecture. It is a big, impressive building, but it is done in a subtle and nuanced way that speaks to our core values.”

The new center is located adjacent to the Werner Centennial Center and forms a new quad surrounding Commencement Lawn, with Andrews Memorial Chapel, Pratt House and Cushing Hall on the other three sides.

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“It looks like it has been here forever in the way it was designed, and it fits so well with our campus architecture.

It is a big, impressive building, but it is done in a subtle and nuanced way that speaks to our core values.”

The 120-seat Sejong Lecture Hall is used for special presentations, form meetings, visiting lecturers and standardized testing.

Some of the center’s major features include: • the Offield Center for the Humanities, which houses classrooms and offices for the English, History and Language departments • the Davis Center for Science and Mathematics, which houses classrooms, science labs and offices for the Science and Mathematics departments • the Armstrong Atrium, which provides an informal meeting space for students and faculty, and a place for the entire school community to gather for assemblies and receptions • the two-story Cole Library with small study and tutoring rooms for group work and collaboration; the Lobdell Reading Room; and the Gund Reading Room that also will function as a beautiful community meeting place • the amphitheater-style 120-seat Sejong Lecture Hall for special presentations, form meetings, visiting lecturers and standardized testing • the Class of 1957 Planetarium for astronomy instruction • the Gitterman Family Student Lounge, which accommodates approximately 50 students in a diner-like setting, and a new school store

The Gund Reading Room offers a quiet place for study.

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Students attend an astronomy class in the Class of 1957 Planetarium.

• abundant lounge areas, including the Parents of the Class of 2009 Atrium Lounge on the third floor, which provide attractive areas for students and faculty to connect during the school day.

Generous Gifts Make the New Center Possible Science teacher Lee Zalinger teaches a physics class in one of the new science classrooms.

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Many generous gifts helped make the new center possible. In addition to a bond issue of $19.9 million, alumni, parents and friends contributed $14.7 million, including a number of major gifts that supported specific areas of the building.

The new building carries the name, Armour Academic Center, in honor of the Armour family — Joan and Norm Armour and their children, Paul ’74, John ’76, Timothy ’78, Sarah and Rebecca ’80, who have deep roots in the Simsbury community and generational connections to Westminster.

Both Tim and John have served as trustees, and John has chaired the board of trustees for the last six years.

“Given their remarkable loyalty, generosity and leadership over three decades, it is altogether fitting that the Armour name should grace this building,” said Headmaster Cole. “In so many ways the Armours made this building possible and advanced the school. It is difficult to think of another family that has done so much for the school over so many years. We honor them as their service and devotion have honored Westminster.”

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A number of other important spaces in the center were named for Westminster families in recognition of their generosity and impressive leadership, including the atrium for Liz and Bill Armstrong and their children Lindsey ’04, Jack ’06 and Leigh ’07; the mathematics and science wing for John and Robyn Davis and their daughter Brooke ’05; and the humanities wing for Jim Offield ’69 and his wife, sujo.

Fostering Interaction Two of the driving forces behind the design of the center were to keep class sizes small and to foster close student and teacher interaction. As a result, two-person tables, rather than desks, were selected for all 36 classrooms since they offer maximum flexibility and can be easily configured for seminars, group work and testing.

“There will be no students hiding in the back of classrooms,” said Director of Studies Greg Marco. “We want students to feel front and center in every class and to be able to interface easily with their teacher and each other.”

The classrooms were also designed to be easily adaptable to future changes in teaching methodologies. “We could get into an environment where group learning and students working in pods becomes the norm rather than the exception,” explained Greg.

Abundant lounge areas provide attractive areas for students to connect during the school day.

Keyes Garden Restoration Funded by Class of 1959 Following completion of the Armour Academic Center, renovation work began on Keyes Garden that was funded by the Class of 1959 in recognition of their 50th reunion.

“What we tried to do in the restoration was to take the original garden and reduce it in size, move it closer to Keyes House and turn it into a sitting garden that is surrounded with perennials,” said Jack Curtis, principal of Jack Curtis and Associates, who serves as the school’s landscape architect. “Our intent was to try to have the new garden reflect a similar feeling to the older garden, using a somewhat reduced area. It was also thought that the new garden should provide a transition to the Commencement Lawn area.”

A number of elements from the original garden were preserved during the restoration, including two large Sargent’s Weeping Hemlocks, the sundial donated by the Class of 1982 and the stone from the original stonewalls. The original stone was used to build new retaining walls and semi-circular steps.

The new Keyes Garden now features seasonal color, garden benches, a semi-circular stone stairway, new stone retaining walls, low-level night lighting and a beautiful view of Commencement Lawn.

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State-of-the-Art Technology

Cris Gomez ’10 presents his summer work in his AP French class.

Another major feature of the new center is the use of state-of-the-art technology to support teaching and learning. “We waited as long as we could to get the latest and most sophisticated technology on the market within our budget,” said Director of Technology Sara Anderson. “It supports all of the media used in classrooms today, and there is plenty of room for growth.”

Each classroom has a powerful interactive white board, a projector, a sound system, a VCR and DVD player, a standard white board, a document camera and a teacher station.

One of the benefits of this technology, for example, is that teachers can use the document camera to take a snapshot of what has been placed on the interactive white board during class and send it to students electronically or place it on a class Web site. “That is where all of this is going,” explained Greg. “We may not even have hard copies of our textbooks 10 years from now. They may all be e-books where you can pull text offline through a subscription.”

While most students bring a laptop computer to school, new desktop computers are available for individual work or group instruction in two computer labs, a first floor study hall and the library. The library also offers a classroom with a full audiovisual package and a cart of 15 laptop computers. And the new language studio, which is completely digital, offers a language learning system with real-time audio and visual interaction capabilities.

New digital technology is also used in almost every other aspect of the building’s operations, including the phone system, the locking system, and the bell, clock and public address system. In addition, a large flat screen monitor in the atrium displays school news.

“We envision inviting members of the local community to attend some of these events to see this beautiful facility and to see what an intellectually challenging environment we have here.”

Math teacher Alan Leathers incorporates use of the powerful interactive white board in his classroom discussion.

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A Library to Meet Current and Future Needs The two-story Cole Library, which was made possible through gifts from members of the Westminster community to honor the dedicated service of Carol and Graham Cole, is located just off the atrium and is designed to meet current and future needs in library and information services.

“While I had great affection for our Darling Library in Baxter, it had some disadvantages,” said Library Director Edna Madden. “It was a large and almost undifferentiated space, so that silent study, group work, tutoring and leisure activities all took place in the same area. The new library has a number of different spaces, not just the reading rooms and the magazine area, but also six study rooms of different sizes. And we are proud of our state-of-the-art classroom, where we can work with students as they embark on research projects.”

She added that the reference collection in the new library is now integrated rather than shelved separately. “While most reference is now online, we feel that reference books are more likely to be used if they are in close proximity to other books on a subject,” she explained. “I also like that our fiction and literature collections are all in one room and our art collection is shelved in the large Gund Reading Room.

“They say that you have a successful space when others want to use it,” she added. “Already, a faculty member has expressed a desire to hold a Sixth Form elective in our classroom, and a literary reading series takes place in the Gund Reading Room.”

Arrangements for a faculty lecture series and musical performances to be held in the Gund Reading Room are also underway. “The idea is to make Friday evenings have a special academic and artistic overtone,” said Greg Marco. “We envision inviting members of the local community to attend some of these events to see this beautiful facility and to see what an intellectually challenging environment we have here.”

Library Director Edna Madden assists Luke Cordasco ’13 at the circulation desk on the lower level of the Cole Library.

Greater Collaborative Opportunities In addition to the administrative offices on the first floor of the center for the Director of Studies, the Registrar, the Dean of Faculty and the Director of Multicultural Affairs, each department has its own office located adjacent to its

Baxter Study Hall offers a bright place for students to study.

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classrooms. The offices include a desk for each faculty member and a central meeting area.

“We believe the departmental office spaces will increase faculty collaboration about pedagogy and have a tremendous impact on our young teachers,” said Greg.

“A more junior teacher can easily turn to a more senior teacher sitting across from them in their office as a valued resource.”

Leading-Edge Green Design The new center is expected to receive widespread recognition for its leadingedge green design.

• A geothermal heat exchange system with 72 wells that are 500 feet deep will save about $20,000 per year in fuel costs and will pay for itself within five years. The building is expected to exceed the latest energy codes on energy consumption by about 33 percent.

• Ninety percent of the spaces occupied by students and teachers have direct views to the outdoors, an environmental improvement that has been shown to increase productivity.

• The ventilation system will provide fresh air above code requirements and will create a healthier learning environment.

• High-efficiency mechanical systems, increased insulation, smart glazing choices and efficient lighting design will save about 37 percent in energy costs.

• High-efficiency plumbing fixtures will cut water usage by 40 percent compared to a conventional building and provide an annual savings of 155,000 gallons of water.

Among the center’s many green features are preferred parking for fuel-efficient and car pool vehicles, and built-in recycling bins.

• A high-efficiency irrigation system will reduce water consumption by 50 percent and provide an annual savings of 1 million gallons of water.

In addition, the center has low-gas-emitting paint, adhesives and carpets; building materials with 20 percent average recycled content; built-in recycling bins; accommodations for bicycles; and preferred parking for fuel-efficient and car pool vehicles. Seventy-five percent of the waste generated by the project was recycled.

As a result of the installation of energy-efficiency measures in the new center, the Connecticut Light and Power Company (CL&P) presented Westminster with an incentive check for $81,300 from the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund. CL&P Assistant Energy Engineer Ian Russell worked closely with the school during the building’s design and planning process. The energy-efficiency measures that earned the incentive include highperformance lighting design, occupancy sensor lighting controls, premium efficiency motors, water source heat pumps, variable frequency drive

Plant Manager Peter Anderson checks on equipment for the center’s geothermal heat exchange system. On his right, are plastic pipes from 72 wells that extend 500 feet into the ground. The pipes are filled with a water and propylene glycol mixture that runs in a sealed loop from the borehole to circulation pumps in the new building and back again.

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Head of the Language Department Sara Deveaux with a class in the Language Studio.

control of geothermal water pumps, occupancy sensor controls for ventilation and an energy recovery unit, and carbon dioxide sensor controls.

Westminster is targeting a U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Certification of gold for the new center. The voluntary certification process takes approximately six to eight months to complete.

“We are cautiously optimistic about getting the gold,” said Chris Schaffner, principal of the Green Engineer, who served as a consultant for the certification process. “Only about five percent of buildings being built in the country today are submitted for LEED certification and, of those five percent, only one or two percent achieve gold or higher.”

“Westminster is one of the first places to use a geothermal heat exchange system on a large-scale basis,” added Chris. “It has been used in residential construction for a while, but it is an emerging trend in this size of building.”

Ed Macri, president of Macri Associates, who was responsible for installing all of the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems in the building, says use of a geothermal heat exchange system is extremely efficient. “I know of no other installation of this magnitude using these technologies, and it is certainly the way of the future,” he said.

Bringing Exceptional Value to the Project Ed Macri has been a member of Westminster’s Construction Committee for many years, having worked on a number of other campus building projects.

Members of the committee, who include faculty, staff, trustees, architects,

The Gitterman Family Student Lounge.

Westminster is targeting a U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Certification of gold for the new center.

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English teacher Mollie Pilling teaches an English class in the new academic center. Twoperson tables were selected for all classrooms since they offer maximum flexibility and can be easily configured for seminars, group work and testing.

A view from the Armstrong Atrium across Commencement Lawn to Andrews Memorial Chapel.

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consultants and contractors, met regularly, often weekly, throughout the planning and construction of the center.

“I think the value in the building for the money far exceeds what anyone else has achieved from what I have seen, and I have built a lot of buildings,” said Ed. “It is the best building in which I have been involved in terms of planning, coordination, and anticipating problems and issues. This has resulted in a well thought out project because the owner made informed decisions.”

Westminster Business Manager Tom Earl attributes the committee’s effectiveness to the fact that its members have worked together for a long time and they bring specialized skills to the table. “The committee worked on the project for close to three and a half years, so the pre-planning allowed construction to go smoothly,” said Tom. “Having really tight specifications is very important.”

Trustee Emeritus Joe Gitterman ’55, P’86, ’90, another long-time committee member, also has nothing but praise for the deliberations of the group. “Everybody was involved with every aspect of the building, from how much lowerlevel space we could afford, to the number of windows that should be included, to the type of roof construction. The school not only got a more efficient building, but it got a building that is really custom built for its particular needs,” he said. “We got more value because of the time and energy that was put into this project.”

“I think the value in the building for the money far exceeds what anyone else has achieved from what I have seen, and I have built a lot of buildings.”

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Impact on Campus Life The new center is expected to have a powerful impact on campus life.

“There are so many spaces in the building that are great congregating points for students,” said Headmaster Cole. “They will stimulate and strengthen the types of interactions that are so much a part of a residential school.

Student and faculty relationships also will be enhanced, since most faculty members now have their own classroom where they can give one-on-one attention without worrying about distractions.”

He predicts that the center also will create a perfect platform for the school to start thinking about the future of its curriculum and teaching. “The faculty will now have their attention on matters academic and intellectual in ways that are going to be so stimulating,” he said. “It is an environment that is going to encourage exactly the kinds of conversations you want a teaching faculty to have.”

He added that he especially looks forward to seeing the building in full operation during his final year at Westminster. “I want to see how our faculty, students, alumni and parents react to it,” he said. “The energy that comes out of people seeing this building and working in it makes me a happy headmaster. It will be a nice way to wave goodbye, knowing that this building is in place and up and running. It will really make my last year special.”

TIME CAPSULE FOUND

Demolition Work Completed on Baxter Academic Center While the final touches were being placed on the Armour Academic Center in the summer, demolition work was underway on Baxter Academic Center.

Throughout the demolition, every effort was made to recycle furnishings and materials. “We tried not to waste anything,” said Business Manager Tom Earl. Most of the remaining interactive white boards, classroom furniture, auditorium seating and library furniture were donated to the Hartford Public School System, and three interactive white boards were given to the Simsbury Public School System. In addition, some of the bricks, copper and metal from the building were recycled.

Demolition workers alerted the school on Aug.18 that a time capsule in the cornerstone of the building had been located. The capsule had been enclosed in a cornerstone ceremony for the classroom wing of the center on May 15, 1965, during Fathers’ Day weekend. After learning that the time capsule had been found, Headmaster Graham Cole went to the edge of the demolition site to retrieve it and later opened it in his office before a small gathering of faculty and staff. Items enclosed in the small yellow metal box included letters from the Chairman of the Board of Trustees Frederick Houghton ’32 and Head Prefect Jonathan Clapp ’65; a gradus list; the guest list, program and news release from the 1965 Fathers’ Day Weekend ceremony; and an athletic schedule.

Following the demolition work, the former site of the Baxter Academic Center was landscaped into a wildflower meadow, which will provide seasonal color.

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Sticking to a Plan

by Graham Gund ’59, FAIA President, GUND Partnership

Graham Gund ’59 in the Gund Reading Room of the Armour Academic Center.

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s Westminster School celebrates the opening of the Armour Academic Center, it’s a good time to look back and reflect on how the campus has changed over the years. My colleagues and I at GUND Partnership, most notably my partner John Prokos, have been very fortunate to work with Westminster to help shape the campus’s growth. Our collaboration with the school has been and remains focused on meeting Westminster’s most immediate needs while planning for the future. Guiding our work is the Master Plan, which outlines, in a phased approach, the new and renovated building projects that will best serve the future academic, social and athletic needs of Westminster’s students.

My first visit to Westminster was in 1954 as a Second Former. At the time, all classes were taught in the lower two floors of Memorial Hall. Tennis courts were in the Main Quad and the large black water tower dominated the campus. It was a much different place than the Westminster campus we know and love today. Even though the campus has evolved significantly over the years, Westminster’s early buildings — Cushing and Memorial in particular — remain as vital as ever. As a student, I was struck by the proportion, scale and texture of Westminster’s early architecture. Our goal has always been to maintain the continuity of place, statement of identity and sense of beauty established by the school’s early buildings, most notably Cushing Hall.

Supporting and Enhancing the Learning Process

Our goal has always been to maintain the continuity of place, statement of identity and sense of beauty established by the school’s early buildings, most notably Cushing Hall.

We view the role of architecture at Westminster as supporting and enhancing the learning process in spaces that reflect the unique culture of the institution. As architects, we strive to create ideal environments for learning, where students are inspired to do their best. The most successful campus buildings are symbols of past achievement and future possibilities that strengthen the existing campus fabric. This ideal has guided all of our work at Westminster.

My involvement with Westminster as an architect first began in 1986, when I was graciously invited to campus to review finished drawings of a theater that was proposed for the middle of Graduation Lawn. The proposed single-story, flat-roof building would have taken up most of the lawn area beside Andrews Memorial Chapel, and its scale and massing wasn’t in line with adjacent buildings. We came to the conclusion that a site north of Cushing where the old wooden squash courts and water tower had been, was more fitting and that a multi-story building with sloped roofs would relate better to Cushing. We had the wonderful experience of working with Headmaster Don Werner — who had a particular love of theater and music — to design what was later named, the Werner Centennial Center, completed in 1989.

At the time of the building’s design, a concerned member of the Westminster community made it clear that the Centennial Center should not be built because it looked “too good” and would make the other buildings on campus look bad. Ultimately, the project was completed as designed. I mention this to highlight the fact that Westminster has consistently pushed to improve its campus, raising the standards for design and committing to the notion of creating lasting 100-year buildings. We consider ourselves very fortunate to work with an institution so dedicated to elevating the quality of its architecture with each capital project.

Focusing on the Future After Centennial was built, we began to focus on the greater campus organization and needs for the future. From the inception of this first planning effort, Graham Cole provided invaluable direction and guidance, Tom Earl his financial leadership and budget consciousness, Joe Gitterman his tenacity and architectural interest, and Peter Anderson his

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knowledge of Westminster’s facilities. This core group has led all subsequent planning and design work on campus.

As the planning process moved forward and the Master Plan started to take shape, several guiding tenets became clear, all driven by our collective desire to celebrate and enhance Westminster’s strong sense of community. We wanted to better engage the campus core with the rest of Westminster’s 200-plus acres. Campus buildings had always been concentrated in one corner of this beautiful and expansive site — the goal was to shift from that corner and expand the fabric of the campus. We agreed that the topography of the land should define the form of the campus; that the Main Lawn and Graduation Lawn should be protected and emphasized; that a pedestrian campus should be established and reinforced whenever possible; and that major activities on campus should be organized into distinct zones or precincts. These principles have guided the physical growth of the campus since they were first written into the Master

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Plan in the spring of 1994. The plan outlined a multiphased approach so Westminster could choose which projects to implement based on the most pressing need.

A new entry road to the campus was the first, most immediate need identified. At the time, the road was steep, winding and all but impassable in the winter. It also terminated at the main student pathway around the quad. All agreed that the main campus entry sequence should be reorganized to a gently curving road leading to the heart of campus and a view of Cushing across the expanse of the quad. Equally important was the reconfiguration of student housing. The goal was to provide an improved faculty residence for every 10 students in a more domestic environment with larger common rooms and meeting areas. These goals were accomplished with the creation of the new Edge House dormitory and the renovation of Memorial Hall.

Edge House was the first component of a phased residential “neighborhood” that creates a series of new dormitories similar to Edge sited around a large, circular green space. We wanted to move away from the more urban, rectilinear pathways and create a more pastoral organization. Edge House was completed in the summer of 1996 and the Memorial Hall renovation took place over the summer of 1997. The Memorial renovation was a major gut rehab completed very quickly over a tight summer construction schedule. I can distinctly remember that, during commencement, all of the building materials were organized in a large fenced-in area in front of Memorial. They reminded me of all the components of an “assembly-required” piece of furniture stacked up — except much, much larger and significantly more complex. All summer, materials were moved in and out in a flurry of activity so that Memorial could be ready before students returned in September.

The plan for athletics, fitness and wellness also includes a phased plan to strengthen their significance as part of the Westminster experience. The plan calls for a group of four distinct buildings organized around a

The most successful campus buildings are symbols of past achievement and future possibilities that strengthen the existing campus fabric. This ideal has guided all of our work at Westminster.

John Prokos, principal of GUND Partnership, center, working with GUND staff.

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courtyard. It outlines the reorganization and expansion of the playing fields and the creation of new tennis courts. When developing this component of the Master Plan, our goal was to link the campus’s residential precinct, academic core and open space while strengthening the pedestrian connection to the playing fields beyond.

The first athletic building we designed — the Kohn Squash Pavilion — was completed in the spring of 2000.

The second houses the Sherwin Health and Athletic Center, including the Hibbard Aquatic Center, the Fitness Center and the Health Center, and was completed in 2003. The Health Center wing, designed with a pedestrian path cut through the building, links the playing fields with the major pathway through the heart of campus. Future phases include a new gymnasium with three basketball courts followed by a field house with tennis courts and running track, both to be located near the squash pavilion. Together these will form a new courtyard that is focused on the Main Lawn.

The Next Critical Area of Need In 2000, with the squash project complete and the Sherwin Health and Athletic Center well underway, Westminster’s Strategic Planning Committee met to review the school’s priorities over the next five to 10 years. It became clear that improving Westminster’s academic facilities was the next critical area of need.

When it was determined, after careful review, that renovating and adding to Baxter was not a viable solution, we began planning the new Armour Academic Center.

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Director of Studies Greg Marco, Trustee Emeritus Joe Gitterman ’55, P’86, ’90 and President of GUND Partnership Graham Gund ’59 discuss plans for the Armour Academic Center at a meeting of the Westminster School Construction Committee.

A major challenge was to integrate this relatively large building comfortably into the campus fabric. To do this, the building was broken down into distinct components united by a three-story glass atrium. Details such as articulated transparent entry lobbies, textured masonry, a variety of window sizes, dormers and glassenclosed “connective tissue” between the building wings all serve to reduce the building’s scale and hark back to Cushing’s proportions. Like all projects before it, the siting and design of the academic center was greatly influenced by our desire to reinforce community. The central atrium unifies the building’s various activities and provides a place where the entire Westminster community can gather, and looks out on Graduation Lawn and Andrews Memorial Chapel beyond. Its transparency visually connects students to the outdoors, and creates a sense of being part of the campus, even when inside. Informal student meeting spaces overlook the campus, and classrooms feature large windows both for views and for capturing natural light. The interior spaces have a sense of permeability that connects students with the activities inside. These details will produce a vibrant learning space that will serve Westminster students and faculty for generations.

Graham Gund and Joe Gitterman visit the construction site of the Armour Academic Center.

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To support Westminster’s dedication to sustainability, we implemented some very exciting “green design” practices, including an advanced geothermal heat exchange system. A well field under the building’s parking lot contains 72 pipes five inches in diameter running in a sealed loop from 500 feet underground into the building’s circulation pumps and back again. In the winter, heat from the circulating water is extracted and distributed throughout the building, and during the summer, excess heat is transferred out of the building. Significant annual energy savings will be realized, allowing Westminster to recoup the upfront costs of the system in less than five years. The system also replaces a traditional boiler room and cooling tower, resulting in considerable space savings within the building as well as a reduction in maintenance and other ongoing costs associated with a typical boiler/chiller system.

In addition to Westminster’s core leadership group I mentioned before, the input and commitment of Bill Philip, Greg Marco, and Trustee Colin Flinn was vital to the design and construction process. Contractor Steve Andrea’s remarkable craftsmanship and attention to detail made him and his colleagues at Bartlett Brainard Eacott a wonderful partner.

All of us at GUND Partnership have cherished working with Westminster over the years and look forward to future collaborations.

This latest undertaking has produced a building of which we are all very proud, one that represents a great commitment by Westminster to the importance of teaching. We can confidently say that the Armour Academic Center rivals the best teaching facilities of any high school in the country. It would not have been possible without the vision and foresight of Graham Cole. His dedication to creating these high-quality teaching spaces and advancing Westminster’s academic standing has been remarkable. He has been a wonderful client and collaborator who has guided an incredibly successful period of growth on the campus.

By sticking to a plan for the past 16 years, Westminster has made deliberate and informed decisions about creating new buildings and renovating existing ones. The Master Plan has provided the framework for growth, giving Westminster options to implement different pieces at different times depending on the school’s most immediate needs. Each component fits together cohesively to produce a unique and special campus that improves with each new intervention.

Clockwise from top: Cushing Hall, Memorial Hall, Kohn Squash Pavilion, Edge House, Werner Centennial Center and the Hibbard Aquatic Center in the Sherwin Health and Athletic Center.

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Sept. 26, 2009, will be remembered as a historic day for Westminster School. It was the day when the extended Westminster community marked the formal opening and dedication of the Armour Academic Center, the largest building project in the school’s history.

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Opening Celebration On the beautiful fall day, students, faculty, trustees and town officials gathered on Commencement Lawn at 11 a.m. for the opening celebration.

“Although we staged a ribbon-cutting ceremony on our first day of classes a few weeks ago, this morning will be, in effect, our grand opening for the Armour Academic Center, a place fundamentally about teaching and learning,” said Headmaster Graham Cole. “We particularly want to introduce and salute those who made this possible in the presence of those who teach and learn so that they might see the families who gave so generously to finance it, those who labored so tirelessly to design and to build it, those who had the vision to see our need for it, and those who traveled the nation and the globe to garner support for it.”

Alumni, parents and friends contributed $14.7 million to the $34.6 million project, including a number of major gifts that supported specific areas of the building.

Headmaster Cole added that at times like this it is important to be aware of the school’s history. “For 109 years now, students and teachers as real as we, worked, studied, laughed, argued, played and worshipped on this campus,” he said. “They are gone, as surely as we, too, shall be shortly. But if you listen carefully, you can hear their chatter, their cheers, their songs, their recitations, their chapel talks. In no time at all, this new building will become one of those well-known places on our campus, like Cushing, Memorial, Milliken and Keyes, and another generation of Westminster students will struggle to imagine how we were ever as real as they. They will know us, in part by the character of this academic center, which is an expression of what we thought about education and our school at the beginning of this 21st century.”

He then introduced the Armour family — parents Joan and Norm Armour and their children, Paul ’74, John ’76, Timothy ’78, Sarah and Rebecca ’80. “I need to share with you that we truly had to twist the Armours’ collective arms to overcome their instinctive modesty and to put their name on this building,” said Headmaster Cole. “Given their remarkable loyalty, generosity and leadership over three decades, it is altogether fitting that the Armour name should grace this building, the Armour Academic Center. In so many different ways, the Armours have made this building possible and advanced the school.”

Trustee Emeritus Joe Gitterman ’55, P’86, ’90, who for the past decade served as the key trustee working on all major Westminster construction projects, gave an overview of the planning process for the new center, recognized members of the construction committee for all of their hard work on the project and highlighted some of the key features of the building, including its rigorous environmental standards during construction and operation. “We hope you will feel that the construction committee, with enormous help from the entire community, has done a good job reflecting Westminster’s needs in this its most important building,” said Joe. He ended by thanking everyone for the opportunity to give back to Westminster for all that it has done for him and

“They will know us, in part by the character of this academic center, which is an expression of what we thought about education and our school at the beginning of this 21st century.”

Trustee Emeritus Joe Gitterman ’55, P’86,’90.

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his family. The student lounge in the Armour Academic Center is named for his family. “This opportunity to try and repay this extraordinary community is a gift I cherish, and I pray, in the years to come, that you students will also want to give back in whatever form suits you best,” he said. “For I assure you, from my experience, it is much more rewarding to give than to receive.”

Lastly, Chairman of the Board of Trustees John Armour ’76 talked about the large debt of gratitude owed to the many individuals who were instrumental in making the academic center a reality. “Every building has a story — just ask the people who conceived the project, or who designed and built it, or who helped pay for it and, most importantly, for all of you who will be served by it today and those who will benefit from it in the future,” he said.

“If you were to talk to the dozens of people who played a role in bringing this academic center to life, you would hear hundreds of different stories,” he added. “As we celebrate this building, please take just a few moments to imagine the people who transformed the original vision of this project into a reality. What we see before us today is the culmination of a truly collaborative process. Behind the bricks and mortar are people who believe in the vision and future of Westminster.”

He then recognized three families for their extraordinary personal contributions to the center. They included Jim Offield ’69 and his wife, sujo, for whom the humanities wing is named; John and Robyn Davis and their daughter, Brooke ’05, for whom the mathematics and science wing is named; and Bill and Liz Armstrong and their children, Lindsey ’04, Jack ’06 and Leigh ’07, for whom the atrium is named. He thanked them all for their generosity and support.

John also spoke of the contributions to the school over the past 17 years of Graham and Carol Cole, for whom the library is named. “It only seems fitting that at the educational center of this transformational building, the library, should bear the name of two transformational individuals in Westminster’s history,” he said. “I know I speak for everyone here today when I say thank you, thank you, Graham and Carol for all that you have done for Westminster School.”

He concluded by summarizing why he thinks people gave so generously to the project. “The reasons are all very personal, based on our own experiences or our children’s experiences, but I know I speak for all of us when I say we are honored to have done it, flattered and humbled to be recognized in this way, and individually and collectively excited and very proud of the opportunity to be involved in this wonderful initiative.”

Following the ceremony, numerous Simsbury town officials and other invited guests toured the building.

Chairman of the Board of Trustees John Armour ’76.

“What we see before us today is the culmination of a truly collaborative process.

Behind the bricks and mortar are people who believe in the vision and future of Westminster.”

Dedication Later in the day, leadership donors to the Annual Fund and capital projects, gathered in the atrium of the new center for the dedication.

“The verb to dedicate carries two meanings, both of which seem appropriate

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tonight,” said Headmaster Cole. “First, to dedicate something is to set it apart for a sacred or solemn purpose.

For us, this building will be a sacred, solemn place where the young grow and learn, where teachers do the fundamental work of creating, of shaping, of educating young men and women. As I mentioned this morning, this is a beautiful, an elegant building in every respect. Certainly its architecture suggests something very significant, almost sacred; it breathes seriousness of purpose, solidity, solemnity, and it fits in so well that it seems that it has been here forever.

“In its second sense, to dedicate something is to give it up, wholly and earnestly, to a person or an end,” he continued. “When we dedicate something, we let go of it in the name of our commitments. To me, the Armour Academic Center speaks to our commitment to Westminster, to future generations and to the environment. And most important, this building embodies our dedication to a philosophy of teaching and learning in the grand tradition of a liberal arts education.”

Graham Gund ’59, the architect for the center and numerous other campus buildings and the campus’s master planner, gave his very special perspective of the new center. “While I’ve always loved working on independent school campuses, this one is particularly special because of my closeness to Westminster,” he said. “Each new project is an opportunity to improve the fabric of a campus and further the school’s original plan and inspiration. Armour is a building that embodies the ideals and culture of Westminster.

“I can say with certainty that Armour is the best of its kind,” he continued.

“No other independent school has an academic building of this quality and scope. It is a testament to Westminster’s commitment to its students and faculty. Cultivating scholarship in young minds will return a lifetime of rewards. Thank you for making us a part of this vision.”

“Each new project is an opportunity to improve the fabric of a campus and further the school’s original plan and inspiration.”

Graham Gund ’59.

Director of Studies Greg Marco leads a tour for town officials and other guests.

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A large, light-filled reading room on the second floor of the library, which will also serve as a community meeting space, is named the Gund Reading Room.

Lastly, John Armour spoke of the historic nature of the dedication. “At the dedication of each new building on campus, I am always struck by the passage of time,” he said.

“These are occasions when the history that has come before us meets the unique time and circumstances in which we live.

And so it is here today at Westminster. One wonders what our founder, William Cushing, would think if he were here today. I am confident, he would, indeed, be very proud of what we all have accomplished.”

John also invited those gathered to think about what they are not seeing as they walk through the halls of the new center. “Think of all of the students who will study here,” he said. “Think of the faculty who will come to teach, share and, yes, learn here. Think of the exchange of ideas that will take place here. Think of the young adults who will build the foundation for their life’s calling here. Think of the knowledge and wisdom that will be uncovered here and echo across the globe. Think of the countless experiences, for generations to come, that will happen within these walls. When I walk these halls, I am overwhelmed with the sense of wonderful possibilities that will emerge from current and future Westminster students.”

Guests gathered in the Armstrong Atrium for the dedication.

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Members of the Board of Trustees gathered in the atrium of the Armour Academic Center on the day of the center’s dedication to recognize the long service and many contributions to Westminster of Trustee Emeritus Abe Claude, Jr. ’46, P’71, ’80, ’84, GP’02.

Headmaster Graham Cole announced that the administrative wing of the center would be named the Claude Administrative Offices.

Abe is celebrating his 50 years of service to the Board of Trustees this year and has served in leadership roles at Westminster since his arrival on the Hill as a Fourth Former in 1943.

He then again recognized the individuals whose leadership gifts helped make the center a reality, the Offields, the Davises and the Armstrongs, and thanked the Coles for their years of leadership. He also talked of his own family’s commitment to Westminster.

“Although it has been many years since we were students here, the experience has in many meaningful ways guided us through our lives and work,” said John.

“Westminster presented us with many challenges and difficult decisions that, upon reflection, have forged enduring strengths and character in each of us. Simply put, Westminster gave each of us a lot when we needed it, and we wanted to give back, in some small way what has been given to us.”

He ended by thanking everyone present. “I know from what you have done for Westminster that you share our strong feelings about this school, its mission and people, and that you, too, have given back to this great school.”

The Armour Family for whom the center is named: back row, left to right, Piper Stevens, Christopher Nemetz, Becky Stevens, Sandy Machemer, Tim Armour, Joan Armour, John Armour, Norm Armour, Laura Armour, Paul Armour, Sarah Armour-Nemetz and Michael Nemetz. Front row, left to right, Brooke Stevens, Caroline Armour, Britta Armour, Morgan Armour, Mari Stevens and Chandler Nemetz.

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Liz and Bill Armstrong and their daughter, Leigh ’07.

sujo and Jim Offield ’69.

Ann and Spike Lobdell ’75, P’07.

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Joanna and Joe Gitterman ’55, P’86,’90.

Robyn and John Davis, their daughter, Brooke ’05, and Chris Hogan.

Ann and Graham Gund ’59.

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by English teacher Scott Reeves

According to my parents, I’ve always had a guitar. At least one. Apparently from the time I was first aware of Gene Autry, Tex Ritter, Roy Rogers and any other singing cowboy, I’ve had to have a guitar. Pressboard, plastic, Hawaiian, lap steel, pedal steel, folk, classical, flamenco, bluegrass, 12-string, ragtime — they’ve all been mine. I started buying my own at the age of 14 and haven’t stopped.

When I was 16, I wanted a better classical or flamenco guitar, and there were none to be had in Norfolk, Va. A friend had heard of a man, George Wilson, in Chesapeake who made guitars. A man, not a company, who made guitars. In Chesapeake. That seemed to me more exotic than haute couture in Willimantic. So I had Mr. Wilson make a guitar

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for me. Over 40 years later, I still have that guitar, and Mr. Wilson continues to build extraordinary guitars in his “retirement.”

Having George Wilson make that guitar gave me the idea that I, too, could make a guitar some day. After all, I could play guitar, and I had grown up with a wood working shop in the garage, where my father built and refinished furniture and made toys and items of use for the family.

So over 40 years later, I was granted a sabbatical for the 2008-2009 academic year to explore guitar making and come back to teaching not only refreshed, but with a fresh perspective on learning and teaching.

What did I do? I built guitars, collected many of the tools for luthiery (instrument

building), cleared a space in which to build, built accessories for building, dabbled in repairing power tools (!), slowed down, and thought about what we teachers do when we ask students to perform what we think of as basic tasks. I also created a small Web site that traces my guitar building. (http://intranet.westminsterschool.org/sreeves/intro.html) Building a guitar is a combination of (apparently) simple tasks and complex tasks.

Gluing the two halves of the top together appears straight forward: fold the matched boards together, clamp, shoot a common edge perfectly straight with a razor sharp plane or a sanding stick (jointing), lay the boards side-byside, add glue and clamp. “Perfectly straight”

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edge. There’s a rub. “Razor sharp” is another.

Also, the wood at this stage is a bit rough, and the grain may not be absolutely readable, even to the highly trained eye of the lumber inspector.

Then there are the complex activities, like the 20 to 25 steps to make and fit the bridge.

Even with the steps enumerated clearly in my journal, the task is daunting. Take a piece of wood, shape it correctly, fit the underside to the top, which is slightly domed, so that the bridge and top fit perfectly without pressure.

Simple tasks and complex tasks and sometimes impossible tasks. That is the learning of a new thing.

The first guitar I built is a kit guitar from the luthier supply house Stewart-MacDonald.

These kits have a number of steps completed: joining the back and the top, bending the sides, rough-shaping the neck. But much remains to be done by the novice builder. Even a kit is a challenge when all you have is a short video, a plan, a brief assembly booklet and some big

Once I got started, things went pretty well, the only frustrations being the time necessary to make jigs, etc. and waiting for glue to dry. Anyway, I got the guitar’s body constructed pretty quickly, considering setting up shop, gathering supplies, plus family obligations and friends: “You’re on sabbatical?

You must have so much time!” Well, not if you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing.

I got the body of the first guitar done just in time to go to Canada to make a guitar with Sergei de Jonge, a master builder and teacher.

In five weeks a group of six neophyte guitar builders each built a dream guitar. During that

neck block, you’d think that anyone could achieve perfection with a belt sander. Not yours truly. After my third absolute failure, I turned to my friends Mr. Bandsaw, Mr. Rasp, and Mr. Sandpaper and knocked out a reasonable neck block without trouble. This was not my only encounter with the belt sander, nor the belt sander’s only assault on my flesh. However, by the end of five weeks, we had made friends. Sort of.

I was not in a hurry to make the neck block. But I was a bit hurried as I glued the top to the sides, and I did not set up the clamping in such a way that I could check the job from

pieces of cardboard as a form to keep the shape correct.

The first thing I realized is that no matter what I thought before receiving the kit, my workspace is not set up for building guitars.

The second thing I realized is that I did not have the tools I needed, mostly because, despite the long “list of tools you need to make guitars” available, I didn’t believe it. “I’ll get by with less,” I thought. No, you won’t. You’ll be lucky to get by with twice as many.

The next thing I realized is that even with the basic tools I bought, I had to make more tools that you can only buy if you’re a CEO who cashed in his stock options at peak value. So I made jigs and molds and forms and clamps.

And I developed a bad case of TAS: Tool Acquisition Syndrome, making it difficult to drive past a hardware store, home improvement store, tag sale, or woodworking specialty store.

time I learned that, first, I could do some of the work very well. Second, I could not do some of the woodwork very well or at all. Third, in my excitement, I was rushing a bit and needed to slow down.

I discovered that I can sharpen and adjust a plane and patiently plane away, getting the wood thicknessed just so. More amazingly, I discovered that I can bend the curved sides of a guitar using only some water and a hot pipe.

In the context of the five weeks, this turned out to be one of several difficult tasks I could do almost by instinct. Then there were the ones that I could not do so instinctively — or at all.

Sergei’s method for shaping one of the pieces — the neck block — is to use the belt sander, a malicious devise that eats human flesh and wood without discretion. His design for a neck block is a complex bit of geometry.

I’m pretty sure that it is a shape never conceived of before. To watch Sergei shape a

every angle. As a result, I did not notice that the top had slipped and the top braces were not aligned in the notches allotted to them.

Mike, the apprentice, showed me how to set things right without tearing the top off. After this, I slowed down, and I repeatedly told myself to slow down when I wrote in my journal.

The ultimate in slowing down is applying French polish of shellac. This easily mesmerizing process calls for hours of repetitive sweeping across the surfaces of the guitar while under the influence of aromatic resins and evaporating alcohol. Everyone slows down at this point. And then the guitar is done.

The Canadian guitar turned out very well, “a concert quality guitar,” Sergei dubbed it.

Frankly, I am pleased that it is the style of guitar I was looking for — clearer, more focused, more articulate and more flexible than my other classical guitar. I play it daily and find

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it hard to put down, a feeling about guitar playing that I had lost, not because of teaching English, but in large part because I did not particularly enjoy the other guitar, even though it is very fine and makes a beautiful sound.

I came home to face guitar number one that needed to be completed and a workshop that now seemed as primitive as it was. I took a lot of time accumulating tools, including tools that I had considered unnecessary or beyond my means.

While gathering my forces, I played guitar and moved ahead on the kit guitar. It seems that at each step a tool or jig was missing, or I made a mistake and I had to order some additional wood. But eventually I finished the kit guitar, which turned out better than it had a right to. It even has a “special feature,” as my New Zealand friend Dave calls it. While humidifying the guitar, which had dried out almost catastrophically in the New England heating season, I had to push the top and back out into their domed shapes, using an improvised jack. Then the top split. When I repaired the split, I carelessly glued part of the jack — a 1-inch cube of red oak — to the underside of the top. The guitar sounds terrific, but I’d love to remove that feature. On the other hand, what if the “special feature” is in part responsible for the long, smooth sustain and natural crescendo as I play higher pitches?

I’m afraid to find out!

And then I went on to guitar three, with plans for four and five.

What did I take into the English classroom in the most excellent new academic center in September 2009? There are tasks that come easily, and there are tasks that may never be done the way you’ve been taught to do them so you have to find another way. If you are naturally competitive or cocky, want to prove something or think that you have nothing to prove, if you are just tired or plain careless, things can (will) go wrong. But usually they can be corrected and will likely be better for the correction. And the same applies to my students.

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Reading, thinking and writing are complex tasks that call upon us to apply and hone old skills, and to learn new skills. They require us to synthesize old information with the new.

Every new assignment is a new assignment.

Writing is the most complex activity of the mind. Every complex task has many steps that may or may not come easily, if at all, to the performer. Mistakes are (usually) correctable and may not be mistakes at all but rather may be exactly what the task wants. For the student, that mistake may be what makes the difference between a B and a C or the difference between a B and an A. For the teacher, that mistake may be the difference between an opportunity to guide through correction or guide through sharing elation at a new turn in thinking. Whichever way the performance of a task turns out, seizing the opportunity to do and to learn from the doing is the key.

“Simple tasks and complex tasks and sometimes impossible tasks. That is the learning of a new thing.”

Walt Whitman, Uncle Walt to me and my students, writes in “Passage to India”:

Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!

Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me; For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go, And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

O my brave soul!

O farther, farther sail!

O daring joy, but safe! Are they not all the seas of God? O farther, farther, farther sail!

The risks of a sabbatical have been taken, and the initial payments received. Now the challenge to “farther sail,” as a builder, as a teacher, is before me.

n A lover of literature, an outstanding guitarist, countertenor and a talented expert on technology, Scott Reeves brings an array of experience to his responsibilities at Westminster as an English teacher and associate director of technology. Prior to his appointment to the faculty in 1983, he taught guitar privately for more than 10 years. The Taylor Sabbatical Fund, established in 1979 by a gift from Bill Bartholomay ’71 through The Ruth and Vernon Taylor Foundation, provides funding for faculty sabbatical leaves.

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THE JOBS OF RUNNING AN INDEPENDENT

Reflections of a Schoolmaster

SCHOOL AND A PUBLIC SCHOOL WERE FAR MORE SIMILAR A CENTURY AGO THAN THEY ARE TODAY. Most of the high school principals before World War I called themselves: “Headmaster.”

Many Heads, in fact, worked both sides of the street during their careers. After World War II, the jobs seem to become far more specialized and the training for them more “professional.” Today “Headmaster” and “Principal” each has a distinct flavor and different demands.

In the earliest years, “Head Master” was in fact two words and was so written in early correspondence.

In the first years of this century, school Heads — both public and private — saw themselves as first among equals, a peer among peers. As the job became unique over time, the two words fused. The same etymology was seen over exactly the same period in the designation for our National Game. In the years following the Civil War, “base ball” was written as two words and was seen as just one kind of ball game among many. Like “Head-Master,” the word went through a brief period of hyphenization on its way to fusion. As it became our preeminent game, “baseball” came to be seen as a unique entity, just as running a school came to be seen as a unique job for someone other than simply a senior teacher.

By Donald H. Werner

Developing a Sense of Mission Today the job remains a vocation to which Heads come by different routes: Endicott Peabody of Groton with a Messianic zeal and a desire to save boys and make men; Frank Boyden of Deerfield with a singleminded drive to build an institution; and Frank Robbins of the Bronx High School of Science with the dream of opening America’s opportunities to the children of immigrants. For most Heads, however, the route to what they do is far more meandering. I suspect most of us come to the job with a vague desire to prolong our youth, to perpetuate school days made pleasurable by books and sports and music and companions. Rather than with a grandiose vision, we are simply following our personal interests. At some point those interests gel into convictions. We begin by doing what we like and wind up liking what we do.

Without intending to be missionaries, good Heads develop a sense of mission along the way.

In other words, the traditional school Head can be seen as something of a retarded adolescent. When it comes to describing schoolmasters with students and schoolmasters with their peers, the old adage holds (continued on page 68)

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true: “A man among boys; a boy among men.” Most effective school people I know retain a little whiff of Peter Pan.

A Declining Pool of Candidates These days the pool of candidates for school Heads — and I am speaking here about both private school Headmasters and public high school principals — is thin indeed, perilously so. Being a lover of books and a Pied Piper who enjoys the company of the young is no longer enough for the job.

There are several reasons for the decline of strong candidates: 1.) For many the job seems more and more tied to things — particularly to money — rather than to ideas or people. In the last decade or so, Headmasters have ever more intensely scrambled for endowments, tuitions and admissions to our most selective institutions of higher learning, and principals have had to contend ever more intently with the political agendas of boards of education and the inevitably adversarial relationship with their unionized faculties, particularly when it comes time to negotiate contracts.

2.) Sad to say, Heads have frequently done too good a job of complaining about the difficulties of the job, and teachers coming up through the ranks have been scared off.

3.) Faculties are now paid better, or at least well enough, so that the financial imperative to “move up” has been diluted.

4.) In these days of two-paycheck couples and dramatically changed parental dynamics, time has become a high premium for teachers — “down time,” “quiet time,” “free time,” “private time,” “quality time,” “overtime,” and the trump card, “family time.” (I know one schoolmaster who — in response to the survey for his college reunion book — when asked to list the “three most positive aspects of your job,” wrote “June, July and August.”) These days, many nine-month teachers reject what goes with being a 12-month administrator.

5.) The pool of strong female candidates is actually thinner now than it was a generation ago. As recent decades have opened more and more professions for women, those energetic and ambitious young women who earlier gravitated to school administration — some perhaps by default — now find themselves not just in our classrooms but in leadership positions in board rooms, court rooms and operating rooms.

6.) The huge irony of the job is that circumstances today drive Heads farther and farther away from the things that drew them to education in the first place. They find that their undergraduate and graduate schooling isn’t of much help in some of the job’s expectations, chores like ridding their schools of asbestos, marijuana... and guns!

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A Changed Job Profile School Heads come in all sizes and shapes, but over many years by far the most successful have been those who have come up through the ranks and have somehow developed some administrative skills along the way. But the job profile has changed. Recently, the search committee chair of a large boarding school told me, “Don’t give us those triple-threat rising stars, no matter how credentialed or how talented. We want a proven CEO, someone who knows how to hire and fire, someone who knows how to make a budget and live within it.” That description is a long way from the books and games and association with youngsters and idealism that have motivated most teachers. Seen historically, that school is looking for a manager, a bureaucrat, an educationist, not a Headmaster.

Schools are learning communities, unique and complex institutions. Because they are so intensely human, they depend on a high degree of personal contact and strong relationships between generations.

In many ways, such people-intensive places are therefore more fragile, vulnerable and volatile than many other of society’s institutions. But over the last generation, two metaphors for schools seem to have taken hold in the popular culture. The first is School as a Business. Today we hear board members and parents of applicants speak of the school’s “product,” as if schools were in the business of manufacturing widgets. I once heard an economist refer to education as an “industry,” an abstraction that serves to dehumanize one of our most human enterprises.

With all of the schools' constituencies so demanding, the Head has to be in constant human connection — communicating, persuading, dissuading, explaining and exhorting.

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Education is a Process Today’s culture seems to demand a quantifying of everything, like the simplified and simple-minded lists in U.S. News & World Report that rank hospitals, colleges or schools by the numbers. All of this mania for measurement has led parents to see themselves as “consumers,” “clients” who examine “outcomes” with Nader-like scrutiny, “customers” who demand results. This sets up a nice tension. On the one hand, teachers think parents are entrusting their children to the school; on the other, parents see their investment in schools as a matter of tuition or tax dollars, for which they expect a positive bottom line. But no school can provide a warranty, let alone a guarantee.

Education is a process, not a product.

“Accountability” has become a watchword in education, invoked by former President Bush on down. But the last generation has seen the target of accountability change from the individual — a matter of holding a particular teacher or a specific student to the mark — to the institution. The generation born in the 50s and coming of age in the 70s has squeezed the irony out of the heavily satirical lyrics of “West Side Story’s” “Gee, Officer Kruppke,” and read the words as straightforward sociological truth-telling. Rather than the

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delinquent making transparent alibis, the wrongdoer has become the victim of societal factors beyond his or her control. Politicians go after big business and/or the unions; lawyers develop clients to go after insurance companies. In a perfect world, accountability should, of course, be expected of all, both separate individuals and the distinct individuals who make up our institutions.

A recent example of the litigious climate occurred a few years ago at one of the nation’s landmark schools. The family of a boy expelled for egregious cheating on the SATs sued the school for not having “adequate” teacher supervision in the examination room, a legal action that reminded me of one some years ago when a would-be suicide threw himself on the subway tracks, was badly burned and sued the City of New York for not having adequate juice in its third rail!

Even more frequently than being thought of as Businesses, schools are now often thought of as a kind of Political Entity. These days school Heads regularly speak about serving their “constituencies.” One can’t imagine those who taught us thinking of us and our parents as “constituents.” Today’s assumptions about schools often mean that many Heads become politicians, trying to hold things together by following trends, taking polls and tap dancing around confrontation. Anyone in the trade knows that running a school effectively by holding a wet finger up to the wind is an impossibility, for a school’s five constituencies come at the school from different (and often conflicting) angles. Students want, above all, to be known by name and have the Head come faithfully to their games and concerts; parents want the Head to cherish their youngster and get him into U. Topia; board members want the Head to balance the budget and raise money; teachers want to be supported, valued and left absolutely alone in their classrooms; and all of us as alumni resist change, looking back with nostalgia and knowing in our heart of hearts that — all evidence to the contrary — our alma maters have been in steady decline since our graduation. Given these gales from all points of the compass, if the Head doesn’t have a keel, he or she is going to be blown away.

Preparation for the Job With all of these complexities, how does one prepare for such a job? Because running a school is such a verbal job and one that demands a strong sense of continuity, English and history have long been the most common academic fields leading to a headship. Today’s climate, however, argues that tomorrow’s Heads had best major in political science or marketing, that an M.B.A. might be better preparation than an M.A., and that a J.D. will provide more relevant training than a Ph.D.!

While a headship has never been a vocation for a hermit, it is today a more public occupation than ever.

No longer can a scholarly Head, no matter how brilliant, operate behind a closed door, cranking out position papers for professional journals, crafting a weekly sermon and governing by memo. With all of the schools’ constituencies so demanding, the Head has to be in constant human

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connection — communicating, persuading, dissuading, explaining and exhorting. Given the fact that teachers, students and parents, in particular, have become more assertive, a Head can function only as long as his or her tongue wags effectively. A lot of the job involves refereeing and resolving, for instance, the competing demands of the basketball coach and the glee club director for practice time.

In other ways a headship is a job for a cheerleader. In my more cynical moments, I think that the equipment for the job should include a striped shirt and whistle or pom poms and a megaphone!

While school Heads retained a full measure of their responsibility over the waning years of the 20th century, they lost a good deal of their authority and autonomy, some of it taken away by governmental regulations, union power and student demonstrations, and some of it given away. All schools have made strong attempts to empower faculties, and parents have been wooed into a kind of partnership, brought into the school to run auctions, banquets, annual giving campaigns, booster clubs and all the other primarily commercial extracurricular ventures. Naturally enough, once so engaged, parents begin to expect a voice in policy, including curricular policy, and sometimes a voice in decisions about junior’s placement in French, his grade in physics, his playing time in soccer, or the degree of his punishment for some infraction.

The Best Vocation in the World For centuries society’s chief support has been that familiar stool with three legs — school, family and church.

As church attendance has declined and families have been transformed, more and more weight has had to be borne by schools. As the stool wobbles, pressures on school Heads have become more intense and their sense of balance more severely tested.

In spite of all these changing perceptions and difficulties, I still have a deep conviction that running a school — though not for the faint of heart or the thin of skin — is the best vocation in the world, a marvelous job that involves a good deal of moving around, many layers of challenge and almost no boredom. The job demands energy, flexibility, conviction, enthusiasm and a kind of inner gyroscope. And, in spite of all the obstacles, the job still remains imminently doable, witness the fact that each day thousands of the nation's schools prove themselves to be, like Westminster, magnificently run institutions. n Don Werner has served in leadership positions in education for the past 50 years. After teaching at The Peddie School and earning his M.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania, he was appointed to the Westminster School faculty in 1960 to teach English and coach basketball and baseball. He served as Assistant Headmaster from 1965-1970 and was named Westminster’s sixth Headmaster in 1970, a position he held for 23 years. Following his tenure at Westminster, Don served 12 years as an educational consultant, leading head of school searches and retreats.

For the last 10 years, he has served as the Executive Secretary of The Headmasters’ Association.

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An Ambitious Goal for Building Grit and Grace A goal of raising $50 million in total financial commitments by June 2010 has been set for Westminster’s fund-raising campaign — Building Grit and Grace. The campaign’s chairman and the vice chairman of the Board of Trustees Spike Lobdell ’75, P’07 made the announcement at a Sept. 26 kickoff celebration for the campaign’s final year.

The campaign has been in a quiet phase for five years and has already raised more than $44 million, including $14.7 million for the centerpiece of the campaign, construction of the Armour Academic Center. The total amount raised to date exceeds the amount raised in all previous Westminster campaigns combined.

The priorities of the campaign have included new academic facilities; faculty compensation, including faculty housing; financial aid; marketing; and endowment and Annual Fund growth. They are an outgrowth of a Board of Trustees strategic planning process begun in 2000 that examined the school’s accomplishments in the prior decade and identified critical needs for the next decade. In fall 2007, the board elevated building a new academic center to its top priority.

A Focus on People and Programs “The quiet phase of our campaign has lasted five years,” said Spike. “During this time, we have engaged close friends of the school in reviewing Westminster’s vision, aligning its philanthropic priorities and seeking the necessary financial commitments to make its strategic plan a reality.”

He thanked all donors for their generosity in bringing the campaign to where it is today and then he looked ahead.

“Now our fund-raising efforts will turn to the heart of our Westminster community: our faculty and students,” he said. “The remainder of the campaign will focus on increasing endowment and growing the Annual Fund, as these are the financial vehicles that most directly support the school’s faculty and students. They make the essential and the exceptional possible, while helping to ensure the school’s financial strength.”

He also talked about the campaign’s ambitious final year and how its culmination will coincide with the end of Headmaster Cole’s tenure at Westminster.

“We believe there is no better way to salute an

Trustee Spike Lobdell announces the goal of the Building Grit and Grace campaign at a kickoff celebration for its final year.

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Trustee Moy Ogilvie ’86, left, and English teacher Michael Cervas, right, talked about the meaning of grit and grace. exceptional headmaster, who has been so very passionate about creating the best teaching and learning environment for our faculty and students, than to surpass this goal and add another important chapter to his legacy,” said Spike.

Beginning in October and continuing through May 2010, a series of events in 18 cities will share the excitement of the campaign with the larger Westminster family.

“Surpassing the $50 million goal of Building Grit and Grace is a very worthy effort,” emphasized Spike. “For in our success, we will preserve and strengthen all of the special qualities that distinguish life on the Hill and make a profound difference in so many lives.”

Special Perspectives on Grit and Grace In the spirit of the campaign’s theme, two speakers offered their special perspectives about the meaning of grit and grace.

“For me, grit and grace defines the way in which you move through life,” said Trustee Moy Ogilvie ’86, who chairs the Board of Trustee’s Student and Faculty Committee.

“It means that you give your best efforts to what ever you set out to do — regardless of how big or small the task.

It means that you should always be proud of your accomplishments, but be mindful to keep them in perspective and to have a healthy level of humility. And, just as importantly, grit and grace defines the way in which you handle any challenges and setbacks. You deal with the situation, brush yourself off, figure out how you can do better or cope with the issue, and you get back in the game.”

She also shared some lessons she learned at Westminster that continue to influence her today. “As a result of the strong foundation received at Westminster, I had more opportunities than I could have envisioned as a teenager,” said Moy. She ended her remarks by telling the story of her sixand-a-half-year experience serving as a big sister with the Big Brothers Big Sisters program and how her little sister is now a Third Former at Westminster. “It is an unusual, unanticipated legacy of sorts,” said Moy. “I am excited to have the chance to experience the school through the eyes of

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a current student. As the homesickness and doubts start to surface for her, I am glad to know that I can honestly tell her that not only can she do this, but that the journey will be worth it.”

Head of the English Department Michael Cervas P’96, ’01,’10 recalled his arrival at Westminster 23 years ago and how the school’s motto, virtute et numine, was not very popular then. “I loved it from the start,” he said. “It is a perfect motto for this school, and it is the perfect school motto.

“Grit is the inside and grace is the outside,” he explained. “Grit is the body, grace is the soul. Grit is the substance, grace is the manners. I don’t care what clothes kids wear, what music they listen to, what language they speak, what heroes they have, if they have grit and grace, they will be worth teaching. If they have grit and grace, they will grow up to be good citizens of the world in the truest sense of that word.” (Please see more of his remarks on page 96.)

Headmaster Cole concluded the event by expressing his excitement for what lies ahead in the last year of the campaign and his pride in what has been accomplished.

“The magnificent Armour Academic Center stands majestically behind us as tangible proof of our efforts, but there is much yet to be done through the endowment and the Annual Fund to support our people, students and faculty and our programs, both to keep us in the front ranks of this nation’s independent schools and to continue building grit and grace.”

Events Celebrate Campaign and Headmaster’s Tenure Alumni, parents and friends of Westminster will be invited to celebrate the final year of the Building Grit and Grace campaign and honor Headmaster Graham Cole for his 17 years of service to Westminster at events that will take place across the country throughout the academic year.

Oct. 7 Oct. 8 Oct. 14 Oct. 15 Nov, 12 Nov. 19 Dec. 9 Jan. 25 Jan. 27

Philadelphia, Pa. Morristown, N.J. Chicago, Ill. Denver, Colo.

Boston, Mass.

New York, N.Y. Hartford, Conn.

Seattle, Wash.

San Francisco, Calif.

Jan. 28 Feb. 24 Feb.25 March 11 March 16 April 8 April 22 April 29 May 20

Los Angeles, Calif.

Dallas, Texas Houston,Texas Bermuda Palm Beach, Fla. Washington, D.C. Greenwich, Conn.

New Canaan, Conn.

Bedford, N. Y.

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1888 Events 1888: Chicago Thirty alumni and friends gathered for an evening of baseball in the friendly confines of Wrigley Field on July 28. Unfortunately for the hometown fans, the Astros snuck away with a win in a close game that was not decided until the final innings. Martlet spirits were not dampened by the outcome, as many continued the evening at nearby Casey Moran’s in Wrigleyville.

Among those in attendance for the game were, from left to right, Lauren Polo ’99, Meredith Miller ’00, John Johnson ’98, Anne Parke ’04 and Peter Hunter ’05.

1888: Vermont A group gathered for lunch, conversation and a wonderful round of golf on Aug. 3 at Ekwanok Country Club in Manchester, Vt.

Kneeling, left to right, Scott Stevens P’07, ’09, ’12; John Liberator P’07, ’08, ’11; Elliot Gray ’89; Charlie Griffith P’11; Newell Grant ’99; and Dave Werner ’80, P’10, ’11.

Standing, Bill Philip P’06,’09, H’06; Michael Cady ’73; Peter Philip GP’06, ’09; Sabina Philip GP’06, ’09; Bob Santry ’86; Richard Latour P’12; Burt McGillivray P’11,’13; Tim Quinn ’96; Dan Finley P’00; Patrick Robinson P’07, ’10; Bill Childs ’54; Emily Bogle; Jen Philip P’06, ’09; Dick Adams ’58; and Laurie Liberator P’07, ’08,’11.

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1888: Fishers Island This summer John von Stade ’84, Hi Upson ’50, Peter Upson ’86, Jamie Dwinell ’84 and Gerry Cameron P’90 hosted a great round of golf on Fishers Island and provided the necessary transportation on the island. Some of those who golfed were not able to be in the photo since they had to catch the early ferry back to New London.

Kneeling, left to right, Doug Hope P’11, Ed Naylor ’89, Gerry Cameron P’90 and Chris DeJohn ’06 (medalist with a 70).

Back row, Stan Keating ’81; E.G. Woods (spouse of Karen Burgess Woods ’87); Mike Reddy ’04; Peter Upson ’86; Brien O’Brien P’09; Jamie Dwinell ’84; Jamie Pappas P’10, ’11; Russel Burgess P’81, ’87; and Hi Upson ’50, P’86.

Stepping Stone Relocated

1888: Boston Six foursomes took to The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., on Aug. 13 for a great round of golf, followed by good conversation on the 19th hole.

Gene Bruyette Bruyette P’77, P’77, ’78 ’78 gave gave aa Gene chapel talk talk in in May May 2007 2007 in in which which he he chapel shared with with students students the the shared importance of of becoming becoming “stepping “stepping importance stones” and and the the tools tools they they need need to to stones” do it. it. He He took took his his theme theme from from aa do poem by

by R.L. R.L. Sharpe Sharpe and and later later had had poem words from from the the poem poem inscribed inscribed on on words custom-engraved stone stone that that aa custom-engraved rested outside outside of of Andrews Andrews rested Memorial Chapel Chapel for for the the past past two two Memorial years. This This summer, summer, the the stone stone was was years. relocated to to the the front front of of the the Armour Armour relocated Academic Center Center where where Academic generations of of students, students, faculty, faculty, generations alumni, parents parents and and visitors visitors will will be be alumni, able to to read read its its message. message. able

Hosts for the event were, from left to right, Charles Santry ’80, P’12, Annie Rusher ’90, Tim Egan ’00, Becky and Oliver Ames P’05, and David Winship ’75. Adam Lewicki ’07 was the medalist with a 78.

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Westminster Alumni Bring Talent, Experience and Tradition to Annual Lacrosse Game It was a great day at the annual David H. Hovey Alumni Lacrosse Game on May 17 with 24 lacrosse alumni bringing a wealth of talent, experience and tradition spread across four decades with dads against sons, uncles versus nephews, and brothers versus brothers.

First team goalie Gordon Santry ’12 (16 saves) earned the game ball with numerous “stuffs” of Uncle Bob ’86, Sam Hovey ’83, and Dave Hovey ’78.

At the other end, Davey Hovey ’09 and Kirby Zdrill ’09 both scored three goals and one assist while Colby Mauke ’09 had a nice goal in transition after grabbing a groundball from brothers Billy ’02 and Tucker ’06. Dillon Tiner ’12 joined Gordon Santry in the “promise for the future” category, adding two goals of his own for the young Martlets. The final score was Westminster First Boy’s Lacrosse 16 and Westminster alumni 12.

Many thanks were extended to Leigh and Dave Hovey who hosted the spirited post-game gathering where numerous stories, some true, were shared.

Lacrosse alumni who were present included Dave Hovey ’78, Charles Santry ’80, Charley DeLana ’83, Sam Hovey ’83, Steve Theall ’83, Seth Worcester ’83, Tim Robinson ’85, Bob Santry ’86, Barrett Mulley ’99, Andrew MacDonnell ’02, Bill Mauke ’02, Matt Neidlinger ’02, Allen Potts ’02, Mike Moriarty ’03, Graham Fadden ’05, Colin Campbell ’06, David Earl ’06, Tucker Mauke ’06, Jason Gilmartin ’07, Carson Christman ’08, Andrew Heinemann ’08, Harry Kutner ’08, Eric Phillips ’08 and Ryan Tocci ’08.

Back row, left to right, Anni Santry, Dave Hovey ’78, Bob Santry ’86, Gordon Santry ’12, Charles Santry ’80, Sam Hovey ’83, Dave Hovey ’09 and Kim Hovey ’80.

Front row, Grayson Hovey and Katie Hovey.

Colin Campbell ’06 and Graham Fadden ’05.

Burt McGillivray and Burt McGillivray ’11.

Standing, left to right, Bob Santry ’86, Charlie DeLana ’83, Dave Hovey ’78, Charles Santry ’80, Seth Worcester ’83, Andrew MacDonnell ’02, Colin Campbell ’06, Barrett Mully ’99, Allen Potts ’02, David Earl ’06, Ryan Tocci ’08, Jason Gilmartin ’07, Harry Kutner ’08, Eric Phillips ’08 and Andrew Heinemann ’08.

Kneeling, left to right, Matt Neidlinger ’02, Billy Mauke ’02, Tucker Mauke ’06, Sam Hovey ’83, Tim Robinson ’85 and Steve Theall ’83.

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THE THRING SOCIETY

Young Alumni Use IRAs to Join Thring Society Two young alumni recently joined the Thring Society through their retirement plans at work. Kate Hastings ’00 and Craig Grenier ’02 listed Westminster when filling out their Individual Retirement Account beneficiary form and will be increasing their support of Westminster as they save for their own future.

Kate included Westminster in her plans when she initially filled out her beneficiary form at a new job. “I can’t always give as much as I would like to the Annual Fund, so in the meantime, this makes me feel like I’m doing a little more,” she explained.

“Westminster means a lot to me, and this is an easy way to give back.”

Craig was already working at his current position when he requested a change of beneficiary form and included Westminster for a percentage of the total account. “Every month when I’m making my contribution to my retirement plan, I feel like I’m

giving to Westminster,” he said. “As the balance goes up, it feels good to think about Westminster’s gift growing as well.”

Retirement account gifts are extremely flexible and can be changed at any time by updating the beneficiary form.

They are also some of the most tax-efficient gifts available, since charitable distributions from retirement accounts are often shielded from income, capital gains and estate taxes.

Westminster is fortunate to count Kate and Craig among the members of the Thring Society, and their thoughtful and forward-looking gifts are exactly the kind of generosity the Thring Society was founded to honor.

The Thring Society takes its name from the Reverend Edward Thring, Headmaster of the Uppingham School in England from 1853-1887. Westminster’s Board of Trustees established this society in 1991 to recognize any member of the Westminster community who has made planned gifts or bequests with Westminster as a beneficiary.

If you have questions, or if you would like more information on gift-planning opportunities, please contact: Douglas Allen, Director of Planned Giving, (860) 408-3027, dallen@westminster-school.org or visit our Web site: www.westminster-school.org and select “Supporting Westminster.”

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Matching Action to Word

Zachariah, on the right, with David Thatcher, leader of the Jewish community, in Santa Clara, Cuba.

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A New York Times article published in 2007 describing the plight of Jews in Cuba inspired an ostensibly impossible mission undertaken recently by Zachariah Reitano ’09: to bring a rabbi to Cuba to serve as the spiritual leader for the nation’s Jewish community. Fifty years after the Castro regime seized power in Cuba, the number of Jews left in the nation hovers over just one thousand — a number that pales in comparison to the 25,000 who lived there in pre-Castro years. “My goal is to give the people of Cuba a rabbi — a teacher who will be an example of a life lived according to the Torah,” said Zachariah.

Zachariah traveled to Cuba twice during his Sixth Form year and again in July, after graduation, to forge relationships with members of the Cuban Jewish community. He found an enthusiastic supporter of his goal in Marc Fleisher of International B’nai B’rith, an organization that regularly sponsors Cuban Jewish Relief Project missions.

Before meeting Fleisher, Zachariah’s rabbi proposal was rejected by everyone he approached. They cited great political obstacles, significant financial hurdles, restrictive laws and overwhelming community needs. Many believed it was simply too late to halt the decline of a strong Jewish community.

Working from inexpensive hotels and rented rooms in private homes, Zachariah initiated a community outreach effort for his cause with the help of some supporters. “We met with members of every community, every leader and eventually with Isidro Gomez Santos, the minister of religion,” said Zachariah. “Slowly, the barriers fell, enthusiasm built and failure seemed less certain. Finally, success became the only consideration.”

During his most recent trip to Cuba, Zachariah laid the groundwork for the formation of the Cuban Humanitarian Educational Program (CHEP), now in its final stages of organization. CHEP’s early efforts will focus on creating a publicity campaign and a Web site to document its progress and raise money to fund the rabbi initiative. Eventually, CHEP hopes to identify a rabbi for Cuba from Mexico or Argentina. In the meantime, it is busy delivering educational materials, medicine, food, water purifiers and clothes to the people of Cuba.

While at Westminster, Zachariah was a day prefect, member of the debate club, and president of the Jewish Student Organization. He also developed a patent-pending design for a cane tip.

During his initial trips to Cuba, Zachariah says his Westminster teachers were very understanding of his absences and helped him transition back into his studies each time he returned to school. He credits them with helping him to develop the skills to take on challenges that would otherwise have seemed insurmountable.

Currently, Zachariah is attending Columbia University and continuing his efforts to bring a rabbi to Cuba. “We have all spoken of our responsibility to keep alive the memory of those who sacrificed all for their faith, and we have all been vigilant in identifying even the slightest assault on religious freedom,” he said. “This program was my opportunity to match action to word, to be true to myself and to become who I want to believe I am. My work in Cuba is far from over, but so far the Cuban Jews have taught me more than they know. I plan on returning the favor.”

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Proud to be Known as the “Library Lady” In her Harlem neighborhood, Crystal McKay ’85 is known as the “library lady.” It is a moniker that she carries proudly. Crystal began her career with the New York Public Library 24 years ago as a page at the Mid-Manhattan branch and has risen through the ranks to her present position as the supervising branch librarian at the Harlem Branch. Today, she directs a staff of 22 employees and oversees all of the administrative, budgetary, collection development and computer technology responsibilities associated with the branch.

But her journey to become a librarian was not easy.

A participant in the “A Better Chance” program, Crystal remembers arriving at Westminster in 1981 with apprehension and experiencing tremendous homesickness during her Third Form year — alleviated somewhat by the familiar family environment shared by the Stone and Adams faculty families. “It took an entire year to adjust to living on my own,” she recalls. “I called my father every day. He finally told me I had to slow down the calls. At the time, I didn’t think so, but the opportunity to attend Westminster was making it all worthwhile.”

As a Martlet, Crystal was known for her determination and strength of character. She served as a member of Black and Gold, giving tours to prospective students and their families, and was a varsity athlete. She played varsity basketball for four years, serving as captain her Sixth Form year, and was a recipient of the Squibb Bowl Award. She also played soccer for four years, two as a varsity starter, and served as co-captain her Sixth Form year.

Crystal began her postsecondary studies at St. John’s University, but within months was called home to care for her younger brother and elderly grandmother while her father battled drug addiction. Her mother had passed away years earlier, Crystal McKay serves as and Crystal held her family together as her father worked toward recovery. At the the supervising branch same time, she began her work with the New York Public Library.

Though she worked full time and began a family of her own, Crystal continued librarian at the Harlem Branch of the New York her education, returning to school when her children were four and seven years old.

Public Library.

She earned a B.A. in social science in 1997 from the College of New Rochelle — a task she completed in four years with much appreciated childcare help from family and neighbors. A Master of Library and Information Science from the Pratt Institute followed in 2001.

As a librarian, Crystal promotes community outreach, in addition to more traditional library services. Patrons come to her seeking information about HIV clinics, homeless shelters, food pantries and legal assistance. “Their needs are more than academic,” says Crystal.

“It makes my day worthwhile to help on a human level.”

She also represents the library as a member of Community Board 10, one of 52 boards and commissions that have an important advisory role in dealing with land use and zoning matters, the city budget, municipal service delivery and other matters relating to community welfare.

This summer, Crystal led a two-week-long community celebration of Harlem’s past, present and future as a part of the Harlem Branch’s 100th anniversary. She says her Harlem neighborhood has evolved to represent a new mix of residents and ideas during the two decades she has been working with the New York Public Library. “We have many more affluent community members and waves of immigrants from different countries,” she noted.

Crystal returned to the Hill in 1995 with her then-young son and daughter, who both expressed disbelief that their mother had attended Westminster. Their doubt was suspended when Crystal pointed out her name engraved on basketball and soccer plaques in the gymnasium.

With her 25th class reunion on the horizon, Crystal expects to revisit Westminster soon.

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In Memoriam 1937 William F. Deems of

Bradenton, Fla., died on Nov. 18, 2008. While at Westminster, William participated in swimming, tennis and football. He also was president of the Fifth Form, vice-president of the Sixth Form, a junior prefect and president of the John Hay Society.

William M. Sebring, Jr. of Naples, Fla., died on Feb. 16, 2009, at the age of 90.

Bill was born in New York City and spent his formative years in Bronxville, N.Y. Bill graduated from Williams College, where he was a member of the honor society, the football team and was a co-captain and a two-time All-New England member of its lacrosse team.

During World War II, Bill enlisted in the United States Naval Reserves and was voted outstanding midshipman at Columbia University’s midshipman school. He achieved the rank of lieutenant and was deployed to the Pacific aboard the U.S.S. Baltimore.

While in the Navy, he met and married Theodate (Teddy) Belcher of New London, Conn.

Bill’s business career began with Inland Steel in Chicago, Ill., and was followed by a stint with Columbia Mills, Inc. in New York City. At Columbia Mills, he served as labor relations director and later as division manager, based in Kansas City, Mo. In 1956, Bill resigned from Columbia and founded Sebring & Co. in Kansas City, a wholesale distributor of decorative window products.

Bill and Teddy settled at Lake Quivira, Kan., where

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they were active in building the community and raised their three children. While in Quivira, Bill served on the board and acted as secretary and treasurer of the homes’ association. He also co-founded the sailing club and served for nearly a decade as a volunteer with the fire department.

Beginning in the 1960s, Bill and Teddy were frequent visitors to Naples, Fla., and eventually relocated there in 1988. As a resident of Naples, Bill was a president and long-time board member of his homes’ association and was a member of the Naples Yacht Club. Throughout his life, Bill was an avid sailor, investor and Kansas City Royals fan. He also loved walking and playing the piano.

Former classmate Leavitt Ahrens remembers Bill as a great guy who was always smiling. They reconnected in Florida and saw each other often, even just two weeks before Bill died. Leavitt will really miss Bill.

Bill was preceded in death by Teddy, his wife of 62 years. He is survived by his three children, Anne Sebring Edwards and her husband, David; Peter L. Sebring and his wife, Cheri; and David M. Sebring and his wife, Diane. He is also survived by six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Reverend Gilbert enlisted in the United States Army during World War II and served as an artillery officer in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, France and Germany. He was recalled to active duty at the time of the Korean War and served at Fort Ord, Calif., retiring at the rank of major.

He graduated from Yale University with an A.B. degree and went on to attend Boston University, where he received his master’s degree in theology.

In 1969, Reverend Gilbert entered into the Methodist ministry and served churches in Salem, Shushan, West Hebron, Ticonderoga, Greenwich and North Cambridge, N.Y., and in Bennington, Tinmouth and South Wallingford, Vt. Prior to the ministry, he was an insurance broker with the firm of Bell and Gilbert in New York City.

Reverend Gilbert was a member of the Sigma Nu Fraternity, past master of Holland Lodge No. 8 in New York City, the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Society of Cincinnati.

Reverend and Mrs. Gilbert moved back to Bennington in 2001. He is survived by his wife, Grace (Cholmeley-Jones) Gilbert of Bennington; five children; and 12 grandchildren.

1939

1940

The Reverend Cass Gilbert III died at his home on Jan.

William M. Goss, Jr. of Delray Beach, Fla., and Middlebury, Conn., died on Jan. 29, 2009, in Delray Beach. While attending Yale University, Bill enlisted in the United States Air Force.

He was trained as a code cryptographer and as a sergeant and spent two

22, 2009. Reverend Gilbert was born in New York City on March 8, 1921, the son of Cass Gilbert, Jr. and Elizabeth Jarvis Wyeth, and the grandson of Cass Gilbert, a renowned architect in New York City.

years in North Africa. After returning to Waterbury, Conn., he became senior vice president of the Century Brass Co., until he retired and moved to Florida.

Bill was an avid fly fisherman and golfer and won his first golf championship at the age of 21 at the Waterbury Country Club.

Bill went on to play in many state tournaments throughout New England.

He was a member of the Connecticut State Golfers Association and the Connecticut State Seniors Association. He was active in Connecticut as president of the Connecticut Easter Seals. Bill was also a member of the Waterbury Hospital board, the Visiting Nurses Board of Directors and the American Red Cross board. His club memberships included the Yale Club, the Highfield Club in Middlebury, the Little Club in Gulfstream, Fla., and, for many years, the Ekwanok Country Club in Manchester, Vt. Bill also enjoyed his membership at the Pootatuck Fishing Club in Newtown.

Former classmate Tony Newton remembers coming to his 45th reunion where he stayed with Sam Page in West Hartford. Bill was one of six classmates who attended along with Sam Page, Bill Stenzel, Charles Tuttle and Bill Lee.

Bill is survived by his wife of 63 years, Eleanor; his three daughters, Elaine Witherspoon of Litchfield, Conn., Daryl Weil of Paradise Valley, Ariz., and Harriet Madeira of Berwyn, Pa.; and their spouses and grandchildren. Bill also has two sisters, Patricia Hoffman of New Ipswich, N.H., and Marta Johnston of Duxbury, Mass.

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In Memoriam 1944 John B. Dempsey II, 83,

died on April 30, 2009, in a car crash as he was leaving the New York State Thruway near Syracuse on his way to campus for his 65th reunion.

John graduated from Harvard University in 1947 and became a management consultant in Montreal. He grew up in Bratenahl, Ohio, where his family ties went back to the 1890s. He came from a family of lawyers. In 1959, John hosted the first meeting of Bratenahl Development. He championed the luxury high-rise Bratenahl Place, a bold project designed to help revitalize a fraying village of lakefront mansions. As president and later chairman of Bratenahl Development Corp., he headed a $30 million push for the apartment and condominium complex on the site of the old Lake Shore Country Club on Lake Erie in the 1960s.

John split his time between Cleveland and Quebec Province, where he had business interests and family ties. He was a trustee at Kenyon College, where his family had served as trustees continuously since 1898.

John was the husband of the late Marie Dempsey and the late Denise Hayman Dempsey. He is survived by six children, 15 grandchildren and one great grandchild.

1945 James C. Warren, a retired administrator with the Marshall Plan in Greece, died on Jan. 13, 2009, at his home in Washington, D.C. He received his bachelor’s degree with honors from Princeton University’s School of Public and

International Affairs.

In 1950, Jim was appointed chief of mission for the Marshall Plan’s import section, part of the finance and program division, in Greece. His five years in the country nurtured an interest in Greece and Greek culture.

In 1965, he returned as the general manager of Esso Standard Hellas, a new subsidiary of what is now Exxon. Jim was with the company for eight years. In addition to his positions in Greece, he worked with the Standard Oil Vacuum Co., focusing on oil refining strategies in newly independent nations of Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia. He also worked with the American Overseas Finance Corp. and Bates College, where, as an assistant to the president, he administered a successful capital campaign.

Jim moved to Washington, D.C., in 1986 and in retirement taught classes about modern Greece to the U.S. diplomatic service training unit. He often assisted Greek doctoral candidates studying World War II and the Marshall Plan and was an active contributor to a recent book on the plan published by the George C. Marshall Foundation.

Classmate Dan Elkin writes, “I was deeply saddened today to learn of James Warren’s passing. He and I were roommates for the ’44-’45 year. I could not have asked for a better one.

I never think of Westminster that I do not think of him.

We had some wonderful times together.”

Jim is survived by his wife of 19 years, Marge Lesser Benjamin; five children from his first

marriage; two stepsons; and two sisters.

1947 Sloane Elliott died in his

home in Kifissia, Greece, on Sept. 26, 2008. He was the founder, and for more than 20 years, editor in chief of The Athenian, an English language monthly magazine published in Athens. The Athenian was modeled on The New Yorker. No hotel lobby, nor any visitor to Greece, could be without a copy. Within its comprehensive covers were found local news, interviews with visiting notables (mostly conducted by Sloane), reviews of books and theater, and developments in archaeology.

While at Westminster, Sloane was one of the founders of the school’s literary magazine, The Martlet. He received a B.A. and an M.A. from Yale and in 1955 with his brother Clint ’44, went to Greece and never came back.

Sloane leaves his wife, Drossoula, elder daughter of the painter Spiro Vassiliou; four children; and three grandchildren. He completed his novel “Atlantis” shortly before his death.

1949 Robert L. Strong died on

Dec. 2, 2008. He was a member of the football, hockey and baseball teams while at Westminster.

1951 Dexter A. Tutein, Jr. of West

Palm Beach, Fla., and Nantucket, Mass., died in Florida on Jan. 31, 2009.

He was 76. Dexter attended the Wharton School, but was interrupted by the

Korean War, in which he served in the Army. Upon his return, he completed college at Drexel University, married Elizabeth Davis, had three daughters and started a career in finance, which took him all over the world.

Dexter had several passions: his daughters, travel, tennis, food and wine. If he could combine them all, he was a happy man. His mother opened a teahouse on Nantucket in 1950 and, upon her death, Dexter assumed ownership and for the past 38 years, he developed the The Woodbox Inn, a gourmet restaurant.

He was able to spend summer vacations on Nantucket with his daughters, and winters playing tennis in Palm Beach.

Classmate, John Friedler, writes, “The first time we saw each other since graduation in 1951 was at our 50th reunion on the Hill. From then on we kept in touch mainly through e-mails with lots of jokes and funny types of happenings. Several years ago, we visited Nantucket to see Dexter, eat superb cooking by him at the Wood Box and stay at his charming and comfortable inn. There we met Geri, went food shopping with Dexter, visited farms and met his friends in the hospitality business. We had a grand time together and kept up our relationship, mostly via e-mail, even when he spent the winters in Florida as an accountant.

Years passed and we again visited the island and stayed at the inn, but Dexter no longer offered meals, just breakfast. That was the last time we saw each other in 2005. We kept e-mailing one another until the call came from Geri.”

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In Memoriam Peter Gage writes, “He was a brilliant dancer of the Charleston. This was amply demonstrated during a trip I was privileged to make with my friend and roommate Sidney S. Gorham III and his family, to Bermuda, Easter 1951. Dex was of professional dancing standard — seriously.”

Dexter is survived by daughters Elizabeth Tutein, Carolyn Tutein, Linda and Greg Holt, their children, Drew and Julia; as well as his partner of 12 years, Geri Kearns and her sons.

1952 Edward P. Higley of Danville, Calif., passed away from a heart attack on Jan. 3, 2009. He was a graduate of the University of Michigan. Nonprofit and public finance was his choice profession but his passion was for both music and reading. Ted enjoyed travel, sailing, hiking, tennis, poker and cheering on his grandchildren at their various sports and school events. Ted is survived by his partner of 23 years, Gail Palmer; a sister; Gail’s children; and many grandchildren.

Robert Leach Puffer of

Hilo, Hawaii, formerly of Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., died Feb. 5, 2009, at home.

He was born in Waterbury, Conn. He was proprietor of Robert L. Puffer Inc. Lumber Co. and a boat builder.

Bob is survived by his companion, Lynn Lamkin; daughter, Heidi Woodruff; son, Gus Puffer; a sister; a brother; four grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews.

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1956 Robert L. Bennett, 71, a

resident of Old Lyme, Conn., for 35 years, passed away at home on June 17, 2009, after a courageous battle with cancer. To all who knew him, he was a loving husband, father, grandfather and friend.

Bob was born on Dec. 17, 1937, to Letcher and Dorothy Bennett. He grew up in Ridgewood, N.J., and graduated from the University of Colorado with a degree in business in 1960.

He started his career at Alexander Summer Co., before founding his own business, Bennett Development Co., in the early 1970s, specializing in commercial real estate development in Leonia, N.J. During his summers in Hyannis, he developed a love of sailing. In addition to sailing, he also enjoyed skiing and tennis and had a passion for travel, which began with his time as a student at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and continued throughout his life. For more than five decades, he traveled extensively throughout Europe, including a final trip to Germany in December 2008.

Bob was a very loyal alumnus of the school, exhibited both by his attendance at reunions and his very impressive record of consecutive giving to the Annual Fund — 40 years in a row.

Bob’s former roommate, Chuck Griffith says, “I fondly recall his good humor and wit. Those attributes were life long. In fact, in the class poll from the ’56 yearbook, his classmates noted the same talent. He also had a serious interest in photography and

worked on the newspaper during his years at school and was the photographic editor in his senior year.”

Bob is survived by his beloved wife of 14 years, Heather S. Bennett; his daughter, Elizabeth Bennett Lynch, and son-in-law, Jeremy Lynch of Rochester, Mass.; his son, Robert C. Bennett, and daughter-inlaw, Courtney Yilk of Portland, Ore.; his three grandchildren, Isabelle, Bennett and Levi; and two stepchildren, Jack Kneeland of Bangkok, Thailand, and Ann Kneeland and her husband, Peter Reppe, of Eugene, Ore.

1958 Thomas P. Jenkins, 69, of Wyndmoor, Pa., died on Jan. 13, 2009. He was the son of the late Allston Jenkins and Mary P. Harris Jenkins, brother of Polly Jenkins Man of Concord, Mass., and the late James S. Jenkins.

Classmate, Bart Lewis, often got handwritten letters from Tom asking about their class. Bart writes, “I remember him asking for some news in the Bulletin about fellow classmate Mike Fiske, and asking if the portrait of our 1958 head prefect, Bob Reed, was still on the wall in the Baxter Academic Center. He remembered fondly being on the varsity tennis team with Bob Reed. He also said how much he liked our art teacher, Mr. Cowan. At Westminster, and throughout his life, Tom always said how much he loved Philadelphia, and was enormously proud of its cultural life and the University of Pennsylvania.

I will miss Tom.”

1961 Steven Russell Kohl of Pass Christian, Miss., passed away on May 13, 2009, in Gulfport. Steve was a native of Ashby, Mass. He graduated from Auburn University with a degree in business. He had been a resident of Pass Christian since 1966, where he opened the automotive repair facility, Kohl Motors.

The business later moved to Long Beach in 1980. Steve was certified for more than 25 years as a master automotive technician by the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence. He retired from Kohl Motors at the end of 2007. Along with his family, he owned and operated Holly Ridge Christmas Tree Farm for 20 years.

Classmate, Peter Dunbar, writes, “Steve Kohl and I were both 17 years old the last time we saw each other. That was in Birmingham, Ala., his relatively new home. We were 12 when we first met at Westminster School. We were roommates in the Second Form, our first year.

I didn’t want to be there.

Steve, who I found always willing to make the best of any situation, was the perfect roommate for me. I learned a lot about making life adjustments from him that year. (I’m sure I never told him that).

I’m sorry to hear of his death…far too early in my opinion. May grace and peace be his and with his family in abundance!”

Steve is survived by his wife, Helen Kohl; daughter, Karen Kohl; son, Geoffrey Kohl; brother, Allen Kohl; and sister, Jane Callander.

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In Memoriam

Former Faculty G. Frederick (Fritz) Zeller, Jr., 80, of Andover, Vt., and

Avon, Conn., son of G. Frederick and Elisabeth H. Zeller, and beloved husband of Suzanne C. Zeller, died on May 16, 2009, in Avon.

Fritz was born in Buffalo, N.Y., and lived in Buffalo for close to 50 years. He attended Nichols School and Williams College, before enlisting in the Navy during the Korean War. In 1953, Fritz married Suzanne Church, also of Buffalo. The death of his father prompted his discharge from the Navy, allowing him to work with his uncle in the family business. Soon thereafter, he began a 19-year tenure at Nichols School, starting as business manager. He soon realized a passion for working more directly with students and families, which led to several school

leadership positions, including director of admissions, director of college guidance and assistant headmaster.

Additionally, he had a love of coaching, which enabled him to instill lessons of integrity and honor, principles at the core of his beliefs. He was an active member of Westminster Presbyterian Church. In 1978, Suz and Fritz left Buffalo, and he accepted a position as director of college placement at Westminster School, where he found pleasure and reward in committing himself fully to the families and faculty that encompassed the Westminster School community.

In 1986, Suz and Fritz moved to their retreat in Andover, Vt. His years of college advising and guidance continued at Burr and Burton Academy in Manchester, Vt. Following his retirement in 1991, Fritz enjoyed a more leisurely life in Vermont, the gifts of watching grandchildren grow, his own children find their places in this world and the fun of sharing moments with friends near and far. He committed time

and energy to the Old Parish Church in Weston and served as board chairman of the Mount Laurel Foundation, which helped children with special needs in the Manchester, Vt., area.

Over the years, he received honors including the Centennial Award from Nichols School, an Athletic Hall of Fame for his involvement on the playing fields, and the Outstanding Counselor Award from the New England Association of College Admissions Counselors for the state of Connecticut and later for the state of Vermont. At Nichols School, he had a scoreboard dedicated in his honor at Peek Soccer Field.

At Westminster School, a squash court was named after him commemorating his years as, “Coach, Counselor, Challenger, and Gentleman.”

Fritz was a devoted husband to his wife, Suz, for more than 55 years. He was a caring and nurturing father and grandfather to his four children, their spouses and his 10 grandchildren. His greatest pleasures were his family, celebrating special occasions and family milestones. He

will be remembered as a man of commitment. He was committed to his loving wife, his family, his friends, his schools and his church.

In addition to his wife, Fritz is survived by his son, G. Frederick III (Rick), daughter-in-law, Lucyann, and their three children, Robby, Tuckerman and Zoe of Canterbury, N.H.; his daughter Suzanne (Annie) Bessette, son-in-law Chad, and their two children, Tyler and Kristen of Londonderry, Vt.; his daughter Elisabeth (Betsey) Rollins, son-in-law Michael, and their two children, Suzanne and Allison, of Avon, Conn.; and his daughter Sarah Maniatty, son-in-law Peter, and their three children, Connor, Taylor and Samantha, also of Avon, Conn. In addition to his immediate family, he leaves his sister Louise Z. Curley and her husband Joseph D. of Andover, Mass., his brother-in-law Edward B. Hughes of New Canaan, Conn., and cousins Callie Z. Ostendorf, Stephen W. Hatch and Frederick W. Whaley, and many nieces and nephews and their families.

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Closing Thoughts Grit and Grace

By Michael Cervas P’96,’01,’10 Head of the English Department

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When I came to Westminster 23 years ago from Cincinnati Country Day School, I came partly because I was drawn to the school’s core belief in balance. I knew my own children would have the chance to be involved in many different activities and still get a good education. As it turned out, my son Josh ’96, Head Prefect and John Hay officer, captained football, basketball and baseball, and still managed to graduate number two in his class. He went on to study at Amherst College and the Bread Loaf School of English and is now an English teacher at Roxbury Latin School (that’s the Westminster in him). My daughter Emily ’01 earned AllNew England honors in soccer, fell in love with farming and lived a hippie lifestyle, well, at least as much of a hippie lifestyle as anyone can live on Williams Hill. She graduated from the University of Puget Sound, is still involved in organic farming and works as a special educator in Tacoma (that’s the Westminster in her).

Westminster was big enough, and small enough, to allow for two such vastly different children. The school was everything I had hoped it would be, and it’s turned out to be a great place for my last child too.

Anne ’10 is the academic in the family; she’s done her fair share of sports and activities too, but her first love is the classroom.

Fortunately, we have plenty of good teachers for her. I’m sure she’ll go off to a good college and live a life of giving back too (that will be the Westminster in her).

I still remember my first year here, living in West Cottage, taking over the English Department for a legend (Gordon McKinley had been head of the department for nearly three decades — I understand that sense of longevity now because I’ve lived it).

I was pretty nervous, especially when I had to give the opening lecture for Senior English. I knew I would be very, very different from Gordon. Would the students accept me? Could I make it here? A couple of weeks later I overheard Elizabeth Aber ’88 (who was a student then) telling someone that she didn’t know how anyone could ever replace Gordon and Helen McKinley, but then the Cervases appeared, and everything was great again, different, but still great. This is a community of people first and foremost. Yes, there are institutional traditions, but actually they come and go, believe it or not. What doesn’t change is the people. There is a fundamental grit and grace about them that transcends politics and religion. I have always felt comfortable and welcomed here, even though I think sometimes I live on the very fringes of Westminster society.

I’ve always been proud of my colleagues, but I’ve always been proud of my students too. We like to joke about how we “really can take them out in public,” but it’s true. Just last September we took the whole school to see “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the Hartford Stage. Afterwards, one of the principal actors asked me if those kids were all from the same school. When I told him “Yes,” he said it was the best student group he’d ever performed for.

Respectful. Smart. Polite. Personable. Our students are able to have conversations with adults, to be fully engaged in the bigger world. Partly that’s who they are. Partly it’s the Westminster in them.

Believe it or not, when I first arrived at Westminster virtute et numine was not such

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a popular motto. No one knew how to translate it exactly. It seemed some folks were actually embarrassed by the translation of grit and grace. I loved it from the start. It is a perfect motto for this school and it is the perfect school motto.

Grit is the hard work we all do here, the willingness to get our hands dirty (we used to have all-school work days when teachers and students got together and painted fences or built walkways). In a little over a week, we’ll take a day off from school and head into our local communities to do an entire day of community service. Grit is the unselfishness you see everywhere around campus. We get a lot of good things done here, but no one is jumping up and down to claim the credit. Grit is the way our teams compete against the bigger schools, never conceding an inch, never giving up.

Grace is the respect you see everywhere for other people and other ideas. Grace is the community spirit of our kids, many of whom come from very affluent families, but all of whom are interested in giving something back. Soup kitchens.

Habitat for Humanity. Latchkey tutoring. EcoTeam. Grace is our ever-present sportsmanship.

Grace is in our chapel program, not in a religious sense, but in a deeply spiritual sense nonetheless.

Grit is the inside, grace is the outside. Grit is the body, grace is the soul. Grit is the substance, grace is the manners. I don’t care what clothes kids wear, what music they listen to, what

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language they speak, what heroes they have, if they have grit and grace, they will be worth teaching. If they have grit and grace, they will grow up to be good citizens of the world in the truest sense of that word.

I am blessed to find myself in a balanced community, a place with rules and structure to keep me on the straight and narrow, but with enormous flexibility and freedom too so my own spirit can soar. If you haven’t already done so, look carefully at the words of the school hymn (a product of Ann Gilman, one of many Westminster teachers who have been role models for me) and you will see what makes Westminster such a special school. I know some other schools have more money, or bigger reputations, possibly smarter kids and smarter teachers too, or prettier buildings and grounds. But no other school, anywhere, in this country or any other country or on any other planet for that matter, has a better motto or a better school hymn. Virtute et Numine. Grit and Grace.

Adapted from remarks he gave at the kickoff celebration of the Building Grit and Grace campaign Sept. 26, 2009

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www.Westminster-School.org Grandparents of Westminster students visited campus Sept. 30 to participate in Grandparents’ Day and learn more about their grandchildren’s lives on the Hill.

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