The Avonian — Spring 2015

SPRING 2015

John Gardner 40 Years at Avon Old Farms School

THE VALUE OF A LIBERAL ARTS EDUCATION AVON WINS THE GREEN CUP CHALLENGE—AGAIN! CATCHING UP WITH BRIAN CONROY ’82

AVON OLD FARMS SCHOOL Established 1927 Headmaster Kenneth H. LaRocque

Associate Headmaster John T. Gardner

Editor Morgan C. Cugell

Director of Development Christopher K. Hampton ’79, Ed.D.

Designer 2k Design www.2kDesign.com

Alumni Notes Lizabeth Abramson

Photographers Seshu Badrinath Michael Dembicer Stephen Guglielmo ’15 Kate McSpadden

Printer Benchemark Printing, Inc., Schenectady, NY.

Contributors Thanks to everyone who contributed to this magazine. Special thanks to Liz Abramson, Seshu Badrinath, Cheryl Benoit, Anne Black, Brad Carpenter, Michael Dembicer, Sue Evans, John Gardner, Susan Haile, Chris Hampton, Carol Ketcham, Ken LaRocque, Cristina Pinton, and Brendon Welker.

The Avonian is published for the alumni, parents, and friends of Avon Old Farms School. It is distributed to approximately 8,000 readers.

All rights reserved.

Avon Old Farms School 500 Old Farms Road Avon, CT 06001 www.avonoldfarms.com (860) 404-4100

Admissions (800) 464-2866 admissions@avonoldfarms.com

Alumni We enjoy hearing from you!

Please send us your latest news and notes: Email: abramsonl@avonoldfarms.com Phone: (860) 404-4268 Fax: (860) 404-4631

Email Members of the administration and faculty can be emailed by using the following formula: last name + first initial @avonoldfarms.com. The directory on the school website also includes email links.

Avon Old Farms School admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, disabilities, or sexual orientation in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school administered programs.

FROM THE EDITOR…

FEATURES

14 John Gardner: 40 Years at Avon Old Farms School

by Morgan C. Cugell 20 Scholarship: The Value of a Liberal Arts Education

by Morgan C. Cugell

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60 The Last Word

by Mike Dietrick ’15 SPOTLIGHTS

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Academic Spotlight: Woodworking

by Morgan C. Cugell

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Featured Artist: Jackie Chen ’15

by Morgan C. Cugell

16 Athletic Spotlight: Matt Ruhlig ’15

by Morgan C. Cugell 32 Student Spotlight: Tamas Takata ’15

by Morgan C. Cugell

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34 Faculty Focus: Kate Barzun

by Morgan C. Cugell 40 Alumni Spotlight: Brian Conroy ’82

by Susan Haile DEPARTMENTS

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2 Headmaster 4 Village Green 18 Athletics 38 The Elephant Remembers 40 Alumni 44 Class Notes Cover photo: Coach Gardner on ice in the Jennings Fairchild Rink.

Photo by Seshu Badrinath.

Find past issues of The Avonian online at www.avonoldfarms.com/avonian

Are you following us? /AvonOldFarms @AvonOldFarms

Dear Readers, Happy spring! We’ve made it through one of the coldest and snowiest winters in Connecticut history, and our students were thrilled to spend the last days of school enjoying the outdoors—grilling their dinners, competing on the athletic fields (or in a lively game or two of stickball), fishing at Beaver Pond, or just catching up on some reading on a bench on the Village Green.

Many of our faculty members, too, brought their students into the outdoor classroom, making the environment a part of the unrivaled liberal arts educational experience that Avon offers students. Our teachers, courses, and programs strive to provide students with a sense of wonder about the world around them; with a true learning experience that enables them to connect and communicate. In this issue, you’ll get a look at many of the ways we’re achieving that—and you’ll hear about the myriad values of the liberal arts education from English Department Chair Brad Carpenter. Faculty focus Kate Barzun, a product of private, liberal arts education herself, shares her own beliefs about what Avon is doing right.

Also in this issue, catch up with John Gardner, who reflects on 40 years of teaching and coaching at Avon Old Farms, and get to know Brian Conroy ’82, our most recent chair of the Board of Directors.

Enjoy the summer, and be on the lookout for The Village Green—and coverage of Reunion, Commencement, and much more from this spring— arriving in mailboxes in late August.

As always, I welcome your feedback.

Aspirando et perseverando, Morgan C. Cugell cugellm@avonoldfarms.com 860-404-4239

/AvonOldFarmsSchool Search Group: Avon Old Farms School Alumni Association

Cert no. SW-COC-002935

From the Headmaster

by Kenneth H. LaRocque

Greetings,

As I finish my 17th year as headmaster of Avon Old Farms School and reflect on my experiences, it is clear that the range of responsibilities that heads of independent boarding schools shoulder has been broadening consistently over time.

Because of steadily increasing demands on us, especially in areas of institutional advancement including development, marketing, public relations, and technology, the criticality of our relationship with the chair of our Board of Directors or trustees has increased proportionately with the expansion of our duties. Luckily, I have enjoyed the opportunity to work with several outstanding board chairs during my tenure as headmaster, including Peter Aron ’65, Rolf Olson ’59, Dean Graham ’84, and, most recently, Brian Conroy ’82. My success as headmaster and the success enjoyed by Avon Old Farms over the past 17 years have been due, in large part, to the leadership of these individuals. Not only have they effectively led Avon’s

governance team, but they have also served as important mentors and counselors to me in my far-ranging duties. I certainly look forward to partnering with Marty Cole P’04, our newest board chair, in the coming years, as we strive to help Avon fulfill its mission and prosper in all ways.

I have known Brian Conroy since the fall of 1981, when he served as the Warden of his class, and was, without question, the leader of his class and the student leader of the school. No Warden since Brian surpasses him in his love for Old Farms, his belief in our mission, or in his leadership. I can say the same for Brian as the chairman of our Board of Directors. I have always worked closely with him during his service on our Board of Directors, but never more intimately than during his leadership as our chairman. Despite significant professional responsibilities at Fidelity as well as personal responsibilities to his family, Brian always found time

“To develop a complete mind: Study the science of art; study the art of science. Learn how to see.

Realize that everything connects to everything else.”

-LEONARDO DA VINCI

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FRO M THE HE ADMAS TE R

to completely fulfill his leadership role as our board chairman.

Avon Old Farms has flourished under Brian’s guidance, and with his leadership we have just completed a strategic plan that will guide Avon’s future for the next several years.

Brian served as the chairman of our Board of Directors for four years, from October of 2011 through April of 2015.

His plan to lead our board for five years changed because of his promotion to the position of president of financial services at Fidelity Worldwide Investment and necessary relocation to London. While Brian will continue to serve as a director on our board, it would be impossible for him to continue effectively serving as our board chairman. On behalf of our entire school family, I thank Brian sincerely for his leadership, commitment, and service over the past several years.

This has been a year of accomplishment and success at Avon, and I would be remiss not to comment on the milestone that one of Avon’s icons celebrated this year. John Gardner completed his 40th year serving our students and school, and, along the way was able to earn his 700th victory as our varsity hockey coach, along with his 708th victory, which allowed him to surpass Ken Martin of the Belmont Hill School, and become the winningest coach in the history of New England independent school hockey. Of course, in his 40 years of service, John has served effectively as a mathematics teacher, athletic director, associate headmaster, baseball and football coach, advisor, and mentor to thousands of young men. John knows teenage boys and how best to inspire them and to connect with them. He is the quintessential school master and

it has been an honor working with him over the decades.

At this time when the calls for more and more STEM focus in our schools abound, especially in boys’ schools, I acknowledge the important need for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics courses as a critical component of a liberal arts education. However, I also caution schools not to abandon the other aspects of a true liberal arts education, including studying the humanities, world languages and cultures, and history. Certainly Leonardo da Vinci would agree with me! By being able to look at the world through the eyes of artists, scientists, historians, mathematicians, poets, and myriad other lenses, our students will develop an appreciation and understanding of our core value of scholarship. Through engaging fully with our liberal arts program of study at Avon, our students begin to understand themselves and the world around them. It is our hope that they will develop a sense of wonder about our world and be encouraged to become life-long learners, constantly expanding their horizons, exploring the world, and appreciating its wonders.

We’d like to hear from you!

Do you have any special Avon anecdotes?

Memories of your time at the Farm?

Please send in any thoughts on your Avon experience for possible inclusion in future publications.

The Avonian Spring 2015

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Avon Remembers Veterans Day 2014

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n Veterans Day, November 11, the Avon Old Farms School community came together to honor Class of 2002 alumnus Capt. Andrew Pedersen-Keel. “PK,” as he was known by teachers, friends, and family, was killed in action while serving as a member of the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) during his deployment in Afghanistan in March of 2013.

Headmaster Ken LaRocque began the ceremony, recognizing the importance of the event and the special significance of Veterans Day. The school celebrated and remembered those who have served our country in the Armed Forces, including Mr. Ken Watson ’55 and other retired veterans from Avon VFW Post 3272, who distributed 500 poppies to members of the student body, faculty, and guests.

Dean Henry E. Flanagan Jr., currently in his 45th year of service with the U.S. Coast Guard, discussed the important history of Veterans Day, and the long

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tradition of presidential support for legalizing the holiday in this country. Dr. Flanagan also spoke about the symbolism of the red poppy, which grew strong, bold, and beautiful among the bloodied battlefields during World War I—beauty that prevailed against all odds, honoring those who had risked or given their own lives so that we might have a future.

Although this extraordinary young man was taken far too soon, PK’s short life was spent working hard and giving back to his community, modeling the core values he learned at Avon. Head Football Coach Emeritus Kevin Driscoll ’72, who coached and mentored PK through all four of his years as an Avon student, spoke next about PK’s life as a young boy who became a true Man of Avon. Mr. Driscoll described PK as a quintessential Avonian: he was a four-year Dean’s List student, a two-year monitor, a tri-varsity athlete, the editor-in-chief of the Avon

Record, and a member of several clubs. He was the “focal point” of a very successful varsity football team in 2001, a competitive athlete and student who embodied courage, respect, and honor. Mr. Driscoll urged students to follow PK’s lead and become completely involved in their school—as a student, as an athlete, and as a person.

“He was the finest example of what all Men of Avon strive to be,” explained Mr. Driscoll. “Few of us will lead a better life.”

PK entered the United States Military Academy at West Point following his 2002 graduation from Avon Old Farms. This special event included Avon alumni and current West Point Cadets Jason Lally ’11, Will White ’13, and Wilson Meyer ’13. On behalf of his peers, Wilson spoke to the community about his experiences during West Point’s Cadet Field Training, during which yearlings compete for the honor

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Three-peat!

Green Cup Challenge

W of earning the coveted Captain Andrew Pedersen-Keel Memorial Award. This award is given to the platoon leader who best exemplifies Army values and the concept of officership during cadet summer training known as Task Force Pedersen-Keel.

Guests then watched a moving video of pictures from PK’s life. Mr. LaRocque noted that one chair—graced

with the American flag and a dress cap—was left empty on stage, because PK was with Avon in spirit, forever.

All veterans and parents of veterans were asked to stand to be recognized for their service, before Mr. LaRocque presented PK’s parents with a replica of the plaque that hangs in Digoenes Dormitory room 301—PK’s head monitor dorm room his senior year—which was dedicated and named in his memory. The emotional ceremony concluded with a performance of the national anthem from the Riddlers, before veterans and guests joined PK’s family for breakfast in the Commons Room.

We are forever grateful to the brave men and women who have protected our country, and will always remember the life of an extraordinary Avonian, Capt. Andrew Pedersen-Keel ’02, who died doing what he loved: serving the United States of America.

e are the champions...again!

We are thrilled to announce that we have been named champions of the Green Cup Challenge for an unprecedented third time! The Challenge is a four-week competition among schools around the world to reduce energy consumption, and Avon is the ONLY school to have won this competition twice—and now we’ve added a third historic title. Let’s hear it for Avon’s GREEN TEAM! This is the sixth consecutive year that Avon has participated in the national Green Cup Energy Challenge, and our second win in two years. Last year, we placed number one in the New England Boarding School Division by reducing our energy consumption by 16.8 percent over the course of the Challenge. “It is very difficult to win the contest two years in a row, because your numbers are compared to a baseline from the previous three years,” explains Sustainability Director Wendy Burki.

This year, we finished with an astonishing 38.7 percent energy reduction, and captured the title for the third time, adding to our 2010 and 2014 victories. This year, we ranked number one in the New England Boarding School division and also number one nationally.

“On the surface it seems almost unrealistic, but we did our checks and balances,” explains Mrs. Burki.

“After reviewing our records, Facilities Director Ted Brennan pointed out that our co-generator, located in the basement of Riddle Refectory, was not running last year. It has been up and running successfully since its repair in the spring of 2014.”

The co-generator has a 85 kW natural gas-fired engine and a 30-ton absorption chiller. Electricity is produced by the engine generator and

fed into the campus electrical system and has the ability to feed any of the loads served by the main switchgear in the student center. The co-generator produces sustainable electricity, reducing the amount we have to purchase.

The Environmental Club and Mrs. Burki took many steps to help ensure this tremendous accomplishment for Avon.

During the course of the contest, club members increased energy conservation signage around campus, encouraging their peers and the faculty and staff to turn off lights, unnecessary electronics, and power strips. Both WAOF and individual students created videos to encourage students and staff to reduce energy consumption. Additionally, we featured a rotating slideshow in the Ordway Science

and Technology Center and in Riddle Refectory; it explained the Green Cup Challenge and what students could do to save energy. Finally, to help motivate students to use less electricity, we held an internal competition among the dormitories. Once a week, Environmental Club students conducted spontaneous dorm raids. They counted the number of lights and electronics left on at any given time and reported the results.

Prizes were awarded to the weekly dorm winners on Monday morning each week, with Eagle Dormitory ultimately winning the overall Dorm Raid contest—and a celebratory pizza party.

Congratulations, again, to the many students, faculty members, and staff who dedicated much time and effort to capture this historic third title!

The TheAvonian Avonian Spring 2015 2010

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Academic Spotlight: Woodworking

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he woodworking program at Avon Old Farms School is just one of many unique facets of our comprehensive visual arts program. In recent years, the program has developed from the ground up since the new shop was built in 2005.

The fully equipped woodworking shop is a state-of-the-art facility with both hand tools and power equipment.

The digital arts computer lab gives students access to Adobe Creative Suite 3, AutoCAD, and Google SketchUp; a 24” wide-format ink-jet plotter; an Epson color image, negative, and slide scanner; and an eight-color Epson ink-jet printer.

Through the woodworking courses—levels one, two, and advanced— students use hand and power tools to take rough lumber, some of which is harvested from our own forest and milled on our portable sawmill, and turn it into finished wood to make

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projects. Students study the various steps involved in the development of a design, from conceptualization to presentation. They improve their ability to communicate graphically by studying drafting (both manual and computer-aided), building scale models, and building mockups. Introductory courses focus on knowledge of wood, tools, and techniques, and an understanding of the process, slowly introducing beginner projects, while the more advanced courses allow students to work independently to create a piece of furniture of their own design. Students also have the opportunity to explore woodturning, parquetry, marquetry, and solid and veneer construction techniques. Past projects have included cutting boards, picture frames, cabinets, shelves, chairs, tables, boxes of different sorts, bowls, vases, and hollow vessels turned on the

lathe. Several woodworking students in recent years have been recognized with awards in the Scholastic Art Awards competition.

James Kassel runs the program, the only woodworking teacher and formerly Avon’s head of carpentry.

James’s expertise has transformed the program—and not only in the classroom. He is an advisor to Avon’s oldest club, the Nimrod Club, and was essential, from start to finish, in the planning, designing, and building of the new Nimrod Pavilion with his own hands. And on the stage of the Adams Theater, he serves as master carpenter for the Old Farms Theater Company, supervising tech crew, designing and building sets, and developing lighting and sound for the productions.

Next time you’re on campus, be sure to stop by the shop for a look at the latest in woodworking innovation!

Village Green Village Green

Featured Artist Jackie Chen ’15

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ackie Chen ’15, a four-year student from Beijing, China, traveled farther than many of his peers to get to Avon Old Farms School. Once he arrived, he hit the art studio—and hasn’t left. As one of the most prominent and talented artists in the student body, Jackie’s work has been featured all over campus: in the newspaper, the yearbook, online, and even as a winner of the annual holiday card design contest. He has earned several school prizes for his work, including both the architecture and A.P. Studio Art book prizes. He also earned the Trinity Book Prize, awarded to a junior who has made significant contributions to campus life.

Jackie’s presence extends well beyond Avon Old Farms; he’s garnered both state and national recognition from the Scholastic Art Awards. At the state level, he earned a Silver Key earlier this year for his submission in drawing, and in 2014, earned a Gold Key as well as an Honorable Mention. His Gold Key submission in 2014, a black and white self-portrait entitled “In the Shadow I am also Me,” went on to be honored with a Gold Medal at the National Scholastic Art Awards. As a gold medalist, Jackie’s drawing was on exhibit at the Parsons School of Design, and he recorded both audio and video about his work, which was showcased online. The National Scholastic Art and Writing Awards are the highest in the country for the visual arts, and in 2014 received more than 255,000 submissions, with only one percent of applicants receiving national recognition. Jackie was the only student from Connecticut to win at the national level, and it was a particularly proud moment for him: “The award was not only a recognition of my artistic ability,” he observes, “but for me, because the drawing so closely reflected my characteristics, it felt like a recognition of my identity. The award gave me confidence and motivation to pursue a career in the arts.”

Jackie’s current career aspiration is to become an architect—a goal he can

attribute entirely to Avon Old Farms.

“In fact, I did not take any art classes my freshman year,” he recalls. “Avon Old Farms’ diverse community and unique campus have unleashed some of my unknown potential. During my freshman year, I often spent weekends drawing and relaxing in the art studio.

Despite not taking any art classes that year, I was invited to participate in the annual art trip. Afterwards, I immediately decided to study studio art, and thus began my experiment with artistic expression. I never knew art could be so expressive and fresh.

“I live inside of my artwork,” Jackie explains. “I dip my brush in the palate of my soul and paint my nature into pictures.”

Jackie hopes to one day design buildings that will change the way people live and introduce a healthier, more interactive and eco-friendly lifestyle to China. “But I also want to be a part of the new generation of Chinese architects who are bridging the gap between traditional culture

and modern architecture,” he states.

It’s no surprise that Jackie serves as president of the Art Club on campus.

He is also a student assistant for the Communications Department, a co-founder and the vice president of the Red Cross Club, a monitor in Pelican Dormitory, and a member of the Environmental Club. Also an outstanding scholar and Headmaster’s List student, he has earned both the physics and calculus book prizes.

Jackie notes that he does not have a favorite medium in which to work, but instead tries to experiment with everything available to him to determine what is best to express his emotion.

“Doing art is a way for me to reflect on myself,” he comments. “By doing art, I have found a balanced attitude toward life for now, but I understand that I must constantly adjust my perspectives and attitudes in the future as I continue to slowly paint the canvas of my life.

“My journey is well on its way, and I’ve only just dipped my brush in the paint.”

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A Day in the Life…

At Riddle Refectory

A Day in the Life…

At Riddle Refectory

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erving the entire community —well over 500 people: students, faculty members, and staff—three full-service meals every day (two on Sundays) keeps the great hall busy and full almost all day long. And there’s even more going on behind the scenes.

The first members of the morning crew arrive around 4:30 a.m. to get going for the day—and the last members of the evening crew depart at 7:30 at night. Executive Chef Hector Vazquez, alongside Director of Dining Services Jim Kirschner and their entire staff, work hard to make sure that the Refectory isn’t just where students go to eat—it’s where they feel at home.

“Boarding school is special,” notes Hector. “We’re the students’ family. We know their names, and they know us.

We have a bond.”

That connection extends beyond smiling faces and full bellies; in fact,

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the food services staff encourages the students and faculty members to speak up and give feedback, so they can change and improve their daily offerings. They also enjoy working one-on-one to meet special requests and dietary restriction needs. For example, the team meets regularly with students who have gluten and high fructose corn syrup restrictions, to create customized menu options that best meet their nutritional needs.

Gluten-free bread and pasta are always available, and whenever a breaded meat is served, an un-breaded option is served, as well. Vegetarian options are bountiful every day, from homemade vegetable flat breads to a fully stocked salad bar with vegetables and proteins including beans, cheeses, yogurts, and tofu.

Dedication to going the extra mile can be seen all over the Refectory, such as in the deli line, one of the most popular spots at lunchtime: all the meats, including turkey, ham, and roast beef, are

roasted in our own kitchen. Healthy, lean protein is the focus of most meals, and batch cooking—continually cooking new food in large batches every 20 minutes or so—ensures that food is fresh, hot, and ready throughout the meal. Baked goods are prepared from scratch every single day.

It may be more labor and time intensive to serve food that way—cooking in mass quantities often relies on heat lamps and frozen food—but it’s a fresh way of thinking that Hector and his team have brought to campus to encourage healthy eating.

“We want to start from the most raw state possible,” explains Hector. “We want the least outside influence on the food; the fewest hands possible.”

To achieve this goal, the staff relies on purchasing fresh local produce throughout the year—including herbs from their own garden behind the kitchen—to cut down on the need for frozen food. They also try to work a

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“We’re the students’ family. We know their names, and they know us. We have a bond.”

for students, and few steps ahead, muses that multiple if possible, active stations depending on cooking, though the meal: dough pricier, would be for calzones the best—and most is prepared in -Executive Chef Hector Vazquez delicious—way advance; meat for to go, since it pulled pork goes does not rely on in the smoker mass producing for hours; early one item. Plans have been drawn for a morning crews cut, wash, and prep as completely renovated kitchen with the much as possible for the full day ahead. dream that it will one day be fully funded.

There’s also a daily culinary The team tries out new dishes meeting to discuss what’s working—and whenever they’re feeling inspired, rolling what’s not. Despite the grandeur of new menu items out in small batches to the impressive dining space, the dated gather feedback before deciding whether kitchen does pose some limitations. or not to include them in the rotation.

There is no Swiss braiser—a staple in “The hardest thing is finding balance in mass production kitchens—and no industrial-size steamer or gas range, which the menu,” Hector observes, noting that the furthest he will ever plan a menu eliminates the possibility of sautéing. ahead is two weeks—and even then, there But Hector seems unfazed—and needs to be room for hiccups, such as a encourages his crew to think big. He missed delivery or a food shortage, which hopes to one day install a wok station

account for last-minute daily changes.

“It’s trial and error,” he says. “I ask the chefs to see what they like in their own lives, and try to recreate it here. We base future menus on whatever is successful.

The goal is to avoid redundancy.”

The mornings are early, the demand is high, and some days may be long—or even turn into nights, when there’s a major snowstorm, and kitchen staff volunteer to sleep over just to be sure breakfast will be ready in the morning. But the members of the food services team in Riddle Refectory love what they do, and they look forward to feeding the Avon community, and keeping the students and faculty healthy, happy, and full.

“We’ve developed a program in the culture of Avon,” explains Hector.

“When the parents thank you at the end of the school year after graduation, you know you’ve done your job well!”

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Year in Review: The Visual Arts

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he Visual Arts Department at Avon Old Farms School has long been established as one of the finest of its kind. From the facilities, to the faculty, to the level of student talent, Avon’s artists are consistently recognized for their inspiring creativity. In February, Department Chair Cristina Pinton announced an unprecedented feat for our student artists, as nine Avonians were recognized with Connecticut Scholastic Art Awards. With three Gold Key and six Silver Key awards, all nine submissions medaled.

“This is the highest ranking of artwork statewide,” noted Ms. Pinton, “and we are very proud of the diversity of artwork receiving awards: photography, book arts, drawing, woodwork.” Gold Key winners will now move on to national level competition.

The awards ceremony was held Sunday, January 25, with the awards exhibition on display at the Silpe Gallery at the University of Hartford Art School from January 10 to February 6, 2015. Congratulations to the Art Department and the following student winners: Vincent Caputo ’16 (Gold Key, mixed media for book arts); Donghee Kim ’16 (Gold Key, drawing); Peter Sigward ’16 (Gold Key, design woodworking); Jiuhua Chen ’15 (Silver Key, drawing); Zander Dyson-Lyon ’17 (Silver Key, design woodworking); Thomas Girard ’17 (Silver Key, sculpture woodworking); Luke O’Connor ’16 (Silver Key, photography); Max Rieser

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Village Green Tripp Knox ’15, and Mohammed ’16 (Silver Key, mixed media for Meraay ’15 used studio lighting book arts); and Young Jun Song to shoot digital negatives and ’16 (Silver Key, mixed media then spent a few hours in for drawing). the darkroom coating and Our artists’ tremendous developing metal plates with a improvement throughout the year silver photographic emulsion. has likely come in part as a result Teacher and photographer Jessica of the incredible support the Art Somers presented the workshop Department has received this year along with Chris Huestis, from the Parents of Avon, which owner of gallery and studio has funded a series of visiting Photosynthesis in Manchester, artists and workshops, investing -Department Chair Cristina Pinton Connecticut. “I had a really fun in the growth of our students time both taking pictures with a as artists in today’s world. The professional photography set up, experiences have been rich and and then replicating the images on to a piece of metal,” recalled varied, allowing students to get perspective into new and Devin. “It was an experience that I will likely never have the different mediums and processes. opportunity to do again and I am glad that I participated. I In March of 2014, and again in February of this year, really enjoyed it.” metalsmith Matthew Parkinson, of Falling Hammer The workshops picked up again in October of this school Productions, conducted an introductory seminar on the year, as potter Tim Scull held a four-day clay workshop with finer points of blacksmithing. Students learned how to make sessions both on campus and at his studio, the local Canton a coat hook and key fob, and the workshop took place in Avon’s historic Forge, where all the original metalwork for the Clay Works. Packing his truck full of tools and special highconstruction of the school was done.

Several Avonians spent a day in April of 2014 creating old-style photographs called tintypes. Devin McKenna ’15,

“This is the highest ranking of artwork statewide, and we are very proud of the diversity of artwork receiving awards: photography, book arts, drawing, woodwork.”

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fire clay, Tim came to campus over the course of three weekends, instructing students on how to make plates, trays, and vases using various molds and texturing tools. He demonstrated forming and decorating, taught the boys about different kinds of clay, and discussed what happens to clay, covered in glazes, inside a kiln that fires to 2400 degrees. At his studio, Tim taught the boys how to glaze properly; they then helped him bring all the work down the hill in preparation to load Tim’s Noborigama, which is Japanese for multichambered, hill-climbing, wood-fired kiln, one of only a handful of its kind in North America. That evening, a smaller group of boys returned to the studio to participate in the firing.

In January, our students enjoyed a printmaking workshop with AJ Masthay of Masthay Studios, which specializes in creating limited edition concert and event prints in a unique style that blends old-world craftsmanship with modern imagery. During his visit, AJ explained his

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traditional approach to printmaking: no computers, and an intricate and detailed process that begins with a simple pencil sketch and ends with adding color to a carved plate. In February, students put what they learned during AJ’s visit to

linoleum blocks, on Martha’s Vandercook Press, on top of the abstract, color monotypes they created.

At the end of February, four lucky Avon boys were chosen from a large group of interested students to head

“We’ve been so fortunate to have all these visiting artisans and opportunities for the boys.”

-Department Chair Cristina Pinton

use, as they designed their own music posters, inspired by his work, alongside a monotype workshop at the Watermark Press studio of Martha Galuszka in Hartford, Connecticut. Avon’s printmaking class cut a linoleum block, and then made a relief print at Martha’s studio, where a plate was painted and run through the press, creating a one-time, unique print. The boys then printed their

over to the glassblowing studio of artist Peter Greenwood in Riverton, Connecticut, for a morning of intense hands-on instruction in the basics of hot glass. Boys learned from the master to twist, mold, cut, and pull molten glass, using the pendulum swinging action of a blowpipe as well as a variety of wooden and metal hand tools, to create a paper weight, a flower, and a blown vase.

And in April, local photographer and videographer Ty Morin, of 179 Pictures in nearby Collinsville, visited campus to show students how to use the traditional collodion wet-plate photographic process and how to use medium- and large-format cameras. He also brought a portable darkroom to mimic the way photographers were able to expose quickly and develop negatives at the turn of the century.

“We’ve been so fortunate to have all these visiting artisans and opportunities for the boys,” observes Ms. Pinton.

“Thanks to the generous funding of the Parents of Avon, I’ve been able to initiate what I hope to be a long-term investment in enriching, hands-on arts experiences that take place both on and off campus.

There are always a dozen or more boys who will jump at the opportunity to go the extra mile (in terms of physical and mental energy) to be able to make something new, explore something different, get out of the routine, and get into the creative sphere.”

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John Gardner Celebrating 40 Years Behind the Bench

By Morgan C. Cugell

A

fter 40 years of living and working at Avon Old Farms, John Gardner knows one thing: consistency—despite the forward progression of time and technology, and a new breed of students—is exactly how Avon has cemented its standing as one of the preeminent prep schools for boys.

“I always say the school has changed a lot, but it’s stayed the same in a lot of ways,” John says. “Our mission hasn’t changed.

What we are really hasn’t changed. We’ve gotten a little bit bigger, we’ve added a lot of new buildings, and I think we focus on serving the students better, but Avon’s mission is really the same.”

A longtime believer in the prep school experience, John grew up on the campus of perennial Avon rival Salisbury School, where his father was a teacher. He matriculated to Wesleyan University, where he excelled as a tri-varsity athlete, competing on the football, hockey, and baseball teams. In November 2011, John was inducted into Wesleyan’s Athletic Hall of Fame, in recognition of his many contributions to the school’s athletic program. John was the starting goaltender for the first three varsity men’s ice hockey seasons at Wesleyan (1971-74) and collected a total of 1,742 saves in 50 career games.

John came to Avon in 1975 and has been an integral part of the faculty and administration ever since. He has served in a number of capacities at Avon over the years, including mathematics teacher, athletic director, and provost. He currently holds the title of associate headmaster.

Coach Gardner is also in his 40th year as head coach of the Winged Beavers, amassing an impressive list of accolades as

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he single-handedly transformed Avon Old Farms into the premier prep school hockey program in New England. His teams have won an astonishing eight New England Prep Division I Championships and produced numerous collegiate and professional athletes. Several of his players have also represented the United States at the Olympic Games.

This winter, John celebrated two more milestones: his 700th career victory, and a few weeks later, his 708th, catapulting him into the record books as the all-time winningest coach in prep school history.

John has dedicated himself to coaching and teaching, and has been honored many times for his success. In 2010, he received the John Mariucci Award from the American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA), the top honor given to a secondary school ice hockey coach. He also received the Connecticut Alliance of Sportswriters Gold Key Award in 2010 for outstanding achievement in coaching.

As a hockey coaching legend in Connecticut and around the country, John is renowned for his work behind the bench.

And he continues to devote as much time as he can to getting better, attending coaching conferences, regularly catching college practices, and scrutinizing film after every single game.

Village Green Athletics

“We know what makes [the boys] tick and what motivates them, so we can focus on that in the classroom, and sports, and residential life.”

tick and what motivates them, so we can focus on that in the classroom, and sports, and residential life.

“You have to be learning Those are essentially the three -John Gardner all the time, otherwise you components of life at Avon.” fall behind,” he notes. “Is John is quick to note that it the same game? Yes. Has today’s students have been brought it changed? Yes. You have to stay up in a different world than when he current. Sticks are lighter, equipment began 40 years ago, but that the Avon is better. The kids are bigger, they education is universal in its ability to skate faster, and they shoot the puck develop good young men. “I think we harder.” teach them the right values,” he says.

John plans his practices no “They need to learn that hard work more than a week ahead, writing and honesty will win out in the end. up a specific plan for every day and We have to do a good job in teaching frequently changing that plan, based responsibility. on what the team needs as well “They learn to live on their own—to as recent game results. He tries to make their own decisions, and live with incorporate several drills to cover those decisions. That’s Avon—it goes skills—such as skating, shooting, and beyond giving them a good education stick handling—as well as offering and getting into college. We want them more situational experiences that will to grow up and be responsible.” occur in game play.

He recalls a former student who Despite the daily rigor to which he, his assistant coaches, told him, “I don’t remember anything about my chemistry and players have grown accustomed, John makes sure that both class, but I do remember that talk I had with you one night on and off the ice, they know he’s more than just their coach. in Pelican dorm.”

He spends significant time in the locker rooms just enjoying “And you say, ‘Wow.’ I think being able to connect being around his players and having fun. with the students is really important, for them to make it “You try to make sure you have an open door, and that at Avon,” explains John. “Whether it’s a faculty member, a they feel comfortable talking to you—you hope they do,” he housekeeper—or just somebody they feel comfortable with. In explains. “You try to connect with them and let them know a way, it’s our job to be their parents.” you’re there for them. They have to buy in, and see the The job may have changed over the years, and new players opportunities that they have. If they’re frustrated in some way, skate fresh ice each season, but for John Gardner, Avon will you have to give them ways to improve and get better.” always be about one thing: the students.

It’s an approach that he finds equally beneficial as a faculty “You try to remember why you’re here,” he states. “You’re member. In fact, he believes that the relationship-driven model here to help the students. To help boys become men, and of learning is what sets Avon apart from other schools. to teach them the right values, so that when they graduate “Because we’re all boys, we have a unique advantage,” he from Avon, they’re ready to go to college, and hopefully we’ve observes. “We can focus on boys—we know what makes them supplemented what the parents have taught at home.”

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Matt Ruhlig ’15 A four-year student from Islip Terrace, New York, Matt Ruhlig ’15 has actually been on campus for much longer than that—his brother, Chris, graduated in 2009 after spending five years as a student. “I visited frequently and felt like I grew up on the campus, spending time with my brother in his room, on the fields, and in the Cherouny Hawk’s Nest,” notes Matt.

So it came as no surprise when Matt enrolled himself four years ago—and immediately got involved in making the most of his Avon experience. He is the head monitor in Brown House dormitory, where he also served as a monitor as a junior. He serves the student body as the recording secretary of the Student Council, and as an admissions ambassador to prospective students. Matt is also a Dean’s List student, and earned the Honors French 4 Award last year. He is an active participant in Avon Outreach, helping with many of the community service initiatives on campus, and serves as a Big Brother mentor.

Aside from his work in the classroom and in the community, Matt can be found, most days, on the athletic fields. He was a captain on the varsity soccer team this year, and was also named MVP and a WNEPSSA Select Team Honorable Mention. He was captain of the varsity B hockey team this year, and is a three-year member of the varsity lacrosse team.

Twice, he has been named

the top athlete in his class. Next year, Matt will attend LIU Post, where he will play college lacrosse for the Pioneers; he hopes to become an Academic All-American.

“The tradition of athletics at Avon Old Farms is a very rich and powerful one,” observes Matt. “I have had the privilege of having great coaches and I look forward to playing every day.

The camaraderie among the players and between players and coaches is something I will always remember and value greatly.”

Matt is often noticed for his work ethic on the field and in the rink, and it’s something he says was an integral part of his upbringing. “My parents taught me to always play with intensity, respect, and honor, and to have fun,” he recalls. “That mentality really stuck with me. I always have fun but I make sure I work hard every day at practice and respect my teammates and coaches, and challenge myself to be a better player and a better man every day. In the end, becoming a tri-varsity athlete at AOF was a great privilege and has helped shape me into the man I am today.

“I have learned that having a competitive nature and strong work ethic is essential in all aspects of life,” Matt explains. “In order to do well in any area you must put in the work and time to succeed to the highest level you wish.

Being a member of a team has taught me to work well with others. Sports play a

“I have had the privilege of having great coaches and I look forward to playing every day. The camaraderie among the players and between players and coaches is something I will always remember and value greatly.”

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major role in my life; the lessons learned from my coaches and teammates—on the fields, in the rink, and in the locker rooms—carry into the classroom and my community service. They have definitely made me a stronger individual.”

Matt has had to rely on that strength several times in recent years, as he has endured several personal family challenges, including a stage-four cancer diagnosis for his father. “These events shook me beyond belief, and still do sometimes,” he observes. “But I turn to my brothers at Avon Old Farms, all 402 brothers, and know I can ask them for help. I turn and focus harder on academics and athletics and my extracurricular activities.”

Leaning on the support of the community comes naturally to Matt, whose family remains at the center of his life, and who names his parents as his biggest influences: “They who have taught me right from wrong. They have taught me to never give up, even when your back’s against the wall.

They have taught me to keep a positive attitude in the face of adversity. They have taught me to work hard and always be respectful. They have taught me the importance of education. They have put an endless amount of time into working with me and training with me for each sport I wanted to play, no matter what it was, because they love me and support me in all my goals. My family also showed me how to become a good man. My father, mother and brother have set examples of the highest standard that no one else could set.

“My family has taught me to embrace the motto ‘aspirando et perseverando’ every day of my life, in every activity of my life,” he states. And he believes in it, 100 percent.

“The best part of Avon is the people, the community, and the brotherhood,” he explains. “I will remember everyone who has played a part in my AOF experience, whether you were my friend, coach, teacher, or mentor, in a very special way,” he continues. “I will always carry you all with me as I move forward in my life. AOF was a once-in-alifetime opportunity and I will be grateful forever.

“I have always felt honored and privileged to attend a school like this, and I still do. Avon is home.”

The Avon Old Farms Squash Club This spring, Avon Old Farms School announced the debut of a new public squash club inside the Gaynor Squash Pavilion on campus. Avon is proud to offer our top-level facilities to the general public for membership in a squash-only fitness club.

Gaynor Squash Pavilion features six newly renovated world-class international singles squash courts and one three-wall glass exhibition squash court. Combined with ample seating and viewing, male and female locker rooms with towel service, equipment sales and demos, and worldclass instruction, the squash club will provide the extended Avon family and local community a superior squash experience.

We offer convenient online court reservations and several membership options, including reduced rates for Avon alumni and families.

The club, open seven days a week, will offer lessons and clinics to players of all ages and abilities with professional Josh Cardwell, the head coach of Avon’s national champion varsity squash team. Josh brings a wealth of playing and coaching experience to the club, having competed professionally on the world circuit before devoting his time to coaching full time in 2012. Josh has coached the Avon Old Farms School squash team to league and national titles and is widely regarded as one of the premier squash coaches in New England.

Forbes magazine has ranked squash the number one healthiest sport, for its ability to burn 500-plus calories in one 30-minute session and increase strength, flexibility, and endurance. This year-round sport has something for everyone— contact us to learn more about joining the Avon Old Farms Squash Club! Email squashclub@avonoldfarms.com.

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The Value

of a

Liberal Arts Education B Y M O RG A N C . C U G E L L

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ow, more than ever, students are taught to look ahead: what college they will attend, what job they will obtain, how much money they will make. In today’s digital age of technology, of media, and of excess, it is more important than ever for our students to retain a sense of wonder about the world; to see the world around them through the eyes of a scholar. A comprehensive, progressive liberal arts education equips our students with the tools they will need to find lifetime success: across any discipline, at any higher educational institution, and in society at large as they become adults—husbands, fathers, and good men.

These days, the traditional liberal arts education seems to have all but disappeared. Not at Avon. We certainly have evolved: our curricula reflect the changing and diverse interests and needs of our global student body; our pedagogical methods seek to engage and enlighten students at a level most comfortable and enjoyable to them; and learning can and does take place in any shape or form. But at its core, the education at Avon Old Farms School is anchored in the liberal arts. And we believe in the power of the liberal arts to transform the educational experience, and to give our students a greater chance at a future of inquiry, of understanding, of success. Wherever they may travel, whatever occupation they may pursue, whatever talents and passions they may enjoy, a background in the liberal arts will guide students in the right direction.

The Value of a Liberal Arts Education B Y B R A D F O R D CA R P E N T E R C H A I R M A N , D EPA RT M E N T O F E N G L I S H

here is a medieval illumination of the seven Liberal Arts by an unknown twelfthcentury artist in which female personifications of the Liberal Arts encircle another personified female figure, the crowned and enthroned Philosophia, from whom the waters of knowledge liberally flow.

Seven streams, one for each of the arts, are broken into groups of three and four, signifying, respectively, the Trivium and the Quadrivium, the curriculum that composed the medieval liberal arts. Below Philosophia are Plato and Socrates, ancient Greece’s most esteemed philosophers. At the bottom of the illumination are four male figures, poets sitting at writing desks as blackbirds whisper inspiration to them. Philosophia is the queen of all knowledge, and she is served, loved, and worshipped by all.

The composition of figures is geometric and ordered. Each of the Liberal Arts inhabits her own niche. Philosophia is seated. The ancillary figures at the bottom work at their desks. No one moves.

The relationships are fixed. There is order; there is stasis. And all that order reflects a time when, in the face of uncertainty and chaos, people were comforted by a confident image of what a liberal arts education looked like and what it meant.

In the broadest sense, the liberal arts gave order to a cosmos that must have felt, at times, capricious and cruel. In the Middle Ages, the liberal arts protected one from the irrationality of the universe.

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Today, the universe feels at times just as threatening to our students as it did in medieval times. Like medieval students, they have a nearly universal consensus about what the liberal arts are for. Ask any of them, and you are likely to hear their fervent belief that they are at Avon for a very good reason: to get into a good college.

Explore that phrase—“a good college”— with them, and you quickly discover that by “good” they mean brand-name. Poke and prod a bit more, and you find out that they want this because they see it as a ready-made path to “a good job.” Examine that phrase under strong light, and they’ll confess that “good” means lucrative. Trace the logic backwards and, as their teacher, you learn that they’re in your class to get a high-paying job. That’s not a bad reason, but it’s not as good as they think.

Getting into a good college and getting a good job aren’t bad goals, but that’s all they are—goals. They aren’t a life, and they

certainly don’t sustain us in the face of all of the uncertainties we have thrown at us over the course of long, well-lived one.

In fact, the liberal arts help us navigate that uncertainty. Getting into college and obtaining wealth aren’t unworthy goals, but when you imagine that they will stave off uncertainty or the capriciousness and cruelty of the universe, you are, as our students will discover, sorely mistaken.

In thinking about the liberal arts, the boys’ role models matter too. Who are the cultural figures from whom they’re taking their cues? Who informs them about how they should think and see the world? Most often, they look outward; Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett are names I often hear. The boys identify those as today’s captains of industry.

However, they admire them more for their billions and less for the freethinking that earned them their billions.

Are you hearing a theme here? There

is enormous anxiety about wealth because it’s what the culture at large worships.

They want to be on the high road to the high life because it will keep them safe in a world that is, ultimately, chaotic.

Money doesn’t buy happiness, but it does offer a sense of security, even if it’s only an illusion.

Who else might they look up to?

Surrounding them every day are teachers who care profoundly for them, and we are (whether we realize it or not) the boys’ most immediate role models. My colleagues, who have chosen a job that offers no fame and little wealth, are their role models. So also are their brethren like Richard Yates ’44, the author, who invites readers to look at the American Dream and consider the ways that it doesn’t deliver on all of its promises. Or consider Pete Seeger ’36, whose singular goal as an artist was nothing short of improving the world by changing the way people saw each other. Money isn’t everything, but the lessons learned from a liberal education are.

We think of “liberal” as a political term, but it derives from the Latin “liber,” the free person, and the liberal arts are those disciplines and habits of mind that nurture and sustain a life lived deliberately and independently. Today, the definition of the liberal arts isn’t nearly as fixed as it was in Roman times or in the Middle Ages. The courses that make up the liberal arts aren’t codified and turned into art as they were centuries ago. Moreover, current and emerging technologies have affected how the liberal arts are taught, inspiring a reexamination of what is getting taught as well. In contrast to the stable medieval image of the liberal arts, it’s as if our contemporary conception of the liberal

arts is swirling around the page instead of being fixed upon it. And while this makes teaching a thrilling enterprise, it also makes it a challenging one.

Lately, I’ve been teaching the boys poetry. Four weeks ago, I asked them this question: “If you could learn anything about poetry what would it be?” I start here because what I’m asking them to do is and isn’t about poetry. The content is poetry, but it could be anything: Kafka,

education is meant to produce.

While I am quite happy to expose the shortcomings of my students’ notion that the value of their time at Avon ultimately will be determined by their lifetime earnings, I am even happier when I can teach them to live— in the classroom and beyond-—into an experience called “every day” and stay present for it. Their laser-focused attention on their futures leaves them

“ We think of ‘liberal’ as a political term, but it derives from the Latin ‘liber,’ the free person, and the liberal arts are those disciplines and habits of mind that nurture and sustain a life lived deliberately and independently.”

Romanticism, short stories, etc. The assignment is really about discovery, and so it starts with agency.

Most of their long lives as students, they have been told expressly what to do and what to think, and so taking away those targets and asking a question like “What do you want to learn?” is to turn on its head traditional teaching, which makes the teacher the “sage on the stage.”

By sidelining myself, the student becomes the agent of his own learning and discovery becomes authentic.

The liberal education invites students to make discoveries of their own and to celebrate them as such. The process starts with them thinking for themselves, which begins with them asking the question, “What matters to me?” They may even take the next step to wonder, “Why does that matter to me?” or “Does it matter to others? If so, who? And why them?” This line of thinking is precisely what a liberal

anxious about the present in ways that only muddle the value of the education they receive at Avon. My belief is that our students will eventually discover that a liberal arts education has given them the tools they need to recognize and assemble the best life they can from the materials their culture, their friends, their communities and their imaginations can offer them.

At the heart of what I teach is the idea that I can help the boys discover the freedom to think for themselves.

My unfailing belief that I can help them in this way is, as the saying goes, what gets me out of bed in the morning. Just have the smallest hand in helping a student see the world in a new way and witness it happening, and you’d quit whatever job you were doing and set your life’s course towards helping as many of these young men grow as you could.

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Honoring Tradition, Forging Ahead The Progressive Liberal Arts Education

Faculty members continue to challenge students to transform the traditional English classroom into an interactive space that puts them inside their own learning. While reading In Cold Blood, they are recreating Truman Capote’s process with an article from the New York Times. They are writing screenplays. They are visiting with former POWs from World War II as they study the narrative process of Unbroken. They are learning from upperclass mentors who visit their classes to offer advice, perspective, and inspiration. They are experimenting with alternative assessment methods, rolling due dates, topic choice, and classroom debate.

“The value of these sorts of opportunities, from a liberal arts perspective as well as addressing what the benefits of a boarding school are, is not only that the boys can see themselves as both teachers and learners, but also they start to see the ‘coolness’ of acting on stage as well as being faced with examples of the type of boy they might want to become,” explains English teacher Kate Barzun. “There’s a ‘coolness’ to being thoughtful, critically assessing, empathetic, and skilled at memorization and performance. At Avon, the specific benefit derived from this is having boys see other boys be successful and revered for their skills in English; in the empathetic, vulnerable expression of literature through drama and performance.

When all you see around you are boys representing all the ways in which boys can be successful, you start to see that you, too, can be successful in any arena, not just ones that stereotypically are considered ‘for boys only.’”

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“We fired an .18 caliber pellet rifle at targets in the woods behind Pelican Dormitory as we were reading Into the Wild. We then wrote about the difficulty that Chris McCandless must have experienced while hunting with a .22 caliber rifle, and about whether it was wise to go into the woods so unprepared.

Along the same lines, in groups of three we had a contest to see who could start a fire fastest with just a flint and steel. While all three groups were able to start a fire, we agreed that alone it would be no easy task.

McCandless was alone—his risk was much higher than ours. ‘Why did he take such a risk? Why do we take risks?’”

—mr. joe martinez

“I asked each boy to write a poem on his phone in Internet language. I wanted the poems to have some emotional substance, so I had them pick one of Todd Hido’s photos of homes at night and write the poem depicting what was going on inside of the houses.

Using emojis, hash tags, and abbreviations was a must. The boys printed out their poems without their names on them, and exchanged them in class anonymously. They were then asked to translate the Internet poem into traditional English language, which they presented to the class.”

“I often begin class by asking students to observe a piece of art, music, video, or dance. The first step of the process is to ask the students to make observations no matter how simple. Once those observations have been exhausted they must then make interpretations. They speculate about what the image might mean, or what the artist was trying to do, or what the effect of a certain quality is on the viewer. The last step of the process is to ask them to try to connect what they have observed to our reading.

The idea that I want them to get is that the process of analyzing art is the same across media. Even though different media have different component parts and different qualities, we can still come to an understanding of the art by simply making observations and then interpreting that which we observe, and maybe even connecting it to other things.”

—mr. chris french

—mr. joe lampe

“At the annual International Boys School Coalition conference I attended in Richmond, I had lunch with Mike Grenier. He is a teacher at Eton College and is leading a charge in the area of slow education. An ambition of the initiative is “to allow learners to have space and time to follow and develop interests towards greater depth and understanding.” I’ve taken Grenier’s ideas to heart, and instead of rushing and charging through an enormous amount of content, I’ve decided to give my students space and time to go deeper. I ask them to honor the process of learning and to honor their own ideas.

Instead of treating them like receptacles for information, I seek to have them think, discern, and question everything. For exams, I present them with new material and seek to create another learning experience instead of requiring them to spit back facts that they cram for the exam. In class, I work to be a mentor and guide for them and I work to help them be independent. I try to make it more about them and less about me.”

—ms. gayle robinson

Honoring Tradition, Forging Ahead The Progressive Liberal Arts Education

In their history classrooms, teachers are using technology as a tool to meet students at their level while still allowing for adequate learning and assessing.

Art Custer uses the online Socrative tool almost daily to create quick, formative assessments as entrance or exit “tickets” to class. Mr. Custer’s students are also presenting semester projects through social media. Brian Cugell’s classroom—the iLab in Baxter Library—is often ‘flipped,’ as he uses movie software to record and share a visual presentation that students watch for homework, freeing up class time for project-based learning or group work.

“I think the growth of technology and many of the trends in education actually support the idea of the liberal arts,” explains Mr. Custer. “Things are changing so broadly and so rapidly that the only way to prepare for the future is to learn to think critically, communicate effectively, and solve problems. It is certainly true,

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for example, that teaching our students to write computer code is valuable and helpful to them, but it is also true that when they graduate from college they will likely be using a language that does not yet exist…So while we remain committed to liberal arts education, we are also committed to seizing new opportunities to diversify and intensify that experience.”

“The History Department continues to increase the variety of courses offered to students at all levels,” observes Chairman Art Mehos. “We remain the only department that offers elective courses to freshmen and sophomores. We have a dynamic, knowledgeable faculty devoted to the students and to using differing levels of technology as well. The Drew History Initiative remains a popular seminar that is for our top junior and senior historians; this year’s topic is the resurgence of Russian nationalism.”

“The philosophy of the Science Department faculty is that boys learn from hands-on experiences,” explains Department Chair Diana Malchoff.

“There are videos of experiments that they can watch, but doing it at the lab bench, making observations, asking questions, and coming up with their own conclusions leads to learning and the development of critical skills needed for college and life. Experiments that relate to them and their world promote inquiry and understanding. A good and recent example is the NFL’s ‘deflate-gate.’ Our chemistry students would have thought about the Ideal Gas Laws. Charles’ Gas Law is the mathematical relationship between volume and temperature.

There are examples in each of our science classes that translate textbook concepts to real-life situations.”

The Mathematics Department continues to evolve, offering new courses and allowing students to take the learning experience off campus or online. “We’ve added online summer classes to enable boys to advance more quickly or to preview material before they start the academic year,” explains Glenn Sieber, department chair. “We also added an advanced mathematics course that meets jointly with students from Miss Porter’s School (differential equations and multivariable calculus).” Presentations form Khan Academy have been integrated into all of the mathematics classrooms, giving students access to enhanced, self-guided learning that occurs at their own pace, through practice exercises and instructional videos. Supplementary software programs include Mathematica and TI-84 Smartview.

“The World Languages Department engages the world through proven pedagogical methods,” explain Chair Kathy Leis and teacher Darrell Tibbles.

“In multiple areas, the faculty engage students in authentic language activities.

From the French language table at lunch in the Refectory, to field trips to local museums, to student trips to Rome, students are actively using world languages in situations both near and far.

Classrooms are hands-on and interactive; students utilize authentic examples, such as menus, advertisements, and newspapers, which bring language to life. Cinema is used to bring the world visually into the classroom. In Mandarin class, students recently put together

a short television program featuring campus news stories that students wrote, recorded, and produced in the language.

In Spanish, students host guest speakers to add depth and rigor to their courses.

“Just as students are responding to an interactive and dynamic classroom, the World Languages Department is responding to the needs of the students.

Advanced Placement coursework is offered for all languages. For students looking for greater focus in language, both Spanish and Latin offer specific courses designed to delve deeply into particular topics of interest.

“Beyond the classroom, students enjoy a unique opportunity to interact as global citizens. In the Avon Old Farms

student body are native language speakers.

Students use a world language in the classroom, on the athletic fields, and in the dormitories. The world becomes much more dynamic when you can put a face and name to a friend who speaks that language. Avon Old Farms is ‘going global:’ creating a place for the students in the world, and creating a place in students for the world.”

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“The real learning experience in the arts is essentially character building and problem solving: creating something from nothing, tackling the unknown, addressing multiple solutions, using a visual means as a new language, and venturing into an arena that may require an emotive response versus an academic one,” notes Chair of the Visual Arts Cristina Pinton. “We have purposefully created a curriculum that teaches technique and craft that is hands-on, delivering immediate, physical results. Our boys see instant results by their actions in building a camera, constructing a wooden table, drawing dot after dot until a human face appears. And it’s through a learned patience that our art students plan out ideas and see them through the long journey, that often takes twists and turns to an end result that may or may not be the one planned, but is no less worthy or beautiful.

“It is a process of self-assessment that imitates the necessity for flexibility and creative quick-thinking in the real world.

An arts project in wood or darkroom photography, architecture or design, by its very nature, offers unlimited possibility.

Students respond, react and communicate in a continuous relationship with the material and an evolving idea.

“We offer a variety of courses, many of which meet semester-long, to provide the students exposure in a variety of art forms. There is also the opportunity, with independent study and A.P. Studio Art, for more motivated students to initiate a plan of artistic study and create a body of work that is important to them, and they develop a voice and investigate concepts they’ve chosen.”

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In the Performing Arts Department, explains Chair Robert Volo, “We continue to provide our students with the tools necessary to perform challenging and enjoyable repertoire, from traditional to contemporary selections. Students have multiple rehearsals a week, as well as smaller sectionals with AOF faculty and visiting tutors. We’ve added to this year’s curriculum with pull-out ear training and music theory sessions. About once a week, performance students are taught basic theory concepts, like scale construction to transcription, while they learn to use their inner ear to hear tonality and pitch.

The students have responded by become more aware of how music and musicians are able to perform at higher levels. We plan to continue the training for every performance class going forward.

“It’s important for our students to attend these concerts and performances, as they gain a better appreciation for what their brothers are able to accomplish in the arts. Concerts and theatrical performances will enhance their lives in a way that some academics cannot, as personal and emotional contributions by the performers make each performance magical and endearing. Whether it’s listening to an improvised solo during a jazz concert, hearing a rousing Chorale rendition of Men of Avon, or watching a mystery in Adams Theater, our student body is constantly being exposed to the power of artistic expression. What the students learn, either being involved in the performance or just there to watch, is that the arts are an important part of our culture and society. What strikes them most is that true artistic expression IS attainable; they just need the right

support and environment to experience it.

“Matthew Valenti has taken our music appreciation class to a new level. He has changed our curriculum to incorporate more listening and identifying of music genres, all while introducing new and sometimes familiar music to our students.

Mr. Valenti has been able to get his students to truly understand why they are interested in the music in their collection. Being a prolific musician and composer himself, Mr. Valenti has certainly brought new life and understanding to the course. Attending live performances is still a pillar of the curriculum, as past trips have included symphonic concerts, jazz performances, instrument art exhibits, and Broadway musicals. Our new guitar lab for fall of 2014 has quickly become another highlight for our students. Avonians are now able to enroll in guitar class at any level, log in to a new online course with their laptops called Guitar Now Online, and learn at their own pace and appropriate skill level. Each lab station has a digital interface and a set of headphones, so each student can work independently without disturbing others members of the class.

“Finally, though WAOF has seen many changes over the years, its current format is by far the most productive and enjoyable for our students and community. Students involved in this after-school activity have been entertaining and informing our community with short films, ranging from athletic highlights, interviews, campus concerts, and theater productions, to informative videos about our environment and how we can conserve energy. The group has taken on a television-studio type persona, as they spend time filming the many facets of student life on campus and posting to the public via YouTube. As this program grows, so does the level of interest, and our students gain the knowledge and experience of this very exciting and popular medium.”

Dean of Students Brian Doyle and the entire residential life team of administrators and dormitory heads have worked hard to ensure that the residential life program is as comprehensive, educational, and enjoyable as possible. “We offer programs on Saturday mornings that expose students to many issues, such as tolerance, substance abuse, Internet safety, bullying, violence, nutrition, and diversity. Many of the speakers have a strong focus understanding boys and developing what it means to be a good man.

“On Sunday nights, we run smaller programs in the Chapel, with interfaith speakers, guest lecturers, and faculty presentations that allow students to get perhaps a new, fresh perspective of the world around them. In addition, all students, at some point in their four years, will have participated in programs for academic integrity, sex education, and a transition program for issues they might face in college.

“We’ve also introduced Frank DiCocco’s REAL Man Curriculum: Respect all people, Especially women, Always do the right thing, Live a life that matters. This program is offered to boarding seniors, and it has been very successful.

Mr. Bourgault, Mr. Doyle, Mr. Driscoll, Dr. Flanagan, Mr. Evans, and Dr. Hampton have all led the discussions.

Boys are shown a few video clips and then asked to discuss questions: Is respect earned or given free? What men in your life or in society do you look up to? What are the qualities of a good man? Is the message you receive through pop culture about ‘a good man’ consistent with what we preach here?”

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Scholar Snapshot

THE SIDNEY C. CLARK SCHOLARSHIP F UND

Trevor Kratz ’15 is the Clark Scholar for 2014-15 Sidney Curtis Clark (19112003) was a master of English and chairman of the English Department at Avon Old Farms School for over 40 years. During that period he served as teacher, advisor, and mentor to countless numbers of Avon students and members of the English Department. Up until the time of his death he continued to serve the school as a lecturer and friend of Avon alumni.

Under the terms of his will (dated March 18, 1997) and a declaration of trust creating “The Sidney C. Clark Living Trust” (dated March 10, 1997), Mr. Clark directed that, following his death, the residuary assets in his estate be given to

Avon Old Farms School. He specifically instructed that those funds “be held in a separate fund known as the Sidney C. Clark Scholarship Fund,” “that the principal of the fund should be held in perpetuity and that the net income shall be available for the payment of tuition.

The recipients of benefits of the fund are to be citizens of the United States who have been determined by the school, in its absolute and sole discretion, to be in financial need of assistance.” Further, it was Mr. Clark’s “express desire” that the fund be used to further the academic excellence of the school and not be used to supplement sports scholarship funds.

He indicated his preference that the fund be used “to aid academic postgraduate students.”

“ There is nothing that I value more than education. I am extremely grateful to be the recipient of this award; without it, my education at such an exceptional school would not be possible. The scholarship helps broadens my future by providing me with an education that gives me the chance to better myself as a student, and there is nothing that I want more than that right now.”

– T R EVO R K R ATZ ’ 1 5

C O N R OY S C H O L A R S H I P F U N D

Raheem Spence ’16 is the Conroy Scholar and the A5 Scholar for 2014-15 Brian Conroy ’82, former chairman of the Board of Directors, is the benefactor of the Conroy Scholarship Fund. “My wife, Laurie, and I feel strongly that in order to create an inclusive brotherhood, it is important to have students who bring a diversity of backgrounds and talents. Additionally, each one of us who has been influenced by the generosity of others, whether for education or in our professions, should be willing to provide the same for those

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who will come after us. Establishing a scholarship helps to ensure access to similar experiences.”

Raheem is also the A5 Scholar this year. The A5 scholarship is the manifestation of the vision of the Avon African American Alumni Association to assist Avon Old Farms in attracting academically gifted African American young men to the school. It is the goal of the A5 group to ensure that Avon will have, over time and with additional contributions, the ability to provide substantial merit-based, financial assistance to exceptional African American students.

“ The Avon experience has been wonderful so far and I am so fortunate to be a part of it.

The education is exceptional.

Teachers here are willing to help you succeed and will take their time to make it possible.

I thank the Conroys and the A5 group for giving me the opportunity to attend this great school.”

–RAHEEM SPENCE ’16

THE MIRIAM L. AND JORGE H. CONSUEGRA ’51 SCHOLARSH IP

Thomas Girard ’17 is the Consuegra ’51 Scholar for 2014-15 The scholarship was established by Mrs. Ellen Charles P’79,’83 on behalf of her sons, George D. Iverson ’79 and Andrew P. Iverson ’83. It was her desire to honor a master teacher who remains beloved by those in the Avon community who had the great fortune to be taught by Jorge. An alumnus, Jorge was a long time teacher of Spanish and also coached the varsity swim team, of which George Iverson was a captain. Ellen is a trustee of both the Foxcroft School in Virginia and the Hillwood Museum in Washington, D.C., where she has been chairman of the board for the last 25 years.

“ It is a great honor to be a recipient of the Consuegra Scholarship. Avon Old Farms has allowed me to take my academic abilities to an improved level, and has broadened my personality and exposed me to new cultural ideas. The award has meant so much to my family and me.”

–THOMAS GIRARD ’17

T H E R I C H A R D H . W O O D W E LL ’ 7 5 S C H O L A R S H I P

Benjamin Johnston ’15 is the Woodwell Scholar for 2014-15 Woody Woodwell ’75 died in the World Trade terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. He worked on the 89th floor of Keefe, Bruyette and Woods in the South Tower. His widow, Linda Woodwell P’08, chose to celebrate his memory by requesting that memorial gifts be used to establish a scholarship at Avon Old Farms. Several years later, on the occasion of what would have been Woody’s 50th birthday in 2007, Linda reached out to family and friends and encouraged them to celebrate by making gifts to the scholarship. And again, on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, Linda, who was by then a member of Avon’s Board of Directors, requested that family and friends mark the occasion by supporting the scholarship: “For those of you who had the privilege of knowing Woody, he was a truly remarkable man. He lived his life guided by a core set of principles— integrity, scholarship, civility, sportsmanship, and social responsibility.

These are some of the values that are incorporated into the curricula at Avon Old Farms, Woody’s alma mater. He loved Avon and always said that it was his experience there that set his foundation and shaped his life… Not only is Woody’s legacy his own children, but it is now the Men of Avon who have graduated from AOF in his name.”

“ Everyone at Avon, students and faculty, strives to be the best they can be, and Woody Woodwell achieved this wonderful feat. To be given a scholarship with his name on it is a special honor for which I will always be thankful.

It has given me the opportunity to attend Avon Old Farms and obtain a fantastic education.”

– B E N JA M I N J O H N S T O N ’ 1 5

THE GORDON SCHOLARSHIP

Jordan Abate ’16 William “Chris” Davis ’15 Carson Drew ’17 Patrick Harper ’17 Connor McKernan ’17 Dylan Nastri ’18 Chandler Spearman ’15 Tamas Takata ’15 Richard and Dee Gordon P’90, esteemed members of Avon’s Board of Directors, established a major scholarship fund, the income from which is used to provide multiple merit-based scholarships for exceptional students who we want to attract to the Avon community. Candidates are academically gifted and/or have shown impressive talents in leadership, community service, and/or the arts. The merit awards may be given to day or boarding students, and currently are the only merit-based scholarships at Avon Old Farms School.

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Student Spotlight

Tamas Takata ’15

By Morgan C. Cugell

S

ince arriving at Avon Old Farms School, Tamas Takata ’15 has been a leader in all areas of school life. His intellectual curiosity and determination are matched only by his natural talents as a scholar, and his full schedule reflects not only his diverse interests, but also an unrivaled passion for self-betterment.

In the classroom, he has enjoyed tremendous success.

A Headmaster’s List student, Tamas has been recognized with the Hamilton Book Prize, the Harvard Book Prize, and an astonishing number of subject book prizes: Latin, geometry, algebra II/trigonometry, precalculus, honors chemistry, and A.P. Chemistry.

“Avon is a community of scholars; of people committed to learning at a higher level.

The school not only plants the seed of knowledge but also gives you what you need to grow that into something greater,” Tamas observes.

Tamas has made the most of his years on campus. He serves as editor-in-chief of the Avon Record, and is a member of both the Robotics Club and the Peer Tutoring Club. He is a tenacious athlete on the varsity football team as well as the varsity tennis team, of which he is a co-captain this year. Tamas is also a member of Avon’s nationally recognized choral group, the Riddlers, as well as the student-run a cappella singing group, the Sing-ed Beavers. And as head admission ambassador, Tamas enjoys meeting prospective students and sharing more about the Avon experience.

He may be busy, but Tamas prefers it that way. “I find it much easier to focus in pressure situations,” he notes. “An abundance of free time can be counterproductive. Learning to balance many activities can spark quality thought, and it

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forces me to work diligently.

“The ability to prioritize has been one of Avon’s greatest gifts to me,” he states.

He manages his many commitments with grace and aplomb, and relies on lessons he learned from his father, who he cites as one of his major influences.

“Usually when I fall into a ditch, I revert to my father’s method of trying whatever I can to climb out, even if it is not the fastest, or the easiest, or the most conventional method,” he says. “And it works... most of the time.”

Through his myriad experiences at Avon, Tamas has enjoyed a personal transformation of sorts.

To start, he notes, “The all-boys atmosphere has become the reason why I love Avon. The welcoming and indescribably kind community has transformed me from a shy, aimless student into a confident and intellectually curious man of Avon.

“My teachers have also been immense influences and in some cases have changed my life. Mr. Carpenter launched my thinking capacity and curiosity for learning to a previously unthinkable level, and I credit Mr. Detora for helping me become a good Avon man.

“Before I came to Avon, I was the typical math-science guy,” Tamas explains. “All I enjoyed about school was calculating. But my English and history teachers have ignited my interest for the humanities. I now think purely, and am curious about nature and myself.”

Tamas is a natural leader whose poise, commitment, and concern for others have helped him to thrive at Avon Old Farms. A balanced and earnest young man with tremendous character, Tamas embodies all of the qualities that we seek to instill in our students.

“I truly just hope to succeed while pursuing my passions,” he says.

“Avon is a community of scholars; of people committed to learning at a higher level. The school not only plants the seed of knowledge but also gives you what you need to grow that into something greater.�

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Faculty Spotlight

Kate Barzun

By Morgan C. Cugell

K

ate Barzun has been fortunate to attend private and liberal arts educational institutions since a young age, so it comes as no surprise that her appreciation for their experiences and advantages is steadfast.

Originally from Harvard, Mass., Kate attended public school in Harvard through the third grade, when, pending an uprooting construction project at the public school that would leave students attending class in trailers, her parents decided to send Kate and her sister to Nashoba Brooks, a private, all-girls day school in Concord.

“My experience at Nashoba Brooks formed my appreciation for the benefits of single-sex education,” explains Kate, who would go on to begin her teaching career at the all-girls Miss Porter’s School. She attended Phillips Exeter Academy for high school, where she excelled in the classroom, spent part of her senior year in Grenoble, France, and played three seasons of sports for four years: soccer, basketball, and softball.

“My time at Exeter wholly shaped my career path,” Kate notes. “Exeter taught me everything I’ve ever known about learning. At prep school, I learned how to critically think, critically read, problem solve, deal with obstacles and challenges, and work hard and well. College gave me more content, but prep school taught me how to learn.

“And certainly the experiences I had at Exeter—as a student enjoying the camaraderie of the dorms, the high quality of the athletics, and the diverse experience of the student body, and also as a teenager appreciating the involvement of the teachers in my life, their mentorship, their high expectations, and their support—gave me the room to grow, fail, and learn.

“I know that had I not attended prep school, I wouldn’t be a prep school teacher,” she states.

Also influential to Kate was her paternal grandfather, Jacques Barzun, who died in 2012 at the age of 104. He

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was the longtime provost at Columbia University and a teacher of humanities. “He personified the value of a liberal arts education and the study of western civilization and culture,” Kate recalls. “As an author, he wrote books on writing, baseball, and rhetoric, but his life’s work was his last complete tome, published in 2000 when he was 92 years old, titled From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present.

He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Honor in 2003 by President George W. Bush and the 2010 National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama. His legacy in teaching and learning influenced my decision to become a teacher.”

After Exeter, Kate matriculated to Trinity College in Hartford, a small, private liberal arts school that continued to drive Kate’s passion for learning and teaching. She received her B.A. in 2000, and then remained at Trinity to earn an M.A. in 2003, while also teaching freshman writing in the college’s writing center. Clearly, her experiences at Trinity, coupled with those in her earlier learning days, have fostered in Kate a belief in the liberal arts—and it is a belief she has brought with her into every classroom she enters.

“The point of a liberal arts education is to teach students how to learn,” she explains. “It’s not about what to learn, but how the different disciplines of the humanities, social sciences, arts, sciences, and maths can teach so much more than merely the content of the disciplines themselves. When you learn about Western Civilization, you learn about the literary art form of Greek tragedy, which reveals itself when you see modern politicians unable to ‘see’ the truths in front of them prior to their downfall, or how an athlete’s arrogance before the final buzzer can mean failure instead of success.

When you learn about western civilization, you learn about the

philosophers who revolutionized mathematics as they looked to the stars and posited that our old ways of thinking were wrong.

“Philosophy, math, politics, literature, language, art, science… anything we think about today is influenced by that knowledge. We don’t realize it necessarily. We don’t stand around and say, ‘I recognize hubris in Richard Sherman’s sideline gloating before the end of the Super Bowl, and I know that because I learned about hubris when reading The Odyssey in Ms. Barzun’s freshman English class.’ But you understand the universal human fatality of that gloating when the end result for the Seahawks is failure, and you call it hubris.”

Almost as passionate about her football as she is about her teaching, Kate and her husband, Brian Tamms, are fervent New England Patriots fans, and their season tickets bring them to Foxborough often throughout the fall and winter. Kate and Brian live in Diogenes Dormitory with Brian’s 14-year-old daughter, Madison, a freshman at Miss Porter’s School, along with two cats and Kate’s 12-year-old border collie and best friend, Tess. Her family remains an integral part of her life, and she particularly enjoys her role as aunt to her sister’s children, Katie and Jack. One day, she and Brian hope to escape the harsh cold and snow of New England winters and purchase a trawler-style boat that they can take from Cape Cod to the Caribbean. Until that day comes, though, Kate remains committed to the task at hand: allowing young men to thrive

“They’re all in it together, and the brotherhood is real. They support each other, care about one another, and will be brothers for life. How can Avon not be an incredible place when that kind of experience is happening for these boys?”

in and outside the classroom, a challenge she feels Avon tackles exceptionally well, thanks to a curriculum of five core courses through all four years, alongside an all-encompassing living and learning situation.

“What we do at Avon creates a foundation that sets the boys up for success wherever they go,” explains Kate. “I think prep school provides teenagers with a unique opportunity to grow as learners,” she says. “On any given day, the content I teach in my English classes does not matter. Whether I’m teaching about commas or how to assess a challenging passage in Shakespeare, that particular moment of teaching doesn’t matter. What matters, however, is the day-in and day-out experience for the students of living where they learn. The relationships they form with their teachers change their outlook on their efforts. Doing well starts to matter beyond the immediate grade. They want to please the teachers they admire; they see how much the teachers care about them in class, in the dorms, on the fields, even over a meal, and they want to reciprocate that however they can.

And the learning happens constantly. It’s not just commas during B period; it’s table manners at lunch, it’s conflict management in the dorms, and it’s growing from failure on the

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“And for the boys at Avon, there’s no better place to make mistakes, learn from them, and become a young man of which any community would be proud.” fields. In no other learning environment, particularly if it’s one where the day ends and everyone scatters, do you have such an opportunity to grow as a person as you have at boarding school.

“And for the boys at Avon, there’s no better place to make mistakes, learn from them, and become a young man of which any community would be proud.”

Kate’s prep school teaching career began in 2005 at Miss Porter’s School, where she taught English at multiple levels and coached soccer and basketball. In 2009, Kate moved five miles down the road to Avon Old Farms; she currently teaches English 1 honors and A.P. English Literature. She is also the director of online programs and the assistant director of college counseling, a member of the academic technology advisory committee, and was on the most recent strategic planning committee. Her schedule is demanding, of course, but equally rewarding, as she honors her passion for teaching and the relationships she has built with the students in a place she feels to be unrivaled in its comprehensive liberal arts program.

“Avon is the best school for boys,” Kate says. “That’s not a gimmick or a tag line. We know what we are, and we make every effort to do that well. And ultimately, we produce fine young men who will be a credit to their communities. We provide the structure that many boys need to move forward and mature.

We provide an environment that welcomes the energy and enthusiasm of young men. They can be loud, cause a ruckus, be hilarious, and be brothers without the social pressure of having

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girls around. Adolescence is hard. And when you’re in a rigorous environment with high academic standards and expectations, discovering who you are can actually be the scariest part.

“But we want the boys to really discover their selfconfidence, strength of character, and personal integrity,” she continues. “We also want them to experiment in music, art, and performance. If a boy thinks he’s not a good English student—if his experience in English class has always been one where he’s quiet and maybe sees only the girls in his classes talking freely about their emotions and the feelings of the characters—if he comes to Avon, and he sits in English class here, all he sees are other boys around the table. None of them wants to talk about their feelings and the emotions of the characters, either, but as a teacher, I’m able to get them to start thinking about it, the motivations, the empathy, the ‘whys’ and ‘how comes’ of a character’s choices. Now they find that they’re all talking about it, and they’re all boys in a classroom, and there’s nothing to be embarrassed about.

And if they can build this confidence in the classroom here and now, when they get to co-ed classes in college, they go in knowing they are good English students, and they can speak about the texts empathetically because that’s just how it’s done.

“They’re all in it together, and the brotherhood is real.

They support each other, care about one another, and will be brothers for life. How can Avon not be an incredible place

Faculty Spotlight

when that kind of experience is happening for these boys?”

Kate and Brian were married in 2013 in Avon’s Chapel, where she—and everyone else in the Avon community—has attended Tuesday and Thursday Morning Meeting every week of the school year, making announcements, singing hymns, and listening to student and faculty chapel talks. In 2014, while delivering one of her own chapel talks, Kate advised her students to consider the importance and permanence that the campus will come to signify in their lives, as it had for her when the Chapel became intertwined with the celebration of her marriage: “The ancient Greeks had a concept called nostos, which means homecoming, and all men who go off to war yearn for their nostos. Our word nostalgia combines nostos as the prefix with the suffix -algia, which means pain. Nostalgia is that yearning feeling we all recognize for a past experience, a time gone by, and there’s a pain to it because we know we can’t actually return to that moment, or feel that way again, or experience that time exactly as it had been.

“Tomorrow, I will likely come in here at some point in the afternoon, when it’s quiet and empty. I’ll sit in the chairs right here up front, and I’ll close my eyes. I’ll hear a guitar playing Mozart’s clarinet concerto, I’ll smell cedar and roses, I’ll feel the wicker of the seats, and I will smile with memory, and a little bit of yearning pain, as I remember a day when my walk to this building, my time in this Chapel, was my nostos.

“One day, years from now, you will have your nostos here

in this building. You will return to Avon Old Farms and be welcomed home, and you will walk to this place and sit in these chairs, and remember. And perhaps you’ll feel the subtle pain of yearning, of loss, of wishing for a simpler time, but you’ll smile. And what you won’t remember are the frustrations, the exhaustion, the standing up and sitting down. You’ll sit, perhaps alone, and for a moment you’ll hear the music, feel the shoulders of your friends pushed up against yours, you’ll smell the wood, and you’ll feel the wicker of the seats. And you’ll smile. Because this place is part of your personal history, your memories, and your life.

“And you will be home.”

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Elephant The

Remembers…

From

the

Archives

Compiled by Carol Ketcham, Archivist

Progressive Education in the Founder’s Years: Clarence Derrick and Dan Kingston ’40 attended Avon Old Farms at the same time—one, Derrick, as a teacher, and the other, Kingston, as a student.

Well over 50 years after their time at Avon, each recorded his memories of those years and shared them with the Archives.

Clarence Derrick, English Department

Dan Kingston ’40

“A core belief of Mrs. Riddle’s was that urbanized youth had lost touch with hand labor and the virtues such experience inculcated…Progressive education emphasized individual growth in a supporting environment and emphasized non-academic pursuits like student government, social service, ‘hand’ skills, and artistic creativity.” —Derrick “I’m still not sure why progressive education was so disparaged at that time. I’m still not sure if I was being progressively educated.” —Kingston

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Working in the forest, 1944

“Community service was a distinctive feature of Avon. Boys worked chiefly in the forest, stables, farm, garage, print shop…After students had spent time in each of these activities, they could select the one that interested them the most and concentrate on it.” —Derrick

3,000 acres of farm and forest

“The principles of progressive education would permeate all aspects of school life and advantage would be taken of the school’s 3,000 acres of farm and forest…Avon Old Farms School would be different.” —Derrick

“Several hours of community service each week were required in the lower forms. We worked in various areas and then were permitted a choice. I settled on the stables.” —Kingston

Paul Child teaching John Gile ’39

“Another area where progressive education was prominent was the Art Department under the direction of Paul Cushing Child, later to be well-known as ‘Julia Child’s husband.’ Paul’s specialty was photography but students worked in all media.” —Derrick

“I think students and faculty gained from their experiences in the special environment of Avon Old Farms School.

After that, it was time to move on.” —Derrick The Stables

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Alumni Spotlight

Brian Conroy ’82

By Susan Haile

“ A

Passion for Life.” That was the title of a 1996 Avonian article about young alum Brian Conroy ’82. Nearly 20 years later, that passion for life appears to be as strong as ever.

Conroy is particularly excited about his new job—and his relocation to London. In January, after 10 years working for Fidelity stateside, Conroy assumed the role of president of financial services for Fidelity Worldwide Investment. “This move was not even on my radar,” he admits. But he says he was honored—and humbled—to be approached for this new role. Conroy now runs FIL’s financial services business, which operates in all markets outside North America, leading a team of more the 7,000 associates in 25 countries across the globe. Moving from the Boston area to London (where his family will join him this summer) only adds to the excitement, he says.

“London is an incredibly diverse, incredibly current place.”

Sadly, Fidelity’s gain will be Avon’s loss; Conroy’s new responsibilities have prompted him to relinquish his role as chairman of Avon’s Board of Directors.

He’ll remain on the board, however, and there’s no doubt of Conroy’s continuing commitment to Old Farms.

As excited as he is about his new job, Conroy remains equally passionate about Avon Old Farms.

Since his graduation, he has served the school in a variety of alumni capacities, most recently as a member of the Board of Directors, and, since 2011, as board chair.

Talk to Brian Conroy about his years as an Avon student and you probably won’t hear that he was Warden of the school, a consistent Dean’s List student, a varsity captain,

and head of several clubs and organizations. What he’ll tell you, instead, is the tale of a 14-year-old asthmatic kid who, as a freshman, stood a mere 5’4” tall. And then he’ll tell you what Avon did for that scrawny asthmatic kid.

“I couldn’t breathe very well when I came to Avon, and that’s hard for a guy in an athletic school,” Conroy admits, describing himself as an unlikely athlete. “But teachers used that as an inspiration to others. They turned what could have been an embarrassment into something positive.”

Avon’s spirit of competition— regardless of athletic level or ability—resonated with him. “We competed every single day,” Conroy points out. “Through this I learned to be a good competitor, and I’ve carried those lessons over to life. I learned never to give up.

“I never started a varsity game of football or baseball until I was a senior, and yet I was a captain,” he continues. “That’s because Avon is about judging people for who they are. And I was fueled by this healthy competition, where your friends make you better because they push you. Instead of being shunned, or becoming a team manager, how cool was it that I could do this. That’s the spirit of Avon in one short story.

“Avon was a transformational time for me, as it was for a lot of people,” Conroy asserts. “That is what’s so magical about Avon. It shaped the foundation of who I am as a man. That spirit of Avon—to aspire and persevere— what a wonderful, magical way to shape the thinking of a young boy. I’ll be forever indebted to the place.”

His yearbook page in the 1982 Winged Beaver chronicles his

“Avon was a transformational time for me, as it was for a lot of people. That is what’s so magical about Avon. It shaped the foundation of who I am as a man. That spirit of Avon—to aspire and persevere—what a wonderful, magical way to shape the thinking of a young boy. I’ll be forever indebted to the place.”

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Brian Conroy ’82 delivered the Commencement address at the 2013 ceremony.

transformation. Over the course of his four years at Avon, Conroy climbed slowly but surely from thirds to JV to varsity level in both football and baseball. He rose from Student Council member to head day boy monitor to Warden. He was also part of a litany of other school organizations, rising through the ranks to become president of the History Club and editor of the Winged Beaver by senior year.

Mentors and friendships remain with him, though, rather than his own accomplishments. “When you break it down,” Conroy explains, “the friendships, the brotherhood, the competition, the collaboration—they were an amazing, magical formula.” Over the years, those bonds of friendship have remained unbreakable. One example among many: When Mark Masinter ’82 mentioned that he’d named Conroy as the emergency contact on an Avon form for his son Joe ’12, Masinter’s wife, Rebecca, was taken aback that he hadn’t asked Conroy’s permission first. Masinter’s response?

“Brian doesn’t mind.”

“And of course, I didn’t,” Conroy insists. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for these guys.”

When asked who his Avon mentors were, Conroy pauses.

Not because he doesn’t have any—but because the list is a long one. And indeed, once he begins to name those who influenced him, he can’t stop. “I had so many influences,” he reflects. “Pete Evans, Kevin Driscoll, George Trautman, Juan Comella, Frank Leavitt, Henry Coons. And Sid Clark—he cared so much and spent so much time with me.” And the list goes on. And on.

At Dartmouth, Conroy was once again an unlikely athlete who worked his way onto the varsity football and baseball

teams. “No one was going to recruit me as an athlete,” he chuckles. “Friends would ask, ‘Why are you staying with the team?’ My answer: you never know. Like a honey badger, I was going to keep digging.” A lesson, he says, he learned at Avon.

His choice of major—unlikely, on the face of it—was religion. “What Avon taught me was the magic and importance of learning,” Conroy explains. “A liberal arts background opens your mind to learning, and that’s enormously important. At Avon I had to take classes in different disciplines. But I also studied what interested me.

There’s a refreshing energy in learning to learn. People asked me why I was studying religion, but I was interested, and I saw the way it shaped history. At Avon Peter Evans and Seth Mendell had inspired me in their history classes.” Studying religion, for Conroy, was simply an extension of that.

“I’ve been in finance all of my career, but my passion for learning was really solidified at Avon,” Conroy reflects.

“That’s the power of the liberal arts.

“I’m a poster child for the liberal arts,” he adds.

Fresh out of Dartmouth, Conroy wanted nothing more than to be a teacher and coach. “George [Trautman] offered me a job at Avon,” he recalls. “But Kevin [Driscoll] gave me good advice: he told me it was easier to begin coaching at the college level and then move to high school, rather than to go the other way, so I took a job coaching football at Princeton.” That job was short-lived. While there, Conroy visited New York City and saw what friends and classmates were accomplishing on Wall Street. “I thought, if these guys can do it, why can’t I? Wall Street is about competing for clients, working with clients, working

The Avonian Spring 2015

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Brian and his nephew, Joey Creen ’12, at the end of a Tough Mudder race at Mount Snow in 2014.

with teammates—a lot of the same aspects as Avon: competing, persevering in a fast-paced environment,” Conroy contends.

“There was a lot to learn. But that’s how a dream begins.

“Besides,” Conroy adds with a smile, “it was the spring of 1987, before the Wall Street crash, and places like Goldman Sachs were willing to hire ex-football players…”

His career in the financial world took off from there. After more than 10 years at Goldman Sachs, Conroy had stints at JP Morgan, ABN Amro, SAC Capital, and Sigma Capital before landing at Fidelity in 2005. His experiences at Avon, he says

“What Avon taught me was the magic and importance of learning. A liberal arts background opens your mind to learning, and that’s enormously important.

At Avon I had to take classes in different disciplines. But I also studied what interested me. There’s a refreshing energy in learning to learn…I’m a poster child for the liberal arts.”

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Spring 2015 The Avonian

Alumni Spotlight Brian and his wife, Laurie, with children Paden, Ingrid, and Virginia, inside Boston Symphony Hall.

today, stood him in good stead as his career gained traction.

“The career moves I’ve made go back to the lessons I learned at Avon,” he reflects.

“The honor code. Morality.

I learned to live by these things at Avon, and they have served me very well in my career.” Wall Street, to be sure, has not been known for its integrity. “I tell people that when morals became the standard on Wall Street, my star rose,” says Conroy.

The payoff? “Rarely have I had to look for something,” he says. “Others have seen something in me. Focus on the task at hand, stress teamwork and integrity, and good things will happen.”

Even as he was launching his career, Conroy was also deepening his alumni involvement with Avon Old Farms.

“From the moment I graduated, I remember talking to Seth Mendell about how I could be involved,” he recalls. “I became a class agent early on, and I remember coming back and trying to be involved in any way I could—phonathons, writing letters.

Then in the mid-1990s, [Board Chair] Peter Aron asked me to join the board to represent the 1980s era. I explained I had no money—but plenty of passion.”

In 2005, Conroy stepped away from the board briefly to accommodate a career and family move to the Boston area. But it wasn’t long before Board Chair Dean Graham called his old friend (“Dean and I had been buddies since we were little kids swimming together in the Avon town pool”), and Conroy gladly rejoined the board, becoming chair himself in 2011.

When asked what has been accomplished during his tenure as board chair, Conroy quickly deflects personal praise.

“I’m really proud of how Avon has grown, while keeping the core of what makes Avon special,” he says. “There are two things that hurt schools like Avon. First, trying to be someone they’re not, and second, trying to stay true to their core without adapting to a changing world. Avon has held onto the core while moving forward.

“I’ve been honored to be board chair,” he adds. “It’s a role I’m incredibly proud of—coming from a 14-year-old asthmatic! So many things I’ve accomplished in life I never could have dreamed.

“I’m thrilled with where the school is, and with the discipline with which the school has been run,” Conroy

continues. “Avon has a terrific headmaster in Ken LaRocque, along with a dedicated faculty and staff.

Avon continues to firm up its foundation as the best school for boys in the country.

“Avon is still a young school, though, in some ways, with many interruptions along the way,” Conroy admits, noting the school’s years of upheaval and subsequent closing during World War II. “Because of this, Avon doesn’t have the foundation of alumni support other 100-year-old schools have. But since the 1960s and ’70s, Avon’s alumni base has become solid. I’m hopeful this foundation will only improve. As terrific as Avon is today, it’s only getting stronger.”

With an incredibly busy career and a family that currently spans two continents, balance is important to Conroy. “You learn that at Avon,” he says simply. “I’m passionate about so many things, but at Avon I learned to balance those things.”

Exercise remains important to him, but he also loves to cook—he calls it “caveman cooking”—and he tries to spend as much time with family, and with extended family, as he can.

“Balance is something I preach professionally and I talk about it with my kids,” he adds.

Brian and his wife of 25 years, Laurie, have three children: Ingrid (16), Virginia (14), and Paden (13). “Laurie and I were married in the Avon Chapel and had our reception in the Refectory,” Conroy says proudly. “Laurie has always been very supportive of my Avon involvement, and more recently she has seen the Avon influence on our nephew, Joey Creen ’12.”

Might there be another Avonian in the family one day? Son Paden already loves Avon, according to Conroy, and he “looks forward to applying.”

Conroy’s own love for Avon, ignited years ago in the heart of an asthmatic 14-year-old, is unquestionably enduring. “I owe so much to the place,” he explains. “And I cherish it so very much. It has shaped me, it has shaped my family, it has shaped my extended family, and it has shaped my friends. My father was in the Army for a while, and his Army friends were like a brotherhood. When I think of Avon, I think of a similar kind of brotherhood, and for people who didn’t go to Avon, they can’t fathom it. At a time that is so difficult for teenage boys, if you immerse yourself in it, Avon is a magical place.

“It’s the essence of who I am.”

“[Avon] is the essence of who I am.”

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43

Please send us your personal notes!

Class Notes can be submitted to Lizabeth Abramson at: AbramsonL@avonoldfarms.com The deadlines for Class Notes submission are: Fall issue: September 1, 2015 Spring issue: March 1, 2016

Tom Adams ’64 and his wife, Julie, and their family returned to Connecticut for the funeral of Tom’s mother, Honorar y Director Louise Ada ms. While back, the family took a tour of campus with Dean Peter Evans and his wife, Sue. Top row: Chad Turner, Tina Mitchell, Dave Mitchell, Stacy Villalaz, Mike Villalaz, Sophie Villalaz, and Julie Adams. Middle row: Xavier Villa laz, and Tom Adams ’64. Bottom row: Kyla Mitchell and Nash Mitc hell.

Class Notes 42 RUSSELL HUNTER, Head Class Agent

PO Box 22, Farmington, CT 06034-0022

50 HARVEY RUBIN, Head Class Agent 102 Barbour Cir., Newport News, VA 23606-2201 harvo2516@verizon.net

Neck. If you get up that way it is a treat. You have to go there through the Portland Museum of Art, then down to The Colony, another grand old hotel in Kennebunkport. It was great to see Frank. We had a nice dinner on a boat moored in the harbor in Portland and used only as a restaurant. Frank seemed in good spirits and he seems to keep busy.

His stepson PETER RICE ’76 and family had been

showed up for the first lecture. This spring, he was asked to teach a two-session seminar on New England whaling. Alice sings with the chorale and church choirs, delivers mail to patients in a nursing facility, and reads to those who cannot see well.

230 Tellidora Ct., Ft. Myers, FL 33908-1618 sethalicemendell@gmail.com

to see him in August. One of his stepdaughters lives north of Portland.” The Homeiers, who still live in St. Louis, have two grown daughters.

5405 Dranes Tavern Dr., Fairfax, VA 22030-4603 dhmacpherson@verizon.net

DAVE HOMEIER and his wife, Barbara, saw

SETH MENDELL and his wife, Alice, drove to

FRANK LEAVITT in early September. They had

Massachusetts from their new home in Florida for three weeks over the Christmas holiday. After their return, their daughter, Phyllis, and her husband, Paul, visited them in January, and their daughter, Margaret, and their grandchild, Kelsey, visited in February. Seth gives weekly Russian history lectures and has had a terrific turnout, as 100 people

51 WARREN FORD, Head Class Agent

115 Center St., Wolcott, CT 06716 jodir@aol.com

52 SETH F. MENDELL, Head Class Agent

postponed a trip to France, thinking something closer to home would be better, and decided Maine was a great alternative. Barbara emailed, “Flying into Portland, we started our stay at Whitehall Inn in Camden, then to Portland, mainly to see Frank and to visit Winslow Homer’s studio in Prout’s

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Spring 2015 The Avonian

54 DOUGLAS H. MACPHERSON, Class Agent

DOUG MACPHERSON emailed, “Our trip to

India and Nepal pretty much ended when my wife ran off a cliff in the Nepal Himalayas and I had to follow her. It was the absolute highlight of the trip.

We paraglided for an hour surrounded by snowcovered peaks. We also rode an elephant looking for Bengal tigers. (see photo). We found only one footprint, but saw rhinos, crocs, and other more common wildlife. People on another elephant had

“The year began on a sad note when I learned of the death of RICHARD LOVELAND, one Doug Macpherson ’54 and his wife, Mary, while on a trip to Nepal

, Meg, 2 and his wife tchkiss Jon Salony ’6 Ho er ov ry ’s victo enjoyed Avon d in October. en ek We s nt during Pare

of the crucial mentors of my formative years. He was a mere decade older than I was, just starting a career in private school education that would one day culminate in a plum headmastership.

But his passion for the subject of history was infectious; it had a youthful energy, optimism, even an innocence to it, which I and my classmates could relate to, which more than compensated for his lack of seasoned knowledge. I was glad I could tell him all this face to face when we saw each other again at the Class of 1959’s 50th Reunion in 2009, where he was an honored guest.” Jock’s daughter, Sarah, after earning with distinction a doctorate in American history at the University of Chicago, landed a great job teaching at the University of Sheffield in England.

60 RICHARD L. WILLIAMS, Head Class Agent

PO Box 218, South Orleans, MA 02662-0218 Rclumberclan@aol.com the excitement of bees. Think about them from an elephant’s point of view. So the elephant ran, trumpeting wildly, but no one was hurt. Another high point involved riding over the mountains in a bus on the most dangerous roads in the world. Our British compatriots were singing and laughing uproariously. Poorly maintained mountain roads filled with unlicensed drivers and poorly maintained vehicles can have that effect. Of course we saw the usual North Indian highlights: scenes from the Kama Sutra in bas-relief, the Red Fort, the Ganges, etc. Hope this gives you the flavor of the trip and encourages some of you to do likewise.”

55 EDWARD J. HAWIE, Head Class Agent

138 Hampton Point Dr. St. Simons Island, GA 31522-5426 ehawie@bellsouth.net

57 RICHARD THORNDIKE and his wife, Peggy,

enjoyed time last year in Nantucket; Tanglewood; Symphony Hall; Middleburg, Va., and Monhegan Island, Maine, as well as a trip to Toms River, N.J.,

61

where their daughter, Christine, was ordained in the Presbyterian Church, and now serves as the associate pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Salt Lake City, Utah.

GEORGE F. HENSCHEL JR., Head Class Agent 101 Seminary Rd., Bedford, NY 10506 gfhjr@aol.com

58

62

AUSTIN CHAMBERS, Co-Head Class Agent

ALAN D. ROZINSKY, Head Class Agent

317 Flanders Rd., Stonington, CT 06378-2109 Hilltop12@aol.com

13620-B Via Flora, Delray Beach, FL 33484 alroz@lycos.com

STEPHEN HOLT, Co-Head Class Agent

A. B. LAWRENCE completed Dogged Doggerel, a

75 Bridge St., Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA 01944 stephenholt@comcast.net

book of 52 poems, including WWI remembrances and three children’s stories. Dogged Doggerel is available through Amazon books.

59 CHARLES W. DAVIS, Co-Head Class Agent

6905 West 99th St., Overland Park, KS 66212 cwdavis@waretec.com DOUGLAS B. MARSHALL, Co-Head Class Agent

63 THOMAS K. CURTIS, Head Class Agent

4306 Pomona Rd., Dallas, TX 75209-2822 knickc@fastmail.fm

2 Berkshire Rd., Bloomfield, CT 06002 douglas.marshall@raveis.com

TOM ADAMS and his wife, Martha, attended the

JOCK DAVENPORT and his wife, Batya, enjoyed travel last year to both Berlin and London, with a return trip across the Atlantic on the Queen Mary 2. In penning his 2014 year in review, Jock shared,

64

November reception for Avonians in Atlanta.

W. B. HARWOOD III, Head Class Agent

24 Overhill Ave., New Britain, CT 06053 wbhtcc@aol.com

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Class Notes

The family of Spencer Beal ’65 and son Spence Beal ’95 enjoyed a safari in Botswana last July.

Family of Jim Corrigan ’67, from left: Andrew ’98 and his fiancée, Amanda, Liz, Carol, and Jim ’67.

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67

PERRY BENSON, Head Class Agent

JAMES W. CORRIGAN, Co-Head Class Agent

2135 Naudain St., Philadelphia, PA 19146-1218 pb2@jacobswyper.com

826 Gould Hill Rd., Contoocook, NH 03229 jwc915@gmail.com

PETER BANNIGAN emailed, “To commemorate

WILLIAM F. ROBERTS, Co-Head Class Agent 786 Brownsville Rd., Sinking Spring, PA 19608 wfroberts@fast.net

the New Year I have released the second book in the eBook series I started last year. The title is Holy Evil: Nikey & Tee. The books are adult science fiction/ fantasy that take place in Brooklyn. It is the story of the long-lost survivors of a mythical Irish clan called the Tuatha de Danann. They are bi-pagans who have the ability to manipulate energy, setting up a confrontation between the Roman Church and themselves. Book two is the conclusion of the battle between the Tuatha de Danann and the Church. Fun read on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and others.”

PERRY BENSON attended the Avon Philly

reception hosted by Wendy and WADE MCDEVITT ’82 at White Dog Café.

66 MICHAEL D. BARKER, Head Class Agent 139 Kirkwood Rd., West Hartford, CT 06117-2835 barkermike@aol.com

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Spring 2015 The Avonian

JIM CORRIGAN and his wife, Carol, sent greetings in December from Florida, where they spent time this winter. Their family photo includes an addition, as son Andrew ’98 is now engaged.

68 GEORGE L. PURNELL, Head Class Agent

4822 Brighton Lakes Blvd., Boynton Beach, FL 33436 glpluvssports@gmail.com CHARLES RAUCH emailed, “I’ve been living in northern Utah for the past 29 years, working mostly as a mountain guide for private ski resorts and a few non-profit organizations. For a while I used my master’s degree in parks and recreation as a Utah state parks ranger. There was a lot of law enforcement in the back country. About 14

years ago, I built my dream log cabin in the Uinta Mountains, about an hour’s drive east of Salt Lake City. I raise some horses and cattle on my ranch, have three dogs, and numerous wildlife passes through all year: moose, elk, mounatin lion, black bear, mule deer, eagles, cranes, and large flocks of geese, just to name a few. I black powder hunt most fall seasons for either elk or deer and eat heartily all year long. From 1994 to 1997 I rode my horse, George, from Virginia (Chesapeake Bay) to Wallport, Ore. Coast to coast, 3,600 miles and still making my way across. It was a fantastic adventure and I made many new friends. I still recall Avon with all its wonderful memories, especially Sid Clark, Don Pierpont, the Nimrod Club, and football, wrestling, and lacrosse, the great sports in which I partook. In fact, I still have my old wooden lax stick.”

69 DAVID F. COLEMAN, Class Agent

35 Adelaide Ave., Barrington, RI 02806 dfc@colemanrealtors.com RICH FIELD sold his Rhode Island coffee

company to Finlay’s International Tea in Britain,

Bob Moran ’73 embarking down the aisle at the wedding of his daughter, Katie.

a mini-reunion in Getting together for Can Can December at the Richmond, Va., in bberd He n Joh ft to right) Brasserie were (le ed” pe “S rt be Ro , ’71 ’67, Hank Coons d Harry Burt ’53.

Patterson ’67, an

Missy and Bob Moran ’73 with their daughter, Katie, and son-in-law, Alex White.

and divides his time between Rhode Island and Jupiter, Fla. He is still doing some consulting and on a variety of boards. He enjoys summers and some holidays in Rhode Island. Two of his children live is California and are in the “action sport” industry, while his younger son in Rhode Island is involved in the boating industry. He can be contacted at rfield333@gmail.com.

WINSTON MCKELLAR emailed, “Not all

graduates from AOF take the ordinary and chosen paths of life. My son, PIERCE ’05, at the ripe old age of 28, has obviously found his path in life. His passion for the last 10 years has been Texas hold ’em poker; he is a resident of Las Vegas, and as a professional gambler has active lock boxes (storage safes for poker chips and cash) at the Wynn, Venetian, Aria, and Bellagio hotels.

Pierce, in 2015, has chosen to become a Marco Polo, Columbus, or Magellan type of explorer as he makes his way to uncharted waters of Panama, Ecuador, and Peru, and who knows where next, as he decided to take a one-way ticket heading south in early February.

Hopefully my son will return in time to attend his 10th Reunion this May. I look forward to walking the campus with him in May if he returns from

Kevin Driscoll ’72, Chane Keller ’08, Coley Lynch ’91, Zachary Winemaster ’17, and Kenny Winemaster ’83 in front of the Lou Holtz Coaching Statue at Notre Dame.

his walkabout down yonder. I trust the abundance of snow this winter has not caused any structural damages to the school. Don’t fret, for we are now experiencing spring training here in Arizona, which only means that spring is not far away.”

70 HARRIS H. BUCKLIN III, Head Class Agent

004 Margaret Jones Ln., Williamsburg, VA 23185 hbucklin3@aol.com

71 JOSEPH C. VECCHIARINO III, Head Class Agent

5 Ohehyahtah Pl., Danbury, CT 06810 drvvv@sbcglobal.net

72 KEVIN DRISCOLL, Class Agent 500 Old Farms Rd., Avon, CT 06001 driscollk@avonoldfarms.com KEVIN DRISCOLL was having dinner with COLEY LYNCH ’91, BRENDAN LYNCH ’88, and

their father, Jerry, at O’Rourke’s Pub last fall before the Notre Dame/Louisville football game, when they ran into TRAVIS TUCKER ’08 (see photos, above and p. 51).

Ned Thompson ’74 celebrates the wedding of his son, Charlie ’03, with fellow Avonians: from left, Jeb Bell ’74, Ned Thompson ’74, Charlie Thompson ’03, Preston Thompson ’08, and Charlie Hamilton ’03.

73 CHRISTOPHER L. ATKINS, Head Class Agent

415 East 52nd St., Apt. 4HC New York, NY 10022-6482 clatkins1@gmail.com BOB MORAN and his wife, Missy, are delighted

to announce that their daughter, Katie Moran, and Alex White were married on September 13, 2014, at St. Mary’s Church in Old Town Alexandria, Va., with a reception at the Belle Haven Country Club. Her brother, MATT ’04, was a member of the wedding party. Katie is a graduate of Villanova University and is employed with Barclays Investment Bank in New York City. Alex is a graduate of Trinity College and is employed as a senior underwriter at PartnerRe in Greenwich, Conn. The couple resides in Manhattan.

74 GEORGE J. GIANNONI, Co-Head Class Agent

36 Twilight Dr., Granby, CT 06035-1212 GGiannoni@cox.net EDWARD P. MOLLOY, Co-Head Class Agent 6 Winhart Dr., Granby, CT 06035 E.molloy@cox.net

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Class Notes Bill Cher ry ’80 searched for gelad a monkeys in the Sie men Mountains, Simien Ethiopia, with a guide.

On their annual scalloping trip to Nantucket last November, these members of the Class of ’75 canned 82 pints! Seated bottom row, left to right: Jason Beeble ’75, Wiz Applegate, and Bob Applegate ’75. Top row: Will Van Sant, Don Gallup ’75, and John Van Sant ’75.

75

76

80

TOM BYRNE, Head Class Agent

ALEXANDER N. WORLEY, Head Class Agent

31 Helena Rd., Avon, CT 06001-3433 tbyrne@thomasbyrne.com

20 Shore Grove Rd., Clinton, CT 06413 alexworley@sbcglobal.net

THOMAS E. DAVEY, Head Class Agent 4816 Sandestin Dr., Dallas, TX 75287 Thomas.Davey@lighting.ge.com

FRED MICHEL shared some some delicious

77

chocolates with the Avon Alumni Office, as well as some memories about ALAN CROFUT, who started Avon with the Class of ’77 and who is now a chocolatier in Keene, N.H., at Unbridled Chocolates: “I remember Alan lived directly across the hall from me in Pelican when I was a freshman in the fall of 1973. His roomate was TOM STERNBERG from New Orleans (now in Houston), Skip Flanagan was our dorm master, and DON GALLUP was the hallway monitor.

JASON BEEBLE emailed, “My son, ADAM BEEBLE ’05 and his wife, Elizabeth, were married

January 17th in Tampa (see photo p. 55). Adam is in his fourth year of medical school at Nova Southeastern and has just been matched with Palmetto General in Miami for his medical residency. He hopes to specialize in interventional cardiology. Liz is a TV producer at WSVN-TV in Miami. We all plan to return to Avon for my 40th and Adam’s 10th reunion. See you then!”

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Spring 2015 The Avonian

JORGE E. CONSUEGRA, Head Class Agent

5 Andrews Rd., Greenwich, CT 06830 jorgeeconsuegra@yahoo.com

78 JOHN M. GARVEY, Head Class Agent

389 Haines Ave., Long Beach, CA 90814 jmgarvey@garvspace.com

79

WILLIAM CHERRY still resides in Nairobi, Kenya,

and emailed, “This year, work travels took me to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, United Arab Emirates, Rwanda, Burundi, and Djibouti.

My wife and I were also able to take some personal side trips to Lesotho and South Africa. At some point we were able to make it back to the States to join GARY SCHICK for our 30th college reunion at Hobart and William Smith.”

HENRY WHITE, ERIC JOHNSON, and JOHN NOLAN, best friends while students at Avon, caught

ANTHONY M. GRAY, Co-Head Class Agent

up in California at Eric’s in October (see photo).

6212 Wagner Ln., Bethesda, MD 20816 tgray@tonygray.net

PETER MATALON was back on campus in December, while investigating schools in the area for his youngest daughter, Rebecca. Peter saw the new athletic complex and theatre for the first time and had an opportunity to reconnect with his former Spanish teacher and tutor, Sue Evans, and classmate JOHN BOURGAULT at a wrestling practice in the Tiernan Wrestling Room.

SCOTT B. LINKE, Co-Head Class Agent

16 Eleven Levels Rd., Ridgefield, CT 06877-3011 scottblinke@comcast.net SCOTT LINKE and his wife, Deb, are often on

campus visiting their son, KURT ’16. Kurt and the rest of the AOF varsity swim team won the New England Division III Championships in early March.

Henry White ’80, Eric Johnson ’80, and John Nolan ’80 enjoyed a sunrise in San Francisco last October.

’84 with his Mark McGinley d son, Markie. an , ey wife, Shell

Shuji Kobayakawa ’85 and his wife, Chikako, daughter, Satoko (10), and son, Tomohiro (8) in the Niigata district of Japan.

81 SAMUEL C. BOOKBINDER, Head Class Agent

Wells Fargo Advisors LLC, 30 South 17th St., Suite 2000, Philadelphia, PA 19103-2707 samuel.bookbinder@wfadvisors.com

82 GREGORY T. FISH, Head Class Agent

56 Blue Ridge Dr., Simbury, CT 06089 gtf324@yahoo.com

83 WILLIAM E. ESCHERT, Co-Head Class Agent

24 Westlands Rd., Avon, CT 06001-3197 billeschert@comcast.net RICHARD C. GREGORY, Co-Head Class Agent

30 Walnut Farms Dr., Farmington, CT 06032 rick@rcgregory.com BILL ESCHERT returned to campus last December

for the holiday reception during the AOF hockey tournament. Joined by his son, Jack, and daughter, Ashley, Bill saw fellow classmate BILL GREEN and his family (RICKY ’15) and AOF faculty and leaders Ken LaRocque, Skip Flanagan, Peter and Susan Evans, HENRY COONS ’71, and John

Gardner. Additionally, he spent time with good friends Dorothy and Jerry Graham (parents of DEAN ’88 and DREW ’89) and met newly appointed Director of Development CHRIS HAMPTON ’79 P ’09,’10,’11. “The Old Farms campus looks great with many continuing improvements and additions. However, my strongest take-away was that the students—Men of Avon—are impressive young men: polite, accomplished, and mature.”

84 JOHN GORDON, Head Class Agent

246 Nacoochee Dr. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30305 falconatlfan@gmail.com MARK MCGINLEY posted some interesting

news on Facebook this fall. His daughter, Megan, signed to play volleyball for Clemson University.

Clemson Coach Jolene Hoover said about Megan, “McGinley, a 6-2 middle hitter, played four years of varsity volleyball at Chagrin Falls High School.

She was named Chagrin Valley Conference MVP in 2014 and earned First-Team All-Chagrin Valley Conference honors as a senior and sophomore, second-team honors as a junior, and honorable mention honors as a freshman. Her team won the

Division 2 District title in 2014. McGinley enrolled at Clemson and began classes in January of 2015.”

Megan has an older brother, Hayes, and a younger brother, Markie. Mark and his wife, Shelley, live in Bentleyville, Ohio, where Mark has been director at KeyBanc Capital Markets.

85 SAM L. RUBENSTEIN, Head Class Agent 2640 Endsleigh Dr., Bloomfield Hills, MI 48301 richmondsr@aol.com CHRIS DREW and his wife, Katie, ran the New York Marathon last fall, with times of 04:52:37 and 04:52:37 respectively.

SAM RUBENSTEIN started a new job last November as vice president of financial assurance at Caesars Entertainment Corporation, in Las Vegas.

Sam emailed, “One of my first weeks at Caesars, I noticed a young consultant doing some work for my team who was wearing an Avon alumni tie. It end up being MIKE WITKIEWICZ ’06. It was nice to be able to take a break from the stress of a new job and exchange some Avon stories.”

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Class Notes

Shuji Kobayakawa ’85 visited campus last fall.

Oliver Wolcott ’88 and his sons.

Hal Beacham ’87 with his sons, Brad (17), who is in the National Honor Society, and George (15), a soccer champ.

SHUIJI KOBAYAKAWA made a trip to campus last fall (see photo). Upon returning to Japan, he wrote, “I must say that I am deeply impressed by the tremendous changes that Avon has gone through over the years since I left the school 30 years ago. Avon has endeavored to meet the challenges of students and their parents who have an ever-widening range of interests both academically and professionally. I am fully confident that Avon will continue to provide those students with the experience that will become an important prerequisite for their career development in the future. At least, that is exactly what Avon means to me when I look back my 25-year career in the central banking circle.”

86 STEPHEN R. GORMAN, Class Agent

3 Smith Ln., Burlington, CT 06013-1201 srg_2966@hotmail.com CHRIS NASON opened up the Sapphire Grill 17

years ago. While in Savannah last November, Ken LaRocque, Peter Evans, and CHRIS HAMPTON ’79 enjoyed dinner at his restaurant. Check out the website at www.sapphiregrill.com and stop in for a great meal or drink when in Savannah.

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Spring 2015 The Avonian

87 HAROLD R. BEACHAM JR., Class Agent 263 Western Ave., Sherborn, MA 01770 hal.beacham44@comcast.net

88 SHAWN E. ATKINSON, Co-Head Class Agent

428 Ridgewood Ave., Glen Ridge, NJ 07028 shawnatki@gmail.com PETER REED, Co-Head Class Agent

91 Butternut Ln., Southport, CT 06890 preed@caldwellpartners.com OLIVER WOLCOTT, father of Oliver Jr. (12) and Dixon (9), is vice president of business development at Solairus Aviation. He lives in Haverford, Pa., and attended the Avon reception February 3, 2015, at White Dog Café in Wayne, Pa., hosted by Wendy and WADE MCDEVITT ’82. Oliver said, while there, that he had a nice chat with MATT GREEN ’86, who is head of upper school at Haverford School, where Dixon is in 3rd grade.

89 ROBERT WILEMAN, Head Class Agent

7425 N.E. 97th Terr., Oklahoma City, OK 73151-9121 rmw@wilemanagency.com

ROB JAMISON returned to his roots in Pittsburgh to work for his family’s seventh-generation elevator company, Marshall Elevator. The family sold the 193-year-old business three years ago to Farmington, Connecticut-based Otis Elevator. Shortly thereafter, Rob and his wife launched a high-end Italianmade footwear brand, EMY MACK. Sold in small specialty boutiques around the country, the brand can now be found walking the runways at New York Mercedes Benz fashion week, celebrity red carpet events and national fashion publications. The Jamisons have three children: Mack (8), Briggs (6), and Gwynnie (5).

90 PETER J. DECKERS, Head Class Agent 500 Old Farms Rd., Avon, CT 06001 Deckersp@avonoldfarms.com

91 MICHAEL M. MULLIN, Head Class Agent

8 Nickerson Ln., Darien, CT 06820 michael.mullin@db.com

92 DAMIEN J. EGAN, Head Class Agent

52 Brookview Ct., Groton, CT 06340-5528 degan2@hotmail.com

Left: Adam Cline ’95 celebrated his 38th birthday with Mae (9), Oren (7), and Thomas (2).

Travis Tucker ’90, Kevin Driscoll ’72, and Brendan Lynch ’88 at O’Rourke’s Pub at Notre Dame before the Louisville game.

gos ’94 with Nik Paleolo (4) and Colton, ko Ni , ns so his in Januar y. who was born

Brendon Welker ’90 bumped into Peter Malafronte ’90 in Vermont. From left: Christi and Peter Malafronte, and Brendon with his wife, Liz Schmitt.

Left to right: Chane Keller ’08, Kevin Driscoll ’72, and Brendan Lynch ’88, watching Notre Dame vs.

Louisville football game.

his wife, ick ’95 with Dan Fitzpatr son, Liam, last eir Sara, and th beach. e th at summer

93 TRAVIS MERRITT, Class Agent

21 Monroe Ave., Shrewsbury, NJ 07702 merritttravis@yahoo.com

94 GRAHAM C. FULLER, Co-Head Class Agent

2937 Morris Rd., Ardmore, PA 19003-1832 grahamcraigfuller@gmail.com PAUL M. GOZZO, Co-Head Class Agent

3401 S. Lamar Blvd., Apt. 3431, Austin, TX 78704 11pgoz@gmail.com NIK PALEOLOGOS and his wife, Lindsay,

welcomed their second son into the world on January 30, 2015. Colton Costas Paleologos weighed in at 7 lbs. 7 oz. and was 20½ inches long. Big brother Niko (4) is as excited as mom and dad.

MIKE ROZINSKY is director in the corporate technology group at Fidelity Investments. He and his wife, Leah, have two children: daughter Joanna (4) and son Kai (7).

95 ANTHONY D. SILVESTRO,

Head Class Agent 3 Beech Cir., Andover, MA 01810-2901 tony_silvestro@administaff.com ERIK ASSADOURIAN emailed,

“My wife and I had a son, Ayhan Avak Assadourian, on June 7, 2012. A little late letting you know but these past two years sure have flown past!”

DAN FITZPATRICK emailed HENRY COONS in

the fall: “I just had lunch last week with fellow ‘95 classmate, JON HARTNETT, and we were saying how excited we are for our upcoming reunion in May. Twenty years is a big one, and so we promise to play our part in getting the whole Class of ’95 back to campus. My wife, Sara, and I welcomed our son, Liam Francis Fitzpatrick, born this past April. He is almost seven months now, and is doing great. We are thinking we may have a future small forward on our hands. Liam is also looking forward to visiting the Avon campus this coming May for my 20th Reunion.”

CHARLES HOCK has been married since

October 16, 2010, to his wife, Valorie. Charles wrote, “We have a baby girl named Perry, who is 17 months. We live in my hometown of Augusta, and spend time during the summers in Cashiers, N.C. I have been working in my family’s real estate development company since 2000 and I have had my commercial real estate license since 2004.

Sherman and Hemstreet Real Estate Company holds my license and I am an industrial warehouse and office specialist.”

MATT APTMAN wrote, “I have been married for nearly 12 years to my wife, Jessica. We live in South Florida with our three children: Gabrielle (9), Hudson (6), and Harper (1½). I continue to find rewarding work in the hedge fund industry, which provides ample opportunity for intellectual stimulation and interpersonal development.

The Avonian Spring 2015

51

Class Notes

Mike Brett ’98 and his wife, Ellie, last summer before the birth of Campbell on October 25, 2014.

Campbell, son of Ellie and Mike Brett ’98

Above: 8½-month-old twins of Brian Emerson ’96, Parker (left) and Patrick (right), proudly sport Dad’s school colors.

Erik Assadourian ’95 and his son, Ayhan Avak, voting last November.

were mar ried on October 18, William ’97 and Caitlin Ehrman in Pittsburgh, and enjoyed a n Pen 2014, at the Omni William in December. honeymoon to Maui, Hawaii,

Whatever success I have achieved thus far, as well as that yet to come, stems from a learned passion to aspire and persevere.”

97

His wife, Caitlin, is an internal medicine resident at UPMC, and will be entering her fellowship in gastroenterology in July of 2015 at the University of Virginia. In November, Caitlin presented her research at the AASLD for liver disease in Boston and afterwards, the couple drove down to Avon for a visit to campus.

MATT SULLIVAN and his wife, Laura, are

MARK A. CARUSO, Head Class Agent

KYLE R. YOUNGQUIST, Co-Head Class Agent

enjoying life with their daughter, Madison Christine. Laura is a 3rd grade teacher and Matt works in post-production for a reality TV company, Brian Catalina Entertainment. The Sullivans live in Newall, Calif.

124 Westminster Rd., Chatham, NJ 07928-1364 mcaruso@gmail.com

2 14th St., Apt. 321, Hoboken, NJ 07030 bigkyleyoungquist@gmail.com

98

BRENT KORSOWER lives in Atlanta where he is

WILLIAM EHRMAN is a physician

coaching a rugby team.

anesthesiologist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and an assistant professor of anesthesiology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He graduated from the UPMC anesthesiology residency program in 2012 and was chairman of the department of anesthesiology for Lake Erie Regional Health Systems of New York for a year after graduating from residency. He then moved to Pittsburgh to be with his fiancée and teach at UPMC, where he currently works.

96

AUSTIN SPERRY and his wife, Sally, announce

the arrival of their son, John Austin, born November 2014. Big brother Jack (4) and sister Genevieve (1) welcomed him home.

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Spring 2015 The Avonian

TIMOTHY B. STAY, Co-Head Class Agent

2024 Upland Way No. 205, Philadelphia, PA 19131 timothystay@gmail.com

GEOFFREY R. BARLOW, Co-Head Class Agent 500 Old Farms Rd., Avon, CT 06001 geoffbarlow34@gmail.com J.A. CORRIGAN, Co-Head Class Agent

300 North State St. No. 3508, Chicago, IL 60654 jamesandrewcorrigan@gmail.com MIKE BRETT emailed: “Things in Austin, Texas

are amazing. I am elated to share that Ellie and I have a recent addition to our family. Our son, Campbell, was born on October 25, 2014, at 6:03 p.m. He was 8 lbs. 10oz. Ellie and Campbell

Patrick Quinn ’00 received his master of fine arts in blacksmithing from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. Check out his work at www.patrickJquinn.com.

Mini AOF reunion in North Carolina: B. Reeves ’95, Chris Higgins ’01, Nick Bonino ’07, Dan Seiden ’00, and Edward O’Herron ’99. “Two of these guys led the Canucks to a 3-0 win over the former Hartford Whalers. Sadly, Brass Bonanza was nowhere to be heard,” wrote Dan.

Brody Anthony, six-month old son of Jeff DeFrancesco ’00, dons an Avon t-shirt.

Andrew Corrigan ’98 and his fiancée, Amanda Slaughter, are both architects in NYC.

Laura, Madison (18 months), and Matt Sullivan ’97 during a family trip to Disneyland last summer.

are both healthy and we couldn’t be happier!

Other than that amazing and life-changing news, Ellie is building up her consulting firm (wwww. mediabombshell.com) and has worked with some truly incredible clients over the past two years. A good number of them have appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America, and The View. My company, Vanguard Cleaning Systems of Austin, continues to grow at a steady clip. We will have more than 150 franchise owners in our three markets and over 1,100 facilities under managment.

Every day there are new challenges and adventures for Ellie, Campbell, and me. I am finding that our 30s are designed to make us dig really deep, work hard, and build a family. It is a challenging and magical time!”

season as a captain. He dealt with some early injuries to come back strongly in his forward position. He was recognized for his grit and determination and ability to persevere during difficult times. He is an excellent reflection upon Kareem and the character traits for which Kareem was also known.

The Kareem Norman ’98 Award is presented each year to the Avon Old Farms player who “best demonstrates the qualities Kareem personified: tremendous passion for the sport of ice hockey, love of the Avon community, and an unbridled enthusiasm for life.” This March, during the winter athletic awards ceremony, BRENDON ASHE ’15 was honored with the Karem Norman Award. He was recognized for his dedication and service to the hockey program at Avon Old Farms. Brendan is a three-year member of the varsity hockey team who provided the team with excellent leadership this past

Chris Van Dusen ’99 giving the first bottle to his daughter, Sawyer.

99 DAVID R. GRYBOSKI, Co-Head Class Agent

101 South Bay Blvd., Suite B-3, PO Box 732, Anna Maria, FL 34216-0732 dgryboski@tampabay.rr.com ANDREW M. KUNISCH, Co-Head Class Agent 1431 33rd St NW., Apt. 2, Washington, DC 20007-2851 kunisch23@yahoo.com STEPHEN A. ZAPPONE, Co-Head Class Agent

20 Dudley Rd., Litchfield, CT 06759 zappones@yahoo.com CHRIS VAN DUSEN shared, “My wife, Sara, and I welcomed our baby daughter, Sawyer Leigh Van Dusen, born January 8, 2015. She weighed 7 lbs.

15 oz. and was 20¼ inches long.”

00 MICHAEL J. O’NEILL, Co-Head Class Agent

2 Saltaire Dr., Old Lyme, CT 06371 michaeloneill27@yahoo.com

Stratford Dennis ’00 with his daughter, Sadie Lar k.

DAN SEIDEN, Co-Head Class Agent

76 Crabapple Ln., Asheville, NC 28804 seidend@gmail.com JEFF DEFRANCESCO and his wife announce

the arrival of their son on August 7, 2014.

Jeff emailed, “I recently became a father to the cutest little boy (see photo) and wanted to share this with the Avon community. His name is Brody Anthony DeFrancesco and he has made our lives so much fun!”

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53

Class Notes

Pierce McKellar ’05 – Avon’s own Sir Edmund Hillary.

h his wife, Glenn Stevens ’01 wit mas.

Tho nry Cori, and son, He

Family of Charles Hamilton ’03: Kerin, Tucker (2 months), Charles ’03, and Brooks (2).

STRAT DENNIS and his wife, Ashley Alston,

announced the arrival of their daughter and firstborn (see photo). Strat wrote, “Introducing Sadie Lark Dennis, born November 11, 2014, at a slim 9 lbs. 13 oz. and 21 inches. Mom and daughter are doing well. Dad is exhausted.”

PEDRO MERIZALDE announces the birth of

his daughter, Rafaela Merizalde Arrazola, born on October 29, 2014. Rafaela weighed 6.6 lbs. and was 19.6 inches long. Pedro lives in his hometown in Bogota, Colombia, and works for Alqueria, one of the country’s largest dairy processors. He is the director of one of their business units as well as the director for all of the company’s digital strategies.

BILL BROOMALL and his wife, Jackie, announce the birth of their son, William Ryan, born on July 1, 2014. The family resides in Avon.

STEPHEN WAGNER, and his wife, Katie,

announce the birth of Emma June, born October 29, 2014. Big sister Charlotte Elizabeth (2) welcomed her home.

GLENN STEVENS and his wife, Cori, are proud to announce the birth of their son, Henry Thomas Stevens, on June 26, 2014. All are happy and healthy living in Hamilton, Massachusetts (see photo p. 53).

02

DREW WEISMAN and his wife, Val, announce the

WILLIAM N. PALMER, Head Class Agent

birth of their son, Ryan, on January 18, 2015, in London, England.

4736 Terr. St., Kansas City, MO 64112 wnpalmer@gmail.com

01

03

CHRISTOPHER D. COLEMAN, Co-Head Class Agent

JAMES TANG, Head Class Agent

801 39th St. NW No. E83, Washington, DC 20016 christopherdcoleman@gmail.com

300 East 84th St. Apt. 2A., New York, NY 10028 jamesttang@gmail.com

NICHOLAS H. LAROCQUE, Co-Head Class Agent

CHARLES HAMILTON, his wife, Kerin, and

2151 Williams St., Palo Alto, CA 94306-1417 larocque.nicholas@gmail.com

his son Brooks (1), welcomed home the newest addition to the family, Tucker Shay Hamilton, who

54

Spring 2015 The Avonian

was born Oct. 22, 2014 (see photo). Charlie was back at Avon on Veterans Day November 11, 2014, to attend the ceremony honoring CAPT. ANDREW PEDERSEN-KEEL ’02, who was killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan on March 11, 2013. He and P.K. had been on the same hall in Diogenes Charlie’s sophomore year. He and Kerin both attended Salve Regina University in Newport, R.I., where Charlie got his bachelor of science degree in business management in 2008. In 2009, he graduated with an associate degree in culinary arts from Johnson & Wales University in Providence.

04 MATTHEW H. MORAN, Head Class Agent

4114 Manayunk Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19128 matthew.h.moran@gmail.com CHARLIE CUSTER and his wife, Leia, had reason

to celebrate this New Year as they welcomed into the world their first child. Their daughter, Lillian “Lily” Li Custer, was born December 30th; she weighed 8 lbs. 9 oz. and was 21 inches long. The Custers live in Maine. Grandparents and current faculty Art and Michelle Custer P’04 ’05 ’10 are thrilled to have a little girl in the family (see photo p.57).

Adam and Liz Beeble ’05 were married in Florida on January 17, 2015.

wife, Jr. ’05 with his Richard Doane . an th son, Na Monalissa, and

Sam Cole ’04, far right, with his father, Marty, sister, Liz, and brother, Jack, at Superbowl XLIX.

05 DANE G. LEMERIS, Head Class Agent

619 E 5th St. Apt. 29, New York, NY 10009 dlemeris@gmail.com PIERCE MCKELLAR attempted to hike the

world’s highest active volcano in February. He texted, “Cotopaxi sits about 19,500 feet high in Ecuador. By far the most physically challenging thing I ever attempted. Hiking a giant glacier with ice axes and crampons is fun, yet very challenging when every step means less oxygen in the air. We started the hike at 11 p.m. around 13,500 feet and eventually had to call it quits at 5 a.m. around 17,000 feet (see photo). Our slow pace and constant breaks were deemed too dangerous due to the sunrise timing affecting the frozenness of the glacier. The sun eventually came out on our decline, highlighting the sea of clouds.”

The school has learned of the deaths of the following alumni: THOMAS A. JACKA ’40 WALCOTT A. YOUNGER ’45 DAVID G. MASON ’50 PAUL J. CARROLL ’53 JONAS MILLER ’53 CHARLES R. BETTS ’54 LAWRENCE D. BUHL JR. ’54 KERRY A. MAYER ’54 MILTON WILKINSON ’55

RICHARD DOANE JR. and his wife, Monalissa,

DONNELL MCKESSON CAMP ’59

announce the birth of their son, Nathan, born in May 2014 (see photo).

RICHARD H. LEE ’59 DR. EDWARD J. ZNEIMER ’60 MORTIMER H. “TERRY” HESS III ’65 NELSON W. LOGAN ’67 BRIAN REBELLO ’93

The Avonian Spring 2015

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Class Notes

Chris Higgins ’01, Nick Bonino ’07, and Casey Coons ’07.

Chris and Nick play for the Vancouver Canucks. Vancouver beat Boston on February 1 in Boston.

Chris Stanton ’08 with his fiancée, Kate Pellegriti.

Chane Keller ’08 and Chicago linebacker Khaseem Greene ’08 in Chicago.

Chane Keller ’08, Jack Courage ’11, Khaseem Greene ’08, Kevin Driscoll ’72, and Reggie Mills ’11 outside of the Chicago Bears’ locker room last fall.

07 CASEY R. COONS, Co-Head Class Agent

06 KEVIN T. DRISCOLL, Co-Head Class Agent

700 1st St., Apt 6Q., Hoboken, NJ 07030 kevin.t.driscoll@gmail.com JOSHUA P. PAVANO, Co-Head Class Agent 77 Fieldstone Run, Farmington, CT 06032 jpavano@gmail.com TUCKER SHARP has a new real estate job with the Georgetown Company.

KHALID VERJEE emailed from Washington

state where he is now living: “I founded a human advertising company (those people on the side of the street who hold signs). We have changed the industry by tracking our employees’ location and movement using a real-time tracking device. This allows customers to get cost-effective advertising without hurting their brand image. Our customers include Fedex, Cost Plus, World Market, Bed Bath & Beyond, Subway, and Chevron. We currently service customers across the USA with a software development office in Caracas, Venezuela. Check out our website at www.thesignwalkers.com.

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Spring 2015 The Avonian

132 West 8th St. No. 3 South Boston, MA 02127-2536 caseycoons4@gmail.com TYLER C. HADDAD, Co-Head Class Agent 150 Huntington Ave. No. 1, Boston, MA 02115 tyler.c.haddad@gmail.com DEMPSEY QUINN graduated in 2011 from

Cornell University, where he started as a safety and linebacker on the Cornell football team. After graduation, Dempsey worked for two years as an assistant coach at Berkshire School before taking over as head coach this fall. Demsey is also head varsity basketball coach and assistant baseball coach.

He teaches advanced geometry and algebra II and serves as house head at Buck Dormitory on campus.

NICK BONINO married Lauren Cherewyk on July 5, 2014. Nick continues to play professional hockey with the Vancouver Canucks, after playing previously for the Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks.

KEVIN SISTI, Co-Head Class Agent

64 Pinnacle Rd., Farmington, CT 06030 ksideas@aol.com CHRIS STANTON announces his engagement to

Kate Pellegriti (see photo). The two met freshman year at WPI and plan to marry on October 10, 2015. Chris works as an engineering consultant at Aecom in Chelmsford, Mass.

MATT SOLOMON lives in South Boston where

he works as a financial analyst for Marriott International. He travels a lot and plays soccer in his free time.

09 JOHN (BEN) BEATH, Head Class Agent 12229 Prince Towne Dr., St. Louis, MO 63141 beathj@gmail.com

10 MATTHEW R. COZ, Head Class Agent

214 Cherry Brook Rd., Canton, CT 06019 mcoz@trinity.edu

08

11

WILL HENDRICKS, Co-Head Class Agent

OLIVER K. ROTHMANN, Head Class Agent 10 Ardsley Way, Avon, CT 06001 olliekloss@aol.com

117 NW Trinity Place No. 31, Portland, OR 97209 willheatonhendricks@gmail.com

Dylan Laviana ’14 and Ted Smith ’14 stopped by the Avon campus during a college break last winter.

Former Winged Beavers Reggie Mills ’11 and Jack Courage ’11, at Soldier Field.

Faculty Notes Dick Hitchcock, a former teacher and basketball coach from the late ’70s, and his wife, Gloria, were back on campus in October for a visit, en route from their home in Georgia to visit relatives and see the autumn foliage. They toured the “new” campus and were surprised by how much it has grown. Before retirement, they both taught in college but now enjoy travel and more time with their grown children, their children’s spouses, and their grandchildren.

Adam and Liz Beeble ’05 were married in Florida on January 17, 2015

Chair of the Visual Arts Department Cristina Pinton and her husband, Klajd Drogu, announce the birth of their son Xhulian Michel on Sunday, October 12, 2014. Xhulian weighed 7 lbs. 9 oz. and joins big brother Orion (2) (see photo).

Brendon Welker ’91 ’13 meets Johan Venema abi. by chance in Abu Dh

Dean Skip Flanagan and his wife, Britt, went to London just before Thanksgiving for an ESU gathering of English-Speaking Union scholars at Dartmouth House in the Mayfair section of London.

The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, a sponsor of the well-known exchange program, served as hostess.

Dr. Flanagan has been involved with ESU for 30 years, having served as chairman since 1990, and has encouraged the involvement of Avonians.

One of Avon’s great mentors from yesteryear: teacher, coach, advisor, and friend Steve Ward retired after 38 years from Roxbury Latin. Pictured are (from left): Pat, Steve, granddaughter Ophelia, daughter Barrett, and son-in-law Jason.

12 4345 Brookview Dr., Atlanta, GA 30339 shamburgerd@gmail.com

in the United Kingdom when he finishes in another year or so. Amazing the places you can find an Avonian!” (See photo taken in their hotel in Abu Dhabi.)

13

14

WILSON P. MEYER, Head Class Agent

MICKOY R. NICHOL, Co-Head Class Agent 174 Upper County Rd., Apt. No. 2-3, Dennisport, MA 02639 realmickoy@gmail.com

JOHN D. SHAMBURGER, Head Class Agent

2 Torrey Pines Ln., Newport Beach, CA 92660 wilsonpmeyer@gmail.com While traveling in the United Arab Emirates, Avon’s Dean for Enrollment and Institutional Advancement BRENDON WELKER ’91 emailed back to Avon, “I had a pleasant surprise this morning as I was walking through my hotel lobby in Abu Dhabi and ran into the mother of JOHAN VENEMA from Singapore. She was with her husband and Johan at a trade show. I spent 20 minutes or so with Johan, and he’s doing well, serving his mandatory two-year government service to Singapore as a police officer in the investigations division. He plans to go to university

RYAN D. PHILLIPS, Co-Head Class Agent 621 Allen Ct. NW, Atlanta, GA 30327-3511 ryanphillips@utexas.edu DYLAN LAVIANA and TED SMITH stopped

by AOF during their college break in December.

Dylan is an English major at University of Connecticut and Ted is a film and media major at Bucknell (see photo).

MICKOY NICHOL played football

at Bates this year.

The children of Avon faculty Cristina Pinton: Orion (2) holding his little brother, Xhulian.

Proud grandmother Michelle Custer enjoys her first granddaughter, Lily.

Michelle and her husband, Art, are longtime faculty members.

The Avonian Spring 2015

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Avon Move on the

Atlanta

November 18, 2014. At the home of Jennifer and John Gordon ’84

Charlotte

November 19, 2014. Hosted by Janet and Andrew Fisher ’91, Myers Park Country Club

Baltimore

December 2, 2014.

Hosted by Andrew Cordova ’89, The Maryland Club

Chevy Chase

58 58

Spring 2015 The Avonian Fall 2010 The Avonian

December 3, 2014. Hosted by Debra and Dean Graham ’84, The Chevy Chase Club

New York City

December 18, 2014. Young Alumni Reception, Dorrian’s Red Hand Restaurant

Miami

January 21, 2015. Hosted by Andy Consuegra ’80, Edrington Webb Travel Retail Americas

Jupiter January 22, 2105.

At the home of Skip and Pam Gozzo, P ’11, ’12

Philadelphia

February 3, 2015. Hosted by Wendy and Wade McDevitt ’82, White Dog Café

The Avonian Spring 2015

59

The Last Word The following chapel talk was delivered

by Mike Dietrick ’15.

G

ood morning.

It’s pretty weird being on the other side of things up here. Today, I want to talk to you about being afraid.

When I was really little, around four years old, my brother, Dave, who some of you may remember, went to McDonald’s and got a happy meal toy around the time that Toy Story came out. To my horror, he came back with Mr. Potato Head.

Dave’s special-edition Mr. Potato Head, to a four-year-old, made just about the scariest noise something could make when your older brother is chasing you with it. I might not be spot-on, but it was something along the lines of: “WUGAWUGAWUGAWUGA.” As you can imagine, this was purely terrifying. A lot of you might be judging me for this, but just understand, if you had never before seen Toy Story, and your brother was chasing you with a toy that made a scary sound, you’d be a little frightened and confused, too.

Shout-out to Dave for scarring me to this day.

Hopefully you believe me when I tell you I’m not still afraid of Mr. Potato Head. The more I was around it, the less scary it became. The minute it was in my hands, the scary noise became powerless. Once I was in control and taking the lead, the fear went away.

Now, how does this apply to you? Well, I know for a fact that everyone here is scared of something. It could be something concrete, like spiders or drowning, or it could be something more abstract; something you can’t see, such as fear of public speaking or judgment. I promise you, fear of public speaking is definitely one of those fears in here right now. But at the same time, public speaking, or judgment, or anything is just another Mr. Potato Head. I know a lot of guys our age are afraid to try stuff or to buy in to something that not everyone else is doing. That fear of judgment is by far the greatest obstacle at our age. “Approval” from peers is so important to us that we often lose sight of opportunity. We become afraid to try new things and in turn, since we’re already controlled by the mob, we begin to judge others for their involvement. Some people even judge or make fun of others for their success.

We’re all, including me, guilty of succumbing to the mob mentality, some more than others. How often are outstanding students called nerds rather than being praised for their hard work and success? Some of you may not know this, but we have a cross country team here on campus, and even a swim team! Believe it or not, we actually offer more programs than football, hockey, and lacrosse. This may be a bit biased, 60 60

Spring 2015 The Avonian Spring 2015 The Avonian

but how often are cross country or swimming considered to not even be sports, even though they require extreme effort and mental and physical toughness? All of our teams are competitive, but just imagine if that’s what you heard every day. It’s important to find your passion and respect the passions and ambitions of others.

Too often, effort is looked at as stupid by those who are afraid. As Theodore Roosevelt once pointed out: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Leave your place—our place—with knowledge of victory and defeat. Don’t hide in the stands, unwilling to stand out.

Praise effort. Beat fear. Strive to be a better version of yourself, because although it seems like you have all the time in the world, it will run out quickly. This isn’t just about your time at Avon either, guys. Throughout all aspects of your life, strive to be better. Make the effort because regardless of if you fail or succeed, if you made the effort, you can be proud. And pride is much more enjoyable than regret. Decorated Olympic runner Steve Prefontaine once said: “To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”

You all have the gift. Don’t be afraid to use it. Thank you.

The Sap’s Running!

During the Founder’s Era and again in the ’50s and early ’60s, the Sugarbush Club tapped the sugar maple trees on campus. Here Crossan Curry, Class of 1943, prepares to place another tap on a sugar maple still standing on campus.

The sap was boiled down in a sugar house where Sugarbush members kept a roaring fire going night and day for the week it took to boil down all the sap. It took about 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup!

Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage

PAID 500 Old Farms Road Avon, Connecticut 06001 www.AvonOldFarms.com

Change Service Requested

Thank You, Brian Conroy ’82, for your service as Chair of the Board of Directors!

Avon, CT 06001 Permit No. 12