The Exeter Bulletin, summer 2014

S UMMER 2 0 1 4 The Exeter Bulletin

Commencement 2014

• PEA’s first 3-D printer challenge Summer 2014

• Profiles of six Exeter graduates • Protecting the bonobo great apes

Thanks to you…

Hannah Fuller ’15 helped new students navigate their first year at PEA, following the example set by her own prep-year dorm proctors.

Fedja Celebic ’16 designed a course of study to discover interests in African history, pursue higher levels of mathematics, and explore different roles from the stage.

Metincan Suran ’15 shared the stories of child refugees

of the Syrian conflict by curating an exhibition of their artwork in Exeter’s Lamont Gallery.

Support of The Exeter Fund enhances the experience of every student and allows the Academy to continue offering unrivaled opportunities for students to grow, explore and lead. Thank you.

Visit www.exeter.edu/studentstories to watch videos of these students sharing their Exeter experience.

Around the Table

V O L U M E

C V I X ,

N O. 4

S U M M E R

Contents

Principal Thomas E.Hassan ’56,’66,’70,’06(Hon.);P’11 Director of Communications Robin Giampa Editor Karen Ingraham Staff Writers Mike Catano, Alice Gray, Nicole Pellaton, Famebridge Witherspoon

2 0 1 4

Features 18 | COMMENCEMENT 2014 A photo essay of graduation day Photography by Cheryl Senter

Class Notes Editor Janice M. Reiter Editorial Assistant Susan Goraczkowski Creative Director/Design David Nelson, Nelson Design Contributing Editors Edouard L. Desrochers Karen Stewart Communications Advisory Committee Daniel G. Brown ’82, Robert C. Burtman ’74, Dorinda Elliott ’76, Alison Freeland ’72, Keith Johnson ’52, Yvonne M. Lopez ’93 TRUSTEES President G. Thompson Hutton ’73 Vice President Eunice Johnson Panetta ’84 Wole C. Coaxum ’88, Flobelle Burden Davis ’87, Marc C. de La Bruyère ’77, Walter C. Donovan ’81, John A. Downer ’75, Mark A. Edwards ’78, Jonathan W. Galassi ’67, David E. Goel ’89,Thomas E. Hassan, Jennifer P. Holleran ’86, David R. Horn ’85, William K. Rawson ’71, Kerry Landreth Reed ’91, Dr. Nina D. Russell ’82, J. Douglas Smith ’83, Della Spring ’79, Morgan C. Sze ’83, and Remy White Trafelet ’88 The Exeter Bulletin (ISSN No. 0195-0207) is published four times each year: fall, winter, spring, and summer, by Phillips Exeter Academy, 20 Main Street, Exeter NH 03833-2460.

Telephone 603-772-4311 Periodicals postage paid at Exeter, NH, and at additional mailing offices. Printed in the USA by Cummings Printing.

The Exeter Bulletin is printed on recycled paper and sent free of charge to alumni, parents, grandparents, friends, and educational institutions by Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, NH. Communications may be addressed to the editor; email bulletin@exeter.edu.

Copyright 2014 by the Trustees of Phillips Exeter Academy.

ISSN-0195-0207 Postmasters: Send address changes to: Phillips Exeter Academy, Records Office, 20 Main Street, Exeter, NH 03833-2460.

24 | EXONIANS TODAY Profiles from the class of 2014

By Sarah Zobel

24

30 | PRINT TO FIT Exonians participate in PEA’s first 3-D-printer challenge

By Nicole Pellaton

Departments 4 Around the Table: Founder’s Day Award, campus life at a glance, Assembly Hall speakers, and more.

30

10 Table Talk with Michael Hurley ’71 15 Inside the Writing Life: A Converation with Author Chang-rae Lee ’83 by Katherine Towler 36 Sports: Hatchie’s Legacy Lives On by Mike Catano Plus, spring sports roundup 40 Connections: News and Notes from the Alumni Community 42 Profiles: Jim Farrin ’54, Sibyl Diver ’92 and Shinri Kamei ’12 110 Memorial Minute: Donald Cole, dean of faculty and history instructor, emeritus 112 Finis Origine Pendet: An Unforgettable Chicken Pot Pie by Charles W. McCormack ’65

10 Visit Exeter on the web at www.exeter.edu.

Email us at bulletin@exeter.edu.

THE EXETER BULLETIN IS PRINTED ON PAPER WITH 10% POST-CONSUMER CONTENT, USING SOY-BASED INKS.

COVER IMAGE OF IFEYINWA IKPEAZU ’14 BY CHERYL SENTER

SUMMER 2014

The Exeter Bulletin

1

2

The Exeter Bulletin

S UMMER 2014

The View from Here

The D-Hall Draw As springtime blooms on campus, students beeline for Wetherell Dining Hall after classes adjourn for lunch. —Photo by Cheryl Senter

SUMMER 2014

The Exeter Bulletin

3

Around theTable

What’s new and notable at the Academy

The Real Heart of our Work

By Principal Thomas E. Hassan ’56, ’66, ’70, ’06 (Hon.); P’11

O

n June 8, I proudly handed a diploma to each member of the class of 2014, including my five

4

The Exeter Bulletin

S UMMER 2014

CONNOR BLOOM ’15

Principal Hassan with his advisees (from left to right): seniors Nik Bergill, Henry Stevens, David Zhao,Tina Safford and Philip Decker.

advisees, whom I met when they were just preps.That same graduation weekend, I also enjoyed a parting meal with them at the senior dinner and several wonderful moments with their families during the Saturday reception on the lawn in front of the library. Through these formal and informal moments, I was reminded of how privileged I am to have watched these particular students, and their classmates, mature—taking their interests and passions in new and unexpected directions. In their experiences here, and in the relationships we forged over the past four years, I have learned a great deal from being their adviser.

Advising is a key element in how we support students here—whether it be navigating course selection and daily homework challenges, or negotiating the oftentimes confusing and complex life as a teenager. Our students are exceptional and demonstrate an impressive degree of determination and promise, but we should never forget they are, in the end, adolescents.They need our unwavering support and guidance to make good, healthy choices in the classroom, in the dorm and on the athletic field, and I believe these connections are the real heart of our work.

Time with my advisees—whether it was in my office during our newly designated advising block, at the pizza place we visited each term or on a road trip to The Mountain School during Academy Life Day—is something I treasure.

Those moments, however brief or seemingly mundane, were the basis for building lasting bonds on which to lean in times of need, and in times of celebration, like graduation.

In my commencement address (www.exeter.edu/bulletinextras), I underscore the notion that empathy and invention grow from this connection with others. It’s how we build relationships and is the true underpinning of how we learn and become problem solvers. In that speech I reference Adam Grant from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, who has examined the issue and has concluded that “the most productive and effective people” in the industries he studied are “also the helpful and generous among us.

For these people who share knowledge, make introductions and provide mentoring, they manage to succeed in ways that lift other people up instead of cutting them down.” I hope that Exeter can play a part in helping our students understand the importance of these skills while they’re here, and that they’ll take that spirit of giving with them when they leave.

I am looking forward to staying in touch with my advisees and hearing about their lives after Exeter, and to visiting with them at alumni events and reunions. In the meantime, the new school year is just two months away, and I am eager to greet the new and returning students and to continue learning from their perspectives on our global community.

Non Sibi in a Minute Examples of goodness and service in the Exeter community

MIKE CATANO (2)

Marcos Dymond ’15 Marcos Dymond ’15, from Andover, Massachusetts, helped raise a brother with developmental disabilities, so it seemed natural for him to join Exeter’s Best Buddies—a campus program that’s part of an international support network for people with intellectual and developmental challenges. Every week, Dymond and about 15 students get together with 10 buddies on and off campus.

“I enjoy hanging out with my buddies and playing basketball,” he says. “[Hoops] is consistently one of the activities we enjoy the most.” The buddies also bowl and watch movies, and Dymond says he gets satisfaction just from being with them.

Dymond credits his mother with urging him to stay involved.

He joined Best Buddies when he was a lower and this year served as the group’s treasurer. Since he joined, Dymond says club members have interacted with about 35 buddies.

He looks forward to returning to Best Buddies in his senior year and plans to continue this type of work in college and beyond.

“Being a part of this group means a lot to me. It makes me very happy,” Dymond says.

Jackie Weston, Dining Services Longtime Dining Services employee Jackie Weston says she gets as much from the engagement she has with students as she hopes they get from her.

She started making those connections in 1996, when she worked in dining at the Exeter Inn. Many students visited relatives at the inn, and she would surprise them by remembering their favorite things, like Belgian waffles. Weston took that personal touch to Dining Services in 1999.

“In the dining hall, we try to make the students feel…like it’s their kitchen, too; and they seem to have settled in quite comfortably, asking for a paper cup, something sweet, lemon for their tea, or just a simple hello . . . we try to make it as much home-away-from-home as we can,” she says.

“One of my favorite student acquaintances always said I was like his mom away from home,” Weston adds. “The simple act of providing nourishment is in itself giving. Not for oneself, but for one’s children.”

ERIC KWON ’14

Randy Armstrong, Music Department Music Instructor Randy Armstrong (pictured on the far right) uses his collection of more than 300 musical instruments—many of which he plays—to provide “a window of opportunity for students to understand different cultures through the universal language of music.”

Armstrong—whose instruments include a North Indian sitar and tabla, a balofon from Burkina Faso and a South American charango—conducts six to 10 music workshops annually worldwide, some of which he schedules in low-income and underserved communities. In March, for example, Armstrong was an artist-inresidence at the Boys & Girls Club of Manchester, New Hampshire, where he will return in November. Armstrong also volunteers in local and international musical fundraising efforts.

“My work at PEA is greatly influenced by both my work outside the Academy and my volunteerism. After returning to campus from a less fortunate school or community, I feel it is important to instill in my students at PEA a sense that it is a great privilege to attend [a place like this],” he says.

SUMMER 2014

The Exeter Bulletin

5

Around the Table

Faculty Wire E X E T E R T E AC H E R S M A K I N G N E W S

New Professorship Awarded to Anne Rankin ’92

A

t the final faculty meeting of the 2013-14 academic year, Principal Tom Hassan appointed Science Instructor Anne Rankin ’92 as the Academy’s first Eleanor Gwin Ellis Professor.

Charles Ellis ’55 endowed the fund in 1992, in honor of his mother, Eleanor, with the intention, according to the deed, “to honor an esteemed teacher in recognition of past and continuing service to Exeter, and to inspire younger instructors to attain the highest standards of scholarship, teaching and leadership.”

Rankin was appointed to PEA’s Science Department in 1999 after earning a bachelor’s degree in applied ecology and a master’s degree in applied ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of California at Irvine. Since then, Rankin has worked in various dorms and served as a class adviser, club coach and as a member on Academy environmental committees. She is currently one of two instructors spearheading the biology research project with Stanford University and serves as chair of the Composition of the School Committee—a group charged with evaluating the student body and providing recommendations on how to further Exeter’s goal of bringing youth from, and for, every quarter to campus.

6

The Exeter Bulletin

S UMMER 2014

Around the Table

Faculty and Staff Awards and Prizes This spring, the following Exeter faculty and staff members were recognized for the quality of their work and their contributions to the life of the school.

Blair Brown ’58 and Borden Brown ’56 Staff Excellence Awards Rose Compagna Dining Services Eileen Cusick Academy Library Annie Pleatsikas Facilities Management Mary Smith Dining Services Pamela Stuppy Lamont Health and Wellness Center

Spanish Instructor’s Play Debuts in Madrid

E

lena Gosalvez-Blanco, who teaches Spanish in the Modern Languages Department, wrote Cubata, a 15-minute play about a young couple losing their dog and the comic interactions that ensue.

Hers was one of 16 plays selected from hundreds of submissions to the Microteatro (micro theater) production company in Madrid.The company performs 15-minute plays, six times daily, for 15 audience members in rooms of 15 square feet. Cubata was performed 50 times in April and May by Dario Frias and Daniela Costa, two well-known actors in Madrid.

“Their fight is very funny,” Gosalvez-Blanco says of the play’s protagonists. “The jokes are about gender issues, social media, city life, love, etc.”

Of the micro-theater format, Gosalvez-Blanco says, “It is so intimate to be so close to the actors, and the short format is very enjoyable, like reading a short story instead of a novel.”

In May, Gosalvez-Blanco attended Cubata’s closing performances.

“I saw my play several times, and I loved seeing the audience react, how men and women would laugh in different moments,” she says.

The Brown Family Faculty Fund Awards Dana Barbin Physical Education

Tony Greene Mathematics New Teacher Awards Sami Atif Mathematics Tyler Caldwell English Molly MacKean Davis History The Class of 1964 Fund Awards Tom Cole Information Technology Services Barb Darby Summer Teacher Conferences

Jane Cadwell English

Amy Farnham Harris Family Children’s Center

Jeff Ibbotson Mathematics

Jason Mongeon Facilities Management

Fran Johnson ’82 Science

Mike Nagel Communications Office

Giorgio Secondi History

The Rupert Radford Faculty Fellowship Awards Pam Appleton College Counseling Office

Dr. Daniel E. Koshland Jr. ’37 Distinguished Faculty Awards Betsy Stevens Sustainability Education Coordinator, Science Mark Trafton Modern Languages Dorm Adviser Awards Jason BreMiller English Erica Plouffe Lazure English Erik Wade History George S. Heyer Jr. ’48 Teaching Fund Awards Kathleen Curwen Science

Meg Foley History Sally Morris Classical Languages Tom Ramsey Religion Vi Richter Information Technology Services Lori Summermatter Theater and Dance Jay Tilton Admissions

SUMMER 2014

The Exeter Bulletin

7

Around the Table

In the Assembly Hall A S A M P L I N G O F S P E A K E R S W H O C A M E TO C A M P U S

April 8: Kwame Anthony Appiah Philosophy professor, author

Kwame Anthony Appiah, a native of Ghana and a philosophy professor at New York University, spoke at assembly about honor, a subject he explored in The Honor Code, How Moral Revolutions Happen. In this 2010 book, Appiah addresses the evolving role of honor in such historical contexts as slavery, British dueling, and the Chinese practice of foot-binding.

During his talk, Appiah explained that honor was also an issue in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, where the American military was accused of abusing captives. He gave students the example of an Army captain who reached out to politicians about the abuse.

Appiah said the soldier “… understands that honor means caring not just about being esteemed.

And he was willing to risk the disapproval of his peers and superiors and the prospect of a blighted career to preserve his right to respect his honor.”

It is important, Appiah said, “when driven by a sense of honor to reflect whether the code you are driven by is actually in the service of a genuinely good thing.”

Those who fought the evils of slavery, dueling and foot-binding ultimately won over the majority to the notion that they were doing the right thing, he added.

April 11: Dr. Ned Hallowell ’68 Psychiatrist, author, lecturer

Dr. Ned Hallowell ’68 said Attention Deficit Disorder is a “terrible term” for what can be seen in a positive light.

An expert in the study and treatment of ADD, Hallowell both specializes in and has the common disorder. He said it hasn’t stopped him from becoming a New York Times best-selling author and lecturer. In fact, he thinks it’s helped him and many others.

Hallowell emphasized that ADD “is not a deficit and not a disorder; it’s a trait,” and encouraged students not to hold someone’s condition against them. Having ADD can be a sign of genius or incredible creative talent, he added.

“Break down these horrible barriers of shame and stigma that lead people to hide their challenges.”

Harkness tables, Hallowell continued, “are perfect for people with ADD, because someone is always paying attention to you. [The] Socratic method at PEA [is] perfect, because it’s engaging— you are constantly questioned and responding; not being lectured to.”

He applauded Exonians’ efforts to be open as a community and to continue to celebrate each other’s differences.

April 15: Emily Barr ’76 Media executive

Before she graduated from Exeter in 1976, Emily Barr told students that sexism was ever-present on the campus—given that coeducation at the Academy was still in its infancy. Barr and fellow female schoolmates “put up with it because we thought complaining would make us look weak.

And we were definitely not weak.We saw ourselves as curious and daring, so we showed up as prepared as we could, and we spoke up as often as anyone would allow. Nothing could have prepared me better for my work life down the road.”

Barr, president and chief executive of Post-Newsweek Stations, a broadcasting arm of the company that formerly owned The Washington Post, shared her story at an assembly focused on women in leadership. She attributes her success to her Exeter experience.

8

The Exeter Bulletin

S UMMER 2014

Around the Table

She describes the Harkness system as “the great equalizer,” because it “literally afforded us a seat at the table . . . So this, more than any single factor, really helped develop my confidence and voice and helped all of us begin to find our authentic selves.”

April 18: Liz Putnam Award-winning American conservationist

Liz Putnam, founder of the Student Conservation Association, said national parks face “very serious challenges,” including underfunding and encroachment from development. “It’s an ongoing, human-made environment crisis that is threatening many of the places that we hold dear,” she said.

“It’s up to all of us—but in particular to your generation—to see that these irreplaceable jewels are protected for future generations,” she told students.

Putnam was first compelled into activism by a 1953 Harper’s Magazine article suggesting large parks be shuttered because of shrinking budgets and overuse. Within a year, she had created the model for the SCA. “I believe that young people—such as yourselves, and myself at that age— would welcome the opportunity to volunteer in our national parks—do needed work that otherwise would not be done...benefit[ing] from hands-on experience while living in a beautiful area, a win-win opportunity for both the park and the participant,” she said.

Since it was established nearly 60 years ago, the SCA has had 75,000 participants from every state and more than 30 countries, she said. SCA members construct and rebuild trails, and inventory—and their work builds character, she added.

In 2010, Putnam received the Citizens Medal from President Barak Obama. Having learned to love nature from her parents, Putnam said, “This work can be strenuous and challenging, but it also can be tremendously rewarding. We all face challenges in our lives. Our choice is how we respond.”

May 2: Quil Lawrence ’89 NPR veterans’ correspondent

NPR veterans’ correspondent Quil Lawrence ’89 said his journey toward covering conflict began during the year off he took after he graduated from Exeter. He kept a journal and discovered the two things he had grown to love parlayed nicely into being a journalist: traveling and writing about new people and places.

An award-winning correspondent, Lawrence has reported in many of the world’s hottest war zones for BBC, NPR and The Los Angeles Times, including Colombia, the Sudan and Afghanistan. After 10 years in Iraq, he joined National Public Radio in 2009 as Baghdad bureau chief.

Lawrence said he worked to humanize people on the frontlines: “I felt like I had to bring back what was going on, so the [radio] listeners would understand. I was trying to bring back the facts to the listeners in America and help people understand it by bringing [home] these human characters who were caught . . . in this crossfire.”

He embedded with soldiers and found them working to detach from the reality of what they were charged to do. Before battles, soldiers often listened to heavy metal music to prepare themselves. “The soldiers explained that they wanted to make each battle more like a video game—to be ready to go in and pull the trigger. [The lieutenant] said human beings are not naturally proRead more about grammed to kill other human beings. It takes a lot of training to pull these speakers’ visits at www.exeter. the trigger,” Lawrence said. edu/bulletinextras After engaging in combat, soldiers come home, where Lawrence said 2.6 million of them are learning to transition back to civilian life. Now stateside, Lawrence, too, is transitioning. He is finding ways to chronicle the post-war experiences of those who served on the frontlines.

SUMMER 2014

The Exeter Bulletin

9

Around the Table

Viral Conservation TA B L E TA L K W I T H M I C H A E L H U R L E Y ’ 7 1

By Daneet Steffens ’82

A

10

The Exeter Bulletin

S UMMER 2014

FRED CARLSON

s a kid, Michael Hurley dreamed of living in a rain forest. Now, as executive director of the Bonobo Conservation Initiative (www.bonobo.org), he’s living the dream, spending much of his time in a remote area of the Democratic Republic of Congo and working to preserve the bonobo—a great ape known for its communal warmth and for sharing more than 98 percent of its DNA with humans—and its jungle habitat. In an appropriately socially inclusive arc, BCI’s collaborative paradigm—its partnerships with Congolese conservation organizations was instrumental in sanctioning the Sankuru Nature Reserve in 2007 and the Kokolopori Bonobo Reserve in 2009—is replicating as surrounding communities embrace the sustainability-focused model.

Described as viral conservation by Deni Béchard in his 2013 book, Empty Hands, Open Arms, the model’s key element is not just community inclusivity, a model that many conservation groups now embrace, but true empowerment of community leadership, a subtle yet critical distinction. While community-based conservation is not new—the concept was officially acknowledged at 1982’s World National Parks Congress—it may be that BCI’s tenacious adherence to its empowerment model is setting the organization apart.

“We have a deep, deep, deep-rooted conviction to BCI’s model of community involvement,” explains Hurley, whose background includes studying folklore, mythology and anthropology at Harvard as well as a mortgage banking career that focused on community development and housing. “It’s not just about truly supporting and believing in these people and their desires, but also about embracing the value of indigenous knowledge as well as the value of every individual involved. We don’t throw aside the belief system of the people we work with. We take it to heart, and this is incorporated into a robust information-exchange program.”

It’s an approach, the former Exonian notes, somewhat akin to the Harkness plan. “It’s not that we have big oak tables,” he says with a grin, “but we are sitting around together and everyone has an input from the beginning of the process.

In Harkness, you have a teacher or facilitator, just like you have myself or a BCI colleague there, but there’s a group that has input and there’s no distinction between who’s at the front of the class or who’s at the back. Everyone has a voice, from the smallest villager to the chief to the witch doctor to us and to our partners. We all have this input before the plan is designed.

That is the key: that whatever we do is based on the input of the people in the communities.”

That open-plan approach—the fact that BCI responds to and leverages indigenous interests, skills and knowledge, stimulating a cash economy and working with local leaders to build critical infrastructure such as health care—generates an atmosphere in which villagers understand that their insight and their wishes will be respected, and that the BCI staff is committed to the community as a whole, not just to the conservation project.

“When they know that they own it, when a community gets behind something, it starts to work,” Hurley says. “And then their neighbor is going to say, ‘I want some of that, too.’ That’s social capital and it’s a factor in why it goes viral.” Protecting wild forests and species, he says, “often has nothing to do with science or biology. It has to do with people.”

It is this kind of approach that has put BCI on the February cover of Solutions magazine and garnered it a rainforest conservation award shared with Nobel Peace Prize-winner Wangari Maathai at the United Nations Conference of the Parties in Copenhagen in 2009.

Bonobos, of course, remain a driving factor: “Bonobos are one of the most interesting and fascinating and wonderful creatures on this planet, and I’m including humans. Peace and cooperation is something we aspire to, one of the highest ideals of “Peace and cooperation is humanity, and bonobos have achieved this ideal. We should therefore take advantage of the opportunity something we aspire to, one of the to learn from bonobos, and to assure they survive in highest ideals of humanity, and the wild. They’re extremely intelligent and they live in a matriarchal society. They practice open sexualbonobos have achieved this ideal.” ity, which seems to promote further peace and harmony and cooperation. And they have an ability to be empathetic. We don’t know whether that’s genetic or social learning, but they seem to have this gene for empathy, which is what humans also have, and a lot of studies show that they possess this more than other apes. They make decisions based on caring for others.”

Bonobos are also, Hurley notes, critical to the survival of the complex ecosystem of their rain forest, the second-largest on earth. The rain forest is “the second lung of the planet, and that’s not a metaphor. It’s like a factory belching out life and vibrancy, vitality and oxygen instead of pollution, and it sequesters vast stores of carbon.”

Saving tropical forests may be one of the most cost effective and efficient ways of addressing climate change, Hurley adds. “Deforestation accounts for 17 to 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, which is more than the emissions of all trucks, boats, planes, trains, and cars on the planet—the entire transport sector combined.”

The Democratic Republic of Congo contains two-thirds of all remaining tropical forest in Africa, and the bonobo habitat makes up a huge bloc of this “These forests,” says Hurley, “should be a priority investment for those interested in mitigating climate change, and we have developed a model that can work.”

BCI is gaining credibility as being on the cutting edge of a new paradigm in conservation. Working with local people, they have officially established protected areas covering more than 13,000 square miles. “I am proud of the work I have done with BCI, but have certainly not been alone,” Hurleys says. “I built this organization with my partner, Sally Coxe, and with the input of many brilliant advisers, including Congolese community leaders and villagers. It is a shared achievement.”

And what is it like to have that long-ago rainforest dream come true? “Not the same thing as one’s youthful fantasies,” Hurley says with a laugh, “especially when your feet are wet and itchy with some kind of new fungus. But it has these moments of inspiration. Sometimes it’s like a symphony or an art gallery: I hear the sounds of frogs and birds in the forest echoing in the distance, and it touches a certain core that resonates within me. Sounds that are so beautiful and mysterious, and the sights or sunlight hitting trees or flowers.

“There’s also the intensity of it. Some people call this area of the Congo ‘the green abyss,’ it’s so deep and dark. Sometimes it’s just this mass of trees and vines that have thorns that rip your flesh.

There are swamps you get stuck in and leeches—all that is the tough part. But then there’s just being able to sit on the river and feel that you’re in this primordial world. It’s wonderful. I love it. We all should work to assure that it remains for future generations.”

SUMMER 2014

The Exeter Bulletin

11

Around the Table

Campus Life at a Glance Snapshots from spring term

CHERYL SENTER

FERMIN PEREZ-ANDREU

About 280 newly admitted students visit during “Experience Exeter” in April.

To help announce Principal’s Day, faculty members took selfies of what they would do on their day off.

CHERYL SENTER

CONNOR BLOOM ’15

Seniors open the envelopes they sealed as preps, and reflect about their time at PEA.

ERIC KWON ’14

Student actors and dancers performed The Mahabharata this spring—a 2 1/2hour production of storytelling and dance based on the epic Indian poem.

Exeter’s first interactive indoor/outdoor sound festival occurred on Wetherell Quad in late April.

MIKE CATANO

Facilities Management staff squared off against the JV baseball team for their teams’ 20th annual softball game, which the adults won.

The series record stands at 11-9, in favor of Facilities Management, but the JV boys vowed revenge next year.

12

The Exeter Bulletin

S UMMER 2014

Around the Table

DAN COURTER

David Bohn ’57 Receives Founder’s Day Award On May 16, Exeter honored David Bohn ’57; P’81, P’84, P’90 with the 2014 Founder’s Day Award—a recognition given annually to a person who has demonstrated exceptional service to the Academy.

Bohn has been a longtime leader within his class, serving at various points as class president, vice president, agent and correspondent. He and his wife, Barbara ’57 (Hon.), have also opened their home every five years to offer an unofficial reunion headquarters for the class of 1957. The citation presented to Bohn and read by Trustee David Horn ’85 expands on this open-door policy: “The white house at 72 Front Street has been like the Academy’s living room since you moved there in 1975. You have entertained hundreds of visiting Exonians for meals, overnight stays and walking tours of town. You and Barbara became surrogate parents for your classmates’ children, and now for their grandchildren as well. For nearly 40 years, the families of ’57 have sent children and relatives to the Academy knowing they had a place to go for a familiar face, a home-cooked meal and a listening ear. Your open hospitality was effortless.”

The Academy also honored Bohn for his attentiveness to other members of the Exeter community. The citation reads, “Your beautiful dahlias, Barbara’s homemade pies and your cheerful, invigorating company have been ever present as well-known friends from Exeter’s past such as Hammy Bissell, Bill Clark ’31, David Coffin, Don Cole, Jim Griswold, Dick Niebling ’34, their wives and others moved into life’s latter stages. Your tender care and unwavering commitment to the extended Exeter family has been unmatched.”

Read the citation or watch the full award assembly with Bohn’s acceptance remarks at www.exeter.edu/bulletinextras.

SUMMER 2014

The Exeter Bulletin

13

Around the Table

OLYMPIAD

TOP

MATHEMATICAL

THREE of the

scorers for the United States of America

Exonians Earn National and Global Honors

12 15

(L-R) Ravi Jagadeesan ’14, Alex Song ’15, Kevin Sun ’15 and Math Instructor Zuming Feng.

Song is a five-time participant and hall-of-famer in the International Mathematical Olympiad.

2 TWO U.S. Presidential Scholars, among 141 high school seniors recognized nationally for academic or artistic achievement.

1 of 1,000 U.S. students named a Gates Millennium Scholar

(Leigh Braswell, below, and Julie Becher)

10 2 8

in writing,

in art

The Exeter Bulletin

S UMMER 2014

National Achievement

national Scholastic Art & Writing medal winners,

14

National Merit,

and National Hispanic award winners For more details on the students and their awards, go to www.exeter.edu/ bulletinextras.

Exonians in Review

Inside the Writing Life A C O N V E R S AT I O N W I T H AU T H O R C H A N G - R A E L E E ’ 8 3

DAVID BURNETT

Interview by Katherine Towler

Katherine Towler, former Bennett Fellow at the Academy and author of a trilogy of novels, interviewed Chang-rae Lee ’83, a novelist who was cited as one of the 20 best American writers by The New Yorker and whose works have garnered, among others, the Ernest Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award and the American Book Award. His book, The Surrendered, was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Towler and Lee’s conversation debuts a new series in the Bulletin, where writers speak with other writers about their craft, how and why they do it, and the backstory behind recent and upcoming publications.

—Editor Q:Your fifth novel, On Such a Full Sea, published earlier this year, is a dystopian story set in a version of Baltimore now called B-mor. This book represents somewhat of a departure from your earlier works, with their focus on immigrants, identity and assimilation. What led you to a dystopian story?

My intention was in fact to write an “immigrant novel,” though of a very different kind. I was toying with a premise that I happened upon during a ride on Amtrak from New York City to D.C., a premise that had certain decayed and abandoned urban areas of America— such as one might find in cities like Baltimore—repopulated en masse by a group of for-

Chang-rae Lee ’83 is the author of five books and teaches creative writing at Princeton’s Lewis Center for the Arts.

SUMMER 2014

The Exeter Bulletin

15

Exonians in Review

eigners, their purpose being to revitalize these longforlorn neighborhoods. I was doing research on contemporary China at the time for a different novel and so I envisioned the repopulating group as Chinese. Of course, no such thing would be allowed to happen in the present, but I began to imagine that in a future time such immigrants might indeed be allowed to settle here, and even welcomed. And once I began to consider what that future society might look like, certain In April, Chang-rae Lee attended “dystopian” features the memorial service for Peter began to emerge.

Greer '58, emeritus instructor of English, who died last December.

At the service, Lee spoke about a visit Greer paid to him several years earlier—a touching example of the man Greer was and why he was beloved by so many. Read Lee's narrative at www.exeter.edu/ bulletinextras.

Q: On Such a Full Sea depicts a world in which class stratification and other ills of our current age have been taken to extremes. How difficult was it to imagine such a future and how close did it feel to present-day reality? How effective do you find fiction in delivering social commentary?

As you note, I took what I saw as certain realities of our present-day society and world and pushed them, extending them to what I felt were still fairly logical and certainly possible scenarios concerning class division, environmental degradation, health care, etc. The frightening thing for me was that I never felt those extrapolations to be “extreme,” but rather somewhat intensified versions of what I think keeps us all up at night. By its very nature fiction has the unique capacity to illustrate how life is lived without having to employ direct or patent commentaries or advocate social agendas, which I’ve always thought was the most enduring form of “argumentation”—great social novels like Germinal and The Grapes of Wrath compel a depth of empathy that can’t be matched by any opinion piece or essay, for they place us in the heart of the action and don’t let us go.

Q: How do you see the place of the novel in a digital world? Has your understanding of the novel as a form changed over time?

I believe the novel will always exist, at least as long as written language is in use. Unless there’s an existence that’s driven by only voice and image, people will always want to write long-form stories and there will 16

The Exeter Bulletin

S UMMER 2014

always be people who wish to read them. We are a storytelling species, as it’s the only way we know to mark our time in this life and give it significance.

Q:You have taught throughout your career as a writer. How do you balance the creative demands of teaching and writing?

Balance is the dream but not the reality! Juggling is more like it, I think, this constant exercise in keeping my various responsibilities and passions progressing, alive. Perhaps because I’ve taught from the beginning of my writing career, this juggling seems like second nature to me. Frankly, I don’t know how I’d handle being a writer only.The key for me is to return to my own work daily, even if it’s for just an hour or two, so as not to lose too much momentum. Novelists are like sharks, or at least I am—you stop moving and it’s all over. And while I enjoy the teaching immensely, sometimes I’m working on something and hate to leave it. But it’s just as often the case that I’m looking for a diversion anyway, and talking literature and the craft of writing is one of best I can imagine.

Q: How do you continue to challenge yourself as a writer? What is it about fiction that keeps you returning to this form?

Fiction writing continues to be the most difficult thing I do. And I hope it continues to be that way.The day that I feel it’s coming too easily or automatically is the day I should probably turn off my computer for good. For it’s the persistence of the challenge that attracts me, the way even a story or character or modality you think you know perfectly can suddenly and wholly defy you. So I don’t have to set “challenges” for myself, or contrive to do something “different.” I’ve always believed that real writing—the kind of writing that breaks open our reality—is the most elusive quarry.

Q: Were your years at Exeter significant to your career as a writer? Did you see yourself as a writer then?

It was at Exeter that my love of reading and literature began to find another expression, which was to begin to write. I started out writing poetry, and I became the editor of PIP.The interest in writing might have come anyway, but it was certainly catalyzed by my wonderful English teachers, some of whom, like Charles Terry and Peter Greer and Claudia Gallant, encouraged me to write creatively. One of the great things about Exeter was how writers were celebrated there, and those who came to campus to speak while I was a student—Gore

Vidal, John Irving, Jorge Luis Borges among them—were hugely inspiring. I certainly wanted to be a writer, though many years would pass before I could ever voice that desire.

Q: What do you read for ideas? What do you read for inspiration?

I read a little bit of everything. I don’t read for anything but pleasure.

I figure the ideas and inspiration will come if they come. I have faith that way. There are about 14 books on my nightstand, novels, of course, but also poetry collections and nonfiction. I alternate between newly published books and classics.

I also am a newspaper reader, and can’t really start my day without going through The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. There’s information there, of course, but the ritual of it is still pleasurable, even when the news is horrifying and depressing, which it often is.

Q: What are some of the challenges for you in the time between completing one book and starting the next? How long does it take for new work to find a shape? Have you begun another book or do you have plans for one?

I always have ideas for novels brewing, and at some point after finishing my previous (usually with about a six-month hiatus), I’ll follow the idea I’m most cur ious about and begin to get serious about finding my way into its world. Again it’s always the mystery of a story or character that compels me, rather than what I “know” about it.The knowing gives one the confidence to pursue a years-long project, but it’s the mystery that makes the work worthwhile and exciting, sentence by sentence. I’ve just begun a new novel, which I won’t say much about, except that it’s quite different once again. I guess we’ll see how it turns out.

Alumni are urged to advise the Exonians in Review editor of their own publications, recordings, films, etc., in any field, and those of classmates. Whenever possible, authors and composers are encouraged to send one copy of their books and original copies of articles to Edouard Desrochers ’45, ’62 (Hon.); P’94, P’97, the editor of Exonians in Review, Phillips Exeter Academy, 20 Main Street, Exeter, NH 03833.

ALUMNI 1951—Sabin Robbins.

Amazing Wonders of the Oceans. (CreateSpace, 2013)

1979—Kevin Boileau.

The Return. (Epis, 2013) —and Ethan Claunch, illustrator. 99 Deceptions: Brief Vignettes. (Epis, 2013)

1954—Jonathan Aldrich.

Injury: Poems. (Custom Museum Publishing LLC, 2013)

—and Jessica Finnigan. “ ‘I’m a Mormon Feminist’: How Social Media Revitalized and Enlarged a Movement.” IN Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion. (v. 9, no. 12, 2013)

1955—John M. Saul.

A Geologist Speculates on Gemstones, Origins of Gas and Oil, Moonlike Impact Scars on the Earth, the Emergence of Animals and Cancer.

(Les 3 Colonnes, 2014) 1959—Jan Schreiber.

Peccadilloes. (White Violet Press, 2013) 1963—Donald Caplin.

Sports Therapy for the Mediocre. (Oak Tree Books, 2014)

1998—Nancy Ross.

“Teaching Twentieth Century Art History with Gender and Data Visualizations.” IN The Journal of Interactive Technology & Pedagogy [CUNY]. (no. 4, fall 2013)

1979—Glenn Williamson.

Inside Out: Building a Glass House in Russia. (Archway Publishing, 2014) 1983—Chang-rae Lee.

On Such a Full Sea: A Novel.

(Riverhead, 2014) 1991—Sarah Varney. XL Love: How the Obesity Crisis is Complicating America’s Love Life. (Rodale Books, 2014)

FACULTY Ming Fontaine [as Wang

Ming] and others, translators. “Qiu Hu Tries to Seduce His Wife,” by Shi Junbao. [“Part 4: Female Agency,” no. 8] IN The Columbia Anthology of Yuan Drama. [Edited by C.T. Hsia, Wai-yee Li and George Kao]. (Columbia University Press, 2014)

2002—Rufi Thorpe. The

Girls from Corona del Mar: A Novel. (Knopf, 2014) BRIEFLY NOTED 1962—Larry I. Palmer.

1977—Melissa Orlov and Nancie Kohlenberger. The Couple’s Guide to Thriving with ADHD. (Specialty Press/A.D.D. Warehouse, 2014)

“The Haircut.” [nonfiction] IN New England Review, “Recollections.” (v. 35, no. 1, 2014)

SUMMER 2014

The Exeter Bulletin

17

Class President Nate Moulton with Principal Tom Hassan.

Commencement

2014 Principal Hassan and John Ying, who returned to school after recovering from a serious injury.

Charles Boyd with diploma in hand.

Kerrick Edwards receives her diploma as dad,Trustee Mark Edwards ’78, looks on.

18

The Exeter Bulletin

S UMMER 2014

Twenty-six students received classical diplomas.

On June 8, on the Academy lawn, 317 seniors received their diplomas, each earning the distinct title of Phillips Exeter Academy alumnus or alumna.

A light-hearted moment between Stefan Kohli and Shelby Knauss.

Congratulations class of 2014!

A beaming Savannah Gardner.

A proud embrace for Victor Hunt.

Haley Stokas and Hannah Grace Marudzinski.

Latin scholars Kwasi Oppong-Badu, Brian Gao and Nathan Ko.

Hugs, photo ops and lunch on the library lawn follow the ceremony.

Commencement

2014 Science Instructor Kathleen Curwen and Math Instructor Tony Greene retired this year.

In his welcome speech, Class President Nate Moulton said to his classmates, “I am proud to call you my brothers and sisters. I can’t wait to see the people you will help and the things you will create.”

Austin Ramberg pauses for a selfie with his mom.

Read Principal Hassan’s remarks at www.exeter.edu/bulletinextras.

Graduation Prizes The Yale Cup, awarded each year by the Aurelian Honor Society of Yale University to the member of the senior class who best combines the highest standards of character and leadership with excellence in his studies and in athletics: Joseph Lewis Shepley, Southbury, Connecticut

The Ruth and Paul Sadler ’23 Cup, awarded each year to that member of the senior class who best combines the highest standards of character and leadership with excellence in her studies and in athletics: Jennifer Laurell DiPietro, Portsmouth, New Hampshire Matthew MacKay and Nina Meyers.

The Perry Cup, established by the class of 1945 in honor of Dr. Lewis Perry, eighth principal of the Academy, and given annually to a senior who has shown outstanding qualities of leadership and school spirit: Nathaniel Dow Moulton,Vero Beach, Florida

The Williams Cup, established in memory of George Lynde Richardson Jr. ’37 and given annually to a student who, having been in the Academy four years, has, by personal qualities, brought distinction to Phillips Exeter: Ravi Jagadeesan, Naperville, Illinois

The Eskie Clark Award, given annually to that scholarship student in the graduating class who, through hard work and perseverance, has excelled in both athletics and scholarship in a manner exemplified by Eskie Clark of the class of 1919: Shanae Dixon, Brooklyn, New York

Julie Becher receives one of five Cox medals awarded.

The Thomas H. Cornell Award, based on a vote by the senior class, is awarded annually at graduation to that member of the graduating class who best exemplifies the Exeter spirit.

Asile Kismet Patin, Atlanta, Georgia

The Cox Medals, given by Oscar S. Cox Esq., in memory of his father, Jacob Cox, are awarded each year to the five members of the graduating class who, having been two or more years in the Academy, have attained the highest scholastic rank: Julie B. Becher, East Kingston, New Hampshire Leigh Marie Braswell, Cullman, Alabama Thomas Hikaru Clark,Tokyo, Japan Yeji Jung, Flower Mound,Texas Dianyu Wang, Nanjing, China

The Faculty Prize for Academic Excellence, given to that member of the graduating class who, having been two or more years in the Academy, is recognized on the basis of scholarship as holding the first rank: Hae Seung Hwang, Corinne Noonan and Hannah Fier.

Leigh Marie Braswell, Cullman, Alabama

The Principal’s Commencement Address Principal Tom Hassan delivered a speech on Graduation Day grounded in the belief that empathy and invention are nurtured and grown through conversation, and how Exonians can bring together these ideals beyond Exeter, making new connections and continuing a tradition of non sibi. Highlights from his speech follow.

Hope Logan with her parents.

Commencement

2014

But what we cannot forget—when a ceremony like this prompts us to reflect backward and dream forward—are the bridges of discovery that we have built together…and the shared moments of compassion and understanding born from active, thoughtful conversation. Whether or not you find yourselves at an oval table after Exeter, or in a situation or college course conducted in the Harkness style, you all leave here with the power of open-mindedness: the ability to hear others’ stories or viewpoints, understand them better in relation to your own—and, when appropriate, challenge their beliefs, and what you think. This sparks the imagination and expands what is possible. And I encourage you to continue seeking out that nexus between empathy and invention, to break new ground on existing or emerging challenges.

In January, senior Sean Lee and upper Scott Hermenau launched a “sonic intervention” through their newly formed Democracy of Sound (Exeter) Club. Students and adults roamed the caverns of Fisher Theater that night, experiencing music and sounds created on traditional instruments and self-made ones, laptops and even walls. The students and adults who performed that night, many of you in this audience today, continued to push beyond convention later in April with Exeter’s first interactive indoor/outdoor sound festival on Wetherell Quad. It was an event designed to encourage the discovery and exploration of new Alec Hernandez and Marc Steele sporting Russian bagel necklaces. combinations, new connections—not only of sounds or instruments but also of people. Adults and students played together, novices and experienced musicians alike. Innovations extended beyond the stage to the piano staircase and other unique installations. An event like this would not have occurred without the ingenuity and passion of its leaders, performers and—of course—their adviser and music The full text of instructor, Mr. Sakata. the principal’s commencement address can be read at www.exeter.edu/ bulletinextras.

Now, however, you are looking more forward than backward. Life beyond Exeter, what does it hold? So many things…and I’m excited for each and every one of you. It was Soren Kierkegaard who said, “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” Go forward, draw your own map, but let me first offer a few parting words of advice from those who have had more opportunity to look backward.

Jason Kang, class of 2012, whom many of you may know, wrote, “At the end of every day, ask yourself: What am I working toward and did I do something today that I care about? Be honest.”

Cindy Gosselin, class of 1998, adds: “There will always be people who are smarter than you, stronger than you, and more accomplished than you. If you remember that your job in life, having been given so much, is to give what you can while appreciating each opportunity, then you will have the best chance of being happy.”

I’ll let Harvey Lyon, class of 1945, have the last word from our alums. He says, “Listen to everything anyone tells you about your Exeter experience, and agree with everyone. Then make up your own mind.You have Exeter for the rest of your life, and what it meant to you will change and shade and deepen over the years.”

Yeji Jung delivers the invocation.

“I like and admire the character of the seniors more than I can say,” Science Instructor Townley Chisholm told The Exonian.

“Yes, we will miss them, but we will be very glad to hear about what they are doing as they go on.”

Nick du Pont receives his diploma.

Commencement String Quartet member Laura Zawarski.

A-OK with graduating, Kieran McLean.

Exonians sing the traditional hymn, “O God, Our Help in Ages Past.”

When it graduated the class of 2014, Exeter sent out into the world 317 scholars, athletes, activists, musicians, environmentalists, writers, scientists, chefs, dancers, historians, visual artists—it’s a list that is seemingly endless, given the many talents and interests these Exonians developed during their time at the Academy. If space permitted, every graduate would merit a profile in these pages; however, the six featured here are representative of the larger class.They’re passionate about science and music, helping others, learning new languages, raising awareness, sharing knowledge, and expressing themselves.They embrace their inner geeks, celebrate their athleticism, see past physical and developmental issues, and honor their heritage and religion. One saluted Exeter’s diversity, commenting that in four years he never once felt he had to work to fit into social circles and observing, “I think you make a community as you progress through.”Another was grateful for the opportunity to have served as a tour guide, for the chance to “brag about Exeter and be reminded a few times every week why it’s awesome.”

Stefan Kohli: Pointing a Lens at Sustainability Predictably, when Stefan Kohli traveled to India in March 2013 as part of Exeter’s first student/faculty colearning trip, he brought his camera with him. But rather than share his shots only with family and friends back home, Kohli sold the prints, raising $1,150—money he then donated to the school to be used to purchase six new cameras. Three of those will go to PEA students who are traveling to India this summer; the other three are intended to be gifted to students they meet there.

“The goal is for students from both groups to capture their perspectives on issues in India,” Kohli says, “and what they see as problems they could tackle as youths.” He’s hopeful that students will share their photos and ideas with the larger PEA community and at other schools, to allow those who aren’t able to travel to India to get involved, too. Kohli, who has contributed his photography skills to the Exeter Communications Office, PEAN and The Exonian, also co-founded The Exeter Dress Code, a blog inspired by the blog Humans of New York and initially a showcase of student expression through clothing.With 200,000-plus views, it’s evolved into a resource for both current and prospective students—“It’s become more than pictures sharing how cool peo-

Exonians S t e f a n

Ko h l i

B e c c a

N i e v a r

To d a y

Profiles from the class of 2014

ple’s ties are, to people being able to share their experiences,” Kohli says. He also runs the Exeter Exchange, an on-campus thrift store for clothing and school items, which is another outlet for the Scottsdale, Arizona, Eagle Scout’s interest in sustainability, something he nourished during a summer 2013 internship at the Conservation Law Foundation in Boston.

Colby College–bound Kohli is also a talented oboist who spent the past four years as a member of the New England Conservatory’s Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, a commitment that required he travel to Boston every Saturday for daylong rehearsals, giving him bonus lessons in self-discipline and time management, in addition to the music experience. He’s considering a career in neuroscience and would like to explore the effects of music on the brain, inspired, in part, by playing at an assisted-care facility, where he observed an audience member who didn’t seem overly invested in the music but was tapping her cane against her chair; there was, Kohli says, “some sort of connection that we felt that transcends the need for words, through the music.”

By Sarah Zobel Photographs by Cheryl Senter

Becca Nievar: Lighting Up Global Health Becca Nievar was only 5 when she joined her mother in her first Relay for Life, soon after her maternal grandmother had died of brain cancer.The relay is an American Cancer Society event to raise both funds and awareness in which teams of individuals take turns walking on a track or path for up to 24 hours. Since that first experience, Nievar has participated annually, even serving on the planning committee in her hometown of Tulsa at the age of 11; when she came to the Academy she continued to take part in the school’s modified relay, including directing it during her upper year. As a senior, she coordinated the central ceremony, in which all lights are turned off and special luminaria made by participants are lit; names of cancer survivors and victims are read; and, at PEA, students and faculty members tell their own stories of cancer.

“It’s such a great way to bring a community together,” Nievar says of the relays.

Words and health are a recurring theme for Nievar, who is co-head of WORD, the on-campus spoken word SUMMER 2014

The Exeter Bulletin

25

K i e r a n

M i n o r

club, for which she helps organize monthly events and weekly meetings. Since her lower year, Nievar has also been co-head of H4, a peer education health club. H4 members coordinate forums, schedule assembly speakers and write a monthly newsletter, all focused on the kinds of issues that commonly affect adolescents and their health, including the biggies—sex, drugs and alcohol—but also sleep, hygiene and nutrition. Students are welcome to join as lowers but must be nominated by a teacher and then complete an application; leaders are certified through the BACCHUS Network.

“I’m really interested in health on a global level,” Nievar says.

Having cultivated that awareness of globalism while volunteering as a proctor in the PEA office of multicultural affairs, Nievar is headed to New York University Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, where she plans to focus on biochemistry and Middle Eastern studies before enrolling in medical school. She prepped for her undergraduate experience in part by taking classes in Arabic at the Academy. Nievar’s ultimate, admittedly long-term goal is to serve with an organization such as Doctors Without Borders and then open an NGO dedicated to women’s health in the Middle East or northern Africa.

Kieran Minor: Sharing the Global Power of Music There was no time for senioritis for Kieran Minor, who had a busy final month at Exeter: He directed 14 students in Dramat’s modern production of Shakespeare’s King Lear—complete with strobe lights, Spandex and electro music—was featured in the choral concert as the winner of the 2014 Vocal Competition, performed his senior recital on piano, and was invited to read his 10-page meditation on the relationship between home and music, complete with interspersed song lyrics, to the entire school. But Minor is no stranger to performance, having acted throughout his four years at PEA in mainstage and Dramat productions, including Beauty and the Beast, Mahabharata, Waiting for Godot and Little Women. He’s also a member of the concert choir, The Exeteras a cappella group and a jazz trio. The latter group performed by invitation at New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan’s inaugural ball in 2013.

And now Minor is taking music around the world, with plans to divide a gap year between Australia and Arizona before enrolling at Oberlin College. Funded by the Academy’s Perrin Fellowship, Minor will spend three months traveling around Aboriginal areas in northern Australia before heading to the Navajo Nation for another three months; in both locations he’ll study music theory and musicology, including its history and culture and how an environment affects the music that is produced.

“It’s sort of going to be like show-and-tell,” Minor says. “They’ll teach their theory and I’ll teach mine.”

26

The Exeter Bulletin

S UMMER 2014

Minor, of Danbury, Connecticut, has traveled before: He spent last fall in Stratford, England, during which he was invited last-minute to join a choir that was singing evensong at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.Though Minor admits he was nervous to be singing music he’d seen only once, doing so further spurred an interest in global music that had been generated earlier in June, when he’d traveled to Haiti with Student Council summer fellows for a two-and-a-half-week stint working with a nonprofit studio in Port-au-Prince. There he recorded a number of musicians for pieces he planned to air on WPEA. Minor says he was pleasantly surprised that a school as rigorously focused on academics as Exeter would allow students equal space to explore extracurriculars, and credits the school’s work ethic with helping him diversify his own interests.

“Once you find what you really love,” Minor says, “you have all these extra skills, and that makes it more dimensional.”

Amina Kunnummal: Merging Science and Feminism When Khalid Shah, Ph.D., spoke at a school assembly earlier this year, Amina Kunnummal wasted no time in introducing herself to him. Long interested in the sciences and medicine, Kunnummal reached out to Shah and kept in touch after he’d returned to Harvard Medical School, where his research focuses on the use of stem cells in treating neuro glioblastoma tumors. Kunnummal, who is of Indian ancestry but was born in Kentucky, felt a connection with Shah thanks to a shared heritage and fascination with medicine. She “bugged” him enough that he finally invited her to tour his lab, which she did this spring, parlaying the visit into a summer internship. So before heading off to the University of Kentucky in the fall, Kunnummal will be in Shah’s lab transforming bacteria, isolating DNA and running gel electrophoresis polymerase chain reaction—all things she’s already experienced in, thanks to her Academy science labs.

Though becoming a doctor has long been Kunnummal’s plan, reading Siddhartha Mukherjee’s The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer had already sparked an interest in that disease in particular.

“There are very few things that get me as fired up as talking about stem cells and cancer does,” she says.That kind of focus is nothing new for Kunnummal, who says that after living in Saudi Arabia from the age of 4 on, she decided to send herself to boarding school because she sought academic challenge.

“I was that geeky kid and I loved it,” she says. It’s also what led her to serve as opinions editor of The Exonian, co-head of the Muslim Students’ Association and co-founder of the re-established Feminist Union, which holds weekly open meetings to look at feminism in popular culture—a recent discussion centered on whether

A m i n a

Ku n n u m m a l

A g n e s

Z h u

Miley Cyrus’ twerking episode on an awards show was an imitation of “a gross stereotype” of women of color or her own brand of feminism. The fact that there was no consensus among those present is fine with Kunnummal, who says the goal is not answers, but dialogue.

“If we can show even one person what it means to be a feminist,” she says, “and get them to think about how gender and sexuality affect their life, then we’ve been successful.”

Agnes Zhu: Crossing Boundaries and Making Connections Although there’s plenty of learning happening on campus, Agnes Zhu discovered what many Exonians already knew: that there’s also much to be learned beyond Front Street. During her time at PEA, Zhu, of Bloomington, Indiana, spent a semester at The Mountain School in Vershire,Vermont, and made two service-learning– oriented trips to Ireland.

Housed on a farm, with 45 students in residence each semester, The Mountain School combines Harknessstyle class time with experiential learning and a focus on the environment. So in addition to academics, a given day might include early-morning duty feeding the school’s chickens, a lunch made with vegetables grown on the premises and kitchen cleaning or wood chopping during the two-hour afternoon work period. Zhu says focusing on the environment as more than theoretical changed her perspective of it, and she’s now considering majoring in environmental science at UC Berkeley.

“I always used to say, ‘Turn off the lights! Global warming!’” Zhu says, “but now I’m interested in really spreading information on how the Earth and its ecosystems work and what they’re doing.” Another passion Zhu discovered at the school was gardening; that was also an important component of her trips to Ireland.

Through the Exeter Social Service Organization (ESSO) program, Zhu spent 10 days in Callan, near Kilkenny, where she helped a group of adults with special needs prepare a play for the Callan inclusion festival, an experience she describes as “life-changing.” Zhu returned to Ireland on her own last summer for a six-week stint in a self-sustaining Camphill community for individuals with disabilities, where she again farmed and served as a companion.

Zhu connected with strangers on still another level during the remainder of that summer when she and a friend filmed seven hours of footage related to the problem of homelessness in Venice Beach, California. Once they’ve edited it to an hour, they plan to share the documentary with both the Exeter and Venice Beach communities.

“It’s important to me to cross those boundaries that seemingly can’t be crossed,” Zhu says, adding that in working with the differently abled, there are plenty of obvious boundaries, “but at the end of the day, it isn’t about me helping someone who’s disabled, it’s about me meeting another person I can connect with.”

28

The Exeter Bulletin

S UMMER 2014

Tyler Courville: Keeping His Balance in Academics and Athletics Tyler Courville came to the Academy from Saint Ignatius, Montana, a town in the center of the Flathead Indian Reservation. It’s remote enough that the closest middle school cross-country team was an hour’s drive away; with no other option, Courville joined, but was unable to regularly attend practices. Nevertheless, he was consistently the team’s top runner, and when he entered PEA as a freshman, he grabbed the last varsity spot. He’s been a four-year, three-season athlete, running indoor track in the cold months and outdoor track in the spring, and this year he was co-captain of all three teams.

Courville’s most distinguishing honor, however, had little or nothing to do with athletics: He was named a 2014 Gates Millennium Scholar, one of only 1,000 students nationwide to receive a scholarship for his entire undergraduate education—including tuition, room and board, books, and fees—from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The application process required that Courville write seven 1,000-word essays, maintain a minimum 3.3 GPA and demonstrate leadership abilities. He will use the funds to study at Stanford. Though he’s not sure of his long-term plans, Courville says he’s choosing to focus on the sciences and engineering as a way to balance the classics diploma he earned at Exeter.

Courville hopes to be a walk-on with Stanford’s cross-country team, but if not, he might join the team in triathlon, a club sport. He’s undaunted by the challenge, having survived his first steeplechase last summer, competing against, among others, someone who was going for the Olympic qualifying standards. (“And then there was me,” Courville says, laughing.) He’s got some swimming experience, thanks to spending the fall semester of his lower year at The Island School on Cape Eleuthera, in the Bahamas, a period he describes as the “best 100 days ever.” Students focused on marine biology and sustainability, and Courville researched biodigestion—how to produce methane out of organic matter. They were also given the option to train for a half-marathon or a four-mile swim along the island’s coast, and Courville chose the latter, for the relative novelty, and he was pleased and a little surprised by his third-place finish. Although he also enjoyed the school’s required 48-hour solo experience on the beach, it’s the PEA community and its diversity that Courville most appreciates, noting that one of his neighbors hails from Korea and a friend is from Zambia.

“All these people from totally different facets of life,” Courville says, “learning to live together, is pretty invaluable, and I’m very grateful to have been here.”

Ty l e r

C o u r v i l l e

The room is quiet,

with a low hum of focused conver-

to Exonians participate in PEA’s first 3-D-printer challenge

By Nicole Pellaton

the designs are at critical junctures.

“Last night we met and realized the design of our skirt didn’t work because it was way too short,” wrote Millie Dunstan, an upper and a member of Team Origami, in a log entry on May 5. The skirt was “designed in a mathematical way which makes it impossible to alter the length without altering the radius of the waist.” The team is determined to “try a new approach—we’re hoping not to have to create a whole new design.”

Dunstan and Thomas Clark, a senior and the acknowledged mathematician of Team Origami, are now in the studio making a physical model for the longer skirt. Clark is sure that with a “little tweaking we can make it work.” They cut paper pattern pieces, lay them out on the table and use an app called Protractor 1st to precisely measure angles. Based on this new model, they will create a muslin pattern.

Team Knit is creating long strips from red yarn. They had been the first to identify, design and print a 3-D component for their garment: a pair of knitting needles they are using to knit the strips, and which will ultimately become a hair decoration for the runway model.

Team Metal is still exploring materials. Will they use sheet metal? Foil? Metallic tape? On this night, they start investigating corrugated foil from baking cups, overlaying curved sections on a dress form like fish scales. They are toying with the idea of a headband with 3-D-printed flower petals.

“Future Beauty” and the Japanese Aesthetic Print to Fit launched in December with a few guiding principles: students work in teams, they select a garment as inspiration for a new design they create, and the final garment must be wearable and include components created on 3-D printers and thoughtfully integrated into the design.

Teams follow a rigorous process including inspiration sketches, design layouts, pattern development, materials analysis, trial print runs, model runway work and product marketing for their design.The work is largely independent, with frequent check-ins with faculty. “We give the students structure and a set of problems,” says Tara Misenheimer, chair of the Art Department.“They find the answers, 30

The Exeter Bulletin

S UMMER 2014

STEVE LEWIS (3)

sation. Students are gathered around worktables, using books, scissors, knitting needles, tape, yarn, fabric, paper and smartphone apps as they work collaboratively. This is the Special Projects Studio in the Mayer Art Center, where in early May three student teams are creating garments, much like on “Project Runway.”The students are participating in a project called Print to Fit, a fashion-plus3-D-printer challenge sponsored by Exeter’s Art Department.

Unlike neighboring studios in the Mayer Art Center—huge light-filled rooms that vault upward two stories to the ceiling—the Special Projects Studio is incubator-like: small and singlestory. Every inch of space is used effectively, with 3-D printers, sewing machines and mannequins close to hand. The walls and whiteboards are covered with project paraphernalia: photos, sketches, fabric, notes and to-do lists.

On the evening of May 6, all three teams are feeling pressure: The final runway showing of the garments is scheduled for May 28, and all

Fit Senior Kathalyn Kinnon (left) wears a fluid look, while upper Millie Dunstan’s dress (top right) demonstrates geometric precision.

Team Metal goes glitzy (lower right).

When the Art Department purchased a small 3-D MakerBot printer last fall, it was intent on using the printer to spur creative problem solving. STEAM proponents—the letters stand for Science,Technology, Engineering, Art and Math—see the integration of the arts as a game changer, introducing creative, right-brain thinking into STEM, and with it, they say, increased opportunities for innovation.

“We decided to test the waters with Print to Fit—which combines math, technology, design and fashion—to see how far the students would take a collaborative STEAM approach,” says Tara Misenheimer,

Team Origami

Clark is tall and thin, with a mop of curly brown hair. “I’d never made a skirt before and didn’t really know the details,” says Clark, who despite his inexperience Andrew Lu ’09, who heads to Facebook developed the original skirt model very quickly using math calculations. “It’s basiin September as a designer after four cally a circle with a pentagon inscribed inside, divided up into several isosceles and years at Rhode Island School of Design, a equilateral triangles.”

STEAM leader, was “blown away” by two Clark is finishing his math career at Exeter with two terms of Multivariable Calculus, and has broad interests including Russian and German, astronomy, and accelaspects of Print to Fit, which he observed erated chemistry. His interest in art peaked last fall when he participated in the first during his reunion visit in the spring: the Art Department-sponsored ART+CITY+FOOD trip to Boston museums, supuse of current technology—the 3-D printer ported by Stephen Rineberg ’55. “I’m having an epiphany,” Clark announced to and 3-D design software—and the opporMisenheimer in the Museum of Fine Arts. “I’m an art person!” tunity to work with outside artists “to Dunstan, on the other hand, has “always been interested in incorporating fashunderstand and experience real-world ion into art.” She has taken art classes in drawing and painting at Exeter and started needs and applications.” a fashion blog—streetsideeditorial.com—with Banerjee. Quick to greet you with a broad smile, she also worked as a model in a runway show of fashions by Jameel Mohammed ’13 last year, is a co-author of the “Trendwatch” fashion-review column in The Exonian, and is a fashion design intern at Nicole Miller this summer.

Banerjee has dark hair and eyes that shine when she’s excited, and has loved fashion since she can remember. She often plays the role of unofficial project manager, making comments that clearly position the team’s direction. Her personal interest is design, and her curricular pursuits run to French, math, science and music exploration—drums, piano, violin and Women’s Chorus.

Diao is tall, speaks with quiet assurance and keeps his focus on the matter at hand. He enjoys math, computer science and robotics, and he’s thinking about majoring in industrial engineering or product design in college. “They’re not so much about fashion, but they require the same sort of value for aesthetics,” he says.

The team has become close while working on the challenge. “We’re fast friends,” Diao says, and their synergy is their strength.

“We’re all very good at different aspects of what needs to get done,” Dunstan adds. “Those skills combined together is what will make our garment be the best it can be.” chair of the Art Department.

32

The Exeter Bulletin

S UMMER 2014

COURTESY OF THE ART DEPARTMENT

Print to Fit STEAMs Ahead

and they present them to a larger group for feedback, interaction and progress.”

For inspiration, students traveled to “Future Beauty,” a contemporary Japanese fashion exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.

Three nascent teams were on hand, each armed with moleskin sketchbooks.

Team Origami, consisting of Clark, Dunstan and Anjali Banerjee, an upper, quickly found a set of Issey Miyake garments, called the “132 5” collection, that fold completely flat into small, precise shapes when not worn. “We like the concept of clothes that fold up. It’s very geometric,” Clark says. All three loved the sculptural aspect of the Japanese clothing, and Clark was particularly struck by the “very modern, very different take on wearing clothes. It was more than just functionality,” he says. “It was also all about aesthetics.”

Team Metal was drawn to a Yohji Yamamoto dress with a flared, striped skirt that seemed to violate every law of physics, and to an accordion-pleated ensemble

by Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons.

The third group, Team Knit, was intrigued by a knit ensemble by Tao Kurihara of Tao Comme des Garçons and by a dress by Jun Takahashi.

“Just watching the students, it became clear that there was a real hunger for this kind of project that falls outside the work of a traditional class,” Misenheimer says of the museum visit. “They love the fashion piece because it’s hip. They’re challenged by the math and science component. And they’re working in small, tight teams on solving a series of problems.”

Over the next few weeks, the teams focused on developing concepts and sketches. As the buzz about Print to Fit spread, a few new students joined, and the teams’ compositions settled down. Conrad Diao ’15 joined Team Origami. Seniors Kathalyn Kinnon and Shelby Knauss represented Team Knit. And Rachael Johnson ’17, Julia Leatham ’16, Emily Palmer ’14 and Kaitlyn Tonra ’16 composed Team Metal.

COURTESY OF THE ART DEPARTMENT

Lowers Julia Leatham (left) and Kaitlyn Tonra put finishing touches on Team Metal’s dress, dubbed “Cupcake.”

From Concept to Rollout By the time winter break arrived, Team Origami was ready to inject its concepts with new insights. Clark traveled home to Tokyo, where he gathered graphics examples, including a map of the Tokyo subway system, which would soon become a part of the team’s design. Banerjee returned home to London, where she is “always surrounded by fashion.” Dunstan spent her break at home in Sao Paulo. And Diao flew home to San Francisco.

During late winter and spring, the teams took advantage of many opportunities to explore and refine their ideas, including the Five-Star Visiting Artists Series, sponsored by the Michael Clark Rockefeller Class of 1956 Visiting Artists Fund, which culminated in a visit by photographer William Wegman, famous for his work with Weimaraners.

Wegman, his wife, Christine Burgin ’78, and their dog Topper met with several classes and had lunch with Print to Fit students. Team members presented their projects and discussed fashion with Wegman.Topper, the most experienced model in the room, happily sniffed food and people, and illustrated what it’s like to be a dog/fashionista as Wegman dressed him in a hat and coat.

In mid-April, the Art Department hosted its first-ever Open Studios, profiling work by 40 students, including the Print to Fit teams. Misenheimer was “astonished by the quality and inventiveness of the work they’re doing—particularly since none of this is for credit, and most of these students have never worked with textiles or 3-D printers before.” More than 400 people attended Open Studios, and the excitement about Print to Fit continued to grow.

Excitement and Entrepreneurship “Empowering students to grow our programming with us is incredibly special, and the momentum is at an all-time high,” says Misenheimer, who feels that Print to Fit has helped the department realign courses and activities with students’ interests.

“These kids worked hours a day because they were excited to be involved, and excited to create,” Art Instructor Steve Lewis observes. That excitement has already had rip-

Five-Star Visiting Artists Series This series brings five professional artists with established exhibition records to classrooms and studios, where they teach Exeter students.

“We’re seeing tremendous student interest in independent, entrepreneurial learning.”

—Dean of Faculty Ron Kim

Team Origami clockwise from top right: Conrad Diao ’15, Millie Dunstan ’15, Anjali Banerjee ’15 and Thomas Clark ’14.

outlet and there’s almost no application.”

“We’re seeing tremendous student interest in independent, entrepreneurial learning,” says Dean of Faculty Ron Kim, citing as indicators Biology 470, in which Exonians work with medical research leaders at Stanford University, and the increasing number of professional internships sponsored by PEA. “Next year we’re launching more courses that will give students independent research and multidisciplinary opportunities, including Epistemology, which combines religion, science and theater, and an advanced history option,” Kim says.

The Runway It’s 5:30 on the evening of May 28. All three teams are in the studio, and tension is in the air. Dunstan and Diao are taking turns at a sewing machine, feverishly working to com-

STEVE LEWIS

ple effects, including record-breaking numbers of national winners in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, an Annual Senior Show described by Lamont Gallery Director Lauren O’Neal as stunning in its diversity of new “types of work and materials investigations,” and increased participation—the 3D Design: Tech + Form + Fashion and Printmaking courses have doubled enrollments for next year.

Perhaps the best gauge of value is from the students. For Banerjee, who says, “I’d be at a STEM-based school if I weren’t at Exeter,” the ability to combine all her interests in realworld problem solving has made the difference. “I’m more interested in general design and not necessarily ‘hardcore’ art.

But, art is important. If you’re in a main sort of STEM-based program, there’s no creative

STEVE LEWIS NICOLE PELLATON

plete a top, one of four they have created. Team Knit was the first to finish its garment earlier in the afternoon when Kinnon and Knauss affixed the last flower—each made of several layers of fabric cut into circles and then crimped in the center—to the strips that compose the floor-length skirt.

At 6:45, Lewis starts taking posed photos of each of the garments. The models—Kinnon, Johnson and Dunstan—are excited, nervous and proud. Kinnon turns quickly in front of the camera, causing her skirt to swing fluidly. Johnson stands imposingly on stiletto heels, wearing a 3-D-printed bracelet, with hair curled to reflect the corrugated texture of the many rows of metal foil in the skirt. Dunstan wears the top, completed just minutes before, which sports a single white 3-D printed button at the back. Her skirt is a masterpiece of panels projecting out from her body with geometric precision.

Print to Fit culminates at 7:15 with a runway walk down the long hallway of the Mayer Art Center, each model surrounded by her teammates. More than 100 people are clustered in the hallway, which displays photographs and materials illustrating the months of work that preceded tonight. “It’s a cosmopolitan, futuristic design,” Clark says as he summarizes the work of Team Origami, the last of the teams to present.

Hugely appreciative applause follows, and the teams visibly relax, happy to mingle with friends and faculty who’ve come to see their creative designs, curious to know more about Print to Fit.

The Magic of 3-D Printing 3-D printers build objects using filament—imagine extremely thin spaghetti laid strand upon strand to build from the bottom up.The results are lightweight and strong—a honeycomb structure created from layers of filament provides stability in the center. A 3-D design file contains the instructions for printing, which can take hours, even for small objects like the button Team Origami decided to produce, with its complex, multi-plane surface.

Since December, the Art Department has received three additional printers—donated by Diao’s parents, by Patrick Deem ’97 and

by Mark Byrne ’81; P’16, P’18—to help ensure students have easy access to this technology.

Millie Dunstan works on Team Origami’s skirt, which includes panels screen-printed with the Tokyo subway map.

See more photos online at www. exeter.edu/ bulletinextras.

SUMMER 2014

The Exeter Bulletin

35

Sports

Hatchie’s Legacy Lives On P RO P O S E D T U R F F I E L D T O B E N A M E D A F T E R P E A ’ S ‘ F AT H E R O F L AC RO S S E ’

By Mike Catano

Norman Hatch (above); PEA’s current synthetic turf field.

N

Hatch’s classroom antics were legendary, and he carried the same was one of those teachers who had a lifelong impact on reputation with the lacrosse teams as he did with his Latin scholmany of his students. Such was the case with William K. ars. If you had business with Mr. Hatch in either area, you took it “Bill” Coors ’34, whose recent gift toward the installation of a very seriously. Known as a tyrant and holy terror in the classroom, synthetic turf field ensures that Hatch’s name and high standards word spread like wildfire that Mr. Hatch’s classes were to be of excellence—on the field and off—will be immortalized at avoided at all cost.”

Nevertheless, Hatch, who began teaching at the Academy in the Academy.

Hatch, who lettered in lacrosse during his undergraduate years 1923, set standards of excellence that pushed Coors and other stuat Harvard, informally brought the sport to the Academy in 1933. dents beyond what they thought achievable.“As much as we were He established it as a varsity sport two years later, and—fittingly— warned to run in the opposite direction…it was Mr. Hatch’s Latin coached the first squad, which trounced Andover, 9-6, in the students who held the highest grade point average for the College Board over any other Latin teacher inaugural E/A lacrosse game. throughout America,” Coors writes.

Coors was not a lacrosse player After a particularly difficult class during his time at Exeter, choosing Support Our Student Athletes for Coors, he had an encounter with crew instead, but he experienced Hatch that changed everything. the full impact of Hatch’s personalThe Norman Hatch Turf Field campaign’s Hatch surprised Coors by placing a ity for two years while seated goal is $1.85 million.To help us meet it hand on his shoulder and inviting around a Harkness table.The Harkand break ground on a facility that will him to a cup of tea in the Grill. A ness method was introduced in significantly enhance the athletic experifriendly 20-minute conversation 1931 when Coors was a lower, ence at PEA, please contact Lynn B. about his life and interests left Coors coinciding with his first year of Knowles, regional director of major gifts, “sitting on top of the world. My Latin. at lknowles@exeter.edu or 603-777-3020. spirits were soaring. … This extraorIn a short memoir about his dinary man…made a concerted beloved teacher, Coors recalls, “Mr. orman Hatch, a Latin instructor at PEA for 40 years,

36

The Exeter Bulletin

S UMMER 2014

Sally Brown Russ ’81 (middle) with her children, Charlie ’16 and Josie ’16.

effort to not only spend time with me; but did so with a positive and affirming manner.”

Coors added, “There was no way I was going to let Mr. Hatch down by scoring low on the College Boards … and I did not.”

Hatch’s influence remained with Coors as he assumed a leadership role in the business community and in life: “I received remarkable service and loyalty from those I had the honor to lead.

I attribute this to making every effort possible to genuinely care about them in the same manner Mr. Hatch displayed when he showed his genuine concern for me.”

Coors summarizes his opinion of Hatch by calling him “the most dynamic and effective teacher I ever had, and perhaps the greatest man I ever knew, because he proved he really cared about me.”

All in the Family “After home games on Saturdays there are tailgates. One weekend I looked around at a bunch of the other parents and realized we all went here … and our kids are on the same team,” says PEA alumna and Senior Associate Director of Admissions Lee Young ’82.

Indeed,Young’s son Jimmy was one of 18 players on the Academy’s 2014 boys and girls varsity lacrosse teams with an Exonian parent, grandparent or even great-grandparent.

View photos of the players and their families at www.exeter.edu/bulletinextras.

Known as the “father of Exeter lacrosse,” “Hatchie” believed that a varsity team was only as good as its material, so he began coaching at the club level after three years as varsity coach, identifying and training the best club players for the varsity team. This became a standard and successful practice through the 1940s and ’50s. At his retirement in 1963, his students established the Norman L. Hatch Teaching Fund in his honor.

It seems fitting that Hatch’s name should grace a facility that will be used by new generations of young athletes striving to excel not only in lacrosse but also in field hockey, soccer, baseball and softball, as well as in other athletic pursuits. Much has changed, however, in the years since Hatch brought his teams onto the field, including the playing surface itself.

“Even Norman might have trouble recognizing the sport that is played today,” says Eric Bergofsky, who coached boys varsity lacrosse from 1978 to 2013. “With incredible, high-tech equipment, explosive male and female athletes from every corner of the country, and play done at breakneck speed on artificial playing surfaces, ‘the fastest game on two feet’ is even faster.

“The new synthetic turf field will make it easier and better for our athletes to practice and compete at this high level, and it will continue to attract some of the best lacrosse talent to Exeter from around the country.”

Girls varsity lacrosse coach Christina Breen welcomes the prospect of a new field for her team:“Girls lacrosse is on the rise, and the opportunity to play on a new field is exciting to us all. The current girls varsity team is keeping Norman Hatch’s legacy alive. More and more girls are committing to play at the Division I and III levels [in college].”

Installed in Phelps Stadium in 2006, PEA’s first synthetic turf field quickly demonstrated its value in extending practice seasons and allowing Exeter’s players and coaches to compete at the highest level.

Between boys and girls sports teams, physical education classes, and club sports, the one synthetic field can no longer adequately support the needs of Exeter’s student athletes. This spring’s athletic season illustrated this, as stubborn winter weather delayed teams’ access to the natural turf fields for weeks, causing several practices and games to be postponed or canceled.The synthetic field had, simultaneously, a high degree of traffic in an effort to provide a safe surface for teams to practice and compete on.

Despite all the changes that have occurred with the Academy’s athletics programs and facilities, Hatch would undoubtedly be right at home with PEA’s athletes’ commitment, excitement and pursuit of excellence. “The girls start the spring season with renewed energy as they walk up and over the bridge toward the turf field,” Breen says. “It’s a time of rejuvenation, teamwork, hope, hard work and of sport in its greatest form.”

When the new Norman Hatch Turf Field hosts its first match, it won’t be hard to imagine the ghostly figure of Hatch prowling the sidelines, exhorting the athletes on to greater effort as he shouts, in a guttural growl, his trademark cry: “Charge!”

Read more about the proposed turf field in the spring 2012 Bulletin: www.exeter.edu/ bulletinextras.

SUMMER 2014

The Exeter Bulletin

37

C

B

A

D

E

Spring Sports F G

H 38

The Exeter Bulletin

I S UMMER 2014

J

PHOTOS BY MIKE CATANO, CONNOR BLOOM ’15 (K, L), ERIC KWON ’14 (D), ILAYDA PIYALE ’15 (D), AND ROBERT BAILEY (E).

Sports

(A) Baseball Record: 6-13

(H) Softball Record: 11-7

Head Coach: Dana Barbin Assistant Coach: Nat Hawkins Captains: Nate Dow ’14, Joey Hebl ’14 MVPs: Joey Hebl, Auggy Roberts ’14

Head Coach: Nancy Thompson Assistant Coach: Liz Hurley Captains:Weilin Chan ’14, Chloe Dubocq ’14, Hannah Myers ’14 MVPs:Weilin Chan, Chloe Dubocq

(B) Boys Crew Record: 8-2

K

Head Coach:Tyler Caldwell Assistant Coach: Greg Spanier Captains: Julian Drury ’14, Sam Helms ’14 MVP: JB Baker ’14 (C) Girls Crew Record: 9-1 NEIRA Championship Winner

Head Coach: Sally Morris Assistant Coach: Becky Moore Captains: Jenny DiPietro ’14, Kerrick Edwards ’14 MVP: Jensen Elliott ’14 (D) Boys and Girls Cycling Record: 1-0 in dual races NERC Championship Winner

L

(J) Girls A Tennis Record: 4-4

Head Coach: Jean Chase Farnum Captain: Meagan Dashcund ’14 MVPs: Michelle Bosche ’16, Dana Tung ’15 (K) Boys Track Record: 10-0 New England Champions

Head Coach: Don Mills Assistant Coaches:Vicki Baggia, Patty Burke Hickey, Steve Wilson Captains: Nik Bergill ’14, Rohan Pavuluri ’14 MVP: Erick Friis ’15 (E) Boys and Girls Golf Record: 6-7

(L) Girls Track Record: 8-1

Head Coach: Bob Bailey Captains: Kyle Alexander ’14, Paul Lei ’15 MVP: Paul Lei

Head Coach: Hilary Coder Assistant Coaches: Mustafa Abdul-Rahim, Toyin Augustus-Ikwuakor, Hobart Hardej, Mark Hiza,Tim Morris, Brandon Newbould, Francis Ronan Captains: Shanae Dixon ’14, Asile Patin ’14 MVP: Asile Patin

Head Coach: Bill Glennon Assistant Coaches: Henry Johnson, Matt Rawson ’08 Captains: David Ayscue ’14, Nick du Pont ’14, Curran Sullivan ’14 MVP: David White ’14 (G) Girls Lacrosse Record: 11-5

Head Coach: Christina Breen Assistant Coach: Porter Hayes Captains: Marley Jenkins ’15, Leo Liautaud ’14, Hannah Wellington ’14 MVP: Marley Jenkins

N

Head Coach: Fred Brussel Captains: Charlie Boyd ’14, Nikhil Raman ’14 MVP: Cameron Gruss ’17

Head Coach: Hilary Coder Assistant Coaches: Mustafa Abdul-Rahim, Toyin Augustus-Ikwuakor, Hobart Hardej, Mark Hiza,Tim Morris, Brandon Newbould, Francis Ronan Captains:Tyler Courville ’14, Luke Gray ’14, John Kennealy ’14, Stewart Scott ’14 MVP: Marcus Polk ’15

(F) Boys Lacrosse Record: 14-6

M

(I) Boys A Tennis Record: 9-4

(M) Boys Volleyball Record: 4-5

Head Coach: Bruce Shang Assistant Coach: Suzie Griffith Captain: Alec Hernandez ’14 MVP: Alec Hernandez (N) Girls Water Polo Record: 12-3 3rd in the New England Championships

Head Coaches: Andrew McTammany ’04, Melissa Pacific Captains: Diane Lee ’14, Hope Logan ’14, Corinne Noonan ’14 MVP: Diane Lee

SUMMER 2014

The Exeter Bulletin

39

Connections

EXONIAN PROFILE

J I M FA R R I N ’ 5 4

Bringing Education Behind Bars

P

42

The Exeter Bulletin

S UMMER 2014

MELODY FARRIN

ersonal development pioneer Earl Nightingale observed that, “The more intensely we feel about an idea or a goal, the more assuredly the idea, buried deep in our subconscious, will direct us along the path to its fulfillment.” Nightingale could easily have been referring to the life of retired businessman and activist Jim Farrin ’54, whose senior college thesis explored the benefits of prisoner rehabilitation over incarceration and who today serves as executive director of the Petey Greene Prisoner Assistance Program, a nonprofit dedicated to changing the state of education in America’s correctional facilities.

A former international marketing executive, Farrin founded the program in 2007 at the request of Princeton classmate Charlie Puttkammer, who had mentored a young Washington, D.C., inmate named Petey Greene and been deeply affected by the relationship they forged. Following Greene’s release from prison, Puttkammer helped him secure a job as a radio talk show host, and several years later, when Greene interviewed Martin Luther King, he called out Puttkammer as a deeply influential figure in his own life. It was a seminal moment for Puttkammer, and years later he called Farrin and asked him to start a program at Princeton that would allow students to travel to prisons in New Jersey and teach inmates.

“When Charlie called, I told him I was too busy with my consulting work to take on the challenge,” Farrin recalls, “but the very next day, my wife spoke to the chaplain from the Albert C.Wagner Youth Correctional Facility, who said that they were desperate for volunteers to work with the inmates.

I couldn’t help but see it as a sign, so I called Charlie back and told him I’d launch the program.”

Farrin contacted Princeton’s Pace Center for Civic Engagement to see if they could help him recruit students. The Center posted an ad and “within five hours, I had two responses,” Farrin recalls. “Before long, 35 students had expressed an interest in getting involved with the program.”

This enthusiasm has never waned.The program currently engages nearly 300 volunteers from Princeton and four other colleges and universities in New Jersey, and the board has just completed a plan that will carry the program to New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.Within five years, Farrin says, the program hopes to be active in at least 100 schools across the nation.

Farrin’s belief in the power of education is unwavering, and both experience and statistics back him up. For example, studies reveal that one semester of tutoring gives inmates a boost, on average, of more than one full reading grade level. And Farrin proudly points out the achievements of former inmate Walter Fortson, who was tutored by Petey Greene volunteers. Following his release, Fortson earned a B.S. at Rutgers University, was named a Truman Scholar and pursued a master’s in criminology at the University of Cambridge. This fall he’ll return to the Petey Greene program as a staffer.

“As an executive, I lived in nine overseas countries over the course of 17 years, and I came to fully appreciate how important it is to get to know people where they are,” Farrin says. He traces this open-mindedness to his time at Exeter, and to the Academy’s philosophy of non sibi. “Exeter’s ethos is very much one of considering other people and their circumstances,” he says. “That outlook became a foundation for me and informed my time as an undergraduate at Princeton and beyond.

“I’ve always believed that life should be one-third education, one-third work and one-third giving back,” Farrin concludes. “Now that I’m in the final third of my life, giving back is my priority, and I feel incredibly fortunate to be doing so through the Petey Greene program. This is the best job I’ve ever had. Once one starts to give back and you see that you’re making a difference, it’s tremendously compelling.”

—Lori Ferguson

Connections

EXONIAN PROFILE

SIBYL DIVER ’92

Curiosity Builds Cross-cultural Ties

JUN KAMATA

S

ibyl Diver’s interest in natural-resource governance stems from multiple tributaries: growing up on a beach, she says, “the natural world was right there.You’d think it wasn’t…then a crab would bite your toe”; Exeter’s Russian courses revealed the excitements of cultural differences; a bird-focused college project made her realize she was more interested in humans; and then there was that serendipitous run-in with a girl carrying a box of dried mushrooms.

The connective undercurrent is reflected in her projects with Canada’s Xaxli’p indigenous community and California’s Karuk tribe, both of whom are challenging state-run norms to increase their control over tribal lands. At the crux of Diver’s work lies a potent mix of environmental sustainability, social justice, community restoration and an approach producing mutually beneficial outcomes: While her research pertains to her doctorate, both projects were established with community participation. “I can’t do research just anywhere,” Diver ’92 says. “It’s not ethical. I only feel comfortable doing research in a place where I’m invited to do so.”

Her Xaxli’p project evolved organically. She met the community in 2001 while working for Pacific Environment (PE), a nonprofit that was linking Russian indigenous community leaders with counterparts in North America. “Within their mission to protect the Pacific Rim environment is a community-based approach,” Diver says.

“Rather than coming in and taking over, we played a facilitating role: getting funding to leaders, helping people to find each other and network, participating as a partner. It was incredibly helpful in learning to communicate across cultures and knowledge systems.”

This was also where her foreign-language choice came into its own. Though she enrolled in Russian at Exeter “just to try it,” that whim became a whirlwind. “I had this incredible experience because of the exchange program,” she says. “Students in Russia came to visit us and we went to visit them—both directions!” Years later, she still marvels at the thought. ” Then I went to college to study human biology and Russian. People laughed and said, ‘Oh, what are you going to do with that?’”

Four years later she was asking herself the same question when an exhaustive search turned up precisely zero teaching jobs. Luckily, she remembered Mushroom Girl, whom Diver had met on a trip to Kamchatka, Russia. (Diver was in Kamchatka to study seagulls. It was there that she found herself more drawn to the people foraging at the city dump than to her feathered subjects.) Mushroom Girl was working for PE and her description of the organization stuck in Diver’s mind; when a teaching job failed to materialize, Diver approached PE, and ended up working there for eight years.

With the Xaxli’p and the Karuk, Diver harnessed her community-based participator y research skills, producing seminal documents of the tribes’ efforts and achievements. “The Xaxli’p took a very proactive role in developing their plans,” she explains.

“They’ve developed the Xaxli’p Community Forest over 20 years of negotiation. It’s a huge learning opportunity to understand how that unfolded, how they incorporated their management values into dominant state law. But I also wanted to develop a research question that benefits them, that had their oversight and their permission.”

The outcome—a 200-page report to the Xaxli’p Community Forest Corporation that eschews academic language for images and interviews—serves Diver’s interests in understanding the community’s experience, but also educates younger generations and, she notes, “honors the wishes, vision and goals of the elders who initiated the project decades ago.” Her work with the Karuk, developed through the Karuk-UC Berkeley Collaborative, generated the Karuk Lands Management Historical Timeline, capturing links among policy decisions, management practices and environmental impacts.

Diver likes to learn “from people, not just from books,” thriving on an immersive approach. Field-based questions, she says, “are where the real conversations happen, because you have something concrete in front of you to figure out: Do you or do you not cut this tree? And why?”

—Daneet Steffens ’82

SUMMER 2014

The Exeter Bulletin

43

Connections

EXONIAN PROFILE

SHINRI KAMEI ’12

Designing a Better Serving Tray

P

roblem-solving comes naturally to Shinri Kamei ’12. A fledgling entrepreneur and engineering major (’16) at Dartmouth College, Kamei and classmate Krystyna Miles have transformed a class project into an award-winning business venture.

Their product is Tray Bien (bien is French for “good” or “well”), an ergonomic serving tray. The idea sprang from an engineering class assignment to design an object that solves a portability or mobility problem. Conversations with waitstaff at a local restaurant presented the students with an intriguing issue: the handling of heavy, unwieldy serving trays, which resulted in server injuries. “We wanted to tackle a simple concept that was also meaningful,” Kamei says.“The standard serving tray is something people haven’t really thought about.”

The students’ product design focused on preventing injuries but also had to address functionality.

For Kamei, it was an opportunity to refine a concept, an experience similar to being editor of Exeter’s yearbook, the PEAN. “Designing and editing PEAN as part of a team set me up for the same level of time commitment to this project and figuring out what works and what doesn’t,” she says. “I knew I’d be comfortable trying different things to reach a solution.” She also drew upon her Harkness experience, discussing various concepts and brainstorming ideas with Miles and other classmates.

Kamei and Miles’ final design is a simple, circular tray with notches around the perimeter to hold glasses and with space for dishes in the center.The benefits: no spilled drinks and a reduced risk of injuries such as tendinitis and carpal tunnel syndrome. Their engineering professor was so impressed that he suggested the women market the product.

Through contacts at Dartmouth, the duo was able to secure a booth at a trade show last spring for wholesale foodservice supplier equipment. Demonstrating their prototypes, and a lot of enthusiasm, Kamei and Miles pre-sold more than 1,000 trays.

The duo was equally successful when they entered Tray Bien (www.itstraybien.com) in the Dartmouth Ventures entrepreneurship competition. Competing against other undergraduates as well as graduate students and Dartmouth employees, they won first place, as well as the People’s Choice Award and $28,000. “We now have access to so many resources,” Kamei says. “People are reaching out to us and we’re utilizing those connections to move the business forward.”

Mentors and supporters are helping Kamei and Miles pursue manufacturers for the trays (they haven’t had to seek venture capital to fund the business) and they’re taking the summer off to work on Tray Bien full-time. Plans are to eventually introduce the trays to the bar and restaurant trade via retail and online sales.

Multitasking and time management are challenges for the women, who are balancing their work on Tray Bien with full course loads (“Exeter prepared me well for that level of rigor,” Kamei notes). The business is a natural outreach of Kamei’s interest in engineering; a summer spent in Rwanda with Dartmouth engineering students and teachers working on a hydropower plant initially piqued her curiosity. “I like how creating something that works correctly is so different from getting the right answer on a problem set,” she says. “Most of the time it’s harder.”

—Debbie Kane

44

The Exeter Bulletin

S UMMER 2014

Connections

VOLUNTEER PROFILE

E X E T E R PA R E N T S A N D A L U M N I O P E N T H E I R H O M E S T O I N T E R N AT I O N A L S T U D E N T S

Doors to Different Cultures

Ed Payne and Tennille Hervieux flanked by some of their Exeter daughters: “Jackie” Kim, Zoey Payne and Ho Shu “Natalie” Ser.

46

The Exeter Bulletin

W

hen Issay Matsumoto, a prep from Belmont, Massachusetts, invited his friend and cross-country teammate Jiro Mizuno to spend Thanksgiving with his family instead of traveling home to Japan for the short break, Issay’s parents were happy to comply. Says Issay’s father, Fumi Matsumoto ’85, “I was an international student at Exeter myself.” He arrived in New Hampshire as a midyear junior and remembers spending his first American Thanksgiving at his dorm adviser’s home in Maine. “I had never been away from home. To find myself in a new country, in the middle of my junior year . . . it was difficult for me. My wife, Kako, came from Japan for grad school in Boston.

She also understands it can be difficult for international students, especially the first year.” They opened their home to Jiro, took him skiing in Vermont and did their best to make him feel at home. “I told Jiro, ‘We’re not a typical Japanese family, but we are probably not really a typical American family, either.’”

S UMMER 2014

The Matsumotos are among a growing number of families with ties to Exeter who volunteer their time and open their homes to international students during the academic year.The Academy’s Office of Multicultural Affairs runs a program to match students with hosts: current parents, alumni and Academy employees. Sometimes a stay is short, as when travel plans do not sync with dorm opening and closing schedules. But when distance and travel costs are too much to cover, students will be paired with families who can provide a home for the whole time school is not in session.When students make the arrangements themselves, the international student coordinator tries to coordinate family introductions and provide contact information for both sets of parents or guardians.

No matter how it starts, the hosted arrangements often spark lasting relationships based on cultural exchange and support.

“Theo was the first one to come home,” says Amy Meyers P’11, as she recalls the roster of Exeter students

Connections

her family has hosted in their Jaffrey, New Hampshire, home. Theo Motzkin ’11, from Jerusalem, came home with Meyers’ son Edward for spring break. Half a dozen other international students have followed him, some of whom continue to spend holidays in Jaffrey, though these days they are on break from college.

Deb and Mike Scheetz P’15 had one daughter at college and a second, Abby, newly enrolled at Exeter when they became a host family to Exeter senior Carla Sehn.The Scheetzes sent a letter of introduction to Carla and Skyped with her parents in Stockholm before the start of school. As the school year progressed, Deb Scheetz says, Sehn became a third daughter who was home for holidays and called when she needed support or a break from campus. She traveled with the family to Cape Cod and Washington, D.C., and they visited her on campus and attended her plays. “We opened up our home but we got an awful lot back,” Deb Scheetz says. They gained a friendship with Carla’s parents, who stayed with the Scheetzes for a week before Carla’s Exeter graduation. The families continue to keep in touch.

Abby Scheetz is living in Ireland this summer and Deb credits her spirit of adventure to the model set by Carla. “Studying abroad may have been something Abby was saving for college but I think she saw Carla’s example and thought, ‘What am I waiting for?’”

Ed Payne P’14 also discovered that hosting students from around the world spurs a two-way exchange. He and his wife, Tennille Hervieux, opened their Milford, Massachusetts, home to Exeter students nearly every holiday and break during the four years Payne’s daughter Zoey was enrolled. “Zoey is a scholarship kid,” he says. “We recognize she couldn’t have had this experience without support.This is one of the ways we can give back to the school.” In a few instances, they have had several students at one time. “We don’t have a ton of extra room but we’ve got plenty of love,” says Hervieux, who encourages guests to each cook a meal from their home country.

They’ve gotten a slew of recipes, from Korean stir-fry to Jamaican jerk chicken, she says, adding that Zoey’s younger brother and sister have benefited from being exposed to other cultures and cuisines. Echoes Ed Payne: “I like to think I’m well read, yet there is a lot about other cultures I’ve learned from having these kids in my home.”

One of those kids, Shaquille Brown ’14, spent her first American Thanksgiving with the Paynes. “When we got to Grandma Jean’s house in Rhode Island,” she says, “I got to help roll the Pillsbury crescents and set the table. I even had my first turkey.” Brown, from Jamaica, has relied on an extended network of support during her time at Exeter: She was formally matched with an Academy “host mother” and, like many of her international counterparts, has been welcomed by numerous families over school breaks. “It helps having someone who will open up their home to you for the weekend and take you away from the rush of Exeter,” she says. “It is nice having someone in the crowd who came to see you and only you. It is nice having new family.”

Beyond gaining exposure to the cultures of other countries, hosting international students can open doors on cultures closer to home.

Says Fumi Matsumoto, “This was the first year for my son at Exeter, and having him bring home a friend let us see into his life at school. It was good for all of us.”

—Karen Stewart

Over four years at Exeter Shaquille Brown ’14, from Jamaica, gathered a support system of Academy families and staff who opened their homes when she came back to campus early and helped ease the transition to New England's weather and food.

"It got me through," she says.

Carla Sehn ’13, from Sweden, traveled with her host family on school vacations.

Here she poses with the National Christmas Tree in Washington, D.C.

SUMMER 2014

The Exeter Bulletin

47

Memorial Minute

Donald Barnard Cole ’49, ’51 (Hon.) D E A N O F F AC U LT Y A N D RO B E RT S H AW W H I T E P RO F E S S O R O F H I S T O RY, E M E R I T U S ( 1 9 2 2 – 2 0 1 3 )

B

110

The Exeter Bulletin

S UMMER 2014

ART DURITY

orn on March 31, 1922, in Lawrence, Massachusetts, that being central to maintaining Exeter’s standing in the wider acaDonald Barnard Cole attended local schools, graduating demic community.As reader of AP exams at the infancy of that profrom Phillips Andover and then Harvard in 1944—a col- gram, and as History Department chair and dean of faculty, Don lege career shortened by enlistment in the Navy, where Don acted on that belief, seeking out teachers with proven ability and began his teaching career. As a lieutenant aboard an attack trans- the potential to become even better at their craft. port supporting troops landing at He was neither smug nor comOkinawa and Guam, Don taught placent, however; he never believed American history to sailors earning he had discovered the secret of their high school diplomas.

Harkness teaching. He applauded Returning to Harvard after the the practice of collaboration with war, Don earned his M.A. and later, other teachers, which, though while teaching at Exeter, his Ph.D., “unnerving,” challenged him to resulting in his first book, Immigrant consider new ideas. Eager to learn City, about his native Lawrence. from his colleagues, no one did In 1947, when Don joined the more than Don to foster the lively Academy’s History Department, its sharing of methods and materials members included Phillips Wilson, within the department. whose daughter, Susan—better At the same time, no one was known as Tootie—immediately more admired as a mentor or source attracted Don’s attention and, in just of inspiration. Though he believed two years, his marriage proposal.The Exeter’s teaching had improved 66-year partnership that followed during his years at the Academy, gave to Exeter a couple dedicated to upon retirement he lamented the school and community. Their four lack of time afforded to faculty for children all attended the Academy: what he considered most imporDean of Faculty Kathleen Curwen Doug graduated in 1970, Bob in ’72, tant: introspection. By that he with Donald Cole in 2009.

Dan in ’75 and Susie in ’77. meant, in his own words, “…the Devotion to the classroom process of learning. To live and to remained at the center of Don’s service to the Academy and he was learn we need time alone…to think and imagine and reach good at it, confirmed by awards for outstanding teaching from Yale toward genius or at least something beyond mediocrity.” In a and the New England History Teachers Association. Don was an school that boasts of excellence, he said, “that’s not a bad idea.” unapologetic champion of rigorous scholarship, based on traditional New England values—hard work, discipline and high stan- But to Don, academic excellence demanded more than superidards—which students in his classroom knew well. He also had an or instructors and reliance on old virtues. Rather, tradition, in creold-fashioned view of history, which he saw as stories through ative tension with change and innovation, would best serve Exeter which his students could learn about character—of the people students, and to Don the responsibility for striking the right balthey studied and potentially their own. History became for them a ance lay with the faculty. Thus he introduced a course in East medium through which they learned how ideas and values shaped Asian history at Exeter, the first of its kind in American secondary a society and their own responsibility, and, as Don put it in a letter schools. In the late 1960s he created a course in the history of to the principal, to “use their minds in a rational way to solve the Black America, another first. When the new curriculum of the problems of the world.” Exeter’s founding ideals of “goodness and mid-1980s emerged, Don supported its adoption and then chaired the Implementation Committee, embracing the proposed knowledge” and non sibi were at the heart of Don’s teaching.

While excellence in the classroom was to Don the essential task changes and urging colleagues to do the same. And when Don of any instructor, he believed that, in a school such as Exeter, a Cole, from his familiar front-row seat in the Elting Room, urged teacher’s responsibilities extended further. Writing to Academy the faculty to take up a cause, such being the respect he comPrincipal Richard Day when serving as visiting professor at UCLA, manded from colleagues, it meant the cause was pretty much won.

Just as curricular change would invigorate the school, so too, in Don argued for ambitious recruitment of good teachers/scholars,

Don’s view, would a different student body. In lamenting the lack of diversity among his UCLA students, Don, in writing back to Exeter, applauded the Academy’s outreach to African-American students, urging an even wider net to bring other underrepresented groups to the table. Later, he served on the Trustee/Faculty/Student Committee that recommended the Academy admit girls, and, when the Trustees accepted the recommendation, he chaired the Coeducation Committee that sought to ease Exeter through that transition. As dean of faculty in those early years of coeducation, Don welcomed the voice of women in positions of leadership, a vital aid in raising their stature in the community.

Thus it could be said that Don Cole was midwife to the three fundamental changes at Exeter in the last half of the 20th century: coeducation, racial and ethnic diversity of the student body, and the new curriculum.

Not only did Don preach the value of hard work to his students, he practiced it. How else could he, while teaching full-time at the Academy, author and edit several books on American history, thereby becoming one of the few secondary school teachers in the country to gain a national reputation. Books on Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, the American party system, some nine in all, the last completed at age 87, established him, as one reviewer noted, as “one of the…foremost authorities on the era.” Such ongoing scholarship, in Don’s view, complemented his work in the classroom and made him a better teacher, as it kept him attuned to the challenges of historical research facing his own students. Moreover, Don was a first-rate editor, his talents sought by Exeter colleagues, former students and other distinguished historians who valued his ability to shape language and remove clutter in the service of the short, powerful sentence.

Such scholarship led to his appointment to the Visiting Committee to the History Department at Harvard and as chair of the Committee on Teaching in Secondary Schools of the American Historical Society, as well as membership on historical associations in New Hampshire, New England and the nation.Though he was comfortable among the country’s leading historians at the annual meetings of these associations, Don’s teaching reached ordinary citizens eager to learn more about America’s story, or China’s, or whatever he talked about. Traveling through New England and beyond, Don compiled a large file of press clippings reporting on his itinerant classroom, his lessons celebrating the virtues of learning about the past and the duty of civic engagement.

At Exeter his classroom extended over the campus: to Dutch House, Wentworth, Bancroft and Langdell halls, where, for 17 years, he and Tootie looked after generations of Exeter boys; to the lacrosse and football fields, where he coached for years at the club and junior varsity and varsity levels; and to the debate room, where he nurtured the art of cogent argument.

Serious as he could be about his teaching, Don’s wit was well known to students and colleagues. One student recalled his mounting the Harkness table to demonstrate, in his Japanese history class, the proper method of committing hara-kiri. “First,” he said, “you insert the knife into your belly and cut down.” Pausing, Don turned to the class for an aside: “At this point you are pretty well committed.” Or, imagine the momentary alarm of Dudley and Marcia Taft, who lived with the Coles in Dutch House,

when Don agreed to watch their two sons while they went for a night out. “In a case of a fire,” Don asked, “which of the boys would you like us to save first?”

Don’s loyalties led beyond school to the community, particularly to Exeter’s Congregational Church, where he served for many years as a deacon. Here too his reforming impulses were felt, as he argued successfully for the inclusion of women on its governing boards. When not immersed in school and town matters, for 55 years Don, Tootie and their children escaped to Lake

...no one was more admired as a mentor or source of inspiration.

Wentworth to enjoy summer activities—the most important being, surely, following the fortunes of the Boston Red Sox. Their fate, to both Don and Tootie, rivaled in importance that of the Democratic Party, both being to all Coles among the most important of American institutions.

For all his accomplishments, Don was not without his limita-

tions. Unlike many other colleagues who, like good New Englanders, tended woodlots with ax and saw or sweated through other robust outdoor activity, Don happily left most all chores involving any manner of tools, gardening and otherwise, to Tootie. Nor did Don inspire confidence when driving a car— enjoying, while behind the wheel, a good conversation with his passengers, face-to-face, including the same with those riding in the backseat.

For 44 years Don instructed Exeter students, faculty colleagues and school administrators. He believed deeply in the power of learning to shape healthy societies. Optimistic by nature, Don urged us all to look to the past for perspective and guidance. There we would find, he counseled, reassurance that, difficult as the present seemed to be, our challenges were not unique, and that with good will and a spirit of compromise, with hard work and compassion, we would prevail. It was a good lesson, then and now. Don commented, at the end of his career, that Exeter was different than when he came—different and better.

He did so much to make it so, and for that and the gift of his friendship, we are grateful.

This Memorial Minute was written by Jack Herney ’46, ’69, ’71, ’74, ’92, ’95 (Hon.), chairperson; David Arnold ’83 (Hon.); Henry F. Bedford ’48; Andrew Hertig ’57; ’31, ’69 (Hon.); Bruce Pruitt; and Jacquelyn Thomas ’69 (Hon.), and was presented at faculty meeting on April 2, 2014.

SUMMER 2014

The Exeter Bulletin

111

Finis Origine Pendet

An Unforgettable Chicken Pot Pie

By Charles W. McCormack ’65

M

y memories flooded back, triggered by

112

The Exeter Bulletin

S UMMER 2014

instead of one and so was paid about $100 per term.

The new dorm head of McConnell South offered me the job. It was a tough decision to leave Dunbar after three years, but the money made the difference.

I remember the president of our local bank in St. George, Mr. Utsey, who had written one of my recommendations for PEA. Before each of my four years at Exeter he asked me to come by and see him.

He would slip me a twenty—a huge amount for me back then.

The most vivid and lasting money memory I have is from a blind date during prep year. In late fall, a lower I knew fixed me up with a “townie” to go to the Andover football game.This was not done totally out of concern for my social well-being. His date’s mother wouldn’t allow her to go without a friend.

I thought our day was over when the final whistle blew. But my friend insisted we all go to dinner at Kurtz’s Diner. I had $2.50 in my pocket, and that was supposed to last me a while. But I couldn’t say no, especially as I liked my date. She was cute, smart and a jock to boot. I had unspoken thoughts of seeing her again, especially since she went to the same church, and I wasn’t about to ruin that chance over a few bucks.

I was nearing panic as we approached Kurtz’s on Water Street. My solution was twofold: claim I wasn’t hungry so I could pay for my date’s meal (de rigueur for a Son of the South), and hope she wouldn’t order a steak.

To my everlasting gratitude, she ordered the cheapest meal on the menu: chicken pot pie, 90 cents. I could eat the same and still leave a tip. Little did I know that this was the beginning of a friendship and dating relationship that would last for my four years at Exeter.

Once at college, Jane and I drifted apart. Each of us married, had families and later divorced.

I never forgot that 90-cent meal at Kurtz’s, though. About nine years ago, I contacted an old friend and PEA classmate whose wife had been a college classmate of Jane’s. I learned Jane was single and still living in New Hampshire. So some 40 years after last seeing each other, we reconnected, and a year later I married her.

Kurtz’s Diner is no longer. But Jane makes a wicked good chicken pot pie.

FRED CARLSON

Charles McCormack and Jane Thurston

an innocuous question from a fellow alumnus.

“What do you remember about day-to-day [money] spent when you were at the Academy?”

It was not the first time a query in PEA Friends, a Facebook group formed by Will Hunter ’71, had unleashed a torrent of responses.

Alumni connect in many ways.

PEA Friends includes some 200 graduates from the decade starting in the mid1960s. True to the freewheeling spirit of that era, the group has tackled issues from politics to baseball, economics to travel, education policy to the tactile pleasures of the typewriter.

The loose change most of us carried in our pockets those days now seems insignificant. But not so the memories that came rushing forth on Facebook from fellow alumni of that period. How much allowance, if any, did you have? What did you buy at the bookstore? Did you work a scholarship job?

How much did you pay for a peanut-between, a garbo-raz or a dropped-on-dark served by Bucky Bruce in the Grill?

I never felt badly about not having much money at Exeter. As a full scholarship boy from the rural South, I had little disposable income. The $3 to $5 that arrived every few weeks in the mail came from my mom, my aunt or my grandmother, who saved change in her tin clown dime bank—press the lever and the clown’s tongue accepted the dime.That was it from home. I still have the tin bank.

As one of “Hammy’s boys,” I was looked after in many ways by Hammy Bissell ’29 and the faculty.

Mr. Funkhouser, my math teacher during lower year, employed me to help Mrs. Funkhouser in their garden for some 50 cents an hour. Senior year, Hammy offered me the most lucrative paid job available: selling bus tickets to Boston for the Marshall Bus Company before school breaks and on weekends.

Senior year I was offered a proctor position in Dunbar, where I had lived for three years. But the newly constructed McConnell Hall was opening, and the proctor there worked several nights a week