Bulletin | spring 2014 23
This is a partial list of alumni who have gone on to be Heads of School, or heads of school divisions, now or in the past: Jessie Hewitt 1902: Ethel Walker School Margaret Augur 1903: Kingswood School (Michigan) Ned Parsons ’84 was recently named Head, the Rivers School, Weston, Mass.
Eugenia Baker Jessup 1910: Rosemary Hall George (“Jim”) St. John Jr. ’28: Moses Brown School Seymour St. John ’31: Choate School Francis St. John ’34: Barlow School C. Burgess Ayres ’38: Shattuck School, The Gunnery William St. John ’46: Brimmer & May
It wasn’t only in the classroom that teachers inspired. Tom Hudnut says that “from Jack McCune’s house as a third former to David Rice’s in the fourth and sixth forms, I lived with happy, well-adjusted families who doubtless served as subtle role models for my unintended future.” David Beecher remembers “Tom Yankus, my baseball coach and mentor. Tom was intelligent, funny, and athletic – there’s a triple threat for you!” and “Bill Pudvah, my adviser and hockey coach, who had grown up at Choate and spent his entire adult life there. His love of all things blue and gold gave me an appreciation for school spirit.” Ned Parsons also mentions Yankus. “Tom’s wisdom and calm demeanor in the face of what must have been one of the most difficult years imaginable for Choate administrators [1984-85] kept the School – from my limited perspective at the time – together when it could have gone a different way,” he says. “I’ve come to know Tom since then … he served as an inspiration to me in my younger days of administrative work.” For his part, Casertano recalls that when he pursued a Master’s of Education at Harvard, “Laird Davis was a classmate. We took several classes together, became even closer friends, and Laird continued to have a positive influence on me.” Evins notes that when she was installed as Head of School at St. Paul’s School for Girls, former Choate Dean Lolly Hand and Paul Tines, former director of the Paul Mellon Arts Center, were in attendance. “No doubt, their presence pushes me to be my best,” she says. “Choate really is everywhere!
Peter Sturtevant ’48: Maret School David Fowler ’53: Proctor Academy H. Jeremy Packard ’55: Ridley School, Wyoming Seminary T. Lee Gaillard ’56: Hockaday School Malcolm Manson ’57: Cathedral School for Boys,
Oregon Episcopal School, Marin County Day School,
Bay School of San Francisco
W. Lee Pierson ’57: Athens College, Collegiate School,
Francis Parker School, Rye Country Day School
Peter Sipple ’57: Moravian Academy J. Gardiner Dodd ’58: King School Hawley Rogers ’58: Oldfields School Robert Clements ’60: Morristown-Beard School Robert Leonhardt ’61: French-American School of New York Burgess Ayres ’62: Wardlaw-Hartridge School, Gulliver School Pamela Jones Clarke ’62: Masters School, St. Paul Academy,
Summit School, Trevor Day School
John Lathrop ’64: Powhatan School Robert Schroeder ’64: Hamden Hall Country Day School Upper
and Middle schools
L. Laird Davis ’65: Tampa Prep, Baylor School,
Morristown-Beard School
Thomas Hudnut ’65: Norwood School, Branson School,
and Harvard-Westlake School
Meredith Machen ’66: Santa Fe Preparatory School Hugh Riddleburger ’66: Sheridan School Andrew Berry ’68: Fessenden School Robert Boyd ’69: Cheshire Academy Middle School Drew Casertano ’74: Millbrook School Donald Austin ’75: Newark Academy David Beecher ’76: Hillside School John Green ’77: Peddie School Charles A. Tierney III ’81: The Tatnall School Edward V. Parsons ’84: The Rivers School Penny Bach Evins ’90: Isidore Newman School,
St. Paul’s School for Girls
Kirsten Haakonsen Rosolen ’92: Head of Middle School
at New Canaan Country Day.