Our Mission: Kingswood Oxford inspires students to excel and to lead lives of integrity and involvement by nourishing their talents in a community of teachers, friends, and family.
Editor: Jackie Pisani, Director of Marketing & Communications
Contributors: Elizabeth Fahy Bellingrath ’78, Meghan Kurtich, Rob Kyff, Jackie Pisani, Frances van Huystee Morris ’90
Graphic Designer: Anne Allen, Allen Design Associates
Photo Credits: Highpoint Pictures, Iris Photography, Jackie Pisani, Dave Quick ’92, Greg Scranton ’94, Rhino Photos, Tony Spinelli, Kristen Weldon, Kris Wolff P’20, ’23
Please direct inquiries or general comments to Jackie Pisani at pisani.j@kingswoodoxford.org
Class notes or obituary information to Megan Kurtich, Director of Annual Giving at kurtich.m@kingswoodoxford.org
Address changes to Melissa Vega, Manager of Advancement Services at vega.m@kingswoodoxford.org
Notice of Nondiscriminatory Policy as to Students Kingswood Oxford admits students of any race, color, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic predisposition, or national or ethnic origin or other categories protected by Connecticut or federal law to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the School. The School does not discriminate on the basis of these characteristics in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, financial aid programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.
Each year when I sit down to write this letter, I remind myself that it’s not just about reflecting on what we’ve built or achieved— it’s about celebrating who we are. And at our very best, we are a community fueled by connection, care, and growth.
This year, connection has a brand-new home on campus: the Community Commons. Our newly renovated library and dining center have been reimagined into a state-ofthe-art community hub, and it has already become the most popular spot on campus. The Commons is a place for spirited discussion, quiet conversations, small group study sessions, and sharing a great meal in our brand-new dining hall (you’ll be relieved to know the cookies remain excellent. I checked). In a world where division and disconnection increasingly take center stage, our Commons ensures we have a place to connect in a spirit of friendship and communion at Kingswood Oxford.
We are deeply grateful to the many donors, behindthe-scenes staff, and our Board of Trustees, whose generosity and commitment moved the Community Commons from a dream to reality. Envisioned back in 2019 as part of our strategic plan, the Commons has steadily come to life—and watching students now claim their favorite spots around the fireplace (the fire is pretend, but the smiles are real) is a true joy. One Form 4 student put it perfectly: “I never imagined I could love KO more than I already did, but this makes it even more special.” (Check out photos of the Community Commons beginning on pg 6)
Witnessing the transformative impact that campus improvements have on our school, we recently began a new project to renovate the old squash facility at the Highland Street gym. With more than 50 Middle and Upper School students participating in our squash program each year, Wyverns excelling at the collegiate level, and our teams earning recent NEPSAC championships, we wanted to create a facility that met the needs of this flourishing program. Through the addition of four new glass courts, we are expanding our ability to nurture student talent, support the program’s growth, and host major squash tournaments.
While these campus enhancements are exciting, we’re equally energized by the innovation and growth happening in our academic programs. We now offer nine new Impact Program electives in our Upper School, where students engage in interdisciplinary learning experiences. Each class partners with a local organization so students can apply what they learn in the classroom to address a real-world issue. Last spring’s Eco Design and Construction class, for example, learned design principles from experts, like Dr. Saty Sharma, professor at Savannah College of Art & Design, and Todd Andrews ’91, a principal at Centerbrook Architects and designer of the Commons project.
Additionally, the students learned about food insecurity through a partnership with a food pantry and then retrofitted a van donated by Hoffman Auto Group into a mobile food bank. After the upgrades, the class gave the van to the organization to use for their pickups and deliveries. (Read more on page 76). These learning experiences and electives build upon the strong foundation of core classes at KO. Students continue to learn essential content, how to think critically, and how to write and speak fluently, and then apply these skills to complex, real-world questions across disciplines.
Even as we celebrate these new beginnings, our foundation remains unchanged. We continue to be guided by our core value of care beyond self. This is embodied in our service initiatives, including our annual Upper School Leadership Service Day, which connects us to more than a dozen local organizations serving vulnerable communities, the elderly, and others, and provides ongoing opportunities for students to give their time and energy where it is needed most.
These facility and program enhancements at KO are critical to the success of our school and our future Wyverns. We enter this school year with great enthusiasm for what is still to come, and with deep gratitude to all of our KO friends and family for your support along the way.
Go Wyverns!
TOM DILLOW
Community Commons
You’ve seen the renderings and the plans, now see the actual Community Commons! It’s even better than we could have imagined. The space opened at the start of the school year, on time and under budget, we might add, and our Wyverns have already made it their home. It’s bustling with activity - both social and academic.
At our opening Convocation, the lead architect and principal from Centerbrook, Todd Andrews ’91, shared his thoughts on the space and how his KO education helped him set his career path - from drafting
classes to the egg drop challenge in his physics class. So, we could say that the foundation of the new Commons was actually laid in the 1990s.
We’re thrilled with the new space, envisioned in our 2019 strategic plan, and are grateful for the largesse of many donors to the ongoing Seize the Day campaign, the oversight of the board members Mary Martin ’77, P’17, ’20 and Megan Ouellette P’18, ’20, and volunteers who carted and shelved boxes of books. Like all things KO, this was a community effort, which is why we love the place so much!
LIBRARY HEARTHSIDE
Step inside the library and feel right at home at our hearthside nook. Gather by the safe, innovative fireplace (the fire is colored water vapor!)—surrounded by shelves of treasured books and campus history—for warmth, comfort, and inspiration.
PALEY FAMILY AND CIPRIANO FAMILY PATIOS
Soak up sunshine or settle in with a good book—our new patios are the perfect spot to relax with friends or watch the action on the turf, all surrounded by beautiful landscaping.
MARTIN/AMELL FAMILY ATRIUM
Step into the bright and airy atrium with soaring ceilings—where natural light pours in and students gather to connect, collaborate, or simply recharge. This welcoming space marks the entrance to the Commons and sets the tone for the community.
DIAZ MEAIKE FAMILY STUDENT LOUNGE
Just past the atrium, this vibrant circular lounge invites conversation and creativity. Sink into cozy seating under the bold Wyvern ceiling, grab a snack at high-tops or booths, and easily access both the library and dining hall from here.
DINING HALL
Enjoy meals in style as sunlight streams into our modern dining hall. With seating for small groups or lively gatherings, it’s the go-to place for great food and laughter. And, the contemporary lighting fixtures are the chef’s kiss!
NANCY C. SOLOMON LIBRARY OFFICE
Our beloved librarian, Nancy Solomon, has dedicated 30 years to KO and has been an intrinsic element in designing the new library. Her insights were critical in reimaging the space designed for current learning styles. And, she can reclaim a beautiful office space where she consults with students and helps them write their Senior Thesis.
PRESENTATION SPACE
Host, present, or participate—this spacious, high-tech room seats 100+ for form assemblies, guest speakers, or club meetings, all with exceptional projection and flexibility.
COLLABORATIVE & STUDY ROOMS
Whether you seek a peaceful corner or a lively project hub, our library offers rooms tailored to every style of study or collaboration. Find your ideal space and make it your own.
A Spirited and Spectacular
Hello, Dolly!
The Roberts Theater was abuzz with anticipation in late February as KO’s production of Hello, Dolly!, directed by Kyle Reynolds, chair of the performing arts department, took the stage. From the moment the overture began, it was clear that this was a show with a difference. Unlike in past years, when the band played behind the actors, former Musical Director Steve Mitchell placed the orchestra in the pit before the stage. The result was a heightened sense of energy and an immersive aural experience, particularly during the show-stopping number, “When the Parade Passes By.”
As the curtain rose, the audience was transported to 1890s 14th Street in Manhattan, a striking tableau of denizens posed like mannequins, reading newspapers against a backdrop of fire escapes and billboards. The set design was evocative, immediately drawing viewers into the world of the play.
Molly Palmer ’27’s commanding portrayal of Dolly Levi was at the heart of the production earning her the 2025 Halo Award for a leading actress in a musical. She owned the stage, a no-small feat for a young actress. Dolly makes a living through what she calls “arranging things” – matchmaking and numerous sidelines, including dance instruction, mandolin lessons, or whatever the
person she speaks to needs. With a perfect balance of charm, wit, and cunning, she ensured the success of her character’s scheme to marry the self-described “rich, friendless, and mean” half-a-millionaire Horace Vandergelder played by Brayden Bak ’26, with delightful precision. Her performance was both compelling, triumphant, and joyous, making Dolly’s journey all the more engaging.
KO’s student performers demonstrated impeccable comedic timing, rivaling professional improv troupes like The Groundlings or the Upright Citizens Brigade. From Juliana Chipelo ’26’s (Ermengarde) exaggerated crying to Lily Temkin ’25’s (Minny) distinctive, jackhammer-like laugh, the show was packed with moments of physical
comedy and slapstick brilliance. The duo of Riley Mapp ’26 (Barnaby) and Leo Kollen ’26 (Cornelius) stood out with their expressive faces and expertly timed hijinks, whether hiding in closets or ducking under tables. Teague Shamleffer ’26, the maitre d’ of the Harmonia Gardens restaurant, manically blew a whistle like a drill sergeant to conduct his frantic wait staff and bark orders in an exaggerated German accent. Bak, as Horace, the cantankerous target of Dolly’s machinations, played the role with great likeability. With his believably stooped gait, one wondered if Bak was affected by early-onset arthritis. Betsy Slifka ’26 was particularly brash as Ernestina Money. Contrasting all the farce
was the role of milliner owner Irene, played by Danica Arwen De Dios ’27, who sang a tender “Ribbons Down My Back” and found love unexpectedly with Cornelius.
Visually, the production was a feast for the eyes. The painterly backdrops, stunning curtain work, and vibrant Belle Epoque period gowns—from bright pinks and yellows to parasol-adorned ensembles— brought a sense of exuberance to the stage. The audience audibly gasped when a near-life-size train, complete with steam piping from its engine, rolled onto the stage—a dazzling effect that underscored the production’s attention to detail.
One of the show’s most memorable moments came during “When the Parade Passes By,” as red, white, and blue confetti unexpectedly cascaded from the ceiling. The effect was met with delight, and after the show, students excitedly discussed the secret behind the spectacle: members of the stage crew positioned in the catwalks had manually released the confetti, adding a touch of behind-the-scenes magic to an already unforgettable performance.
Another brilliant number from the show was the “Gallop of the Waiters”, who, dancing with chaotic precision, carried silver trays and wine bottles at the Harmonia. Matthew Habeeb ’27’s dizzying turns
“Hello, Dolly!
is a story about resilience, hope, and the courage to embrace life’s second chances. Dolly reminds us that, no matter how uncertain the world may feel, we must keep moving forward— opening new doors, building connections, and finding joy wherever we can.”
-Kyle Reynolds, Director
were literally head-spinning. As the wait staff settled down, they were roused again with the news that Dolly had returned to dine at the restaurant. Dolly descended the staircase while singing the ‘big’ number, Hello Dolly!, in a spectacular red dress, waving and greeting the adoring waiters who joined her in the song.
Through the comedy, a purposeful message underscores the play. Director Kyle Reynolds wrote in the Playbill, Hello, Dolly! is a story about resilience, hope, and the courage to embrace life’s second chances. “Dolly reminds us that, no matter how uncertain the world may feel, we must keep moving forward—opening new doors, building connections, and finding joy wherever we can.”
KO’s “Hello, Dolly!” was a triumph—a masterful blend of comedy, music, and spectacle that left the audience thoroughly entertained. With its clever direction, talented cast, and stunning visual effects, this production was a true celebration of musical theater at its finest.
KO also won a Halo Award for Best Dance Ensemble. Head Dance Captain Jane Morris ’26 won the Dance Molinari Scholarship to workshop with Broadway dancers.
The Caley Faculty Grant Announced
Head of School Tom Dillow announced the new “Caley Faculty Grant,” which was awarded to a full-time teacher at KO. This grant was generously made possible as part of KO’s Seize The Day campaign by members of the Caley family and other alumni in honor of legendary teachers Dick Caley ’62 and Carol Caley, who both taught in the science department. These two fine educators poured their hearts and souls into teaching, mentoring, coaching, and inspiring thousands of students over their 60 combined years at KO. The grant of $2,500 will be given annually to a full-time teacher at KO (with at least three years of service to the school) to pursue professional growth and renewal during the summer.
The grant recognizes that
• a teacher can have a transformational impact on the life of a young person;
• expert and caring teachers are critical to fulfilling the mission of Kingswood Oxford School to “inspire students to excel and lead lives of integrity and involvement;”
• the work throughout the school year, while joyful and rewarding, can be challenging and constant; and
• in order for teachers to bring their best selves to each new school year, they need opportunities to renew their practice and craft for the benefit of KO students.
The Caley Faculty Grant was established to “provide opportunities for teachers at Kingswood Oxford to rest, renew, restore, and grow during the summer months so they can continue to bring creativity, passion, and dedication to their students during the school year.” The grant will provide financial resources for teachers to pursue off-campus activities of their choosing.
PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS:
Grants for Professional Development:
The teacher can use the grant to attend workshops, pursue ways to expand the teaching craft, travel, or engage in activities that bring teachers joy and inspiration so they can return to KO with new perspectives to share with their students.
Flexible Use: The grant can be used in a way that best supports a teacher’s professional renewal, whether it’s for a retreat, a creative project, or taking time to pursue a professional project.
Community and Support: The grant will allow a teacher to join a network of fellow educators who are also taking time to renew, thus sharing experiences and ideas for personal and professional growth.
This year, Middle School teacher Alison O’Donnell was awarded the inaugural grant order to travel to Copenhagen this summer. This opportunity aligns perfectly with her ongoing work in Upper Prep geography. For years, her curriculum has centered around the UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly exploring sustainable cities and communities. Copenhagen, one of the world’s leading models of urban sustainability, has often served as a key case study for her students.
This grant allowed her to experience firsthand the initiatives she teaches about—from biking on Copenhagen’s extensive paths and kayaking in its clean harbor to visiting CopenHill, the innovative waste-to-energy plant and recreation center. These real-world insights will enrich her classroom teaching and provide students with a deeper, more personal understanding of sustainable living.
Students Go Old School
Through the generous underwriting of the Goodman Banks Visiting Artist Series, KO welcomed artist Robert Calafiore to KO last fall. Born in New Britain, Connecticut, to Italian immigrant parents, Calafiore was deeply influenced by his upbringing in a traditional Roman Catholic home, which left a deep imprint on his artistic sensibilities. His early experiences in a close-knit family environment, rich with religious influence and a strong work ethic, have informed both his creative practice and his philosophical outlook on art and life. These themes of tradition, family, and human connection are a consistent thread throughout his work.
While at KO, Calafiore conducted workshops with Upper and Middle School students using retro pinhole cameras (circa 500 BCE) featuring the students as photography subjects. One of the challenges in using this photographic method is the time the subject must remain still (over three minutes!) for the camera to capture the image. That’s a tall order for some Middle Schoolers, but the classes embraced the experience. The students ran outside and assembled themselves in groups of twos and fours, splaying under trees, benches, and steps to create a tableau for the camera to capture. They particularly enjoyed seeing their images develop in the emulsifying formula in the dark room.
Calafiore spoke at an assembly and discussed his artistic practice while showing some of his artwork. His photography, particularly his work with pinhole cameras, is driven by a deep fascination with how technology has altered our physical relationship with the world and one another. In an era dominated by digital photography and virtual communication, his use of handmade, analog processes stands as a deliberate counterpoint to the speed and convenience of modern technological tools. For Calafiore, the physical labor involved in creating his images is just as important as the final product—an approach heavily influenced by his parents’ blue-collar background, where hard work was valued and celebrated. “I tend to like things that are really hard and laborious,” he said. “The harder it is, the longer it takes, the longer and harder it is for me to figure out a solution, the more I enjoy the process.”
His pinhole camera series challenges viewers to consider the passage of time and the shift in how we perceive and engage with physical objects. These works, created with exposures lasting up to 80 minutes under intense lighting, are built layer by layer with carefully arranged stacks of glass, household objects, and family heirlooms. Each photograph is a one-of-a-kind creation, with no digital negatives or copies. This meticulous analog process, where even the pinhole itself is handmade, results in richly colored, large-format prints that evoke both personal memory and universal experiences of family, tradition, and materiality.
While Calafiore’s art is deeply rooted in tradition—both in terms of his subject matter and his analog techniques— it is also a meditation on the future. He is particularly interested in how younger generations, growing up in a world
“There’s nothing better than the arts teaching about how to think outside the box and learn new solutions to old and reoccurring problems.”
-Robert Calafiore
dominated by digital technology, have a different relationship with physical space and materials. He observes in his students a marked shift away from the tactile experiences of measuring, building, and crafting that once were essential parts of childhood. This change is reflected in the way his students struggle with tasks like cutting a straight line or handling physical tools—skills that were once commonplace but are now unfamiliar due to the rise of digital devices. “Now I need to take an entire day to show students how to hold that ruler, how to use the utility knife without cutting a finger off, how to measure what a fraction of an inch is,” he said.
For Calafiore, this shift is neither good nor bad—it is simply an observation that informs his work. In response, he has chosen to move in the opposite direction, creating art that appears digital but is entirely analog, handcrafted, and unique. “I take a 180-degree turn away from digital technology in my work,” he said. “I make works that look contemporary, digital, and photoshopped, but it is 100 percent analog handmade work with zero technologies.” His one-of-a-kind photographs defy the replicable nature of photography, forcing viewers to engage with each piece as a singular, physical object.
Calafiore presented to the KO students some of his large-scale work, inspired by a decorative bowl displayed in his family’s kitchen as a child. Although a prosaic object, the piece was cherished by his hardworking parents, a representation of achieving the American dream. Calafiore began collecting colorful glassware bordering on obsession that is now featured in his work, either stacked on top of one another or in a collection. These photos of glassware “tell a really personal story,” he said, “and yet it’s universal at the same time. So many people have gone through the immigrant experience, and this was a way for me to use those objects and tell this story.” Some of his other glassware may be white in reality, but through his painstaking set-up of lights (40,000 watts of light!), the final image of the bowls and bric-a-brac are kaleidoscopic and mind-bending.
In addition to his gallery work, Calafiore advocates for arts education, emphasizing the importance of creativity in all fields. “Whether you go into the arts or not, taking courses in the arts is about creativity,” he said. “There’s nothing better than the arts teaching about how to think outside the box and learn new solutions to old and reoccurring problems,” he said.
Exploring the Uncanny with Karen Russell Baird Symposium Author
As you enter the phantasmagoric world of Karen Russell, the 42nd author in the Warren Baird English Symposium series, you’ll encounter uncanny creatures—mutant scarecrows, wolf-like girls, and vampires— as well as more prosaic settings, such as a shopping mall. It’s all strangely familiar yet a bit off, like the magic realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, one of Rusell’s literary touchstones. Both she and Marquez create surreal landscapes where we can see ourselves and the human condition most vividly.
Russell is the author of three novels and three short story collections. Her debut 2011 novel Swamplandia was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. In 2009 the National Book Foundation named Russell a “Five Under 35” honoree. She was also the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant” in 2013. Russell has taught creative writing at University of California, Irvine, Williams College, Columbia University, and Bryn Mawr and was the endowed chair of creative writing in the MFA program at Texas State University. During her workshop with the senior symposium class, Russell explored the genre of the ghost stories the students were in the process of composing. She explained that ghost stories mirror real life because they show that terrible circumstances occur to good individuals arbitrarily. One student shared the story she was writing about a group of friends who were animals, and another student described
her tale based on the pinhole photography inspired by the artist Robert Calafiore, who had visited KO earlier in the semester. Russell explained the formula for a ghost story as a stable context that has been disrupted by an unsettling force that lurks beneath the surface of our everyday lives.
“You’re working in your ordinary day,” Russell said. “And then a mysterious force has shown up with this urgent demand, and it won’t leave you alone. It’s literally rattling the furniture. Even if you are not writing about a supernatural force in your story, something is always haunting a character in your story. Being alive and conscious and having a past is a deeply haunting experience.”
Following the workshop, Russell spoke at an Upper School assembly about her craft. She told the students how fortunate they are to be at an age where they are granted the freedom to be vital and awake before the banal realities of mortgages and
tax returns set in. “You are free to see and know and feel things that adults become insulated from,” she said. She told the students that they are lucky to have teachers who allow them to take risks and give them support to explore. “They’re more than helping you identify what is best and wildest and most idiosyncratic and most alive in you, what your passions are, and giving you wings to help you fly. It’s a gift to be at a place like this.”
Russell told the audience that as a girl, she was captivated by authors such as Ray Bradbury, Octavia Butler, Borges, Marquez, and more classic writers like Tolstoy and Fitzgerald. While at the public library, she questioned the ghettoization of books, segmenting them by type. Even a novel as traditional as Jane Eyre, she noted, begins with a haunting. Russell encouraged the students to read like an “omnivore” and not be closed off to embracing abstruse texts and poetry. She admitted that as a teenager she chased her GPA and consumed work that required less brain power. One of her favorite teachers exposed her to an elliptical poem by Wallace Stevens, “The Order of Key West,” which, she said, granted her permission to be “bewildered.”
In her initial stabs at storytelling, she said she attempted to write about what she perceived to be the adult world, with adultery, even though she was 18. “I was trying to wear sensible pumps and write serious things,” she said. “I tried to portray the real world to whip married adults into plausible dramas, to describe the makes and models of their cars.”
She described these stories as “flat cola,” lacking an “effervescent sense of creation” until her teacher encouraged her to write like the authors she loved: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, George Saunders, and Italo Calvino. Despite their heavyweight literary merit, these authors used devices found in fables. “Here were writers of serious literature drawing upon the oneric power of fairy tale, borrowing the technique of uncanny estrangement from horror and science fiction, handing monsters the mic and letting them crack jokes.” Reading these stories, she said, allowed her to open her writing and explore other worlds, which, in their strangeness, allowed her to plumb the everyday experience.
A tension exists in fantasy writing where the writer must attend to realness. “Writing something out there,” she said, “you have to be more strictly attentive to the concrete detail than someone writing in a naturalistic vein because, the greater the strain on credulity, the more convincing the properties in it have to be.”
The most challenging aspect of writing fantasy is convincing the reader to care about the characters, even if they might be she-wolves. “No matter how whacked out your story turns out to be, no reader can live in that world for long unless it also feels solid enough to support a genuine emotional connection.”
And there’s nothing more real than
that.
The symposium is supported by The Dobkin/Sonntag Family in memory of Isabel Dobkin and the Tabell Family Foundation.
Theater Department Spells it Out
F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C
Tensions are high. Nerves are fraught. And William Barfee (pronounced “bar-fay,” he insists), the mucus-membrane impaired participant in the local spelling bee just might have an allergy attack onstage.
Welcome to KO’s fall production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, a musical that features a lovable menagerie of adolescent oddballs competing for the title of top speller.
KO’s Theater Department turned out a raucous and professional-grade crowd-pleaser directed by Kyle Reynolds, chair of the performing arts department. Part spelling bee and part therapy session, the musical tells the backstories of six quirky spellers who each bring their emotional package to the competition. There’s Marcy Park, a polyglot (count six languages) who lives in a pressure cooker of excellence and receives a visitation from Jesus Christ in the midst of the competition. Leaf Coneybear has questionable sartorial style, including a bike helmet, cape and a dinosaur finger puppet, and his kin continually remind him that he’s the dumb one in
the family. And poor, neglected Olive ardently awaits her father’s arrival at the bee and saves him a seat because her mother is enlightening herself in an ashram in India. The allergy-afflicted Barfee dazzles the competition by spelling his words out with his magic foot. Logainne Schwartz-and-Grubenierre is saddled with a speech impediment and two overbearing dads. Chip is eliminated from the competition due to an unfortunate and ill-timed distracting physical urge.
Because the Black Box Theater, which is often used for smaller plays, was being used as a lunch room during construction of the new Community Commons this year, the performances were moved to the Roberts Theater, where the audience sat on the stage, adding to the experience of being part of the show. In fact, Rona Parreetti, one of the show’s announcers, interacted with the audience before the show started. The dialogue was snappy,
and the one-liners, some written by Teague Shamleffler ’26, who also played Principal Panch, one of the bee’s moderators, were on point. When the bee contestants asked for their word in a sentence, Panch delivered irreverent and often thoroughly unhelpful guidance. To wit: when asking a contestant to spell “phylactery” (a small box containing a Hebrew text when praying), Panch offered this example sentence: “Billy, put down the phylactery. We’re Episcopalian.” To the audience’s delight, Upper School Science Department Chair Graham Hegeman, Middle School math teacher Stacey Tomkiel, and seniors Stella Zimmer and Olivia Gallup made cameo appearances as bee contestants. Through the hilarity, one feeling emerged: the soft spot the audience developed for the underdog, the vulnerable. The audience rooted for each of these kooky characters as they had their moment in the sun and came into their own.
Lingashi Opens Squash Academy in Zambia
Boys’ varsity squash coach Robby Lingashi, originally from Zambia, brought his passion for the sport and education back to his hometown with the launch of the Lingashi Squash Academy this June. This initiative, set to function as an after-school program, provides local children with athletic training while fostering academic growth. The academy also provides food to the students, many of whom only have one meal in three days.
Lingashi, who grew up in Kalulushi, a town in the province of Copperbelt, known for its, you guessed it, copper mining industry, recalls an era in the ’70s when companies heavily invested in community sports facilities. “When I was growing up, there were opportunities for kids to engage in sports after school — soccer fields, tennis courts, squash clubs, basketball courts,” he said. “But now, those companies are no longer there, and the facilities have become dormant.”
Lingashi benefited from the corporations’ communityfunded programs by playing squash in his hometown.
“I had a fantastic childhood because of these opportunities,” he said. “I want to bring that back and help the kids in my hometown.”
Over time, he excelled in the sport, and by the time he was 14, he started representing Zambia internationally in the juniors and seniors program. Lingashi said when he was a child, his role model was Simon Gondwe, one of the first successful African squash players. From that inspiration, Lingashi went on to become the 60th-ranked squash player in the world, and he hopes that the students in his academy will view him similarly, as a current-day Gondwe.
“I want them to have hopes and dreams,” he said.
“I want them to know that they dont have to end up in a small town. There is more of the world, and everything is connected. It’s to give them a path. And who knows what this experience can tap into and develop? They can go into any trade they want to do. You never know what can happen.”
The Lingashi Squash Academy selected 10 students from each of six middle schools and three high schools, totaling 60 children in its first cohort. The program is not solely focused on squash — it integrates education, ensuring that children receive assistance with homework, reading, and other academic activities.
“We want to detect at an early age what the kids are good at — whether it’s sports, art, or science — so they can develop their talents,” Lingashi stated.
“Not everyone will be great at math or squash, but every child deserves an opportunity to pursue what excites them.”
Lingashi has personally funded the project, investing in 150 squash rackets, 40 desks and chairs, and various school supplies. Over the past five years, he has worked diligently to gather resources, using his own earnings to build a foundation for the academy.
“For many, a program like this means more than just playing squash — it’s about getting a meal, gaining an education, and finding hope for a better future.”
His brother, a fellow squash enthusiast, serves as the academy’s director, overseeing daily operations in Zambia while Lingashi continues his coaching career abroad. He also hired local coaches and established a committee to maintain and grow the program. The Squash Association of Zambia and the National Sport of Zambia, which is run by the government, have also contacted Lingashi about this venture to ensure it performs well.
Lingashi’s return to Zambia coincides with a historic moment for the sport — squash will be included in the Olympics for the first time in 2028. The country’s squash associations have approached him to help train and prepare potential Olympic athletes.
“Kids in Zambia don’t always have the privileges that kids in wealthier countries do,” he noted. “For many, a program like this means more than just playing squash — it’s about getting a meal, gaining an education, and finding hope for a better future.”
Although the academy started small, Lingashi is optimistic about its future growth. He hopes that donors and sponsors will step in to provide additional support once the program gains traction. In the meantime, he is in the process of establishing a non-profit organization to facilitate funding.
“There’s a lot of potential in Zambia, but you have to tap into that,” he said. “If you put up the right channels, it’s amazing what kids can do. It’s my belief that you can be anything. It’s just that you need a little bit of push.”
KO Middle Schoolers
Make a Splash in
The Little Mermaid
Whimsical costumes, unforgettable songs, and a sea of talent brought the story to life.
The Kingswood Oxford Middle School transported audiences under the sea with a magical and exuberant performance of The Little Mermaid, directed by Middle School teacher Matthew Wiggin. Bursting with energy, the cast of young performers lit up the stage with their enthusiasm, talent, and infectious joy.
At the heart of the production was Camila Conti ’29 as Ariel, whose stunning rendition of “Part of Your World” showcased not only her vocal power but her ability to tap into the emotional core of the song—a feat even seasoned singers find challenging. Her performance left no doubt: this mermaid could truly carry a tune.
The show featured standout moments across the board.
Sebastian the crab, played with comic timing and charm by Gabe Chapman ’29 stole scenes with a pitch-perfect Caribbean patois that delighted the audience and anchored musical numbers like “Under the Sea” and “Kiss the Girl.”
Ursula, the sea witch, was brought to life by a Coraline Picard ’29 who relished every sinister note and sly glare, delivering a deliciously devious performance that struck just the right balance of menace and fun as her evil eels slithered around her.
Adding to the delight was a surprise casting twist—Middle School English teacher Kyle Chapman stepped into the role of King Triton. His presence on stage, complete with his natural gray beard worthy of a sea god, his signature Vans sneakers, and tall stature, was a crowd favorite. Students beamed at seeing a familiar face in such an unfamiliar—and majestic—role, a reminder that teachers, too, can break out of their shells and shine.
Some other memorable numbers include the chorus of mermaids who sang the catchy and poppy “She’s in Love,”
reminiscent of the ’60s girl groups, and “Les Poissons,” sung by chefs who are preparing a delicious dish of crabs as Sebastian cowers in the corner.
From the costumes, including an ingenious use of umbrellas strung with streamers to mimic jellyfish and a violent storm enhanced by strobe lights, to the heartfelt performances, the entire production was a testament to the creativity and camaraderie of the KO Middle School community. It wasn’t just a show—it was a celebration of student spirit, hard work, and a shared love for storytelling.
Bravo to the entire cast and crew for diving deep and surfacing with a hit!
Kyff Pens Book on The Great Gatsby
Upper School history teacher Rob Kyff spoke at the West Hartford Public Library in April about everyone’s favorite literary gadabout, Jay Gatsby, to mark the 100th anniversary of the publication of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, The Great Gatsby. Kyff also penned a book on the subject, Gatsby’s Secrets: The Hidden Motifs, Moments and Metaphors That Shape Fitzgerald’s Masterpiece. In the book, Kyff discusses the often-overlooked memes, motifs, and metaphors that enrich and shape the novel’s meaning.
Kyff describes how Fitzgerald weaves thematic elements as disparate as water, vision, ghosts, numbers, and stars into the fabric of the novel’s meaning; how secondary characters such as Jordan Baker, Myrtle Wilson and Blocks Biloxi parallel the main characters, contributing essential perspectives and comic relief; and how Fitzgerald chooses words precisely to craft the exquisite, rhapsodic passages that have been called “touchstones of American prose.”
Although Kyff has worked at KO since 1977, he never taught The Great Gatsby class, which is primarily taught in sophomore English, despite being an aficionado of the book. However, every summer since the late 1980s, Kyff cracks open the tome and immerses himself in the life on the shores of West Egg. Upon each re-reading, Kyff notices elements and patterns within the text he hadn’t observed before, revealing more of its complexity and nuance. During the pandemic and through 2021, he finally had some time to index themes, characters, objects, colors, and literary analysis and criticism, which he organized to determine motifs and patterns. In 2023, he began writing his book in earnest, even enlisting a dozen KO students who all read the novel to serve as copyeditors of his manuscript, ensuring quality control.
The copyright protection of the novel expired in 2021, meaning it has entered the public domain, allowing anyone to publish or use it
as the basis for other projects. The novel wasn’t always held in the highest esteem when it was first published in 1925, and sold less than 20,000 copies. Fitzgerald’s earlier titles, This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful and Damned, garnered more acclaim. During World War II, the US military distributed the novel to the servicemen, which elevated its stature and revived its reputation. That, and the literary critics who recognized its merit as a critique of the illusory nature of the American Dream.
This book is available for purchase on Amazon.
KO CUM LAUDE SOCIETY
On April 22, 17 students from the Class of 2025 were inducted into the Cum Laude Society in front of their families and advisors.
The following students were inducted: Stephen Bailey, Ella Chen, Pindar Chen, Sophie Chen, Sasha Dausey, Curran Dee, William Duvall, Christian Gingeleskie, Jenna Kanaan, Jack Krieble, Margaret Miller, Claire Palmer, Abigail Schiff, Julia Sohn, Daniela Tippner, Raine Wang, Ziwen Yin, and Zhengyan Zhang.
Taryn Braz from the Class of 2014 was the keynote speaker and offered a message that was both warm and wise. With KO stories of bread bowl lunches, softball championships, and even a few secret detours hiding in the bathroom during field hockey practice when her team should have been running, she reminded students that the best parts of KO aren’t just the traditions — they’re the people.
“I don’t remember the tests I failed or the wrong answers I gave in class,” she said, “but I do remember how it felt to show up to a place where I was surrounded by support and kindness and to be welcomed into an established community.”
She urged the students to cherish the friendships they had made here and stay open to new communities wherever life led. Whether it was a lastminute prom dash after a big win, the kindness of a senior
who welcomed her before her first day, or planting a community garden in rural Virginia, each story pointed to one simple truth: community is everything.
Braz shared her journey postKO. While at Boston College, she reconnected with activities she loved, such as writing for the school newspaper, working out in the fitness center, and being involved with the school’s athletic department. She said that one of her most meaningful experiences at BC was volunteering in Appalachia and bonding with her host family and the people in the town, emphasizing that communities can be built everywhere. “The experience reinforced for me that community isn’t always something you are born into — it’s something you choose to create,” she said.
Following graduation, she worked for the Boston Red Sox in the fan and youth engagement department, where she expanded access to ensure that people who didn’t grow up attending games every summer still felt a sense of belonging. The organization’s partnership with the Miracle Network, a non-profit for people with mental or physical disabilities, was significant. “We focused not just on bringing fans into Fenway,” she said, “but on bringing Fenway out into the community.”
And now, working at the Harvard Varsity Club, an organization within Harvard Athletics, Braz is involved in helping studentathletes both while in school and beyond. It’s yet another opportunity to build connections, create inclusive spaces, and show up for others. She said that KO was where she discovered what it meant to be part of a community, and she has sought spaces and a career path that upholds that core value.
In her parting words to the students, she said,
“If you don’t see a space that represents you, create one. Get involved, start something. You’d be amazed at what can grow from that.”
DR. OKEY NDIBE
and the Complex Tapestry of Nigeria’s Struggles with Corruption and Resilience
Dr. Okey Ndibe, the celebrated Nigerian author, delivered a compelling presentation in Upper School History Chair David Baker’s global history class. He delved deeply into the intertwined complexities of Nigeria’s oil sector, corruption, and its broader societal impacts. These issues, he argued, form the backbone of Nigeria’s ongoing national narrative. Ndibe’s critique spanned decades of corruption and human rights violations, laying bare the challenges faced by Africa’s most populous nation.
Before Ndibe’s address, two students had described several current events in Nigeria, including the corruption in the nation’s oil and the goverment’s crackdown on pirating oil, an anti-graft case regarding the seizure of property, and a boating accident in which many Nigerians perished.
Ndibe segued into an exploration of the Nigerian legal profession’s struggles with systemic corruption, particularly highlighting the plight of Dele Farotimi, a fearless Nigerian attorney whose activism has recently captured the attention of social media. Farotimi has made waves by publishing a book exposing corruption within Nigeria’s judiciary—a move that led to significant backlash. Ndibe revealed how Farotimi’s exposé pitted him against Babatunde Babala, one of the wealthiest and most influential lawyers in Nigeria, known for his alleged use of wealth and influence to secure judicial outcomes through bribery.
“Unlike America, where a sizeable number of lawyers want to stay in private practice because that’s where the money is,” Ndibe said, “in Nigeria, people lobby to be made judges because that’s where the money is.” Ndibe recounted personal anecdotes, including his youngest brother’s experiences as a Nigerian lawyer, highlighting how the pressure to bribe judges undermines the legal profession’s integrity.
Ndibe then shifted his focus to the current president of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Tinubu’s rise to power, he argued, epitomizes the entrenched cycle of political corruption in Nigeria. As a former governor of Lagos state, Tinubu built an empire of influence, installing loyalists in positions of power and extracting significant revenues from the state through mechanisms like private toll companies and revenuecollection schemes. Ndibe described how Tinubu wielded this wealth and power to become Nigeria’s kingmaker, ultimately securing his presidency in a controversial election.
Tinubu’s infamous declaration during his campaign—“Emilokan” (Yoruba for “It’s my turn”)—was a stark display of arrogance, according to Ndibe. He noted that Tinubu’s presidency represents a grim continuity of Nigeria’s political status quo, where corruption and impunity from prosecution reign supreme.
Despite the pervasive corruption in governance, Ndibe celebrated Nigeria’s cultural contributions to
“I want Nigerians to begin to look at issues and say, ‘This is bad, and my judgment on this is not affected by the ethnicity or religious affiliation or the state or the tribe of the person who has committed the act. It’s either good, honorable, or dishonorable.”
the world. From literature to music and film, Nigerians have made a significant global impact. He recounted personal anecdotes of encountering Nigeria’s cultural power abroad, from the music of Fela Kuti to the international acclaim of “Nollywood” films. These moments, he said, underline the paradox of Nigeria—a country that excels in cultural and intellectual production while grappling with disastrous political leadership.
Ndibe himself has suffered at the hands of the government every time he enters Nigeria due to his criticism of the regime. After years of writing a weekly column and hosting a podcast that critiqued the Nigerian government, he found himself at a crossroads. “I no longer either properly understand Nigeria or have anything new to say,” he confessed. This sentiment resonates with many Nigerians in the diaspora, who witness the country’s potential squandered by cyclical tragedies and entrenched corruption.
Ndibe opened up the class to questions. One student asked whether he felt his journalistic articles or his books were more impactful. Without hesitation, Ndibe said his articles are more influential because of their immediacy. “In a sense, you can help shape public response to an issue,” he said. “It was my day-to-day articles that riled the government, so I was put on a list of enemies of the state.”
One student asked how Ndibe maintains his courage to keep speaking the truth. “Fear is a choice, and I’ve chosen not to live in fear.” He said he took inspiration from Nobel Prize-winning Nigerian writer, Wole Soyinka, who wrote The Man Died. “When there are moral issues, we ought to speak; we ought to take a stand. Sometimes, out of moral cowardice or comfort, many retreat into silence. I find that I suffer profoundly when I see injustice and I can’t speak. It’s one way of dying.”
One of the last questions a student asked concerned the ethnic division within the country. Due to its number of factions, she asked if Nigeria would be better off balkanizing itself along ethnic or religious lines. Ndibe took a principled stance. “I wish for Nigeria an ethnicity of values,” he said. “I want Nigerians to begin to look at issues and say, ‘This is bad, and my judgment on this is not affected by the ethnicity or religious affiliation or the state or the tribe of the person who has committed the act. It’s either good, honorable, or dishonorable.’”
A Candid Look at the Challenges Facing Modern Journalism
In a thought-provoking keynote at the annual Baird Journalism Dinner, acclaimed journalist Eric Levitz ’06, a senior correspondent for Vox, where he covers politics and policy, delivered a sobering yet passionate reflection on the state of journalism in the United States today, but not without a sense of humor. Addressing students, faculty, and guests, Levitz painted a detailed picture of an industry under siege from economic pressures, political attacks, technological disruption, and shifting audience habits.
“I’m not sure what brought you all here tonight,” Levitz joked. “Just because someone joins their high school newspaper doesn’t mean that they suffer from the debilitating psychopathology known as wanting to be a journalist.” He told the students that they might want to find a more practical occupation, such as professional gambling.
“Journalism today is having an increasingly difficult time fulfilling its traditional economic and civic functions.”
Tracing the origins of journalism’s economic challenges, he pointed to historical changes in media consumption. In the 1920s, Americans bought newspapers not necessarily for hard news, but for cartoons, fashion photos, and classified ads. Bundling serious journalism with entertainment helped news outlets thrive. But technological shifts, starting with television and accelerating with the internet, steadily eroded that model.
Levitz explained that classified ads, once a financial backbone for newspapers, generated nearly 40% of their revenue in 2000—over $19 billion. However, digital platforms like Craigslist and Indeed decimated this crucial income stream by offering more efficient ways to connect buyers and sellers. Meanwhile, giants like Google and Instagram now dominate the corporate advertising market by harnessing massive amounts of user data, leaving traditional news outlets struggling to compete.
“Today, newspapers and magazines can’t harvest or analyze data at the same scale, and it’s left journalism with a shrinking share of advertising dollars,” Levitz said. He also warned that advances in artificial intelligence, while offering some useful tools, are further undercutting journalism by making it easier and cheaper to provide basic information—once a key way outlets attracted readers—without human reporters.
The implications go beyond economics. Levitz stressed that journalism’s civic mission— keeping the public informed and governments accountable—is under threat. Fewer people are consuming traditional news, and many turn instead to influencers, streamers, and podcasters who are not bound by professional ethics or standards of accuracy. “Democratic elections cannot compel public officials to serve their constituents’ interests if those constituents have inaccurate information about what their government has been doing,” he cautioned. “If news outlets cannot command the public’s attention, they cannot effectively convey such information.”
Levitz also discussed political pressures, particularly under the current administration. He described how efforts to intimidate journalists, from lawsuits to regulatory threats against major outlets like CBS, represent a real danger to press freedom.
Despite this grim outlook, Levitz’s message wasn’t entirely pessimistic. He encouraged young people considering a career in journalism to embrace the challenge. “It’s still a great job if you can get it,” he said, “It’s an immense privilege to get to learn about the world and tell people what you’ve learned for a living.” He pointed out that major
ERIC LEVITZ ’06 WITH STAFF OF
institutions like The New York Times and The Atlantic have found sustainable models, and that there is still a strong demand for high-quality business and economic reporting.
In a lively Q&A session after his talk, Levitz shared practical advice with students. When asked how to find trustworthy news sources, he recommended relying on well-resourced outlets like The New York Times, The Financial Times, and The Wall Street Journal, while also supplementing with the work of thoughtful independent writers. On the role of AI, he acknowledged both the dangers and the promise: tools like OpenAI’s research assistant could help journalists work more efficiently, even as they disrupt traditional business models.
Levitz also reflected on his own experiences overcoming interview anxiety and the importance of editorial independence.
“If you feel yourself resisting new information because it challenges your assumptions, that’s a cue to dig deeper,” he said, urging aspiring journalists to maintain intellectual humility and a commitment to truth over ideology.
Finally, when asked about formative experiences at Kingswood Oxford that influenced his career, Levitz credited the school’s vibrant English and creative writing programs for sharpening his skills. He recalled writing his first play for the school’s spring Play Showcase and how it helped him grow as a storyteller.
Closing on a hopeful note, Eric called on the next generation to rise to the occasion. “Society needs journalism as much as it ever has,” he said. “We need independent, curious storytellers who can command the public’s attention in an increasingly distracted world.”
Levitz wrote a column for New York Magazine’s Intelligencer. His work has also appeared in the New York Times and Salon as well as on MSNBC’s homepage. Before entering journalism, he earned a Masters of Fine Arts in Fiction Writing at Johns Hopkins University and authored several plays that received productions in Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
Since the election, Levitz has been producing a weekly newsletter for Vox called “The Rebuild,” in which he explores the future of the Democratic Party, focusing on what liberals and progressives can learn from Harris’ loss.
“Society needs journalism as much as it ever has. We need independent, curious storytellers who can command the public’s attention in an increasingly distracted world.”
Dance Showcase
One of KO’s most anticipated traditions in recent years arrives just in time—right before Thanksgiving break—when students are ready for a lift. And what better way to energize the community than with the Choreographer Showcase? Now in its sixth year, this dynamic performance lights up the Roberts Theater stage as KO’s talented dancers leap, tap, twirl, and glide their way into the spotlight.
Throughout the fall, KO dancers collaborated with a phenomenal group of local choreographers to create pieces that span the spectrum from classical ballet to contemporary movement. The result? A dazzling display of rhythm, grace, and athleticism. A true celebration of music, movement, and the magic that happens when creative minds come together.
News Reporting in Challenging Times
New York Times investigative journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Mark Mazzetti spoke at an assembly before the presidential election last fall. “Mazzetti’s perspective can deepen our understanding of the media’s role in democracy,” Head of the Upper School Lisa Loeb said, “and how journalism can hold leaders accountable.” Raine Wang ’25, editor-in-chief of the KO News, interviewed Mazzetti with very well-considered questions to gain insights into Mazzetti’s practice and career.
Without wasting any time, Wang opened with a question on everyone’s mind: the presidential election. She asked Mazzetti how this tense election cycle was affecting newsrooms across the country. Mazzetti said that since 2016, news organizations have grappled with covering President Donald Trump, a highly unorthodox political figure. He said one way the news approached the election this year was to adjust polling, because Trump’s support was undercounted in 2016 and 2020. “This
time, they have a built-in model in their polling to try to capture what they think is more of Trump’s support,” he said. “The one big question will be: were they right to do this?”
Mazzetti said that presenting information is a tightrope because the nation is so politically divided, and people live in alternate realities of the truth. “We try to cover the story in the best way we can, which is to be objective and fair,” he said. “It does not mean treating all sides or both sides equally.” He said that it’s impossible to be
100 percent objective because, as humans, we are all prone to biases, but that the job of a journalist is to expose injustices and bring them to light.
Wang asked Mazzetti if he was aware he was covering a major story as it was happening in real-time, such as his coverage of alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election and, more recently, the Israel-Hamas war. He said that he immediately understood that the coverage of the Middle East was a big story. “The journalists have to cover the story under intense circumstances,” he said, “and do it under intense criticism for what they’re doing. It was very, very, very intense to discuss what do we cover? What angles do we cover? Whose perspectives do we show?”
Conflicts over how to cover a story arise many times in newsrooms, Mazzetti said but explained that, as professionals, journalists recognize they are not advocating for a position. He said the people reporters speak with and interview inform their perspective. “The goal is to produce as much content as possible from as many different perspectives as possible,” he said.
Mazzetti told the audience he worked for the Los Angeles Times, U.S. News and World Report, and The Economist earlier in his career. In the spring of 2001, he moved to Washington, D.C. and, and his editor asked if he wanted to cover the Pentagon, even though he had little understanding of national defense or security. At the time, the Pentagon beat was considered sleepy, but all of that changed within months. Mazzetti was in the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, and shortly thereafter he headed to Afghanistan to cover the U.S. military response to the 9/11 attacks.
He said much of his career has been shaped by serendipity, when circumstances aligned and he found himself in certain jobs and locales. He said he greatly respects war correspondents who put themselves in
harm’s way to cover a story. “I don’t consider myself one of those incredibly brave people,” he said. “But even they recognize that it’s one thing to take risks for a story, but no story is worth dying for.”
Mazzetti said he relies on the expertise of local journalists, who have insights on the ground to cover a story properly. He collaborates with them and travels with them to navigate the language, customs, and terrain.
Mazzetti also addressed the disinformation that is flooding various media platforms. He said he is frustrated by the disinformation and the difference in standards from one news outlet to another. At one time, he said he found Twitter, now X, to be a valuable source of information because it immediately delivered breaking news from around the world. Now, he finds that X is especially egregious in serving news because it does so using algorithms. “I think the owners of social media platforms are doing a terrible job dealing with the issue of disinformation,” he said.
“There are news organizations who are trying their best and in good faith to report honestly because they think it’s important for our country,” he said. “It’s important for the health of our democracy to hold the government accountable and to tell people what they may not want to hear.”
Service Leadership Day
Living Our Core Value
Each day at KO, we aim to live out our core value of “care beyond self.” Nowhere was that more evident last fall as sophmores and seniors engaged in several activities at various non-profits in the greater Hartford area for our Leadership Service Day. A key tenet of the KO strategic plan is student involvement with our local community. This day provided an invaluable opportunity for students to step out of the classroom and engage with organizations committed to making a positive impact.
“We are trying to get the kids to view civic responsibility as part of living in a community and thinking beyond KO when we think of community,” said Service Learning Coordinator Kathleen McLean. “We want the students to understand that civic responsibility, service, and leadership are all intertwined.”
Here are some brief summaries of the community organization’s missions and how the students helped achieve them.
1 Traprock Ridge Land Conservancy and Nourish My Soul Farm Sophomores removed Japanese knotweed, an invasive species with fast-growing roots. They also collected and kept track of specimens in the river and examined the health of the Farmington River by taking water samples.
2 Foodshare
Foodshare works to alleviate food insecurity by addressing its root causes, creating long-term solutions, and distributing food through local partner programs. Students helped organize and sorted food that Big Y had donated.
3 Community First School
CFS works with underserved children and families to break the cycle of poverty. One group worked with fourth and fifth grades on math, and the others read books and worked on sounding out letters.
4 Habitat for Humanity
ReStore provides furniture and household goods to families moving into Habitat homes and prevents usable household items and building materials from going to area landfills. Students worked not on a building site but in Habitat’s “store,” where companies and individuals donate household items, furniture, and building materials.
5 Community Renewal Team
CRT works to help the community address hunger, homelessness, unemployment, and poverty. Students helped prepare meals in the Kitchen.
Varsity Athletics 2024-25
FALL
FOOTBALL
Coaches: (Head) Brandon Batory ’10 (Assistants) Clay Hillyer, Matt Kocay, Dac Newton, Kevin Sullivan Record: 6-4
Captains: Stephen Bailey, Justin Morle, Nicklas Chomko, Julian Przecioska
Seniors: Stephen Bailey, Aryan Dange, Christian Gingeleskie, Christian Gordon, Yue Huang, Julian Przecioska, Evan Tyler
VOLLEYBALL
Coaches: (Head) Cameron Biondi (Assistant) Joseph Sobowicz Record: 13-7
Seniors: Meredith Decker, Isabella Deurloo, Emma St. Clair, Addisen Nicholson, Daniela Tippner, Eleanor Toomey, Camryn Weinstein, Ella Wilson, Stella Zimmer
M.V.P. Award: Sarah Balog
M.I.P. Award: Sierra Wells
Coaches Award: Addisen Nicholson, Ellory Goodhue
Four-Year Award: Isabella Deurloo, Addisen Nicholson, Ella Wilson
BOYS’ TRACK AND FIELD
Coaches: (Head) Alexander Kraus (Assistants) Tricia Watson, Fritz Goodman, David Baker ’04, Carmen Kreager, Tracy Deeter, Steph Sperber Record: 4-2
Captains: Sanford Cloud, Christian Gordon, Justin Morle
Seniors: Sanford Cloud, Santiago Croes-Ball, Drake Fernald, Christian Gordon, Cameron Hart, Jack Kanaan, Joseph Kalinowski, Justin Morle, Adnan Murphy, Nikhil JauquÍn Rollán, Sruthan Tokala
Four-Year Award: Christian Gordon, Benjamin LaFreniere, Joseph Kaliniwski, Jack Kanaan, Jace Oneglia, Nikhil JauquÍn Rollán, Sruthan Tokala, Jonathan Troian
GIRLS’ TRACK AND FIELD
Coaches: (Head) Tricia Watson (Assistants) Alex Kraus, Fritz Goodman, David Baker ‘04, Carmen Kreager, Tracy Deeter, Steph Sperber Record: 2-3
Captains: Ella Golino, Claire Palmer
Seniors: Sasha Dausey, Claire Palmer
Four-Year Award: Claire Palmer
BOYS’ GOLF
Coaches: (Head) Michael Wolf Record: 2-6-1
Captains: Alexander Braunstein, Austin Perkins, Ryan Sadowsky
Seniors: Alexander Braunstein, Prescott Cloud, Jack Neikrie, Ryan Sadowsky, Leo Sussman
Mark Dixon Most Valuable Player Award: Austin Perkins
M.I.P. Award: Jack Neikrie
Coaches Award: Ryan Sadowsky
Four-Year Award: Alexander Braunstein, Ryan Sadowsky
GIRLS’ GOLF
Coaches: (Head) Michael Wolf
Record: 1-13
Captains: Alexa Wolf
Seniors: Alexa Wolf
Mark Dixon Most Valuable Player Award: Alexa Wolf
M.I.P. Award: Nzinga Thompson
Coaches Award: Noa Taback
BOYS’ TENNIS
Coach: (Head) Andy Krugman ’86 Record: 8-7
Captains: Pratt Blair, Ciaran Concepcion, William Maclean
Seniors: Jacob Barash, Pindar Chen, Aryan Dange, William Maclean, Kiran Sekaran
M.V.P. Award: Pratt Blair
M.I.P. Award: Noah Sadowsky, Matthew Habeeb
Coaches Award: Pindar Chen
GIRLS’ TENNIS
Coach: (Head) Ron Garcia Record: 1-1
Captains: Ysabel Albert, Alexandra Doering
Seniors: Ysabel Albert, Sophie Chen, Isabella Mendelovici, Abigail Schiff
M.V.P. Award: Noor Sayej
M.I.P. Award: Clara Toomey
Coaches Award: Alexandra Doring
Four-Year Award: Abigail Schiff
Five-Year Award: Ysabe.rt
Right: Austin Perkins ’26 captured the Founders League individual title with a stellar round of 67 (-4), and followed up with a strong performance at the Kingswood Oxford Invitational, shooting a 1-under par to finish second in New England.The KO Golf team placed fourth overall in the tournament.
KO BOYS’ TRACK & FIELD WINS NEW ENGLAND DIVISION III CHAMPIONSHIP
Kingswood Oxford’s Boys’ Track & Field team delivered a dominant performance at the 2025 New England Division III Championships, bringing home the team title in a thrilling display of speed, strength, and depth across events.
Leading the charge was Tyler Brown ’26, who put together a championship meet for the ages. Brown captured first place in the 200m, long jump, and triple jump — and anchored the first-place 4x100m relay team. His outstanding allaround performance earned him the prestigious NEPSAC MVP award.
The 4x100m relay squad — Brown, Christian Gordon ’25, Joey Kalinowski ’25, and Justin Morle ’26 — took the top spot with seamless chemistry and explosive speed. The 4x400m team of Kalinowski, Dan Petruzella ’26, Robin Benz ’27, and Gordon added critical points with a strong third-place finish.
Individually, KO had standout performances across nearly every event:
• Joey Kalinowski ’25 took second in the 100m
• Christian Gordon ’25 placed second in the 400m
• Robin Benz ’27 earned third in the 800m
• Dorian Ciscel ’26 claimed sixth in the 800m
• Leo Ladewig ’26 ran fifth in the 3000m
• Justin Morle ’26 dominated the throws, winning the discus and finishing second in the shot put
This well-rounded group scored across sprints, distance, jumps, and throws — proving that KO’s depth and preparation were unmatched. The championship is a testament to the team’s hard work and the rise of some of the region’s most exciting young athletes.
With a title in hand and a strong core returning, the future of KO track & field looks faster, stronger, and brighter than ever.
KO SOFTBALL REPEATS AS WESTERN NEW ENGLAND CHAMPIONS
The Kingswood Oxford Varsity Softball team made history this spring, winning back-to-back Western New England Championships after a dramatic postseason run that showcased power, poise, and perseverance.
With their season on the line, KO defeated Suffield on the final day of the regular season to punch their ticket to the playoffs. From there, the Wyverns took down St. Luke’s 3–1 in the semifinals before getting revenge on Choate Rosemary Hall — who handed them a loss earlier in the season — with a commanding 9–5 win in the championship game.
The team finished with an impressive 11–3 record and brought firepower to every game, launching
22 home runs on the season from five different players. Their offense was explosive, but the defense and pitching were equally dominant.
Sophomore ace Alexis Nisyrios continued to carve her name into the record books, recording her 445th career strikeout during the playoff run. The team combined for four shutouts on the year, helping KO stay sharp in tight games and control momentum throughout the postseason.
Senior leader Olivia Gallup played a vital role in the team’s success, providing steady leadership and helping guide the team through challenging moments with confidence and composure.
From clutch wins to record-breaking performances, KO softball’s 2025 season was one defined by resilience and championship spirit. With backto-back titles now secured, the Wyverns have solidified their place as one of the region’s premier programs.
KO BASEBALL CAPTURES FOUNDERS LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP
The Kingswood Oxford Varsity Baseball team capped off a remarkable 2025 season with a Founders League Championship, defeating Choate Rosemary Hall 2–1 in a 14-inning semifinal thriller before overpowering Taft 10–6 in the title game.
The Wyverns finished the year 15–6 overall, including a 3–1 run in Florida and a 12–5 record across regular season and playoff action. April proved pivotal, as the team put together a six-game win streak that fueled their postseason push.
Pitching was a major strength all season long. KO’s staff combined for three shutouts and held opponents
to one run in four other contests, finishing with a stingy 2.33 team ERA. Senior standout and team MVP Harry Engle led the rotation with a dominant 1.30 ERA, striking out 69 batters over 43 innings.
At the plate, senior Boden Swanson earned Most Improved honors with a breakout season, hitting .377 with a 1.057 OPS, 3 home runs, and 16 RBIs.
Seniors Dom Trolio and Tommy Caporaso received Coaches Awards for their leadership and contributions throughout the year. All four seniors were key starters, setting the tone for a team that mixed toughness with talent.
KO’s title run was a testament to depth, resilience, and belief — a season to remember for the Wyverns.
CLAIRE PALMER: REDEFINING DISTANCE RUNNING IN NEW ENGLAND PREP SCHOOLS
Claire Palmer ’25’s father, board member Eric, attests that when Claire was a fussy six-month-old, he would hold her up on his lap, and her legs would start running in place like a wind-up toy with nowhere to go. Perhaps this auspicious start might explain why she is arguably the fastest distance runner that the prep schools of New England have ever recorded.
By all accounts, Claire Palmer ’25 is a rare force in high school athletics — a record-breaking long-distance runner whose speed and stamina are matched only by her humility and sportsmanship.
Since her freshman year, Palmer has steadily risen through the ranks at KO, initially participating in crosscountry, track, and even swimming. But it wasn’t long before she found her stride, quite literally, on the track. “She was a good runner in ninth grade,” said track coach David Baker. “But she became a great runner in her sophomore year.”
From there, Palmer’s trajectory has been nothing short of meteoric. Her sophomore season marked the beginning of a string of accomplishments, but it was in her junior and senior years that she shattered expectations — and records.
In her junior year, Palmer swept the New England Division 3 Championships, winning the 800m, 1500m, and 3000m events — a triple crown feat that also earned her the meet’s MVP honor. She simultaneously reset all three school records in the process.
Her senior season took those triumphs to an even higher level. Palmer broke the 10-minute mark in the 3000m — first at the Founders League Championship and then again at the New England Championships, clocking an astounding 9:49. Even more impressive, she also broke 4:40 in the 1500m, running a 4:31 and setting a new meet record. Both times surpassed long-standing records held by a Marianapolis athlete previously considered unbeatable. Remarkably, Palmer achieved these feats on the same day — a demanding and nearly unheard-of accomplishment.
What motivates Palmer as she races?
“It’s mental. It’s not always easy,” she said, “but you push through it even when you feel you can’t. I love seeing progress and seeing that I’m doing my personal best.” She’s learned an important life lesson from running - you can always do more than you think you can.
“In both events, she didn’t just win — she broke meet records,” said Baker. “She now holds the fastest 3,000 time ever recorded across all three divisions of NEPSTA, and her 1500 is the second fastest by just 0.6 seconds.”
Beyond raw talent, Baker emphasizes the technical mastery and control she brings to every race. “Her form is exceptional,” he explains. “She has an incredible cadence and stride — she covers so much ground with each step and maintains a steady rhythm over long distances.”
Palmer’s ability to hold a consistent pace in both the mile and two-mile events is rare. “Her pacing is nearly identical — she knows how to manage her energy like a seasoned pro,” Baker said, “That’s an elitelevel skill.”
Despite her individual dominance, Palmer is deeply invested in team culture. “She’s super encouraging,” Baker said. “She wants everyone
to succeed. She trains hard, but she also trains with joy — and brings others along with her.”
“It’s only solitary when you’re running,” said Palmer. “My teammates and I pace together and work out together. It’s great having good friends lift you when you’re racing and let you know that you are right on pace. If you don’t have good people around you, you’re not going to run as well.”
That spirit was on full display during a rain-soaked practice ahead of the Founders meet. With puddles collecting on the gravel track, Palmer didn’t hesitate. “She said, ‘I’m running in lane one. We’re getting wet,” recalls Baker. Her attitude transformed the session into a mud-splashed, hard-working, laughter-filled memory. “She set the tone — you push yourself, but you can still have fun.”
Despite all her successes, Palmer remains remarkably grounded and genuine. “She’s not someone who flaunts her wins,” Baker said. “She shakes hands with competitors, respects their efforts, and is always the first to lift up her teammates,” Baker said. Palmer is always looking for ways to help her teammates push themselves further than they thought they could.
She even requested that teammates join her for personal New Balance Nationals training sessions with Baker in June — a testament to her desire to uplift the team, even while pursuing individual excellence. She prepared for Nationals by training rigorously, incorporating track workouts, tempo runs, recovery days, and long-distance sessions. Baker met with her twice a week to fine-tune pacing and speed. Part
of her training included a grueling routine that would make Usain Bolt’s knees knock. Some include 16 X 200-meter repeats, and a 200, 400, 800, 1,200, 800, 400, 200-meter session. She ran a 10:32 in the two-mile and placed 20th overall in the meet.
Perhaps most inspiring is how Palmer has learned to navigate the mental challenges of high-level competition. Early in her career, she would sometimes struggle under pressure and focused on beating her opponents. But this season, Baker has seen a shift.
“She’s learned to run her own race — not focus on who’s ahead or behind. She’s found her inner pace and her calm,” he said. “When she shared that lesson at senior night — how she learned to trust herself and not be derailed by pressure — it really hit me.”
That moment of gratitude, when Palmer publicly thanked Baker on Senior Night, was deeply emotional for Baker. “What do you say when someone gives you a huge thank you on the night before they graduate?” he said. “It’s a reciprocal relationship. Training and coaching kids teaches and impacts you in ways that you don’t necessarily know or expect.”
In her speech, she said of Baker, “Mr. Baker knows how to adjust to each runner’s needs and often runs multiple workouts at once to ensure that every runner gets a good workout… With Mr. Baker’s training, I always felt strong, fast, and ready to compete, allowing me to find success. Another one of Mr. Baker’s biggest attributes is believing in each of his athletes.”
She shared that when she was preparing for the Founders League, her goal was to run under 10 minutes in the 3,000m. Baker believed she could and developed a plan to achieve this goal. He suggested that she focus on running her race and hold on to a time of faster than 80 seconds per lap for as long as possible. When she crossed the finish line in nine minutes and forty-eight seconds, she was literally in shock. Mr. Baker ran over to the finish, and she told him that she couldn’t believe her time, but he replied, “Well, I can.”
But Baker is not her only coach, and she said each of her track coaches contributes to her success. “They all help in different ways,” she said. “Ms. Watson is super high energy and positive, and Mr. Goodman gives really good advice.”
She said the track team calls Goodman’s pearls of wisdom “Goodmanisms.” Some notable motivators include “Believe in yourself because others believe in you” and “Don’t lose the race before you’ve begun.”
Palmer is more than a decorated athlete. She is a model of leadership, resilience, and grace.
As she heads into Nationals and to Middlebury College, her legacy at KO — and across New England — is already cemented. But for those lucky enough to have trained with her, run beside her, or simply cheered from the sidelines, Palmer’s greatest triumph might just be the community she’s helped build, stride by stride.
ALL THE RIGHT MOVES
In the early fall of 2024, instead of practicing their spiral passes and run blocks, KO football players worked on high kicks and high “V” s with former Dallas Cowboy cheerleader Victoria Kalina, the breakout star on the Netflix documentary America’s Sweetheart. Following her workshop with the players, Kalina offered an intensive workshop for KO’s dance students.
For the past three years, the unlikely pair of Performing Arts Chair Kyle Reynolds and Head Football Coach Brandon Batory ’10 have collaborated to highlight interdisciplinary learning, as stated in our strategic plan. In doing so, the football players have gained a greater appreciation of dancers’ athleticism, engaged in intensive workouts with a professional dancer, and built community between the KO dancers and athletes.
Before Kalina’s arrival, local professional dancer Nicole Henkel taught the players the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders signature number to ACDC’s “Thunderstruck,” to provide a foundational understanding of the routine. As Kalina entered the dance studio, the players wearing their practice jerseys and socks erupted into cheers loud enough to win a cheerleader’s heart. Kalina, too, was dressed for the moment, wearing a red long-sleeve Kingswood Oxford
t-shirt, sneakers, and leggings, her long blonde hair down so that the signature cheerleader hair flipping could be witnessed to full effect.
“We’re going to work on dance,” Kalina announced, “because athletes need dance to become more flexible.”
Kalina led the players in high-energy exercises to limber them up. After the players were sufficiently stretched, she organized the teams in rows,
with the senior players in the front to set the tone for the rest of the team. Next, Kalina broke down the routine with step-by-step instructions. There were plenty of missed cues and laughs as the players attempted the dance, which was full of power moves and hand pumps. The dancers viewed the team from the side and encouraged the players. For the final run-through, the players wore cowboy hats for full effect.
NBC News Connecticut interviewed three players, Stephen Bailey ’25, Justin Morle ’26, and Cameron Thomas ’26, to hear their take on the experience. Each player expressed his appreciation for the workout. More important, they said they were grateful to break out of their comfort zones and try something new. After working with the players, Kalina workshopped with the dance performers, who were ecstatic about the opportunity to learn from her.
“Victoria Kalina’s visit was a gamechanger for our department,” Reynolds said. “Not only did she boost the strength and flexibility of our football players, she leveled up our most advanced dancers in a way that we’ve never seen before.”
The morning after the class, several students ran to Reynold’s office to tell them how sore they were, but more important, that it was the most fulfilling dance experience they’ve ever had - and these young dancers have been dancing for almost their entire lives.
“KO’s guest artist visits deeply impact our community and further distinguish our signature programs,” Reynolds said. “When you dance at KO, you’ll get the opportunity to learn five dance styles every day after school, perform in top-notch productions, and meet celebrity guests from Broadway, television, and now, the NFL. This is what inspiration, education, and impact look like in 2024.”
113th Commencement
May 23, 2025
Wisdom, Laughter, and Legacy on a Rainy Day
Despite the on-and-off rain and the deep chill in the air, Kingswood Oxford’s 113th Commencement on May 23 was a warm and unforgettable tribute to the resilience and character of the Class of 2025, consisting of 92 graduates, 14 of them heading to play college sports and 18 of them inducted into the Cum Laude Society. Sasha Dausey was named the Dux Prize winner for the highest average. Held in the Hoffman Field House with the scoreboard glowing 2025, the ceremony featured heartfelt speeches, laughter through misty eyes, and moments of deep reflection that transcended the gloomy weather.
Head of School Tom Dillow introduced the Invocation speaker, Upper School history teacher Ted Levine, as the “living legend,” and Levine quipped, “It’s nice to know I’m still alive,” who gave the Invocation remarks. He commented on the student performances from the previous evening’s Senior Class Night, referring to the many lessons learned about testing resilience, building confidence, and embracing change. He used former art teacher Pat Rosoff as an example of a teacher who fell back, allowing a student artist to create their own vision, not hers. “We gave you so many brushes and palettes,” he said, “and some of you painted in broad swaths, seen
in concepts and abstractions. Take your brushes and palettes as you leave to nurture your talents.”
Student speaker Raine Wang opened with a touching tribute to a beloved figure at KO, Peter Jones, this year’s Commencement speaker, who retired ar the end of the school year. “What can I say about Mr. Jones that hasn’t been celebrated?” she began. “He makes jokes in class that’ll have you straining your ears to make sure you heard it right—and then laughing that you did.”
Wang recalled the joy of having him as a history teacher and advisor: “I’m not much of a morning person, but I always looked forward to his class, even when it was the first period of the day.” Her fondest memories included quiet, early
mornings when she’d stop by his classroom. “He always left me with a smile and a witty comment,” she said. “He lights up everything and everyone around him.”
In his address, Jones brought both wit and wisdom. After joking that he was told not to talk about “COVID, politics, or myself,” he added, “But since that is one of my favorite topics [talking about himself], I don’t think I can completely agree.”
His message emphasized the importance of time and empathy. “Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it, you can never get it back,” he quoted from Harvey Mackay. He urged graduates to live meaningfully and remain mindful of others as a fundamental quality of being both human and humane. He shared personal experiences of how the kindness of strangers, particularly during his medical challenges, made a lasting impact: “You may never know the effect you have on someone else, but that doesn’t make it any less powerful.” Even small, prosaic interactions in a grocery store carry an opportunity to make a positive difference. He engaged the students in a call-and-response to Upper School science teacher Fritz Goodman’s three rules: Be kind. Be kind. Be kind. In the end, he said, “I hope you aspire to be a reason that people who know you come to believe in the goodness of humanity.”
Head of School Tom Dillow offered an imaginative and moving speech using three animals as metaphors for life’s lessons.
First, he encouraged students to “be a goldfish,” referencing Ted Lasso: “It’s got a 10-second memory. So go be a goldfish, Sam.” He explained, “You will never get better unless you fail… Don’t carry your mistakes like luggage.”
Next, he spoke about the wisdom of owls: “Owls can rotate their heads almost 270 degrees. That’s perspective.” He challenged
students to remain curious and thoughtful in a world filled with oversimplified answers. “Don’t settle for certainty… Test your assumptions. Look for ways that you might be wrong.”
Finally, he called on students to “be a firefly”: “You don’t have to shine like the sun. You just have to leave the light on for someone else.” He quoted Dan Mangdon’s song “Soapbox”: “There are those who leave a light on in case another needs to see.”
Dillow’s message was clear and powerful: “Be the person who shows up, who notices, who makes space for others. In a world that feels divided, we need steady, quiet lights.”
Upper School history teacher Rob Kyff, who just published a book about The Great Gatsby, said the Farewell, fittingly closing the ceremony with a quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald. He said the quote expresses the wishes he has for each student - a sense of wonderment and open-mindedness, and a life they can be proud of. “May you go forth with compassion and kindness.”
CLASS OF 2025
STUDENT-ATHLETES COMMITTED TO PLAY SPORTS AT THE COLLEGIATE LEVEL
STEPHEN BAILEY Grinnell College, Football
THOMAS CAPORASO UMass Dartmouth, Baseball
SANFORD CLOUD Brandeis University, Men’s Track and Field
HARRISON ENGLE Fairfield University, Baseball
OLIVIA GALLUP Trinity College, Softball
JUSTICE HANNA University of New Haven, Men’s Basketball
REAGAN HEAFEY-DE ANGELIS University of Saint Joseph, Women’s Basketball
ADDISEN NICHOLSON University of Rhode Island, Women’s Soccer
CLAIRE PALMER Middlebury College, Women’s Cross Country/Track & Field
JULIAN PRZECIOSKA Franklin Pierce University, Football
EVAN TYLER Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Football
Our Class of 2025 graduates celebrate on the steps of Alumni Hall with their parents who also attended KO.
FROM L-R: Fred Krieble ’91 with Jack Krieble, Greg Scranton ’94 with Miya Scranton, Corry Gallagher ’92 with Makenzie Gallagher, Marissa Kreh Gingeleskie ’96 with Christian Gingeleskie, Benjamin Albert ’89 with Ysabel Albert, Meryl Mandell Braunstein ’87 with Alex Braunstein, Frances van Huystee Morris ’90 with Els Morris, and Jennifer Papa Kanaan ’87 with Jenna Kanaan and Jack Kanaan
RAISING LIVESTOCK AND STUDENTS:
How One Teacher Merges Two Passions
By Jackie Pisani
Mother’s Day is a time to show our moms how much we appreciate them with fail-safe gifts, such as flowers and chocolates. But not for Middle School art teacher Katherine Nicholson, owner of the bucolic 17-acre Sand Meadow Farm in Ellington, Conn. Her family gives her something a little different, a little more porcine.
“Piglets are the perfect Mother’s Day gift,” she said. “They’re smart and personable.” Her piglets live the “high life,” she attests, grazing in the pasture, eating a high-quality full-grain diet, and being protected from the elements in a shelter. However, seasons progress, and by October, the pigs, now weighing 270 to 300 pounds each, are stronger than they realize and are ravaging the fencing. Their next stop is Plymouth Meats in Terryville, Conn., for processing, where the company produces pork chops unlike any others.
It’s morning at Sand Meadow, with a light, misty rain hanging in the air and a brisk 54-degree temperature — a too-familiar and unwelcome weather pattern this spring in New England. The air is thick with earthy richness — the pungent tang of manure, the grassy sweetness of hay bales, and the smoky aroma of tobacco from the curing barn, all mingling with the smell of muddy soil.
Life is in full swing at the farm. As Jon Nicholson, Katherine’s husband, greets us, so too does Cleo, the Great Pyrenees guard dog who lives with the sheep in the barn 24/7, her tail wagging as steady as a metronome. Clyde, the mischievous black and white cat, loops figure-eights around pant legs, and the ducks wobble-walk by. The lambs march in formations, following one another in and out of the pen, acting much like sheep. The pigs are rooting and snuffling from their corrugated feeder, banging the door shut with each mouthful of fodder. Chickens, including the rusty-feathered ISA Browns, are clucking. Alice and Penelope, the cows, are lowing in their corral as Thistle, the red roan calf born over the Easter weekend, looks on cautiously at her mother’s side.
For the past 18 years, Nicholson, Jon, and their children Addisen ’25 and Oliver ’30 have tended their land and livestock (40 sheep, two cows, two steers, four pigs, 50 chickens, and two ducks), waking up in the morning mist.
Farming is a family affair — a full-time job — where everyone is responsible, whether it’s raining, snowing, or Christmas morning, delaying the opening of gifts.
Nicholson said the farm affords the family another dimension to family life, apart from their career jobs and schoolwork. “We have something to discuss other than school and work,” she said. “We have projects, and we have things that interest us, and we can problem solve.”
As a youngster who had a small farm with two horses and a handful of chickens, and as the wife of a husband whose family raised horses and cows, Nicholson said the responsibilities of farm life keeps her kids out of trouble, much as her horses did for her. “The kids come home because they enjoy it,” she said, “and they like to be out in the barn. And then I think it’s really important for this generation, especially, to know how to work with their hands. My son can already drive, mend broken fences and pens without help.”
Nicholson is such an advocate for the impact of farming and tending to animals on young people that she introduced a Middle School Skills Incubator class, Farm 101, this year. She and the students visited local dairy farms (large-scale Oak Ridge and the family-operated Symth’s Trinity Dairy), Dondero Orchards, hydroponic rooftop gardens at Hartford Hospital, and discussed the politics of meat consumption. She aims to deepen students’ understanding of where food comes from and the challenges faced by modern agriculture.
Most days, Nicholson wakes at 4:00 a.m. to tackle schoolwork before the family arises. While she and the kids head to KO, Jon undertakes the farm chores, including feeding all the animals and ensuring the rest of the animals are healthy and have fresh water, nearly 40 gallons a day for one cow. In the evening, the entire family performs another round of chores. All four administer
medicine to the animals when necessary and intervene in delivering calves and lambs when required. “My husband and kids have gotten very good at assisting the delivery,” Nicholson said, “and are very proud of the animals they have helped.”
The Nicholsons raise their lambs, a flock of 40 or so cotton-faced Southdowns, sooty-faced Shropshires, and leggy Oxfords for show flocks, genetics for other farms, and for market as naturally as possible. After the sheep are fully grown, they either enter the Nicholson’s flock, are sold to other farms to build their flocks, or are USDA processed at Plymouth Meats, a meticulously clean, woman-run outfit that provides humane care at the end of the animals’ lives. Nicholson dispels the notion that farm owners are closed off from their animals, unfeeling in their attitudes. “Animals are a livelihood, and you spend time in the morning and the evening with them,” she said. “You get to know them. Animals are living things, and when they fall ill, we do everything we can for them, but sometimes that is not enough. On market day, even when you steel yourself up for the day, it’s an emotional day. It weighs heavily on your heart.”
Middle schooler visits local farm.
Breeders throughout the country prize Nicholson’s sheep for their genetics, and they are well-known on the show circuit. Jon and the children show their sheep nationally, from Massachusetts to Wisconsin, and the family is headed to Illinois this summer for a youth sheep show where 600 kids exhibit 3,000 head of sheep. When traveling, they use a college student studying vet tech to care for the farm.
Although Addisen and Oliver have yet to garner the top prize of “supreme,” they earned “grand champion” for their Southdowns and Shropshires. “When I show, I get
Farming is a family affair — a full-time job — where everyone is responsible, whether it’s raining, snowing, or Christmas morning, delaying the opening of gifts.
a lot of adrenaline,” Addisen said. “It’s a lot of fun, but sometimes you get a little frustrated if you know your sheep is great and it didn’t do as well as it should have.”
The Nicholsons continually add or deduct from their flock to create superior offspring. “We’re trying to grow genetics, our flocks, and our national name,” she said.
“It’s what we’ve chosen to be known for as a farm. And you put as much into it as you get out of it financially and emotionally.” Currently, Addisen’s new project is
her Oxford breed, where she is learning a new style of fitting and showing. Additionally, she is trying to improve the breed’s quality and wants to cultivate them to be easier keepers, with more body mass, so that they can be fed and kept alongside the smaller-framed sheep. With only two breeding seasons, she is already seeing some success.
Although the farm is not a money maker, the family budgets their resources consciously, keenly aware of profit and margin. A neighbor rents the multipurpose tobacco barn, which is used to cure tobacco from floor to ceiling from August through October for high-end cigar wrappers. Steam is used during the curing process to keep the tobacco supple, and Jon said that more than a few concerned drivers have stopped by to tell them their barn was on fire. Currently, that barn contains the two steers, one of which Oliver will show and sell at auction for his 4-H project at the Big E this year.
Jon estimates the cost of feeding and healthcare for a cow/steer is upwards of $4,000. The Nicholsons feed
their livestock a high-quality grain of corn, oats, soybeans, or barley. Although it costs more, this approach produces higher-quality meat. They market their pork, lamb, and beef primarily through word of mouth, but the farm also maintains a Facebook page. In the future, they plan to launch a website.
The farm has just weathered lambing season in January and February, when worries abound: cold temperatures, a sufficient food supply, fear of pneumonia, and the administration of proactive vaccines. Although challenging, the winter months bring plenty of joy. “Even with all the worries and hard work, lambing season also brings the pleasure of watching newborn lambs bounce around the pen,” said Nicholson. “There is pride, but also something special about watching the animals being sheltered from the cold in a warm barn with newborn lambs and their moms, which grounds us as a family.”
“In the winter, you’re up every four hours to bottle feed the lambs or every hour or so to check on the ewes to make sure they are doing ok,” Nicholson said. “In the summer, it
“I hope they take away a sense of connection to the food chain, and feel empowered to make some decisions on how they eat and what they fuel themselves with.”
-Katherine Nicholson
changes to evening work where you are training the lambs and getting them ready to show in a ring, be on a farm, be able to change from pen to pen on a halter, or stand there and not be afraid of things.”
Nicholson actively pursues public and private grants from the Connecticut Department of Agriculture, the USDA, and the American Farmland Trust to offset capital costs, a time-consuming process that entails crafting a persuasive argument, assessing risks, and obtaining letters of support. She received a grant from the state of Connecticut to establish a farm store within the year, complete with freezers and coolers to sell eggs and meat. She plans to open the store by the end of the summer, and already the small red store waits in place, with window boxes blooming with pansies. She plans to sell their eggs, sausage, bacon, and other cuts of meat (labeled under the Plymouth Farm name), as well as merchandise such as market bags made from their recycled grain bags.
Nicholson said that many grants require farms to employ regenerative farming practices to care for the land while producing food, an aspiration that Sand Meadow also embraces. Beyond their sheep pen lies 15 acres of open pastureland, featuring tall grasses. Once it’s sunnier and the land dries out, part of the meadow will be hayed, and when the grass is tall enough again, the land will be ready for grazing. The animals will be moved weekly to another section of pasture once their grazing is complete, allowing the grass to regrow and protect the soil’s health. Although Nicholson and her husband both grew up on farms in their youth, there is still much to master when you own your own land. Nicholson is learning side by side
with her students in her Skills Incubator class. She noticed that many students have a disconnect between their everyday meals and the hard work that goes into food production. “We’re moving further and further away from where our food comes from,” she said, noting how easily people assume food will always be available at grocery stores. COVID-19 supply chain disruptions heightened her awareness of the need to educate students on the complexities of agriculture.
“I hope they take away a sense of connection to the food chain,” Nicholson said, “and feel empowered to make some decisions on how they eat and what they fuel themselves with.” The class encourages students not only to observe and learn but also to think critically about the impact of agriculture on their daily lives. Already, the learning is sticking. As one student said after visiting the dairy farm, “I can’t believe how much goes into a gallon of milk!”
Through Farm 101, Nicholson hopes that the students come away with practical research skills and a deeper appreciation for the effort, challenges, and care that go into providing food for society. And, some of them will be inspired to think about agriculture in new ways. As for the Nicholson family, life on the farm continues unabated following the natural rhythm. Next year will bring some challenges, as one of their steady farmhands, Addisen, heads off to college, requiring each of them to pick up the slack. Knowing the Nicholsons’ love and care for Sand Meadow, they will find a way to sustain their beautiful life on a most picturesque farm.
FROM STANDING OVATIONS TO STANDING FOR CHANGE
BY JACKIE PISANI
The massive stone fireplace at The Campbell, a cocktail lounge nestled inside Grand Central Terminal, amid luxurious velvet and leather seating, deep mahogany tables, and a looming 25-foot ceiling, provides the perfect reprieve from January’s head-down, wind-off-the-river squall, coursing the avenues and blowing up gritstorms. The space feels simultaneously grand yet cozy. Although it’s no longer a secret, The Campbell still retains that particular New York in-the-know feeling, a perfect meeting place to speak with executive producer of Lotus Productions, theater insider and civic organizer Tony Montenieri ’96, who shared the behind-the-scenes mystique and allure of the theater and the intersection of art and social activism.
Montenieri rushes in, face flushed, and removes his wool hat, exposing his smooth, clean-shaven head, which gives him more than a passing resemblance to Stanley Tucci. With his wide, easy smile, he describes his early days in New York City with charm and self-effacement, radiating warmth and intelligence that makes him instantly likable. His landing in the City reads like a script from an endless list of plays — A Chorus Line, Sweet Charity, 42nd Street, Bullets Over Broadway, and Funny Girl, to name a few — whose dogeared subject is the small-town idealist’s desire to break into theater. It’s the New York full of possibilities — something extraordinary could happen at any minute.
“It’s a total cliche,” Montenieri laughs. “Two days after I graduated from Skidmore, I showed up with two suitcases and a couple of bucks in my pocket, slept on a couch for a month until I could find the most disgusting apartment. When my parents saw the apartment for the first time, my mother cried all the way home.”
Enduring his vertiginous climb to his fifth-floor apartment and a meager $300-a-week paycheck,
V AND TONY
Montenieri found a band of fellow artists all seeking their shot. Disregarding the hardships, he never wavered and never considered moving home. To keep his skills fresh and his bank account full, he sublet his apartment and toured the summer stock circuit, performing with American Family Theater and the Gateway Playhouse, to name a few.
After a string of near-miss auditions, he reached an existential crossroads by the time he was 25 years old. Taking stock of his situation, he realized that in the moments in his life when he relaxed and cared less, job offers appeared. So, he took a break from the grind of auditions. “I thought
maybe if I could assist someone in the theater,” he said, “they’ll give me some direction and an open door.” Circling an ad for a job as an assistant to a playwright, activist, and performer, he recognized that the contact listed on the ad was a woman he’d attended college with. She set up the interview with V, formerly Eve Ensler, the writer of the break-through play The Vagina Monologues, which was closing its offBroadway run after five years. Montenieri nailed the interview and got the job.
As an aficionado of musicals, Montenieri viewed most theater as entertainment. His introduction to V and The Vagina Monologues completely altered his perspective on the transformative power of theater.
The Vagina Monologues is a collection of monologues based on interviews V conducted with over 200 women, exploring their experiences with sexuality, body image, love, rape, childbirth, sexual violence, and empowerment. The raw immediacy of its subject matter broke many taboos at the time. V understood the play’s
impact beyond the theater, and in 1998, V founded V-Day, a global activist movement aimed at ending violence against women (cisgender, transgender, and those who hold fluid identities that are subject to gender-based violence,) girls, and the Earth. Proceeds from performances of the play often go toward local organizations that combat domestic violence and sexual assault. Alongside being executive producer of Lotus Productions, V’s commercial production company, Montenieri now serves as campaign director and event producer for V-Day,
A deeply reflective person, Montenieri discusses his experience with the play and the organization as his trim frame settles further in the leather seat. His expressive eyes flash with excitement or lower in quiet contemplation. He explained that, although he was familiar with the play
as a cause celeb, he wasn’t fully aware of the depth of its impact until he began to work with V. On his first day, the V-Day team suggested that he watch Until the Violence Stops, the first documentary of the V-Day movement, which was being edited. He was moved by what he saw.
“Art is so powerful,” he said. “What I learned very early on through The Vagina Monologues is the power of theater to heal people who have suffered abuse and sexual violence. It was an awakening.”
THEATER KEEPS OPENING DOORS, INVITING PEOPLE IN, AND WE NEED TO KEEP UP.
The Bosnian woman explained how she had performed and produced the play and how the process healed her. Through this exchange, Montenieri said he started to “get it” and began to understand the profound impact of theater.
“I don’t think I ever looked at theater that way until this point in my life,” he said.
Montenieri said that in the leadup to V-Day at that time, regional empowerment workshops were conducted on each coast and in Europe, where activists gathered and discussed the issues they confronted in their communities. Early on, while attending one workshop, Montenieri was paired with a Bosnian woman who shared the brutality of a rape camp to which she and her mother had been taken.
“I was thinking, while she was experiencing this horror, ‘What was I doing in 1993 and 1994’,” he said. “I pictured myself in a KO school assembly. That moment changed my life. It broke open my consciousness of my privilege.”
Through his senior position in the non-profit, Montenieri has heard his share of traumatizing stories that could readily spill over and disrupt one’s own mental health. His friends and partner ground him. “It’s about making sure that there’s a line where you know you’re doing your job and you’re doing all you can do,” he said.
“I try to understand what is mine to hold, and what is not, and how to separate the two.”
In 2016, Montenieri produced In the Body of the World at the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University and then off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theater Club, a play adapted from V’s best-selling memoir under the same name about her battle with stage-4 uterine cancer. He regards this work as the most personal to him because he was with
V when she received her diagnosis and then spent the next 10 months with her at the Mayo Clinic and in New York City on her journey to healing. As one of her go-to people, Montenieri was the inspiration for one character in the play. “That play was a love song to every single person in her life who was on that journey with her,” he said. “She has the biggest heart of anyone I know.”
Montenieri is currently involved in a one-night-only musical uprising, Dear Everything, a narrated concert about climate change and collective action. What could easily become a pedantic work, Dear Everything is written instead in a manner that opens the door for people to explore very heavy topics, Montenieri said. “It’s inspiring,” he said. “It gets you ramped up so you’re ready to jump in. That is the kind of theater that is important when discussing social justice and activism.”
Montenieri was active in the KO theater department as a student, playing Daddy Warbucks in Annie as a junior and Billy in Anything Goes in his senior year. He lists several KO teachers who cultivated his interest in music and theater, such as former orchestra conductor Rich Chiarappa, former Theater Director Lud Baldwin, and former music teacher Wayne Pierce and his wife, Barbara, his voice teacher at the time. His former French teacher, Joan Edwards, also saw his interest in activism bubbling up within him and encouraged this pursuit.
Kingswood Oxford’s theater department has evolved greatly since Montenieri walked the boards in Roberts. In 2024, he saw the KO production of A Chorus Line, and was moved to tears by the end of the show. He was overcome, he said, by the emotional weight of his experience at KO, memories of his times spent in the theater, and the level of excellence in the performance.
During the intermission, he ran into former Tech Director Mark Kravetz and KO classmate and current Director of College Counseling Jami Silver ’96.
can you understand the part you are trying to play.”
“I was so proud of the theater education and preparation Kyle Reynolds, KO’s performing arts chair, is giving these students,” he said. “I’m proud of my education. My gratitude is just so deep, and my pride is exploding in me. While watching the audition number in A Chorus Line, I thought, ‘The level of talent — it’s incredible.’”
Montenieri was so moved that he made a generous matching gift.
Montenieri advises theater students to broaden their horizons and not be confined only to just the theater. “You have to be students of the world,” he said, “because only then
Theater as a platform for activism is not new, of course. Brechtian agitprop theater in the 1930s and 1940s, for instance, was intended to make audiences think and to inspire political and social action. Even Shakespeare grappled with political matters in his history plays. Oftentimes, theater is a productive channel for helping people engage with subjects that can sometimes be uncomfortable to address. Montenieri feels theater peels back layers so we understand the human condition more fully.
“Here’s what you need to know about changing the world,” Montenieri said. “It’s always going to need changing. We open these doors for people to identify how they want to identify, or we look at the history of intersectionality of race and gender. Theater keeps opening doors, inviting people in, and we need to keep up.”
By Jackie Pisani
Our Eco-Design and Construction IMPACT Lab class in the Upper School goes way beyond theory, weaving green construction methodologies, learning insights from industry leaders, and retrofitting a van for a local food bank. Led by former Technical Director Michael Bane and Head of the Upper School Lisa Loeb, the class consisted of 14 students, small enough so everyone had a hand in the project.
Since the school was currently undergoing construction on the Community Commons, the campus operated as a lab where students can see firsthand the steps involved in building construction. First, the students met with Todd Andrews ’91, principal of Centerbrook Architects in Centerbrook, Conn., who designed the Community Commons. They visited the firm, located in a 19th-century compound of factory buildings, learned about the trajectory of Andrews’ career and Centerbrook’s project management approach to design architecture, assimilating the program’s needs, site, fundraising, budgets, and implementation.
Andrews continued to share his expertise throughout the course. In February, the students toured the Commons as Andrews pointed out design aspects and addressed specific problemsolving issues, such as proper venting to prevent mold and to ensure adequate airflow. To test their learning, in April, the students, in groups of four, presented to Andrews their concepts for renovating areas on campus that they deemed needed improvement. By employing biophilic design, incorporating nature into structures to enhance human well-being, the students created spaces that stimulate the senses and foster a sense of place. The students drew inspiration from nature’s patterns, using warm woods, plants, and green tones in Tomasso Hall, the Black Box Theater, and the Soby Gym.
“The Impact Lab courses are designed around a framework so that students have the space to direct some of their learning, rather than just consume knowledge, students are experimenting and creating it.”
-Lisa Loeb, Head of the Upper School
In April, Dr. Saty Sharma, a visiting professor from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), brought not just insight and industry experience but also a fresh, passionate take on sustainability in design. The professor shared valuable insights into how sustainability is often treated as an afterthought in the design world — and why that mindset needs to change.
His lecture focused on eco-design strategies — a set of design approaches aimed at reducing environmental impact across the entire lifecycle of a product, from raw material extraction to end-of-life disposal or recycling. The key takeaway? The majority of a product’s environmental impact is determined during its design phase. If designers incorporate sustainable
“This class, this experience is awesome. I’m able to learn a lot more when I’m not tested traditionally with a pen and paper, and it’s a lot easier to apply my knowledge to real-life situations.” -Connor Ellsworth ’26
The key takeaway?
The majority of a product’s environmental impact is determined during its design phase. If designers incorporate sustainable thinking early on, they can reduce the total impact by up to 80%. That’s huge.
-Visiting Professor
thinking early on, they can reduce the total impact by up to 80%. That’s huge.
All this theory grounded the students when Bane assigned them their first hands-on projectconstructing a toolbox. Bane recalls his experience building a toolbox as the ideal way for students to learn about design principles and the function of various tools such as table saws, screwdrivers, cordless drills, miter saws, and drill presses.
First, the students sketched their design, then selected their materials, and lastly assembled the toolbox. Needless to say, some students expressed frustration when their design didn’t pan out as they expected. But that’s where the real learning takes place, understanding the iterative process of refining the product until it’s done right. The adage “measure twice, cut once” still holds.
Following this fundamental understanding of design and equipment, the students applied their knowledge to renovating a van, generously donated by Hoffman Auto Design Group, for the Food4Share food pantry in Granby. These community connections are a critical part of the Impact Lab courses.
“As a day school, KO has the advantage of being embedded in the community,” said Loeb. “We see the campus as a jumping off point to make those connections with our students.”
Before any work began on the van, the students toured the facility to learn about the organization’s operations. Each week, volunteers drive across Connecticut in a van with 500,000 miles to collect food donations from stores and distribution centers, stocking their shelves for the hundreds of people who rely on the organization’s services each week.
A breakdown of the van would mean senior citizens and low-income individuals would go hungry.
Dr. Saty Sharma, Savannah College of the Arts and Design
The students discussed the best way to store food in the van, adding insulation for cold food storage, installing matting to reduce wear and tear and to combat rust, and replacing headlights. The students sourced materials from a minimum of two vendors, including tires and rims, to select the best product at a reasonable price.
After the class concluded, the students reflected on their experience and how it had changed them as students and as individuals.
“This class, this experience is awesome,” Connor Ellsworth ’26. “I’m able to learn a lot more when I’m not tested traditionally with a pen and paper, and it’s a lot easier to apply my knowledge to real-life situations.” While working on the enhancements for spaces on campus, Ellsworth said that visiting the site, analyzing the issues, and problem-solving bolstered his learning experience, as well as his appreciation for working in a collaborative group structure.
“Before, I didn’t enjoy working collaboratively,” Ellsworh said. “After this class, I appreciated that we worked together a lot. I like hearing everybody’s perspective and getting the best view of the situation.
We found the best options and combined them to see how everybody would be happy with the outcome.”
“In the Eco-Design class, I learned to think outside the box, to challenge myself, and never be satisfied with my work,” fellow student Jason Mathews ’26 concurs.
“I also learned to work better in a group, to be a leader, and to include others. What I took away most was the ability to step back and reflect on what I was doing and its impact, always returning to that guiding question.”
Ellsworth’s and Mathews’ experiences are exactly what the IMPACT program was intended to do: develop realworld skills and a deeper understanding of who you are and how you work best.
The Operational Engine Behind Biotech’s Promising Startups
A nurse by training, with a degree from Georgetown University, Diane Tager ’03 has encountered her share of emergencies that require quick thinking and steely resolve. This background now serves Tager well in her role as chief operating officer at Penquin, a stealth biotech therapeutic startup, a position that tests her mettle daily.
For the past 18 months, Tager has helped launch, fund, manage, and expand a business in a market that has not been the kindest to burgeoning biotechs. Her dayto-day management of the start-up takes her from troubleshooting with the IT department, to interfacing with key investors, to purchasing IT systems, to developing benefits packages, to onboarding new staff. Just before the interview for this story, she spent two hours poring over an analyst’s report to track market trends and conditions.
Fortunately for Tager, she thrives on the unpredictability of a schedule where no two days are the same. “There are a lot of different functional areas that roll up to me,” she said. “No one notices if it’s functioning well, but everyone notices when it’s not.”
Tager’s career path has been unconventional. Where she saw opportunities, she took them, and believes that a good network is critical to advancing your career.
After working as a nurse for several years, Tager realized she didn’t want to continue bedside care and switched to public health for three years, working with impoverished communities and at-risk teens in a lowincome neighborhood. She planned to return to school to earn her master’s in public health, but a family friend persuaded her to pursue an MBA, offering a broader skill set and more opportunities.
While obtaining her MBA from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, Tager applied for an internship at Celgene Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in cancer therapies. At the time, the company offered a portfolio of eight products. She was exposed to various departments within the organization, from working in the three-person channel marketing group to sales, to project leadership —the unit that manages their clinical trials. This allowed her a good vantage point from
which to learn all phases of the business. While she worked in project leadership, she was exposed to many other areas of the company that she hadn’t known existed.
By 2019, Tager was working in Celgene’s business development group, managing their equities portfolio, when Bristol-Myers Squibb acquired it. When the acquisition was announced, Tager connected with a venture capital fund that was about to fund a small startup, Volastra Therapeutics, a New York City-based oncology company with a product that targets various solid tumor cancers.
The venture capital (VC) group needed someone to start Volastra Therapeutics and tapped Tager for the job of building the company from the ground up. Tager said the groups scour academic labs to find opportunities to invest; they then license the technology and build the founding team to operate the business. Tager noted that often, such VC groups invest between $5 million and $10 million of seed money, designed to get the company off the ground within the first six to 12 months. Once the company is more established, it raises its Series A. In the current market, anything in the double-digit millions is a win for a small biotech. After the company reaches certain milestones, the VC group can exit in two ways: with an initial public offering (IPO) or an acquisition, Tager explained.
“That start-up was at ground zero, and I was the first employee at Volastra,” she said. “Building from zero to a 40-person team was definitely a learning experience. You just don’t know what you don’t know.”
Because of Tager’s positive track record at her first two companies and her growing network in the biotech space, she was given the opportunity to start Penguin. The team has grown from 10, mostly researchers, interrogating early scientific discoveries in the lab.
“Part of being in a start-up is knowing that you are not going to succeed all the time. You are going to hit roadblocks. You need to move on effectively and pivot quickly.”
Due to the team’s small size, the company plans to utilize external consultants to help develop its programs. So far, Tager has not seen any delays in submissions and approvals with the FDA, even though the current administration has downsized the department. However, she admitted that the environment is still unclear and is keeping an eye on any changes.
“It’s a good time to be privately funded,” she said. “You need to provide a lot of data showing that your drug works and is safe. It sounds like a simple task, but it requires a lot of man-hours, and you have to submit numerous written reports to the FDA. Any health authority takes putting new drugs in people very seriously.”
Tager believes in building a strong culture with a foundation of values at Penguin. And those values start at the top and set the tone for the organization. Tager said her faith as a Christian sets her moral compass and wouldn’t permit her to be deceptive, like Elizabeth
Holmes, the founder of Theranos, who manipulated data and exaggerated claims about the accuracy of her bloodtesting technology. “You can’t bring a drug forward and lie and deceive the people involved,” she said. “It’s very short-sighted if you’re doing that. In the long term, nobody is going to succeed or benefit.”
Since start-ups often have to function with few employees, Tager sets a high bar for the people she hires and is careful to bring in individuals committed to the company and its culture. She said building a cohesive team of highly flexible individuals is imperative as, ultimately, the team drives success. ”If you want a job with a narrow scope of work and your expectations lie only within that scope of work, that’s not going to work,” she said. “People like that usually don’t thrive or enjoy start-ups because you’re called on to do many different things, wear lots of different hats daily.”
Tager also seeks highly collaborative individuals with a strong degree of integrity who can creatively think through solutions. Everyone needs to be in sync with their coworkers, she said, prioritizing support for one another throughout the process. “When you hire somebody who’s not collaborative or does not have the integrity or humility we are looking for,” she said, “it can spoil the whole team.
Managing a successful start-up might feel like a lonely journey, but it’s safe to say that no one goes it alone. Tager said she has been fortunate to have several trusted ride-or-dies by her side — individuals who left Celgene and joined startups in the biotech industry — who have helped lighten her load. Once a quarter, these former colleagues would call and email one another to share insights, discuss payroll, benefits, IT, finance, and any unforeseen challenges.
“Everyone would respond and weigh in, and they were so supportive,” Tager said. “If you’re doing your first start-up,
you need people around you who are either doing the same thing as you’re doing or have done it before you.”
Part of those phone calls also involved trading war stories, because failure is an inherent aspect of starting a business. Tager said that, in her first start-up, she faced multiple setbacks, so a deep reserve of resilience is crucial. “Part of being in a start-up is knowing that you are not going to succeed all the time,” she said. “You are going to hit roadblocks. You need to move on effectively and pivot quickly.”
Tager works in a heavily male-dominated industry with men who have significant experience in the field. “Typically, it’s me in a room with seven men who have over 40 years in the business,” she said, “so it took some time for them to trust me. Although she now has a strong relationship with these colleagues, Tager had to earn her stripes over time. She says you need the humility and self-awareness to know you don’t have all the answers. And if she doesn’t know the answer, she said she makes sure to get one within 24 hours.
“When one of the senior staffers gives advice,” she said, “I have to pause and be like, ‘They’ve done this five times. There’s probably a good amount of merit in what they are saying.’”
Tager reiterated this advice to those students assembled at a spring 2025 Power of Women event at KO. She explained there is a distinct difference between cockiness and confidence. She knew she could build the company because she had done it once before. “Don’t discount your skills and experience,” she said, “because they probably match many other men in your industry.”
The fight to create effective drugs and bring them to market is a formidable challenge, and with her fortitude, expertise, and savvy, Diane Tager is determined to take it on and achieve success.
PUBLISHER LAWYER TEACHER TOUR GUIDE
Upper School History Teacher
Stacey Savin Has Led a Multi-Faceted Life
Behind Stacey Savin’s endearingly spirited persona lies a first-class intellect that, in the words of T.S. Eliot, “never ceases from exploration.” A graduate of Cornell with a double major in history and Middle Eastern studies, Savin is fascinated with the richness of history and culture. History is far more than dates and facts, Savin says. It explains how we ended up here. “It’s everything,” she said. “Civilizations, art, geography, medicine, and technology. You have to know the history to understand the progress or the horrors. Why did this happen? Who are these people? I don’t see why that isn’t a curiosity for everyone.”
While an undergraduate at Cornell, she contemplated becoming a lawyer and asked the administration if she could take a torts class; they agreed to her request. Relishing her experience in that class, Savin headed straight to Georgetown Law and practiced law from 1979 to
1988. In 1988, her first son, Pete, was born, and seven years later, John, KO Class of 2014, came along. At that time, while visiting Canada, she saw cards with nursery rhymes and beautiful drawings made in England. She contacted the publishing house and asked if they would like to partner with her in selling them in the U.S. She learned the British company also published cards with the kings and queens of England that were sold at various heritage sites. Based on that concept, Savin suggested an American version of the U.S. presidents, with text on one side and the president’s official
White House Portrait on the other. Thus, her company, Flash Pack Cards, was born in 1989. Presidents was a hit right off the bat; the only cards approved by the White House Historical Association for sale at the White House Visitor Center and were sold in U.S. historical sites around the country. A title on First Ladies followed.
An autodidact, Savin traveled to Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, and California to research her third title, The American West. She hired professors and art historians and traveled to museums that house the best collections of Western art, with paintings by Remington, Russell, Bierstadt, and Moran. Savin collaborated with the then-President of Yale University, Western historian Howard Lamar, to create a pack of 40 cards telling the story of America’s westward expansion from 1800 to 1900. The collection was sold in libraries, historic sites, gift shops, and Borders Books.
“This experience got me back in love with history,” she said. “I thought, ‘I would really love to teach history in high school. My sister had switched a journalism career to teaching at Andover, and my interest in kids had blossomed once I had two of my own.” However, job offers at local prep schools, including KO, were scarce without a teaching degree. Having graduated from Chaffee in 1972 and having three siblings who attended KO, she thought those connections would help open the door, that, plus her law degree. She laughs, retelling the story, believing that her status as a lawyer would be an advantage. Not at all. In fact, it was the cards the interviewers liked, including then-KO history chair Doc Serow, but still, there were no openings.
In August of 2002, Savin received a call from Serow, who asked her if she could gear up to teach ancient history in a week for the start of school as the current teacher had left abruptly. “KO lucked out that day,” said Director of Academic Planning Carolyn McKee. “We got a passionate teacher, a devoted Model UN advisor, and a beloved colleague.”
Savin jumped at the opportunity, researched the materials, and began teaching the ancient civilization class part-time, knitting the exploits of Hammurabi and Gilgamesh through her lessons. Later, Savin went fulltime, adding more courses to her stable, initiating the Yale Model U.N. trip, planning June term trips, and establishing the KO Model U.N for
Middle School (KOMUN).
Unsurprisingly, her course on American Law is the easiest class for her to teach. “In law,” she said, “you really don’t have to memorize things. The principles are very basic. You go with your gut reaction, and the facts flesh out the case. Those you have to learn.” She created this course based on the first-year law curriculum at Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, Georgetown, and Berkeley. Savin feels the appeal of the class is its practicality, but reality does set in when the students realize her elective is no gut course.
The impetus for her starting KOMUN was her three-week stint one summer in Pasadena, teaching middle schoolers Model UN and advanced geography as part of the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY). Inspired, Savin sought
to make KO a new CTY site. Johns Hopkins declined, replying that the Hartford area was not a large enough demographic. Undeterred, she talked with then KO Head of School Dennis Bisgaard, who suggested Savin establish a similar program at KO. For the past 13 years, KOMUN has welcomed hundreds of middle school students across Connecticut for one day of critical thinking and negotiating world affairs. Her syllabus comprises collegelevel material. This year, the students tackled the topical subject, “Halting the Spread of Online Hate and Lies.” Savin thoroughly researched the issue and provided the students with an 18page packet on the issue’s background, the world’s response, government censorship, how freedom of expression is essential to good government, and how various countries control the Internet.
Another additional responsibility for Savin has been the Yale Model U.N., which she feels is a fantastic event because of its content and in-person nature. She said that no cell phones are permitted at the conference, requiring the students to discuss issues face to face, a novel concept nowadays. The students grapple with real-world issues and complex problems requiring collaboration and compromise. Like a proud parent, Savin boasts that two of her KO Yale Model U.N. students, Natalie Kotkin ’07 and Ben Waldman ’16, became the heads of the Yale Model U.N. while they were students at Yale. Since its inception at KO, Savin has traveled to international conferences with the Model U.N. students in Prague,
Budapest, Vienna, Spain, Portugal, St. Petersburg, and London.
Savin also has organized June term trips to Italy for students who experienced the infiorate, literally ‘carpets of blooms’ in Umbria, where the streets are lined with flower petals to celebrate a saint’s feast day, picnicking in the Borghese Gardens, and viewing the sublime at the Sistine Chapel and at Giotto’s Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. She traveled with Upper School History Department Chair David Baker and the students to Sicily on one trip. She says that one evening, when the hotel was empty, Baker began singing with some of the students in Crimson 7, KO’s allmale acappella group. A diner at a table heard the singing and invited the group to his house on the beach the following day. “David took kids running up Mount Etna,” she said. “You can be sure I wasn’t on that one.” That same diner also owned a gelateria in the town and supplied the students with an abundance of the frozen desserts.
Although Savin is retiring from KO, that hardly means she will be sitting still. An insatiable curiosity is her life’s defining feature. Already, she organized and led her first “grownup” 10-day tour to Italy in the fall of 2024 with her eponymous company, Stacey Savin Tours. Her meticulously designed itinerary included an exhaustive tour of Rome’s Capitoline Hill, the Vatican, Pantheon, Villa Borghese, and Campo de Fiori, a stay
in the Tuscan town of Cortona, where her guests luxuriated in a hotel that was formerly a monastery, and then a final leg in Florence. Knowing that Savin would operate as the travel guide, historian, and epicure, the tour quickly sold out. The group included several former KO parents who knew the trip would be top-notch with Savin at the helm.
Her swansong trip with the students this past June included a walk through history, from ancient Rome to Christian Rome, and then a jaunt to the heel of Italy in Puglia, where the students visited Alberobello, the town famous worldwide for its conical-shaped trulli architecture. They also swam in the warm, clear Mediterranean and absorbed the varied influences of the Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Norman, Spanish, French, and Italian inhabitants of this
historical crossroads. Her intrepid traveling sidekick, Carolyn McKee, who has accompanied Savin on several June term trips, said that traveling with Savin is always an adventure, where the learning never stops, and there is always fun and laughter.
Even beyond Savin’s smarts, a knack for organizing fabulous trips, and a finesse for stylishly accessorizing with scarves, she is a world-class human being. Many at the school count her as their “favorite person.”
“I will say that Stacey is not only a gift to her students but also a gift to her colleagues,” said Upper School teacher Tracy Deeter. “She helps you see things from multiple perspectives and is someone you can always trust. Stacey tells it as it is and is as loyal as they come.”
THE warm DEMANDER
HOUSE ONE is a site of decades of civil rights, war, politics, policy, and intrigue. It’s the hotbed of dissent, victory, and defeat. It’s where history unfolds at a passionate educator’s hands, and it’s where Peter Jones has taught history for the last 38 years and served as history chair for four.
As early as his high school years, Jones, the son of an assistant principal, had a budding interest in the teaching profession. After
attending Middlebury College, he, his brother, and his father typed 27 cover letters for Jones, applying to teach at boarding schools in New England. His first job was teaching English and history at Berkshire School. Then, while working on his master’s degree, he taught at Northfield Mount Hermon School. In 1987, he learned of a history opening at KO, was interviewed on a Wednesday, and was offered the job on Friday.
Another class that Jones created and enjoys teaching is a course about the 1960s. “My parents were politically motivated and involved,” he said. “I remember JFK’s funeral and all of the turmoil in 1968. In his ‘60s class, Jones introduces protest music, adding a further dimension to the times. In his lesson on World War I, he breaks out his guitar and plays a song about the Battle of Gallipoli. “The reaction of the crowd?” Jones said. “Stunned silence.”
A lifelong learner, Jones continually expanded his knowledge. In the early 1990s, he took a course called “Facing History in Ourselves,” which was predominantly about teaching history through the lens of the Holocaust. That fall, then Head of School Lee Levison recommended that Jones create his learning into an elective, which became the “History of Religions” course he taught for 30 years.
Jones remains mostly politically neutral in his classes; however, he does weave the politics of earlier eras to inform and ground current events, such as the tariff issue in the 1890s, the Smoot Hawley Act, and Andrew Jackson’s presidency.
Jones feels fortunate to have cultivated a rapport with the students, a combination of serious academics with a friendly nature, a “warm demander,” and he has taken a page from the style of former KO teachers who impacted him.
“I remember early on seeing teacher Dick Caley ’62 who was significantly younger than I am now. But he was a veteran teacher, and I’m thinking, “I wonder if I’m going to be able to have that connection with kids when I’m older.” Jones already had a deep connection and familiarity with two of his students, son Eryk ’19 and daughter Molly ’20. Some students would feel awkward about having their dad as a teacher, but Jones and his children had fun in class together, and Molly and Eryk would rib their dad for the lame jokes he tried out.
Although “student-centered learning” is current parlance in the world of education, Jones feels he has always focused on the students without the nomenclature.
“I’ve always been drawn to moments when kids get involved with the material,” he said, “whether it’s from reading something that excites them, getting into a discussion, or even hearing a lecture where they’re going to be able to give and take.”
Jones’ class is not a one-sided class experience where he imparts all the knowledge. “I believe that I learn more from the kids than they learn from me,” he said. “I think keeping fresh is continuing to appreciate and not take my privileges as an upper-middle-class white male for granted. I know I have limitations. Understanding that has helped me have a pretty good perspective.”
I’VE
ALWAYS BEEN drawn to moments WHEN KIDS get
involved with
THE MATERIAL
He’s ambivalent about technology in the classroom, remembering teaching in the 1980s and having to schedule a video or film rental and planning when those would be available for the entire U.S. history department. Now that technology is omnipresent, showing a film in class is no longer a novelty. “In the past, showing a film was different in that kids paid attention,” he said. “I don’t think anyone has the attention span to sit and watch a movie.” Other changes he’s observed in students over the years is their lack of familiarity with cultural touchstones that older individuals recognize, such as Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens, or
Moby-Dick, calling Charles Dickens “Charles Dickinson” and thinking that Dickens wrote Moby-Dick. He explained that it’s not necessarily that the students know less; they just know different things.
Jones is passionate about coaching, serving as the assistant boys’ varsity soccer coach for four years and head coach for 25. This spring Jones was awarded the Alissi Award for Coaching. The Western New England Prep School Soccer Association (WNEPSSA) inducted him into their Coaching Hall of Fame for outstanding service in 2016, and he was also president for 16 years with the organization. His time as president is the longest presidential tenure in the nation’s oldest prep school soccer league, which oversees as many as 60 schools. In addition to his soccer coaching experience, Jones has also coached hockey and baseball.
“As a head coach, I’ve gotten more out of teams than individual players,” he said. “I think, more often than not, my teams have overachieved. I’m not saying they were mediocre players, but they were greater than the sum of the parts, a real cohesive unit.”
He challenged the students in practice and leveled up their level of fitness. “If practices were hard, the games were enjoyable,” he said. “Working hard wasn’t a punishment. I firmly believe that when teams didn’t play well, I would more likely give them the
day off than really run them hard. When you’ve lost the privilege of competing, go hang out at the mall,” he said. “When you win a game and overachieve, we’ll work harder because we’ve earned it.”
Jones can also add the role of thespian while at KO, another highlight in his KO career. He played smaller, eclectic roles in student productions: a singing chef in Hello, Dolly!, one of a group of Shriners in Bye Bye Birdie, and the admissions director at Harvard in Legally Blonde. He laughingly recalls a scene in Bye Bye Birdie where former English teacher Ron Monroe was carrying the female lead across the stage and accidentally dropped her. He also played a conspirator in KO music teacher Richard Chiarappa’s musical Lincoln and Booth.
You would think the roles of teacher, coach, and part-time actor would keep Jones busy enough, but he always added more to his plate, showing his all-in attitude to the KO community. Over the years, he has been involved in numerous admissions committees, athletic committees, and one committee to evaluate the disciplinary regulations of the school. He was the lone faculty advisor to the school’s yearbook for several years in the late 1990s and early 2000s and headed faculty groups during different accreditations.
Most important to Jones’s tenure at KO are his special friends among his colleagues. One, in particular, was life-changing because former teacher Randy Hobbs introduced him to his future wife, Kerry.
Upper School science teacher Fritz Goodman is a long-time colleague of Jones. He said, “You mean I have to find something nice to say about Peter Jones?” he teased. “Beneath that sometimes gruff demeanor. Peter is one of the warmest and kindest people I know. His care for the students is unparalleled, and he truly wants only the best for them.”
Needless to say, Jones has made an impression on the legions of students he has taught and advised. He even displays all his former advisee group photos on his classroom bulletin board. One of his advisees, Margaret Miller ’25 said of Jones, “My first impression of Mr. Jones early in my sophomore year Modern World class was that he knew everything about history and that his class would be
hard. Both assumptions proved true. Modern World with Mr. Jones remains one of my favorite classes at KO. His passion for teaching and history had a contagious effect on the whole class and personally inspired me to work harder as a student. As an advisor, Mr. Jones always has something funny to say that makes each day better. Mr. Jones is thoughtful, knowledgeable, and passionate in everything he does.”
Even in retirement, Jones hopes to pinch-hit some history classes at KO and volunteer at local organizations, both close to his heart. As a teenager, Jones suffered from scoliosis and wore a steel brace up to his neck for two years, 23 hours a day. From that traumatic experience, Jones feels he can offer support to patients at Hartford’s Children’s Hospital who are coping with challenging health conditions. Jones also underwent a serious health issue several years ago and had his bladder removed, which jarred his mental health. He feels he could be an advocate or spokesperson for therapy, especially for men who have difficulty opening up about their struggles. “As a man, it may not be a question of how powerful you think you are,” he said, “but as powerful as society wants you to be.”
Jones’s revelation in high school regarding his future profession proved accurate. “It’s more than a job,” he said. “I literally can’t imagine doing much else. I can’t imagine doing it elsewhere. It’s my 45th year teaching, so I guess I knew what I wanted to do.”
The Long Goodbye of a History Teacher Who Never Just Taught History
There are retirements, and then there is this retirement — the winding down of a 47-year tenure from a teacher whose classroom was never just about history, but about life, perspective, and discovery. After nearly five decades at KO, Ted Levine is preparing to hand over the keys with humility, wit, and, if you ask him, a quiet preference for no fanfare. You’ll hear him shrug off the idea of celebration, eschewing the spotlight. But make no mistake:
HIS DEPARTURE MARKS THE END OF AN ERA.
This is a man who has lived and taught with enormous curiosity and intellectual generosity. His classroom wasn’t a place to memorize dates and treaties. It was a space to explore why people make decisions, how civilizations evolve, and why the past offers our only chance at meaningful perspective.
“I tell the kids, you’ve got the past and the present. The future? It’s unknowable. The past is what gives you perspective.”
That’s the essence of his teaching: big-picture, macro-level thinking, the kind that teaches students to see history as a living, breathing discipline, not a series of facts to be regurgitated.
“I just want them to think and write and spark,” he said. “I throw out ideas and let the students run with them. Students may see something in math where they get the right answer and feel good. In history, there are no right answers, so there’s no feel-good.” He’s
comfortable with the ambiguity and less concerned about placing a comma in the right place because, in his mind, it kills the spirit. But for all his forgiveness in matters of grammatical precision, he’s not above writing a twopage response — an intellectual tête-à-tête—to a student’s twopage essay because the student inspired him to think. He’s that invested.
His career at KO began almost accidentally in 1978. A last-minute phone call, a camp connection, a borrowed tie, and a vacancy created by someone who took a different job just days before the school year started. That series of improbable events led to a lifetime
at a school that he initially knew little about — except that a camper once told him the KO students wore knickers. “I thought, what kind of place is this?” But he felt right at home once he met former Middle School math teacher and soccer coach George Dixon ’66. What he found was a vibrant place full of potential, and he stayed, remarking that the school today is the finest he has ever experienced. Through recessions, curriculum changes, leadership transitions, and cultural shifts, he remained a constant and wise presence in the history department and as the
director of the Middle School.
Even his now-retired wife, Lynne, worked at KO for 31 years, teaching English, the Symposium class on authors Tim O’Brien and Gish Jen, and still to this day, coaching the mock trial team, which won the state championship in 2020 and 2022.
If you want to find the heartbeat of Levine’s work, look East, specifically to China. What began as a random seminar pick at the University of Virginia became a lifelong passion. He explained how he was bitten by the bug. “Once you don’t think about
grades, you’re liberated,” he said, “especially if it hits at the right time in your life.”
As a man who thinks big picture, he believes China offers a wide expanse of time to consider large historical and political movements. “Nowhere else can one observe the influence of so many years of history on how people relate to one another and define life,” he said. “The way the forces of empire stay together and fall apart. Such continuity allows for a fascinating study.”
Following UVA, he headed to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor (“the best place in the world to
“The travel becomes like looking at a reverse mirror of your own culture,” he said. “I don’t think you really understand your evolution and pathway until you look at something quite different.”
be,” he says) to pursue a Ph.D. in East Asian history. He found the intensity of one given study area was unsuited to his personality, so he exited the Ph.D. track, and after four years, he headed to China in the summer of 1982 to continue his studies and bike ride around Beijing.
“It was China in transition, and there were some signs of coming change,” he said. “Beijing was still a world of bicycles, bookstores selling Mao’s Little Red Book, propaganda banners on the streets, and the trains with revolutionary songs.”
His passion for travel and culture led to several trips to China with KO’s Upper School students, 12 trips in total. Some were sponsored by the Chinese Education Ministry, which treated him like an honored guest. He served as a panelist at university symposia on education and visited scores of Chinese schools, deepening his understanding of their culture.
Levine’s foreign adventures didn’t stop there. “The travel becomes like looking at a reverse mirror of your own culture,” he said. “I don’t think you really understand your
evolution and pathway until you look at something quite different.”
Levine doesn’t see in absolutes. As a cultural relativist, he interrogates both Eastern and Western societies and finds merits and drawbacks in each.
He and Lynne led seven KO student trips to the Soviet Union, experiencing a nerve-racking three-hour stop at the border of Finland and Russia as a Soviet soldier rummaged through their luggage. On one occasion, he and a KO student visited a “refusenik” family in Leningrad, despite concern about KGB surveillance. Levine, the student, and the family broke bread together as the grandfather showed them his war medals. Years later that student wrote to Levine from his job at the U.S. Commerce Department to tell him that moment changed his life.
In addition to traveling with students to Russia, Levine and Lynne oversaw an ambitious Estonian exchange program that brought 40 students to the KO Middle School campus; they organized raffles to raise funds for the endeavor and arranged homestays with KO families. One
Estonian father expressed a desire to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City, and the Levines delivered on the request, even snagging a private room. One of those Estonian students returned to visit decades later, reuniting with her host family and the Levines.
Back home, Levine brought that global sensibility into every class. Whether lecturing on the evolution of contemporary China or the nuances of Confucian thought, he treated every topic as an opportunity to ignite curiosity. He gave students room to explore, to argue, to reflect. All policy ideas were welcome in his class — conservative, libertarian, progressive. What mattered was the evidence and the argument. But he reserved the right to speak candidly. His classes weren’t lectures so much as performances. He used drama, humor (even when it drew winces from the students), and narrative to make history feel urgent and alive.
“If I didn’t think this was important, I wouldn’t waste your time,” he’d tell his students. And they believed him. Because his passion was unmistakable.
“Mr. Levine is always there when you need him, he willingly takes time out of his day to talk to you about what is going on. He has countless experiences and stories he is willing to dispense to anybody. His knowledge and passion for current events and the well-being of his students are unparalleled.”
-Sruthan Tokala ’25
And he always looked out for his students, especially the international ones. He knew the challenges they faced — culturally, socially, and academically. Many of them were thousands of miles from home, and he served as a cultural bridge and a support system. He often invited them to share their perspectives, encouraging them to act as envoys of their own histories and traditions.
The students Levine advised hold him in high esteem and readily shared their thoughts about him. “Mr. Levine’s optimism is infectious,” said Andy Chen ’25. “He always encourages us to think about the bright side when we are stressed out.”
“Mr. Levine is always someone I count on being there for me,” advisee Pindar Chen ’25 said. “He’s always checking in on us throughout the day and taking time out of his day to talk with us about almost everything. I’d say my favorite memories with Mr. Levine are the random conversations we would have during advisory group and oneon-ones. He has so many things to say, and it’s a wonderful experience to hear him go on long talks about China, AI, politics, college, and music.
“Mr. Levine is always there when you need him,” Sruthan Tokala ’25 said. “He willingly takes time out of his day to talk to you about what is going on. He has countless experiences and stories he is willing to dispense to anybody. His knowledge and passion for current events and the well-being of his students are unparalleled.”
When asked what has kept him going all these years, Levine pointed not to accolades, awards, or titles but to the classroom itself, even though he won the Lazear Chair Award and was the director of the Middle School for 15 years. “The last 10 years have been the most fun,” he said. “Just the opportunity to learn. You learn how to do this job. You learn how kids think. You learn how to get them to care.” He said he was genuinely
awed to be around students with so much talent. “I can’t believe it sometimes,” he said. “Some of them are adept at so many things.”
In his next steps, Levine has far more to explore, perhaps dusting off the drums in his basement or writing amusing stories. But old habits die hard, and he’ll return to KO next spring to teach AP® US Government during the second semester. “When you’re a teacher, you’re a teacher,” he said, “That’s it.”
Now, as he prepares to leave his full-time role at KO, his legacy is etched in the stories of students who think more critically, live more curiously, and understand the world more deeply because of him. He didn’t just teach history. He lived it. He questioned it. He shared it. And in doing so, he changed it, one student at a time.
Alumni representing classes ending in 4 and 9 made their way back to campus on September 27-28, 2024. Although continuing construction on campus made some traditional events impossible, the cheerful flexibility of everyone involved helped to create new opportunities for everyone to gather.
re union ’24
Friday started bright and early with campus tours and the chance to attend classes with students and some of the most loved and respected faculty on campus. Alumni were invited to join current student leaders for lunch as they compared notes on their KO experiences.
Above: Nidhi Bhat ’25, Lissie Grace Waugh ’99, Brooks Loomis ’99, Els Morris ’25, Raine Wang ’25
Left: Teague Shamleffer ’26, Hope Jackson ’99, Riley Mapp ’26, Leo Kollen ’26, Lily Temkin ’25, Zaire Ramiz ’25
On Friday evening, all classes came together to enjoy a cocktail party at the elegant Delamar Hotel overlooking campus.
Saturday’s activities opened with a memorial service to remember and celebrate all those who have been lost in each of the reunion classes, followed by a family barbecue luncheon on the Senior Green. Many alums chose to spend the afternoon watching fall sports teams play across campus before making their way to the evening events.
Those celebrating 50 or more years as alumni gathered in Alumni Hall for a joyful dinner full of speeches and remembrance, while those in the younger classes descended on West Hartford Center for the first-ever Reunion Pub Tour. Each class was invited to a different bar in town, where they spent the evening talking and reminiscing about time spent at KO. It was organized as a solution to construction issues on campus, but was so popular that it is now becoming a feature of future reunion weekends!
All in all, the hundreds of alumni who came back for Reunion24 enjoyed a weekend full of memories, friendship, and all things KO!
Class Notes
Class Notes are submitted June 2024 through May 2025.
Kingswood 1944
Leverett Hubbard turned 99 on April 2, 2025. He is now living in assisted living in Omak, Wash., at Welcome Home Lodge, a lovely home-type setting with only six patients but soon to max out with eight. While physically challenged, he has maintained most of his mental abilities. From Kingswood he attended St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire and was then drafted into the army for the end of WW II. On leaving the army, he attended Yale and then the University of Virginia Law School. After a couple of years doing adjustments work at an insurance company in Hartford, he moved into teaching, first at Lenox School, Mass., then St. Paul’s, then Hotchkiss in Connecticut, where he met his wife, Catee. They then moved to St. Louis Country Day School in St. Louis. They have two children: Sarah and Leverett IV.
Upon retirement they divided their time between Scottsdale, Ariz., and New London, N.H. In 2019 a broken elbow kept them in N.H. until Sept., 2024, when Lev moved into his assisted living home in Omak, and Catee into a house in Twisp, Wash., so they could be near their son.
Oxford 1951
Class Correspondent: Sallie Barr Palmer
Sad to report that we have lost several more class members. Phyllis French and Susan Huber Gross died last year, Pat Mooney Sutton in March, and Ellie Coburn Smith in April.
The good news is that our remaining members all seem to be thriving.
Vivian Hathaway Crouse reports she is in good health (“for 91!!”). She is on the council of her retirement community, leads a writing group and is involved with monthly play reading. She stays in regular touch with Frannie, Beth and Carter. Her E-mail: vivianhcrouse@ gmail.com.
On May 1 Frannie Steane Baldwin moved into a residential community near her daughter. Her new address is: Stone Ridge, 186 Jerry Browne Road, Apt. 3407, Mystic, CT 06355. E-mail: francesbaldwin1@gmail.com.
Pam Kingan Lillquist and I phone each other regularly. She wishes she had some exciting travel news but the farthest she gets these days is Trader Joe’s, plus an occasional trip to Richmond. Her best friend from college lives in the same residential community. “We have fun and try not to get into too much trouble,” says Pam. Last time I called, I reached an old number. The right one is: 709-975-4434 (cell phone). E-mail: pam.lillquist@gmail.com.
Anne Carter Peck Mahaffey continues to host the breakfast table for newcomers seven days a week at her retirement community, St. Paul’s in Oakland, Calif. She enjoys living near her eldest daughter, Lucy. Says she can’t figure out any way to get across the country to her Smith College reunion this year. “Isn’t is astounding how long ago we graduated!!”
E-mail: acmahaffey55@gmail.com.
Didn’t hear from Beth Cook Gabel, but Vivian stays in touch with her. E-mail: virgilgabel@gmail.com.
I’ve lost touch with Cookie Stout Johnson. Has anyone heard from her?
Peter and I have our house to ourselves again after a spate of visitors between the end of February and the end of April.
Among them was son Mark from the UK who took care of so many tasks that we can no longer manage ourselves that I threatened to keep him from going home. No luck — his wife wanted him back. So did the dogs.
Peter has recovered at last from a year of severe pain in his knee and hip. Medical science couldn’t figure out the cause or why it has cleared up. Just glad it did.
We keep busy. Out with friends twice a week. Trivia night on Fridays. Weekly Zoom session with my writers’ club and once-a-month meetings with Peter’s Korean Veterans chapter. Planning to attend my Mt. Holyoke reunion in May and fly from there to Vancouver for the memorial service for a long-time friend. I was in the hospital for a very boring week in August — had cellulitis in my leg. Finally cleared up. At least the Olympics were on during the day, so I was not reduced to soap operas and weird quiz shows. And the food wasn’t bad.
E-mail: sandppalmer@verizon.net.
Kingswood 1953
Dick McLane writes, “I was born in Hartford in 1935 and grew up in nearby Bloomfield. I graduated from Kingswood in 1953 — long before there was a KO! I graduated from Union College in 1958.
After several assignments in the northwest and southeast parts of the U.S., I was assigned to the Springfield, Ill., division office of the Federal Highway Administration and have lived in Springfield ever since. At the time of my retirement in November 2000, I was the planning and programs manager of that office.
I enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1960, and received basic training and advanced infantry training at Fort Ord, Calif., after which I became part of the U.S. Army Reserves. I received an honorable discharge in 1967.
I volunteered in several capacities in Springfield, particularly within the Illinois State Museum, Lincoln Public Library, and the Episcopal Feeding Ministries. I was a member of Christ Episcopal Church in Springfield, where I frequently served as an usher.
I enjoyed playing tennis and bicycle riding. I enjoyed both these activities until balance issues forced me to quit at around age 85. I also enjoyed photography, particularly taking photos of the varied landscapes of Illinois, and of many parts of the U.S. and foreign countries during my travels there. Over the years, I had many letters to the editor printed in the Springfield State Journal Register.
I was married twice and have three children and one grandchild.
Currently, I am in reasonably good health, outside of deteriorating hearing, eyesight, memory, etc. — all related to my living longer than, likely, half of my fellow classmates! I now live in an assisted living facility here in Springfield.”
1953 Dick McLane
Reflections on John Conklin ’55
by David Trainor ’65
In July 1985, I got a call from the Williamstown Theatre Festival asking if I’d like to direct La Ronde, by Arthur Schnitzler. The original director had fallen out, the play was already cast with gifted actors, rehearsals were set to begin in a week or ten days but there was no production plan. I knew the play in a vague way as a daisy chain of social, romantic, and erotic liaisons, set in fin-de-siècle Vienna, written to be read rather than performed, composed of vivid two-person scenes ripe with decadence. Formally, it wasn’t easy. Ordinarily, I would stop and read the play and decide if I could do it. And oh, they told me, the production designer is John Conklin. I said ‘yes’ immediately.
John died on June 24 this year. He was a brilliant, inventive, free-thinking designer of plays and most especially operas, at Williamstown, NY City Opera, the Met, San Francisco Opera, and Glimmerglass in upstate New York. He was born in Hartford and graduated from Kingswood in 1955. He was 10 years older than me, and when I entered Kingswood in 1959, John had just graduated from Yale with a degree in theatre. He was a legendary figure— at least to my mind. I was obsessed with theatre from the age of five, but had no idea what I wanted to do, or how to do it. Kingswood in those days was not exactly a pathway to the arts. John Conklin was the rare figure who was already a practicing professional, working on the highest level. I didn’t know him; I never met him. But as
I dropped out of college to become a stagehand, a playwright, and eventually a director, John Conklin was my beacon. It turned out that in 1985, we lived near each other on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. I went to his apartment, and I’m sure I told him how much he meant tome throughout school. He was a relaxed, friendly man with a beard and an easy, unforced sense of accomplishment. The very best thing you can ever do is work with people better and more talented than you are. That’s certainly how I felt with John. His apartment had an entire wall of tightly packed jewel box CDs, and other walls equally packed with books. We had a great deal to talk about in general, but specifically, how to render La Ronde in a very short time. For background, John pointed me to the massive, brilliant novel The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil. We talked about images. We discussed ways to make this episodic play cohere as a unified piece. Here’s where my lack of preparation has always haunted me. If I’d had more time to read and think, and plan, I would have had more to contribute. John had a head start, and he led us in inspired directions.
Thinking about John, I found several images of the Williamstown production on the internet. I thought, oh, so that’s what we did! It looked romantic and decadent, with lush swoops and swags of colorful fabric, fast and inexpensive. I can’t really remember a thing about it, except that I don’t think it was very good. Over the years, I’ve created an entirely different production in my imagination, one that makes sense of the play in an entirely different way. I’ve often thought, I wish I could walk up to John’s apartment and discuss it.
Artwork by John Conklin ’55
1959 Intrepid Adventurer Deborah Mahoney Swenson and life partner
Larry Capodilupo suited and wired up to cross a 100-yard suspended bridge in the cloud forest in Costa Rica.
Oxford 1957
Class Correspondent: Phyllis Chapman Fenander
Thanks to the prompts from Kingswood Oxford, I heard from a couple of classmates but sadly, some emails bounced back. I’m sad to report that we’ve lost both Martha Keirstead DuBois last September and Martha Yost Newcomer this past May.
A phone call from Manchester-by-the Sea, Mass., was a surprise from Hilda Brown Daley! We hope to chat soon again on the phone.
And Nancy Middlebrook Baay wrote: “Greetings from Edgemere in Dallas, TX, where I moved a year ago to be closer
to my kids. It’s been a good decision, even as I adjust to community living... in the freedom of my own home. I’m in an independent apartment on the ground floor, where currently I’m sitting on my patio feeding the baby ducks who’ve recently hatched in the duck pond right next to my “home”! I’m still painting every day (with limited eyesight now)...both in watercolor and collage. Life is good! God is Great!!”
Elliot and I (Phyllis Chapman Fenander) continue to live at Kendal in Hanover, N.H.; my older daughter, Sara-Mai Conway, continues to write on health issues, teach yoga and meditation, and she’s writing a book about death in Mexico and what that means for ex-pats (like herself and her husband). My younger daughter, Hilary Conway, continues as an ob/gyn in Yakima, Wash., watching Thor make a homer and Verna become a stellar Girl Scout. We’re all facing the same issues in the country, state, world, our own communities, with good memories sustaining our own efforts for sanity. phyllisfenander@aol.com
Oxford 1959
Class Correspondent: Zélie Calvocoressi Tourais
Deborah Mahoney Swenson reports “living in Chatham, Mass., and Vero Beach, Fla., and spending time on travels, biking, golf, and gentle hikes. We are trustees of our church. Our grandchildren range from about to be married to elementary school. Grateful for our full life, good health and many friendships.”
At the moment, Susan Cohen Casden is “grateful and happy to have my health and be able to continue my work, as a psychologist mostly working remotely, although not so much. I volunteer at the New York Philharmonic, which I love, and of course get together with my two sons, three grandsons, and daughters-in-law.
Lucky for me, they are nearby. Living in New York, I get to hear music all the time, go to the theater, and spend a lot of time (I need some trees!) in Central Park. On another note, it is really hard to believe our age. I look forward to reading the news and hope that everyone is doing well.”
From Susan McClure Harris: “Not the real positive news of yesteryear. Tony, progressive Alzheimer’s, and moi, fractured hip. Just started driving last week, what a blessing. Always a silver lining, driving that is! Hope that all of you are doing well in your 80s. Whoever thought, our 80s!”
Judith Weinstein Wheeler says that she was “recently elected to the board of directors of my condo association. I had major surgery on my cervical spine in January and am recovering well. I hope to be able to play golf in July.”
Oxford 1960
Class Correspondent: Jane Anderson Innerd
During my recovery from hip replacement surgery, my daughter Charlotte was with me for a week. Jennifer Ripple Akridge told me that she knows how lovely it is when our daughters can visit and help out. Jenny had the pleasure of her daughter Anne’s company for a week this spring. They planted Jenny’s annual flowers and did spring cleaning together among other activities. Jenny looks forward to Anne’s return in the autumn when she will help with the fall cleanup.
Scotty Dwyer Benson is delighted to report that her son Jim proposed to his partner Kelli Fairchild after five years of being together. He proposed at the top of a ferris wheel when it stopped for a few minutes. Scotty adores Kelli and is very happy for Jim. Scotty is still working part time but is thinking about dropping down to two days a week after the summer.
I had a long report from Prilla Smith Brackett. During the past year she has been to Europe four times. She spent two weeks in London with her sister, Leigh, a week in Bologna, Italy, visiting a dear friend who returned to Italy after 30 years in America, then a week with a friend at a charming, eco-oriented resort in Costa Rica and finally two weeks in Norway with her sister on a Road Scholar tour. They traveled on one of the Hurtigruten mail boats between Bergen and the Russian border. They saw amazing Northern Lights. Each trip was thrilling, and now, Prilla says, she is done! During summer 2024 Prilla also had a great theater week in Stratford, Ontario, with me — two widows sharing an apartment and a theatre adventure. At home, her family and amazing grandchildren are key in her life, her anchor. Prilla has been back working in her studio. Her energy is certainly more limited now, she says, slowed by physical issues, but otherwise she is quite healthy and hopes that we all are also. And finally, Prilla says how distressed she is with the government which seems bent on the destruction of institutions, lives, and so much more.
For the last 48 years Barbara Ruud Chatfield has been living on Cone Street in Hartford’s West End. Her oldest granddaughter and significant other live there as well and are good company. Barbara passes through the old Oxford campus every day when she walks her dog, Jazz, to and from Elizabeth Park. Barbara saw Jane Keller Herzig last May at their 60th Smith reunion and she looks forward to seeing others from Oxford when we next get together.
Just back from a month in Indonesia, Carolyn Goodrich reports that she spent most of the time in Bali staying in three lovely villas. She also flew to Flores Island for a boat trip to Komoda Island to see the dragons and to do some snorkeling. She saw lots of turtles and a manta ray. She also visited Gili Air, a small island that has only bikes, electric scooters and horse-and-buggies. She saw beautiful sunsets reflected in the water when the tide went out. But the best part of the trip was a visit from her grandson and his girlfriend who live in Australia and spent a week with her. Carolyn reports that she is in fairly good shape and is active with tennis, paddle tennis and skiing. She still works and also helps run a weaving center. She plans to attend our reunion with Tina Wilcox McIntyre in October.
Jane Keller Herzig says that she and Ed truly enjoy the easy living in their continuing care retirement community in Stone Mountain, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta. It is located conveniently near their daughter, Carolyn, who lives in Atlanta and works at the CDC. Their community offers many activities and one new for her, Boot Camp, a heavy-duty workout. Jane is continuing to present her course, Art HERstory with Jane Keller Herzig, in the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute program at Emory. It is a Hyflex presentation, delivered simultaneously in person and via Zoom. I was delighted to enjoy a visit from Jane and Ed here in Windsor in May while they were visiting
Jane’s brother, Jim Keller, in Ann Arbor, Mich., which is only a 45 minute drive from Windsor.
Emmy Lew Sterns Kelly provided a report on the activities of the children of her daughter, Bridget. The oldest is graduating from Penn State and Marine OCS and will be commissioned at Quantico, Va. A granddaughter graduated from Trinity and Galway in Ireland and is returning home to go to med school. The next younger one is at Trinity as a sophomore and loves her life in Ireland. The next granddaughter will be entering the University of Toronto in September. The youngest is entering eighth grade and is a graduate of the Space Camp program and is a member of the Civil Air Patrol. Emmy says that she has no idea how Bridget and her husband manage this wide-ranging family and also care for two dogs and three cats. As for herself, Emmy has been diagnosed with senior osteoporosis, thus her physical activity is limited, and she can walk her dog Kai only occasionally.
Keeping a close connection to KO, Sue Matorin recently had lunch with KO Head of School, Tom Dillow and Director of Institutional Advancement Dina Plapler, who always makes an effort to connect with Sue when she comes to New York City. Sue has great regard for Mr. Dillow who, she says, is a skilled, humanistic director who is navigating the school during a challenging time for educators and students. Sue shared with them her great experiences at Oxford, and also some of her concerns at the time, now so ameliorated. Sue hopes that each of us will contribute to KO in honor of our education. Sue treasures her family in Los Angeles, her son, daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren, and her friends in New York. She continues to love her clinical work at Weill Cornell Medicine but says that the healthcare field is at terrible risk in the current political climate and the staff and patients she works with are very stressed.
1960 Sue Lowe Redfield and Elizabeth Redfield Friedman ’84
Tina Wilcox McIntyre says that she has not had an adventurous year. Since Tina and Jerry acquired the Wilcox family house in Mt. Holly, Vt., they have spent a lot of time there. It is in a beautiful location overlooking Lake Ninevah, with bald eagles, loons, and other wildlife. They kayak and hike and enjoy having few commitments. It is very relaxing and away from a crazy world. Her children love it, too, and so do her grandchildren. Tina’s oldest granddaughter is now engaged and making plans to be married next July. Her daughter Sam was amicably divorced last year. Other than that, Tina has had a few minor health issues, but nothing major. She plays tennis with Carolyn. They have been playing together on and off since good old Oxford days. Tina and Carolyn are making plans to attend our 65th reunion in October, and she hopes to see many of us there.
As registrar of voters for Farmington, Conn., Ann Faude Newbury is busy learning because regulations and rules set by the secretary of state seem to change frequently. Ann enjoys the work and all that is entailed as registrar, keeping the voter rolls accurate, getting poll workers and then running elections. Ann says that it will be so nice to see all our classmates who are able to attend our reunion. In many ways 1960 seems so long ago, and
yet Ann believes that our days at Oxford did prepare us for the many changes we have experienced since then. Ann has generously offered to host our dinner gathering on Saturday, Oct. 4 in her home in Farmington. She hopes many will be able to attend.
“So far, 2025 has been full of wonderful events for me and my family,” writes Sue Lowe Redfield. On Jan. 14 her daughter Beth Redfield Friedman ’84 and son-inlaw Todd became grandparents, and Sue therefore became a great grandmother to Levi Parker Friedman. Levi and his parents, Zach and Val Friedman, live in Granville, Ohio. Beth and Todd recently moved to nearby Pickerington, Ohio to enjoy all the fun. Levi is the sunniest, happiest little baby. Zach and Val both work from home so extra hugs and cuddles are always available. On May 17 granddaughter Megan Friedman married Aussie Tim Colclough in Australia. They met through their mutual careers of providing care and housing for autistic young adults. They live in Sydney. The bonus is that Tim has a red-headed, curly topped, five-year-old daughter, Ayla. Now Sue also has a step-great grand! Danny ’86 continues to enjoy his retirement job with Special Operations at Camp LeJeune, N.C. The beach is steps away from his home. Maggie, a newly minted army captain, is stationed at Ft. Know, Ky. She is loving Louisville. Trey has just completed his first two years as a TV sports anchor in Kearney, Neb. Sue has just learned that he has a new dream job in Des Moines, Iowa, starting in July. Sue continues to miss her volunteer past but knows soup kitchens and food pantries are not for 82-year-olds. In addition, she finds the daily maintenance on “this old body” to be a full time job. Recently, Sue had a great time looking through her Oxfordian. It brought back so many fond memories. Remember when Miss Graf had to approve our graduation dresses?! Quite a change from today’s attire. Sue is looking forward to our 65th reunion.
Roger and Gay Willcox Squire had a wonderful trip to Italy in April. Gay’s sister and her husband joined them for an eight-day Road Scholar walking tour of ancient Rome. Afterward the four of them rented a car and drove to Caserta, then to Pompeii for two days where they had a six-hour private tour. Their guide was an archeologist who works at the site and gives tours as a side gig. Gay says that she is glad they had watched the PBS documentary, “The New Dig” before going. After Pompeii, they drove to the very rural and sparsely inhabited area of Cilento National Park. They stayed at an agriturismo B&B in a hill town of Valle Dell’Angelo which, although very picturesque, is one of the “dying towns” in southern Italy. You can actually buy a house there for 1 USD! Given the current state of the U.S., Gay and Roger are thinking about it!
I also look forward to our 65th reunion and plan to attend, although crossing the border is now something that all Canadians consider before planning an excursion into the States. I hear from my daughter in St. Louis that Americans are just not interested in Canada, in our economy, and in any difficulties with what used to be the easiest border crossing in the world. I look forward to the week Prilla and I will spend in Stratford seeing plays, enjoying lectures and the beautiful setting. I will also have my annual rustic week in a resort on the Bruce Peninsula, that is way north of Toronto for those of you who never studied geography. I went to England with my daughter Charlotte and spent a special day in Durham where I visited the 17thcentury library where I sat for four years working on my Ph.D. The Bishop Cosin’s Library is now a museum. I also went on an Alaskan cruise with my other daughter, Jane Eleanor, and her two teen aged boys who are a delight. We enjoyed a helicopter ride to the top of a glacier. Thanks to all who sent kind wishes after my surgery and for all the responses to my emails asking for news. See you in October.
1960 Sue Lowe Redfield grandson and great-grandson
Kingswood 1963
Class Correspondent: Brewster Boyd
I have not written since our 60th reunion when we had eight attendees (Barlow, Bitter, Boyd, Butler, Janus, Mason, Moses and Randall) who traveled from six states to attend this milestone.
I have been in touch with Skip Schoolnik. He has owned a home in Pacific Palisades, Calif., for 50 years, and, when he and Mindy can move back after toxic remediation, they will continue to live there. They were one of the lucky ones whose block did not burn down; however they have lost their community.
Tom Bitter still lives in his 1861 farmhouse outside of Burlington, Vt., along with his restored 1950 Dodge truck and 1949 Willy’s jeep. His daughter lives nearby and his son is in Albany, with each of them having two daughters.
Ted Butler and Vicki split their time between West Hartford and Lake Memphremagog, Quebec.
We reminisced about what a great time we had at our 55th reunion when some of us went up to their lake home after the festivities on campus.
Nick Mason and Karen continue to take at least one annual cruise in the summer when not on the Cape. They got together when they each lost their spouses and lived in the same neighborhood in Simsbury.
Recently I had a good talk with Jim Sacco. He and Jeannine have been living in Florida for some years after founding a Baha’i faith school in Brazil. After that, they helped found a similar school in Maine before moving to Florida. I remember at our 50th reunion Jim and Jeannine educating us on the tenets of the Baha’i faith which was founded in Persia in 1867.
Last year Helen and I were at a wedding in Newport, R.I. and afterwards went over to Martha’s Vineyard to see Linda and Peter Prestley ’s new home in the woods. Both 90 percent retired from the business of law, they are loving the quiet pace of that island.
On a sad note, we lost Bob Gruber last year. He and Joan lived in Seattle for decades and they had two children. Bob was my doubles partner on Chick’s tennis team and he always had a grin no matter what happened in our matches.
Oxford 1963
Bonnie Bush Hickok celebrated her daughter’s wedding outside Seattle, on Aug. 3, 2024. She writes, “Wendy and Nick have been together for a long time. They decided to get married at Nick’s mom’s beautiful home overlooking the Sound. A wonderful family gathering.”
Oxford 1965
Lynne Lumsden writes, “Looking forward to our Oxford 60th reunion on Oct. 3 and 4. I have heard from many of our Oxford ladies who are planning to come to our special class of ‘65 Friday night dinner party at my house and some to the campus on Saturday. It will be a really fun weekend. Hope to hear from the rest of you this summer.”
1963 Bonnie Bush Hickok
1963 Ted Butler and Brewster Boyd made an impromptu visit to Kingswood Oxford’s campus in March 2025.
Kingswood
1965
Dick Pace and his wife Barbara are loving the lifestyle in The Villages, Fla.
Oxford 1967
Terry Cavalier Trapani, Lyn Patton Simmer, Anne Holcombe and Lory Hervey Pearson spent a wonderful week in Italy’s Cinque Terre region in October, 2024, to celebrate a milestone birthday.
Kingswood
1968
David Watters was reelected for a seventh term to the New Hampshire State Senate.
Kingswood 1971
Michael Kaprove writes, “The dream of a good life continues to evolve as I step into my 70s. Retired now six years and focused, as always, on family, fitness, travel, and fun. Our children and grandchildren are thriving and racking up their own successes. I have sold most of my properties but am still maintaining two residences and multiple vehicles which takes up a fair amount of my time (total enjoyment). Shout out to all my classmates and wishing them well.”
Kingswood
1973
John Pulito writes, “I’m currently working for a courier company in West Hartford. Doing a lot of lab specimens deliveries. Lawyers offices to courthouses. Mail pick up to offices. Slides to hospitals. The company I’m with is the highest payer in the state.
I’m not married, and I own a house in West Hartford. My dad passed away at 91 and my mother followed 10 years later at 101 years. My brother Bob lives about two miles from me and we dine at restaurants every once in a while. I also belong to Anytime Fitness at Bishops Corner in West Hartford.” John is also an independent contractor and owns his own courier business and can drive for anybody.
KO 1978
In May, Kathy and Brad Hoffman hosted a dinner near their home in Palm Beach, Fla. with the guest list including three KO board chairs and several alumni and parents of alumni.
KO 1979
David Ridlon writes, “After 42-years of service - 25 in the U.S. Army and 17 as a senior executive in the Directorate of Operations at the Defense Intelligence Agency — I retired in mid-May. I am looking forward to spending more time with family and pursuing interests between our home in Maryland, the Delaware shore, and regular trips to Maine.”
1965 Dick Pace
1978 Alumni, Board & Past Parent Dinner hosted by Brad ’78 and Kathy Hoffman
1967 Terry Cavalier Trapani, Lyn Patton Simmer, Anne Holcombe and Lory Hervey Pearson
KO 1980
Hiram Maxim just finished his 18th year on the faculty at Emory University where he teaches German and linguistics. He was up in Connecticut for his daughter’s college graduation and met up with classmates Buck Norcross and Val Romasanta for lunch.
KO 1985
In November 2024, Dan Goldberg was inducted into the University of Michigan Hall of Honor for his illustrious career on the university’s men’s tennis team from 1986-1989. Dan remains the winningest singles player in the team’s history, winning 127 matches over his four seasons.
On Nov. 16, 2024, the Tampa Bay Lightning honored Amy Kraczkowsky Hull as the Lightning Community Hero during the first period of the game against the New Jersey Devils. Amy, who received a $50,000 donation from the Lightning Foundation and the Lightning Community Hero program, will donate the money to The Lamplighters and Friedreich’s Ataxia Research Alliance (FARA).
As the president of The Lamplighters, Amy has been instrumental in helping provide over $2 million to support homeless and at-risk children. The Lamplighters support children at both Metropolitan Ministries and Joshua House; both nonprofits that serve families and children dealing with housing insecurity.
KO 1993
Lance Lee has been promoted to professor in the department of pediatrics at the University of South Dakota School of Medicine. He and his wife, psychology professor Dr. Julia Price-Lee, live in Sioux Falls, S.D.
KO 1998
Jim Rowan, U.S. head of AI at Deloitte, and his classmate, Dan Rosenthal, head of go-to-market partnerships at Anthropic were in the news last summer about their firms’ strategicalliance relationship and how they are connecting their companies on the hot topic of AI.
KO 2000
Sara Chase was starring as Myrtle in The Great Gatsby on Broadway through the end of March 2025, but took a few weeks of leave to star as Melissa Gimble in the world premiere of the musical Schmiggadoon at the Kennedy Center in DC. Mariah Klaneski Reisner and her husband Sam went down to see the show with Susan Keppelman Harcourt and her husband Geoff and ran into another classmate Angela Georgeopolous in the theater lobby. Mariah writes, “It is so exciting to see a friend shine in such a big way. Such a superstar.”
KO 2004
Marsha Mather writes, “I moved from Canton, Ohio after completing my internal medicine residency at Cleveland Clinic and Aultman Hospital last summer to take a hospitalist and PCP job at Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, Mass. More than six months into my new job and loving it! Hoping now that I am closer to Connecticut to be able to connect with more of my fellow Wyverns.”
KO 2006
In August, 2024, Eliza Cassella was named the assistant principal at Collins Middle School in Salem, Mass., after serving as the director of social and emotional learning, culture and climate. Among other duties, Eliza oversees grade seven and helps support the implementation of the new Student Success Advisor model, the integration of restorative practices across the school, and CREW 2.0, a space for connection, reflection, excellence, and making real-world connections.
KO 2008
Kacie Gent and Patrick Meggers welcomed daughter, Madeline Elinor Meggers, on July 4, 2024. Maddie joins 2.5-year-old brother, James Joseph “JJ” Meggers.
James Dowling-Healey interviewed physician, dual-designated naval aviator and flight surgeon (and former U.S. Navy SEAL), and NASA astronaut Jonny Kim on March 19, 2025, prior to Kim’s first trip to space as a part of Expedition 73. James, who teaches science courses at The University of Saint Joseph in West Hartford, Conn., and Western New England University in Springfield, Mass., asked Lieutenant Commander Kim questions about his upcoming mission, NASA spinoffs (technologies developed by NASA, often in space, that benefit life on Earth), physical fitness, and his best study tips for students.
2008 Kacie Gent
2000 Susan Keppleman Harcourt, Angela Georgeopolous, Mariah Klaneski Reisner, and Sara Chase
KO 2013
On June 1, 2025, the annual 18 Hole Stroll for Pancreatic Cancer Research took place at The First Tee in Cromwell, Conn., with Brittany Vose as the event chair. Brittany, who tragically lost her father, John, to pancreatic cancer when she was five, is on a mission to raise $1 million for pancreatic cancer research by the age of 30 in 2026. Through her efforts with the 18-Hole Stroll, she has already raised over $852,000.
Professional snowboarder Dylan Udolf qualified to represent the United States at the 2025 International Ski Federation Snowboard World Championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland, which took place from March 17-30, 2025. He competed in the parallel giant slalom and parallel slalom events.
Competing professionally for 12 years, Dylan is a four-time U.S. national champion, a two-time world championship qualifier, and the holder of 13 national titles. He has been competing on the World Cup circuit since 2018.
Avery Sutton has been named the equestrian coach at the University of Connecticut. Avery graduated from the University of Vermont with a degree in Animal Science and has developed her own company, Grey Jumper Enterprise, which allows students (of all ages and skill levels) and horses a safe place to learn and grow.
KO 2020
Joey Aiello, a New Britain police officer, gave back to the community this spring by visiting a local elementary school and reading to the students.
2013 Brittany Vose
KO 2016
2008 James Dowling-Healey
KO 2019
2016 Dylan Udolf
2020 Joey Aiello
KO expresses condolences to the families of those who passed away between June
21, 2024
and July
25,
2025 or whose deaths we learned of during that time.
Alumni
1940s
Mary Hooker Crary ’45
June 6, 2025
Spouse of J. Noyes Crary ’27
H. Bacon Collamore Jr. ’46
February 13, 2025
Spouse of Elizabeth Jones Collamore ’49; and parent of Harry B. Collamore ’71, Bruce A. Collamore ’73 and Thomas J. Collamore ’77
Marion Stedman Palm ’46
July 24, 2024
Sister of Elizabeth Stedman Russell ’50
Jean Hanna Holden ’48
October 18, 2024
Virginia Woods Kuhl ’48
August 21, 2024
Linda Gray Burdet Fischer ’49
July 19, 2023
Sister of Vernon C. Gray ’52
1950s
Walter W. Lowell ’50
September 16, 2024
Brother of James B. Lowell ’47
James D. Marinan ’50
March 22, 2025
Brother of John V. Marinan ’55; and grandparent of Calvin A. Hills IV ’09 and Nicholas E. Hills ’13
Elenor Coburn Smith ’51
April 9, 2025
Spouse of Laurence Smith Jr. ’45; and grandparent of John M. Washburn IV ’08, Samuel C. Washburn ’10, Benjamin G. Washburn ’12, Nathan B. Washburn ’15 and Luka N.
Mrvic ’18
John M. Barton Jr. ’52
May 26, 2024
Gail Myers Rider ’54
April 15, 2025
Parent of James S. Rider ’80; and sister of Linda Myers Boucher ’57 and Susan Myers
Howard ’63
John M. Conklin ’55
June 24, 2025
Brother of Edward K. Conklin ’59 and Anne Conklin Gatling ’64; and son of William P. Conklin ’22
Donald M. Pearsall ’55
November 5, 2024
Brother of David E. Pearsall II ’48, Martha Pearsall ’50 and Mary Pearsall Stone ’53
Donald E. Burgess ’56
February 2025
Wiliam W.R. Hughes Jr. ’56
June 30, 2025
John A.T. Wilson ’56
Trustee Emeritus
July 25, 2025
Parent of Tierney E. Wilson ’84 and Thomas S. Wilson ’86
Martha Keirstead DuBois ’57
September 29, 2024
Parent of Franklin S. DuBois III ’83, William G. DuBois ’87 and Scott W. DuBois ’90; and sister of Linda Keirstead
Marth ’59
Martha Yost Newcomer ’57
May 7, 2025
Sister of Andrew H. Yost ’58
Charles A. Bakewell ’58
November 15, 2024
Brother of Henry P. Bakewell Jr. ’54 and Hester L. Bakewell ’62
Paul M. Dolce ’58
January 6, 2025
Brother of Richard V. Dolce ’60
Daniel H. Murphy ’58
July 13, 2025
Brother of Robert H. Murphy Jr. ’62, William C. Murphy ’65, and John C. Murphy ’70; son of Robert H. Murphy ’32; and uncle of Kelly Murphy Mulderry ’89 and Maureen J. Murphy ’89
Lynn Wilkie Murray ’59
July 16, 2025
Sister of John W. Wilkie ’68
1960s
Robert D. Bulkeley ’60
May 11, 2025
John A. Cope Jr.
February 18, 2025
Hamersley Wright ’62
August 8, 2024
Brother of Jane Wright ’58, Douglass B. Wright ’59, Elizabeth Wright Temple ’64 and Arthur W. Wright ’67; and son of Jane Hamersley Wright ’34
Robert M. Gruber ’63 2024
1970s
Thomas O. Talbot ’71
November 30, 2024
Brother of Jane Talbot Marshall ’62, Robert B. Talbot Jr. ’66, and Bruce W. Talbot ’70; son of Caroline Allen Talbot ’37; and brother-in-law of Robert W. Marshall ’60
J. Richard Lenehan ’72
December 9, 2024
Brother of former KO staff member Mary King
Ross C. Little ’75
December 4, 2024
1980s
Donald K. Huber Jr. ’85
November 1, 2024
Brother of Gretchen Huber
Warren ’81
Todd G. Morgan ’85
October 19, 2024
J. Matthew Collins ’89
May 7, 2025
Spouse of Christine Randall Collins ’89; brother of Timothy Collins ’88 and Melinda Collins Eberle ’91; uncle of Abigail S. Eberle ’18, Magdalen R. Eberle ’20 and Charlotte Eberle ’23; and brother-in-law of W. Stephen Randall ’74
Suzanne C. Tanner ’89
April 3, 2025
Sister of John B. Tanner ’92
1990s
Timothy Zielenbach ’90
August 28, 2024
Son of Susan Gross Zielenbach ’61; and brother of John W. Zielenbach Jr. ’86
KO Families
Craig E. Andrews
August 20, 2024
Parent of Todd Andrews ’91
Joan L. Bortman
September 11, 2024
Parent of Scott M. Bortman ’83 and Charna Bortman Kaufman ’85; grandparent of Caroline R. Kaufman ’14, Isabel G. Kaufman ’17 and Sophia J. Kaufman ’20; and mother-in-law of John M. Kaufman ’85
Jane Brady
February 7, 2025
Spouse of Gerald W. Brady ’46; parent of Gerald W. Brady Jr. ’79 and Stephen J. Brady ’80; and grandparent of Taylor J. Brady ’13 and Clare Brady ’18
Roy H. Bubbs
March 3, 2025
Parent of Rachael H. Bubbs ’01
Howard W. Chapman
June 30, 2024
Grandparent of Tess Chapman ’23, Ida Chapman ’27 and Gabriel Chapman ’29; and parent of KO teacher Kyle Chapman
Greg E. Chomko Jr.
October 8, 2024
Parent of Nicklas J. Chomko ’26
Aline M. Cronin
March 11, 2025
Parent of Ryan T. Cronin ’98, Casey M. Cronin ’02 and Patrick J. Cronin ’06
Rose Mary Delldonna
January 7, 2025
Parent of Russell A. Delldonna ’88; and grandparent of Marcella J. Delldonna ’20
Robert T. Gerrett Jr.
May 3, 2025
Spouse of Sarah Clark Gerrett ’68; and brother-in-law of Douglas W. Clark ’70
Leonard Hojnicki
July 7, 2025
Parent of KO teacher Heidi Hojnicki; and grandparent of Chetan Shah ’28
Virginia L. Hollis
July 4, 2025
Daughter of Larins R.J. Hollis ’04; and niece of Elin B. Hollis ’03
Fred Kaprove
March 10, 2025
Parent of Michael S. Kaprove ’71
Bruce R. Marshall
March 17, 2025
Parent of Bruce R. Marshall Jr. ’79, June Marshall Smith ’82 and Elsbeth Marshall ’83
Uma Rani Mathur
February 2025
Grandparent of Aarav Mathur ’26 and Aashir ’29
Joanne D. McGoldrick
October 9, 2024
Parent of Christopher M. McGoldrick ’90
Alfredo F. Nino
February 2, 2025
Parent of Alfredo S. Nino ’86 and Deanna H. Nino ’87
James H. Nowak
June 29, 2025
Son of Margaret O’Rourke Nowak ’81; and nephew of James O’Rourke ’74, Carol O’Rourke Troiani ’75 and Elizabeth O’Rourke Doyle ’77
Alvaro Oviedo
January 23, 2025
Parent of M. Astrid Oviedo Clark ’86 and Marella Oviedo ’92
Andrew J. Packer
December 22, 2024
Parent of Jonathan D. Packer ’00 and Jared Packer ’02
David S. Papermaster
October 12, 2024
Grandchildparent of Molly R. Papermaster ’14
Jaxon J. Podbielski
October 30, 2024
Son of Xochil A. Rivera ’12
Richard J. Shima
July 26, 2024
Parent of Patrick J. Shima ’89 and Mary Shima McDonnell ’00
Danton Tuve
November 17, 2024
Grandparent of Braden C. Flowers ’21 and Francesca G. Galante ’30
Peter P. Tycienski Jr.
January 7, 2025
Grandparent of Ty Russo ’24
Eleanor Udolf
October 23, 2024
Parent of Robert D. Udolf ’79; and grandparent of Samantha E. Udolf ’12, Claudia E. Udolf ’14 and Dylan R. Udolf ’16
Philip S. Walker
November 26, 2024
Parent of Philip S. Walker Jr. ’80; and spouse of Helen Dillon Walker ’52
Faculty/Staff
Josette Berard
July 20, 2024
Faculty emeritus; and spouse of faculty emeritus
Claude Berard
Eunice Paul
January 1, 2025
Former Oxford teacher; and parent of Lydia Paul Tapley ’68
Lawrence H. Roberts
April 21, 2025
Board of Trustees
July 1, 2024 - June 30, 2025
Josh Benet ’95
Andrew Bethke ’99, P’31
Amanda Buckingham, P’24
Mark D. Conrad ’96, Treasurer
Jerry DeBerry ’82
Karen Diaz-Meaike P’19, ’22
Thomas Dillow P’21, ’22, ’26, Head of School
Bonnie L. Dobkin P’19
Joseph Gianni ’79 P’14, ’14
Jeffrey S. Gitlin ’85, P’11, ’13, ’17, Chair
Lee Gold ’90, P’23, ’26
J. Douglas Harris ’77
Raymond Johnson ’81
Gilbert E. Keegan III ’88, P’22, ’25, ’27
Fred Krieble ’91 P’21, ’25
Elaine Leshem P’14, ’16, ’24
E. Brooks Loomis ’06, Ex-Officio, Co-Chair Alumni Council
Merrill Mandell P’21, ’22, 26
Mary S. Martin ’77, P’17, ’20, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives
Kelley Nicholson-Flynn
Megan Ouellette P’18, ’20
Eric Palmer P’25, ’27, ’31
David R. Quick ’92
Bruce S. Simons, P’12’, 12, ’15, ’24, ’24
Gayle Temkin, P’23, ’25
John Y. Wang ’88
Lori Wetsman ’85, P’12, ’15
Trustee Emeriti
Sherry Banks-Cohn ’54, P’78, ’82
Thomas J. Collamore ’77
George L. Estes III ’67, P’98
Laura R. Estes P’98
Frederick S. Farquhar ’59, P’83, ’86
Karen Koury Gifford ’62
William H. Goldfarb ’64
Derek P. Green ’81
Cheryl W. Grise P’99, ’02
Stephen B. Hazard P’89, ’92
Alyce F. Hild P’80, ’82, ’91, GP’07, ’11, ’14, ’19
