An earlier photo of Travis Merritt ’93 and his children Sadie (now 3) and Sweeney (now 1).
Peter Brendon Welker ’91 and his wife, Liz, ran into ield Waitsf the at i, Christ wife, his and ’90 onte Malafr er. summ this nt Farmer’s Market in Vermo
to teach such wonderful students. I still miss my teaching days at AOF, but I always hold out hope for working with Avon students again. Although I have not been overseas with a group of students in several years, I am working closely with colleagues at my school to develop international programming and enjoy the experience. I still ‘adventure’ some in the summers. My most recent adventure was to take a two-week assignment teaching a physics lab to gifted and talented high school students at Stanford University for their pre-collegiate studies program. It was challenging, but fun. This job occurred in the middle of our move, just to spice up the ‘adventurous’ aspect of the experience.”
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
1221 12th Ct., Jupiter, FL 33477-9041 11pgoz@gmail.com
New York. He did a mix of middle and high school when he started at Peak to Peak, but has gravitated exclusively to middle school in recent years. For the last several, he has taught two sixth-grade classes and two classes that support struggling readers and writers across grades 6-8. Another part of his assignment involves further literacy initiatives. The mix of challenge and enjoyment in teaching remains high for him, he says, as does his enjoyment of summers off, when he has done a fair amount of self-directed work and professional development in recent years. He adds, “Plenty of recreating, too: playing outside in Colorado or exploring farther afield. Life is good here, overall, and I’m glad to have made the move west.” BRENDON WELKER, dean for enrollment and institutional advancement, married Elizabeth Schmitt on August 10, 2014, at their second home in Warren, Vt. Liz is director of enrollment management at Miss Porter’s School.
92 DAMIEN J. EGAN, Head Class Agent
52 Brookview Ct., Groton, CT 06340-5528 degan2@hotmail.com
93 TRAVIS MERRITT, Class Agent
21 Monroe Ave., Shrewsbury, NJ 07702 merritttravis@yahoo.com Unbeknownst to TRAVIS MERRITT, Avon’s new Director of Development CHRIS HAMPTON ’79 credits Travis with planting the ‘travel seed’ for his son, PATRICK ’10, who went on to major in public health at Johns Hopkins University. While at Hopkins, Pat studied in Ghana and Tanzania, and is now working for Global Brigades, a non-government agency, in Nicaragua. Travis taught at Avon back in the late ’90s, before teaching at the Brooklyn Friends School. He has visited Avon in the past to talk about travel and how to prepare and pack for a backpacking trip. Travis recently emailed: “Sadie turned three this summer and is such a great big sister. Our son, Sweeney Beck Merritt, just turned one this August. He took his first steps today! We just moved from NYC to Shrewsbury, N.J.; we are unpacking boxes as we speak. I am still teaching at Brooklyn Friends School, and started my fifth year at the school and feel so blessed to teach there. If not for grading and writing comments, I would say that it is all play and no work. I feel rewarded every day with the privilege
JORDY JAYSON, after graduating from Johns Hopkins University with a B.A., worked in the financial industry in New York and London. He has an extensive background in portfolio management and trading, having worked for SAC Capital from 2003 to 2009. He joined U.S. Energy, a company that drills for oil and gas throughout the United States, in 2009, and is currently CEO. Jordy was back on campus in the spring, and visited and toured with Peter Evans. He has a daughter, Joie Marie, and lives with his wife, Jillian, in Buffalo, N.Y. NIK PALEOLOGOS and his wife, Lindsay, live in
Tampa, Fla., where Nik works in insurance. They were back on campus two summers ago for a brief visit before seeing Nik’s brother COCO ’91 in Boston, where they caught up for a Red Sox game. Their son started pre-K this August. Lindsay said, “After an entire summer by my side (no camps), he didn’t even look back when he got into the room... see ya Mom!!” They are expecting an addition to the family in late January.
95 ANTHONY D. SILVESTRO, Head Class Agent
3 Beech Cir., Andover, MA 01810-2901 tony_silvestro@administaff.com
96 MARK A. CARUSO, Head Class Agent 124 Westminster Rd., Chatham, NJ 07928-1364 mcaruso@mlp.com
The Avonian Fall 2014
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