1953
Class Captains Renwick D. Dimond Hugh R. Smith Boyden Society Captains Craig W. Fanning H. Stanley Mansfield Jr. Rob Harwell sent in a note and photo from the visit of John McPhee ’49 to a benefit for the Nashville Public Library Foundation. Rob explained, “John McPhee was interviewed by John Seigenthaler, prominent former editor and publisher of the Nashville Tennessean and chairman of Vanderbilt University’s First Amendment Center. During Seigenthaler’s interesting interview with McPhee, John spoke not only about his career as a writer and teacher of writing but about his New Yorker profile on The Headmaster and his introduction to geology in a course with Frank Conklin ’33. The evening was a success. It was a thrill for me to be part of bringing Deerfield Academy before so many folks with a love for books and learning.”
1954
Class Captain Philip R. Chase Boyden Society Captains Joseph D. Lawrence Harold R. Talbot Jr. In December of 2011, two Deerfield graduates, Whitney Evans and David Donnelley ’60 were nominated as Alcalde candidates for Sonoma, CA. Whitney commented, “When you consider that the entire population of Sonoma Valley is only 40,000, this indeed was a ‘small world’ event! To quote our local newspaper, ‘Alcaldes are chosen for their selfless contribution to the community and serve for one year in the honorary role. David has been a longtime, well-respected teacher at our high school, teaching three honors economics classes and advocating for the best possible education for our students. I have been active as a volunteer with Special Olympics, the Boys & Girls Clubs, and recently as the founding president of the Sonoma Valley Fund, our local community foundation.” In the end, Whitney was named the 2012 Sonoma Alcalde. “This fall I had the privilege of coaching Ronnie Schneider, the top-ranked junior tennis player in the US, as he won his second Indiana State singles championship for Bloomington South,” says Scott Greer. “One of the highlights of my 53 years of coaching.” Guy Kaldis reported, “Elijah joined us as the first Kaldis
born in 46 years; Elijah Jerald Kaldis came into the world eight months ago and is a delight. He smiles all the time and my eldest son, his daddy at 51, is very involved in every aspect of his day. Eli is the fourth grandchild in my family.” Peter Sellar married Laurie Gundersen, a textile artisan, on November 17, 2010. They moved from West Virginia to Staunton, VA in January 2011. Laurie opened a textiles studio/antiques shop in October of this year, which is doing well so far. Peter stays stimulated by taking lots of courses at nearby Lifelong Learning Institutes, and hopes to resume tennis this year. He is glad to be closer to all his friends and his two children and three grandchildren. He occasionally gets together with John Peale and his wife Lydia, who live about 45 minutes away in Charlottesville. “I still keep busy with various interests and activities—duplicate bridge, chess on the Internet with my Canadian friend, gym training, tons of additional exercise, maintenance of cactus and flower gardens, novel and nonfiction reading, and quite a bit of Spanish study lately,” writes Kim Wood. “I will be traveling to Guatemala in late spring to attend a wonderful Spanish language school in Quetzaltenango and simultaneously live with a Guatemalan family for five weeks. The cost is extremely reasonable. I will pay $200 per week to
get five hours of private tutoring five days a week for five weeks. This expense includes housing and food costs borne by the host Guatemalan family. What an experience! I attended the school 11 years ago while taking graduate history courses at the University of Arizona, and the teaching is superb. Unfortunately, I’ve gotten a bit rusty in the language since then, and now I’m trying to get caught up with some private tutoring in Tucson so that I will be in a better position when I arrive at the school in April. When I first studied there, I had a different teacher each week—one teacher for the present tense, another for the past and imperfect tenses, yet another for the future tense and so forth. The teachers were exceptionally competent and well organized. The Guatemalan people love you if you try to speak their language, but I’m a long way from fluency. However, I made friends with some of the chess players in the area and hope to renew those friendships or make new ones. The grandmother in the Guatemalan family I stayed with at that time came to my school graduation, her arms filled with Guatemalan bills. She felt badly because I had been pick-pocketed at a fiesta, but I couldn’t and didn’t accept her money, of course. I was quite touched by the offer. I may have mentioned that I had lots of fun several years ago teaching a 14-week adult
deerfield.edu
the common room
Arthur Schwarz teaches two ten-week courses each year, is on a few boards, is working on an exhibition for the Grolier Club for 2015 and says, unconvincingly, that he is a “man of leisure.” He writes that next to his Vivat Rex exhibition, the Grolier exhibit will be a “minimum opus.” Three generations of the Schwarz family visited Deerfield last August: Arthur, his wife Susie, his son and daughterin-law, and grandson, age two.
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