Choate Rosemary Hall Bulletin | Winter '24

THE MAGAZINE OF CHOATE ROSEMARY HALL

In this issue:

WELCOME TO CARR HALL New Admission Center

INSPIRE THE NEXT A Deep Commitment to Financial Aid

WINTER ’24 WINTER

CYBERSECURITY ROCKSTAR WINDOW SNYDER ’93 Inspires Students During Class Visits

Bellacanto performs on the steps of Colony Hall during Family Weekend in October.

CONTENTS | WINTER 2024 DEPARTMENTS

3 4 26

Remarks from the Head of School Letter from Alex D. Curtis

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Classnotes Profiles of Kate Byrnes ’88, Ambassador and Civilian Deputy and Foreign Policy Advisor to U.S. European Command; and Elad Levy ’89, Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at the State University of New York, Buffalo

44 48 52

In Memoriam Remembering Those We Have Lost

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End Note Optimistic Outlook: Boarding Schools Offer Camaraderie and Belonging

On Christian & Elm News About the School Alumni Association News Alumni Receptions, Regional Network Events, and Career Fair

Scoreboard Recap of Fall ’23 Sports Bookshelf Reviews of works by Greta Uehling ’80, James Shulman ’83, and Katherine Marsh ’92

FEATURES

6 8 14 18 20

Welcome to Carr Hall New Admission Center Cybersecurity Rockstar Window Snyder ’93 Inspires Students During Class Visits Inspire the Next A Deep Commitment to Financial Aid A Community for Life Class of 1965 Connectedness Three Inns Tell a Story of Choate Hospitality St. George’s Inn, Sally Hart Lodge & Alumni Center, and the new Inn at Choate Rosemary Hall

WINTER ’24

Choate Rosemary Hall Bulletin is published fall, winter, and spring for alumni, students and their parents, and friends of the School. Please send change of address to Alumni Records and all other correspondence to the Communications Office, 333 Christian Street, Wallingford, CT 06492-3800.

Choate Rosemary Hall does not discriminate in the administration of its educational policies, athletics, other school-administered programs, or in the administration of its hiring and employment practices on the basis of age, gender, race, color, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, genetic predisposition, ancestry, or other categories protected by Connecticut and federal law. Printed in U.S.A. CRH201201/17.75M

Editor Susanne Davis T: (203) 697-2475 Email: sdavis@choate.edu Design and Production Beth Ann Strong Classnotes Editor Henry McNulty ’65 Contributors Jonas Akins Susan Baldridge Marc J. Belanger Christine Bennett D. Gam Bepko Bobbie Borne Alison Cady P ’23, ’26 Don Firke P ’08, ’10 Kim Hastings P ’15, ’18, ’18 Rhea Hirshman Nolan Silbernagel Nicole Thomas KeriAnne Tisdale Leslie Virostek P ’15, ’17, ’20 Bekah Wright Photography Joey Avena Laura Barisonzi John Giammatteo Tom Kates Leea

Choate Rosemary Hall Board of Trustees 2023-2024 Danya Alsaady P ’17, ’19, ’23 Kenneth G. Bartels ’69, P ’04 Caroline T. Brown ’86, P ’19 Marc E. Brown ’82 Seth J. Brufsky ’84 Yahonnes S. Cleary ’96 George F. Colony ’72 Alex D. Curtis P ’17, ’20 Elizabeth M. Ferreira ’92 Katherine B. Forrest ’82 David A. Fraze ’84 Kristen M. Garlinghouse ’85 Gunther S. Hamm ’98 Elizabeth A. Hogan ’82 Jungwook ”Ryan” Hong ’89, P ’19, ’22 ’25 Kelly Green Kahn ’86 Daniel G. Kelly Jr. ’69, P ’03 Christian B. McGrath ’84, P ’18, ’21 Takashi Murata ’93, P ’25 George F. Pyne IV ’84 M. Anne Sa’adah Life Trustees Bruce S. Gelb ’45, P ’72, ’74, ’76, ’78 Edwin A. Goodman ’58 Cary L. Neiman ’64 Stephen J. Schulte ’56, P ’86 William G. Spears ’56, P ’81, ’90

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Correction: The Spring ’23 Bulletin incorrectly identified Ham Magill ’63 as the recipient of the School Seal Prize in 1962. John Woodbridge P. Cartwright Jr. received the prize in 1962, and Ham Magill III in 1963.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2024 3

Remarks from the Head of School

Dear Alumni and Friends of Choate Rosemary Hall, I am excited to share this issue of the Bulletin because of my personal ties to many of the articles that I hope you will also find meaningful.

Window Snyder ’93 visited campus last spring to accept the Alumni Award and to share her experience as a cybersecurity expert. It was such an honor for me to spend time with her and to witness her connection to students. The story in this issue chronicles the wisdom she shared that day, at School Meeting and in class visits. Her visit encouraged students to think creatively and to take risks. We are privileged to count her among our alumni whose achievements to innovate and lead inspire us daily.

Many of you may know that I launched my career in financial aid and that experience continues to inform my approach to enroll and retain the most talented students, by ensuring that financial considerations do not hinder access to a Choate education. The Inspire the Next feature elaborates on our vision for financial aid and our ambitious goals for the future.

Trained as an art historian, architecture and art history remain personal passions of mine. They inform the way we see spaces and places and our connection to them through time and I enjoy seeing others get excited about those connections. The new Carr Hall, more than just a building, is a testament to the impact of long-range planning on our institution. Carr Hall symbolizes efforts to traverse the globe to identify students who align with our distinctive program and welcome them to campus. Once again, I extend our heartfelt gratitude to Michael ’76 and Shelley Carr for their generous support in naming this new welcome center.

The story of three inns provides interesting history about Choate’s tradition of welcoming to campus students, families, and those interested in our community just ahead of our spring opening of the Inn at Choate Rosemary Hall. I learned some things I didn’t know before reading it, and I imagine as we go forward, collectively we might also learn more about what came before.

With all best wishes from campus,

Alex D. Curtis Head of School

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ON CHRISTIAN & ELM | NEWSWORTHY

Community Service Day: “Hungry for Justice” Choate students, faculty, and staff worked across campus and in the Greater New Haven Area to address the issue of food insecurity during an annual day of service on September 29. The event, titled “Hungry for Justice,” partnered approximately 1,100 members of the School community with more than two dozen local organizations, showing a tradition of service to others on and off campus that continues throughout the year.

The work of addressing justice and food insecurity included assembling 40,000 meal packs distributed by Connecticut Foodshare, while others worked in the North Haven Congregational Church Food Pantry and various local community farms and gardens.

Organizations served include Loaves and Fishes, Wallingford Emergency Shelter, Connecticut Foodshare, Women & Families Center of Meriden, Gather New Haven, Wallingford Land Trust, and Healing by Growing in East Haven, among others.

Choate Director of Community Service Melissa Koomson said students and adults alike look forward to the tradition each year. She says: “It is beyond rewarding to witness the growth in awareness or even renewed commitment amongst students to work towards a more just and equitable world.”

In preparation, the School hosted a panel discussion on issues of food access, equity, and justice from global, national, and local perspectives.

The School’s tradition of service dates back more than 100 years.

It began with Rosemary Hall’s Kindly Club (1912) and Choate’s St. Andrews Society (1913). While names have changed over the years, the focus continues to support the School’s strategic plan goal to “develop good character in our students and promote respect for equity and fairness, responsible citizenship, wellness, and an innovative and positive approach to the future.”

Choate Wins Excellence in Construction Award This fall, the Associated Builders and Contractors of Connecticut honored Choate with an Excellence in Construction award for the design of the seven new faculty houses on Hillhouse Way. The award is the industry’s leading competition and honors the state’s most innovative and high-quality construction. Choate received the Award of Merit for Residential/Small Projects at a ceremonial dinner held at the Aqua Turf Club in Plantsville, Conn.

The seven new houses, built to increase housing availability for faculty living on campus, align with the School’s commitment to sustainability. Chief Financial Officer Patrick Durbin said, “We are an institution that cares about the magnitude of our effect on the environment and with each project we strive to reduce environmental impact.”

Director of Facilities Ben Szalewicz shared some of the houses’ sustainable design features: • Continuous insulation throughout each house’s entire envelope • The building envelope is extremely airtight, preventing infiltration of outside air and loss of conditioned air • High-performance windows (triple-paned) and doors • No fossil fuels used onsite. Mechanical systems are 100% electric • Photovoltaic electricity generation via integrated roof shingles • Electric fireplaces • Electric Energy Star appliances • Water saving plumbing fixtures • Durable, natural, and locally sourced materials where practicable The site features include solar-powered streetlights, roof runoff directed to onsite drywells to recharge aquifers, and street trees and native species throughout the site to minimize forest fragmentation.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2024 5

All School Read Author Encourages a Sense of Wonder Author Aimee Nezhukumatathil encouraged Choate students and School community to practice a sense of wonder during her campus visit to read and speak about her memoir, World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments. Described by NPR as “Hands-down one of the most beautiful books of the year,” Nezhukumatathil’s collection of essays was the All School Summer Read.

Nezhukumatathil, a celebrated poet, called many places home as a child: the grounds of a mental institution in Kansas, where her Filipina mother was a doctor; the lands of Arizona, where she hiked with her Indian father; as well as New York and Ohio. But no matter the landscape, she found herself seeking guidance and clarity from a variety of creatures in nature.

During her visit, Nezhukumatathil read from her essay “Potoo,” about birds she called “masters of disguise, so confident in their camouflaging skills that they sleep right out in the open daylight.” The author said she whittled her original list of 200 different plant and animal species to a final list of 28 about which she had the most questions. “I wanted to capture what it was like to be a student of this world.”

During the question-and-answer session, a student asked, “How do you inspire wonder?” Nezhukumatathil told them: “Wonder is a practice. To cultivate it, take stock of what you are curious about.”

Nezhukumatathil also attended creative writing classes.

Happiness Lab’s Laurie Santos Presents at Family Weekend Dr. Laurie Santos, producer of “The Happiness Lab” podcast, returned to Choate as the special guest speaker for Family Weekend in October. She first visited Choate in December 2022, addressing students at a School Meeting where she shared insights into her research and findings on how to feel better in times of stress. Her topic for Family Weekend was “What Families Can Do to Help Kids Flourish” and included five insights that form the science of happiness. Dr. Santos’ work serves as an excellent guide for Choate as the School builds programming emphasizing explicit skills and offering guidance to students. Dr. Santos returned to Choate in October to work with faculty.

The three-day Family Weekend included welcome receptions, programming, and information sessions about Choate’s Signature Programs, travel opportunities for students, and the college application process. Families enjoyed classes with their students, attended Shabbat Service, took in an instrumental and choral concert at the Paul Mellon Arts Center, and cheered on the Wild Boars during Saturday athletic competitions.

Deerfield Day 2023 It was a sunny day in Massachusetts as the Choate Rosemary Hall Wild Boars traveled north for their annual Deerfield Day — the 101st meeting between the two schools, and the clear skies and slightly chilling winds made for ideal conditions for the fall athletic programs to compete in some of their final games of the season.

Student-athletes and coaches were not the only ones to depart campus early on Saturday morning for the games; five full fan buses also made the trip to go and support the Wild Boars at every competition throughout the day.

Students, faculty, and other members of the Choate community were greeted by generous hospitality from Deerfield, with coffee, hot chocolate, and various snacks and lunch to stay fueled up while cheering on their teams.

While the Wild Boars fell just short in a few contests, their effort never wavered and their amazing sportsmanship was always on full display until the final whistle.

See below for the full results, congratulations to all of our studentathletes on tremendous seasons, and as always, Go Choate!

Boys Varsity Football Win, 44-14; Girls JV Volleyball Win, 3-0; Boys Varsity Soccer Tie, 0-0; Girls JV Soccer Tie, 0-0; Girls Varsity Soccer Loss, 2-1; Girls Varsity Volleyball Loss, 3-1; Varsity Field Hockey Loss, 7-0; Boys JV Soccer Loss, 1-0; JV Field Hockey Loss, 5-0; Girls Thirds Volleyball Loss, 3-0; Girls Thirds Soccer Loss, 2-0; Boys Thirds Soccer Loss, 6-0.

Welcome to 6

Carr Hall In December, Choate Rosemary Hall proudly announced the naming of Carr Hall, the new welcome and admission center, dedicated to honoring the outstanding service, leadership, and generosity of Michael J. Carr ’76 and Shelley Sporleder Carr.

During his tenure as Chairman of Choate’s Board of Trustees from 2011 to 2019, Michael Carr exemplified integrity, clarity, and purpose. He was instrumental in driving the vision for a modern Choate, steering the implementation of a transformative strategic plan, guiding important programmatic innovation, and overseeing the most significant additions to campus in more than half a century. Carr Hall will stand as a permanent acknowledgment of Michael’s significant contributions to the School’s history and success.

Head of School Alex D. Curtis reflects on the meaningful connection between the building and Michael Carr: “The naming of the building that will house our admission office in Michael’s honor is especially poignant.

This generous commitment represents the realization of a vision we set in motion as part of our 2013 Strategic Plan.”

The strategic outreach initiated as part of the plan has yielded impressive results, with new student applications increasing by 35 percent in the past five years and nearly 75 percent in the last decade. To accommodate this growth, the Admission Office has expanded its staff by four. However, the current office space in Archbold is insufficient. Carr Hall will provide a more spacious and accessible home for the admission team to warmly welcome the increasing number of prospective students and visitors. Just this fall, Choate welcomed nearly 840 families for information sessions and tours.

For generations of students, Carr Hall will serve as the first stop in their Choate journey, and we are tremendously grateful to Michael and Shelley Carr.”

Michael and Shelley Carr pose with George F. Colony ’72, Alex D. Curtis, and Beth Fecko-Curtis, at the Board of Trustees tree dedication in April 2023.

– Dr. Alex D. Curtis

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Carr Hall, set to break ground at the southeast corner of Christian and Elm Streets in the coming weeks, boasts several noteworthy features:

◊ LEED Platinum Construction: Carr Hall is designed

with sustainability at its core, earning the highest LEED construction rating.

◊ ParkSmart Parking: Carr Hall will feature a cutting-edge ParkSmart underground parking facility. ParkSmart certifies high-performing, sustainable parking facilities.

◊ Architectural Design and Scale: Meticulously planned

◊ Reception Area and Gathering Spaces: The first

floor will feature a welcoming reception area as well as versatile gathering and meeting spaces for information sessions, presentations, and receptions.

◊ Office and Meeting Spaces: The second floor will house

modern offices and meeting spaces tailored for admission officers and staff, fostering collaboration and efficiency.

to meet the evolving needs of our admission program, Carr Hall seamlessly integrates into the character of the campus and neighborhood.

Above: Renderings of the new reception area and waiting room for campus guests. A new flexible meeting space will accommodate information sessions, admission receptions, and Board of Trustees meetings.

Carr Hall is set to open its doors in 2025, inviting visitors to experience the warmth, sustainability, and legacy it embodies at the heart of campus.

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Cybersecurity Rockstar Window Snyder Inspires Students by susanne Davis

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While still enrolled in undergraduate studies at Boston College, Mwende Window Snyder ’93 launched her career as an ethical hacker. As one of the few women in this new field, Snyder took the handle “Rosie the Riveter.” Since then, she has helped to shape the systems that we all use today, including Microsoft Windows, macOS, iOS, and Firefox, to solve a core problem: how to keep our data safe. She has been called a visionary in the field of cybersecurity, blazing trails for corporations like Microsoft, Apple, Mozilla, Fastly, and others to make positive security improvements.

When Snyder, who was on the School’s Board of Trustees from 2007 to 2013, returned to Choate last spring to accept the 2023 Alumni Award at School Meeting, Head of School Alex D. Curtis called her “an online security rockstar.” The renowned cybersecurity expert captured the attention of the student body when she told them that despite all her achievements, in fact, she had struggled academically her first year at school. “I learned that being smart is not enough,” Snyder said. “Being smart and working hard is the killer combination. I never worked so hard for anything in my life. And after leaving Choate, nothing was ever hard again. Not because I didn’t do hard things, but because I knew how to get hard things done.”

As we see the world changing with rapidly developing technology and use of artificial intelligence, this second installment of our series on teaching excellence at Choate — seen through Snyder’s visit — is an opportunity to see how our students embrace that evolving world, while exhibiting the central qualities of a Choate education.

CULTIVATING A SUPERPOWER As a student at Choate, Snyder excelled in poetry, Spanish, and theater. She had the lead role in A Chorus Line, and for her many contributions in the performing arts, was awarded the very first Legacy Robe. She thought she might become a writer.

(In fact, she did, and has co-authored a book with fellow Microsoft application security specialist Frank Swiderski, entitled Threat Modeling.) While she did not study computer science as a high school student, she credits her theater experience for giving her the communication skills she has needed in her work as a cybersecurity expert. “Learning to get up on stage, make a mistake, and keep going, to experience failure — to have that experience? That is a superpower I learned at Choate.”

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SUPERPOWER EMPLOYED Snyder attributes her determination and love for technology to her mother, who left her teaching career to become a software engineer when Snyder was a child. Her mom taught her to program BASIC, an early programming language, on a Texas Instruments PC when she was just five years old. It was as an undergraduate that she turned her creativity and willingness to explore — central tenets of a Choate education — to studying computer science and mathematics at Boston College, where she was developing tools and working on security research before she even met others in the Boston hacker community.

Snyder was a software engineer on security critical systems and developing security products before she went to the computer security firm ATstake. She moved to Microsoft as a senior security strategist, and says her major contribution at Microsoft was owning security sign-off for the Windows operating system. “I was the first in this role, and it meant that every security bug and feature went through me for multiple major and minor releases of the OS.” There, she also pioneered the Blue Hat Microsoft Hacker Conference, bringing Microsoft developers together with hackers to detect and fix vulnerabilities within the software.

Snyder’s experience at Choate on the stage and expressing herself effectively in a variety of media honed communication skills that helped early in her career to convince Microsoft to include security as part of the software development cycle, rather than a feature added on afterward. She contributed significantly to developing the first versions of the Windows operating systems that implemented those developments, led Mozilla’s security team, managed Apple’s privacy and security teams, and built the security team at Fastly. She was also chief security officer at Square. Many of the roles she held did not exist before she created them.

Then came a moment, as had happened at other times in her career, where she saw another security gap, in something called the Internet of Things (IoT) — those devices that connect to the internet and have varying levels of security: cars, washing machines, refrigerators, coffee pots, cell phones, as well as devices that manage civic systems such as aviation control, municipal water management, and medical facilities. What those devices have in common is that they house a fully functional computer within — often without adequate data protection security. In 2021, Snyder launched her startup, Thistle Technologies, and set to work trying to address vulnerability, with the intention of creating discrete security capabilities that developers could incorporate into all kinds of devices to increase security resilience.

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SHOWING STUDENTS THE DIGITAL FRONTIER On the day Snyder returned to campus to accept the Alumni Award, she attended Matt Bardoe’s Autonomous Robotics class.

The course is part of the Advanced Robotics Concentration (ARC). “I often felt then and thought during my visit, wow, these are classes I’d like to take,” Snyder says. “I felt a little bit of envy that I’d like to go back to school and take Autonomous Robotics.

I took Robotics as an advanced elective in college, where only a small group of students got into the class. You couldn’t take it until far along in the program, and it filled up quickly.”

Bardoe says there was a great back and forth conversation between Snyder and the students: “She was one of the best alumni visitors I’ve ever had in a class. She connected with the students as a fellow Choatie and inspired them to take the lessons learned here to make a positive impact in the world.”

The students demonstrated to Snyder the robots they built, and Bardoe says,

“ Even though Window uses different kinds of technology than the robotics students were doing in the course, there was a general understanding of the field. Window talked about her work protecting computers from hacking, and what it is like to face the challenge of being a diverse student in the field.”

Favour Olagunju ’25 says Snyder’s words and experience with computer security helped her figure out what type of engineering she wanted to pursue. “As a black female in STEM, there have been times throughout my life when programming and STEM seemed intimidating because there weren’t many females with the same passions as me,” Olagunju says. “However, Ms. Snyder serves as an inspiration, and demonstrates that women like me can succeed in STEM fields. She gave me hope.” After Synder told the class about the threat modeling she developed for Microsoft, Olagunju says she now wants to be involved in cybersecurity, “protecting information from malicious attacks.”

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Eric Yang ’25, a second-year student in the ARC program, took Design and Fabrication and Competition Robotics courses before Autonomous Robotics. He was interested to hear Snyder talk about the security in the students’ robots:

“ In the real world, we must design systems that are not only practical, but secure. Ms. Snyder is a major part of the industry. She shared experiences we cannot otherwise get. Her saying that she learned to do hard things at Choate was a strong takeaway for me. That’s the mind set we acquire here.”

“The students were a little in awe of Window,” says Travis Feldman. Snyder visited Feldman’s Machine Learning class. “She was very personable, down to earth, and there was a real spark of curiosity that the students displayed when she gave them narratives of what it is like out there on this digital frontier. They are interested in being on the edges of any known career path, not so much to follow her directly, but enthusiastic about her example.”

Feldman says Snyder gave a clear instance of real-world perspective. “These kinds of visits give points of traction,” he says. “This helps students move the class work and the tutorial exercises to application beyond the classroom.”

Learning that is directed outward toward the world is a major focus of Choate’s Lin i.d.Lab, which Feldman directs. He is an English teacher and says the lab’s multidisciplinary approach draws classes from across campus, where students explore their passions, not mere assignments.

Work in the i.d.Lab encourages creativity and resilience.

“Students experience for themselves that it is okay to fail and experience the benefits of acknowledging that, working with what appears and might be a failure in front of you. It’s a perfect opportunity for us to cultivate one of the central qualities of a Choate education: to balance perseverance and resilience with humor and joy.”

While the i.d.Lab did not exist during Snyder’s time at Choate, it fosters a culture of taking risks, learning from failed attempts, and building resilience much like what Snyder described on the Choate stage and in her Choate academics. Feldman says, “The i.d.Lab serves as a catalyst for our curriculum. It takes students beyond the traditional STEM subjects, science, technology, engineering, and math, and incorporates the art of elegant design.”

BULLETIN | WINTER 2024 13

CENTRAL QUALITIES OF A CHOATE EDUCATION

AN ELEGANT DESIGN Snyder illustrated the concept of elegant design when asked just how visionary thinking is developed.

“ There are three things,” Snyder says. “First, you must assess where you are. Next, assess where you want to be, and third, ask the question, what are the gaps between the two that need to be addressed?”

Snyder’s advice may apply to most anything in life. The quickness of her mind gives a glimpse of her intense curiosity and commitment to excellence. Her Choate visit serves as both an example and inspiration to students who are also eager to be a positive force in the world.

Alumna Window Snyder displays characteristics of a life-long learner and the central qualities of a Choate education. She graduated two decades before a 2014 committee articulated in a formal document those core qualities, including perseverance and resilience balanced with hu-mor and joy, self-advocacy balanced with commitment to serve others, cultivating creativity and a willingness to explore. But the result of the committee’s work made explicit the Choate student experience that alumni surely recognize.

The Central Qualities of a Choate Education align with the School’s Mission, Statement on Character, and Statement of Expectations and was joined by the Institutional Statement on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and our commitment to sustainability to create a collection of documents that reflect our values and priorities in the student experience. It reads, and remains true today: “Dynamic balance characterizes the Choate Rosemary Hall experience. It is at the core of what we value and teach, both in and out of the classroom, preparing our students especially well for success in a world filled with challenges and opportunities. Those who seek to contribute in the global community must balance a wide range of interests and perspectives. Doing so requires understanding and adaptability along with a commitment to action, a desire to be a positive force in the world.”

The School’s values regarding the student learning experience have been constant, even as we practice a dynamic balance and embrace new frontiers. Amid evolutionary cultural changes, we celebrate the enduring compass the School’s core values and the Central Qualities of a Choate Education provide.

Read more about the Central Qualities of a Choate Education:

You know, this School is people …

Nothing else is more important. That is why we entrust the Admission Office to travel the world to find the students who match up best with the program that we’re offering — and who can reach their full potential and can reflect our values.”

– Head of School Alex D. Curtis

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A Deep Commitment to Financial Aid

by LESLIE VIROSTEK P ’15, ’17, ’20

A deep commitment to students that is fundamental to the School’s character.

That’s what Katherine “Kitty” Forrest ’82 believes explains her experience as a Choate Rosemary Hall student with great promise but very little means.

A former judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and currently an attorney in private practice, Forrest knew when she enrolled at Choate that the School had made an arrangement with her parents for some tuition assistance, but not a full scholarship.

It was only after she graduated that she learned her family had not kept their end of the bargain. But Choate had fulfilled its commitment to her — and then some. School administrators kept her enrolled and made sure she could purchase what she needed at the School store. Despite her inability to pay, she was able to do what all Choate students have the opportunity to do: immerse herself in academic work and School life, three varsity sports and serving as the editor of what was then the sports newspaper. “They supported me,” she says. “And perhaps one of the most important ways in which they supported me was by never mentioning it.”

Forrest is now a member of the Board of Trustees, and as an adult she repaid her family’s debt to the School. She attributes Choate’s support for her to a core value that predated her experience and continues to this day. And that is a strong, unwavering “commitment to students who will benefit from what the School has to offer and who have something to offer the School.”

In the decades since Forrest graduated, Choate has deepened and formalized its commitment to students of modest means. In 2013, the iPad program leveled the playing field, providing every student with the same technology with which to pursue their academic studies. That same year, the School established the Beyond the Classroom Fund to ensure full access to experiences in School life that would have presented a financial hardship to some students.

And in the area of financial aid, Choate has made great strides.

The Class of 2027 is the most socioeconomically diverse in School history, with 40 percent of its members receiving tuition assistance.

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Financial A id as a Campaign P riority The launch of Inspire the Next: The Campaign for Choate Rosemary Hall marks an important chapter in the effort to make Choate accessible to qualified students.

Identifying financial aid as a key priority, the campaign seeks to secure new funding that will profoundly impact the School’s ability to welcome promising students from all walks of life. A deep commitment to students that is fundamental to the School’s character: The campaign is a powerful opportunity for the Choate Rosemary Hall community to forcefully reaffirm who we are, who we have always been, and who we want to continue to be.

“You know, this School is people,” says Head of School Alex D. Curtis. “Nothing else is more important. That is why we entrust the Admission Office to travel the world to find the students who match up best with the program that we’re offering — and who can reach their full potential and can reflect our values.”

But, he notes, financial barriers make it impossible to admit many who would contribute to the School and benefit from an education that is often described by alumni as “foundational” and “trajectory-altering.” Or in the words of Kitty Forrest: “life changing and transformative for me in such positive ways.”

Increasing funding for tuition assistance is good unto itself. But Curtis points out that dedicating significantly more money to financial aid also strengthens Choate’s position as a top-tier school. Accurate comparisons with peer schools on the issue of financial aid are difficult to make, Curtis notes, due to such variables as different enrollment numbers, tuition costs, and endowment sizes. In addition, some figures can be artificially manipulated. For example, all it takes to increase the percentage of students receiving aid is to take away one full scholarship and spread it out among additional students.

That’s why Curtis wants Choate to home in on a key metric, called the discount rate. Simply put, the discount rate is a number that represents the percentage of tuition revenue that is not collected because it is offset by financial aid. As such, it provides an “apples to apples” look at how schools are doing in the area of financial aid. “To me, what’s meaningful is it allows us to do actual comparisons with other places,” says Curtis. More broadly, though, the number is indicative of a school’s values: A high discount rate broadcasts to the world that an institution considers accessibility to be a high priority.

Curtis notes that in virtually every category that can be qualitatively evaluated or numerically measured — from academic excellence and program offerings to such things as the number of applications for admission and the yield — Choate excels. “But in terms of the discount rate, we are eight, nine, even 10 percentage points behind,” says Curtis. “We’re not even on the same field.”

For all those reasons, Curtis is intent on setting meaningful and achievable goals for increasing Choate’s discount rate (see sidebar).

Coming Together as a Community to P rioritize Financial A id The campaign’s progress over the coming years will build on what a number of committed donors are already doing to support student access via financial aid.

Carl Dong ’14 is one of them. Year after year, he has directed his Annual Fund donations specifically toward financial aid. As a student he valued the vibrancy and diversity of Choate’s community, but that is only one of the reasons for his steady support for financial aid. He says that back then, he had the opportunity to attend a few Board of Trustees Meetings as a student representative. That experience provided some key insights into how the School operates financially — including how the Annual Fund makes up the difference between tuition and what it really costs to educate students. More broadly, though, Dong is motivated to stay engaged in this way because Choate keeps getting better. He applauds a number of developments that came after he graduated, particularly the launch of the Kohler Environmental Center and the strengthening of programmatic offerings in computer science and robotics. He says, “I feel like Choate is forward thinking, and that’s incredibly important.”

Clayton Albertson ’95, P ’26 is another member of the Choate community who cares deeply about the School’s ability to provide financial aid to students.

Like Kitty Forrest, he received tuition assistance from the School himself. With his mother an educator and his father in the military, Albertson says paying for Choate was a stretch for the family. He believes his Choate experiences opened up many opportunities for him in life — and to this day, reflecting on the sacrifices his parents made to support his education makes him emotional. His gratitude toward them, and toward the School, has long inspired a desire to pay it forward. “Nobody gets to Choate without the support of someone around them,” he says. “I always hoped that sometime I might find a way to help others get access to these experiences.”

Albertson found a way this year. He and his wife, Jacqueline Arthur P ’26, endowed a scholarship fund. The couple, whose son is currently a Choate fourth former, knows that endowed scholarships help the School cast a broader net for people who have the talent and the desire but not the means. Albertson firmly believes that enrolling the best students will make Choate the best school it can be. “I am proud of my Choate experience,” he says, “and I would like to see the School produce leaders who do great things in their lives.”

Alex Curtis says that Annual Fund donations like Carl Dong’s and endowed scholarships like the one created by the Albertson family both play a critical role. Annual Fund donations are immediately put to use to benefit students, and without them the School could not keep tuition increases as low as possible year after year. “If you’re starting from scratch, you wouldn’t create a model like this. It’s essentially running at a deficit every year and having to fundraise that difference,” he says of the way the Annual Fund supports the School in real time.

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On the other hand, with endowed scholarships — which currently make up 45 percent of the financial aid budget — the principal is invested with Choate’s endowment. From then on, the annual draw will support student after student in perpetuity. The minimum gift to create a named endowed scholarship is $250,000.

“This is something that will last for the life of the School,” says Curtis.

“There’s a foreverness about it that is so powerful. You’re providing that transformative experience for thousands of children over decades, if not hundreds of years. When you start thinking about it like that, it’s mind-blowing in its impact.”

He also notes that any gift to the endowment strengthens the School’s financial footing. “You can say Choate is a great school, but the only way we can stay at this point and continue to evolve, and grow, and be better is with long-term financial security,” he says. “And that only comes from the endowment. There’s no other place that comes from.”

For Curtis, the campaign is a welcome opportunity to talk about financial aid, a topic he is deeply passionate about. Early in his career, his first administrative job was serving as a financial aid director — and later as an admission director — working directly with families to help them access the education they valued so highly.

“This has been fundamental to how I see schools,” he says. “Admission — and financial aid — is at the heart of everything. It is in every fiber of my understanding of how to make the best possible school. For me it’s not a theoretical thing. It’s personal.

“And until the Admission Office tells me that they were able to admit everybody they wanted to, without thinking about the limits of financial aid, we know we still have work to do.”

There’s a foreverness about it that is so powerful. You’re providing that transformative experience for thousands of children over decades, if not hundreds of years. When you start thinking about it like that, it’s mind-blowing in its impact.”

What is the Discount Rate?

When the Fed talks about the “discount rate,” it is referring to a particular interest rate charged to commercial banks and on loans. When schools talk about it, they are referring to a key financial aid metric.

• The discount rate represents the percentage of tuition revenue that is not collected because it’s offset by financial aid.

• It’s computed by dividing the total financial aid given by the school by the total gross tuition revenue. For instance, if a school has a gross tuition revenue of $10 million and provides $2.5 million in financial aid, its discount rate is 25%.

• A higher discount rate reflects an institution’s commitment to making education more accessible.

Setting Our Goals for the Next Five Years: • Reasonable Aspirational Goal: A target rate of 29%, aligning with most peer schools with endowments larger than Choate’s, but less than 2x as large as Choate’s endowment.

• Stretch Goal: Challenging ourselves to reach the upper levels of peer schools with a target rate of 31 to 32%.

– Alex D. Curtis

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A COMMUNITY FOR LIFE The Class of 1965 had an evolution when planning for its 55th reunion in 2020. COVID struck, along with a realization. “Holy crap, we’re not going to be able to have an in-person reunion,” Tony Smith, a member of the reunion committee, recalls thinking.

The idea of using Zoom to organize the group was floated. Smith says, “We didn’t know how to use Zoom, but figured we better learn fast.”

by Bekah Wright

The medium, he says, proved to be “intimate and authentic.” “It was a way of staying in contact with people you knew and have loved over the past 50 years,” Smith says. The virtual gathering opened some alumni worlds. “I’ve had multiple sclerosis for the last 39 years and been in a wheelchair for the last 29,” Peter Schaeffer says. “So, the pandemic put everybody else on my turf as a shut-in.” For all the alumni, they had discovered what they refer to as “a silver lining in a cloud of COVID.” A core group got things started. Schaeffer, a former member of Choate’s Board of Trustees and the self-proclaimed Reunion Chairman for Life, who was already adept at “herding classmates like kittens,” became the organizer of the regular Zooms.

Schaeffer’s efforts would earn him the nickname of Yoda. “He’s the guru who keeps us together and focused on every call,” John Callan explains. “His spirit is so solid and devoted.” Joining him was Callan, president of the Class of ’65; Smith; and Tom Courage, “The Scribe” and person who most often takes meeting minutes.

Conversations took on a momentum of their own, going beyond mere plans for rescheduling the reunion and Choate reminiscing. Rob Simpson and Tom Courage surveyed the class to learn more about their lives and what gives them purpose. As Simpson put it, “Fundamentally, purpose keeps people alive.”

Pretty soon, of the living members of the class, 70 joined in on what became weekly Zooms, with an average of 20 classmates at each session. Topics ranged from family updates, the loss of spouses, and life transitions like retirement to the best electric vehicle to purchase and great places to travel.

These meetings, first called Peter Schaeffer’s Relentless Reunion, gained the moniker Dew Drop Inn.

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EXCHANGING WISDOM

A VERY PERSONAL WAY OF GIVING BACK TO CHOATE

Desiring to further their connection, the group struck on the idea of holding take-offs on TED Talks. “A graduate, or anyone affiliated For more than 50 years, the William E. Ireland ’65 Memorial with Choate, can talk on a subject for which they have a passion Scholarship has been a passion project for the Class of ’65, a way and experience,” Smith explains. The hour-long sessions include a to honor a friend and classmate who passed away soon after 30-minute presentation, followed by a Q&A. graduation. “Will was beloved at Choate,” Callan, his roommate and In January 2021, Bob Santulli, who was a director of geriatric close friend, says. “He died in a tragic car accident in his early 20s.” psychiatry at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and is currently The scholarship was established in 1971 by the Ireland family an honorary associate professor at Dartmouth College’s Department and the Class of 1965. Originally the scholarship provided tuition of Psychological and Brain Sciences, kicked off the series with his assistance for boys who attended St. Andrew’s presentation on “’65s Nearing 75: Camp, a two-week experience for inner-city boys Preserving Memory as We Age.” whose families could not afford to send them to Cognitive changes are inevitable, he summer camp. Ireland and many of his friends and says, though dementia is relatively classmates worked at St. Andrew’s in the summer uncommon. Santulli suggests a and so this was a fitting tribute to his memory. step the Class of ’65 has already While St. Andrew’s camp is now defunct, the taken: “People who have the highest Ireland Scholarship continues to provide important degree of social connectedness financial aid to students of color. have the slowest rate of memory “At a time when the pandemic was forcing decline. Keeping engaged with isolation and many were feeling hopelessness and others is hugely important.” despair, the Class of ’65 took action,” says Director A common history comes into play of Alumni Relations Andrea Solomon. In the wake of with some of these talks. And they the death of George Floyd and the rise of Black Lives do not shy away from difficult topics.

Matter, the Class of 1965 rallied around the Ireland “How do you get out of Vietnam?”

Scholarship as a meaningful way to give back Allen Fletcher begins a talk about his to Choate and especially to support students of stint in the Peace Corps. “I’ve come color.

They believe deeply in the power of a Choate to believe that is the big unspoken education to change the trajectory of one’s life. question in our generation, which we Since 2020, the Class of ’65, along with the Ireland don’t like to talk about because there’s family, have reinvigorated the fund, more than some sort of shame involved.” Fletcher William Ellis Ireland ’65 yearbook photo. doubling the original gift, and the Class welcomes says a Peace Corps opportunity fellow alumni who wish to join them in contributing in Senegal was his answer to this to the scholarship. question. He then shares photos “This wonderful continuation of Will Ireland’s legacy is yet another and a talk about the indelible memories of the service experience. way that the Class of ’65 has demonstrated their unique and lasting Brittain McJunkin, a gastroenterologist in Charleston, W.Va., and bonds,” says Solomon. a professor of medicine at WVU Health Sciences Center, brings his passion for photography to the group. “Hopefully, you’ll be inspired to appreciate photography in regard to fine art and fine art as a means to social relevance,” he says. The talk follows the history of photography and branches into techniques and tips, like making the What does the Class of ’65 hope the wider Choate community most of the magic hour. takes away from their experience? “That these guys are doing More than a dozen of these talks have been presented thus far. something pretty cool,” Smith says. “Something any Choate class can Topics covered range from the opioid crisis and zero-carbon energy to replicate.” For those intimidated by the thought of kicking off such a peace in Ukraine and JFK at Choate. Smith says, “What we’re doing has program, Dew Drop Inn members are ready to mentor. palpable physical consequences. Research about aging says people The group has embraced the many benefits they have garnered who participate, especially in relationships, outlive everybody else.” from coming together. Courage says, “Our meetings have built and Ever looking to broaden their experiences, the Class of ’65 is strengthened friendships, enhanced lives in various ways, and currently kicking off a book and film discussion series. engendered good feelings about Choate.”

Schaeffer, aka Yoda, says of organizing the Zoom calls, “It’s never been a labor; it’s just been darn fun. When the Dew Drop Inn became As Simpson put it, something more than an occasional meeting, I said, ‘I’ll be like a Motel Six and leave the light on for you.’”

BUILDING COMMUNITY

“Fundamentally, purpose keeps people alive.”

20

Stained glass windows and classic turrets. A replica of a Scottish mansion built around the walls of an existing farmhouse. Receptions for distinguished guests, including John F. Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Robert Frost — just a few details of three historic Choate inns. As the School prepares to welcome alumni, families, and visitors to the inn on Main Street, we reflect on Choate hospitality through snapshots of three Choate inns — the historic St. George’s Inn, the Sally Hart Lodge & Alumni Center, and the soon-to-be Inn at Choate Rosemary Hall.

St. George’s Inn

Sally Hart Lodge � Alumni Center Inn at Choate Rosemary Hall

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Three Inns Tell a Story of Choate Hospitality

By Bobbie Borne

St. George’s Inn.

St. George’s Inn: 86 North Main Street

Built in 1848 by Moses Yale Beach, editor of The [New York] Sun and founder of the Associated Press, this elegant Italianate mansion known as The Beach House was the pride of Wallingford, with its carved columns, veranda encircling the house, 16 bedrooms with fireplaces, and ornate entrance gate. Designed by eminent architect Henry Austin, the inn was the setting for elaborate parties and cultural events, framed by marble mantels, crystal chandeliers, mirrors, and gilt trim. After Beach’s death in 1868, the home became a hotel and rooming house, deteriorating over time.

22

Advertisements in The Choate News for St. George’s Inn date as far back as 1911. Renamed St. George’s Inn after an inn in Wallingford, England, The Choate School purchased the building in 1920. Choate restored the original décor, furnishings, and formal gardens, before opening the doors once again to the Choate and Wallingford community, where students and their families gathered for festive dinners, and banquets for parties of a hundred included beautiful hand painted menus (see below). Over the years, Choate guests signed the register now held in Choate’s archives.

In 1956, Choate added The Dragon’s Den, an informal restaurant in the basement of St. George’s. Choate students and community members gathered in the cozy ambience of a den decorated with blue curtains, small tables with red cloths, hurricane candles, and pale blue china. Images of medieval men and beasts and a picture of St. George slaying the dragon adorned the walls. Students used a debit system to pay for their meals and one letter from an innkeeper asked permission of “My Dear M.” to charge “an occasional meal at the Inn where they know the food is wholesome and the surroundings pleasant.”

After nearly 40 years of ownership, operational costs became too expensive for the School. Choate sold St. George’s Inn in 1958. Shortly thereafter, in 1960, the building was torn down to make room for a modern banking building. Today, the replacement building, stylized after the original home, houses a café, a boutique, and offices.

Curtis House, 1989.

“Pen Sketch of Hallway, St. George’s Inn,” Christmas card, 1944.

Faculty Christmas Party, St. George’s Inn, 1950. Seymour St. John is third from left, under the mantelpiece.

Dragon’s Den menu, 1956.

St. George’s Inn Christmas Dinner menu, 1946.

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Sally Hart Lodge � Alumni Center: 138 North Elm Street

There are conflicting dates of when the original little white farmhouse was built. Some records in School Archives say circa 1780, others 1790, and others say when the first owners, Dr. John Andrews and Abigail Atwater, married in September 1800. The structure of that early building remains within the walls of Sally Hart Lodge: Roderick Curtis, a descendant of Wallingford’s founders, bought the house in 1837, intending to add adjacent property and erect a grand home where Hill House is today. But surrounding landowners thwarted his effort, so circa 1850 he built his dream home, a replica of a Scottish mansion, around the walls of the existing farmhouse. Modeled after Sir Walter Scott’s “Abbotsford,” the Gothic Revival building featured steep gables, bracketed eaves, shuttered windows, interior columns, a spiral staircase, crown moldings, and a graceful veranda.

Judge William G. Choate acquired the building in 1906, and when George St. John arrived at The Choate School as headmaster in 1908, he moved in with his family, christened it “The Lodge,” and became the first of four headmasters to live there. For a few anecdotes of family life at the inn, see the sidebar from the Dey children raised there.

Students and faculty were invited to gatherings at The Lodge, later called Curtis House. Mrs. Seymour St. John (Peggy) created an elegant interior with her Federal period furniture. At one point a marmoset took up residence in the back shed, a gift from a Brazilian student. It was not the only animal to live at the Lodge. In the 1960s Seymour St. John had an otter named Charlie, who also took up residence there. On holidays and special occasions, flags fluttered from the small balcony over the front door. The house was considered for demolition in 1996, the same year the last headmaster moved out, but with a generous donation from honorary trustee Larry Hart C 1932 in memory of his wife, Sally, the house was remodeled in 2001-2002 and dedicated in October 2002. The Sally Hart Lodge & Alumni Center offers seven guest rooms with baths, dining areas, and gathering spaces.

Anecdotes from the Dey children, Penny, Robin ’78, Andrew ’81, and Tom ’83

A painting of Curtis House by Emilie B. Kellogg in 1946.

When we moved into The Lodge, there were 28 rooms and 11 bathrooms. As kids we joked that you could wet your pants trying to choose which one to use.

Our parents bought us a guinea hen who used to escape onto the chapel lawn, and we named him after the Chair of the Senate Watergate investigation committee, Sam Ervin.

1945 Catalogue photo of “The Headmaster’s Doorway.”

Once, Penny was shocked to find someone’s teeth in a glass of water in her bathroom. They belonged to a visiting senator.

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The original Charles Tibbits Victorian style house. Georgina and Charles Tibbits’ son, Charles, was a graduate of The Choate School Class of 1925.

Inn at Choate Rosemary Hall: 245 North Main Street

The majestic Queen Anne style Victorian residence was a wedding gift from local industrialist Gurdon Hull to his daughter Georgiana. Georgina’s grandfather was local benefactor Samuel Simpson, who funded the original Wallingford Public Library in 1894. Her husband Charles Tibbits was vice president of International Silver Company. Daughter Margaret ran a beloved bookshop in town. Located at the prime corner of Main Street and Curtis Avenue, the home was built in 1891 by C. F. Wooding Company for $10,000. With its classic turret, stained glass windows, elaborate trim, colorful paint treatment, and fancy details, it reflected the high style of the period. In modern times, the mansion contained medical offices, apartments, and most recently, a popular bed and breakfast. Ray Andrewsen, Executive Director of the Quinnipiac Chamber of Commerce, remembers visiting Dr. Plakins at the old Victorian Inn. “The musty slightly medicinal smell, the creaky oak floors, the collection of antique medical instruments on the shelves, modern artwork on the walls, the cozy living room fireplace — it all served to take my mind off the booster shot I was about to receive.”

Recognizing an opportunity to offer additional visitor accommodations adjacent to campus, Choate acquired the property in 2021, and major renovation is almost complete, with this now all-electric building combining environmental sustainability with 19th century charm. The restoration, preservation, and updating of the grand old home include re-creating a missing section of the elegant staircase, restoring original Victorian era features, and preserving the semicircular banquette and leaded glass window in the dining room. Victorian parlors are being transformed into dining and gathering space for campus events. Seven rooms with private baths and an innkeeper’s suite have been modernized and furnished for today’s guests. This spring, the Inn at Choate Rosemary Hall will open its double oak doors to begin a new chapter of Choate hospitality.

The Wallingford Victorian Inn boasted authentic decór of the Georgiana Tibbits Suite (above) and the front lobby (below). Photos from Expedia.com.

Stay@Choate Rosemary Hall Campus visitors are invited to stay on campus at one of two guest houses: Sally Hart Lodge & Alumni Center or the new Inn at Choate Rosemary Hall (opening spring 2024).

Available for the use of the extended School family, including alumni, parents, and prospective families, the Inn and the Lodge each offer seven uniquely appointed rooms, public sitting rooms, and event spaces.

Book your stay today! stay@choate.edu | (203) 697-3933

Sally Hart Lodge & Alumni Center 138 North Elm Street, Wallingford Inn at Choate Rosemary Hall 245 North Main Street, Wallingford

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ALUMNI ASSOCIATION The Choate Rosemary Hall Alumni Association’s mission is to create, perpetuate, and enhance relationships among Choate Rosemary Hall alumni, current and prospective students, faculty, staff, and friends in order to foster loyalty, interest, and support for the School and for one another, and to build pride, spirit, and community.

OFFICERS President Elizabeth Alford Hogan ’82 Vice Presidents Jaques Clariond ’01 Justin Graham ’98 Lena Sullesta Jessen ’92 Dewey Kang ’03 John Smyth ’83, P ’20 Members Sam Chao ’04 Marisa Ferraro ’92 Chris Herzog ’99 Ashley Holt ’11 David Javdan ’86 David Kestnbaum ’00 Jack Kingsley ’87 Lambert Lau ’97 Bradford Mak ’96 Duby McDowell ’78 George Ramirez ’11 Will Gilyard ’98, Faculty Representative Additional Executive Committee Members Chief Development Officer Anne Bergen Director of Alumni Relations Andrea Solomon Alumni Association Past Presidents Susan Barclay ’85 David Hang ’94, P ’25 Chris Hodgson ’78, P ’12, ’14, ’17 Parisa Jaffer ’89 Woody Laikind ’53 Patrick McCurdy ’98

Connecticut David Aversa ’91 Katie Vitali Childs ’95, P ’24, ’26 Los Angeles Wesley Hansen ’98 Alexa Platt ’95 New York Conrad Gomez ’98 Leah Lettieri ’07 Rosemary Hall Anne Marshall Henry ’62 San Francisco Albert Lee ’02 Washington, DC Olivia Bee ’10 Dan Carucci ’76 Tillie Fowler ’92 Beijing Matthew Cheng ’10 Gunther Hamm ’98 Hong Kong Lambert Lau ’97 Sandy Wan ’90 Jennifer Yu Cheng ’99 London Tatiana Donaldson ’13 Elitsa Nacheva ’08 Seoul Rae-Eun Sung ’97 Shanghai T.C. Chau ’95

REGIONAL CLUB LEADERSHIP

Thailand Isa Chirathivat ’96 Pat Sethbhakdi ’85, P ’18, ’18, ’20 Uracha Chaiyapinunt ’13

Boston Gabby Rundle Robinette ’06

Tokyo Miki Yoshida ’07

Chicago Maria Del Favero ’83 Jacqueline Salamack Lanphier ’06

Alumni Gatherings & Events It’s been an exciting fall with many of our Regional Networks hosting events!

We kicked off the year with Head of School receptions in Seoul and Bangkok in September. Leadership donors were invited to a special 1890 Society reception at the Classic Car Club in New York. Alumni in San Francisco enjoyed a tour and wine tasting at Ridge Vineyards. In Los Angeles, they held a pickleball tournament, and Connecticut alumni “Came Home to Choate” for a tailgate and array of home games.

Following the theme of our on-campus Community Service Day, “Hungry for Justice,” all seven U.S. Regional Networks, along with our Hong Kong Network, hosted community service events that addressed food insecurity.

In November, alumni and parents in Hong Kong came together for their annual Thanksgiving Dinner, and the Alumni Association hosted its annual Holiday Party in New York on December 13.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2024 27

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ALUMNI ASSOCIATION | Career Fair

Back row (l-r): Tom Bennet ’04, Lauren Provini ’08, Geoff Fletcher ’88, Kathrin Schwesinger ’02, Dewey Kang ’03, Bruce Burnett ’73, York Lo ’95, P ’25, Sarah McKenna ’89, Robert Elder ’97, Allie Williams ’15, Dave Desjardins ’02 Front row (l-r): Chris Vlasto ’84, Jeff Bowman ’10, Gian-Carlo Peressutti ’91, Chris Hodgson ’78, P ’12, ’14, ’17 Not pictured: John Coughlan ’87

On September 30, the School hosted its inaugural on-campus Career Exploration Fair, with 16 alumni representing many professions sharing advice and expertise with interested students. The event grew out of a request made in the spring by two students, Julen Payne ’24 and Junho Lee ’24, who had attended a ChoateNexus Career Networking webinar and felt certain that other students would benefit from hearing alumni talk about the work force.

The School invited alumni from technology, law, medicine, finance, investment, government, communications, business development, and entertainment, and provided students the opportunity to attend two industry-specific panel discussions where alumni shared advice and expertise and invited questions. After these formal sessions, students and alumni continued their conversations during brunch.

Alumni participants were impressed by the students’ eloquence, curiosity, and insightful questions, and students received invaluable career advice and insights and gained a better understanding of the depth and value of the Choate alumni network. Alumni Association Vice President and Chair of the ChoateNexus Committee Dewey Kang ’03 says, “I love that students are experiencing the alumni network while still on campus. They are gaining invaluable skills, and we have the chance to ingrain the importance of remaining connected to Choate beyond graduation. I am in contact with Choate friends and business associates almost every day, and I am thrilled that so many fellow alumni are equally committed to helping the next generation of alumni to succeed.”

This inaugural Career Exploration Fair highlights the enduring bonds within the Choate community. When reflecting on the event’s success, the student organizers said, “It was gratifying to see the connections being made, the career advice shared, and the legacy of Choate being continued through the stories and experiences of our alumni.”

We look forward to making the Career Exploration Fair an annual event. For more information or to get involved with career networking at Choate, join ChoateNexus powered by PeopleGrove. This powerful online platform gives access to fellow alumni, job postings, industry-specific chat boards, career advice, and much more.

MAY 10-12 Calling all alumni in classes ending in 4s and 9s! Don’t miss this opportunity to make new memories with old friends and classmates. Join us in Wallingford for a fun and exciting weekend of events. Stay tuned for details!

choate.edu/reunion

ChoateNexus powered by PeopleGrove

Are you harnessing the power of the Choate alumni network?

Join ChoateNexus powered by PeopleGrove today!

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CLASSNOTES | News From Our Alumni

1940s ’45 C

William McCord writes, “My 96th birthday was October 16. Living quietly on Kauai, Hawaii, in our house on a golf course with my 92-year-old wife.

Still play now and then. Have six great-grandchildren nearby. Still remember fondly the two years I spent at Choate. Retired long ago as Vice President of Manufacturing at an electronics plant.”

1950s ’51 RH Sara Avery Kelley writes, “I now live in a retirement community, Newbury Court, in Concord, Mass. Brian, my husband for 65 years, died in 2021 and I am in the process of creating a new way of living. Life here is very pleasant with many interesting and good activities and some new real friends. We still have our house in New Hampshire, and I tend to spend the summers there with shorter visits during the year. Grandchildren are beginning to create their separate lives; two have been married in the past two years and it looks like more will follow. There are seven in all, ranging in age from 32 to 15, so there is much change at many different levels. Our three children, Michael, Charlotte, and Jennifer, are good at keeping me ‘in the loop’ and we have regular family gatherings which are very important to me!”

’52 C Bob Gordon writes, “My brother, Bruce, and I are going to Tucson, Ariz., for a meeting of people who received the Distinguished Flying Cross. Bruce earned the DFC for action in Vietnam in 1970. His health is not really very good, and he asked me to go with him, and I said yes, I am proud to go. He graduated from Mt. Hermon. We should recognize our heroes.”

Miguel Suarez writes, “My wife, Yolanda, and I have been in Mijas Pueblo, Andalusia, Spain, since October 2. So far, we have driven to El Chorro, Pampaneira, Riofrio, El Rocio, Benalmadena Puerto

Bob Gordon ’52 at Crown Hill Reservoir in Jefferson County, Colorado.

Marina, Grazalema, Competa, Comares, and passed

by Gibraltar. I do all of the driving. If you plan a trip to Andalusia’s ‘white villages,’ I will gladly help. On January 19, I will celebrate my 90th birthday.”

’55 C

Bill McConnel writes, “At Shady Side Academy’s Homecoming this fall, the new, rerouted Cross Country Course (5k) was dedicated by previous runners to its Coach of 41 years of Cross Country and Track: the William ‘MAC’ McConnel Cross Country Course.”

Roger Vaughan became a member of the International Association of Cape Horners — those who have rounded Cape Horn under sail. He did so in the Whitbread Race in February of 1990, on board the Russian entry, Fazisi.

’56 C

Geoffrey Bullard writes, “After more than 20 years wintering in Florida, I recently sold my home there to return full time to home in Albany, N.Y. At 86, I am doing just fine and cheerfully greeting each day. Albany unexpectedly has evolved into the center for the family, children, brothers, and grandchildren.

Previously, the center was in Greenwich. That changed recently when the older brother moved to Denver after his wife died. Denver is where his children are living. The investment management company I founded in 1983 after leaving Lehman Management is still operating, now overseen by my son. Sadly, COVID restrictions cancelled our 2021 reunion. How many of us will be left in 2026, our 70th, I wonder?”

Thomas Gardner writes, “I retired this year from my position of COO and Chief Compliance Officer of a Registered Investment Advisory firm, my fourth career. Also retiring from position as Treasurer of a 22-unit condominium in Providence.

Looking forward to more time on Cape Cod and in Florida as well as travel as well as volunteer positions in both communities.”

and couldn’t be happier. Having said that, we still escape our winters by living four months each year in Puerta Vallarta, Mexico.”

Stephen Gilford writes, “Right before COVID pretty much shut the country down, I finished writing a book on the history of nursing and I realized that for the first time I could remember, there was nothing in the pipeline so I figured I must have retired. Now I spend much of my suddenly no longer rare, spare time playing music, at first on Zoom with friends, and more recently in rehearsals and local performances at farmers’ markets and in retirement communities. It was a bit of a shock to realize that I was older than many of the people in the assisted living places where we play. The music we play can best be described as Americana. The money we earn in performances goes to the Sonoma County Schools to support music in the schools. I stay involved in my community through serving on the Board of the Richmond (Calif.) Museum of History and Culture.

The Museum owns a 450' 10,000-ton vessel built in 1944, the SS Red Oak Victory, now a floating museum that we are preparing to take to sea again. I have the wonderful satisfaction of seeing my three children leading lives of service to others and I gain profound joy from that. Even though I am aware that I am running low on time, these are some of the best years of my life and I never doubt how lucky I am to have had so many good and satisfying years.”

’58 C

Barry Feinberg writes, “I’m so happy to be back living in New England after many years in Florida. My wife, Minerva, and I live in Hampton, N.H.,

Larry Morin writes, “For 17-plus years, I served as a volunteer member of the Barnstable Conservation Commission. I was unsure what skills and knowledge my appointment would require; I was never really trained or taught how to get a grip on the nature, extent, and complexity of the many issues associated with environmental protection, at least as it was being interpreted by this regulatory body. Eventually, I taught myself what to do and the sources of information that would support my questions and decisions. I was not reappointed in May 2023, and at first, I was very upset. The ‘reasons’ were that more than any other members of the

Miguel Suarez ’52 at the Mediterranean Sea lookout point near Gibraltar where you can see the African mountains in the horizon.

Bill McConnel ’55 with daughter, Kambra, at Shade Side Academy’s dedication of the William “MAC” McConnel Cross Country Course.

’57 C

BULLETIN | WINTER 2024 31

commission, I was a free thinker and would disagree with the other six members more often than anyone else. But, as my tenure ended, I realized it was the best thing that ever happened to me! By the end of September, I figured out what would be the best fit for me concerning the upcoming elections, whereupon I was given the green light to meet with these 10 candidates, ask them why they were running, what to them were the real issues, and from there to coach them to the finish line of the election on November 7. I was wise enough to not predict either the desired or anticipated outcome. But quickly and timely, and based upon my one-on-one visits, each candidate gained his or her confidence.

Our theme was ‘It’s time to change the climate of Town Government.’ Our joint efforts became a reality as six of the 13 council members either chose not to run, or were defeated at the polls, thereby giving these new council members a majority governing body. To some of you, this may be interesting, but my purpose for sending this for publication is not to brag but just to confirm that even at this stage of our lives, there are and can be some great opportunities and experiences notwithstanding our ages and stages.”

Messiah with our Symphony Chorus, and two benefit concerts with another chorus/orchestra. In my spare time, I knit and sew stuff.”

Susie Bristoll Sayles writes, “I moved to Martha’s Vineyard in 2016. Have beautiful direct waterfront senior apartment. Very small complex — only 28 of us. It took over seven years for me to get in here. Our grandkids are 20-27. A granddaughter graduated from Parsons School of Design and a grandson graduated from UVM in Burlington last spring. I’m in my sixth year working with autistic kids and still love it. Every year I say I’m going to retire, but I love these kids so much, I just can’t stay away from them. They are challenging at times, but I don’t let them get away with anything. I treat them like mainstream kids and they love it. Funny, very bright, and give the best hugs. It’s a rewarding job, for sure.

At my advanced age, they keep me young.”

’62 C

’60 C Jack Mettler writes, “I have been retired since 2000 and live between Edgartown, Mass., and Indian Wells, Calif. Have been in touch with Rick Salomon and recommend reading his autobiography. It is an easy read and filled with memories of Choate and Yale. Had knees replaced in 2022 and though very painful, the result is worth it.”

Charles Post writes, “My health is spotty but I’m getting along pretty well. Just came across Choate file. Astonished by extensive and sensitive reports of masters and Seymour, just what I needed to develop constructively. This was one great school, and I think still is. Winter at Anglers Club and Ocean Reef, summer in Middlebury, Vt., and Duxbury, Mass.

Active in genealogy, family, reading, working out, golf, boating, and friends.”

Deaver Brown writes, “My company works primarily with millennials and Zers in the FAANG group, Spotify, Shopify, Walmart.com, on down.

We were urged to use QR codes by movie screen companies by several young Choaties and have done so. simplymedia.com. Up to 18,000 movie screens now with our 921 and counting downloadable $2.99 or less eBooks and audiobooks, with thanks to Choate masters of yesteryear David Rice, Gordon Stillman, and others.”

Reuben Trane writes, “This summer was busy for us. First, Cheryl and I went to Italy in June for a wedding of the son of our good friends from Essex, Conn. We stopped off in Switzerland to visit Cheryl’s family before riding the Glacier Express train from Zermatt to Saint Moritz. Next day, we continued on the Bernina Express to Tirano, Italy. In September we hosted our granddaughter’s wedding at our cottage in Haddam, Conn. This was during the flooding of the Connecticut River, the water rising into the lawn.

Luckily, the 150 guests could only complain about the 90 degree temperature.”

F. John Wilkes Jr. writes, “Celebrating my 80th birthday with my family and 20 good friends made September 16 a wonderful day. I still keep active with my bike rides and look forward to continuing to compete this year on the New England Masters Ski Racing circuit. But before the snow falls, Gini and I are off for a four-week cruise along the West Coast of Africa. I am looking forward to visiting the Ivory Coast, where in 1966 I taught English as a Foreign Language in the Peace Corps. We still visit with the French friends that I made there many years ago.”

’61 RH Judy Banzhaf Kruse writes, “I still keep busy,

’62 RH Muffie Swan writes, “I’m now living in

’58 RH Sally Barnes Sonne was married in August in a small family service in the Adirondacks to Donald Roberts. Both lost their long-time spouses to Alzheimer’s four years ago, and they feel fortunate to have found each other at their rather advanced ages.

1960s

and am grateful to do so. I have finished dressing 12 dolls, which will be donated to our school district as gifts for needy children. My docket for the next weeks includes several solo/ensemble performances on classical guitar, five performances of the entire

a senior center with great people and fabulous activities all the time. Living in an apartment was a bit lonely, and now I have a lot of friends to do things with, and my family is very close, and I get to see them often.”

TOP Roger Vaughan ’55 MIDDLE Barry Feinberg ’57 and his wife, Minerva, enjoying their trip

to wonderful Newfoundland.

BOTTOM Morrie Everett ’59 and his granddaughter Audrey Ours

on Hawken School Graduation Day. Morrie now has only six grandchildren at Hawken!

32 CLASSNOTES

1

2

4

7

3

5

6

8 1 Deaver Brown ’62 and family 2 John Wilkes ’62, wife Gini, and a Choate teddy bear, sitting on the 80th birthday

present from their son Nat — a Lamborghini (for a day).

3 Left to right: David Baines ’65, Cherie Baines, Jan Endresen ’65, Linda

Callan, Dick Bott ’65, App Wiltsee ’65, Kathleen Wiltsee, Peter Perakos ’65, Clif Leonhardt ’65, Jim Mulvey ’65, John Callan ’65, Gail Endresen, Marian Bott, Tony Smith ’65.

4 Jan Scott Perrault ’65, a retired accountant who travels, pictured with her

husband, Ainslie.

5 Rod Walker ’66 just visited with his two grandchildren (the lion and the

narwhal) in Seattle for Halloween. What a hoot!

6 Pictured in the town square of Olomouc, Czech Republic (L to R): Gilly and

Doug Eisenhart ’67 and Jack Crews ’68 and his wife, Meg. 7 Rick Rosenthal ’67 — Works in progress, Red 13 — painted wood, corrugated

metal, and wire.

8 Helen Halpin ’69, with her daughter and granddaughter, went to see the Taylor

Swift movie at the IMAX theater in San Francisco. 3 generations of Swifties!

BULLETIN | WINTER 2024 33

’63 C

Tom Despard writes, “I learned to write at Choate from great coaches like Tom Yankus. I was also inspired by Robert Frost, who recited his poetry at Choate in 1962. My fifth collection, Visual Verse, with 47 illustrations, each with a poem, is now available online at uppoetry.net.”

’63 RH Rozzie Chubb Davis writes, “I have sold our Montana ranch, but still have Willow Oak Plantation in Georgia. I am still horseback riding; trying to play golf as a late-in-lifer; have a reformer Pilates trainer; and dine out a lot with friends. I chair the Development Committee at Tall Timbers Research and Land Conservancy. We just had our annual major fundraiser and we grossed almost $540,000. I chaired that as well.”

Donna Dickenson gave a Zoom lecture recently at the University of Colombo in Sri Lanka.

She gave the lecture at the request of one of her former students at Imperial College School of Medicine in London. That’s a very satisfying aspect of her life now: she has younger female colleagues all over the world, whom she mentors, and is lucky to be able to stay in touch with them all through email, Skype, and Zoom.

Alice Chaffee Freeman had a show of her artwork in the Putney, Vt., library in December.

Jean McBee Knox writes, “No big changes from my corner of New Hampshire, which is a good thing. Our two grandchildren (2 and 7) are growing rapidly — conversations with them grow ever funnier and more challenging. My husband and I are increasingly grateful for our good health, and increasingly careful on the winter ice. No travel plans this year, with the exception of a spring visit with my sister Hetty (RH ’61), who lives in Cornwall, England. My primary volunteer activities continue: conservation work, and a library book review series.”

Chris Murray McKee writes, “Just wrapped up a crazy summer. As many of you know, I manage (with my sister, Kiki ’69) our family home on Lake Sunapee, and it was a doozy: 20 inches of rain in a three-week span, and my granddaughters were all here. They didn’t seem to mind because they were swimming anyway. Ethan’s two girls came from Thailand and Rachel’s three came from Ohio. Wonderful to see them all together. Tom and I are very busy. We are volunteer docents at the Sunapee Historical Museum, and we volunteer at the local food pantry. I am also on the Waste Reduction Committee, and we have just instituted a municipal food scrap collection for composting.”

Margo Melton Nutt writes, “Still president of the Friends of Norwich Library, but trying to rebuild the board with new, younger, more energetic members. Still doing publicity for the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Upper Valley. Taking adult ed courses through Osher at Dartmouth.”

’64 C

Curt Tobey writes, “I continue to be active in the investment front overseeing a family office. I am also involved with several nonprofit entities such as Save the Children, the worldwide humanitarian organization. I have had the privilege to see Save’s great work on the ground in the Middle East to include visiting Za-Atari … the refugee camp on the Syrian and Jordan border … as well as visiting Israel and Gaza. We also went on trips to Nicaragua, Bolivia, Peru and the Central Valley in California. I have four great children, Celine, Ben, Caroline, and Lorin, and I am blessed to have five wonderful grands … Annie, Ellie, Jake, Blake, and Charlie. I say hi and hope to see you all at our 60th reunion, May 10-12, 2024.”

’65 C

John Callan writes, “The photo I shared is meant especially for Peter Schaeffer (Yoda), who was with us in spirit, and hopefully will be next time in the flesh! Danbury isn’t quite as convenient for a ferry or road trip from Amagansett as it is for those of us within an hour’s drive. And this entreaty is meant for the rest of you, too, of course! Thanks to App Wiltsee for instigating, and Dave Baines for organizing it. And be sure to join our Dew Drop Inn on Thursday for reflective highlights!”

Ted Robinson writes, “On the topics of babies, weddings, new jobs, promotions, retirements, relocations, or unique achievements, I can offer somewhat relevant reminiscences. Babies: Daughter Kate is living happily in Hanoi, where she can afford a maid on her teacher’s salary. Daughter Anne is working for a liquor distributor in NYC after having worked as a bartender, including at PDT, where one entered via a phone booth in the hot dog stand next door. Would-be customers picked up the phone and she decided whether to open the booth’s back door to let them in. Weddings, or how I met my wife Judith: In a flat above the Pizza Pad in Boston, one of my classmates from Yale was having an unusually high-level discussion with this amazing woman.

Politics, philosophy, the theater, travel, it went on and on. Not much math or science, so I was unusually quiet. She worked as hostess at the real life Cheers, so I went there the following day. The rest, as they say, is history. New Jobs: After running surf shops on the Jersey shore in the late ’60s, I’ve been mostly unemployed, thanks to tradable imperfections in various financial instruments over the years. Unique achievements: Getting chased by a dog in my plane.

I had purchased a small two-seat airplane, vintage 1946, in 1981 for getting on and off Block Island.

Captain Nick, the Town’s second warden, had shared a disturbing vision of the island’s future growth.

We took my plane to fly over the stoplights, traffic, McDonald’s, etc. of the Hamptons on nearby Long Island. On the way back to Block Island, I needed to skim the beach to minimize a substantial headwind.

At an air speed of 70 MPH, we were going over the dunes at perhaps half that. Our noise and slow speed enticed a black Labrador to give chase.”

’66 C Rod Walker writes, “In September, I was the cover story in Charlottesville’s Cville weekly magazine for my work creating a nonprofit to help solve our growing problems with invasive plants. And I have been sponsoring a young Ukrainian couple who arrived here on April 5.” ’66 RH Ann Whipple Marr writes, “My husband died this spring after battling cancer, so it’s a year of adjustment (and memories), but I’m doing well.

Working (alas, remotely) when I can to support teachers in Haiti — and enjoying this fall weather.

Rosemary friends I’ve seen recently include Connie Wootton Nichols ’66, Helen Truss Kweskin ’67, and Betsy O’Hara ’63.”

’67 C Douglas Eisenhart and Jack Crews ’68 were part of a Princeton University Class of 1972 10-day tour of Prague and the Czech Republic in September, 2023, hosted by a Czech-born Princeton classmate of Doug and Jack’s, who fled her native land and emigrated to the U.S. after the Soviet invasion in 1968. Doug said it was great to see Jack again and relive some Choate memories.

Rick Rosenthal writes, “Thoroughly enjoying the closing of a 50-year circle: from a studio in Watertown, Mass., to a studio in Culver City, Calif., so similar in size, light, and feel that it’s a little like déjà vu all over again!” ’67 RH Helen Truss Kweskin writes, “Looking forward to our 57th reunion in May (trusting that my total knee replacement from a lifetime of racquet sports will be functional again by then!). Husband Ed and I are enjoying our six grandchildren, ranging in age from one to 11, although three of them are living in Switzerland, which leaves us missing them and supporting Swissair on a regular basis. I retired from teaching high school English after 45 years of great pleasure in the classroom. I continue to fundraise for my organization in Rwanda that focuses on providing educational services as its mission. We are in our 15th year and looking to support the secondary education of 21 needy students in rural Rwamagana.”

1970s ’70 C Bob Anderson attended the recent Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, where he signed an agreement with a Chinese company to assist in the development of an international port and industrial estate in Cambodia (where he’s been working for the past 9 years). This $200 million multipurpose port will be the first privately owned international port in Cambodia, and promises to lower costs/add to the 6-7% p.a. GDP growth. God willing, ground breaking will be next year. Bob warmly welcomes any and all CRH folks to visit Cambodia.

34 CLASSNOTES

’70 RH Kitty Glass Hayes writes, “My husband, Tim, and I celebrated our 22nd anniversary by driving to Quebec City. Along the way we stopped to visit Galen Mercer in his studio, bought a painting, toured (again) King Arthur’s compound, toured the Orvis fly fishing rod manufacturing plant, saw shooting stars, and delighted in Quebec City and its food. We will fly if we go back. From time to time I am in contact with Ariane DuBois ’70.”

1

’71 C David Clarke writes, “After closing my gastroenterology practice in Portland, Ore., I have been President of the nonprofit Psychophysiologic Disorders Association since 2011. In the fall of 2023, I filmed a new course to teach health care professionals about patients whose pain or illness is linked to stress rather than to injury or disease."

Pierre Gourdon continues his work in cybersecurity advisory at Gartner in Connecticut, with a new focus on the impact of Generative AI on an organization’s management of their cyber risk. He would welcome connecting with any classmates who might be experimenting with GenAI technology.

2

3

’73 C

Bruce Burnett writes, “Our 50th reunion was a true milestone. Congrats to our classmates who showed up in huge numbers. The pre-reunion at the Water’s Edge in Westbrook was unforgettable. Most important the creation of the Choate Rosemary Hall Class of 1973 Endowment for Global Engagement.

We raised over $400,000 to fund Choate students desiring an opportunity to escape their comfort zones and actively participate in helping the world.”

’74 C Jay Denison writes, “The past few years have been packed with changes and news for our family. I have moved into the wonderful world of retirement after selling the fundraising agency we started over 33 years ago. Our two daughters were married six weeks apart last year, and we also greeted our first grandchild this past summer. When Ellen and I aren’t spending time in Concord, Mass., we can be found at our home in Manchester, Vt., or in London with our granddaughter. All are welcome if you are in or around Boston or Vermont. I’d love to hear from you.”

4

5

’75 RH Annis Campione writes, “After eight years in Ontario, I moved back to Quebec in August last year.

I spend my days working part-time, writing and artmaking in my tiny house by a lake. It is a lovely life, for which I am very grateful.” ’76 C

Bryan Eagle writes, “Since last checking in, I took my last startup, Astrocast, public and moved back to the States. Now launching a cleantech company, Glanris, that removes CO2 from the carbon cycle by taking agricultural waste and turning it into a variety of products. We are in the Sacramento Valley.

Reach out if you are interested in how we are trying to help save the planet.”

1 Bob Anderson ’70 (left) 2 Constantine Axiotis ’71 could barely believe it was his 70th birthday on October 1. Playing bouzouki and guitar, and

traveling. Left to right: Evangeline (daughter), Noemi (wife), Constantine Axiotis ’71, Alexandra (daughter), André (son).

3 At the 50th Reunion in May 2023, Bruce Burnett ’73 stated his class was the “Greatest Class Ever!”

4 Dr. David Clarke ’71 (left) on the film set for Challenging Cases in Psychophysiologic Disorders.

5 Rosanna Tufts ’78

BULLETIN | WINTER 2024 35

1

’76 RH Melinda Pfeffer Beach writes, “Happy to be active with a new hip. I’m living in New Hampshire, Florida, and Cape Cod. Creating art and hosting events in my barn in N.H. Visiting my mom and daughter and her family in Fla. Loving my children, grandchildren, and community.”

’78 Rosanna Tufts has produced a documentary, Was It Autism All Along?, about her late diagnosis of autism, including reminiscences about how this hidden disability impacted her life at Choate Rosemary Hall, and nobody knew it, because back then, it was considered rare and affected only boys.

Available on YouTube as a 6-video series. ’79 2

3

4 5

Gary (Nico) Miller shares experiments to reverse the aging process @nicoDANCEny (Instagram and Facebook).

1980s ’80 Robin Ackerman writes, “John Lowry and I met up on John’s bike ride across the U.S. Coincidentally, John spent the night a few miles from our Adirondack home on Piseco Lake. Fantastic to reconnect.”

Kimberly Kenne writes, “I had a wonderful time competing in the 2023 World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship in Valladolid, Spain, in September. I participated in the individual and four-person team events. I made it into the finals for both but did not walk away with any prizes, save for a great stay in a beautiful city with my husband.”

Michael Lewyn writes, “In October, I celebrated my 60th birthday, and threw a party at my Manhattan apartment attended by Greg Tartaglia ’80 and Greg Reynolds ’81. A few months earlier, my wife and I visited Choate on the way to a vacation in western Massachusetts; it was the first time she had seen Choate.” ’81 Corina Salas-Römer Alvarezdelugo writes, “I received the 2023 Connecticut Outstanding Art Educator of the Year award, presented December 7 at the New Britain Museum of American Art.”

Gregory Viscusi, Brian Parry, and Jim Meltsner caught up recently at Jim’s house in Washington, D.C.

1 Melinda Pfeffer Beach ’76 in front of old drawing.

2 Robin Ackerman ’80 and John Lowry ’80 in October 2023.

3 Kyle Holt Hopkins ’82 and Kate Monick Hogarth ’82 at the Tring Radio Station, UK, July 2023.

4 From left to right: Brian Parry, Jim Meltsner, and Gregory Viscusi, all Class of 1981, in Washington, D.C. 5 Tag Mendillo ’83, Ted Danforth ’84, and Andy Lipsky ’83 in Montauk, L.I.

’82 Kyle Holt Hopkins writes, “It was so great to see many of you at our 40th last year. Prior to Reunion, I was diagnosed with breast cancer, so the rest of 2022 was all about cancer treatment — lumpectomy, chemo, and radiation. A cancer journey can be lifechanging. At the end of treatment in December, I felt called to divinity school. I started at Northeastern Seminary this fall, as a candidate in the Master of Theology and Social Justice program, to pursue some sort of chaplaincy work, hopefully with cancer patients and/or incarcerated women. Earlier this summer I visited Kate Monick Hogarth ’82 in the UK.

36 CLASSNOTES

She interviewed me on her radio show ‘Tring Today’ about my family’s sailing circumnavigation and travel/ boat schooling. Kate is a founding member and radio host for her local radio station, Tring Radio. Get the Tring Radio app and listen to her (tringradio.co.uk). I continue my work as a Board Director for The Traveling School, a place-based semester high school for girls — where school takes place while traveling throughout Southern Africa and South America. In my work for The Traveling School, I can combine my passion for girl power and travel/boat schooling!”

’83

Tag Mendillo spent a glorious Labor Day with Ted Danforth ’84 and Andy Lipsky ’83.

’84 Claudia Saunders Bourke writes, “It’s so great to be the parents of two Eagle Scouts, who had their Eagle ceremony together in June. Matthew earned his rank pre-COVID, but then waited for his sister, Catherine, so they could celebrate together.

Matthew received four Eagle Palms representing nearly 80 badges earned; Catherine is the fourth female Eagle in Manhattan, and one of the first 10 in all of NYC. I am so happy to have founded a BSA troop for girls, and to continue as scoutmaster working with both boys and girls for this amazing program I had previously known nothing about.”

Peter Carls writes, “After 23 years of working as a probation officer in upstate New York, roaming country roads, helping juveniles in crisis, monitoring all types of adult offenders, and in later years, organizing the warrant team, I took early retirement. I moved ‘south’ to Boston to be closer to family. I miss dealing with the Amish buggies and herds of cows crossing the road, then coping with Boston drivers!”

Bonnie Jeanne Noble writes, “Greetings, friends from back in the day. I am still on the faculty in the Department of Art and Art History at the University

1

of North Carolina at Charlotte, currently on sabbatical to work on a book, Eerie Virgins and Dancing Witches in the Art of Hans Baldung Grien. I’ve also had the rewarding experience of working as a contributing editor for the art history courses at Khan Academy. If any alumni are in the Charlotte area, drop a line!”

Robert (Drew) Utman writes, “I surreptitiously stopped by for the Spooktacular on October 22. I want to thank Maestro Ventre for another fabulous event enjoyed by all as well as his enduring leadership of WSO.”

’85 Ed Cannon was selected by his peers to serve as department chair for the Counseling Program at the University of Colorado in Denver.

Carrie Sackett has authored Social Therapeutic Coaching: A Practical Guide to Group and Couples Work, published by Routledge. The book introduces a new method and form of therapeutic practice: Life Development Groups. One reviewer says the book “define[s] a new niche in the modern coaching industry … and introduces new/old knowledge so that [therapeutic practitioners] can help the masses during this rather difficult time of ‘humaning’.” ’86

David Feiner writes, “This summer, the Chicago theater company I co-founded co-directed the Albany Park Theater Project (APTP) premiere of Port of Entry, an immersive performance that welcomes audiences into a re-created apartment building where immigrants and refugees displaced from all parts of the world launch new lives side-byside. Created with and performed by an ensemble of youth from one of the country’s most culturally diverse immigrant communities it opened to a fourstar review from the Chicago Tribune, which wrote, ‘Even by APTP’s vaunted historical standards, Port of Entry is an astonishing piece of work.’ To house Port of Entry, we built a three-story, 12,000-square-foot

2

immersive world. The show has an open run; if you’re in Chicago, I hope you’ll join us for this experience.”

James Pratt writes, “I’m thrilled to share that I’ve recently been awarded my 290th granted patent! Crazy, right? It feels like a wild journey since our Choate Rosemary Hall days. I would have never thought I would be doing cutting edge artificial intelligence work as a psychologist for a big company.

Big shoutout to the lessons and memories we shared back at Choate, which paved the way for so many of these milestones we are all experiencing now.”

Janet Rossbach joined the Louis August Foundation in June as Director of Advancement.

In this role, Janet manages alumni relations and fundraising for Camp Rising Sun, a 90+ year-old, fullscholarship international teen leadership camp in New York’s Hudson Valley. She remembers being part of Choate’s International Club and its similar focus on promoting global understanding, celebrating diverse cultures, and nurturing friendships with classmates from around the world.

Ann Stanley writes, “I left NYC and have relocated to Santa Fe, N.M., where I am very happily living. Let me know if you are in town, would be fun to meet up.”

Bobby Vanech writes, “I have been doing my best to speak to a Choatie every day and see as many as possible as I travel. Notable visits this year included: Laura Machanic ’86 in LA; Billy Matthews ’86, Gar Cucci ’86, and Becca Paoletti ’86 in NYC; Reed Bergman ’86 and Brett Johnson ’88 in Beverly Hills; Ceci Kurzman ’87, Stephanie Germain ’87, and Kevin Kassover ’87 in Brentwood, Calif., Morgan Fischer ’86 and family on the beach in Santa Monica; Dave Hurwitt ’86 with our wives in Vermont … and most notably, a George Neilans ’86 visit in Bangkok, Thailand, for a few days. I am pretty sure he is not CIA as previously incorrectly reported.”

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1 Five ne’er do well Choaties post wake for Jim

2 Children of Claudia Saunders Bourke ’84,

3 Ann Stanley ’86 in Sante Fe, New Mexico — 300

4 Bobby Vanech ’86 and George Neilans ’86 in

Conroy’s dad. L to R: Kevin Conroy ’85, John Smyth ’83, Jim Conroy ’83, Ken Kennerly ’83, Michael Conroy ’78.

Catherine and Matthew Bourke, at their Eagle Scout Badge Ceremony.

days/year of sunshine and lots of lizards to chase!

Bangkok, Thailand.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2024 37

CLASSNOTES | Profile

Kate Marie Byrnes, M.P.M.

’88

A Life in Diplomacy

During the summer of 1990, in a small factory town in the hills of what was then Czechoslovakia, several locals were puzzling over lyrics to songs by the Beatles, Pink Floyd, and the Rolling Stones. Among their instructors was Kate Byrnes ’88 — then an undergraduate at Georgetown — who, with friends, had concocted a plan to teach English in Czechoslovakia after the fall of the Berlin Wall the previous November. “We intended to teach basic conversation,” Kate says. “But all everyone wanted was to understand the lyrics that had gotten them through their time behind the Iron Curtain!”

Fortunately, Kate was well-equipped for the challenge; she had taken Phil Ventre’s course on the history of rock & roll. “You never know when your Choate Rosemary Hall classes will come in handy,” she says.

Even at that point in her life, Kate — who is now a senior foreign service officer — was an old hand at matters international. The daughter of a diplomat father, she was born in Rome and lived in Antigua and then Madrid as well as in Washington, D.C. Her family’s decision that a U.S. boarding school would offer better educational opportunity led to her applying to Choate Rosemary Hall.

Entering in fifth form year was a major transition — “I felt like an outsider at first,” she says — but she found community in varsity soccer, track, ski club, and theater. And she became deeply engaged in academic work, including Zach Goodyear’s American Political Institutions course (“I knew a lot about foreign policy but very little about the U.S. government,” she says) and a course that she describes as “transformative” — Gwen Severance’s The Holocaust. “It wasn’t just the topic,” Kate says, “but the way the course was taught. We used multimedia.

We role-played. We worked through the most difficult conversations you can imagine. It was not just academic, but experiential. I will never forget that class — and I still talk about it at the State Department.”

At Georgetown, Kate majored in international relations, passed the foreign service exam, and began her foreign service career with the U.S. Information Agency (later part of the State Department) a few months after graduating. Her first position, after training, was as a cultural attaché in Turkey (now spelled Türkiye), working with local universities that had American Studies programs.

“I was all of 23 years old,” she says, “and just plunged right in. I visited parts of Türkiye that Americans rarely get to.” After three years there, her next posting was in Bolivia, where she was the information officer and ran the Fulbright program.

When Kate returned to Washington after six years abroad, she coordinated the international responses and helped set policy for navigating diplomatic relationships after the September 11 terrorist attacks, then went to Capitol Hill to help prepare the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee for hearings on the big NATO expansion — with seven countries seeking to join. While back in Washington, she also obtained a master’s degree in policy management at Georgetown. Then she was off to Hungary for three years.

But her dream job was working with NATO and, in 2007, she became public affairs adviser at the U.S. mission to NATO in Brussels.

“At that time,” she says, “a lot of the focus was on the international mission in Afghanistan.” She volunteered for an Afghanistan posting and spent 2010–2011 as the senior civilian at an army brigade responsible for relations and stability operations in four northeastern provinces.

After some time back in Madrid, three years as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Vienna, and two years as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Greece, Kate became the first U.S. ambassador to North Macedonia (formerly Macedonia). “I had three wonderful years there,” she says, “during which we were able to bring them into NATO. They had worked so hard to be part of the West since their independence 30 years earlier — it was a joy to be able to welcome them.”

Now stationed on an army base in Stuttgart, Germany, as the civilian deputy and senior foreign policy adviser to U.S. European Command, this awardwinning 30-year veteran of the U.S. diplomatic corps is exactly where she wants to be. “This unique position allows me to advise our military on policy issues and to work all across Europe with our allies and partners to make sure we use this moment — challenging as it is — to cement our relationships and strengthen the NATO alliance,” Kate says. “We don’t, and don’t have to, agree on everything. But the fundamental values are worth preserving.”

By Rhea Hirshman Rhea Hirshman is a freelance writer based in New Haven. She also teaches women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at the University of Connecticut in Stamford, and is a former member of the Choate Rosemary Hall English Department.

38 CLASSNOTES

CLASSNOTES | Profile

’89

Elad Levy, MD, MBA, FACS, FAHA, FAANS

Changing the Course of Neurosurgery If his hands were not bloody and callused after rowing practice, Elad Levy ’89 thought that he had not pulled hard enough. “Rowing was my lifeline when I came as a junior to Choate,” he says — his access to a world that was very different from his family’s former life in Israel and the community where they settled in rural upstate New York. Elad had never even seen rowing before, but he was encouraged to pursue it, fell in love with the sport, and committed to an intense personal training regimen to keep pace with those who had grown up with it. In his sixth form year, he rowed in the first varsity boat.

Now, Elad’s hands save lives.

A renowned neurovascular surgeon and researcher, he is professor and chair of neurosurgery and the L. Nelson Hopkins Endowed Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at the State University of New York, Buffalo, and was recently awarded Distinguished Professor at SUNY Buffalo for his contributions to the field. He has performed thousands of life-saving procedures, published hundreds of peer-reviewed articles, co-authored a number of books, lectured worldwide, led several professional organizations, and received numerous awards and honors.

Recruited to row at Dartmouth, Elad found himself “totally prepared by Choate for Dartmouth’s academics,” able to balance rowing in the varsity 8 with the demands of studying biochemistry and molecular biology. He also represented the U.S. Junior Rowing Team at Junior World Championships in France after his freshman college year and rowed during his first two years of medical school at George Washington University. Although he “got tired of eating beans for breakfast and racing into class dripping wet” and had to drop the sport (he later turned to triathlons), he credits rowing for the discipline it gave him and notes its parallels to medicine. “You need to make sacrifices, get up in the middle of the night, function seamlessly as a team, and put others’ needs before your own.”

With his interest in sports, Elad initially gravitated towards orthopedics and applied for an orthopedics summer internship after his first year of medical school. He was accepted instead to his backup choice — neurosurgery. When the time came for matching with neurosurgery residency programs — having graduated from George Washington with distinction — he matched with one of the best in the country, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

While still in his residency, which included a two-year fellowship at Buffalo in minimally invasive endovascular neurosurgery, Elad became determined to change neurosurgery, particularly the treatment of stroke. Although his department chair supported the idea that “if cardiologists can treat heart attacks, one day we will be able to use stents to treat stroke,” that vision was not always shared by senior colleagues. “During one talk I gave when I was a young attending, about putting in a stent and saving a stroke patient,” Elad says, “a chair from another prestigious school stood up and said, ‘If I had a tomato, I would throw it at you.’ I was devastated, but my chair told me to stick with what I was doing.”

He did. “And in 2015,” he says, “we changed the world for stroke patients.”

That year, a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine, with Elad as one of the authors, presented the results of the SWIFT PRIME trial showing the effectiveness of a procedure called stroke thrombectomy, in which a device called a stent retriever is used to pull out a clot from the brain blood vessel it is blocking. “For ischemic stroke patients prior to 2015,” Elad says, “our only option was clot busters, which had about a 30 percent success rate and worked best on small clots. Now, we have a simple surgical intervention that is up to 90 percent effective on even larger clots.” In fact, he notes, the trial — on which he was the U.S. principal investigator — was halted early because the procedure’s effectiveness meant that withholding it from the control group would have been unethical.

Elad is now exploring another new technology — brain-computer interface — which holds promise for patients with ALS, spinal cord injuries, and other paralyzing conditions. Clinical trials are underway. “We are at a nascent stage but again at an inflection point.” He says, “We are looking at the potential for reconnecting to the outside world people who are trapped in their bodies.”

To his residents, Elad emphasizes that neurosurgery is not simply a profession, but a calling. “I like to say that constant pressure turns coal into diamonds,” he says. “There is little room for forgiveness; even though errors may happen, perfection is always the goal. Never let anyone outwork you, but also never miss an opportunity to be kind.”

By Rhea Hirshman Rhea Hirshman is a freelance writer based in New Haven. She also teaches women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at the University of Connecticut in Stamford, and is a former member of the Choate Rosemary Hall English Department.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2024 39

’90 Meredith Savage ’90 (left) and Jillian Backus Sullivan ’90 (right) had the pleasure of attending Fran O’Donoghue’s physics class during Family Weekend. Their sons Reid and Tristan are third formers in the class of 2027. The best news is Fran still makes physics fun!

1990s ’90

Penny Bach Evins writes, “I am pleased to be in Bethesda, Md., with my husband, Sam, as I serve Holton-Arms, a girls school for students in 3rd-12th grade as Head of School. It is fun to find Choate connections with people as I carry my Choate tote on my walk to School. I am close to many Choate connections and look forward to helping and participating in regional events. As a Head of School, I continue to have such admiration for Alex and the Choate team and am proud to be an alumna.”

’93

Hannah Sears is working in Georgetown, Washington, D.C., at the Christ Child Opportunity Shop and Casey & Company LLC, and volunteering.

’94

Amy Rabinowitz Huffman writes, “Loved catching up with Kristen Johnson Woody ’94 on my fall break trip to Seattle, where she lives. We are both planning to make it to our next class reunion in May.”

’95

Tom (Mo) Muchiri Kabuga is spearheading Atlas Tower’s growth across Africa as the country manager for Kenya and director for Emerging Markets. Through this and other voluntary activities

he aims to encourage sustainable development of East Africa’s built environment, particularly growth of passive and active digital infrastructure.

Rachel Self was selected as an Honorable Mention Bostonian of the Year by Boston Globe Magazine for her work with the migrants who were brought to the island of Martha’s Vineyard in the fall of 2022. She has appeared as a legal analyst for various news networks, and has been featured in multiple documentary productions. Rachel has her own law practice in Boston specializing in criminal trial work and immigration law. She lives on Martha’s Vineyard and spends her spare time gardening with her airedale terrier, Max, and her 35 chickens. She also recently had the chance to catch up with Joan Hurley, her Choate Spanish teacher, and meet Lolly Hand, who happens to also be a resident of Martha’s Vineyard.

’97

Kate Lemay’s co-curated exhibition, “1898: U.S. Imperial Visions and Revisions” at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, was reviewed by the Washington Post critic Philip Kennicott as “the best and most engaging work the National Portrait Gallery has done in a decade.” Lemay’s accompanying book, 1898: Visual Culture and U.S. Imperialism in the Caribbean and the Pacific, published by Princeton University Press, was reviewed by Publisher’s Weekly as among the top 10 books in art and architecture in

2023. The exhibition is on view at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., through February 24, 2025.

’98

Joseph Kaulaity writes, “In 2023, I became the lead principal accountant for the CARES Act and American Rescue Plan Act programs for Navajo Nation, in the Navajo Nation capital of Window Rock, Ariz.”

’99 Douglas Chang got to work with fellow Choatie David Fried DDS ’77 at the ADA House of Delegates in Orlando, and is excited to work with him in the coming years, since both serve on the American Dental Association Council on Dental Practice.

William Rompf writes, “My wife of 13 years, Allison Ford, and I are living and working in the Bay Area splitting our time between San Francisco and our home in Lake Tahoe. We met at NYU. I have been with Electronic Arts for the past 10 years as their Senior Director of Product Development — creating video games. Allison is the Editorial Creative Director for Biossance Skincare based in SF. Our lives have forever changed by our new son — now 18 months — August William Christopher Rompf — who keeps us amazed, happy, and always challenged every day. We are considering moving overseas (Southern Italy) at some point but more immediately, planning to return to Choate after many years for the 25th class reunion, hoping to reunite with fellow classmates.”

40 CLASSNOTES

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2000s ’06 Margaux Harrold and Kaitlin (Kunkler) Wright ’06 had the pleasure of reliving their fifth form year term abroad in Paris this fall with a four-day trip seeing all of the sights — they decided against a visit to the Louvre for the 20th time, and opted for an adventure to Disneyland Paris, instead. ’08 Erik Rahtjen writes, “I recently was promoted to Director of Technology at Stable Kernel. We are a software consultancy in Atlanta, Ga., and service many Fortune 500s with boutique software — would love to connect with anyone that is interested in learning more about the burgeoning software scene in the southeast!”

2010s 1 Paddle Rat is the second children’s book written and illustrated by Rex Flodstrom ’90.

2 Amy Rabinowitz Huffman ’94 (left) and Kristen Johnson Woody ’94 (right) by the downtown Seattle pier.

3 Co-curators of the “1898” exhibition, Dr. Taína Caragol and Dr. Kate Clarke Lemay ’97 (left), during the press preview at the National

Portrait Gallery in April 2023.

4 Tom “Mo” Muchiri Kabuga ’95 (3rd from left) speaking at TowerXchange South Africa with other key industry players.

5 Rachel Self ’95 6 Douglas Chang DDS (IL) ’99 (left) and David Fried DDS (CT) ’77 (right) at this years American Dental Association House of Delegates.

7 William Rompf ’99 with wife Allison and son August William Christopher Rompf.

8 2003 classmates and forever friends, left to right, Dr. Shannon DeVore, Julia (Fraser) Washington, Catherine (Tarasoff) Burroughs,

Rachel (Attias) Senio, and Christine (Leach) Anderson enjoyed a long weekend away in Riviera Maya, Mexico, in October 2023.

9 Margaux Harrold ’06 (left) and Kaitlin Kunkler Wright ’06 (right) at Disneyland Paris!

10 Sam Herzig ’10: an impromptu Choate Football reunion on Nantucket with retired athletes Evan Jackson ’10 (left) and Andrew Lasota ’10 (right), from Choate’s legendary football class of 2010. Shout out to Chris Holt ’10 for hosting an amazing event!

’16 Kwabena Ayim-Aboagye writes, “I’ve joined InterSystems Corporation as a sales engineer working in the public sector. It’s the marriage of the skills I’ve gained in software development and operations and sales working at startups in New York since 2020. Based in the New York office in Midtown, I occasionally make trips to our Headquarters in Cambridge, Mass., for in-person training in our technology as part of my training and onboarding.

I’m enjoying my new position and looking forward to growing as a developer and as a salesman.”

42 CLASSNOTES

CLASSNOTES | New Beginnings 1 Reuben Trane ’62 and wife Cheryl in Italy at the wedding of the

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son of good friends.

2 Five Choate Class of ’75 classmates at the wedding of Paul

Canelli’s daughter in Westport, Conn. Left to right: Eric Ploumis, Glenn Edgarian, Andy Stephens, Ted Cotjanle, and Paul (seated).

3 Elizabeth Fogarty ’89 and Nick Sonne ’88 were married on June

10, 2023 in Katonnah, N.Y. The many Choate and Rosemary Hall alumni in attendance included: Front row: Steve Lundin ’88, Suzanne Steers ’88, Bill Goldman ’88, Lauryn Hart ’88, (non Choate person), BJ DeMeo Casey ’88, Anne Fogarty Kain ’88, Elizabeth, Nick, Chad Henderson ’88, Edie Sonne Hall ’93, Sally Barnes Sonne ’58, P ’88, ’88, ’93, GP ’20, Tuleh Sonne ’20, Jack Schneider ’88. Back row: John Graziadei ’88, Peter Worth ’89, Chris Lane ’89, Todd Bertsch ’88, Ed Fogarty ’91.

4 Dongchul (Ryan) Kang ’04 and Laura K. Tonnessen were

married on September 30, 2023 at Central Presbyterian Church in NYC and held the reception at the University Club of New York.

From left: Josh Koster ’04, Jeff Vaughn ’04, Samantha Gelfand ’04, Barton Lui ’12 (kneeling), Laura, Ryan, Jason Power ’04, Karl Blunden ’04 (kneeling), John Sheehan ’04, and Dhruv Singh ’04.

5 Grace Kelly ’07 married Casey Neumeier on November 12, 2022

at Ingleside Inn in Palm Springs, followed by an afterparty at the Casablanca Lounge inside Melvyn’s. Left to right: John Uppgren ’12, Samantha Kelly ’12, Ed Kelly ’74, P ’07, ’12, Grace, Casey, Janet Kelly P ’07, ’12, and Eddie Kelly.

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6 Tobias Armour ’10 and Isadora Italia were married on June 10, 2023 on Block Island, R.I. Front row (L to R) : Quinn Hawkins ’10, Caroline Potolicchio ’10, Lindsay (Albino) O’Brien ’10, Katie Sundberg ’10, Celia Landesberg ’10, Tobias, Anna Graham ’10, Kreagan Kennedy ’10, Anne Armour P ’10, ’12, ’18 (faculty), Kathleen Wallace P ’07 (former faculty), Charlotte Armour ’12, Robinson Armour ’18, Elliot Sawyer-Kaplan ’18, Jack Hutchinson ’17. Back row (L to R): Jack Kazickas ’10, Zach Kafoglis (faculty), Augustus Christensen ’10, John Wallace P ’07, Christine Wilson (former faculty), V. Kelley Armour ’73, Gordon Armour ’76, P ’10, ’12, ’18 (former faculty). The following people were also at the wedding but not in the photo: Whiz Hutchinson P ’17 (former faculty) and the Reverend Jay Hutchinson P ’17 (former faculty), who performed the ceremony for Toby and Izzy.

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7 Adam Stasiw married Elizabeth Gil on September 30 at

Fearrington Village in N.C. Other Choate alumni present for the festivities were best man Greg Stasiw ’11, groomsman Dan Selinger ’09, Sarah Gallalee ’09, Mary Foster ’10, and the memory of groomsman in memoriam Aryeh Stein-Azen ’09. Top: Adam and Elizabeth; bottom: Dan, Mary, Adam, Greg, and Sarah.

8 Samantha Kelly ’12 and John Uppgren ’12 were married in Rye,

N.Y. in May! The 20+ Choaties in attendance (a few missing from photo) brought the SAC dance energy to the party 11 years in the making.

9 Hilary Hudson Copp ’07 and Kreagan Kennedy ’10 were married

on October 8, 2022 in Locust Valley, N.Y. They now live in Notting Hill, London, with their dog, Penelope. Many Choate classmates attended the celebration.

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10 Eric Enlow ’09 from Santa Rosa, Calif., and Alexandra Rogers of Austin, Texas — Newlyweds April 2, 2022.

11 Megan McIntyre Cook ’12 married Joseph Cook at St. Mary Cathedral in Austin, Texas, on August 12, 2023 with close friends, family, and several fellow Wild Boars in attendance. Megan is a trusts and estate attorney at Rigby Slack PLLC. Joseph is the managing editor of On3’s Inside Texas.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2024 43

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1 Alexis Boateng Pacheco ’98 and Rafael Pacheco lovingly welcomed their third child, baby girl Riya. She joins her older brothers, Rafael and Roman, who are doing great as big brothers. Left to right: Roman, Rafael II, Rafael III, Alexis, and Riya.

2 Skyla Lamberto-Egan ’06 and Brian Brockway welcomed their first child, a daughter, with a

planned home birth on October 18, 2023. Sloane Brockway-Egan was 7 lbs and 19 1/2 inches.

Feeling the ocean at 3 days old!

3 Alexander Cohen ’08 and his wife, Christina Cohen, welcomed Lula-Rose Dorothy Cohen on

January 24, 2023. Lula-Rose Dorothy Cohen was named after Alexander and Christina’s late grandmothers, Dorothy Cohen and Dorothy Jean Belcher.

4 Austin Igleheart ’03 and his wife, Erin, welcomed their third child, Quinn Marie Igleheart, on

June 21, 2023. Big Brothers James (5) and Charlie (3) couldn’t be happier or more loving.

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5 In August 2023, Michael Lai ’09 and wife Sally Yim welcomed their first child, Dexter Lai. 6 Luz Solano-Flórez ’15 and her husband, Austin Winter, welcomed a baby boy, Jaime Winter-

Solano, on September 2, 2023.

44

IN MEMORIAM | Remembering Those We Have Lost Alumni and Alumnae

’45 C George A. Scanlan Jr., 96, a retired executive of the DuPont Co., died August 15, 2023 in Hockessin, Del. Born in New Brunswick, N.J., George came to Choate in 1942; he was a Campus Cop and played club sports. He then joined the Army as a surgical technician, and afterward graduated from Amherst.

George’s career with DuPont spanned 42 years, and he was particularly proud of having developed the market for Tyvek as a material for packaging sterile medical devices. In retirement, he volunteered in the operating room of Chester County Hospital in Pennsylvania.

He enjoyed playing croquet and horseshoes. He leaves three children and four grandchildren. ’45 RH Cynthia Blodgett Martin, 96, died October 19, 2023. Born in New York City, Cynnie came to Rosemary Hall in 1940; she was on the track squad, winning two School prizes, and was an Assistant Marshal. After marrying, she moved to New Jersey to raise her sons. She enjoyed traveling, playing tennis, gardening, camping, and sailing. Cynnie leaves three sons, four grandchildren, a sister, and a brother, Lawrence Blodgett ’52.

’48 C Robinson Barker, 94, a retired paper company executive, died September 28, 2023. Born in Bridgeport, Conn., Bob came to Choate in 1944. He lettered in football and track, was on the ski squad, and was Circulation Manager of The Choate News. After earning degrees from Middlebury and Yale, he was part of a hurricane-hunting team in the Navy in Florida. He then worked for St. Regis Paper Co., specializing

in satellite imaging. Bob then was an adjunct professor at the University of Georgia’s Warnell School of Forestry and was involved with several forestry groups.

He leaves four children, 16 grandchildren, and 15 great-grandchildren. A brother, the late Richard Barker ’41, also attended Choate.

Kent L. Carson, 93, a retired executive of paper companies, died September 30, 2023 in Chatham, Mass.

Born in White Plains, N.Y., Kent came to Choate in 1943; he was Advertising Manager of The Choate News. After graduating from Williams, he joined Kimberly-Clark Co., specializing in fine paper for book publishing. He later was President of Ris Paper Co. USA, retiring in 1995. Kent was a volunteer at Cape Cod Hospital for many years; he also enjoyed golf and playing bridge. He leaves two children and four grandsons.

’48 RH Louise Hegeler Kuhn, 92, active in the community, died August 11, 2023. Born in New York City, Luisa came to Rosemary Hall in 1946. She played First Team hockey, was head of the Athletic Association, was Vice President of the Dramatic Club, and was Chore Play Mistress. Her first husband, George Degener II, died in 1955. Her second husband was Bowie Kuhn, who was Commissioner of Baseball from 1969 to 1984. Acting as “the First Lady of Major League Baseball,” Luisa and Bowie traveled to many baseball events in the U.S. and around the world. After they retired to Florida, she volunteered for many community activities, including the local library and art gallery. She leaves four children, 10 grandchildren, and a brother.

’50 C Thomas K. Clarke, 91, a retired manufacturing executive, died July 25, 2023. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Tom came to Choate in 1946; he was in the Chess and French clubs and the Weather Bureau. After earning degrees from Dartmouth and Columbia, he was a CPA in Montclair, N.J., for 14 years.

Tom was then Vice President and CFO of Stanley Works (now Stanley Black & Decker) in New Britain, Conn. He was active in a number of charitable and national professional organizations, including serving as chair of the New Britain YMCA and as chair of the Manufacturers Alliance Strategic Planning and Development Council.

In retirement, he was active in Naples, Fla. He leaves a daughter. ’51 C Richard V. Santoro, 89, a retired telephone company executive, died March 17, 2023. Born in New Haven, Dick came to Choate in 1947; he was in the Cum Laude Society.

After earning degrees from Wesleyan and Penn’s Wharton School, he was a manager for the Southern New England Telephone Co. for many years.

Dick loved all sports, particularly sailing, tennis, baseball, skiing, and basketball. He also volunteered with a beagle rescue group. He leaves his wife, Elizabeth Santoro; a sister; and a cousin, Michele Santoro ’80. ’51 RH Emily Howe Buttaro, 90, a publisher, died October 17, 2023. Born in Boston, Emily came to Rosemary Hall in 1948; she was Art Editor of the Answer Book; on the Self-Government Team; and captain of field hockey.

After graduating from Vassar, she moved to South Dakota, where she and her husband published a series of educational books covering

principles of long-term health care administration. Emily enjoyed golf, bridge, bowling, painting, and, according to her family, “lots and lots of ice cream.” She leaves three children, five grandchildren, five greatgrandchildren, and two sisters.

Jeanne Turner Sleeper, 90, active in the community, died August 7, 2023. Born in Perth, Australia, Jeanne came to Rosemary Hall in 1949; she was in the Kindly Club, Philomel, and the Current Events Discussion Group. In 1956, she moved to New Haven, where her first husband, Herbert Sleeper, was Chair of the Department of Oral Surgery at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

Jeanne was President of the New Haven Garden Club, and spearheaded the replanting of dogwoods on the New Haven Green. They moved to Naples, Fla., in 1993; after Herb’s death in 2008, Jeanne married Thomas J. Tyrell, who died in February 2023. She leaves four children, eight grandchildren, and two sisters.

’53 C Michael E. Ottmann, 89, a retired real estate agent, died June 8, 2023 in Riverside, Calif. Born in New York City, Mike came to Choate in 1947; he lettered in lacrosse, was Vice President of St. Andrew’s Cabinet and in the Altar Guild, was President of the Glee Club, and sang with the Maiyeros. He then served six years in the Army and for many years was a real estate agent. He leaves three children, four granddaughters, and seven great-grandchildren. ’54 C Peter H. Reifsnyder, 87, a publishing executive, died September 16, 2023 in Naples, Fla. Born in Scranton, Pa., Peter came to Choate in 1950; he was Vice President of

’48 Acting as “the First Lady of Major League Baseball,” Louise Hegeler Kuhn and her husband, Bowie, traveled to many baseball events in the U.S. and around the world.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2024 45

the Current History Club, Managing Editor of The Brief, and in St. Andrew’s Cabinet. After graduating from Yale, he spent four years in the Navy, then was an executive with Time Inc., Reader’s Digest Inc., and QSP, a Reader’s Digest subsidiary. Peter enjoyed world travel and golf. He leaves his wife, Gail Reifsnyder; two children; and a nephew, James Peck ’80.

expertise in hand surgery, and in the 1980s wrote a groundbreaking software program on hand surgery for HP. He was a member of several medical societies and was on the adjunct faculty at Brown’s Medical School. He enjoyed sailing, scuba diving, photography, and painting in watercolors. He leaves three children, two granddaughters, and two sisters.

’55 C Charles Lockhart III, 87, died July 21, 2023 in Vero Beach, Fla. Born in Pittsburgh, Charlie came to Choate in 1952; he lettered in baseball and was in the Western Club. After graduating from Georgetown, he served in the Navy. He enjoyed skiing, scuba diving, boating, and travel.

He leaves two daughters and three grandchildren. His father, the late Charles Lockhart Jr. C 1925, late uncles George Lockhart C 1927 and James Lockhart C 1931, and a cousin, James Lockhart ’60, were alumni.

’58 C Sherman B. Chickering, 82, a retired journalist, died February 22, 2023. Born in Honolulu, Chick came to Choate in 1954. He lettered in baseball and squash, earning a School trophy in the latter sport; was head cheerleader; and was in the Maiyeros. After graduating from Yale, he started a magazine for student leaders, Moderator, then moved to San Francisco where he founded the weekly Common Ground. He leaves a brother. His mother, Audrey Madden RH 1932, and his stepfather, Joshua Cosden C 1933, were alumni.

William P. Vanneck, 82, a banker, died June 19, 2023 in Palm Beach, Fla. Born in New York City, Bill came to Choate in 1955, where he was in the Ski, Press, and Rod & Gun clubs and the Gold Key Society.

After graduating from Union College, he worked for Bankers Trust before joining the family business, Equitable Holdings Corp. Bill was a trustee of Union College and on the board of the Rye Country Day School. He enjoyed sailing, hunting, and skiing; with his mother and his brother, the late John Vanneck ’56, he founded Wiltsend’s Breeders, specializing in trotting and pacing horses. He leaves four children, including John Vanneck ’82; eight grandchildren; and a niece, Cynthia Vanneck-Smith ’85.

’56 C William W. Caldwell Jr., 84, an attorney, died September 4, 2023 in Vero Beach, Fla. Born in New York City, Bill came to Choate in 1953. He lettered in tennis, soccer, and squash, winning a School squash award; he was also on the Board of The Brief and was in the Press Club. After graduating from Penn, where he was captain of the squash team, he worked for his father’s construction company before earning a law degree from the University of Florida. Bill had a long legal career, both in private practice and as the city attorney for Fort Lauderdale. He later moved to Vero Beach, where he was a founder of the Indian River Federal Savings Bank. He leaves his wife, Shelly Caldwell; three children; and eight grandchildren.

Charles F. Johnson III, 85, a retired surgeon, died June 1, 2023.

Born in Hazleton, Pa., Charlie came to Choate in 1954; he played clarinet in the Band and Orchestra and was in the Cum Laude Society. After graduating from Princeton, he earned his MD at Johns Hopkins and completed residencies at the Universities of Chicago and Rochester, and at the National Cancer Institute. He then established a private practice in Pawtucket, R.I., in general and plastic surgery. Charlie developed a particular

’58 RH Martha S. Fetherolf Loutfi, 82, a retired international professor, died February 12, 2023. Born in New York City, Martha came to Rosemary Hall in 1955, where she was President of her sixth form class, head of the Rules Committee, head of the Chapel Committee, and won a School history prize. After graduating from Wellesley, she earned a Ph.D. from the University of California and Berkeley, then traveled the world with her brother.

She married Mohamed A. Loutfi in

Alexandria, Egypt; they taught at McGill University in Montreal, and she taught at the American University in Beirut while her husband worked for the United Nations. They then moved to Geneva, Switzerland, where she worked on international development issues. Martha was awarded the Rosemary Hall Alumnae Award in 1983. In 1993, she became the Editorin-Chief of the International Labour Review. She leaves a brother.

’59 C James Breck Boynton Jr., 82, a retired stock broker, died October 21, 2023. Born in Mamaroneck, N.Y., Breck, as he was known at School, came to Choate in 1955; he lettered in soccer and baseball and was on the board of The Brief. After graduating from Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla., he served in the Navy. Breck then spent many years as a stock broker and in the accounting industry, recruiting young men and women into the profession. He enjoyed ocean cruising. He leaves a daughter and two grandchildren.

Julien Robert Ransone, 82, an oil company executive, died July 21, 2023. Born in Dallas, Bob came to Choate in 1957; he was Vice President of the Glee Club. After earning degrees from Stanford and Penn’s Wharton School, he worked for several oil companies, including Atlantic Richfield, Dorchester Gas Corp., Petrus Oil Co., Bridge Oil USA, and Wellspring Partners.

He leaves his wife, Patricia Ransone. ’61 C Dean E. Peckham, 80, an attorney and minister, died August 2023 in New Haven of Parkinson’s disease. Born in Boston, Dean came to Choate in 1957; he was on the Editorial Board of The Choate News and lettered in football, squash, and tennis (captain). After earning degrees from Harvard and Boston University, he joined his father’s law practice in Deep River, Conn. In 1980, he earned a Master of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School and was pastor of Deep River Baptist Church; his wife, Ruth Drews, was also a minister. Dean was later a professional mediator. He enjoyed travel, accomplishing his goal of visiting every country in the world.

He leaves two daughters, a son, and a sister.

’64 C Jon C. Nicolaysen, 76, a rancher and energy executive, died September 5, 2023. Born in Casper, Wyo., Jon came to Choate in 1961; he was Vice President of the Rod & Gun Club, manager of varsity football and lacrosse, and in the Press Club. After earning degrees from Colorado College and the University of Wyoming, he worked at the family sheep ranch and later managed, operated, and invested in oil properties. A licensed real estate agent and big game outfitter, Jon was active in the community as a member of the Wyoming Stockgrowers and Wyoming Woolgrowers associations, and as a fellow of the Atlantic-Pacific Businessman’s Exchange. He leaves his wife, Mary Nicolaysen; three children; nine grandchildren; and a sister. A brother, the late Gerald Nicolaysen ’58, also attended Choate. ’65 RH Sayre Shields Lukason, 75, a teacher of music, died July 3, 2023.

Born in Hartford, Conn., Sayre came to Rosemary Hall in 1961; she was in the Choir, Dramu, and the Art, Outing, and Dance clubs. After graduating from Converse College and the New England Conservatory of Music, she taught general and choral music in the Rye, N.Y., public schools for 10 years, and offered piano lessons in her private studio for almost 60 years. In 1992, Sayre opened the Old Greenwich Music Studio. She enjoyed sailing and gardening. She leaves her husband, Vincent Lukason; two daughters; three grandchildren; and four siblings.

’66 C Mark Seiler, 75, a film company executive, died July 7, 2023 of Parkinson’s disease. Born in Glen Cove, N.Y., Mark came to Choate in 1962; he was Sports Editor of The Choate News and in the Dramatics Club. After graduating from Tulane, he went to Hollywood, working for RKO Pictures, where he rose to be its president. Among the films he oversaw were Plenty, Half Moon Street, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, and Carbon Copy. He discovered the actor Denzel Washington. After leaving RKO, he worked at Hemdale Films and Capella Films. He leaves his fiancée, Morgan Fairchild; a daughter; and two siblings.

46 IN MEMORIAM

After graduating from Tulane, Mark Seiler went to Hollywood, working for RKO Pictures, where he rose to be its president.

Among the films he oversaw were Plenty, Half Moon Street, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, and Carbon Copy.

He discovered the actor Denzel Washington.

’66

’67 C John Walton Tomford, 74, a retired physician, died of prostate cancer July 27, 2023. Born in Memphis, Tenn., Walt came to Choate in 1963; he was in the Cum Laude Society, the Gold Key Society, the Glee and Rod & Gun clubs, and won the Oakes Prize.

After earning degrees from Harvard and Johns Hopkins, he served on the professional medical staff of the Cleveland Clinic and MetroHealth of Cleveland. Walt was voted Master Educator and Master Clinician by his peers. After retiring in 2014, he devoted much of his time to church work. He leaves his wife, Gretchen Hallerberg; and his brother, Bill Tomford ’63. ’69 C George D. “Woody” Lord, 72, a chiropractor, died June 30, 2023.

Born in New Haven, Woody came to Choate in 1966; he was on the Editorial Board of the Political Forum and was in the Debate Senate. He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., and while he was there founded a vegetarian restaurant. After spending some time teaching in Africa, he returned to Georgia and earned a Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Life Chiropractic College. He later lived in Haiti for three years. A member of the Bahá’í faith, he was a founding member of the Spiritual Assemble of Bahá’ís in Woodstock, Ga. He leaves his wife, Gail Lord; four children; and five grandchildren.

Bruce A. Sturman, 72, a retired attorney, died September 19, 2023.

Born in Waterbury, Conn., Bruce came to Choate in 1966. He was in the Glee Club and President of the Maiyeros, and was co-captain of varsity soccer, earning a School award in the sport.

After earning degrees from Penn and the New England School of Law, he spent 37 years in public service, first in New Haven and then as Chief Public Defender of New London County. Bruce enjoyed sports and living by the ocean.

He leaves his wife, Lynda Sturman; three children; a grandson; three brothers; and five stepsiblings. ’71 C Herbert “Chip” Talbot III, 71, a banker and financier, died October 16, 2023 in Brielle, N.J. Born in Pittsburgh, Chap came to Choate in 1968. He

lettered in soccer (winning a School prize), squash, and tennis (winning a School trophy). After graduating from Princeton, he had a lengthy career in banking and finance, working for Corestates Bank and retiring from Anchor Concrete Products. Chip enjoyed golf, tennis, and photography.

He leaves his wife, Dianne Talbot; two children; two grandchildren; and two sisters.

’72 RH Mary Goehring McClung, 69, a systems analyst, died September 17, 2023 in Trenton, Maine. Born in New York City, Mary came to Rosemary Hall in 1969, where she was President of her fifth and sixth form classes. After graduating from Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., she worked for many years as a systems analyst and later as a Certified Professional Organizer. Mary enjoyed going for walks and working in her garden. She leaves her partner, Beth Pomroy; and two sisters.

Nancy J. Roth, 69, a retired software engineer, died September 24, 2023 in Brookline, N.H. Nancy came to Rosemary Hall in 1969. After earning degrees from Stanford and River College in Nashua, N.H., she worked at Digital Equipment Corp. as a software engineer. Nancy later worked for Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, MathWorks, and VMS Software. She enjoyed horses, gardening, crafts, and gardening. She leaves two daughters, three grandchildren, and four siblings.

’73 C George F. Bryant Jr., 68, an entrepreneur, died September 24, 2023. Born in Billerica, Mass., George came to Choate in 1971.

After attending Tulane and earning a Harvard Graduate School of Design Advanced Management Development Program Real Estate certificate, he was a technology manager in New York. He then started two companies, AquaArk and Kixtran. Over the years, George lived in Turkey, Libya, the Canary Islands, Texas, and Alabama; he was an avid sailor and skier. He leaves his wife, Louise Bryant; two children; and a sister, Katherine B. Lynch ’82. His father, the late George Bryant ’49, also attended Choate.

Faculty, Staff, Trustees Edith Barnes, who worked in the School’s Facilities department for four years, died November 12, 2023 in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. She was 77.

Born in Hungary, Edith fled that country to Austria during the revolution of 1956.

She later emigrated to the United States, where she graduated from Rutgers; she also studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and studied art, weaving, and guitar in Mexico. She was with Facilities from 1994 to 1998, assisting in events, construction, planning, and aiding the Director, Jim Maloney. Edith also taught English literature in Summer School, and tutored many foreign Choate students in English as a second language. She leaves her husband, Bill Barnes ’66, former director of academic technology at Choate; two sons, including Ryan Barnes ’98; and four grandchildren.

Elizabeth MacKay Reid, a former Choate Rosemary Hall Dean, died October 17, 2003 in York, Maine. She was 98. Born in Bath, Maine, Betty earned degrees from Oberlin, Purdue, and the University of Maryland, then taught high school math at Gonzaga High School in Washington, D.C. She came to Choate Rosemary Hall in 1984, and was Dean of the Fourth Form from 1985 to 1991, and Form Dean from 1992 to 1995. From 1992 to 1996 she held the Independent Foundation Chair. At her retirement, it was noted that “Betty is known to be more fun than anyone. For example, after check-in on an irresistible snowy night, she rounded up some of her charges and took them tobogganing on Upper Campus. She was not a rigid constructionist about lights-out if there was fresh snow.” She loved photography, bicycling, baking, and living near the Atlantic Ocean. She leaves six children, 16 grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.

Our sympathy to the friends and family of the following, whose death is reported with sorrow: Alex S. Hornik ’74 April 19, 2023

DEFINE YOUR LEGACY Join the Choate Society today.

choate.edu/plannedgiving

THE WILLIAM GARDNER & MARY ATWATER CHOATE SOCIETY Named for the founders of both Rosemary Hall and The Choate School, the Choate Society honors individuals who have remembered the School in their estate plans. With more than 500 members, the Choate Society represents a substantial investment in future generations. For more information, please contact Chris Reichart, Senior Associate Director, Planned Giving, at (203) 697-2553 or creichart@choate.edu.

48

SCOREBOARD | Fall Sports Wrap-Up

Boys Varsity Water Polo Captain Garrett Curtis ’24 passes the ball to a teammate after recording another save in goal.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2024 49

The fall interscholastic programs enjoyed another successful season on the fields, the courts, the trails, and in the pool! Varsity programs earned a combined record of 66-43-3 with two teams making playoffs. Boys Varsity Water Polo had a standout season with a 15-5 record and finished third overall at the New England Championships. The Girls Varsity Soccer team qualified for the New England Playoffs. Varsity Football went undefeated with a 9-0 record, claiming the Founders League Title and winning the coveted NEPSAC Leon Modeste Bowl.

BOYS VARSITY CROSS COUNTRY Record: 1-6 Captains: Luciano Morizio ’24, John Reach ’24 Highlights: 7th-place finish at the Founders League Championships along with a 14th-place finish at the New England Championships. Regular season victory over Trinity-Pawling.

GIRLS VARSITY CROSS COUNTRY Record: 2-6 Captain: Gabbi White ’24 Highlights: Finished 5th overall at the Founders League Championships. Also finished 9th overall at the New England Championships, where Kankan Adekoya ’27 and Ella McNeill ’26 earned All-NEPSAC Honors for placing in the Top 15. Regular season victories over Deerfield and Northfield Mt. Hermon.

VARSITY FIELD HOCKEY Record: 7-10 Captains: Sophia Berdon ’24, Bladen Hawthornthwaite ’24 Highlights: Took a huge step forward this fall as the Wild Boars more than doubled last year’s win total.

Earned wins over Kingswood-Oxford, Ethel Walker, Canterbury, Green Farms Academy, Miss Porter’s, Northfield Mt. Hermon, and Hopkins.

Visit our Choate Flickr page to view all of our athletic photo albums and see more pictures of our athletes! flickr.com/photos/gochoate/albums

VARSITY FOOTBALL Record: 9-0 Captains: Matt Diaz ’24, Pearson Hill ’24 Highlights: Finished undefeated. Won the Founders League Title and defeated Exeter in the Leon Modeste Bowl to claim the New England Championship.

BOYS VARSITY SOCCER Record: 10-6-3 Captains: Jacob Federowicz ’24, Andrew Jean Baptiste ’24 Highlights: Reached double-digit wins for the second straight season. Earned big wins over Brunswick, Lawrenceville, Westminster, Exeter, and Suffield.

GIRLS VARSITY SOCCER Record: 13-4 Captains: Ella Crerar ’24, Gianna Peracchio ’24 Highlights: Remained one of the top soccer programs in New England with an impressive 13-win season.

Earned the #5 seed in the New England Playoffs.

GIRLS VARSITY VOLLEYBALL Record: 9-6 Captains: Em DeGrand ’24, Emma Liedke ’24, Cait Ahn ’24 Highlights: Successful season with competitive sets and close matches. Captured decisive victories over Hotchkiss, Taft, Miss Porter’s, and Northfield Mt. Hermon.

BOYS VARSITY WATER POLO Record: 15-5 Captains: Chris Childs ’24, Garrett Curtis ’24 Highlights: Qualified for the New England Playoffs for the second straight year, finishing an impressive 3rd overall. 15 wins were the most of any Choate fall varsity program, with significant wins over Deerfield, Andover, and Hamden Hall.

50

SCOREBOARD | Fall 2023 Highlights

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2

4

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5

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1 Roshan Desai ’26 sprints to the finish line during a cross country meet this fall.

2 Kate Tortorella ’26 rushes off the line with her teammates during a home Varsity Field Hockey match.

3 Jenna Kim ’25 serves up an ace for the Wild Boars at the start of a home match in the WJAC. 4 Andrew Fazzone-Chettiar ’26 strikes the ball with precision and force for the Wild Boars.

5 Marc Cappuccitti-Gutierrez ’25 kicks it deep to begin the football game on Maher Field.

6 Captain Gianna Peracchio ’24 takes a shot on goal during a regular season contest.

7 Kankan Adekoya ’27 forged her way to a Top-15 finish at the New England Championships this fall.

8 All-NEPSAC honoree Antonio Giraldez Greco ’25 takes aim on goal during a penalty shot.

52

BOOKSHELF

In this issue, a book about the conflict over Donbas, Ukraine, shows how the people of Ukraine have developed practices of ethics and care in the midst of the war; an in-depth analysis of higher education presents a bold vision for combating the rising cost of college; and a novel based on the author’s own family history, and nominated for the National Book Award, reminds readers that history often tragically repeats itself.

Everyday War

By Greta Lynn Uehling ’80 | Reviewed by Jonas Akins Everyday War: The Conflict over Donbas, Ukraine is a moving book that explores the lived experiences of people affected by the Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine in 2014. The author, Greta Lynn Uehling ’80, is a lecturer at the University of Michigan whose previous work has focused on the experience of Crimean Tatars, including her first monograph, Beyond Memory: The Crimean Tatars’ Deportation and Return, originally published in 2004. For this work, she conducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Ukraine as a Fulbright Scholar from 2015 to 2017, interviewing civilians, soldiers, volunteers, activists, and displaced persons on both sides of the conflict, as well as drawing on her own deep personal connections as a frequent visitor to the country.

The book sets out to challenge typical understandings of war as a phenomenon defined primarily by military and political actions. Instead, it focuses on the more personal aspects of war, as civilians cope with violence, displacement, trauma, and uncertainty. Through careful reporting, often at personal risk, Uehling crafts a compelling argument that war is a matter not only of life and death, but also of ethics and care. She shows how people in Ukraine have developed practices of care — including helping the wounded, providing humanitarian aid, volunteering for body collection, and smuggling medicine — that subvert the traditional paradigm of civilians as passive victims of warfare. The book also sheds substantial light on the important topic of interpersonal relationships, including family ties, friendships, and marriages, and how people deal with the moral dilemmas and emotional costs of war. In many instances, the resilience of the populace is remarkable for its intersectionality as much as for the acts of any individual citizen.

The book is organized into eight chapters, each of which considers a different site where care and war intersect. After a brief introduction to the

historical and political background of the conflict, as well as the main theoretical and methodological approaches of the book, the second chapter considers Café Patriot, a military-themed restaurant that is intended, by its combat veteran owners, to promote critical thinking about the nature of war among its civilian patrons. The middle chapters consider the impact of the war “in the intimate spaces of living rooms and kitchens where the intersecting forces of military conflict and national propaganda reconfigured relationships,” as well as the way in which romantic partnerships are transformed and families are forced to consider the “tactical” nature of kinship. The book closes with the important work of perception and care, including those who sought out individuals who had ceased to take care of themselves, those who could feel their lived reality drifting into the realms of science fiction, and those who both collected the bodies of the dead and also supplied vital medicines, most notably insulin for children.

In the preface, Uehling notes that the book is fundamentally about “the human capacity to deliver comfort and care in spite or perhaps because of military conflict.” In my role as a teacher of history and government, I am working with a current sixth former, a native of Kyiv, who is studying the question of how Ukraine has found itself in a position to choose Euro-Atlantic integration over closer ties with Russia. In helping her to better understand the forces that have shaped the situation in Ukraine today, we have been talking about “big” history. This book provides a much smaller and more personal understanding of the conflict in Ukraine, and I will certainly add it to the reading list of my Capstone student. It is only by understanding the full scope of how everyday war impacts every member of an affected community that we will have any chance of bringing about an everyday peace for all.

EVERYDAY WAR: THE CONFLICT OVER DONBAS, UKRAINE Author: Greta Lynn Uehling ’80 Publisher: Cornell University Press About the Reviewer: Jonas Akins is a third form dean and teaches in the History, Philosophy, Religion, and Social Sciences Department at Choate Rosemary Hall.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2024 53

The Synthetic University: How Higher Education Can Benefit from Shared Solutions and Save Itself

By James L. Shulman ’83 | Reviewed by Don Firke P ’08, ’10

THE SYNTHETIC UNIVERSITY: HOW HIGHER EDUCATION CAN BENEFIT FROM SHARED SOLUTIONS AND SAVE ITSELF Author: James L. Shulman ’83 Publisher: Princeton University Press About the Reviewer: Don Firke P ’08, ’10 is former Dean of Faculty at Choate Rosemary Hall.

The news media are full of articles about the issues confronting higher education, including placing limits on free speech on college campuses, falling student enrollments, rising tuition costs, implementing courtmandated changes to admission policies, eroding public confidence in the value of a college degree, skyrocketing student debt, and on and on. Dr. Shulman’s book could not be more timely or insightful.

Shulman has decades of experience analyzing and supporting colleges and universities. While at the Andrew Mellon Foundation, he contributed to The Shape of the River, by Derek Bok and William Bowen, which analyzed the impact of considering race in university admissions. Also, he co-authored, with Bowen, The Game of Life, an in-depth look at the role of athletics in colleges and universities. [My favorite tidbit from that book is that Williams College, undergraduate enrollment of about 2,000, has more TOTAL varsity athletes than the U of Michigan with its 30,000 undergraduates. Title IX has had some unexpected consequences.] Both books offer data-driven recommendations that run counter to conventional thinking.

After working for the Mellon Foundation, Shulman established and served as President of ARTSTOR for more than a decade. ARTSTOR provides thousands of colleges and universities around the world with access to millions of digital images. It was created so that individual institutions would not need to digitize their own private libraries of images. Simultaneously, ARTSTOR expanded institutional access to image collections. It is a prime example of a synthetic service provider that both makes economic sense and supports the teaching and research missions of its partners.

Decades of tuition increases that historically exceed inflation have pushed tuition at some colleges to $65,000 or more. Shulman grounds his financial recommendations in historical analyses. His earliest citation of the perils of tuition increases dates from 1910, and there are many others from the ’50s and ’60s. All of them highlight the financial bind that threatens colleges and universities. As institutions that rely extensively on labor, they have difficulty seeing significant, sustained growth in productivity. In addition, the structure of higher education, with both essential commercial and noncommercial functions, leads to conflicted decision-making when it comes to a whole raft of programs and policies.

The Synthetic University boldly outlines how colleges and universities can work with synthetic service providers in academic and nonacademic areas to address financial pressures. Synthetic service providers are third party, interinstitutional enterprises that allow colleges and universities to reduce or eliminate redundant functions. They differ from corporate vendors in that they have institutional partners, not clients, and they are not driven to maximize profits. In addition to ARTSTOR, Shulman identifies how the National Student Clearinghouse allowed colleges and universities to streamline their registrar offices while gaining access to enhanced data about their students. Investure, a synthetic investment endeavor, was established in the 1990s when small college investment committees realized that volunteers, no matter how talented or committed, could not select and monitor alternative investments for their colleges’ endowments. The investment professionals who founded Investure had decades of experience at major universities, and they worked with investment committees to gain access to a broad variety of funds and to manage endowments successfully.

In academic areas, Shulman identifies both the strengths and drawbacks of a couple of recent synthetic experiments. In the early days of massive open online courses, many college and university administrators saw an opportunity to expand course offerings for their students and preserve programs with low enrollments. However, the staffing implications of these proposals meant they met with great faculty resistance. And when faculty resistance was not a factor, as in the case of Sunoikisis, an attempt by 15 small-college classics departments to work together, lack of administrative support caused the effort to sputter and end. But both efforts present valuable lessons in planning and execution for future synthetic efforts in academic areas.

After offering his list of required elements for successful synthetic ventures in the future, Shulman reminds us that colleges must choose to change.

The synthetic college or university will not resemble the institutions of the ’50s because the world does not resemble the world of the ’50s. All involved in higher education must continue to search for the balance between individual campus autonomy and collective efforts that will help contain costs and strengthen programs.

54 BOOKSHELF

The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine

By Katherine Marsh ’92 | Reviewed by Marc J. Belanger

THE LOST YEAR: A SURVIVAL STORY OF THE UKRAINIAN FAMINE Author: Katherine Marsh ’92 Publisher: Roaring Brook Press About the Reviewer: Marc J. Belanger is a senior leadership gift officer in the Development Office at Choate Rosemary Hall.

As we awaken to daily headlines chronicling the brutal atrocities of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, Katherine Marsh’s compelling new book, The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine, serves as a poignant reminder that history often tragically repeats itself. Furthermore, it adeptly elucidates that the deep-seated animosity between these two nations traces its roots back to a harrowing event that unfolded 90 years ago.

Known as the “Holodomor,” the Ukrainian word for “starvation,” the event was nothing less than a human-caused famine that claimed the lives of millions of Ukrainians in 1932–33 due to repressive Soviet policies. Marsh weaves a captivating fictional narrative based on a factual family story passed down from her Ukrainian grandmother.

In this young adult novel, the central narrator is Matthew, a teenage boy who finds himself quarantined at home in Leonia, N.J., due to COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. He initially prefers the company of his Nintendo Switch to that of his mother and great-grandmother. However, his world takes a profound turn as he begins to explore the historic memorabilia hidden away in cardboard boxes in his great-grandmother’s room.

Inspired by his journalist father, himself quarantined 3,000 miles away in Paris, Matthew decides to interview his great-grandmother and tell her story. His quest to find the truth about her leads readers on a journey through excerpts from journals, historical accounts, and photographs. Marsh moves to telling whole chapters from the viewpoint of Helen and Mila, two young women whose written accounts Matthew discovered in the boxes. Taken together,

they offer varying viewpoints that not only drive the plot forward but also highlight how historical events can be perceived so differently, in this case whether experienced on the ground in Ukraine or from the vantage point of Brooklyn, N.Y. It all culminates in an incredible plot twist I never saw coming. This excellent book elicited a range of emotions as I read it, from laughter to tears, and it provided me with valuable insights into a forgotten episode of world history that continues to reverberate today.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to adult readers of all ages who have an affinity for history and appreciate a well-crafted, emotionally resonant tale that explores the enduring bonds of family across time and cultures.

The Lost Year has been nominated for the 2023 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.

Marsh is a critically acclaimed author of books for children and young adults including Nowhere Boy (2018); The Door by the Staircase (2016); Jepp, Who Defied the Stars (2012); and The Night Tourist books.

Her next book, Medusa (The Myth of Monsters), will be published by Clarion Books in February.

Minds ALWAYS Open

LEARNING DOESN’T STOP WHEN SUMMER BEGINS

Choate Rosemary Hall’s unique summer programs provide engaging and innovative curriculum for learners to widen their worlds as they pursue their creativity, curiosity, and passion for discovery.

Students of all ages explore new concepts and advance their skills through programs at the elementary, middle, and high school levels.

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Begin the process by scanning the QR code.

QUESTIONS? Contact us by phone at (203) 697-2365, or email at choatesummer@choate.edu

56

END NOTE |

Optimistic Outlook: Boarding Schools Offer Camaraderie and Belonging

Perhaps like me, you are sometimes left feeling weary and dispirited by the cynicism that seems to pervade so much of our world. I am, by nature, an optimistic person, but spending time with the news, politics and social media, and the sense of gloom and fatalism they can evoke, can challenge even the sunniest of outlooks. It’s not only that cynicism runs counter to my natural disposition; what is perhaps most concerning to me is the way in which that spirit of distrust and skepticism may be affecting young people.

The writer Megan Garber has described cynicism as “among other things, a habit of disordered vision: It looks at friends and sees foes. It looks at truth and sees deceit. Cynicism, at scale, makes democracy’s most basic demand — seeing one another as we are — impossible.”

That “disordered vision” surely has consequences, especially for children, whose perspective on the world is just being formulated. But as much as I can sometimes fret about the toxic effects of cynicism and its relatives — hopelessness, fatalism and distrust—let me instead point to some evidence from my recent experience that might inspire a more hopeful outlook for our children.

As the relatively new Executive Director of The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS) — an association of more than 200 boarding schools in North America and beyond — I have had the opportunity this year to see and hear about the work taking place on these campuses, and I’ve been lucky to be able to visit many of them. I’ve talked with students, and with the faculty, staff and leaders whose mission is to educate and support these students. And these visits have reassured me that while cynicism may be fashionable, what I see taking place on these campuses seems to reject that worldview: Boarding schools are not cynical places. ... These schools are designed to support and nurture young people at a particularly critical moment in their development, a moment that pays dividends for a lifetime. Lest you think I wear rose-colored glasses, know that I understand boarding schools are not perfect. No school is. In fact, helping schools identify ways they can better meet the needs of their students and make good on their missions is precisely why we, as an association, exist. I also know there are many wonderful public schools and independent day schools that are similarly devoted to the students. What is so heartening about my experiences visiting these wonderful schools is that the people who live and work and teach in boarding schools are playing a hopeful long game: making an investment, alongside parents and families, in the growth and potential of young people, knowing the most compelling evidence of their success is likely to manifest itself years, even decades, into the future. The writer John Green has observed that, “Destruction is often fast, loud, and dramatic, whereas reparative work tends to be slow and quiet and unspectacular. But that’s where the hope is for me.” For me, the hope is in the slow and quiet and iterative work that boarding schools do every day, helping to develop habits of mind and character that will allow their students to lead lives of purpose and meaning, and contribute to their communities and the world.

By Dr. Susan baldridge Dr. Susan Baldridge is the Executive Director for The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS). She served as a professor and leader at Middlebury College, most recently as Executive Vice President and Provost. She also facilitated Choate’s 2020 Strategic Planning Retreat.

This End Note was excerpted and reproduced with permission by Moffly Media 2023–24 Education Guide. The full article may be found at: issuu.com/ mofflymedia/docs/educationguide2023.

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The 2023-24 fall student production, Puffs, was the first student performance in the newly named William T. Little ’49 and Frances A. Little GP ’15 Theater.

The show, a 2015 original play by New York–based playwright Matt Cox, is a parody of the Harry Potter book series by J. K. Rowling.

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As part of our commitment to environmentally sustainable practices, the Choate Rosemary Hall Bulletin is printed using UV inks that emit zero Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) emissions. Printing has offset 45.1k lb. of paper consumption by reforesting 543 trees, and used 100% renewable wind power energy.