7 minute read
Leaving Their Mark
Leaving Their Mark
By Susanne Davis
As I round the corner of two years at Choate Rosemary Hall, learning more about the School each day and roving for stories of faculty, students, and alumni doing remarkable things, my appreciation for the community continues to grow. In my travels across campus, I have been particularly inspired by some of the stories of the staff who keep this place running. Interested to know more, I recently sat down with five community members who have given many years of service to our School. According to the National Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American stays just under four years in any one job, so the tenure of these individuals is noteworthy, but even more impactful is their commitment and contribution to our community — a trait found across this special place.
Creating Views and Vistas, Shade and Majesty
The black gum is a hardy tree, and the pignut attracts turkeys, while the hickory, along with varieties of maple — stately trees, those — give shade and majesty to campus. The names of trees roll off Michael Klimaszewski’s tongue like poetry as he explains the varieties on campus, where he has worked 42 years, 33 as a licensed arborist.
In the past 10 years, Klimaszewski and his staff have planted over 200 trees. Before planting, he considers views and pedestrian traffic, density, visibility of light on campus, as well as the specific water, light, and soil needs of each tree species. Those 200 do not include plantings around building projects, such as Carr Hall, but rather the trees taken down, mostly through disease or other death.
“We replant three or five trees for every one we take down,” he says, adding that when replanting he tries not to create monostands (groupings of one variety), because when disease hits, such as beach leaf disease or elm disease, the whole stand is vulnerable.
Klimaszewski is a visionary working for the community.
I’m not planting for today; I’m planting for tomorrow,” he muses. “I won’t see the result of a lot of the work I do.
A Family Affair
Trish Burnell started working at Choate in 2016 at the age of 26, joining her twin brother Michael, Jr. in the same kitchen where, as a little girl, she had visited her grandmother, Patrica Burnell (for whom she’s named) at work.
Burnell has worked in every part of dining services at School, starting with washing pots and dishes, but these days, she works mostly in catering, which she loves. She occasionally assists with the register in Lanphier Café, but she spends most of her time creating the hospitality associated with displays and arrangements of food.
Her boss, Paul Kikosicki Jr, Director of Dining at Sage, says,
Trish has been a great addition to the Sage team. Since she started eight years ago, she has worked to learn all the different positions on campus, making her a huge asset to Sage and Choate. She is always willing to jump in and help wherever needed so that we never have interruptions in service.
To have three members of the Burnell family working in the same department at the School makes a good story, but this one gets better because the Burnell family legacy at Choate extends further — to Trish Burnell’s dad, Michael Burnell Sr., who worked in dining services for three years out of high school, a great-aunt Barbara, and now, Trish’s younger brother, Ibn, 17, working part-time while still in high school. Six Burnells worked in Choate’s dining services, spanning decades contributing to the School community.
40,000 Steps a Day and Counting
Richie Rogers walks 40,000 steps a day (or more) on campus and is everywhere all at once. He has been at Choate fulltime for 25 years, with ABM Services for 43 years — with his team setting up and breaking down events across campus.
Rogers says the work he does is never about him, but about the students whom he treats the way he would want to be treated, and he adds quickly, “And that’s exactly the way I’ve been treated all these years.”
Reunion and Commencement are the events Rogers most looks forward to. “They’re uplifting,” he says, noting that the alumni know him and greet him warmly when they return to campus: “I cleaned their dorms, and they are grandparents now.” Having an opportunity to connect with them through this story, Rogers wants alumni to know,
You’re all doing a great job and it’s so nice to see you when you return to campus.
Seeing the School Through Infrastructure
Dave Seitlinger has been in Plumbing Services at Choate for 38 years, so it makes sense that he literally sees the School through its infrastructure, one that connects within the walls of buildings, beneath the ground, and stretches beyond campus, to the town of Wallingford itself. When Seitlinger responded to a recent water main break outside Clinton Knight, one which caused tens of thousands of gallons to gush from the main per day, workers from Wallingford’s Water and Sewer Department arrived on the scene and were greeted by him, their now familiar Choate counterpart, providing immediate assistance to the problem. The mutual respect built through decades of professionalism was apparent.
Patrick Durbin, Chief Financial Officer at Choate and Seitlinger’s boss, says:
Watching Dave and his team respond to any issue — rain, snow, late night calls — is impressive. They show up ready to strategize and solve whatever problem needs solving. As a relatively new community member, it gives me confidence to know they are only a phone call away if we have a problem.
Seitlinger says he has seen a lot of changes at Choate, as buildings get renovated and brought up to code. He and his team replace water lines and antiquated fixtures to prevent high water consumption and leaks, and have also added a great number of sprinkler systems over the years. During Covid, they installed bottle filler stations and sanitation measures around water fountains. But over all the years, Seitlinger says the job is still the same. “We try the best we can to keep the School a healthy environment, to keep up with preventive care to eliminate the risk of unsanitary situations. We do what we do for the community.”
Health Care Provider and — Sometimes — a Mom Away From Home
Cathy Fanning, RN, has been the weekend and night nurse at Choate for more than 34 years. All her various shifts have been on and off evenings and weekends. Regarding how many students she has treated during that time, Fanning says she couldn’t even put a number on it.
My favorite part of the job is that I enjoy nursing and educating the students over this time of life — adolescence. Giving them care, and sometimes just being a mom away from home for them.
Fanning says she hopes the alums have good memories of the care they got at the health center. “We continue to be there 24/7 to give students the support they need in all their health needs.” She says the basic nursing assessment and care of the student has not changed. “We have always been available and still are 24 hours a day, seven days a week — serving the student community when the campus is open. It is an asset we here at Choate have that not all boarding schools are privileged to have.”
